Good News: The “Social Benches”: Do you have an ear for me? +++ The fields are hopping again +++ 90-year-old is catching up on school after 70 years +++ Lego bricks are to become more sustainable.
The best news in the BRIGITTE Good News Ticker for April 2022
The news often shows the horrors of this world – currently, for example, the corona pandemic and the Ukraine war. But there are not only the dark sides, our world has so much beauty in store for us. We want to celebrate the little everyday things and give you something positive to take with you. It’s time for good news – if not now, then when?
April 27, 2022
do you have an ear for me
Listening – this is something that is often neglected in our fast-paced society. Far too many appointments structure our day, which always seems to have too few hours. But how often do you long for someone who just listens – usually you feel much better afterwards.
People who can really listen are rare, one of them is Christoph Busch from Hamburg. He initiated the project of the listening kiosk in Hamburg in the underground station Emilienstrasse.
He had actually rented the old kiosk to write his stories there. He wanted to watch the passers-by hurrying by and hoped for inspiration from them. Without further ado, he hung up a sign that read: “I’m listening to you. Right now. Or another time.” Soon the 75-year-old is just listening instead of writing.
Now he has expanded his offer and is asking people to listen to each other: There are now two moss-green “Social Benches” in Eimsbütteler Park with the inscription “Feel free to sit down”.
The idea came from a visitor to the listening kiosk, who said that she would like to talk to other people, but that nobody would ever sit down with her if she was sitting on a park bench. That’s mostly meant politely, because you don’t want to impose yourself, she said. But sitting down on the bench does not necessarily mean having a conversation. Sometimes it just feels good to be silent together.
April 22, 2022
It’s hopping again in the fields and meadows
It’s hopping again in Germany’s meadows and fields – the positive trend for brown hares is continuing. Some may now think that there are also many rabbits in the city area. However, these are mostly rabbits, they live in a small space and multiply very quickly. The hare is on the red list of endangered species in Germany. In spring 2021, 16 animals were counted per square meter – one of the best values since the nationwide counts began 20 years ago. 2017 was the absolute low.
However, the habitat of the native brown hare is still under threat. Agriculture reduces the areas on which they can live. Added to this is the loss of food resources. In some cases, the long-eared bats even flee to the cities because the monocultures in agriculture are causing them problems. Fallow areas on or in the city are often unfertilized for a long time and offer the rabbits good flora for their food.
April 20, 2022
90-year-old catches up on her school-leaving certificate after 70 years
It’s never too late to learn something new and make your dreams come true. In Dolianova on Sardinia, a very special student has recently been sitting on the bench at night school: 90-year-old Anunziata Murgia. Unlike her classmates, she looks back on a long and fulfilling life, which most others still have ahead of them. She has long since retired, but she loves one thing in particular: learning new things. That’s why the southern Italian is catching up on her high school diploma after more than 70 years. “My classmates are like my grandchildren,” she told the Guardian.
History is her favorite subject. Not surprising, since she is partly a witness to the devastating historical events. During the Second World War she had to drop out of school, instead she learned to sew, like many other women of the time. But in addition to her job as a seamstress, she never gave up learning and continued to educate herself privately, she says. Her teachers describe her as a passionate student who actively participates in class. She herself says: “I will give everything.”
April 19, 2022
Lego blocks should become more sustainable
Who doesn’t know them, the colorful little bricks that often fly around the entire children’s room and cause pain under the parents’ feet at night: the Lego bricks. To date, the company has produced more than 500 billion plastic building blocks. But the question of sustainability is now becoming more and more common in the toy business. The Lego company is now also considering how the plastic bricks could be produced more ecologically.
The goal is to get away from the petroleum-based plastic for the stones as soon as possible. Lego boss Niels B. Christiansen hopes to have found an organic material that can replace plastic by 2030, according to the “Tagesschau”. Research is currently being carried out on plant fibers such as bamboo and flax. Bendable Lego pieces are already being made from sugar cane.
However, the plastic stones have one advantage: Due to their longevity, they are often passed on from generation to generation – recycling is also sustainable.
April 13, 2022
Penguins, whales and seals count as a job
How about counting penguins in Antarctica? Sounds like a dream job to you? It can now come true. The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust is recruiting new staff: a Base Manager, a General Manager and a General Assistant in Port Lockroy. Altogether you spend five months from November to March at Base A – a historic British base on the tiny island of Goudier off the Antarctic Peninsula.
Responsibilities include managing the British Antarctic Territory gift shop and post office, supervising annual maintenance and upkeep of the buildings and artefacts, and observing wildlife for the British Antarctic Survey. The work is physically and mentally challenging, but it can also be an adventure: October to February is summer in Antarctica, which means it’s light most of the day. The average temperature is between -10 and -60 degrees. In summer, temperatures can go as low as 0 degrees.
Anyone wishing to apply for one of these jobs can apply inform here.
April 11, 2022
Milestone: US passports now have the “X”
Beginning April 11, Americans will be able to select an X as their gender when applying for a passport. That is a milestone and we have achieved “to better serve all citizens, regardless of their gender identity,” said Foreign Minister Antony Blinken. The ministry is the first federal authority to make this possible.
The “X” stands for what is colloquially referred to as the third gender. However, it tends to encompass different, non-binary identities, independent of a person’s biological sex characteristics.
April 8, 2022
First black female Supreme Court judge
For the first time, a black woman is now a judge on the Supreme Court of the United States. The Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the office by a vote of 53 out of 100. President Jo Biden proposed it in February. He called Jackson one of “our country’s brightest lawyers” and a “historic candidate”.
Jackson has been a judge since 2013 and has worked at the Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Colombia since 2021. She studied in Harvard and has already worked as a lawyer.
“I stand here on the shoulders of generations of Americans who have never had an opportunity like this. I hope that inspires confidence and inspires people to understand that our dishes are like them,” Jackson said at one Senate hearing in March said.
However, the majority on the Supreme Court remains conservative. Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had placed three judges in the Supreme Court, so that six of the nine judges are currently considered conservative. Jackson will be the 116th female Supreme Court judge. So far, 108 white men, two black men, four white women and one Latina have held office, according to TV broadcaster CNN.
April 5, 2022
Please do not throw away wine corks!
A glass of wine, great conversations and maybe something good to eat – this is what a perfect evening with friends could look like. And if you now pay attention to this small detail, you can even do something for the environment: Under no circumstances just throw the wine cork in the garbage. Because it can be recycled and take off in a new life as an insulating material for walls and floors.
It is estimated that more than 1.2 billion natural corks are pulled out of wine bottles in Germany every year. Most of them end up in household waste. Only about 10 to 15 percent is recycled.
In order not to simply incinerate the extraordinary properties of the natural substance, the Nature Conservation Union in Hamburg launched the “KOR campaign”. A total of 32,000 cubic meters of ecologically valuable insulation granulate for house construction could be made from the corks that are produced.
If the ancient Romans already used cork as step insulation for their sandals and it is built into space shuttles as heat protection, we should now be careful not to simply throw such an important raw material in the garbage.
Would you like more good news?
For even more good mood, just take a look at our Good News Ticker from March.
Sources used: nabu.de, tagesschau.de, faz.net, nypost.com, sueddeutsche.de, jagdverband.de, nabu.de, abendblatt.de