Good News, Accomplishments, Opportunities

[Trunk]

This thread is for posting good news (of home, local community, national, international, interstellar interests), accomplishments (of your own, or of others), and opportunities (how to help).

 

All strictly non-partisan.  (No partisan debate allowed.)

 

p.s.

Please don't blatantly end-run the above parameters with the tactic of excessively posting all the good stuff that your own current political hero (from whatever country etc) is achieving.  I know that politics will unavoidably be some lesser part of this thread... but the intent here is to avoid partisan politics altogether (as much as possible) and very often even politics altogether.  Thank you for your consideration. 

Edited October 2, 2017 by Trunk

[thelerner]

Addon> some of my thoughts were inspired by this article (amongst others) - http://www.cracked.com/blog/lets-briefly-stop-to-notice-things-that-arent-terrible/   Now with color pics and charts

 

 

Despite many terrible natural disasters, the U.S as a whole is doing pretty well.  Economically unemployment is low and continues to move lower.  Wages long stagnant are beginning to move up.  Downtowns and cities that were stagnant like Detroit, DC have been on the move up.  The stock market is up, interest rates low, so are energy costs.   

 

These aren't necessarily new trends, but they're picking up steam and continuing.  GDP might be a cold statistic, but it going up means millions more with jobs, often good jobs.  People able to support there families, help there communities. 

 

Environment is always a mixed bag, but the worst drought in recent US history has abated.  Nuclear power plants planned have been put on hold.  Many of the oldest dirtiest coal plants shuttered, and renewable energy sources getting very competitive. 

 

War is hell, and right now, most of our troops are at peace.  Daesh/IS has been steadily losing ground and its propaganda wing.  The Middle East is smoldering rather then burning, which is progress.   It looks like Syria's Assad has won; won a graveyard but hopefully it means the fighting and massacres will end soon.  The US relation with Russia continues to get cold, but cold is better then hot.  We've been here before but now with more trade and inter-connections. 

 

And it may not seem like it, but remarkable strides have been made against world wide poverty, hunger and disease.  Hard to believe but it's gone down faster then the most optimistic predictions a decade or two ago.  http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/07/what-progress-has-been-made-in-ending-global-poverty/

[Trunk]

https://www.GoodNewsNetwork.org/

There's also a free "Good News Network" app.

Edited October 2, 2017 by Trunk

[dawei]

Nice idea on this kind of thread.  Being in off-Grid may be a little more challenging for folks to abide by the OP but let's see if we can't respect the idea of a non-partisan sharing of News. 

 

Thanks Trunk 

[Trunk]

A Mexican invention is allowing farmers around the world to grow crops in arid climates.
 

Quote

 

The invention is a biopolymer that retains nutrient-laced water for several months, opening new possibilities for farming in desert regions and other places where rain is scarce.

 

Developed by engineer Rafael Ríos Trejo, it is being tested and commercialized through his firm Dos Ríos in collaboration with the Institute of Technology and Higher Studies of Monterrey (ITESM) and the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh).

 

The product won Ríos the 2014 National Entrepreneur Prize of Mexico, and has since received support from the Mexico-United States Foundation for Science (Fumec).

 

Ríos’ company has successfully grown plants with its product on over 1,000 hectares of arid land not only in Mexico but in countries such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Chile.

 

 

[blue eyed snake]

Ice stupa's to help overcome dry periods in Tibet

http://icestupa.org/