Friday's Positive News

Editor OGN Daily
Aug 8
3 min read

Wrapping up the week with a global selection of positive news stories.

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver in the film 'Marriage Story' — 'Marriage Story' | Netflix

Crying Wolf

Audio recordings of Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver fighting in Noah Baumbach's film Marriage Story are being blasted from drones by the US Department for Agriculture in Oregon to deter wolves from "terrorising" livestock, said The Wall Street Journal. Clips from the drama - about a divorcing couple locked in a bitter custody battle - are played after dark to scare away the predators, alongside other "alarming sounds" including fireworks, gunshots and AC/DC's Thunderstruck. Paul Wolf (yes, that really is his actual name), a USDA district supervisor, told the WSJ: "I need the wolves to respond and know that, hey, humans are bad." Meanwhile, in other strange but true news...

Distress Call

Concerned hikers in British Columbia triggered a "full search and rescue response including police and a drone team" after calling 911 to report what they thought was the sound of someone in danger, said CTV News. But the "repeated cries" turned out to be a solo camper "singing his heart out to the trees", unaware that his Nickelback renditions were echoing around the forest. "He wasn't in trouble," Central Okanagan Search and Rescue said in a social media post. "Unless you count his singing."

Monarch butterfly on a pink flower — Monarch butterfly

Butterfly Highway

Missouri is creating a 26-mile-wide, 292-mile-long corridor in what will become the Highway 13 Butterfly Trail. The initiative is focused both on pollinator conservation, particularly for monarch butterflies, and on helping boost local economies by creating plantings and tourist attractions. This is good news for two reasons: The monarch butterfly is proposed to be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and initiatives like this will help conserve and revive local populations; and it's also good for business as a report found that nearly a quarter of tourists to the state visit for outdoor activities, including ecotourism. Good for people, good for the planet.

Aussie Students

To help mitigate the rising cost of living, Australia has wiped more than $10 billion in student loan debt for 3 million people, says Reuters. Under the plan, student loans would be reduced by one-fifth, meaning university graduates with an average loan of A$27,600 would have A$5,520 wiped, helping “take a weight” off the backs of young people in the country.

First Piano Concerto

Nearly 70 years after making his Hollywood debut, the legendary composer and conductor John Williams has a new musical composition to his name. At age 93, the five-time Oscar winner - best-known for scoring blockbuster franchises such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Jaws and Jurassic Park - has written his first-ever piano concerto. The piece, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, just premiered at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in Lenox, Massachusetts. Acclaimed classical pianist Emanuel Ax, for whom the piece was written, performed it with the orchestra, which was conducted by Andris Nelsons.

No Ifs or Butts

An educational video on the World Health Organization’s website calls it “the plastic problem that no one is talking about.” They mean cigarette butts, the most common type of plastic litter globally. But now researchers have found a use for those cigarette butts. Instead of litter on roads, they propose using the butts as an additive to asphalt that would strengthen roads. In a new study published in the journal Construction and Building Materials, they say that the additive would improve crack resistance and reduce the need for repairs.

“August is the slow, gentle month that stretches out the longest across the span of a year. It yawns and lingers on with the light in its palms.” Victoria Erickson