Mid-week collection of uplifting news stories to brighten the day.
Advent Calendar
Each December in the small German hamlet of Gengenbach, the town hall is transformed into a massive Advent calendar, with curtained windows serving as the “boxes” to be opened on each day of the month. “It’s quite spectacular because everything gets dark and then we have a spot on the window and then it’s like a little bit of a curtain that goes up,” Michael Foell, of Gengenbach’s tourism bureau, explained to NPR. “Everyone is just watching with big eyes and mouths open.”
Fragile Treasures
Tucked away in the herbarium of England’s Kew Gardens are millions of fragile treasures - dried flowers, fungi, and herbs - that date back centuries, including hundreds collected by Charles Darwin. To ensure this treasure trove is preserved and accessible for future generations worldwide, Kew scientists and volunteers are in the midst of an ambitious project: digitizing its library of plant and fungal specimens, all 8 million of them. Recently, the team celebrated the milestone of digitizing 6 million specimens, with the remaining 2 million set to be completed by March 2026, so they can make “these vital resources freely accessible around the world.”
Saved By Sax
It’s the most wonderful time of the year … until your flight is delayed and you’re surrounded by frustrated travelers. But for some lucky Delta passengers stuck on the tarmac in Atlanta over the weekend, the hour-plus wait time was significantly improved by a musically inclined fellow flyer. U.S. Army vet Wayne Hoey assembled his saxophone and started strolling down the aisle playing Christmas carols - and soon everyone was singing along. “You just renewed my faith in humanity,” passenger Kate Dailey wrote on her social media.
Record Breaker
Today, the oldest person alive (as of December 2024), is Japan’s Tomiko Itooka. She is a sprightly 116 years, an age well beyond the average life expectancy of a human. In the UK, the average life expectancy of a man is 79 years, and a woman 82.9 years, according to the Office for National Statistics. Expectancy is a bit lower in the US, with males expected to live 75 years, and women 80. The UN estimates that the worldwide life expectancy is now 72.8 years - that's about nine years longer than people lived in 1990. And if you're wondering: yes, women live longer than men, by about 5.4 years globally, on average (73.8 years versus 68.4).
The Bashplemi Inscription
Experts are still puzzling over a basalt stone tablet more than three years after discovering it near Lake Bashplemi in Georgia. According to their recent study published in the Journal of Ancient History and Archeology, the book-sized artifact excavated in 2021 features 60 etched symbols, 39 of which differ from one another. And while some of the characters resemble those present in other ancient scripts, the team is still unsure what the author’s writing actually says. Although archeologists have yet to precisely date the tablet, related items including pottery shards and a stone mortar also found nearby indicate it probably originated around the 1st millennium BCE in either the Late Bronze or Early Iron Age.
Peninsula's Bentleys
The Peninsula Hotel’s flagship has upgraded its fleet of chauffeured vehicles with a little help from Bentley. After four bespoke Bentayga hybrids debuted at the Peninsula London earlier this year, the Hong Kong iteration of the hotel has followed suit by adding four custom extended-wheelbase Bentayga EWB Azure models to its lineup. The quartet was created as a collaborative effort between the Peninsula team and Bentley’s in-house bespoke and coachbuilding division to echo the famous hotel’s history in their design.
Rainy-Day Savings
The value of Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has risen to a record 20 trillion crowns ($1.8 trillion), doubling its value in just five years. Built since 1996 as rainy-day savings, the fund owns about 1.5 percent of all listed stocks globally and has grown to almost four times the size of Norway's annual gross domestic product, far exceeding original projections. Its current value corresponds to about $321,000 for every man, woman and child living in the country of 5.6 million people.
“Her smile did to her face what May does to a garden.” Niall Williams, This is Happiness
On This Day
11 December 1946: UNICEF - a United Nations program devoted to improving the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children - was established.
Today's Articles
The Original Lord of The Ringtones: Nokia, once the global leader, is to celebrate its pop-culture status.
Mood Boosting Video
Rather Tricky: Pelicans trying - but failing - to catch large jumping fish.