What better way to start the week than with some upbeat news stories?
Hot For You Baby
Tina Turner died two years ago, but the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s iconic tunes continue to live on - including one even her biggest fans may not have heard yet. After it was believed to have been missing in action for decades, a previously unreleased song titled Hot For You Baby just debuted on BBC Radio 2. The track was originally cut from Turner’s chart-topping 1984 album Private Dancer to make room for mega-hits like What’s Love Got to Do With It. Complete with an electric guitar solo and showcasing Turner’s signature raspy voice, the upbeat tune is a real toe-tapper. It was rediscovered by her record label during the process of compiling a five-disc, 40th anniversary re-release of the album, out March 21. Can't wait? Here's the new track.
What Goes Around...
Comes around. As evidenced in the foothills of the Himalayas, where a village in Kashmir, India, installed a 2-metre-tall waterwheel designed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). This waterwheel generates continuous, zero-carbon electricity and is part of a larger renewable energy setup. They have installed another in Nepal. Waterwheels, efficient and environmentally friendly - the efficiency of waterwheels can be as high as 85 percent or so, in terms of converting water power into electricity - are enjoying a renaissance globally, such as along the banks of London’s River Wandle and in Northern Ireland where a restored historic waterwheel powers a restaurant. Instructions for building these waterwheels are available online, with costs starting as low as $1,000. As electricity prices rise, waterwheels are gaining interest for their potential to power homes, businesses, and irrigation systems, contributing to energy independence and sustainability. You can access full plans for the waterwheel developed by TUM online.
Bright Idea
When Innocent James was growing up in Tanzania, he often had to make a choice: Burn expensive oil to continue reading and complete his homework after the sun had set, or go to bed. It was an upsetting trade-off for young James, who loved to read. Not wanting future bookworms to have to make the same choice, James founded Soma Bags, which builds backpacks for children equipped with solar panels that charge a reading light. The backpacks are made from recycled cement bags and cost less than half a month’s worth of kerosene. Fewer than half of all Tanzanian households have electricity, a number that dips even further in rural communities. Last year alone, Soma Bags sold 36,000 backpacks to students and families across Africa, providing an invaluable energy source for when the sun goes down. Now a new generation of kids can know the sleepy joy of staying up late with a good book.
Word of Dog
In what The Washington Post dubbed a “love letter to dogs,” author Mark Rowlands' new book - Word of Dog: What Our Canine Companions Can Teach Us About Living a Good Life - explores a number of philosophical questions: Do dogs live fulfilled lives? Are they capable of love? Are they moral beings? Using elements of memoir and plenty of cognitive science, the book makes the case for canines being not just companions, but also windows into our own pursuits of happiness and senses of purpose.
New 5 Second Rule
The five-second rule isn't just about eating food you dropped on the ground! The new five-second rule is made to propel us head-first into things we really don't want to do but have to do. It's a method coined by Mel Robbins, author of The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence With Everyday Courage. It goes like this: You've got a problem you're avoiding. Maybe it's a sink full of dishes, a work task you've been dreading, or, as in Robbins' case, a financial catastrophe that seems insurmountable. You've got to face it. Start by giving yourself a five-second countdown as though you're a rocket moments away from launching into the stratosphere. Take those five seconds to process, prepare and then - without thinking - GO! Spring up and start dealing with it.
'Rising Star'
More electricity was made from sunshine than coal in the EU last year, a report has found, in what analysts called a “milestone” for the clean energy transition. Solar panels generated 11 percent of the EU’s electricity in 2024, while coal-burning power plants generated 10 percent, according to data from climate thinktank Ember. The role of fossil gas fell for the fifth year in a row to cover 16 percent of the electricity mix. “This is a milestone,” said Beatrice Petrovich, co-author of the report. “Coal is the oldest way of producing electricity, but also the dirtiest. Solar is the rising star.”
“What are you waiting for to be happy?” Isabel Allende in The Japanese Lover
On This Day
27 January 1880: American inventor Thomas Edison patented the incandescent lamp.
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