What better way to start the weekend than with uplifting news?
Returning The Favour
In 1939, Gus and Emma Thompson, a Black couple, rented and then sold a house to the Dongs, a Chinese American family, at a time when others wouldn’t. Over eight decades later, the Dong family is selling the house in Coronado, California, and donating $5 million to the Black Resource Center at San Diego State University in honor of the Thompsons.
By the Numbers
750: The number of new species recognized in Australia, among them a marine worm named after Planet Earth narrator David Attenborough (officially, Marphysa davidattenboroughi).
75: The percentage of Portugal’s electricity that came from renewable energy (hydropower, wind, solar, and biomass) in the first eight months of 2024.
20: This fall, Massachusetts becomes the 20th state to offer tuition-free community college regardless of age, income, or GPA. Tennessee was the first to pioneer this approach in 2017.
Chile Leads The World
Chile produced 9.4 percent of its primary energy from solar in 2023 - more than any other country in the world, says Our World in Data. For electricity alone, it produced 20% of the total. This progress is remarkable considering that just a decade ago, Chile generated almost no electricity from solar - but has seen steady growth in the years since. And it’s largely due to the country being home to the region with the highest level of sunlight exposure in the world: the Atacama Desert. The desert is also home to Latin America’s first solar thermal plant, pictured.
Proxy Resignations
In good news for Japanese workers who fear their employers' fury when they quit their jobs, there are now agencies that quit for them, The Times reports. Aya Sato, 24, paid US$140 to employ a "proxy resignation" agent when her first attempt to resign from her job at a bank was met with sighs of exasperation from her boss, who then started shouting and desk-thumping. "For Westerners, changing job is something positive," explains one resignation agent. "For Japanese, it's wicked to quit."
Toy Hall of Fame
For Americans, this is likely childhood nostalgia in a photo. The iconic toys - including balloons, Apples to Apples, and Hess trucks - are all up for induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame. And the public has a say in which ones make it in: Cast your player’s choice ballot.
EVs: Two World-Firsts
EVs are starting to overtake gas-powered cars in a surprising place. There are around 100,000 EVs in Ethiopia so far. The Ethiopian government estimates that number will more than quadruple by 2032. That's largely because the national government took the extraordinary step earlier this year of banning the import of all gas-powered passenger vehicles - becoming the first nation in the world to do so.
In a major milestone, electric cars now outnumber gas-powered cars in Norway for the first time, according to the Norwegian Road Federation who say that “no other country in the world is in the same situation” with more EVs than fossil fuel-powered cars. Norway will stop selling new gas- and diesel-powered cars next year.
“Life is short and there is no time for hate.” Sandy Dahl
On This Day
21 September 1937: English writer J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, a coming-of-age fantasy that became a classic, was published.
Today's Articles
Mood Boosting Video
Set Fire To The Rain: Changing faces - Adele's classic through the years (2011-2021)
Comments