Today's eclectic global round up of positive news nuggets.
Boring Iceland
Iceland is one of the most boring countries in the world. That is meant as a compliment, not an insult. The island nation is dotted with thousands of boreholes drilled deep into the rock to extract geothermal energy. They will soon be joined by another, which will be anything but boring. “We are going to drill into a magma chamber,” says Hjalti Páll Ingólfsson at the Geothermal Research Cluster in Reykjavík. “It’s the first journey to the centre of the Earth,” says his colleague. Well, not quite the centre. Some magma chambers - underground reservoirs of molten rock - lie just a few kilometres below Earth’s surface, putting them within reach of modern drills. In fact, scientists are planning to drill two boreholes to a reservoir of liquid rock. One will give us our first direct measurements of magma - the other could supercharge clean geothermal power.
Fake News
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has taken the unprecedented step of announcing that the Oscar for next year's Best Special Effects has already been awarded to Kensington Palace.
Shelter's Hilarious Post
Meet Eddie, a mischievous pup who recently found his forever home after a shelter's hilariously candid post about him went viral. After a more conventional approach failed to work, they tried this: "This is Eddie, Eddie is an a$$hole. Eddie hates other dogs, he's 17 pounds and could take on a Rottweiler and win. If Eddie had an accent, he would sound like he's from the Bronx, wearing a wife beater t-shirt and a tattoo that says MOM on his arm. If you got into a bar fight, Eddie would back you up and take on all 5 guys, put his cigarette out on their forehead and not spilling a drop of his beer while doing it. So, if you think you are man enough to adopt him, please be our guest. We want Eddie out of here because he scares our big dogs." The shelter was immediately inundated with adoption applications, and he was out of there the next day.
Unintended Benefits
Field data from 15 sites in 2021 showed that pollinating insects thrived in solar parks, particularly where a variety of plants have been allowed to flourish or been planted underneath and around the panels. Perhaps a surprising finding from the report was that solar parks set among fields where hedgerows and other habitats had been destroyed by farmers were the most beneficial for insects, such as bees, butterflies and moths - providing an oasis of food and nectar unobtainable elsewhere.
Ramses the Great
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 12.5 foot-tall section of a statue of the pharaoh Ramses II, depicting him in a seated position, wearing a double crown and a headdress topped with a royal cobra. According to a statement, the upper part of the statue’s back column also shows hieroglyphic writings portraying titles that glorify the ruler. The full height of the statue is approximately 23 feet. Researchers say the limestone statue is a match for a lower section discovered in 1930. Cleaning and preparation work has already begun for viewing what a reunion of the two statues would look like.
Commuting by Bike
Denver, Colorado, is trying out a new Bicycling Rewards Program that aims to encourage community members to ride a bike instead of driving - by paying them to do so and could equate to up to $200 per month. The program comes as a response to the city’s lagging climate goals. According to Denver Streets Partnership, transportation was responsible for almost one third of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, and this incentive is part of a larger research project to see what motivates locals to ditch their cars.
The Bard's Boards
An English theatre which unearthed 15th century floorboards during a renovation hopes to reopen to the public in autumn 2026. St George's Guildhall in King's Lynn, Norfolk, claims that documents show it has the only surviving stage on which William Shakespeare performed. The theatre hopes to keep the boards intact for another 600 years. Tim FitzHigham, creative director at the Guildhall, said it had seen an increase in visitors since the discovery last year:
"I guess that's probably due to the fact that people know where we are now."
"When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new." Dalai Lama
On This Day
14 March 1879: German American physicist Albert Einstein, one of the most creative intellects in human history, known for his groundbreaking theories of relativity, was born in Ulm, Germany.
Want to be a British spy? Then you'll need to crack the code hidden within this GCHQ puzzle. Good luck...
Mood Booster
Official Preview: A first look at Mammals, the brand new BBC Earth series.
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