Bite-sized chunks of good news to help perk up the day.
Wilderness Victory
In a victory for the United States’ most visited wilderness area, the Biden administration has approved a 20-year ban on new mining activity across more than 225,000 acres of federal land in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest, in and around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. ”Protecting a place like Boundary Waters is key to supporting the health of the watershed and its surrounding wildlife, upholding our tribal trust and treaty responsibilities, and boosting the local recreation economy,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
Good Hunch
A rare painting that was found in a farm shed in Kinderhook, New York, and covered with bird droppings, just sold for $3.1 million at auction. Local collector Albert B. Roberts believed the painting was from the Dutch Golden Age and purchased it for $600. The artwork was later identified by art historian Susan Barnes as a “surprisingly well-preserved” oil sketch by the 17th century Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck. The sketch, which depicts a nude elderly man, was a live model study, likely painted between 1615 and 1618, for Van Dyck’s later painting “St. Jerome,” according to Sotheby’s. “St. Jerome” is currently at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Remarkable Rebound
The population of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has rebounded for a second year in a row after a precipitous drop in 2020. Volunteers who visited sites tallied more than 330,000 butterflies, the highest number of these insects counted in the last six years. It was a promising rebound after the annual winter count in 2020 recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies. In 2021, the number recorded was 247,000.
For-Hire Vehicles NYC
New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, has announced that for-hire vehicles, including Uber and Lyft vehicles, need to reach zero emissions by 2030. The move is meant to match the city’s target of electrifying its vehicle fleet. There are around 100,000 for-hire vehicles on the city's streets. New York City is not the first place to enact such requirements. In 2021, California announced a requirement for ride-share companies to reach zero-emissions and have 90% of their vehicle miles to be entirely electric by 2030.
Major Milestone: Nearly 1 out of every 10 new cars sold globally last year was an electric vehicle. More...
Airplane Mode
Airline passengers in the European Union will soon be able to use their phones to full effect in the sky, after the European Commission ruled airlines can provide 5G technology on board planes, alongside slower mobile data. This could mean flyers will no longer be required to put their phone on airplane mode - though the specifics of how it will be implemented are unclear.
The deadline for member states to make the 5G frequency bands available for planes is 30 June 2023. "The sky is no longer a limit when it comes to possibilities offered by super-fast, high-capacity connectivity," says Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market.
Not a Man Cave
Have you ever seen something in a movie and thought, "That's totally fake," only to find out it's absolutely a real thing? That's sort of how this house in Pennsylvania comes across. It just seems too fantastical to be real, and yet somehow it actually exists. In this particular house, there's a cave in the basement. Not a man cave or a basement that makes you feel like you're in a cave, but an actual cave that you can't get to unless you go through the house.
Brexit Breakthrough
Britain and the EU have agreed a customs deal that could “pave the way to ending years of post-Brexit wrangling over Northern Ireland”, said The Times. The EU has reportedly accepted a proposal that would avoid the need for routine checks on products destined for the province and conceded that the European Court of Justice could rule on issues relating to the province only if a case was referred by the Northern Irish courts. This “marks a critical step towards ending the impasse over the Northern Ireland protocol”, said the paper.
“Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own.” Doug Larson
On this Day
2 February 1990: On this day in 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted the 30-year ban on the African National Congress, resulting in the release from prison of Nelson Mandela and marking the beginning of the end of apartheid.
Scientists have developed the least costly carbon capture system to date and hope its use will be widespread. Read on...
Mood Booster
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