Tag Uplift!

Good New This Week – Nature Edition

Michael 7 Comments

In Monday’s Moment of Motivation and yesterday’s Uplift post at ROAMcare.org, we visited nature for some positive uplifting news. In this week’s good news of the week post here, nature also is this week’s focus.

I wonder what our vaccine czar would have to say about this one. In South Africa, rhinos are being vaccinated with radioactive isotopes to stop poachers. The isotopes are harmless to the animals but can be detected at airports and borders. Some 20 rhinos have been tested in advance of mass vaccinations.

Also on the animal front, In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the city is spending about 100,000 euros “animal stairs” to help cats and other animals climb out of the canals instead of drowning when they find themselves at the wrong end of the canal wall. As innovative as this sounds, it is not the first such installation. Amersfoort installed a similar contraption for their cute but clumsy furry friends. Amersfoort is also the home town of abstract artist Piet Mondrian. That has nothing to do with this story but I like Mondrian and that’s not a fact you get to slip in just anywhere.

Over in England, an analysis of the government’s 13million pound species recovery project reveals some positive news. It that it has turned the tide for some of its most endangered plants and animals, including the first hatchings of the red-billed chough in over. 200 years.

Shifting from fauna to flora, lotus flowers are blooming in Kashmir’s largest lake, having been freed from underwater silt that strangled them for over 30 years. in 1992, flooding dumped thousands of tons of sediment into the lake, burying the lotus stems. A staggering 8 million cubic meters of silt has been removed to allow the lotus to flower again.

And it took some digging, but there’s good nature news even in the U. S.. Off Key Largo (one of my favorite movies and songs although neither has anything to do with the other, sort of), staghorn coral have spawned in mass for the first time in 2 years. In 2023, a bleaching event left marine biologists worried over the reefs’ future. Biologists have been working to strengthen the environment to support the tenuous breeding of the coral. Reef researchers across the world are now experimenting with cross breeding of corals in captivity to try and create hardier genotypes.

So once again we proved that there is good news in the world, you just have to go out in the world to find it. Out in the world nature for all its tenuous grasp on survival, is in much better shape than people. There is much life hiding in nature, and there are many times we’d do well to emulate how naturally nature lives. We talked about that in Hidden in Plain Sight.

Faithfully yours

Michael 5 Comments

Even though I’m still reeling from some of the most dictatorial events of all time that have happened and are happening in this country this week, I still have faith that I can find good news to celebrate. (And yes they are dictatorial. Find a German who was around in 1932 and ask if there is any difference between then there and here now.) (Anyway…)

What good went on this week?

The Wellbeing Research Centre releases its annual report on countries’ relative happiness. They polled 100,000 people from 147 countries on their perceived quality of life. This year’s report found Finland taking the top spot (for the eighth successive year), with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden, and The Netherlands rounding out the top five. Surprises included Costa Rica (sixth) and Mexico (tenth), both in the top ten for the first time. Other countries making it into the top ten are Norway, Luxemburg, and Israel. The good ole USA comes in at 24th. (In ‘Freedom” the U.S. comes in at #115. That puts us behind some democratic stalwarts like Mongolia (113), Venezuela (103), and Russia (102).)

From just as recently as 2021, statues in London honoring men have outpaced those honoring women.  Since then, more statues honoring women have been unveiled than in the entire second half of the 20th century. These included war heroes, pop culture icons, medical pioneers, and even royalty (Queen Elizabeth II, England’s longest reigning monarch, received her first statue in 2023.) Why should we care about what happens in London. Because women do things. So do all kinds of humas who are not white and/or orange males. Besides, they scored higher than us on the happiness scale so they must know something.

In April, the Salt Spring Island (B.C.) office of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) received the request from an out-of-town family to check on their elderly father who they’d not heard from. Officer Cst. Lloyd found the senior who appeared to have been living in unhealthy conditions, reluctant to engage, and adamant that he did not need help. The officer stayed with him for over an hour and developed a rapport with the older gentleman. In time, he agreed to be transported to the hospital to be checked. Last month, the man showed up at the RCMP Salt Spring Island office to share the news that he had unknowingly been bleeding internally for some time and, according to doctors, would have succumbed in the next 24 hours had it not been for the intervention of Officer Lloyd. No word if Officer Lloyd was fully masked and decked out in battle gear. I kind of think not. Canada also ranked ahead of us (way ahead of us) on the happiness scale.

