Knitted Police Slow Traffic

0:01 Hey there, I'm Johnny Mac with five good news stories. In Filonly, England, they had a problem. There's only one road in and one road out. There's a pub, a church, and problems with drivers who treat the main street like a motorway. They tried speed bumps, signs, nothing made a difference. So Heather got out her knitting needles. She knitted a pair of life-size knitted police officers in high-visibility vests, dark uniforms, hats, everything, and positioned them on the roadside where they would be visible to oncoming drivers, and it worked. It's not because the drivers are stupid and thought it was real cops. They could tell the difference, but the human brain clocking something in a police uniform at 60 miles an hour sends a signal before the rational part catches up. Drivers slowed down. Some even slowed down to take a second look, even though they knew what they were looking at. The actual police were made aware of this, and they did not object. For years, the standard scientific understanding of coral bleaching was pretty grim. When ocean temperatures rise high enough, corals expel the symbiotic algae that give them color and sustenance.

1:07 The corals turn white, and if temperatures don't return to normal quickly enough, the coral dies. But researchers at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station have found the timeline can be shorter. Marine biologist Danny and his colleague Steve were studying coral reefs off the coast of American Samoa when they noticed individual corals in their study sites were recovering from bleaching events in as little as seven weeks. Not recovering as in still alive but stressed, but recovering full color. Apparently there's some variability. Not all coral reefs bleach equally and not all corals within a reef respond the same way. Some colonies appear to have genetic or structural advantages that let them endure heat stress and bounce back quickly. Well, what do you do when you want to move your bookshop? Usually you got to get like a van and a bunch of people, move some books. Well, the Spaniel's Tale is a beloved independent bookshop in Ottawa. Rather than pack its entire inventory, which includes 7,400 books, the shop organized a book brigade. 280 volunteers showed up on a Saturday morning and formed a human chain from the old location to the new location. Books were passed from hand to hand, one at a time. It took most of the day. Now, this is fascinating. When the last book arrived at the new shelves, someone noticed the inventory had come in in near-perfect alphabetical order, not because anyone planned it that way.

2:22 It just emerged from the fact that the books passed down the chain, went in the same sequence they left the old shelves, which were already sorted alphabetically. In Brazil, for most of its modern history, the labor law required a working week of up to 44 hours spread over six days. It was a legal standard. Recently, the Brazilian Senate has voted to change that, the vote 75 to 1. One senator voted against it. The remaining 75 voted in favor of limiting the mandatory work week to five days, bringing Brazil in line with labor norms across most of the world. Enjoy your Saturday off, gang. And I'm fascinated by this one. In 2013, Helga set the world record for oldest wing walker. She was 86 years old and was strapped to the top of a biplane somewhere over England. Okay, great.

3:09 She's now 99 years old. And between 2013 and recently, someone else claimed the title. And Helga knew about this. So recently, she climbed up onto a wing again. The plane took off and lifted it into the air. And Helga, at 99 years old, stood on the wing. She completed the flight without incident. She described the experience afterward as wonderful. The record is under review with Guinness because there's paperwork involved. Of course there is. She says she wasn't nervous. She said she'd done it once before and the second time felt, if anything, even better. When asked what she would do if the record is confirmed, she said she's not sure she'll stop there. Keep setting the record. Make it harder for everyone else to break. I think that is amazing. And those are your five good news stories for today.

3:52 You have an awesome day.