A Daily Antidote to Everything Else
Liza Goldberg is using satellites to monitor imperiled mangroves and has spoken about her research at a prestigious conference.
Source: At age 16, A Maryland student is working with NASA on a serious project
It’s great to be reminded that people like this exist.
A Silicon Valley robotics company has teamed up with the Rwandan health ministry to hasten the delivery of vital medicines to hospitals in remote areas
Source: ‘Uber for blood’: how Rwandan delivery robots are saving lives | Karen McVeigh
My sense is that we’re just scratching the surface of innovative ways to use this technology. This one’s particularly cool.
Man Kaur of India has won 17 gold medals in her age category. And now she’s trying her hand at javelin.
Source: At Age 101, She’s A World Champ Runner
Now there’s something to aspire to!
Veterinarians are using an unusual technique involving tilapia skin to help a young mountain lion recover from burns he sustained in the Thomas Fire.
Source: Mountain lion burned in wildfire gets fish skin bandage
I love the ingenuity. And that the cat is expected to chew off the bandage at some point. Yum!
When a police officer from Virginia made a routine traffic stop, he spotted a tiny ball of fur running in the grass median, completely terrified.
Source: Officer Calms Frightened Kitten With “Kitty Voice” After Rescuing the Kitten From Traffic
Officers helping … all creatures great and small. 🙂
Officer Ben Murtiff helped a local boutique after 10 inches of snow fell in the area.
Source: Cop Helps Local Business Owner Shovel Sidewalk After Christmas Day Snowstorm – Inside Edition via MSN
There are many random acts of kindness performed by local law enforcement. I like it when they get “caught”.
In October of 2016, the Masjid Al Salam in Fort Smith was vandalized. But over one year later, the man behind the act, Abraham Davis, receives his ticket to freedom from the people he hurt the most.
Source: Fort Smith Mosque Forgives Its Vandal, Paying His Debts
“If he would’ve known who we are, he wouldn’t of done this…” He knows now. And so do we.
“He is a judge, but that night…”
Source: After Green Beret Is Sentenced to Night in Jail, Security Camera Catches Judge Going Into Cell
Upholding the law, and showing compassion and deep respect.
Happy New Year!
Thank you for being here, and for the words of encouragement I get in response to Not All News Is Bad (lovingly referred to by some as “NANIB” 🙂 ). It’s all very much appreciated, and is — to me — an additional source of good news I get to see every day. 🙂
As we move forward into 2018 I want to share some thoughts with you; specifically my plans for the future of Not All News Is Bad, a little of its history, a thought or two on how you can help, and finally a few words about the name.
Short and sweet: Not All News Is Bad (and its older sibling HeroicStories) continue to be needed as much, if not more than ever. I know I need them.
While they both remain a kind of “background project” to my day job, they’re both very important to me, and as such will continue as long as I’m able to do so. My biggest challenge with NANIB, honestly, is selecting which of several different stories I find each to day feature. That’s a good problem to have.
I don’t plan any changes, other than perhaps permission to occasionally skip a day when life gets too hectic. (I think I’ve only missed two days since starting NANIB. Not bad.)
So, full steam ahead!
I started NANIB as a project just for myself. In response to the overwhelmingly depressing news of each day, I felt the need to remind myself that there is a lot of good out there — you just won’t find it in featured prominently in major news outlets or social media streams.
I set myself a goal to find something positive, once a day. It turns out it wasn’t at all difficult — great news stories are out there, if you only take the time to find them. I started to share what I found on my personal Facebook stream with the hashtag #notallnewsisbad.
Being the internet publisher that I am, on a lark I found that the domain “notallnewsisbad.com” happened to be available, and in February of last year the website went live. Add automated social media posting (the NANIB Facebook page and my personal Facebook and Twitter) and email notification (you can sign up on the Not All News Is Bad home page) and the rest, as they say, is history.
To be clear, NANIB remains a personal project that I do for my own let’s call it “mental health”. It’s important to me that I see explicit positivity in the world every day. As the NANIB tagline says its “an antidote to everything else”.
You don’t have to, and I’m not asking — I’m happy simply sharing NANIB with you — but if you’re interested the most common ways you can help include:
I occasionally get asked about the name — specifically my use of the word “bad” in Not All News Is Bad. The concern is that by using the word “bad” I’m bringing attention to that word instead of what we’re really promoting: good.
The pragmatic reason “good news” is already taken, all over. It’s difficult to stand out among a variety of web sites who all proclaim good news of one sort or another. Even more practical, all the internet domains containing it are taken (or up for auction at exorbitant prices. 🙂 )
But more importantly I think “Not All News Is Bad” captures many people’s reaction to our current stream of daily news. It feels like everything is bad news, but it’s not. It’s something that we need to be reminded of, daily. Popular evidence to the contrary, Not All News Is Bad.
My goal is simply to remind myself of that little fact, every day.
And share it with you.
Here’s to a peaceful 2018, full of hopeful, positive news.
A group of Troy residents were able to raise more than $500 to get a homeless veteran off the streets and on a bus to New York — all within eight hours through a Facebook post.
Source: Troy residents raise money on Facebook to send homeless veteran to friend in New York
To those who say social media divides, remember that this, too, is common.