Upbeat News Thursday

Editor OGN Daily
2 minutes ago
4 min read

Today's eclectic selection of positive news stories from around the globe.

Medulla Nebula

Captured by a telescope in Texas, and featured as a NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, CTB 1 - as it is snappily called - is the expanding gas shell that was left when a massive star toward the constellation of Cassiopeia exploded about 10,000 years ago. The resulting supernova remnant, nicknamed the Medulla Nebula for its brain-like shape, still glows in visible light because of the heat generated by its collision with interstellar gas. Why the nebula also glows in X-ray light, though, remains a topic of research - but it makes for a remarkable photograph.

a fisher cat caught in a camera trap on a snowy night — Credit: Cleveland Metroparks

Not Seen in 200 Years

Cleveland Metroparks - a series of nature preserves in Ohio - has confirmed that they have verifiable proof that fishers had returned, announcing that "a fisher (Pekania pennanti) was recorded on a wildlife camera," the first sighting "since the species originally disappeared in the 1800s.” Fishers, also known as fisher cats, are a type of forest-dwelling mammal with furry brown coats and long, cat-like tails. As a mustelid, fishers belong to the same family of animals that includes weasels, otters, badgers, martens, ferrets, polecats, and wolverines.

Pure white Nemonic Dot printer — Braille labels at your fingertips | Mangoslab

Clever Solution

Imagine this: you’re helping your grandmother organize her medicine cabinet, but she’s visually impaired. Those prescription bottles all look and feel identical to her. Now imagine pulling out a compact printer, speaking into your phone, and watching as sticky Braille labels emerge, ready to stick onto each bottle. That’s the beautiful simplicity behind Mangoslab’s Nemonic Dot printer, unveiled at CES 2026. The Nemonic Dot is roughly the size of a stack of drink coasters, a plastic square about 4.5 inches wide and 2 inches thick that connects wirelessly to your smartphone. Brilliant.

The Boy Who Invented Braille: How 15-year-old Louis Braille invented a revolutionary tactile code for the visually impaired.

Oscar Wilde in New York, 1882 | Bonham's

Oscar Wilde Auction

A collection of more than 150 poems, letters, manuscripts and signed books once belonging to Oscar Wilde - the Irish writer celebrated for his sharp wit - is heading to the auction block in London on 18 February, just a few months after the 125th anniversary of his death. Highlights of the sale include rare portraits of the young writer, captured in photographer Napoleon Sarony’s New York studio shortly after Wilde arrived in America for the first time in 1882. The 27-year-old is outfitted in a velvet jacket, silk stockings and patent leather shoes. It would be a few years before the writer would publish the works for which he is now well-known, including The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

Time For Land Swap?

Globally, the world dedicates an estimated 12,350 square miles (32m hectares) of land - about the size of Germany or Italy - exclusively to grow crops to produce biofuels. And it’s projected to increase. But if we were to put solar panels on that land, it would produce roughly 32,000 terawatt-hours of electricity each year. For context: that means just putting solar panels on this land could produce enough electricity for current global demand. Going a step further, the researchers found that if all the world’s cars and trucks were electric, this solar energy alone could power all of them.

Wind Power

The UK has awarded contracts to build a record amount of offshore wind as part of its efforts to grow the country's clean electricity. The projects span England, Scotland and Wales, including part of what could become the world's largest offshore wind farm, off the coast of Scotland in the North Sea. One of the biggest projects is the first phase of Berwick Bank in the North Sea, which could end up as the world's largest offshore wind farm. The British government wants at least 95 percent of Great Britain's electricity to come from "clean" sources by 2030.

“My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far I’ve finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.” Dave Barry

On This Day

Woman with hammer in apple's 1984 super bowl ad

22 January 1984: Apple's seminal ad for the new Macintosh computer, directed by Ridley Scott, loosely based on George Orwell's 1984, plays during the Super Bowl.

Here's the remastered version.