Today's collection of positive news stories from around the world.
90 Year Old Spaceman
More than 60 years after he became the United States’ first Black astronaut candidate, Ed Dwight finally flew to space - at the age of 90, he's the oldest person ever to do so. On Sunday, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket carried six people to and from the Kármán line - the boundary 62 miles above Earth’s surface where the atmosphere ends and space begins. Dwight, a former Air Force captain, was among the crew. President John F. Kennedy selected him as an astronaut candidate in 1961, but Dwight was never admitted to NASA’s astronaut training program and had never been to space.
New Innovation
Millions of people around the world spend 20 hours a week bent over a bucket of water, hand-washing their laundry. But now there's a new, hand-crankable washing machine that works without electricity that saves 15 of those 20 hours. It also reduces the water required from 10 buckets to two. That's potentially brilliant news for a great many people as 60 percent of the globe hand-washes laundry, and it's women who bear the burden. Find out more at The Washing Machine Project.
mRNA Cancer Vaccine
In a first-ever human clinical trial of adult patients, an mRNA cancer vaccine developed at the University of Florida reprogrammed the immune system to attack glioblastoma, the most aggressive and lethal brain tumour. The breakthrough will now be tested in a Phase 1 pediatric clinical trial.
Popping The Question
A farmer in England has proposed to his girlfriend by mowing "marry me" into his field and surprising her at sunset. He was supposedly working late on his tractor so, under the ruse of forgetting to bring his dinner, Chloe Morley headed down to the field in Somerset to meet him, only to find the huge letters carved into the grass. Ms Morley said: "I was in complete shock, but once it had settled after a few minutes, there were lots of tears."
Olympic Debut
Paris 2024 will give an Olympic Games debut to the sport of breaking - a style of street dance that originated in 1970s New York City. Attracting new and younger audiences is a high priority for Olympic chiefs, and in their push to remain relevant that means breaking joins skateboarding, sport climbing and BMX freestyle among urban sports on the schedule. Rising out of the Bronx in the 1970s, breaking is characterised by acrobatic movements, speedy footwork and a hip-hop soundtrack, and the new addition is set to bring a party atmosphere to the French capital this summer.
Good News From India
India is rapidly emerging as a renewable energy powerhouse on the world stage with a surge in both capacity addition and tendering to add more plants, according to new research by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Renewable energy accounted for 71.5 percent of the record power generation capacity added by India in the first quarter of 2024, while coal’s share of total power capacity dropped below 50 percent for the first time since the 1960s.
Women’s World Cup
Brazil will host the 2027 Women’s World Cup after a vote of FIFA’s full membership chose the South American bid over a joint proposal from Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. It will be the first time the global women’s tournament, first played in 1991, is staged in South America.
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." Douglas Adams
On This Day
22 May 1849: Future U.S. president Abraham Lincoln was granted a patent for a boat-lifting device; he was the only U.S. president to have a patent.
Today's Articles
Japanese Words: Words we should borrow in order to express complicated ideas that can't be succinctly conveyed in English.
Mood Boosting Video
Growing up as an Irish pine marten. “Wild Ireland: Kingdom of Stone“ premieres today on PBS and YouTube.