The Week in Good News: Mars InSight’s Launch, a Secret Fortune, the Citadel

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/briefing/week-in-good-news-mars-insight-citadel.html

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Sometimes it seems as if we’re living under a constant barrage of heavy news. But it isn’t all bad out there. This feature is meant to send you into the weekend with a smile, or at least a lighter heart. Want to get The Week in Good News by email? Here’s the sign-up.

Here are seven great things we wrote about this week:

Early risers in Los Angeles and San Diego could catch quite a sight last Saturday — an Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA’s InSight spacecraft lifted off and lit up the skies as it began a six-month journey to Mars. Its mission is essentially to take a sonogram of the planet. Just as sound waves can reveal the outline of a fetus within a mother, the seismic rumblings of quakes on Mars will reveal the planet’s interior structure.

If scientists are lucky, seismic waves could also reveal underground aquifers — places where life could plausibly persist today.

“This is an extraordinary mission with a whole host of firsts,” said Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA. Read more »

Sylvia Bloom, a frugal 96-year-old secretary from Brooklyn, has joined the ranks of unassuming and magnanimous millionaires who have died with fortunes far larger than their lifestyles ever would have suggested. Ms. Bloom, through shrewdly observing the investments made by the lawyers she served, carefully cultivated more than $9 million by the time she died in 2016.

The Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side received $6.24 million, the largest single gift from an individual to the social service group in its history.

“We were all agape, just blown away,” said David Garza, the group’s executive director. The money will endow the settlement’s Expanded Horizons College Success Program, which helps disadvantaged students prepare for and complete college.

He called the gift “the epitome of selflessness.” Read more »

Many 18-year-olds can’t afford to take a big trip. So how to help youth see more of the world?

The European Commission has an answer. It set aside 12 million euros, about $14.2 million, to give young people in the European Union free InterRail passes, with which they can travel to up to four European countries.

The aim, according to a statement by the commission, is to “help foster a European identity, reinforce common European values and promote the discovery of European sites and cultures.”

Bon voyage! Read more »

Last Friday, Ms. Zorn officially took over the post of top cadet during the Citadel’s pomp-laden graduation parade. There was no announcement that she was making history. But nearly everyone present recognized a sign of irrevocable momentum in a long process of change at the state-supported military college in South Carolina.

“I think that women are fully embraced as cadets here,” she said in an interview. “You hear a lot of times from fellow cadets, and even from alumni, that having women here has even improved the college.”

Ms. Zorn is certainly physically prepared for the role. She can do more than 70 push-ups in two minutes, and has black belts in three karate disciplines. Read more »

New research has found that elephant activities like walking, running, snorting and stomping create distinct “seismic signatures” in the ground. The animals may use these ground vibrations to warn each other of danger, among other things.

This presents an opportunity for scientists and conservationists to use earthquake-monitoring tools to track elephants from a distance, which could be useful for saving them from poachers.

“What we’ve shown is that we can basically use this as a remote monitoring strategy,” said Beth Mortimer, a biologist at the Universities of Oxford and Bristol and lead author of the study. Read more »

The country’s trademark deadpan humor has featured in a series of videos created by the government that tackle very serious topics. And they’ve been popular, racking up thousands of page views and in some cases becoming social media sensations.

“Stop a mate from driving drunk — legend,” says one public service announcement that has been viewed more than two million times. Read more »

We hope you remember Mr. Shaw from a previous edition of The Week in Good News. The hero who wrestled a rifle away from a gunman at a Waffle House in Nashville has been helping in another way — by setting up a GoFundMe account for the victims. He initially set a modest fund-raising goal of $15,000.

Only two weeks later, he had raised more than 15 times that amount.

“I am overwhelmed,” Mr. Shaw said in a statement. “To the thousands of people who have expressed their care, prayers and made financial donations, I can only respond by saying, ‘Thank you.’”

The widespread generosity, he added, “has been a heartwarming reminder of what is possible when we come together to care for one another.” Read more »

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