Already and this this is the Daily This is the Dailios.
Oh now it makes sense.
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily Os. It's Saturday, the twenty fifth of January.
I'm Zara, I'm Sam, and we are back for another week of good news. We've got some excellent stories today, ranging again from all over the world. We've got a bit of sport for you and a particularly putrid flower. But Zara, why don't we start in Thailand where there was a really major change of policy this week.
I thought you were going to say where I was last week, which is why I wasn't on the good News pod last week.
You could have done a live cross for this good news story. Tell us what happened.
Yeah, So this week in Thailand, same sex couples were allowed to legally marry for the very first time. Now. Thailand's parliament and the Thai King approved the law to legalize same sex marriage back in September last year, but it only came into effect this week. So Thai LGBTQ plus groups were hoping to set a record for the most same sex marriages actually registered in a single day, and so many people opted to hold unofficial wedding celebrations in the lead up to it being legalized and then
officiate their marriage at the Civil Registry. So more than eighteen hundred same sex couples were married. That's according to Bangkok Pride's tally. There hasn't been an official confirmation yet, but the group has told media it submitted a request to be recognized by the Guinness World Records. Now. The THAIPM celebrated the marriages as an historic day for Thailand.
There were some amazing images and videos to come out of that day, you know, massive lines out of the Civil Registry offices, some beautifully happy couples being officially married in Thailand for the first time.
Yeah, and look, just to provide a bit more of a context in the region, it's the third Asian jurisdiction to allow same sex marriage, following Taiwan and Nepal. The country has long been considered a safe haven for LGBTQ plus communities and it's home to a thriving drag scene as well. So lots of good news coming from Thailand, and not just my return.
I'm glad you're back, Zara. Why don't we go to Africa now? And we haven't done one of these stories in a little while of lift with this act an invention that really changes people's lives.
Yes, So I was trolling the internet trying to find some good news this week and I happened upon this unbelievable story from Tanzania. So in Tanzania, of course, an African country, an innovator has created solar powered backpacks that help children read after dark by using their bags to
power a reading light. Now, according to BBC, and I guess to highlight why this is such an incredible invention, less than half of homes in Tanzania are connected to electricity, and under a third are in rural areas, which can also be a big barrier to children getting education. So we've got these two twin problems here.
And these backpacks will literally mean that as the children are walking to and from school and at school, that it's collecting electricity for them to use at night.
Yeah, exactly. So it's a solar panel fitted school bag. So you're right, like, as they're walking and the sun is beaming, they are charging light for their education essentially later on in the day. So during the night, the energy powers are built in light that then lets the children read and write among other things, long after the
sun has actually set. And what's interesting is that this can now replace kerosene lamps, which can be expensive, they can emit harmful fumes for families, especially if you're indoors, and so we've got this low cost and also sustainable solution that's helping to bridge this gap and is a really important factor in breaking down educational inequality and really is a good reminder for us about the power of accessible technology and what it can do to transform labs all across the world.
The best thing that happens with these types of stories is the invention gets out there, starts to get used, and then inevitably a really big tech company picks it up and makes it really cheap to make. And that's where some really widespread change can happen. When you know, let's say it takes twenty dollars to make one of these backpacks at the moment, I'm sure as it gets more affordable to make at larger scales, it will become much more than just a Tanzanian used device and could
go everywhere across the world. Amazing invention now a sports story because I love getting one in there and it's an f one Taiale this week yep.
So we are turning our brains now to the Formula One and that's because this week American Formula One team has appointed the sport's very first female race engineer. Her name is Laura Mueller and she was previously a performance engineer but will now work with incoming driver Esteban Oconn. So she started with a team in twenty twenty two.
She was working in a simulator department. And for those perhaps unacquainted with the sport like myself, a race engineer is the main link between a driver and their team. So during a Grand Prix, the the race engineer communicates with the driver over the radio to assist with strategy, to help solve problems the driver may be facing. So
they're playing a really huge fundamental role. And I cannot believe that this is the very first female race engineer in the sport, Like that is a huge milestone.
How many pieces do you think are in a Formula one car? Like if you broke broke it down there you have the answer to this, yeah, and did like a flat lay of a car? How many pieces are there on the ground?
Can I have?
Like a guy, give me your first number eight. There's fourteen and a half thousand individual pieces in a Formula one.
Car, so no way I was set up there.
It is no small feast. Another interesting angle to this is and I don't think she was in the position of race engineer, which is like the captain of the engineering team, but the founder of Lune Croissants in Australia was previously a Formula one engineer as well, and she's applied that sort of incredible detail to making some yummy pastries. Okay, Zara, one more story to take us out today, and this one.
You're gonna end on any other man.
You're going to have to convince me why this is good news actually.
Honestly because it has galvanized the Australian population in a way that perhaps we haven't been in a little while. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, it is the story of Pwtricia. Now, Patricia is a corpse flower and it bloomed in Sydney this week for the
very first time in fifteen years. It was named Patricia by the Botanic Gardens in Sydney and it was threatening to bloom all week, so everyone was jumping online watching this live stream of this very very very smelly flower waiting to bloom.
I don't get that.
When it did bloom, it only bloomed for twenty four hours. Now, thousands of people lined up for a whiff of the flower, and it smells like rotting flesh, and I was trying to understand why that matters. But it turns out the rotting smell and the heat of the flower attracts pollinating insects that may want to lay eggs in a rotting animal. It also is you don't look impressed. The flower is also in danger and can only be found in the wild in western Sumatra.
So you could have led with that. If you'd led with an endangered flower has bloomed, I'd be on board. You led with the worst smelling thing you could possibly imagine has bloomed for quite a short period of time.
I don't need to convince you, because the Cidney Morning Herald reported sixteen thousand people visited in the last week alone for a whiff of it. Well there you go, and Patricia, as I said, also became an internet star thanks to that YouTube live stream got quite the workout. In the TDA office. We had editor M and copy editor Lucy, both refreshing that live stream, not wanting to miss a moment. It is also important to note, in full fairness to our Victorian counterparts, that Putricia isn't the
first of her kind. In November last year had different corps flower bloomed in Geelong, Victoria and that attracted over twenty k visitors in my month.
Well, I think the beauty of good news is that it is in subjective the nose of the beholder. And you know, if people get a kick out of having a whiff of some that smells like quote rotting flesh, then if it's their good news, I'm more than happy to entertain it. Zara, thank you so much for that good news, Rundown, and thank you for joining us on the Daily Ods this morning. It's been a huge week of news, so glad that we can bring you some
good news today on your beautiful Saturday. We'll be back again on Monday morning for another episode and deep dive, but until then, have a wonderful weekend. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda bunjelung Kalkotin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that This podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all.
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We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.