Today's global collection of upbeat news nuggets to get the week off to a sunny start.
Streaming Record
Suits, the hit legal drama starring the future Duchess of Sussex, set a new US streaming record after enjoying a resurgence in popularity in 2023. According to media analysts Nielsen, the show, which first ran from 2011 to 2019, was watched for a total of 57.7 billion minutes on Netflix last year. That beat the previous record of 57.1 billion minutes set by The Office in 2020.
Fancy a Pint?
Guinness is seeing a "sales surge", which is being led by young women, according to The Telegraph. Last year, the beer proved its own slogan that "good things come to those who wait" as demand among all age groups increased. In 2023 the stout became the most popular beer across pubs, bars and restaurants, according to industry data - selling 3.8m pints per week across 36,000 pubs in the UK. Worldwide, over 10 million glasses of Guinness stout are enjoyed every single day around the world, and 1,883,200,000 pints are sold every year - that's a whopping 1.8 billion, to put it another way.
Guinness Surfer Advert: Considered by many to be one of the greatest TV commercials of all time. Released in 1999. Watch...
Strange But True
A pigeon suspected of being a Chinese spy has been cleared by Indian police and set free. The bird was captured by officers in May last year near a port in Mumbai. Two rings tied to its legs inscribed with what appeared to be Chinese characters led detectives to suspect the pigeon "was involved in espionage", Sky News said. After eight months in captivity, it emerged that it was an open-water racing bird from Taiwan that had escaped. The innocent pigeon has now been released back into the wild.
Airport Vineyard
Rafael Viñoly Architects has revealed plans for a remarkable new airport terminal. Located in Florence, Italy, its design riffs on the local tradition of wine production and will feature a green roof with a working vineyard. The gently sloping vineyard will measure 19 acres (7.6 hectares) and will include 38 rows. Obviously there are challenges with regard to irrigation and cultivation, but according to the designers, a leading winemaker from the region will maintain it all and produce wine, which will be aged in specialized cellars beneath the terminal. The project will be completed in two phases, with phase one due to be completed in 2026 and phase two expected in 2035. It's part of a growing trend lately of adding lots of greenery to airports, both on their inside and out.
Jazz Hands Croc
A crocodile, gracefully swimming with its feet sticking up out of the water in Australia's Kakadu National Park, caught the attention of Belinda Steindorf. "It was quite a funny sight to see!" she told Daily Mail Australia. She posted the photograph on Facebook, sparking a wave of online humour. Such as: "Crocodiles use many forms of camouflage; for instance these "jazz hands" are used to lure musical theatre people to their doom," one person captioned the photo.
Cross-species Empathy: Crocodiles save stranded dog instead of eating it. Sentient behaviour...
Amazon Link
Colombia has created a new national park by turning local ranchers into rangers. After a decade of negotiations, Parque Nacional Natural Serranía de Manacacías now spans 680 km2 (263 sq. miles) of tropical savanna that provides a crucial link to the Amazon. 'The hope is that by protecting this small puzzle piece of savanna, a whole lot more can be saved,' says the New York Times.
Fully Sequenced
Scientists have finally sequenced the entire Y chromosome, one of the human sex chromosomes present in males. The feat has been "notoriously difficult" because of the Y chromosome's "complex repeat structure," according to the research paper published in the journal Nature. "Just a few years ago, half of the human Y chromosome was missing" from knowledge of the human genome, Monika Cechova, co-lead author on the paper, told CNN. "I would credit new sequencing technologies and computational methods for this," Arang Rhie, who also worked on the paper, told Reuters. The X chromosome was fully sequenced back in 2020.
“Your Monday morning thoughts set the tone for your whole week. See yourself getting stronger, and living a fulfilling, happier and healthier life.” Germany Kent
On This Day
5 February 1924: The first ever Winter Olympic Games close at Chamonix, France.
Another OGN random collection of hilarious road signs. Enjoy...
Scientists map world's largest deep-sea coral reef off America's Atlantic coast to better understand and preserve it. Marine treasure...
Mood Booster
Monument to Love: Step inside the Taj Mahal and see its beautiful interiors.