Ensuring the day gets off to a bright start with a global collection of upbeat news stories.
Hilarious Comment
Whilst millions of people are abandoning X for other social media platforms, there are still some hilarious tweets to be enjoyed. Like this one: "I’m probably really late to this…. But have they all put each other’s coats on by accident?" Few things are better than starting the day with a laugh!
Amazing Stat
2.3 light-years: According to Our World in Data, that's the distance passengers have traveled on US airlines since the last US airline crashed in 2009. One light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles.
Stunning Progress
The speed at which China, the world’s biggest oil importer, is electrifying transport has stunned analysts and is freaking out oil majors. New energy vehicles make up about 10% of all cars on Chinese roads now, and that’s expected to exceed 20% by 2027 and could approach 100% by the 2040s. Chinese demand has made up 41% of annual global oil consumption growth over the past three decades, reports Bloomberg.
Name Popularity
Visualize the popularity of your name over the last 100 years. Just type your name and you will get an instant graph. But it only works for America and France.
Stradivari Violin
A valuable violin with a storied past will be sold at Sotheby’s in February - and it could become the most expensive musical instrument ever auctioned. Known as the Joachim-Ma Stradivarius, the instrument was crafted in 1714 by Antonio Stradivari, the famous Italian violin maker, during his “golden period” of craftsmanship. The instrument is still in working condition, and it could sell for $18 million. The current record-holder for the most expensive musical instrument sold at auction is another Stradivari violin: the 1721 Lady Blunt Stradivarius, named for the granddaughter of the British Romantic poet Lord Byron, which went for $15.9 million in 2011.
Charitable Glastonbury
The final numbers are in and the UK’s annual Glastonbury Festival raised £5.9 million - over $7.5 million - for charity in 2024, and those funds have been distributed to local and international organizations. In addition to its continued support of charities like WaterAid and Greenpeace, this year’s festival made notably additional donations to War Child, UNHCR, and other charities working in conflict zones and “some of the world’s most challenging places.”
Enzo's Ferrari
You never know where you might find the car of your dreams - including on social media. A 1962 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 prototype owned by the marque’s founder Enzo Ferrari is currently up for sale in Seattle via Facebook Marketplace. The classic Prancing Horse may have ended up in an unexpected place, but it still carries the high six-figure price tag normally associated with such vehicles.
Italy’s Motor City
Turin, once dominated by Fiat's auto factories, has transformed itself in the last 20 years into a public transport and biking heaven, says Bloomberg. Today, it's crisscrossed by 80 bus routes, eight tram lines, 22 subway stations, and 258 km of bike lanes. Some 95 percent of Turin residents now live within 300 meters of a transit stop, and fewer than half of local trips happen in a car.
"Poetry is life distilled." Gwendolyn Brooks
On This Day
10 December 1768: The first part of the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest continuously published and revised work in the English language, was published and advertised for sale in Edinburgh on this day in 1768.
Today's Articles
Early Detection: Cancer-sniffing dogs and artificial intelligence prove to have accuracy of up to 97%
Mood Boosting Video
The Sound of Ice: The ethereal sounds that occur when skating on thin ice.