Good News Only Monday
- Editor OGN Daily
- May 13, 2024
- 3 min read
Kick-starting the week with a global round up of positive news nuggets.
Good Fortune
Anyone familiar with the trials of home renovation knows it’s a smart choice to make room in the budget for potential surprises. Yet, in an unexpected twist, one family remodelling their home in England stumbled upon a windfall - more than one thousand 17th-century gold and silver coins hidden beneath their floors. Experts believe that the coins were hidden during the First English Civil War (1642 to 1646). The war broke out when supporters of Parliament fought against the English monarch, King Charles I, fearing the crown had too much power. Several centuries later, Duke’s Auctioneers auctioned the family’s find for a total of £60,740 (about $75,900), nearly doubling the sale estimate of £35,000. Let's hope the lucky find paid for the renovation costs.
New Vaccine Patch
A vaccine patch could offer a safe and effective way to protect children against measles, research suggests. The size of a small adhesive bandage, the patch is easier to transport and store than standard injections. In a trial conducted in Gambia, vaccine patches were put on 200 healthy infants and toddlers, and following one dose, more than 90 percent of the babies were protected against measles and all against rubella. The patches could ensure that 95 percent of children worldwide receive immunization, according to experts.
Conservation Easement
Home to endangered species and over 250 exotic animals, a ranch in San Luis Obispo, California, will be protected in perpetuity after the land was entered into a conservation easement, blocking future development on 27,512 acres of property (an area nearly the size of San Francisco). “Some people want to take from the land, but we are caretakers of it,” co-owner Felicia Morrison told the San Luis Obispo Tribune of Camatta Ranch, which has been in her family for over 45 years. “How you take care of your children, you take care of the land.”
Strange But True
Lamborghini is collaborating with Panasonic’s Technics brand on a high-end turntable that comes with a vinyl of recorded Lamborghini engine sounds. The Lamborghini x Technics SL-1200M7B turntable system will launch in July of this year. Pricing details are not yet available.
Attention Sports Fans
Watching an athletic game activates brain reward circuits, resulting in improved well-being, new research has found. There is an even bigger boost when viewing the game with a large crowd, as it fosters a sense of community and belonging. "For those seeking to enhance their overall well-being, regularly watching sports" is an "effective remedy" according to study co-author Professor Shintaro Sato of Waseda University.
A Lasting Legacy
Sixty years ago, Atlanta native and engineer Ronald Yancey became the first Black graduate from the Georgia Institute of Technology. This spring, he beamed with pride as he handed his granddaughter her master's diploma in electrical and computer engineering form the same school. Deanna Yancey is one of several members of Yancey's family to graduate from Georgia Tech since his groundbreaking achievement. In fact, Yancey's legacy is so meaningful, that there is a statue of him on the renowned engineering school's campus.
In The Monet
In the late 19th century, Claude Monet created an astonishing series of haystack paintings, which are now among the Impressionist artist’s most recognizable works. Later this month, one of those pieces - Meules à Giverny - will go to auction at Sotheby’s in New York, where it’s expected to fetch more than $30 million. The auction is timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition. Held in Paris in 1874, the show featured now-famous artists like Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas. But it was one of Monet’s works - Impression, Sunrise - that cemented Impressionism’s legacy. In a review of the show in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari, critic Louis Leroy mockingly used the term “Impressionist,” inadvertently coining the name for the artistic movement.
"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination." Nelson Mandela
On This Day
13 May 1940: British politician Winston Churchill faced the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister and told the members that “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
This Monday's mood boosting collection of entertaining signs (some intentionally so) to get the week off to a bright start. Chuckle-worthy...
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Mood Booster
Here's how to land a plane on a helipad.
