Celebrating the end of the week with an eclectic global selection of upbeat news stories.
Final Supermoon 2024
Better catch the last supermoon of the year as it will be a while until the next one. More a popular term than a scientific one, a supermoon occurs when a full lunar phase syncs up with an especially close swing around Earth. This will be the year’s fourth and final supermoon, looking bigger and brighter than usual as it comes within about 225,000 miles (361,867 km) of Earth today. In 2025, expect three supermoons beginning in October.
New Bookstores
In good news for bibliophiles, Barnes & Noble continues to open new stores at a rapid pace and is on track to open 60 this year, reports Publishers Weekly. The company is opening 12 new outlets in November. All the new stores will feature the company’s new design, which highlights books, toys, games and gifts; most also feature an updated B&N Café. The retailer had 609 stores at the end of 2023.
Gaining Pace
The world’s transition to green energy is gaining pace. A recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world’s energy watchdog, found that over the next six years renewable energy projects are on track to roll out at three times the pace of the previous six years. This would put the world on course to outpace the 2030 goals set by governments to create a total global renewable energy capacity roughly equal to the existing power systems in China, the EU, India and the US combined.
Last But Not Least
A 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, which was the final example of the iconic model to roll off the line, will be auctioned off by RM Sotheby’s later this month in Las Vegas. Unsurprisingly, the “Last One,” as the red coupé has been dubbed, is expected to draw a seven-figure sum. There are few cars in automotive history that have mixed beauty and brawn like the 300 SL. To top things off, only 1,400 examples were built during the three years it was a production, a number small enough to make this the most coveted Merc of all time.
Free Transport
Istanbul just became the largest city to provide free public transportation to unemployed residents. The Turkish city of 16 million people implemented the program to remove barriers to finding a job and help boost employment rates.
iMicro
Six years on from the first iMicro smartphone microscope, the team has unveiled its latest: the iMicro Q3p, a fingertip-sized, lightweight device that makes microscopy inexpensive, portable and accessible to anyone with a camera on their phone. What's more, this new model features polarization, allowing you to see (and photograph) incredible detail in the structures of materials such as crystals and minerals – all for less than 1 percent of the cost of the equipment normally required to view these structures. Currently offered on Kickstarter for $39 with shipping expected next April.
"Truth is the only safe ground to stand upon." Elizabeth Cady Stanton
On This Day
15 November 1904: American inventor King Camp Gillette was granted a U.S. patent for the first razor with disposable blades.
Today's Articles
Gen Z Favourites: Gen Z - those aged 18 to 24 - account for 40 percent of mobile users worldwide. So, what are their top app downloads?
Mood Boosting Video
Q's Hilarious Gadgets: Desmond Llewelyn's 007 Heineken commercial from 1999.