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Good News, Good People, Good Ideas

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(@deborah-carey)
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Source:  Good News Network Cats kill a staggering number of birds in the U.S. every year—estimated to be in the billions—but one feline’s affinity for hunting them has inad…

"Cats kill a staggering number of birds in the U.S. every year—estimated to be in the billions—but one feline’s affinity for hunting them has inadvertently led to the salvation of hundreds of thousands of other feathered prey."

Nancy Brennan invented a collar that alerts birds to a cat's presence.  

"Cats donning the colorful Birds Be Safe collars were, in fact, killing 19 times fewer birds than those who did not."

 


   
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(@deborah-carey)
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Source: Good News Network https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/guardian-officer-has-saved-over-200-people-from-jumping-off-the-golden-gate-bridge/

"It’s a police officer’s job to protect and serve – but Kevin Briggs never thought that his job would lead him to save over 200 people from committing suicide.

Briggs has been dubbed the “Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge” because of his awe-inspiring history of talking people down from the edge of the historic landmark....

“It takes a lot of courage to be over that rail,” Briggs told CBC. “It takes a lot of courage. But it also takes a lot of courage to come back and face the reality that is with them right now. But there is a brighter side to this, and it can happen, and it might take a long time and a lot of work. But life is beautiful and, you know, it is worth living.”  Read more here: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/guardian-officer-has-saved-over-200-people-from-jumping-off-the-golden-gate-bridge/


   
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(@adora)
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Article about a Syrian Refugee given a new life in Canada from Talent Beyond Boundaries, a Washington-based NGO who match skilled refugees with employers who have work shortages in the west.  I would love to hear more stories like this about people being given a chance.  I imagine there are many many skilled educated refugees who would be a huge asset to any country.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/03/22/canada-is-a-dreamland-syrian-refugee-thrilled-to-start-job-at-kitchener-high-tech-firm.html

 

 


   
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(@coyote)
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Slovakia just elected Zuzana Caputova, a decidedly progressive former environmental activist, as its president. She will be the first female head of state/government in Central Europe when she is inaugurated in June. Caputova's win is especially heartening since Slovakia and its neighbors have been flirting with far-right nationalists for the past several years. Read more here.


   
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(@michele-b)
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Awesome! Thanks so much, Coyote for sharing this!! Good things are happening everywhere, we just need to hear about them.

Keep your light shining brightly with positive possibilities in your hearts!

 


   
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(@jeanne-mayell)
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Regarding the bird-saving cat collar that Deborah wrote about above, I heard about it a few years ago and bought one to put on my neighbor's cat.  The cat was making it impossible for us to feed the birds and enjoy watching them in our yard.  The bird feeders were drawing the birds to our yard where the cat would grab them, especially the chickadees who hang out on the ground.  


   
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(@lovendures)
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Rooftop Gardens.  A really good idea.

https://phys.org/news/2019-05-birds-stone-green-roof-gardening.html


   
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(@jeanne-mayell)
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I started reading this story with trepidation, but it has a happy ending, and is worth a read.  It's by the owner of that little Virginia restaurant that asked Sarah Sanders to leave last year.  I had heard they had to close after the incident due to the tidal wave of negative blow back.  But the story didn't end there. :)


   
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(@jeanne-mayell)
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Such good news: An Amazon tribe wins a lawsuit against big oil, saving millions of acres of rainforest. 

I loved the photo. 


   
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(@lovendures)
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I love that this medicine now exists.  Not the  2.125 million price tag, but the medicine.

A cure (for the most part) for a horrible disease.

U.S. regulators have approved the most expensive medicine ever, for a rare disorder that destroys a baby's muscle control and kills nearly all of those with the most common type of the disease within a couple of years.

The medicine, sold by the Swiss drugmaker Novartis, is a gene therapy that treats an inherited condition called spinal muscular atrophy. The treatment targets a defective gene that weakens a child's muscles so dramatically that they become unable to move, and eventually unable to swallow or breathe. It strikes about 400 babies born in the U.S. each year. At least 90% of patients die by age 2, and any still alive need a ventilator to breathe. Children with less-severe types become disabled more slowly and can live for up to a couple decades.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-05-fda-2m-medicine-expensive.html


   
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(@lovendures)
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(@lovendures)
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(@coyote)
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Has anyone heard of the independent sitcom Ctrl Alt Delete, which is currently streaming on Vimeo? I just read about it today in the Guardian, and was heartened to say the least. Basically, the show uses humor to depict the mundane goings on at a fictional abortion clinic. The writers and producers of Ctrl Alt Delete - two women who have terminated pregnancies in the past - interviewed women of all types from across America who have undergone abortions, and used those interviews as material for the show. From the article: "One of the usual narratives is that a woman who chooses an abortion must feel immense trauma, guilt and shame, but it was important to [Margaret] Katch and [Roni] Geva to bust this trope. 'Most women we talked to had zero guilt or shame and if they did, it was because other people made them feel that way,' says Katch. 'Most women feel relief. That is really something we wanted to bring to light.'”

