Some tasty bite-sized chunks of positive news to brighten the day.
Ukrainian Gold
The Olympic high jump gold medalist has donated $24,000 of her prize money to support animal shelters in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh took gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics in the women’s high jump event and announced she’d be donating some of the prize money to help animals. In announcing the donation, Mahuchikh acknowledged the crisis of homeless animals in Ukraine right now and encouraged people to support shelters caring for these animals - and to adopt an animal if they’re able.
Best One-Liner
"I was going to sail around the globe in the world's smallest ship but I bottled it." The funniest joke at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, according to a poll by TV channel U&Dave. Mark Simmons's one-liner won 40 percent of the vote.
Spotting Fake News
Fake news. It can swing elections, demonise groups and, as the UK found out this month, spark riots. What can be done? Teaching children how to navigate the media is one obvious solution. Finland has been doing it for years and now England looks set to follow. This week, the UK government promised an overhaul of the English curriculum to include media literacy classes (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own syllabuses). Expect more countries to follow.
Safer Than Ever
Though tragic stories of plane malfunctions and crashes naturally monopolize the news when they happen, a recent airline safety study is clear on one thing: Flying is safer than it’s ever been. According to MIT researchers, commercial flight is one of the safest methods of travel, and it “continues to get better,” study co-author Arnold Barnett said in a press release. They found the risk of a fatality from commercial air travel was 1 per every 13.7 million passenger boardings globally from 2018-2022. This marks a “significant improvement” from 1 per every 7.9 million boardings in the 2008-2017 period, and an even more notable boost from 1968-1977, when it was 1 per every 350,000 boardings. To sum it up, passengers today are about 39 times safer than in the ’60s and ’70s - and it’s likely to get even safer.
Ola Roadster
Last August, Indian mobility company Ola Electric announced its upcoming lineup of full-size electric motorcycles. The firm has now provided specs for one family of the bikes, the Roadsters, which boast a range of up to 579 km (360 miles) and a top speed of 194 km/h (121 mph). Should you happen to live in Ola's Asian marketplace and be wanting an electric motorcycle, prices range from $893 to $2,977.
China versus UK
China added as much new clean energy generation in the first half of this year as the UK produced from all sources in the same period last year, according to data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) think-tank, as wind and solar power generation continues to surge in China.
“I drink a cup of sunlight every morning to brighten myself.” Debasish Mridha
On This Day
21 August 1911: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by three Italian handymen; it was not recovered until 1913, and the media sensation helped make it one of the world's most famous paintings.
Today's Articles
Mystery Object: Citizen scientists have discovered something travelling through space at one million miles per hour.
Mood Boosting Video
Europe's Skyscrapers: Only 7 of the world's 1,000 tallest buildings are in Europe.
Comments