Positive News Tuesday

Editor OGN Daily
13 hours ago
4 min read

An eclectic selection of positive news stories from around the world.

Phil Knight, wifePenny, and Dr. Brian Druker — Phil Knight, wifePenny, and Dr. Druker | Credit: OSHU

Huge Charitable Gift

Co-Founder of Nike, Phil Knight, has opened his bank account and his heart in order to set a record for the largest charitable gift ever handed to an American university. $2 billion was given to a cancer institute bearing his name at the Oregon Health & Science University, a gift that will allow the institute to double in size and continue producing lifesaving breakthroughs in cancer diagnosis methods and treatment. Knight Cancer Institute Director Brian Druker, M.D., was the lead developer of Gleevec, a drug that transformed the survival of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia from less than five years to a diagnosis for which a normal lifespan can be expected.The Knights’ $2 billion donation was inspired by Dr. Druker’s vision to integrate the benefits of scientific discovery with unmatched cancer care.

Ruth Gottesman: The widow of a top Warren Buffett investor has donated $1 billion to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx to cover tuition for all future students. Her gift is the largest ever to a US medical school.

Restored 2,000 year old felt hat on display at Bolton Museum, England — Credit: Bolton Library & Museum Services

Soldier's Sun Hat

What the ancient Romans wore may not be among the most pressing questions facing archaeologists, but it is one that attracts interest among the general public. Now, a fashion-themed display at the Bolton Museum in England, will allow visitors to see how a Roman soldier in ancient Egypt dealt with the scorching power of the sun roughly 2,000 years ago: by donning a felt cap. As it turns out, even the Romans understood the power of a good hat. Newly restored after more than 100 years in storage, it's believed to date to sometime after Cleopatra’s death in 30 B.C.E., which marked the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the beginning of Roman rule over Egypt.

Fur Import Ban

Switzerland has just become the first country in the world to ban fur imports. In 2023, Switzerland imported more than $30 million worth of fur apparel and fur skins from around the world, but Human World for Animals says that if the ban is properly implemented, that number should become zero because all fur is produced through animal cruelty.

Two women in all-terrain wheelchairs — Credit: NPS

Mobility Devices

Rocky Mountain National Park just became the latest park to offer free all-terrain wheelchairs for disabled visitors. About 28 national park sites currently offer adaptive equipment and mobility devices for visitors to check out for free when they visit. In the face of federal funding cuts, these changes were made possible by the support of the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, the nonprofit arm of this NPS site, enabling disabled visitors “to experience Rocky in a way that would not be possible without them.”

Disease Elimination

The World Health Organisation reports that Kenya has eliminated its second tropical disease - human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness. Sustained rural screening, training local health workers, and targeted pest control have resulted in zero cases since 2017. It’s the 17th African country to eliminate the disease as a public health threat, part of a continent-wide goal to end it by 2030.

Dog Saves The Day

The dog pictured is both devoted and clever, proven by the fact that he timidly approached Gary Thynes while he was playing with his own dog at a Pittsburgh park. When Thynes tried to get close enough to grab its leash, though, the dog kept running, staying close enough to Thynes that he seemed to be telling the man, “Follow me.” So Thynes did, and the dog eventually led Thynes to his unconscious owners nearby, reports CNN. Thynes called 911, and the dog’s owners were taken to the hospital - so Thynes volunteered to look after the hero canine until his owners fully recover. “It is an honor for me to take care of this guy until his humans are well enough to reunite with a dog that loves them very much.”

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." Babe Ruth

On This Day

the Boulevard du Temple in Paris in the 1830s — The first known photo of a person

19 August 1839: Louis Daguerre's daguerreotype photographic process with complete working instructions is published "free to the world" in Paris as a gift from the French government. He used his daguerreotype process of photography to snap a photo of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris (above). The streets in the photo appear deserted: this is because the exposure time for the photo was so long that the cars and trams could not be captured. Thus only the man having his shoes shined and the shoeshiner were motionless enough to be caught (see bottom left hand corner). This is the first known photo of a person.