Ensuring the day gets off to a sunny start with a global round up of positive news stories.
Secret Weapon
As New Zealand goes head to head with Great Britain in its defence of the America’s Cup, the Kiwis have a secret weapon, a Māori waka (canoe) that will lead them into the contest. The race began on 12 October and is due to end a week later. Each race day, the waka will lead Team New Zealand out of Barcelona harbour as a “Māori guard of honour”. There will also be a haka performed on the water and some of the crew will go in with the team to perform karakia (prayers and incantations) before they go out to race. “What differentiates us from the other teams … is our deep connection to the ocean and the land and our guardianship of it,” Graham Tipene says.
50th Anniversary
The Rubik's Cube is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month with a series of events. The cube's creator, Erno Rubik, will appear at a giant installation at the Galleries Lafayette on the Champs-Élysées in Paris today. It's estimated that the Rubik’s Cube is now played by more than a billion people, and 480 million units of Rubik’s Cubes and merchandise are expected to be sold globally this year alone. The world record fastest solve is 15.71 seconds, set by Max Park of the United States in June this year but the world record by a machine is less than a second. Yes, you read that correctly. A Rubik's cube was completed in the blink of the eye. Watch it happen here.
Remarkable Detail
Though it may look like a photo of a desert - maybe in Arizona or Nevada - this is actually a view of Mars’ surface. And it’s not just any view: It’s a portion of the clearest-ever image of the red planet’s landscape, captured by none other than NASA’s Perseverance rover. See the photo in full.
Lights On
Africa accounts for nearly three-quarters of the world’s population without access to electricity. However, thanks to an initial $30 billion investment from the World Bank and African Development Bank, a plan - Mission 300 - to bring electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030 is now underway. That's about half of all Africans that don't currently have access to electricity.
Fashionista Motorcycle
French company DAB Motors has embraced the idea of motorcycles as fashion items and has produced a quirky, game-console-inspired translucent electric motorcycle. A subsidiary of Peugeot, DAB has embraced the "motorcycles as art" way of thinking and is aggressively pitching itself to fashionistas. Indeed, a recent headline in The Times (of London) declared that DAB's forthcoming 1α Transparent Edition is "the fashion set's favorite new motorbike." That article appeared in The Times' luxury section, by the way, not motoring.
World's Largest
China's Sany Renewable Energy claims it has just erected the world's largest onshore wind turbine. The lovingly named SI-270150 turbine features 430-ft-long blades (131 m), making for a maximum swept area of 616,298 sq ft (57,256 sq m). That's equivalent to nearly 11 American football fields. According to Sany, it's also set a record for the largest onshore turbine rotor diameter at 886 ft (270 m). This single 15-MW turbine is said to be able to generate enough electricity to power 160,000 households for a year.
“Friendship isn’t a big thing - it’s a million little things.” Paulo Coelho
On This Day
16 October 1916: Margaret Sanger, an activist for women's reproductive rights, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, in Brooklyn, New York.
Today's Articles
Reaching The Heights: Adriana Brownlee has become the youngest woman to climb the world’s 14 highest peaks.
Pharaonic Artefacts: Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum is finally opening, becoming world's biggest museum.
Lemon Water Health Benefits: It hardly takes any effort, and it’s amazing how many ways a glass of lemon water in the morning can make you healthier.
Daguerreotype: Earliest known photo of an American first lady acquired by Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
Mood Boosting Video
The Kagu: The flightless bird of New Caledonia.
Comments