Monday's eclectic collection of upbeat news stories from around the world.
Historic Victory
An Indigenous tribe that long campaigned for the right to their ancestral land scored an “historic” victory this week, as the Brazilian government recognised their territory. Sawré Muybu sits deep in the Amazon and is the ancestral land of the Munduruku people. The area has long been threatened by mining, logging, and infrastructure projects, but now looks safe after Brazil’s government finally recognised their claim to Sawré Muybu. Greenpeace described the move as an “historic and profoundly symbolic victory not only for the Munduruku, but for all Indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Brazil”.
Too Old For Lego
Former President Jimmy Carter has not only outlived all of the other presidents in U.S. history, but last week he also became the first to reach the age of 100 - and according to some on social media "is now too old" for Lego. History Calendar (@historycalendar) shared a photo of the recommended age for the plastic building blocks, which stated "4-99." That post has been seen more than seven million times. While some sets, including the "Classic" or Large Creative Brick Box, do have the recommended age listed as being for those four to 99, it is clearly meant as a joke - and most sets just suggest the lower age.
Restoring Balance
A type of weasel has returned to southern England for the first time in more than a century. Pine martens went extinct in the region due to poaching. Now they’re back after conservationists released 15 of the animals in Devon's Dartmoor national park. “These rare mammals need our help to return to their former homes in the southwest, but we also need their help to bring back the natural balance of wildlife to our woodlands,” said the trust’s Ed Parr Ferris.
Special Price Operas
In 1932, this ticket to the San Francisco Opera was sold for $10. Now, the company is offering prime seats for the same price to welcome opera-curious locals. In good news for the city, the 'Opera for the Bay' program is subsidising tickets for people who haven’t seen an opera in over three years, or ever. Rolling back the pricing to the same as 1932, prime seating allocations are available for guests at just $10 for seasonal staples Carmen and La Boheme.
Monster Sighted?
A captain has claimed he found the Loch Ness monster using the sonar system on his boat. Shaun Sloggie was preparing his Spirit of Loch Ness pleasure boat to sail last month when a large object was spotted on the vessel’s underwater sensors. The outline, which was detected nearly 100 metres beneath the surface of the Highland loch, bears an eerie resemblance to a plesiosaur, which many have speculated could be the reptile group the fabled Loch Ness Monster belongs to. The footage has reignited speculation that Nessie, the creature alleged to inhabit the large body of water near Inverness, might really exist. “I said: ‘What the hell is that?’” recalled Mr Sloggie of the sighting. “It was bigger than anything else I’ve ever seen. We’ve seen all sorts of fish that shouldn’t be here, but this? This was different. You should have felt the chills on the boat.”
Joby
We might be getting closer to The Jetsons’ vision of the future. Toyota has announced that it’s investing $500 million in Joby Aviation, an American electric air taxi startup. That brings the Japanese manufacturer’s total investment in Joby to $894 million, according to a press release. The two companies have been working together for seven years to help bring air taxis into the mainstream, and this latest influx of funds will be used to support the certification and commercial production of the aircraft.
"Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?" Melania Trump
On This Day
7 October 1944: The Dumbarton Oaks Conference, in which the United States, China, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom formulated proposals for a world organization that became the basis for the United Nations, concluded in Washington, D.C.
Today's Articles
Not 13th Century Hoax: Scientists finally prove how old the Shroud of Turin really is. The rest is faith...
Original v Posters: Scientists using eye-tracking and MRI scans found ‘enormous difference’ to brain stimulation between original works and posters.
Classic Irish Proverbs: Proverbs are short expressions of popular wisdom - with some carrying more truth than others.
Public Opinion: Majority of voters in America support holding the plastics and fossil fuel industries accountable for allegedly deceiving the public about the feasibility of recycling.
Mood Boosting Video
Planet Earth: Teaching endangered ibis birds how to migrate.