Mid-week collection of tasty bite-sized chunks of uplifting news.
Record-Breaking Gift
One day after the National Park Service marked its 108th birthday, the service’s official nonprofit announced a record-breaking $100 million gift, the largest grant in history benefitting national parks. “This grant will allow us to supercharge our efforts to ensure our national parks are for everyone, for generations to come,” Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation, said of the donation, which comes from the Lilly Endowment Inc. “The impact of this gift will be felt in our parks and in surrounding communities for generations to come,” says Chuck Sams, director of the park service. “This is a truly visionary investment, and an example of how the power of philanthropy can amplify this crucial work that we all believe in so much.”
Lung Cancer Trials
The first-ever lung cancer vaccine trials have commenced in the UK with Janusz Racz as the initial recipient. This groundbreaking mRNA-based vaccine, BNT116, developed by BioNTech, aims to stimulate the immune system to target and eliminate cancer cells. The phase 1 clinical trial has launched across 34 research sites in six other countries too: U.S., Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Turkey.
Good Start For Student
Seven curled silver arm rings dating to the Viking era were found by an archaeology student earlier this year in Denmark. The Mosegaard Museum called the find “stunning.” The artifacts were unearthed south of Aarhus by the 22-year-old Dane Gustav Bruunsgaard, who had been searching the historical Viking settlement using a metal detector and a spade. It’s estimated that the rings are from 800 CE, placing them within the early Viking era (793 CE–1066 CE). One is a known type of armband that originated in Viking settlements located in what are now Russia and Ukraine. The design was subsequently copied by people throughout the Nordic region.
Company Perk
Patagonia is giving U.S. workers a paid day off in late October to vote early in the election and volunteer, one of the first big companies to provide the perk.
New Gold Standard in Climate Philanthropy: In a remarkable gesture of corporate responsibility, Yvon Chouinard, the owner of multi-billion dollar clothing firm Patagonia has given the company away to help fight climate change.
Blake's Cottage
The 18th-century cottage where William Blake wrote Jerusalem will become a “site of literary memory” after it secured funding to protect it from being “lost forever”. Blake’s Cottage, in the seaside village of Felpham in West Sussex (on England's south coast), has experienced decades of neglect, and now suffers from crumbling walls, a collapsing thatched roof and rotting rafters. But after years of uncertainty, the World Monuments Fund Britain has announced that it has offered a grant recognising “a site of literary memory, of national and international significance”. Now there are plans to renovate the building and open it to the public for the first time, turning Blake’s Cottage into a literary place of pilgrimage, along with William Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon and William Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage in the Lake District.
Record Breaker
Spencer Matthews, 36, has set a Guinness World Record for running the most consecutive marathons on sand. The Eton-educated reality TV star completed 30 marathons in 30 days and ran 1,266km in the extreme conditions of the Jordanian desert. Matthews said that his feat was “a truly unforgettable journey”, and had raised £340,757 ($452,000) in donations for Global’s Make Some Noise, a charitable project which aims to help people through bereavement. The reality star lost his older brother when he was 10 years old. To achieve the record-making feat, Matthews rose every morning at 2.30am and ate a protein-heavy breakfast. He would then begin each run at 4.30am before the worst of the Jordanian heat.
EV Range Rover
The all-electric Range Rover is almost here. Although the brand admits it’s been challenging, Range Rover’s first EV will be a “true Range Rover” with, they say, unrivalled capability and luxury. Advance reservations have already hit 42,000, and that is despite the fact that nobody has seen what the vehicle will actually look like.
"Worrying gets you nowhere. If you turn up worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’ve already lost." Usain Bolt
On This Day
28 August 1963: Some 200,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., an event that became a high point of the civil rights movement, especially remembered for the famous “I Have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today's Articles
Clever Ruse: Holiday sweepstakes designed for one special street sweeper's dream holiday by his local community.
Superyacht in The Sky: The much-hyped Airlander 10 aims to be carrying passengers around Europe by 2028.
Mood Boosting Video
The semi-nomadic Bajau people: The tribe that evolved to stay underwater longer.