Did you read any positive news lately?

Introversion · Jul 31, 2020

In the "definitely silver linings department"...

As COVID-19 rages around the globe, other infectious diseases shrink away

Ars Technica said:
Reports of influenza and a host of other infectious diseases have plummeted as the COVID-19 pandemic has driven people into lockdowns.

In many places, social distancing measures aimed at curbing the spread of the new coronavirus may be smothering the spread of other infectious diseases at the same time. But, in other places, the pandemic may simply be masking disease spread, as people may avoid seeking care for more routine infections while health care systems stretched thin by the pandemic may struggle to conduct routine, surveillance, testing, and reporting.

Some of the resulting declines are dramatic. Countries across the Southern Hemisphere have reported much lower numbers of influenza than usual. Australia, for instance, began 2020 with a relatively high level of flu—reporting around 7,000 lab-confirmed cases in both January and February. But the outbreak crashed in March, with reports of only 229 cases in April, compared with nearly 19,000 in April 2019, as noted by the New Scientist.

In Argentina, laboratory-confirmed cases of flu tallied between January and July was 64 percent lower than the average from the previous five years, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. In New Zealand, which has been extraordinarily successful at controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials reported that only 0.7 percent of the population had flu-like symptoms in the first week of July, while usual rates are around 3 percent to 4 percent. Brazil—which, in contrast, has struggled to control the pandemic—saw flu cases fall about 40 percent from usual.

...

Lyv · Sep 14, 2020

Neighbors help Attleboro mom stock up on SpaghettiOs for daughter with autism

When the coronavirus pandemic struck the Bay State, the only food Crystal MacDonald’s daughter would eat was SpaghettiOs with Meatballs.

The 11-year-old girl, Ashlyn, has severe non-verbal autism, according to TODAY, and she first tried the canned pasta at age four. Since mid-March, MacDonald, an Attleboro resident, said her daughter has been unable to eat anything else.

Knowing how quickly the product was dwindling, Today reported, the mom of five hunted for it at stores and food pantries across the area. She often called or visited up to 20 a day.

Come August, the Sun Chronicle featured MacDonald in a story about people’s experiences with food shortages and her local community rallied together, offering tips on where to find the essential item, and in some cases delivering packs of the cans directly to her doorstep.

Campbell's Soup is giving the family a lifetime supply, thanks to the attention.

Roxxsmom · Sep 24, 2020

I don't recall if someone posted this here already, but it's a spot of positive news. Wild bison returning to England's forests for the first time in 6000 years!

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/wil...ywHbxNaCy-uNtBhH6iKk_yWiGjoFwhlqOKsMJpojUaWSo

mccardey · Sep 24, 2020

People are loving on octopuses, and vice versa.

(in a nice way)

Roxxsmom · Sep 25, 2020

And one of the UK's highest animal medals is awarded to a rat for the first time!

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/25/916892377/hero-rat-wins-a-top-animal-award-for-sniffing-out-landmines

For the first time, one of Britain's highest animal honors has been awarded to a rat. The animal has detected dozens of land mines in Cambodia and is believed to have saved lives.

Magawa is a Tanzanian-born African giant pouched rat who has been trained by the nonprofit APOPO to sniff out explosives. With careful training, he and his rat colleagues learn to identify land mines and alert their human handlers, so the mines can be safely removed.

Even among his skilled cohorts working in Cambodia, Magawa is a standout sniffer: In four years he has helped to clear more than 1.5 million square feet of land – an area about the size of 20 soccer fields. In the process, he has found 39 land mines and 28 items of unexploded ordnance.

I remember reading that many places were using rats instead of dogs to sniff out unexploded landmines, because rats are highly trainable, have an excellent sense of smell, and also are small enough they don't set the mines off when they make a mistake.

frimble3 · Sep 25, 2020

Attaboy, rat! Good boy, Magawa, raising the image of rats everywhere. Nice to see hard work rewarded. (I don't imagine the rats know that it's potentially deadly work, but noble all the same.)
I always wondered if that was part of the switch to rats: they're willing and trainable, and people don't get as upset when rats make a mistake and get blown up.
Where is the monument to our brave rodent friends?

Roxxsmom · Sep 26, 2020

The advantages of using rats (admittedly, this is from a wikipedia site, but it correlates with things I have read elsewhere)

1. Rats don't form a strong bond with just one handler the way dogs tend to, so they can be transferred easily.
2. The species of rat used is native to sub-saharan Africa and is therefore more adapted to a hot climate and resistant to many tropical diseases
3. Rats are lighter and do not detonate the mechanisms the way dogs, or even robots, might.
4. Their small size makes it easy to transport them to the sites.
5. Fewer resources are needed to house these rats and train them.

