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Only Good News Friday

  • Editor OGN Daily
  • Dec 1, 2023
  • 3 min read

Updated: Dec 14, 2023

Ensuring December gets off to an upbeat start with some tasty bite-sized chunks of good news.


Dolly Hits Top Spot

Country girl is now a rock chick as Dolly Parton’s Rockstar blasts in at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, scoring the music legend her first leader on the 32-year-old tally. Now aged 77, the star-studded Rockstar was promoted as Parton’s first rock album - as opposed to her usual genre of country music. The album has a mix of original songs and covers, and boasts a cavalcade of guest stars - 40 in all. Among them are Pat Benatar, Miley Cyrus, Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Ringo Starr and Sting.


Scientific Gender Gap

An analysis of 5.8 million authors across all scientific disciplines shows that the gender gap in science is closing. Researchers found that men outnumbered women by 3.93 times among those authors who started publishing before 1992, but only 1.36 times among those authors who started publishing after 2011. Still a long way to go, especially among high-impact authors, but this is progress.


View of the Herbig Haro object 797 (HH 797)
Credit: ESA
Cosmic Phenomenon

The James Webb Space Telescope has released a new Picture of the Month, showing a spectacular view of the Herbig Haro object 797 (HH 797). This cosmic phenomenon is created by the interaction of powerful jets of gas ejected by newborn stars (protostars) with the surrounding interstellar material. The result is a dazzling display of light and color, revealing the intricate details of the star formation process.


Street Sign Returned

A Penny Lane street sign stolen by sozzled students has been returned to Liverpool, 47 years later. The sign of the Mossley Hill suburb was taken in 1976, nine years after the road was made famous when the Beatles' song Penny Lane was released. Recently, the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool was contacted by a man who said he wanted to return the "totally pristine" sign to the city. He said the students were "worse for wear" when they stole the sign.


Monarch butterfly
Win Win

Local communities in Michoacán, Mexico have planted 2 million pine trees using a pre-Hispanic model called ‘forest rounds,’ which has ensured a 90 percent survival rate for the planted trees. The forests of Michoacán are particularly important as they form an important part of the habitat for the monarch butterfly, which travels thousands of miles each year from Canada to hibernate in Mexico, reports MexicoNewsDaily.


Golden Mole

A shimmering mole that swims through sand has been rediscovered nearly 100 years after wildlife experts thought it had gone extinct. De Winton’s golden mole, which was last seen in 1936, was found living on beaches on the north-west coast of South Africa. Cobus Theron, a senior conservation manager for the Endangered Wildlife Trust and a member of the search team, said: “I think it’s just fantastic that in 2023 we can still rediscover species. All of our stories around conservation are doom and gloom. Here we have an opportunity to say that, actually, there are opportunities to make change.”


Clean Sweep

Britain won the inaugural litter picking World Cup in Tokyo. Participants from 21 countries, such as Japan, the United States, Australia and France, gathered in the Japanese capital to compete for the title by picking up the most litter within 90 minutes. The aim of the ‘Spogomi World Cup’ is to raise awareness on environmental protection, and in particular reducing plastic waste flowing into the ocean.

"Good news is rare these days, and every glittering ounce of it should be cherished and hoarded and worshipped and fondled like a priceless diamond." Hunter S. Thompson

On This Day

1 December 1913: The world's first moving assembly line debuted, used in manufacturing Model Ts at a Ford factory in Highland Park, Michigan; the innovation was the idea of owner Henry Ford, and it revolutionized the auto industry.






Mood Booster

Doing the laundry in Northern Scandinavia.



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