Ensuring Thursday gets off to a positive start with some upbeat news stories.
Mr. Tambourine Man
Draft lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song Mr. Tambourine Man went for $508,000 as part of a weekend sale of dozens of items related to the iconic American singer-songwriter. The typewritten lyrics, which covered three drafts of the 1965 song, were written on two sheets of yellow paper, with Dylan’s annotation on the third draft, said the Nashville auction house. The song appeared as the lead track on the acoustic side of his 1965 Bringing It All Back Home album and was the first Dylan composition to reach No. 1 in the US and the UK. Dylan, now 83, is garnering attention with last month's release of the movie A Complete Unknown, which focuses on his rise to stardom in the early 1960s. Dylan is played by Timothée Chalamet. Here's the trailer if you haven't seen the movie yet.
Loose Goose
Rescuing unprepared climbers is nothing new for rangers at Northern California's Mount Shasta, but this week saw them come to the aid of a goose who had managed to get 10,000 feet up the snowy mountainside in what they believe is the first attempted ascent of Mount Shasta by a goose - a majority by flight, plus some webbed feet. The intrepid bird "had on only one layer of down and was neither prepared for the temperature nor overnight camping", said the US Forest Service in a Facebook post. "Our dedicated staff were able to offer the goose a quick descent to a local pond at lower elevations before returning to regular duties."
Planet Parade
Stargazers are being treated to a rare planetary alignment right now, also known as a “planet parade”, with most of the planets visible in the night sky at the same time. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus are the most conspicuous at the moment, although stargazers may also spot Neptune and Uranus lined up above the horizon with the help of binoculars or a good telescope. “They happen to all be in their orbits on the same side of our sun, within the same degrees in our sky, so that we can see them,” says astrophysicist Dr Rebecca Allen. “That is special. Really it’s about perspective. All of these planets are vast distances from us and from each other.” Why not download a sky map app to help you spot them?
82 Percent Club
Clean energy accounted for 82 percent of electricity generated in Spain and Portugal in 2024.
Europe EV Boom
Starting on 1 January 2025, new legislation mandates that 22 percent of sales must be hybrid and electric vehicles, or else automakers will face hefty fines. This is going to be hugely disruptive - only 13 percent of all vehicles sold in 2024 in Europe were electric. Reuters says we should expect to see an EV sales boom over the next 12 months, driven by discounts and other incentives.
Strange Record
The most watermelons crushed with the thighs in one minute (female) is 5 - reads the rather concise statement by Guinness World Records - and was achieved by a Turkish woman called Gözde Doğan. Gözde is the first holder of this title! Who dreams up these weird and wonderful challenges?
"The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication." Cecil B. DeMille
On This Day
23 January 1849: Elizabeth Blackwell, who was born in England, received an M.D. degree from Geneva Medical College in New York, becoming the first American-trained woman physician.
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Mood Boosting Video
Slow Down - a one minute movie with a message about something we often forget.