Here's a roundup of some of the brightest stories from the week to cheer up your Friday:
ADVERTISEMENTStudies have shown that increasing positive emotions has a powerful effect on our general wellbeing.
Having always a look on the bright side can change our perception and even our reasoning! But is it really that simple with news? We know it’s not.
This is why we’d like to introduce you to our roundup of some of the brightest stories from this week.
We hope they'll give you a nice shot of energy to get more done and to start your weekend with a smile.
1) French family finds Qing dynasty vase worth $600,000 in attic shoebox
After finding the porcelain vase in an old shoebox, the French family took it to Sotheby’s Paris to be appraised, where the auction house told the owners the item dated from the Qing dynasty and could be worth up to $600,000.
Source: CNN Style
2) An innovative scheme in Utrecht is helping refugees integrate into the community and build new lives
"Living together, learning together and working together." That is the concept behind 'Plan Einstein', an innovative programme in the Netherlands in which refugees rebuild their lives at the very heart of the local community.
In the Overvecht district of Utrecht, nearly 400 refugees and asylum seekers, of some 170 nationalities, live in the same buildings as dozens of Dutch young people.
Source: Euronews
3) Clean water transport may put an end to traffic jams in major cities around the world.
French yachtsman Alain Thebault turned a boat design he used to break a world speed sailing record in 2009 into a clean, fast taxi service for the waterways.
According to his website, the vehicle is 100% electric and autonomous during its rides and is charging while people are getting in and out. The prototype zoomed across the River Seine in Paris where they hope to sell their first models.
Source: Living it by Euronews
4) Leadership looks like... cleaning up the oceans by 2040
At just 23 years of age, Boyan Slat, has scooped the European Entrepreneur of the Year award at a Brussels awards ceremony held as part of the European Business Summit.
The Dutch inventor and entrepreneur has one breathtakingly ambitious goal: to rid the oceans of plastic.
Source: Euronews
ADVERTISEMENT5) National Geographic photographer Reza helps refugees tell their stories.
After decades of photographing conflicts and revolutions, Iranian photographer Reza started his first NGO in 2001 –AinaWorld – to empower Afghan women to become journalists, photographers and filmmakers.
Other recent NGO –Reya Visual Academy – focuses on training refugee and children living in extreme poverty to tell their story. For Reza, these are “a tool to create understanding, to combat enmity”
Source: The Guardian