Not All News is Bad!

LADUE, Mo. – Students at John Burroughs School are banding together to show their support for a gay student-athlete ahead of a planned protest by the Westboro Baptist Church.Senior Jake Bain is known as a star athlete at his school and is headed to Indiana State University to play football.”He is a great athlete, but he’s a better kid,” said Andy Abbott, Head of School at John Burroughs. “He’s a great student and he’s a great friend to his peers.”

Source: School community bands together to support gay athlete ahead of hate group’s planned protest | FOX2now.com

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” — Dr. Martin Luther King

A homeless Newfoundland dog was found and rescued by a nonprofit, Hope for Paws, and will now become a therapy animal.

Source: Rescued dog travels 1,000 miles to become therapy animal | abc7.com

I have a soft spot for Newfies… our first dog was one. As always, the happy “after” pictures and video are heartwarming.

Ketamine is emerging as a promising new and fast-acting potential treatment for depression.

Source: Depression medication: Ketamine emerging as promising treatment – Business Insider

Promising progress in an important area.

First he saved Bills fans from a boring football game. Now he’s saved a terrified kitty from a tall tree.

Source: ‘And you did it with your clothes on’: Bills streaker rescues stranded cat – The Buffalo News

To the best of my knowledge trained arborists aren’t known for streaking at football games, but a surprising number are known for volunteering to assist cats stuck up in trees.

The dogs have been so helpful they continue to be on campus for anyone needing their unconditional love and affection

Source: Therapy Dogs Waiting to Welcome Back the Parkland High School Students «TwistedSifter

Anyone with a pet will understand how helpful this really can be.

Plan to be tested in five cities in effort to meet EU air pollution targets and avoid big fines

Source: German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution

I’ll be fascinated to hear the results of this. I think it holds a lot of promise for a number of reasons.

Experts predict Australia is likely to become the first country to effectively eliminate cervical cancer within the next 40 years.

Source: Australia set to completely eliminate cervical cancer in world-first

The progress of vaccinations in eliminating major health threats continues. Vaccinate.

As snow continues to fall, mosques invite the homeless in for food and warm shelter.

Source: UK mosques open doors to homeless as temperatures plunge

Wouldn’t it be great if more institutions — religious and otherwise — did this? Nice example.

From using up leftover bread to tackling climate change, our pick of three projects that use brewing as a force for good

Source: Brewing good: three beer-for-good projects

Behold the power of “beer for good”. 🙂

One simple filter might be able to deliver clean water for a fraction of the cost and energy of our current purification and desalinization methods.

Source: This Graphene Filter Makes Dirty Saltwater Drinkable

Many of us take clean (or cleanish) water for granted. This type of technology would be a major game-changer for much of the world.