ICYMU: This Week in Gnuville
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GoodNewsRoundup: Mother Teresa is responsible for one of my favorite quotes of all time “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”
it is so easy to get overwhelmed with all that needs doing and with the desires of our egos to make giant moves that are noticed by others. But it is really the accumulation of small things, done with great love, that makes this world a better place.
And that is something all of us can do.
I was reminded of that quote when I saw this post:
John Perricone:
Several years ago, I invited a Buddhist monk to speak to my Senior elective class, and quite interestingly, as he entered the room, he didn’t say a word (that caught everyone’s attention).
He just walked to the board and wrote this: “EVERYONE WANTS TO SAVE THE WORLD, BUT NO ONE WANTS TO HELP MOM DO THE DISHES.” We all laughed.
But then he went on to say this to my students: “Statistically, it’s highly unlikely that any of you will ever have the opportunity to run into a burning orphanage and rescue an infant. But, in the smallest gesture of kindness — a warm smile, holding the door for the person behind you, shoveling the driveway of the elderly person next door — you have committed an act of immeasurable profundity, because to each of us, our life is our universe.”
This is my hope for you for the New Year, that by your smallest acts of kindness, you will save an other’s world.
[I have been unable to find the source of this oft-quoted story by John Perricone.]
chloris creator: From now through the beginning of summer, in the northern hemisphere, we will have more light each day.
Light makes such a difference. Sometimes it’s metaphorical. Shining a light on lies is making a difference, as liars who did the FA are now experiencing FO. There’s Alex Jones (defamed Sandy Hook families); there’s tRump (E Jean Carroll, also his fraudulent businesses, we can go on and on); there’s FOX (payout to Dominion and others and more coming); there’s Rudy Giuliani (the election workers in Georgia and now his bankruptcy) and we can hope that more, such as Kari Lake, will also FO.
Sometimes it’s not just lies, but ignorance and indifference. Example: now that abortion is banned in many places, some people are learning just how difficult and dangerous pregnancies can be. I really think many people simply had no concept. Learning this won’t change all minds, but it has changed some, and that’s enough to make a difference.
Light is essential for Truth. And Truth is essential for Love. If we can’t see where the problems are, if we can’t see where people are hurting, how can we fix them, how can we help them?
Here, too, in Gnusville, our own “nicest spot on the internet,” I have seen people working to promote Truth and Love. All of you here, you are part of the light. I hope you are willing to shine even brighter in 2024.
Pour yourself a drink, read about other bright lights, and share your own glow. May your day be radiant.
Mokurai:
Colorado Supreme Court Throws Trump off Ballot
Go, Colorado!
WineRev:
Good Morning and Good Day to all you seekers after a Wednesday helping of Good News! You have come to the right place here on the Inter Tubes. Once a month as part of my Permanent Therapy, the Very Nice People, all dressed in white scrubs and carrying nets, kindly bring me to the Computer Room and let me cut and paste for a while. I can even look over through the Unbreakable Interior Window and see the rest of the Gnuville Breakfast Brunch and Holiday Party Room. Many of you are kind enough to swing by my window and offer up Mug toasts of coffee, tea or mocha-cocoa. Some of the Mimosa crowd even try to smuggle a sample of the morning libation through the little round-about through the wall when Very Nice People aren’t looking. (Also the croissants and cinnamon rolls are very tasty, thank you. Even the Very Nice Net People thank you for these.) Thank you my friends and for the chance to fly the Round Up for all of you. I hope you will enjoy the flight.
Good News, WineRev Style means not only is there plenty of space for your comments, whether written, pictorial or video-ed down below, but your reactions, expansions, digressions, additions, subtractions, derivatives, cube roots and corrections all make for a better mutual interchange and experience (you know, the Internet at its best.) The Round Up with all your participation takes the Best Spot on the Internet to a whole different level and I’m glad to be part of that phenomenon. As is my custom, you will also note not only Today’s Good and Goofy news, and/or last week’s, but also the Good and the Goofy from years, decades, even centuries past, to give a certain Historical angle perhaps worth a thought or two.
