Welcome back! Hope you had a fabulous long weekend. It's time for some more upbeat news nuggets.
Festive Fortune
Mariah Carey’s holiday classic, All I Want for Christmas Is You, is the gift that keeps on giving for its writers and label. First released in 1994, the song is still going strong and, to date, Carey is estimated to have raked in more than $60 million from it. In 2022 alone, according to Billboard, it generated $6.16 million in royalties and publishing revenue… and will likely post similar numbers this year.
Strange Names
A book called Danger Sound Klaxon! The Horn That Changed History has won the Diagram prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. The book, in which author Matthew F. Jordan charts the "meteoric rise and eventual fall" of the klaxon automobile horn, beat a shortlist that included the favourite I Fart in Your General Direction!': Flatulence in Popular Culture; The 12 Days of Christmas: The Outlaw Carol that Wouldn't Die; and Backvalley Ferrets: A Rewilding of the Colorado Plateau. Previous winners of the Diagram prize include Is Superman Circumcised? and Cooking with Poo.
Ancient Car Wash
Barkway Carriage Wash, also known as "carriage splash", in Royston, Hertfordshire, was an important stopover en route from London to Cambridge and the north of England, during the heyday of the coaching era. The carriage splash dates from 1600 and is believed to be the earliest known example of a modern-day car wash - and it has just been added to the National Heritage List. The structure was the right depth to submerge the wheels without flooding the carriage or being too deep for the horses, and was surrounded by brick retaining walls to hold in the water. Barkway Carriage Wash was used into the 20th century, until carriages were replaced with motor cars.
Old Growth Forests
The Biden administration has announced a proposal to conserve and restore old-growth trees in US national forests. If adopted, the proposal would expand logging restrictions as part of an executive order issued on Earth Day 2022 to safeguard national forests. The amount of carbon dioxide U.S. forests absorb is equal to more than 10 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The new proposal, which adds to the over 26 million acres of waters and lands that have already been protected by the administration, will direct the U.S. Forest Service in its restoration and conservation efforts.
World's Healthiest Forests: A new study has found that the world's healthiest, most biodiverse, and most resilient forests are found in Indigenous protected areas. More...
Cool Million
A collection of old video games from the stock room of a shop that closed in the 1990s may sell for $1 million after they were discovered in a storage unit in Nebraska. Among the treasures of the collection are Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, and a role-playing game called Chrono Trigger, from 1995, The Times reported. An auctioneer has offered $500,000 for all the games, but the owner said: "If you want to buy it and have a cool million dollars, by all means."
No Deal
Two robbers who nicked "pricey" kitchen appliances from a Colorado department store argued in court that the charges against them should be reduced "because some of the items they stole were discounted", CBS News reported. The District Attorney's office said the value of the items stolen from the Kohl's store totted up to $2,095, which under state law, classifies the theft as a Class A felony. But the thieves' lawyers tried to convince a jury that the on-sale items lowered the tally to less than $2,000, below which thefts qualify as a misdemeanour. The jury disagreed.
India's Capital City
New Delhi, famous for its polluted atmosphere, is making good progress. Just over one-third of the total electricity consumed by residents now comes from renewable energy sources. It's projected that in the next four years, says The Times of India, that the share of renewable energy in the power pie is likely to cross 50 percent.
"A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship." Markus Zusak
On This Day
27 December 1831: Charles Darwin set sail on the HMS Beagle, beginning the voyage on which he would formulate his theory of evolution.
Mood Booster
Is this the best street drum solo ever? Probably!