Ensuring the festive spirit remains bright with today's global round up of positive news.
Good News For Gen Z
The popular view is that the generation of people born between 1997 and 2012 will live grimmer, poorer lives than their elders. This is not true. Four-fifths of the world’s 12-to 27-year-olds live in emerging economies, and they are richer, healthier, more educated, better informed and more connected than their parents, reports the Economist. The esteemed publication also reported that more than two billion people went to the polls this year, and that democracy fared far better than most people expected, with solid voter turnout, limited election manipulation, and evidence of incumbent governments being tamed.
Poverty to Prosperity
15 years ago, the inhabitants of Pachgaon, a small village in the Indian state of Maharashtra, were living in poverty. Today, they run a thriving bamboo business that made 3.7m rupees ($38,000) in the last financial year, reports The Migration Story. The turnaround was thanks to two longstanding Indian laws that let the community take back its traditional ownership rights over the forest in 2012. Since then, the business has been run by a gram sabha (village assembly), which is resolutely non-hierarchical and offers equal pay for women. Revenue is used to fund the building of homes in the village, send young villagers to college, and create jobs – many villagers previously forced to migrate to cities for work have returned. “Our next generation will live here,” says Gajanan Themke, one of the gram sabha’s worker-managers. “If they don’t get jobs elsewhere, they will always have the forest business.”
Where's Santa?
The Continental Air Defense Command, now known as NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), started providing tracking info about Santa's whereabouts 69 years ago. Today, the Santa Tracking website is available in nine languages, and on Christmas Eve (today!), you can telephone NORAD for updates directly at +1 (877) HI-NORAD.
Ten Commandments
The oldest known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments has sold for more than $5 million at an auction. The stone was previously used as a paving stone, as no one understood the extent of the tablet’s historical significance. Sotheby’s said the 155-pound (52-kilogram) marble slab was acquired by an anonymous buyer who plans to donate it to an Israeli institution. The New York-based auction house said the final price exceeded the presale estimate of $1 million to $2 million and followed more than 10 minutes of “intense bidding” during the global competition. The tablet dates from 300 to 800 A.D. and is inscribed with the commandments in Paleo-Hebrew script - the only complete example of its kind from antiquity, according to Sotheby's.
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Back Together
Ah, memories. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr pulled off a heartwarming little Beatles reunion this week, performing live on stage together in London on the last night of McCartney’s 'Got Back' tour. Walking onstage to rapturous applause, Starr embraced his former Beatle bandmate, before saying: “I want to tell you, I’ve had a great night tonight.” Then McCartney, 82, turned to his 84-year-old friend and said: “Shall we rock?” And rock they did, treating the crowd to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, followed by Helter Skelter.
The IKEA experience
IKEA's smorgasbord of product names isn't just due to the company's Scandi charm. Those Kallax shelves and Docksta tables are actually named after places in Sweden. Advertising copywriter Kevin Lynch, from Chicago, took an IKEA-themed sojourn this summer, visiting all 21 counties in Sweden over two weeks and stopping off at places with IKEA products named after them. (He was accompanied by his puppy Umlaut, which is the perfect name for a copywriter's dog.) Together they visited places like Läckö, which has a series of wrought-iron furniture named for it; and Norberg, which shares its name with a wall-mounted table. Lynch says his wife originally came up with the idea for the trip. “I’m pretty sure it was just to make me go away for a while,” he jokes. Lynch says he likes "quirky" trips, but anyone who's been to Sweden knows there's extraordinary beauty to be enjoyed too.
“Welcome winter. Your late dawns and chilled breath make me lazy, but I love you nonetheless.” Terri Guillemets
On This Day
24 December 1905: American manufacturer, aviator, and film producer Howard Hughes, who became better known for his reclusiveness than for the uses to which he put his vast wealth, was born.
Today's Articles
Quantum Teleportation: In a breakthrough for human communication, scientists have achieved something that 'nobody thought was possible'.
Two Festive Videos
Tom & Jerry in 1941: The Night Before Christmas.
Finnish Lapland: It's Christmas Eve, police patrol 967's Pekka and Saana are on duty. It has been a slow day, but then something happens...