Not All News is Bad!

 

“Women of NASA,” a fan-created Lego minifigure set, will be the next set to officially be made as part of the Lego Ideas program.

Source: Lego to Make ‘Women of NASA’ Minifigs, Including Sally Ride, Katherine Johnson

You know you’ve made it when … you get honored with your own Lego minifig! I’ve had Legos since before Legos were cool (seriously, my grandmother would send them over as gifts for me from Holland back in the 1960’s). Their current rise in popularity has me tickled, of course, but that they’re now becoming educational in other ways is simply awesome.

I raise my coffee cup in honor! 🙂 Everything is awesome!

CA Public Utilities Commissioner: “We are far in advance of where we expected to be.”

Source: Largest grid-tied lithium ion battery system deployed today in San Diego | Ars Technica

I love this. I think of it as a 4-hour uninterruptible power supply for 20,000 homes. Not mentioned in the article but it’s also a way to “time shift” power consumption from other sources. Not unlike Tesla’s powerwall, which is primarily intended to make solar more practical, and yet also serves as a kind of UPS as well. Oh, and this came in cheaper, and earlier than expected. 🙂

The Brooklyn Park business is on a mission to hide racist and gang designs.

Source: ‘Sometimes people change’: Maryland shop covers up racist tattoos for free – The Washington Post

I think my favorite quote from this article is this: “Sometimes people make bad choices, and sometimes people change,  . . . We believe that there is enough hate in this world and we want to make a difference.”

Indeed. What’s cool is that he is making a difference – both at the individual level, but also at a larger level, using a GoFundMe to make it possible for tattoo artists elsewhere to also help folks who’ve come to regret (or is that regert? 🙂 ) their decisions.

Suddenly, Regan could read a newspaper while eating breakfast and make out the faces of his co-workers from across the room. He’s been able to attend plays and watch what’s happening on stage, without having to guess why people around him were laughing.

Source: Sharp vision: New glasses help the legally blind see | The Seattle Times

This is another of those cases where technology many of us might even take for granted is being combined and extended in ways that actually, tangibly, improve the lives of others. Yeah, it’s expensive, but then almost everything is at the start. The real news here is that there’s progress down this path that could eventually make the lives of many, many people significantly better.

#notallnewsisbad

“A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart… Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.”

Source: How Man’s Best Friend Is Helping Cancer Treatment | IFLScience

Today’s item strikes close to home, as we currently have a dog (Dagmar) who’s been in remission from lymphoma for 13+ months. We’ve noted several times throughout the process that parallels to human physiology have been striking. The experiences in canine oncology (and, in fact, other diseases as well) do make their way back to human treatment. We can learn a lot from our dogs, in so many ways.

#notallnewsisbad

Astronomers are excited by the discovery, which suggests that some of these exoplanets — planets around stars other than the sun — could support life and may be awash in oceans.

Source: 7 Earth-Size Planets Orbit Dwarf Star, NASA and European Astronomers Say – The New York Times

As you might expect, I find this kind of thing absolutely fascinating. That there might be Earth-like planets … well, that’s a given as far as I’m concerned. That there might be some this close (and yes, in the grand scheme of things, this is close) is pretty cool. But that there might be seven of them? Holy crap!

#notallnewsisbad – some of it is downright amazing.

“This is a great way to show respect and honor for our Jewish cousins.”

Source: ‘Every person deserves to rest in peace’: American Muslims raising money to repair vandalized Jewish cemetery – The Washington Post

One of the purposes of my posts is to highlight good news. Even when the good stuff happen in response to something less than positive. In fact, there’s a strong argument that highlighting specific, positive responses to some of the bad news takes away some of that bad news’s power.

This is actually just the most recent example of several recent instances of organizations viewed as being at cross purposes reaching out to one another in times of need. It gives me much hope for all involved.

#notallnewsisbad

What would it be like to actually land on Pluto? This movie was made from more than 100 images taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft over six weeks of approach and close flyby in the summer of 2015.

Source: A Colorful ‘Landing’ on Pluto | NASA

Stunning. That we can throw something out into space, direct it as accurately as we do, and then get back these fantastic images as well as a bucket-load of other data about the cosmos just amazes me every time I think about it. #notallnewsisbad

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39030055

Yes, you know it’s a problem. Technology … solving real world problems. (OK, maybe first world, real world, problems when it comes to ketchup, but the solution applies to much, much more….) #notallnewsisbad

Via: BBC