Descendants of the Maya in Belize (aka indigenous people) are reviving an old game (even older than the NFL – oh my!). Pok-ta-pok, today the national sport of Belize, is billed as the world’s oldest team ballgame. It’s more curious news than good news but I wanted to bring it up because even though Belize came in one space behind the U.S. on the happiness scale, they ranked #1 in freedom. See what happens when you are nice to your indigenous neighbors.

I have faith you enjoyed this roundup of good news. Hmm. Did I use ‘faith’ properly, or could another word been better. Check out what we wrote about faith in An Article of Faith, this week’s Uplift post at ROAMcare.

Oh, if you’re interested, here’s is a link to the World Happiness Report dashboard compiled by the Gallup organization from this year’s wellbeing report.

The root of all goodness

Michael 6 Comments

In keeping with what I started last week, I’m loading up on good news from around the world. We really do have to go around the world for this because that’s where we find the good news.

Remember when the orange menace decried wind power being bad for birds? Certain Scottish cranes would like to have a word with him. Efforts to restore wetland and peatland areas have helped to return the country’s largest bird that have been gone for centuries. What’s that now about wind power? Wind power is Scotland’s fastest growing source of energy in the country, producing more than the country uses. They’ve been expanding on and off shore windmill farms and are intent on doubling wind produced energy by 2030. And after a 1,000 year absence, the cranes are back. Causation? Or just correlation? Does it matter to the birds?

By the way, in neighboring England, even though natural gas powered electricity continues to be the largest source at 30%, wind is gaining and now contributes 29.2%. Experts say estimate wind will take the number 1 space by the end of the year. No word on missing birds there.

In a rare moment of doing something that doesn’t line their pockets, a bipartisan bill has been introduced to the US Senate. The bill proposes to protect American call center jobs and make sure customers know whether they’re talking to a real person or artificial intelligence. Under the bill, call center employees must disclose their locations at the beginning of all interactions, and share whether AI technology is being used. I’d rather have the Consumer Financial Protection Center back but hey, at least it’s something different coming out of the upper chamber than the usual trend of trying to name everything in town after Dumbbell Donny.

Do you have a telescope? For the first time in 15 years, this Monday you will be able to see the underside of Saturn’s rings using a basic telescope. Saturn will be visible with its iconic rings on 11 to 12 August allowing stargazers to see the flat undersurface rather than just the band. Maybe not good news but something to look forward to besides rising prices.

There is good news coming out of Yellowstone Park. Back in 1995, when the government cared about our natural wonders, the gray wolf was reintroduced to the park area. Now, 30 years later, a direct benefit from this action has been noted. For the first time in over 80 years, young quaking aspens are in the northern section of Yellowstone National Park. The unexpected return of this iconic tree is being attributed to the return of the gray wolf. How? The loss of the gray wolves from the park in the 1930s allowed the elk population to balloon to an estimated 17,000 by the end of the twentieth century. The elk would eat the emerging aspen sprouts, never allowing the tree to flourish. Returning the apex predator wolf species returned the park to balance and now tree, wolf, and elf are flourishing.

Those trees could not have survived 90 years of lost growth without strong roots. We also need strong roots to flourish. Can we make adjustments to keep us growing? Yes! And we talk about strengthening our roots and growing great in this week’s Uplift post Growing Greatness.

 

 

 

Choose your case scenarios

Michael 9 Comments

With all that’s wrong in the world, it’s easy to want to consider the worst-case scenario. When was the last time you considered the best-case scenario? I realize I spend a lot of digital energy bringing up some pretty bad things that are happening. Given the chuckle crew based in Washington DC, it’s just too easy not to find laughingly stupid, or stupidly laughing examples of criminal behavior, let alone their usual level of just dumb crap. Given all of that, good things still do happen.

