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“Even the smallest candle can be seen on the darkest night. Always let your light shine. You never know who might be in darkness.” – Michael P.Watson
Hello everyone! This week’s stories shine a light on amazing things that are happening in our world. We learn about the first woman to be on a Division 1 baseball team, a diving instructor that is helping to save coral reefs, and a disabled man that will become the first astronaut to go into space. All around us light is amplified, people are choosing love over fear and reminding us of what is possible. Wishing you a 'light-filled' week!
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On Halloween night in the U.S., it's not uncommon to see a bowl of candy left on a porch for trick-or-treaters to help themselves. Yet when candy ran out at the Ellsworth family's residence in Virginia, their Ring doorbell camera captured three siblings refilling the bowl from their own stock. "We just thought to put candy in the basket for the other littler kids, since we have gone [trick-or-treating] so much," Rose Gutierrez, 11, explained to WTVR 6 News. The video shows Rose walking up the front steps and looking in the empty bowl. As she began to walk away, she turned around and put some of her own candy in the empty bowl. Her younger siblings, Sam and Christina, followed suit. "It's okay. I got a lot," 5-year-old Sam said. When the Ellsworth family saw the camera footage, they were blown away. "We were talking about it all night.," Jenni Ellsworth said. "[Our] girls were talking about it. I mean, I don't even know if my kids would do that. ... And so [husband Ian's] first instinct was to share this [video]. He said there's so much negativity, we need to put some positivity out there." 11-year-old Rose told WTVR 6 News that their actions were a result of her parents' guidance. "Before we went trick-or-treating, my dad told us to put candy in the baskets that don't have any for the little kids. We just have been trying to be kind everywhere we go. We try to be kind to everyone."
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Pexels | Pixabay
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Atop a hotel in Caracas, Venezuela, the sound of trumpets, trombones, and French horns roar through the neighborhood as the sun sets. This is the Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho founded in 1989, who incorporate blends of classical and Afro-Caribbean rhythm influences. Their recent debut album, "Sinfonía Desordenada," was recorded virtually by 75 musicians during the pandemic. Amid violence, corruption, and a poverty that has caused an exodus of over six million Venezuelans, the tunes are both a lifeline and a message about the real struggles of living. "I felt that we had a lifeline there in the midst of boredom and fear," says vocalist Horacio Blanco.
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SimplyArt4794 | Pexels
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In 2008, a panda named Tuan Tuan was gifted to a Taipei zoo. The act is customary for the country of China, who sends the southwestern animals abroad as a sign of goodwill. Recently, Tuan Tuan was diagnosed with brain lesions from an MRI scan, hinting at a possible brain tumor. Taiwan welcomed a pair of experts from China, Wu Honglin and Wei Ming, to pool knowledge and provide Tuan Tuan with the best medical treatment possible. Pandas are a rare species in the world, with just only 1,800 living in the wild and another 500 living in in zoos or reserves.
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Heart Aerospace
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Icelandair has announced ambitious plans to fly only "carbon-free" aircraft on all its domestic routes before 2030, which would make it the first airline to have carbon-free domestic aviation. For Icelandair, Sweden's Heart Aerospace is developing a 30-seat regional aircraft powered by batteries and a backup conventional engine and Universal Hydrogen, based in Los Angeles, is converting its existing 37-seat turboprop plane to use a hydrogen fuel-cell system. Icelandair only operates three domestic routes, the longest just about an hour. While most of aviation's carbon dioxide emissions come from large planes traveling over long distances, experts say smaller aircraft making short trips can eliminate harmful air pollution and noise disturbances at airports and neighboring communities and reduce competition for the sustainable aviation fuel or hydrogen that will eventually power larger aircraft.
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On a whim, Jess Wade typed out her first Wikipedia page five years ago. It was a biography of Kim Cobb, an American climatologist who -- despite earning several scientific accolades -- had never been written about on the popular online encyclopedia. "I met her at a science event, and I was massively impressed," said Wade, a British physicist, who, after a quick online search, was stunned to see that Cobb had no profile on the public platform. Wade had stumbled onto something she found troubling: Cobb was one of countless deserving women whose names and lengthy list of achievements had yet to be chronicled on Wikipedia. She decided to take matters into her own hands and since 2017, Wade has written more than 1,750 Wikipedia pages for female and minority scientists and engineers whose accomplishments were not documented on the site. She has made it her mission to correct gender and racial biases in the scient community, and advocate for women in STEM. "Wikipedia is a really powerful way to give credit to people who, for a long time, have been written out of history," Wade said.
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