Dec. 11, 2025

A new way to defrost your car!

Show Notes
Transcript

The return of an 18th-century painting of St. Francis to a Mexican church after it was stolen 15 years ago; a new method for defrosting car windshields developed by Virginia Tech researchers; a heartfelt story of a husband arranging annual daffodil deliveries for his wife before he passed away; a man in Sweden setting a world record by stuffing 81 matches up his nose; and the auctioning of a 1939 Superman comic book for $9.12 million.
00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:11 Stolen 18th Century Painting Recovered
00:59 Innovative Car Defrosting Method
02:03 Heartwarming Daffodil Tribute
02:41 Bizarre World Record: Matches in Nose
03:31 Superman Comic Auctioned for Millions
04:14 Conclusion and Farewell

5 Good News Stories is a daily podcast with five positive, uplifting news stories to brighten your day. New episodes every day. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network

John also hosts Daily Comedy News

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hi there, I'm Johnny Mack with five

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good news stories. In Mexico, a stolen eighteenth century painting

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of Saint Francis has been returned to a church. Seven

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years ago, a fine art auctioneers admitted their upcoming auction

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catalog to a database of stolen art. As part of

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a due diligence process that's pretty standard in the industry,

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analysts flipped through the pages of the paintings and cleared

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each one, and then they came to a six foot

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tall work of Saint Francis of Assisi from the sixteenth century.

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The Art Loss Register said such a painting had been

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reported stolen more than fifteen years before from a church.

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Back in two thousand and one. There was a nighttime

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burglary at the church. The thieves stole the painting along

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with seven works that adorn the altar. Those pieces and

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the thief are still at large. The painting was going

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to be auctioned off for fifteen thousand dollars. Good news

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if you're cold this week, I sure am. Researchers at

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Virginia Polytechnical Institute believe they found a new and improved

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method for defrosting your car. Professor Jonathan Barreco has figured

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out how to combat ice by exploiting its own physics.

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He explains, think of it as if you're putting together

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a big jigsaw puzzle too quickly and a piece gets

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jammed and the wrong spot is missing entirely. These tiny

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errors create what scientists call ionic defects, places in the

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frost where there's a little bit too much positive of

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a negative charge. The theory is that when applying positive

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voltage to an electrode plate held above the frost, the

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negative ionic defects would become attracted and migrate to the

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top of the frost sheet. While the team turned on

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one hundred and twenty volts of power, and that removed

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forty percent of the frost. At five hundred and fifty volts,

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fifty percent was removed. Strangely, at higher voltages, less ice

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is removed. The researchers continuing with the eventual goal of

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one hundred percent ice removal. So the solution isn't run

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out the door, start your car and leave running in

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the driveway for twenty minutes. No, okay, sweet story here.

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Steven passed away a while back, but before he died,

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he had arranged a delivery of daffodils for his wife,

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Marilyn's birthday, knowing that he wouldn't be there. They showed

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up and said hello, beautiful, Happy birthday from Steve. That

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gave Marylyn an idea. She thought back to her final

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day with Steve remembered how peaceful he was. They sat

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in their son room and he was smiling at the daffodils.

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So Maryland wanted to plant some daffodils in his memory.

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She bought a few hundred bulbs started planning them along

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her street in British Columbia. Over time, the daffodil planning

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grew into an annual event. Maryland still receives her pre

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arranged birthday book from Steve every year. What's the opposite

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of that sweet story? How about this one? In Sweden?

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A man said his kids inspired him to stuff eighty

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one matches up his nose and what do you know,

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that's the Giddess world record. Congratulations to Martin. His kids

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told him it would be so cool if he broke

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a record. He said, At first, I thought I'm not

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good enough at anything to be the best in the world.

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But after my children showed me all the different world records.

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I'm again thinking I might able to find one I

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had a shot at breaking. Thus began the search for

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a suitable one. He landed on the record for most

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matches held in the nose, which was sixty eight. He explained,

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after doing the trial run, I discovered I could both

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stretch my nostrils a lot and also ignore the pain

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for putting all those matches in there, so I'd say

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I'm a natural. However, I did try to find a

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good technique because matches kept falling out of my nostrils.

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Three inserted matches meant one or two falling out. It

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did some more trial runs and did eventually find a

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technique I could utilize to minimize the number of matches

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falling out. The record is now eighty one, and good

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news if your mom did thirty comic books away. Superman

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number one was auctioned off for nine point one two

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million dollars. Yes, it's a nineteen thirty nine copy of

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Superman number one. The comic book was found by a

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Northern California family when they were cleaning out the addict

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of mom's home after she passed away. The comic book

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was in a cardboard box with some old newspapers. It

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was given a rating of nine out of ten, making

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it the highest graded copy of Superman number one still

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known to exist. It is only one of seven known

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copies with a grating of six or higher. The comics

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sold for nine point one two million dollars, breaking the

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previous record of six million dollars. Six million dollars got

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you a copy of Action Comics number one, which also

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featured Superman. And those your five good news stories for today.

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Go see what's up in the attic See tomorrow