Saturday's Good News
- Editor OGN Daily
- Jun 17, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 6, 2023
What better way to start the weekend than with a tasty selection of positive news nuggets?
Floating City
Japan's N-Ark has revealed plans for an incredibly ambitious floating city. Named Dogen City, it would be designed to take any climate change-related sea rises in its stride and provide power, food and water for up to 40,000 people. Dogen City would measure 4 km (almost 2.5 miles) in circumference. It would have a capacity for approximately 10,000 full-time inhabitants, plus there could also be up to 30,000 tourists visiting at any time. Its circular form would be designed to withstand severe weather and even tsunamis, though no further details are available at this early stage.
No Book Bans
Illinois just became the first state to pass legislation against banning books in public libraries. Book bans have seen a sharp increase in recent years across the U.S., especially books dealing with race, history, and LGBTQ+ topics.
Remarkable Sighting
An unusually large pod of 30 killer whales has been spotted frolicking in Monterey Bay, California. The group was made up of 11 families. Orcas generally gather to socialize and hunt together, but these whales were slapping their tails against the water, swimming in loops, doing belly flops and breaching in groups - clearly playing - in what Nancy Black, a marine biologist at Monterey Bay Whale Watch, told CNN was “the best sighting I’ve seen in my 35 years of killer whale research. Just extraordinary.”
Gladiator 2
Movie fans will be delighted to learn that filming for the long awaited sequel to Gladiator will commence this summer and it's expected that the new movie will hit the big screen in November 2024. Details are still a bit sketchy but we do know that Ridley Scott will once again be directing the movie but Russel Crowe won't be starring. The lead role of Lucius in Gladiator 2 will be Paul Mescal, who recently received his first Academy Award nomination for his performance in Aftersun.
NYC Composting
Starting as soon as October, residents in New York City will be required to compost their food scraps. The measure was just passed by city council, and mandatory composting will be rolled out to all five boroughs by next year, says the New York Times.
Biochar: Breakthrough Zero-Carbon Fertilizer. Wouldn't it be good news if every time you threw out your garden waste, you were helping fight global warming? That’s the capacity a new technology hopes to unleash across the world. More...
Record Breaker?
RM Sotheby’s has announced the sale of what may become the most valuable automotive barn find in history: 20 Ferraris consigned to the mercy of time in 1990, unearthed in 2004 when Hurricane Charley collapsed the Florida barn they were housed in, the cars were then rescued and relocated to Indiana and left to gather dust for another two decades. The vehicle count of just 20 cars is significantly less than the world’s previous largest “barn find” - French industrialist Roger Baillon’s 60-car collection which was left to decay in barns on a French estate for half a century. The average value of the cars in this barn find however, is much higher. We'll know the outright winner after August's auction in Monteray, California.
US Coal
According to IEEFA, coal-fired electricity generation in the United States collapsed in the first three months of this year, falling by 28 percent, and pushing the share of black rocks in the power market below 17 percent, versus more than 22 percent in the same quarter last year.
"Laughter helps you put everything into perspective." Jim Henson
On this Day
17 June 1631: Mumtaz Mahal, wife of Mughal emperor Shah Jahān, died during childbirth, and in her memory he built the Taj Mahal, the most famous building in India.
Global treaty on plastic production is on the horizon - it could bring plastic manufacturing to a juddering halt. Hallelujah...
An enzyme responsible for eliminating booze from our bodies could also help us lead longer, healthier lives. Scientists certainly think so. Wonder enzyme...
Mood Booster
Clever animation compares the size of extinct animals with their descendants today.