I suppose it is true that if an accident happens and the rat is killed, the optics are not as bad as when a dog is blown up too.

One disadvantage is they aren't as good as dogs at searching in areas of thick brush.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APOPO

Evidently, these rats also show promise for sniffing out TB! Move over covid-sniffing dogs.

Lyv · Oct 5, 2020

Gay men have taken over the Proud Boys Twitter hashtag

It's beautiful. Like this pic of two dear friends of mine.

frimble3 · Oct 5, 2020

Aww! They look so happy and in love! And, they've been together almost 20 years? They must have been in line the minute the laws changed! Congrats to them both, and lasting this long - let's face it, a lot of straight marriages don't make it that long.

frimble3 · Oct 5, 2020

And, the Canadian Navy's reTweeted contribution:
https://twitter.com/CAFinUS/status/1312734325104873473
A gay Naval couple re-unite after one spent 8 months at sea.

RedRajah · Oct 6, 2020

[h=1]A lonely otter at a sanctuary finds love online through a dating site built just for him[/h]

The Second Moon · Oct 6, 2020

RedRajah said:
[h=1]A lonely otter at a sanctuary finds love online through a dating site built just for him[/h]

Soooo Cute! :LilLove:

Thanks RedRajah!

Roxxsmom · Oct 9, 2020

The UN World Food Programme won the Nobel Peace Prize. Now I've all but given up on the Nobel Peace Prizes as remotely apolitical awards. After all, they nominated Trump.

But evidently this group has a doggie mascot, so there are cute pictures. And this organization does help a lot of people.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsa...e-prize-goes-to-the-dog-aka-the-mascot-of-wfp

cbenoi1 · Oct 31, 2020

(no link yet)

Heard in a TV News report today. Montreal's local fortune cookie maker will change the text on its messages for ones that promotes anti-racism and other inclusive messages. We should start seeing them in takeouts (dining rooms are closed due to the pandemic) in the coming weeks with inventory turnover.

Food for thought.

-cb

Alessandra Kelley · Oct 31, 2020

Roxxsmom said:
The UN World Food Programme won the Nobel Peace Prize. Now I've all but given up on the Nobel Peace Prizes as remotely apolitical awards. After all, they nominated Trump.

But evidently this group has a doggie mascot, so there are cute pictures. And this organization does help a lot of people.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsa...e-prize-goes-to-the-dog-aka-the-mascot-of-wfp

To be fair to them (which, eh, but still...), they don’t nominate the candidates. I’m not sure who can nominate, but the category includes enough ninnyhammers that what could be called pure trolling nominations do happen.

frimble3 · Oct 31, 2020

Alessandra Kelley said:
To be fair to them (which, eh, but still...), they don’t nominate the candidates. I’m not sure who can nominate, but the category includes enough ninnyhammers that what could be called pure trolling nominations do happen.

There should be a prize for that!
The Nobel Prize for Most Absurd Nomination of the Year goes to ...... (nominee) nominated by (nominator) in a desperate effort to (curry favor) (bootlick) (force their way onto the list) (be famous).

- - - Updated - - -

Roxxsmom · Oct 31, 2020

Alessandra Kelley said:
To be fair to them (which, eh, but still...), they don’t nominate the candidates. I’m not sure who can nominate, but the category includes enough ninnyhammers that what could be called pure trolling nominations do happen.

I always assumed only certain people were qualified to nominate, but I wasn't sure who could either. This piqued my curiosity, so I looked it up. Here are the criteria for nominating:

According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, a nomination is considered valid if it is submitted by a person who falls within one of the following categories:

Members of national assemblies and national governments (cabinet members/ministers) of sovereign states as well as current heads of states
Members of The International Court of Justice in The Hague and The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague
Members of l’Institut de Droit International
Members of the international board of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
University professors, professors emeriti and associate professors of history, social sciences, law, philosophy, theology, and religion; university rectors and university directors (or their equivalents); directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes
Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Members of the main board of directors or its equivalent of organizations that have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Current and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee (proposals by current members of the Committee to be submitted no later than at the first meeting of the Committee after 1 February)
Former advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Unless otherwise stated the term members shall be understood as current (sitting) members.