Among all the wars, conflicts, skirmishes, and scuffles going on, Cambodia and Thailand signed an immediate and unconditional ceasefire on July 28th following military activity along a disputed border. Yay, peace without insisting someone say “thank you” first.

Following months of reports regarding the unconscionable shifting of previously targeted humanitarian aid (aka money) to blood-sucking billionaires, word comes of a new medical school just opened that aims to train new doctors on preventative medicine funding by (be still, my heart) a billionaire! Walmart heiress Alice Walton put up the money for the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. So she’s not modest about it. We’ll give her that. At least she’s spending her own money.

If other cash-rich American have an altruistic streak in them, there is a opportunity in Vermont. Realizing how spotty cell phone service is in his area, Vermonter Patrick Schlott bought an old pay phone and installed it outside a local general store using a device that doe some magic and changes an internet connection to an (old-fashion) analog telephone line. He then removed the coin-operation mechanism and free phone service was available where previously no cell phone service existed. 370 calls were made from the phone in June, many of them students who needed a pickup from a parent. Schlott would like to expand the project if he can figure out financing. Billionaires of America, here’s your chance to prove you’re human too.

While we are discouraging alternate energy sources, nay, actually encouraging energy dependance on dead dinosaurs, for the first time ever, June saw solar energy become the largest source of electricity in the European Union, supplying a record 22 percent of power. At least 13 countries saw solar output hit a new monthly high in June, with solar amounting to more than 40 percent of the power generated in the Netherlands! Take that T. Rex!

While we find more ways to close parks and remove finding for environmental projects, for the first time in over a century, Parisians and tourists will be able to take a dip in the Seine. The river is opening up as a summertime swim spot following a 1.4 billion euro ($1.5 billion) cleanup project.

So there are good things happening and positive influences around the world. Even in America (gasp!) What prompted my foray down the sunny side of the street? Life on the Sunny Side, this week’s Uplift post of course. We explored how by saying, thinking, and doing positive words, thoughts, and actions, we can shift the focus to looking for those best-case scenarios. Give it a read. Please.

 

TGIAI

Michael 13 Comments

The Associated Press published an article yesterday, “Teens say they are turning to AI for friendship.” Teena quoted in the article indicated that the use of AI for help with schoolwork is nearly universal, nearly 70% of them at some point, and half of them regularly have used an AI Companion as a “digital friend.” A survey cited in the article determined “31% of teens said their conversations with AI companions were “as satisfying or more satisfying” than talking with real friends.”

As the story was picked up by local papers and news outlets, comments on it picked up, many of the “that’s scary” type. I think what’s scary is how this demonstrates how bad teens are to other teens, especially as other surveys have noted how bullying is skyrocketing, not like we’re seeing it among adults more than ever and coming from the Oval Office on a daily basis.

The survey studied the AI habits of 1,000 teens over two months. The researchers were taken back by their findings, concerned that teens will not be able to assimilate into society without having peer to peer interaction. They didn’t see then when one 18 year old said, ““AI is always available. It never gets bored with you. It’s never judgmental. When you’re talking to AI, you are always right. You’re always interesting. You are always emotionally justified,” he was describing a companion to replace the real ones who were always judgmental and emotionally damaging.

A person, even a teen, wants to feel valued. In the social media blurb to yesterday’s Uplift we began, “Nobody likes to be taken advantage of.” That’s the bully’s prime motivator – to take advantage of others’ insecurities and take without concern. Although our discussion revolved around misappropriated gratitude, we can say from personal experiences that when others perceive us as valued contributors, our self-esteem grows. As self-esteem grows, the need for validation from others decreases as we can provide our own validation.

This is what teens need. People to see them and thank them for being them. Not to have on a friend they created from a companion bot.

That Gratitude Attitude suggests some basic ways to recognize and show appreciation to people for being themselves. We even dove into the family setting. Take a look, practice daily gratitude, and save a teen from having to build a friend. 

A flood of information

Michael 5 Comments

Quick, name a devastating flood that happened in the US recently. Did you say Texas? Did you know there have been seven fatal floods and flash flood in the US since the Guadalupe River valley was flooded on July 4. There were another three in the two weeks preceding the Fourth of July Texas floods.