WineRev:
“Wasabi: Japanese plant improves cognitive function in older adults” by Shubhangi Dua
WineRev: Let there be inspiration, talent, uplift, the sweep of emotions that make humans human. So it is worth chewing on your wasabi seeds to read about wasabi: it seems a Japanese research team has discovered that wasabi improves memory and recall, particularly in adults over 60. I now remember I fall into this category, so I too am going to take that article to heart…...if I remember to pick up some wasabi…..
niftywriter:
America’s Peace Wave
In 2023, murder rates in the United States dropped at an astonishing rate, probably among the highest on record. That’s according to data gathered by Jeff Asher, an independent criminologist, from cities with publicly available numbers. In the sample of 175 cities, murder is down by an average of almost 13 percent this year.
And it’s not just murder. FBI data for the third quarter show that every category of crime except for motor-vehicle theft is down, some of them sharply, year over year from 2022. (As for the car thefts, they seem—in one of the weirdest data flukes you’ll ever see—to have been driven almost entirely by TikTok videos showing the ease of breaking into certain Kias and Hyundais.) Two years ago, as worries about soaring crime resounded, I wrote that America was in the midst of a violence wave, not a crime wave, as property crime continued to sink even while violent crime rose. Now America seems to be experiencing a peace wave.
“The quarterly data in particular suggests 2023 featured one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the United States in more than 50 years,” Asher wrote in his Substack newsletter.
The drop is unlikely to get the same attention that the increase did. Last month, Gallup found that the percentage of Americans who believe that crime in the United States is a very or extremely serious problem has risen sharply, from 54 to 63 percent, since fall 2021, when I noted the violence wave—even as most types of crime have declined over the same period.
The bolding in the above excerpt is mine — because you know what we need to do, Gnusies! Let’s spread that good news around! ~niftywriter
A neuroscientist’s guide to surviving Christmas with Trump-loving relatives
Bobby Azarian, Raw Story:
But what if I told you that an understanding of the relevant concepts holds the key to not just surviving these encounters, but potentially bridging family divides? The goal isn't to convert but to converse, and to plant seeds of thought that might, in time, bear fruit.✂️
The first thing we need to know is that two distinct yet interdependent cognitive systems govern our decision-making processes.
System 1, the intuitive and automatic pilot, reacts without conscious deliberation, guided by emotions and entrenched biases. It’s the system that flares up at the mention of Trump, fueling heated debates with reactionary zeal.
Contrast this with System 2, the reflective and analytical mind, which involves active engagement with conscious reasoning and rational thought, akin to a chess player contemplating the board. It’s this system that allows for nuanced discussion, helping you dissect the layers of Trump's policies and rhetoric without devolving into tribalistic fervor.
By learning how to stay in a System 2 state of mind, and how to induce the same state in our conversation partners, we equip ourselves with a powerful tool for fostering more constructive dialogues.
Jessiestaf:
What could go right? A new Sickle Cell treatment
The Progressive Network: Last Friday, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two gene therapies—one by Bluebird Bio, the other by Vertex Pharmaceuticals—for sickle cell disease. The Vertex one, called exa-cel, is also the first approved therapy in the United States that uses the gene editing tool CRISPR.
The US isn’t the first to take the plunge on Vertex. Britain gave it the world’s first approval in November, followed by Bahrain earlier this month.
While exa-cel is not a cure, as NPR reports, the hope is that it “will be a one-time treatment that will alleviate symptoms for a lifetime.”
WineRev’s Good and Goofy Notes
Watch for WineRev’s G&G notes in the comments to see what others went through, struggled with, and surmounted in the past. His G&G comments are mini Good News Roundups. You can find all his comments here, even today’s, once he posts it. Tech Tip: You can search for >>> in Roundups to quickly find his comments.
WineRev, last Sunday:
One week, fellow Gnusies of the Christian persuasion! One week! 7 Days of shopping, wrapping, baking, dusting the abode (or laying out suitcases for packing), card writing, card sending, card receiving and……... unexpected packages from unexpected people. Yes, there may be other Gnusies in your life (along with those here at the Gnuville Breakfast Brunch and Holiday Haven) who, for various reasons, you have finally, reluctantly, even sadly, crossed off your gift list. And then they send you a gift! And now, in the Feet Up Lounge here at the Brunch, among pixels, Wi-Fi, Good News a la newspapers, and the floor littered with little scraps of comments, first drafts of snarks, edited digressions, you----having received such an unexpected, gaily wrapped box from That Person Recently Dropped, you now face the choice.