Just a wild guess that Trump's nomination came from someone or a group of someones in the first category. You are not allowed to nominate yourself, though, but there's no rule members of your own administration can't. Or maybe Netanyahu did? He certainly is simpatico with Trump.

Maryn · Nov 1, 2020

It amuses me no end that Mr. Maryn and The Kid (our daughter) could both nominate. Look for me to be receiving the Nobel in the near future.

Roxxsmom · Nov 11, 2020

Here's a bit of good news. A long-acting injectable drug has just made it easier to protect at-risk people from HIV. This will have an especially huge benefit for sex workers in Africa and other places where HIV is still common, but I imagine it will be a boon for partners of HIV positive people and for anyone else who might be at elevated risk of contracting HIV also. This is much more effective, evidently, than the drug in the form of a daily pill.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsa...ing-women-against-hiv-just-got-9-times-easier

While an effective vaccine against HIV may still be a long way off, a new HIV prevention technique has proven remarkably effective at protecting women against the virus.

A single injection of a drug called cabotegravir every two months was so successful in preventing HIV in a clinical trial among women in sub-Saharan Africa that the study was wrapped up ahead of schedule.

The study, run by the HIV Prevention Trials Network, was looking at two forms of pre-exposure prophylaxis or (PrEP) aimed at women. PrEP is a technique of administering low doses of anti-AIDS drugs to people who are HIV negative as a way to protect them from infection. The study compared the effectiveness of the new long-acting injectable against the current form of PrEP, a daily pill of Truvada.

Alessandra Kelley · Nov 16, 2020

Two days ago a British diplomat in China dove into a river to save a drowning student.

Stephen Ellison, 61, consul general in Chongqing, was walking by a river in a nearby village when the woman, 24, slipped on rocks into the deep water.

Footage filmed by onlookers showed her struggle in the current, disappear under a footbridge and emerge face down, apparently unconscious.

Ellison took off his shoes and dived in to save her. She has not been named, but was a student.

The footage of Ellison’s rescue mission was put on the UK in China Twitter channel and led to thousands of views. Ellison is shown taking off his shoes revealing some alarmingly striped socks, diving into the river from the side fully clothed, capturing the woman and then being thrown a large red life belt which he uses to help drag her to safety by the bank of the river.

“We are all immensely proud”, the UK diplomatic mission in China tweeted Monday. The diplomat himself said the female student, who is from Wuhan and attends Chongqing University, was shaken by the experience and recovered slowly.

But she was extremely grateful and has invited him to dinner with her family next weekend.

RedRajah · Nov 27, 2020

I now want this book...

[h=2]A History of Felines, as Narrated and Illustrated by a Cat[/h]

Introversion · Nov 27, 2020

Maryn said:
It amuses me no end that Mr. Maryn and The Kid (our daughter) could both nominate. Look for me to be receiving the Nobel in the near future.

If it is a just universe, make it so!

frimble3 · Dec 4, 2020

There are people out there, trying to help strangers, that we almost never hear about, but when we do, we should celebrate them:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/oth...scam/ar-BB1bC4C0?ocid=hplocalnews&OCID=FIRPLC

TL;dr
At a little convenience store in a fairly ethnic community outside Vancouver, the police were making their usual rounds, giving businesses flyers about the latest problem:
Bitcoin scams insisting that they (in the guise of the Government) had to be paid large sums of money in Bitcoin. The scam particularly targets foreigners and immigrants who may not realize that things don't work that way here.
The convenience store owner made signs in English and Hindi and posted them right at the Bitcoin ATM in his store. Going above and beyond, if he saw anyone making large transactions, he personally spoke to them. He reckons he and his wife have stopped 7 or 8 people from making giant mistakes.
Next time you're in an anonymous convenience store, remember that some of them are attentive, caring people.

mccardey · Dec 4, 2020

It's not news, but my next-door neighbours dropped off a tub of home-made soup. So - there will always be soup and eggs and next-door neighbours to swap things with. As long as we're careful.

RedRajah · Jan 20, 2021

[h=1]A seesaw for kids on the US-Mexico border wins Beazley Design of the Year[/h]

Did you read any positive news lately?

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

I meant to do that.

Beastly Fido

Beastly Fido

Heckuva good sport

Beastly Fido

I meant to do that.

Heckuva good sport

Heckuva good sport

Special Snowflake? No. Hailstone

Beastly Fido

Sophipygian

Heckuva good sport

Beastly Fido

Baaa!

Beastly Fido

Sophipygian

Special Snowflake? No. Hailstone

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

Heckuva good sport

Special Snowflake? No. Hailstone