Sunny Saturday News
- Editor OGN Daily
- 26 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Celebrating the start of the weekend with a global collection of good news nuggets.
An Optimist’s Guide
Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award-winning actor Dick Van Dyke got his big break in the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie - and 65 years later, he has no plans to retire. “I don’t want to. I mean, it’s my hobby. It’s my life. I love it,” he told Today. Van Dyke will achieve centenarian status on 13 December, and to commemorate the occasion, he released a book this week called 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life. The actor partially credits his positive outlook to his successful 75-year career, but he attributes much of his longevity to “keeping moving” with his wife, Arlene Silver, who he dances with as often as possible. “She keeps me young because we sing and we dance, and she just keeps me a teenager,” he said.
The Importance of Optimism: They experience many benefits that make them lead happier and more fulfilled lives. Such an attitude even improves the immune system and helps prevent chronic disease. Here's how to foster optimism...
Pupil Wins Race
Cameran Drew recently won a seat on the Surry County Board of Supervisors in Virginia, and his opponent couldn’t be happier. The 19-year-old defeated the incumbent, his former high school civics teacher Kenneth Bell, by eight votes. Bell’s “guidance” is what “helped me and prepared me so much for this moment,” Drew said to CBS News. It was a “brave step” for Drew to enter the race, said Bell, and he’s “so proud” of his former student.
Picture Perfect
With more than 4,000 entries from 84 different countries, the Standard Chartered Weather Photographer of the Year competition has become one of the world’s most breathtaking windows on our planet’s moods. This year, the main category title went to photographers Geshuang Chen and Shuchang Dong for The Gorgeous Ring - a rare view of a complete circular rainbow over Lugu Lake in China’s Yunnan Province. Most of us only see part of a rainbow because the ground gets in the way. But Chen flew a drone through the drizzle to a height of 500 metres, passed through the rain curtain and captured the full, glowing circle - which our winner described as “a ring given by the sun to the lake”. The judges also praised the perfect alignment of the lake’s small island framed precisely at the centre of the rainbow.
Tom Bones
Legendary Welsh singer Sir Tom Jones has given his seal of approval to the naming of a woolly mammoth in his honour. 'Tom Bones' has taken centre stage at the National Museum Cardiff and has quickly become one of its most photographed exhibits. More than 18,000 visitors took part in a vote to name the huge 3D model, with 'Tom Bones' coming out on top. After hearing the news, Sir Tom took to social media and said: "It's not every day you have an ancient woolly mammoth named after you."
Vital Ecological Anchor
The Gabon government and a group of donors have signed an agreement to protect 13,000 sq. miles of the Congo Basin rainforests in the country. The plan, dubbed 'Gabon Infini', will combine $94m of donor money with $86m of government funding. The model, known as 'Project Finance for Permanence', aims to finance national parks and tackle elephant poaching while boosting eco-tourism. It is a method that ties funding disbursements to important government policy changes. The model is becoming more popular. Brazil has announced a similar deal covering almost 94,000 sq. miles of Amazon rainforest. Kenya and Namibia are also finalising agreements. Gabon is a vital ecological anchor in the vast Congo Basin. Nearly 90 percent of its land is covered in tropical rainforest.
Search For Alien Life
Scientists are developing a new type of camera intended to help search for life on distant planets. The high-resolution imaging camera will be used on Nasa's Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission, expected to launch in the early 2040s. HWO will be the first telescope specifically designed to find Earth-like planets and examine them for signs of life. Rocky planets like Earth are difficult to study as they are positioned close to stars and cannot be viewed due to their brightness. The telescope will use an instrument called a coronagraph to block out the bright glare and allow rocky planets to be seen for the first time. It is hoped the camera will be able to measure a planet's mass and inspect its atmosphere for chemical signs of life.
“I never understood the idea that you’re supposed to mellow as you get older. Slowing down isn’t something I relate to at all. The goal is to continue in good and bad, all of it.” Diane Keaton
On This Day
22 November 1955: RCA Records purchased Elvis Presley's recording contract from Sun Records for a then-unprecedented $35,000, a move that became one of the most successful investments in music history.
Today's Articles
Thanksgiving Quotes: Thoughtful, inspirational quotes to toast gratitude and gathering. It’s really for everybody, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from.
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