Do you embrace the idea that this season is for gift-GIVING? Or do the guilts of Christmas Past have you believe this is the season of Gift-EXCHANGE? If the latter, you growl as you put on storm gear to head out to the shops for One More Present for this Sending Person, guessing at what they have sent you and how much they spent, so your quick-wrapped and swift-mailed Exchange Gift will hopefully be of similar taste and cost. Is that the Reason for the Season, or is it just guilt? Fear of being “in debt” to someone unless you fire off a gift of “equal” value? Worth pondering…….and worth noting that in Luke’s story the shepherds left their flocks by night and came Empty-Handed, practicing the art of Gift Receiving……..
Now here at the Good News Round Up, we have 2thanks this morning Present-ing us with stories from hither and yon (as opposed to a Scottish lass thinking the morning is dang early: Heather and Yawn), gifting us with uplift, bemusement and the sparking of thoughts, words and deeds of comments, actions, and thanks. And we thank you, 2thanks, for getting us going on another Sunday. Yay!
Science
As I mentioned in about 20 diaries in 2023, I said I used antiviral nasal sprays before and after going to stores to help prevent COVID. There is scientific evidence to back up the use of such nasal sprays, which contradicts Examined’s diary.
Examined, Daily Kos member:
Please share good science news with us! (Especially JSWT, health, environment.)
A good place to look for science news if you are waiting for the Sunday Roundup is the archive of Overnight News Digest. On Saturdays, the OND always focuses on science, though not all of it is devoted to what I would call Good Science News.
Need more good news?
… arhpdx posted a list of good news sites toward the top of a recent Roundup, or you can find that same list in my comment: Good News Sources. Thank you, arhpdx and Mokurai!
[On a desktop, you could open that comment in a new Tab by clicking the timestamp, and then you could Bookmark that page or save it to your Favorites.]
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Where Ever is Herd
Morning Good News Roundups at 7 x 7: These Gnusies lead the herd at 7 a.m. ET, 7 days a week:
- Mondays The GNR Newsroom (Jessiestaf, Killer300, and Bhu)
- Tuesdays arhpdx and niftywriter
- Wednesdays: 2nd MCUBernieFan, 3rd WineRev, 4th karij. 1st and 5th: lemay50, Andrew F Cockburn, DoctorStrange.
- Thursdays Mokurai
- Fridays chloris creator, regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays GoodNewsRoundup, the one and only!
- Sundays 2thanks — A brief roundup of Roundups, a retrospective, a smorgasbord, a bulletin board, an oasis, a watering hole, a thunder of hooves, a wellness, a place for beginners to learn the rules of the veldt. For instance, we do not welcome grammar-police comments in Roundups.
hpg posts Evening Shade diaries at 7:30 p.m. ET every day. After a long day, Gnusies meet in the evening shade and continue sharing Good News, good community, and good actions. Find Evening Shades here or on the Trending List.
For more information about the Good News group, please see our detailed Welcoming comment, one of the first comments in our morning diaries.
We welcome comments in Roundups every day regarding:
- National or local Good News.
- Links, stories, music, videos, quotes, tweets. (No tweets or images of the saffron chlamidiot, please.)
- Your resistance activity.
In my Sunday smorgasbord Roundups, I especially welcome the following types of comments:
- Who won YOUR week?
- Questions about Daily Kos tech issues or our map.
- Good News Roundups and you.
- How are you resisting?
- How are you supporting Democratic candidates?
- Please let’s stick to Good News today, no mews or databases.
In the comments of all Roundups, we do not welcome Grammar Police or Debbie Downers.
Top Image: Edward Song created the top image of 3 cavorting gnus using an AI tool, Dalle.
Our Roundup is almost open!
Thank you for fighting for truth and justice with all us Gnusies! 40% of our Readers don’t visit every day, 50% of us do, and 10% are here for the first time! We all do what we can. For 5 years, we’ve shared positive news, laughed, organized, resisted, rebelled, revolted without being revolting, relied, rested, mentored, created, crossed rivers, chewed our cud, puffed methane out both ends, and laughed. Here’s looking at you, kid, and standing upwind!
As always, please share more Good News than I can find or provide.
This is a group diary, and by my power I declare this Good Gnus Salo(o)n open! Let the good-news sharing and community building begin!
Power with, not power over ❤️ ✊ ❤️
2thanks (he, him)