What better way to start the week than with a global round up of positive news?
Why So Glum?
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has spotted a collection of clouds on Jupiter with a rather despondent appearance. Maybe it was a Monday? One commenter pointed out that it could be upset because it has gas. Either way, it’s a fun cosmic example of pareidolia, a phenomenon which causes us to see faces and figures in otherwise random or unrelated objects.
Saving The World
This is probably the most important climate news of the year - and there's still nobody reporting on it. China's solar additions in the first quarter of 2024 are up 37 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023, and wind installations are up by around 50 percent. That puts China well ahead of its record pace last year, notes Lauri Myllyvirta, senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute. If this pace continues, global emissions will fall this year.
Lazy Gardeners
Butterflies love lazy (or thoughtful) gardeners. Letting your garden grow wild with long grass can increase butterfly numbers by up to 93 percent, according to study by the UK charity Butterfly Conservation. The research analysed butterfly sightings from more than 600 gardens, collected by members of the public over six years through the charity’s Garden Butterfly Survey. The results provide the first scientific evidence that having long grass in your garden increases butterfly abundance and diversity. In agricultural areas, gardens with long grass saw up to 93 percent more butterflies, and those in urban areas showed an increase of 18 percent.
Medical Miracle
Cartier, aged 4, was a typical child full of energy, but suddenly his heart stopped beating, reports The Hill. Cartier’s parents, Destiny Anderson and Dominique McDaniel, rushed him to the Children’s Hospital Colorado. “They’re saying your son’s not breathing, one, two, three - that’s all I remember hearing,” McDaniel said. Cartier was on life support overnight and into the next day - and still no heartbeat. After 13 hours passed with no heartbeat, family members gathered at the hospital to say their goodbyes. Anderson leaned on the support and faith of McDaniel, her partner. And within one hour, the unthinkable happened. “His heart just restarted!” said Aline Maddux, associate professor of pediatrics in the pediatrics intensive care unit “That was really an incredible thing that occurred.” After 14 long hours, Cartier’s heart was pumping again, and it was something doctors had never seen before.
Cultural Phenomenon
Greta Gerwig's Barbie may be the most financially successful movie ever to be directed by a female filmmaker, and the highest-grossing film of 2023. But it was beaten at the box office in Italy by another film, also made by a woman and speaking directly about the abusive female experience in the 1940s. There's Still Tomorrow (C'è Ancora Domani), by 50-year-old actress, writer and singer Paola Cortellesi, is now being released across Europe. Despite its challenging subject matter, it became a phenomenon in Italy last year, taking more money than both Barbie and Oppenheimer. As of last month, it had made around $40m in cinemas, was the country's biggest film of 2023, and the most successful film ever directed by an Italian woman. Cortellesi claims that 45 percent of her audience demographic in Italy were men, which she calls "a great joy".
Global EV Sales Now 1 in 5
Despite the media's general gloom around EV sales, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said electric vehicle (EV) sales will be more than 1 in 5 globally. In 2024, EVs are projected to make up roughly one out of nine cars sold in the United States, one in four in Europe and 45 percent of total car sales in China, an IEA press release said. More than one-fifth of cars sold globally in 2024 are predicted to be electric, with growing demand set to substantially reduce oil consumption used for road transportation over the coming decade.
Blockbuster Raptor
The 1993 blockbuster film Jurassic Park transformed the public’s perception of dinosaurs, propelling the velociraptor to the forefront of our imaginations. But while the real-life velociraptor was indeed a cunning, fearsome predator, these creatures were much smaller than the movie portrayed - closer in size to a turkey. Now, paleontologists in China have made a dinosaur discovery that exceeds even the larger-than-life version of the velociraptor from the silver screen. In a paper published in the journal iScience, the team announced they uncovered the largest fossilized raptor footprints ever found. The series of five prints, each measuring about 14 inches long, indicates the raptor grew to an approximate length of 16 feet and had a hip height of six feet. “You know a raptor track when you see it,” says Lida Xing, a Chinese paleontologist who led the project. “But these tracks are different from any that have ever been found.”
UK Breaks Record
For the first quarter of 2024, electricity generation from wind power sources exceeded the amount of electricity generated by fossil fuel sources in the UK. According to data from Ember, a not-for-profit energy think-tank, electricity generation from wind energy sources provided 39 percent of total electricity generation, in the first three months of 2024, compared to 36 percent from fossil fuel sources. Progress appears to continue into the second quarter, as electricity generation from fossil fuels in the UK reached a record low on April 15, according to a report from Carbon Brief. The report showed that electricity output from fossil fuel sources made up an all-time low of 2.4 percent for one hour on 15 April.
"A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future." Albert Einstein
On This Day
29 April 2011: Prince William of Wales, second in line to the British throne, married his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Middleton.
Happy 10th birthday to Mr Trash Wheel - celebrating the removal of over 2,000 tons of trash. Trash superhero...
Even though nowadays they should probably be called Xs, here are 10 recent chuckle-worthy tweets by women. Enjoy...
Mood Booster
SpecSavers makes good value reading glasses and funny adverts. Like this one.