Indeed, the Texas July 4 flood was the most devastating, but to those who lost loved ones in Maryland, West Virginia, or New Jersey, devastation is not a relative term. Why do we not think of these or those in. North Carolina, New York, or New Mexico.

I though about all these places because of local flooding that has been happening here in my neck of the woods over the past few weeks. We’re sort of used to them. We see flash flooding routinely, and though not as often, river flooding occurs regularly also. We haven’t had a deadly flood for a few years. Those in my neighboring states of West Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland can no longer say that.

I have my thoughts about the dearth of information surrounding these floods when there should have been a flood of information. Let’s stick with that. Considering these areas will not have emergency funds funneled to them by our benevolent leader, we bear the responsibility to care for our neighbors.

In yesterday’s Uplift we talked about what it means to be a neighbor, to share your humanity, to let your goodwill flow, it was British theologian Richard Whatley who spoke of neighborliness as “an ongoing flow of goodwill.”  He identified five steps to being a good neighbor: be generous, be ethical, be fair and honest, be kind constantly, and be peaceful.

Is a neighbor just the guy next door? Your neighbor is your fellow man who deserves your neighborliness. How do we that? We have suggestions in Will you be my neighbor?

Happy Half Year!

Michael 4 Comments

Ahh July! One of the two months tossed in by the Caesars Julius and Augustus rendering the clues to the position in the calendar by their names of September through December moot.

The month that added pages to calendars and is the reason February holds the short end of the day stick started in the hubris of a petty little tyrant. (Warning, Donober may be just around the corner.)

Still there are some good things that came out of July. Not only does July contain within its weeks National Hot Dog Day (on the undoubtedly soon to be more available July 4) it is in its entirety National Watermelon Month and National Ice Cream Month, perhaps not at the same time. Fun fact(?) or perhaps Sad fact, the Fourth of July was not declared a federal holiday until 1938.

Not only was it in July (the one in 1687 specifically) that Isaac Newton published Principia, that contains within its pages his laws of gravity and motion, it was also in July (the one in 2001) that the wildly popular sit-com “The Office” premiered (the British production). And it was on July 13, 1923 that some future real estate tycoon erected the famous HOLLYWOODLAND letters in Griffith Park on Mount Lee above Beachwood Canyon that you might be more familiar with as the Hollywood sign after the last four letters were taken down in 1949.

For the fans of vaccines, and other reasonably intelligent people, it was in July that the rabies vaccine was first given to a patient. Microbiologist Louis Pasteur administered the vaccine to a nine-year-old boy bitten by a rabid dog on July 6, 1885.

For those who think weird like me, July is the first month of the second half of the year. In yesterday’s Uplift we suggested July is a good time to reaffirm your New Years Resolution. Ours is to find something everyday that makes you start the day smiling inside and work on that until the smile defines you. Read more about it at Half Year Resolutions. It’s good. Trust me.

Lovable Loser

Michael 5 Comments

The block of pine whittled into the shape of approaching that of a 4 wheeled vehicle sat perched atop the hilltop created by the wooden track. Someone blew a whistle, someone else started a stopwatch, a third someone dropped the pins holding back the blocks of pine. The Pinewood Derby, a mainstay to this day in Cub Scouting, was underway!

I never won The Derby. I remember coming close but my memory doesn’t extend to remembering how many places down the leaderboard I considered close back when my age could be expressed in single digits. But I definitely remember not winning. I remember that because each year I tried to do better. I think I did. I do remember the dads saying how much faster everyone got this year.

I also remember we didn’t have any juggernauts in the wood race car circuit. No one was a perennial powerhouse. Someone new always took home the big trophy. (I have no recollection of this at all other than my intuition but I’m pretty sure that big trophy stood about 3, maybe 4 inches high.)

The pinewood derby isn’t the only thing I never won. It heralded in a lifetime of losing. I don’t mind. Sometimes it gets old never getting to take home the big trophy. But along the way I’ve amassed an impressive number of little trophies, plaques, and certificates.

