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Positive News Tuesday

An eclectic bundle of positive news stories to perk up the day.

Billy Zane as Marlon Brando — Credit: Torino Film Festival

Impressive Transformation

Film fans have been left wildly impressed by an actor’s transformation into Marlon Brando for a new biopic. This is not a picture of Brando from The Godfather, but actor Billy Zane playing Brando in The Godfather. The casting of Zane, whose credits include Dead Calm and Titanic, has stunned Brando fans, who are in agreement that the actor looks exactly like him in the photo. Waltzing with Brando, written and directed by Bill Fishman, is described as “the little-known but absolutely true story of how Marlon Brando convinced the architect Bernard ‘Bernie’ Judge that, together, they could build the first ecologically perfect retreat on one of Tahiti’s tiny, uninhabited islands”. There is currently no confirmed release date for the film.

Massive Russian Fine

A Russian court has fined Google two undecillion roubles - a two followed by 36 zeroes - for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube, reports BBC News. In dollar terms that means the tech giant has been told to pay $20 followed by 31 zeroes. That's far greater than the world’s total GDP, which is estimated by the International Monetary Fund to be $110 trillion.

Onion Bottles

Divers recovered artifacts from a Spanish ship that sank off the Atlantic coast of Florida in the early 1700s and now, some of those long-lost items are finally revealing their secrets. Conservators in Florida spent seven months cleaning, drying and preserving two rare “onion bottles” that were likely made in England. Archaeologists were thrilled to discover the intact bottles, as they more often recover only small fragments. Today, the glass bottles are empty. But three centuries ago, they were likely full of some sort of alcoholic beverage that was shared among the ship’s passengers and crew members. They were likely crafted by skilled glass-blowers.

Sleek Aptera P12

Aptera Motors, based in San Diego, CA, has just successfully completed its first low-speed function test of its fully solar-powered electric vehicle (sEV). The PI2 doesn't need to be plugged in to recharge and instead gets its daily power directly from the sun. Aptera claims it will have an additional 40 miles of range per day while not needing to be plugged in to recharge as it draws energy into its internal batteries from the sun. There are options for various battery pack sizes. One of which will offer up to 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of range. At the time of writing, if you click "reserve" on Aptera's website, the Launch Edition price is listed at US$30,700 with a note "price subject to change."

EU Progress

Total net greenhouse gas emissions in the EU dropped by 8 percent last year, according to the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) Trends and Projections report. The reduction is close to that recorded in Europe at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when flights were grounded and factories shut. Greenhouse gas pollution in the 27-country bloc is now 37 percent below 1990 levels. The EU Climate Law sets ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions: a net 55 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050, to deliver European commitments under the international Paris agreement.

Good Use of Space

Next spring, a Swiss startup is set to launch a first-of-its-kind project using a removable photovoltaic solar system on a railway. The solar panels will be "rolled out like carpet" on tracks in Neuchatel, Switzerland, with trains passing over them, Euro News said. During the three-year pilot project, the electricity produced will be used to power homes in the area.

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength." Corrie ten Boom

On This Day

5 November 1872: Susan B. Anthony, a leader in the American women's suffrage movement, cast a ballot in the presidential election, and she was later arrested for voting illegally and convicted in a trial she called “the greatest outrage history ever witnessed.”