I don't watch television or subscribe to streaming services, but I'm encouraged to know that a project like this is out there.

Some more encouraging developments amidst the darkness:

-The German search engine Ecosia donates 80% of its surplus income to reforestation efforts. One more inducement to turn our backs on the Google behemoth? Ecosia is partly powered by Microsoft Bing, and Microsoft is hardly an angel. But we can think of each planted tree as corporate penance on Microsoft's part.

- New Hampshire just became the 21st US states (and the last in New England) to abolish its death penalty. A bipartisan effort was able to override a gubernatorial veto of the original abolition measure.

 


   
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(@michele-b)
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I have heard of it, but your post spurred me on to doing a search on it.

It's incredibly topical for our times and repeatedly referred to as the bravest new series in the media for obvious reasons.

But I can still remember when Modern Family first aired with a married gay couple on primetime. 

It horrified some and was banned for family values viewing groups but itdidn't  take long for it to not only skyrocket in popularity but open up hearts and minds to a new way of looking at and feeling the heart of others they had previously deemed sinners and worthy of extreme judgment, to one of understanding differences and how and perhaps why, we all have to make the choices we make in our lifes.

Abortion is seeminly a far more volatile judgment and therefore more extreme measures taken in opposition  by religious right groups and others, but perhaps more and more we need the mediq to go to those places where so many close their minds and hearts towards understanding.

 

 


   
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(@michele-b)
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Some days,  we need good news and good people ever more than on other days.

This story is a common thread we often read about, adopting a child to give them a home, but with a twist. 

This is about a teacher who adopted one of his students when he learned he needed a home in order to recrive a kidneys transplant. 

More complicated then it sounds but you csn read more here.


   
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(@michele-b)
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Or how about this story?

Sometimes you do good by speaking up and other times 100 farmers just stayed silent so another farmer could buy back his own home at auction.


   
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(@lovendures)
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This community has had a difficult few days.  

When I was in college, I had the remarkable opportunity to hear Maya Angelou speak in a small room filled with perhaps 60 women.  I did not really know who she was at the time but was encouraged to attend her lecture by one of my professors.

Wow!  She changed my world.  

Since that first time she amazed me with her observations and thoughts  33 years ago, I have found her words of wisdom to fit many life moments.  This one struck me today so I thought I would share it with everyone here.

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

Today I will  hold the vision of the butterfly before me as a symbol of hope for all of the tomorrows yet come.  

 


   
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(@michele-b)
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Beautiful, Lovendures!  Was not familiar with this one from Ms. Angelou.

Lifts me up into the ever changing beauty of all there is and will ever be. Just in ever new even transformative experiences and  forms that we may not always appreciate.


   
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(@lovendures)
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Well, here is some good news on the whaling front.

"The lack of any real market for whale meat has prompted Iceland’s whalers to forego the hunt this season, for the first time since 2003.

RÚV reports that this applies not only to endangered fin whales, but also to the far more plentiful minke whales.

Hvalur hf., the last company in Iceland that still hunts fin whales, already announced earlier this month that they would not be hunting fin whales this summer on account of getting their permit too late.

Gunnar Bergmann Jónsson, a minke whaler and the CEO of whaling company IP Útgerð, said that his company would skip whaling to focus on sea cucumbers instead. The company will, however, import minke whale meat from Norway to meet what little demand there is in Iceland for it, and will likely begin hunting minke whales again in the spring of 2020.

This marks the first time since 2003 that a whaling season has passed without a hunt, when “scientific hunts” were launched. In 2006, Iceland took the decision to drop the pretense of research and engage in for-profit whaling. Since then, both international pressure, virtually no domestic market and a rapidly shrinking international market have all put the squeeze on whaling."

https://grapevine.is/news/2019/06/27/for-the-first-time-in-17-years-iceland-will-not-hunt-any-whales-this-summer/


   
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(@lovendures)
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Great news for the environment and for Kentucky.  I really like being able to say that!

A new company in Kentucky called Fibonacci has become the nation’s first factory to begin cultivating “wood” out of hemp.

"In addition to being 20% tougher than oak, “hempwood” grows 100 times faster. It looks and feels like traditional oak materials – but instead of waiting several decades for a tree to fully mature, hemp can be harvested and regrown in just six months."

Additionally, there are about 78 species of oak tree that are now in danger of going extinct as a result of logging and deforestation.

Not only will Fibonacci create 25 new jobs and invest almost $6 million, but they will also buy from our local farmers. 

Yes, very good news.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/first-hempwood-factory-in-usa/


   
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