Under-Reported Good News

[Tiki Tom]

A thread for bringing good news to our attention.
I‘m tired of doom scrolling and hearing about the upcoming inevitable end of the world.
What is a bit of good news you have heard lately? Can be big picture (like the recent deal that was reached to export critical wheat from Ukraine), or it can be small and personal.

Rules: No politics. And, please, respect the spirit of the thing; no snarky cynicism, s’il vous plait.

Thank you.

 

[Tiki Tom]

I’ll start.

This is actually a big deal. After Decades, a vaccine for Malaria has been developed. Millions dead over the years, and untold economic harm to the countries affected. The suffering that malaria has caused is hard to overstate. Half a million children killed in sub Saharan Africa every year.

And now, finally, it looks like we have a successful vaccine.

 

[GHT]

A thread for bringing good news to our attention.
I‘m tired of doom scrolling and hearing about the upcoming inevitable end of the world.
What is a bit of good news you have heard lately?

My attention to the news, whether that be local, national or global, waned and decreased dramatically following the assassination of President Kennedy. Back then, I was just 17 and news reports were limited to TV, radio and newspapers. It was some of the reports about the Presidents bedroom antics that so annoyed me. I started giving the news a miss.

Three years later The Aberfan disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster or more precisely, the reporting of that tragedy, had me all but give up on the news.


One of the best news stories that went unreported was the UK car wash scheme to tackle labour abuses and slavery. Thousands of workers in Britain's car washes are estimated to be slaves, mostly men lured from Eastern Europe then trapped in debt bondage, forced to work in unsafe conditions, stripped of their documents and subjected to threats, abuse and violence.

"We have seen numerous problems across this industry, from modern day slavery, debt bondage, failure to pay proper wages," said Darryl Dixon, head of strategy at the Gang masters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), Britain's anti-slavery body.

 

[Edward]

Not something that will trouble the media, but this week I spent a very pleasant evening at a conference dinner in the company of a young academic couple I've not caught up with for some time. In the interim, they have become engaged and are doing very well indeed. Enjoyed that greatly.

On the tv news on Thursday morning, I saw an item about the Mercury Music Prize. An oddity in the music world (a running joke has it that it is cursed, winners uniformly disappearing into obscurity in short order). They interviewed a couple of acts up for it. Marvellously diverse musically, engaging young ladies, all of whom made clear that they enjoyed the exposure, but rejected the idea of being in artificial competition with each other. No winner has been announced (the event was performatively abandoned mid ceremony in response to other events), but that doesn't really matter. So much music coverage these daya is either rhe most banal of commercially pushed product or bitter fixation with ' heritage' acts and parades of "all music since 19xx is rubbish", it was lovely to see genuine and diverse creativity being celebrated; the winning and the prize itself are now an irrelevance as that was the story to me.

 

[Turnip]

Though all the international mess that’s currently happening, the German job market stays robust and the conditions for skilled workforce are bettering rapidly, direct proportionally to the increasing lack of professionals in many branches.

 

[Edward]

Here's a fun one I encountered on social media. Like lots of tiny, undersea Cousin Itts.

 

[GHT]

Though all the international mess that’s currently happening, the German job market stays robust and the conditions for skilled workforce are bettering rapidly, direct proportionally to the increasing lack of professionals in many branches.

Blue collar workers in the UK are doing quite well too, thank you.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...s-architects-salaries-soar-amid-shortage.html
Some of our truck drivers earn as much as £53,000 salary. That's well over sixty thousand Euros.

View attachment 450227

Here's a fun one I encountered on social media. Like lots of tiny, undersea Cousin Itts.

I'm sure that it's September, not April. Love the top hat!

 

[Who?]

The sun won't become a red giant and eat the inner planets for another five billion years.

There's still quite a bit of time to enjoy ourselves.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Clean, unlimited nuclear fusion energy has gone from pipedream to very realistic. Best estimate is that it may become a reality in the late 2030s. THAT will change the world!

https://www.sciencealert.com/koreas...mes-hotter-than-the-sun-for-almost-30-seconds

Love the headline “Nuclear Fusion is doing the impossible —uniting politicians.”

https://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-fusion-energy-politics-biden-trump-1736423?amp=1

 

[Tiki Tom]

When I was a kid, India was an economic basket case. The poverty of India was almost a cliche. It was very depressing.

Now, forty years later, take a look at India! Millions of people lifted up from poverty…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ly-laying-claim-to-economic-superpower-status

 

[Turnip]

There you can see how beneficial it can be to shake off colonial rule.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Abandoned baby piglet adopted by a heard of cows. Cute.
Oh, c’mon, yea hard hearted cynics!

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126...-its-herd-finds-a-new-family-with-some-cattle

 

[Tiki Tom]

A zippo lighter for getting nuclear fusion started! (Explained in easy to understand language.) What will they think of next?

https://www.newsweek.com/first-light-fusion-nuclear-gun-uk-1754934

The world will change within the lifetime of our children.

 

[Turnip]

Germany to legalize Cannabis and THC related products.

 

[Tiki Tom]

^^^. Wondering when Hawai’i will legalize it. It’s a major cash crop here. Why not legalize it and start earning some tax revenues off it?

 

[Turnip]

That’s certainly a convenient side effect. Don’t know how the taxes will be set at this point. VAT for sure, at full percentage certainty as I’m sure this is going to be handled like tobacco and alcohol here.
Maybe something like a (progressive) THC-based tax additionally, similar to alcohol.
Once the tax has been defined we’ll keep it forever anyway. We also still have the Sekt- or foam wine - tax in place that once has been introduced to fund the Kaiser‘s fleet…

 

[Tiki Tom]

Inching closer…

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/politics/nuclear-fusion-energy-us-scientists-climate/index.html

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Petroleum black gold now figuratively stakes the phoenix incarnate digital dollar.
With FTX conflagration birthing a new fully grounded crypto software within earthen leather wallet.

 

[Tiki Tom]

My best friend’s daughter just got engaged to a very nice, level-headed young man with a respectable job! Almost unbelievably, the young man first formally asked my friend for permission to marry his daughter. The actual proposal was on bended knee, on the ice, at Rockefeller center in front of the big Christmas tree. The crowd cheered. warms my heart.

 

[Tiki Tom]

During the big blizzard, several cars get stuck in the snow overnight. After unsuccessfully pursuing other options to save himself and others, a man breaks into a school to improvise shelter for himself and twenty other people.
Police hail him as a hero and say that he saved lives that night.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/30/us/blizzard-new-york-rescue-school-break-in/index.html