Today's Good News | OGN Daily

Celebrating the end of the week with a global round up of positive news stories.

Linguistic Howlers

A retiring Ford executive left colleagues an unusual parting gift: a compendium of linguistic howlers - mixed metaphors and malaprops - he'd overheard in the office. Starting in 2014, Mike O'Brien filled six whiteboards with mangled turns of phrase, including "let's not reinvent the ocean" and "I don't want to sound like a broken drum" and "too many cooks in the soup". His farewell email contained a spreadsheet version, "detailing a few thousand violations committed by his co-workers", said the The Wall Street Journal - including two gaffes by Ford CEO Jim Farley.

Trashing Large EVs: Jim Farley has doubled-down on his comments last year about Americans needing to break their "monster" car addition.

Einstein Beaten

A 13-year-old girl has been invited to join the Mensa society after getting the maximum score on the IQ test - higher than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Sofia Kot Arcuri has been accepted into the club after achieving 162, the highest possible score for a girl of her age. Proud mom Cecylia Kot Arcuri said she always knew Sofia was smart, but didn’t expect her to ace the test without any preparatory work. “She just walks around throwing random facts at you,” Mrs. Arcuri said, adding that she has been top of her class from the moment she started school. “When you think of someone of high intelligence, you’d think they’d be quite geeky, but really, she’s a normal girl.”

World First

In a collaboration, OpenAI will provide Estonia's government with ChatGPT Edu, a customized version of ChatGPT specifically developed for education systems - becoming the first country

in the world to integrate ChatGPT into the school system. The initiative will begin with 10th and 11th grade students from September 2025, with the goal of later expanding to the entire high school system. ChatGPT has become a popular tool for students worldwide. According to data from OpenAI, nearly four out of five ChatGPT users are under 35 years old, and the majority of conversations focus on learning and schoolwork.

Melanie Barratt swimming the English Channel — Melanie Barratt swimming the Channel | SWNS

Blinding Achievement

A Paralympic gold medalist has become the first blind woman to swim across the English Channel. She said that being blind has left her feeling “isolated,” but thanks to swimming, she has a “newfound confidence” and hopes her feat “inspires others”. 49-year-old Melanie Barratt took on the challenge after falling in love with open-water swimming. She swam the Channel, from Shakespeare Beach in Dover to Cap Gris Nez Beach in France, in 12 hours and 20 minutes, faster than the expected 14 hours, and described it as “a dream come true.”

Two female, and one male, scientists in a lab at University of British Columbia — The Spikeless team | UBC

Spikeless

After 12 years of development, a team of Canadian chemists at the University of British Columbia has created what could be the ideal tool for detecting if your drink has been spiked. More discreet and accurate than anything else on the market, the innocuous-looking drink stir comes with a tip that will change colour if exposed to any of the common drugs used by predatory bargoers - within 30 seconds. Called Spikeless, the device still requires approval from Health Canada, but if the cost could be made low enough, establishments could simply have a tray of them on the bar or drink stand, where they could be used like normal drink stirrers.

Hot Pot

Police in England have apologised to an elderly couple whose house was mistakenly raided by drugs officers because of their cosy central heating. Barry and Mavis Lovelock were eating breakfast when the police burst into their home: a "thermal helicopter camera" had flagged "their gas fire-heated property" as a drugs den, said Metro. "They told us the camera on the helicopter had noticed our roof glowing white," said Mavis. "But that was just because we have the heating on all of the time."

“Being kind to yourself isn’t about ignoring your weaknesses. It’s about giving yourself permission to learn from your mistakes.” Adam Grant