Mid-week round up of positive news nuggets to brighten the day.
First Female Spy Boss
Britain's spy agency, GCHQ, is to appoint its first female director with Anne Keast-Butler poised to succeed Sir Jeremy Fleming next month. Ms Keast-Butler, who is currently serving as Deputy Director General MI5, will make history when she becomes the first woman to hold the position at Britain's intelligence agency. In announcing the appointment, Mr Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, pointed to Ms Keast-Butler's "vast experience" which includes 30 years in the national security field, including a previous role with GCHQ.
Miracle Baby
A mother has been reunited with her baby in southern Turkey after a DNA test confirmed it was her daughter, almost two months after the devastating earthquake, the country's family ministry said. The three-and-a-half-month old "miracle baby", called Vetin, was pulled out of the rubble of a building in the province of Hatay more than five days after the Feb. 6 quake with no health problems.
Record Breaker
Remarkably, despite poor reviews, the new Super Mario Bros Movie has broken box office records, scoring the most successful global opening of all time for an animated film. The family film - Hollywood's second version of the hit Nintendo game - took $377m (£303m) around the world in its first five days on release. That overtook the previous record of $358m (£288m) held by Frozen 2. "The numbers are sensational," noted analyst David Gross. In the Super Mario Bros Movie, the moustachioed Italian plumber is voiced by Chris Pratt, while Jack Black plays fire-breathing villain Bowser.
Visualising the Top Grossing Movies of All Time: Brilliant, mesmerising video tracking the revenues of the world's highest grossing films from 1976 to 2022. Watch...
Solar Tracks
The Swiss are set to begin installing solar panels in between train tracks. The startup called Sun-Ways is waiting for a sign-off from the Federal Office of Transport to start installing their panels between the tracks in the west of the country. With the Swiss national railway network covering over 2,000 miles of track, it's estimated that inserting solar panels across the railway network could create power equivalent to 2 percent of the entire gross annual consumption.
Remarkable Swiss Water Battery: A revolutionary new form of energy storage is operating in Switzerland after 14 years of construction, and is changing the energy landscape - both literally and figuratively. More...
Booze Price Policy
Scotland’s pioneering policy of putting a minimum price on alcohol has been linked to a 13 percent drop in the number of deaths from alcohol consumption and hundreds of fewer hospitalisations every year. “Minimum unit pricing was introduced to save lives, and this latest report shows it is doing just that,” said Dr Alastair MacGilchrist.
Big Wins in Ecuador
A new conservation area in the El Oro province will protect water sources for over 85,000 people as well as the habitats of dozens of threatened species, and a court has stopped a copper mine in the Intag Valley, following a successful campaign by the community to invoke the "Rights of Nature" embedded in Ecuador's constitution in 2008.
"We might think we are nurturing our garden, but of course it’s our garden that is really nurturing us." Jenny Uglow
On this Day
12 April 1892: A patent for the first portable typewriter was issued in the United States.
Two wheel electric mopeds are a roaring success in Asia because it takes just one minute to get a full charge. Speedy...
Mood Booster
Remarkable crow solves an eight part puzzle to reach its tasty prize.