Wrapping up the week (and February) with a global collection of positive news stories.
New Delivery
It may look like something out of a sci-fi movie, but tucked inside an arctic mountain in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, there’s an underground vault filled with seeds from across the world. The idea is to have extra copies of the genetic codes of varied plant species, just in case. This week, the ecological backup plan got much more thorough, as over 14,000 new samples were sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. “The seeds deposited this week represent not just biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture, and resilience of the communities that steward them,” says Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust. Among the new contributions are seeds from Swedish trees, Thai rice, Brazilian beans, and fifteen of the new species come from Sudan, an offering rooted in meaning given the country’s ongoing war and humanitarian crisis.
Head Scratcher
A man from Toulouse in France whose wallet was stolen from his car discovered his credit card had been used to buy scratchcards – one of which won a €500,000 jackpot. "The situation has left legal experts scratching their heads over who is the rightful owner" of the winnings, said The Guardian. The thieves have not yet attempted to claim the payout, but their victim has said he would be happy to come to a "friendly arrangement".
Special Vintage Suitcase
A leather suitcase belonging to archaeologist Howard Carter - the man who found the tomb of King Tut - has been rediscovered in England. The luggage, along with a tattered 1890 guidebook found inside, is now heading to the auction block, where it could fetch as much as £5,000 ($6,300). Carter used the luggage in Egypt during the 1920s and ’30s before giving it to John Healey, a fellow researcher. The suitcase - marked with the initials “HC” - eventually ended up beneath a bed in the home of Healey’s son, who has now decided to put it up for auction. Carter made his career-defining discovery in 1922. He and his team were excavating in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings when they found the four-chamber tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, who ruled Egypt from around 1333 to 1324 B.C.E., during the New Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty.
Meet Ania and Bartek
This live stream is showing a stork nest at Knepp Estate in Sussex, England. Knepp has become well-known as a first-mover in innovative rewilding of most of the estate's acreage, including the re-introduction of storks. In 2022, Ania and Bartek (both from Poland) successfully reared young for the first time and 3 young storks fledged the nest. Now they are back in their nest...
Panic Over
After about two months of high-profile uncertainty in the media and an excessive amount of scare-mongering, NASA has now declared that the chance of a recently discovered asteroid hitting Earth in 2032 has dropped to a miniscule fraction of one percent. “That’s zero folks!” says Richard Binzel, an astronomer at MIT, after NASA and the European Space Agency announced the "all clear" good news. In other news about space...
Tonight's The Night
Skywatchers are in for a treat tonight as seven planets - Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune, Mercury, and Saturn will all be briefly visible in the evening sky - look to the west just after sunset. This phenomenon, known as a 'planetary parade' is a rare sight, and it will be the last time seven planets can be seen simultaneously so well until 2040. Four of the planets - Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars - will be visible to the naked eye. Saturn will be harder to see because it will be low in the horizon. You will need a telescope to spot the other two planets - Uranus and Neptune. "You really only have a few minutes after sunset to catch them before they drop below the horizon. After that, you'll still be able to see Venus, Jupiter, and Mars clearly for a much longer time," says Dr Edward Bloomer, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
"You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. Don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." Johnny Cash
On This Day
28 February 1983: The final episode of the immensely popular TV series M*A*S*H aired and was watched by an estimated 106 million viewers.
Today's Articles
Rethinking Land Use: Countries like UK and US have much more land allocated for golf courses than renewable energy facilities.
QWERTY: The origin of the QWERTY keyboard all started in Wisconsin in 1866 with a former state senator who became a newspaper publisher.
Hidden Habitats: “To our knowledge, it is the first time that animal life has been discovered in the ocean crust.”
Mood Boosting Video
TV Adverts: 5 minutes of funny animal commercials.