There were losses in Little League baseball, high school baseball and basketball, college bowling, gun club skeet shooting, and car club rallying. Actually, at the car club I do have a few first-place plaques but only in the novice division rallies. There too the big trophies eluded me.

Another set of competitions I’ve proudly lost at have been speech contests. Going back to high school forensics competitions I’ve only ever come tantalizingly close to a trophy I’d have to readjust the shelves in the bookcase to display. Even today, after countless attempts at Toastmasters International World Series of Public Speaking I’ve never broken past the district level, leaving me only halfway to the international stage and the really big trophy.

I’m happy with my life of loserdom. Each time I didn’t win, or won only to put me back into a more competitive position, I learned something about myself, what got me that far, what I need to go farther. Toastmasters has a rule, if you ever win the WSOP, you cannot compete again, not even all the way back at the club level contests. You’re one and done. I think it’s a sound system.

We looked at winning, losing, and learning, in this week’s Uplift, Run the Good Life. We said, “Winning isn’t everything. Not quitting is! Run the race so you get the most out of life,” and much, much more. Go on, take a look.

Who do you think you are

Michael 11 Comments

Recently I’ve been thinking about relationships. Someone dropped a “like” on an older post, “Golden Oldies” as a matter of fact, and it reminded me that I had said the longest relationship I’ve had in my adult life (which itself is pretty damn long) has been with my little roadster. I’ve used that line a few times in blogs posts. I’ve used it a few times in speeches. It’s true you know. That has been my longest relationship outside of family, although now she’s more like family than some family.

Lots of relationships, even the short ones, can become more like family than some family. My partner at ROAMcare is more family than friend, and I can think of another 2 or 3 friends who fit in that category. Along the same line of thought, some acquaintances turn into friends when they really have no good reason to have done so.

I’m not sure where to put those we come across in the blogging world. The ones we connect with are more than just fellow bloggerets. Some we may have actually made our acquaintance with though I would think they are more than acquaintances. I’ve never met another from the blogging world although quite a few have made an impact on me.

In a post about a week ago I quoted Kurt Vonnegut. “We need gangs,” Vonnegut said, “I tell people to formulate a little gang. And, you know, you love each other.” The comments made it clear that here too is a gang. Perhaps that’s how we identify. As gang members.

One of the first of our gang I ran across was Bill Fyfe. Author. Correspondent. Canadian. We’d converse by email, an occasional postal correspondence, and by comments. Nice guy. Bill died a few years ago. His site, WD Fyfe is still active. Three or so years ago I was entered in a Toastmasters’ contest, and I needed a character for a narrative speech. So now in addition to his books and still active site, he is memorialized in a speech on YouTube.

Gang member? Acquaintance? Friend? Other? I don’t know what we are. All of us. There is something that somehow attracted us to each other. Of the 1600 or so” followers,” why is it that there is only a good handful I can call, if I were to call them anything, my gang member friends. That seems a good enough compromise.

In this week’s Uplift we tossed out the idea that one of our needs as fellow humans is to connect with other humans, often other humans who are nothing like us. Check out Opposites Attract and see if you don’t agree.

Do as you say

Michael 4 Comments

Today we celebrate Juneteenth in America, federal holiday celebrated to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States. You would correct in thinking that would be a significant milestone to be commemorated throughout our existence, the country being established on the principal that “all men are created equal.”

That’s how this week’s Uplift started. It seems right and wrong all at the same time. Right because even though it came 90 years after those words were written but Jefferson and friends, the US government finally applied them to all people. Wrong because it took another 156 years before the government recognized the application of “all men” to all. Even worse is now, another 4 years down the road and the government is retreated on those words. Now that the people seem to have accepted all people as worthy of the equality afforded to “all men” (well, most of the people seem to have accepted it), the bigot-in-chief and his henchmen people are doing all they can to claw back those words and reapply them only to those pledging fealty.

its not a very happy thought so let me hold on to that and allow you to remember the celebration today truly is. Never again should we allow any people, individually or collectively, to be held subservient to others. We don’t have to like everyone we run across over the course of a lifetime. But we should love them. Love the, as we love ourselves.

You can make a difference. Remember, you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to care.