The GOOD NEWS Thread

[blondguy]

Hi Everyone

If you have any good news in your life or seen any good news in the media please let us know in a brief post 😊

Note: I understand and respect this thread topic is not for everyone as any level of anxious/depressive feelings are awful to experience

Just for myself I have a couple of positives

• Peta Credlin on Sky News gave Beyond Blue a huge mention earlier this week
• My mum is still independent and doing well at 90 years of age and her lung function test is 'Normal' and still a smoker! Love you mum x

any good news is welcome...and thankyou everyone for being a part of the Beyond Blue forums too!

my kindest always...Paul

[blondguy]

Hi Everyone!

Hey Unbeliever....Really good to see you online again 🙂 Thankyou for the super positive global news you have provided too. We havent spoken for ages..I hope you are doing okay!

Hey EM....Always a bonus to read your good news...and you being involved in rescuing the poodle that did well at the Vet . Im sad that your daughter has been treated badly...yet I am happy she has bounced back 🙂 That is really good news Bionic Woman

my kindest always

Paul

[ecomama]

Hey Paul, thanks!

I call Yvette my 'Amazon Woman', she's amazing!
At work till midnight last night and back again at 7am this morning, hence me awake ALL the time! lol.

All our animals are rescue babies!
Can't believe we have a POODLE though lol.

Yep as Unbeliever noted about animal shelters, ours here were emptied out last year!
YAY!!!
The dogs and cats ones anyhow.

I tried to remind ppl that there are rescue CHICKENS!
Rescued from battery hen farms.
We've taken over 50 loverly ladies in the past few years lol.
I give them to others in "friendship groups".
They're awesome company and lay beautiful eggs. 😍🥰🐣🐤🐥

EMxxxx

[Doolhof]

Hi Everyone,

Unbeliever, I really enjoyed reading your list, thanks for sharing.

A few random points of good news from me, we had some rain yesterday, the first in what seems like months. It refreshed the garden and washed away some of the dirt.

I had a lovely walk with my sister, this is something we have been doing thanks to Covid, she has been working from home so when we have legally been able to, we have been walking.

We are exploring many different places between our two homes and hope to return to some places in winter.

Little things, but good things!

Cheers all.

[Unbeliever]

A man with a very young daughter who has been unable to walk since birth, created a tandem harness and tie points on the top of a pair of shoes so that his daughter can feel the "sensation of walking". They now go for walks everyday around their neighbourhood.

In Los Angeles, police found a bulldog that had been hit by a car and left to die on the side of the road for 5 hours. The police took it to a local vet and were told that the dog's injuries were extensive and that it would require expensive operations to fix the damage and recommended the dog be put down. They refused, telling the vet to do whatever was necessary to save the dog's life, paying for it out of their own pockets and raising money from other officers at the police station. The dog is now the official police dog of that police station.

41 year old Naples resident Luca Trapanese always wanted to adopt a child, but because he was a gay, single man in Italy he was told that his only option would be a child with an illness or a severe disability (basically a child that would never be adopted by anyone else). The orphanage called him one day to say they had a month-old baby called Alba with Down’s Syndrome that had been abandoned by its mother and rejected by 20 potential adoptive families. Luca who had worked with disabled people his whole life didn't not hesitate to adopt Alba and they are now a happy family of 2 and they have a popular social media account of their first 2 years together addressing the ridiculousness of rejection and stigma.

Flamingos flocks worldwide are flourishing in numbers never seen since the invention of the camera due to the world lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers are saying things like "I've never seen anything like it" and "I never thought I would see this in my lifetime".

Singapore is the first country in the world to allow the sale of "lab grown meat" in the form of chicken nuggets which never require any animal to be killed or to suffer at any point of the process. If the public embraces it then they believe that it will be able to become cheaper than what could be done by any industrial animal farm... allowing farm animals to just be animals again rather than just suffering commodities from birth to death. The meat is no different on an atomic level from any other meat... except it is naturally "more tender" due to never moving and developing muscle.

[Unbeliever]

In the US some "biker groups" attend rape cases and sit in the front row to ensure that victims don't feel threatened by being in the same room as their rapists while giving testimony. Some countries also employ dogs (who rest their heads on childrens laps) in courtrooms for children who have suffered abuse and has resulted in children's testimonies being more effective in court cases.

While India was in lockdown hundreds of thousands of sea turtles came onshore and laid 60 million turtle eggs. Something not seen in hundreds of years.

Many Australian scuba divers who normally do tours but have been unable to due to massive decline in tourism over 2020-21 have been using staff and equipment to plant new coral all along the Great Barrier Reef.

The Chinese city of Shenzhen has become the first official city in China to completely ban the sale of dog and cat meat and make it illegal to both sell and consume (also for the new Chinese generations countrywide this practice is becoming less and less common among the youth in China anyway... which is why this is happening now).

In New Zealand the Prime Minister went out of her way to assure children that the "Easter Bunny" and "Tooth Fairy" were considered to be essential workers and therefore would continue to perform their tasks as normal during the pandemic.

2 Pandas in Hong Kong were left undisturbed long enough during the outbreak to make some baby pandas... after over 10 years of repeated failure.

Ireland is now officially the first country in the world to provide their female citizens with free tampons and sanitary pads.

Germany has started converting 62 disused military bases and grounds into wildlife sanctuaries for their native wildlife.

Some doctors in Scotland and Canada have officially started prescribing "doses of time in nature" and "Free tickets to museums" to people suffering from depression and anxiety with some extremely positive results so far.

Some tattoo studios offer to "cover up racist tattoos" for free and with no questions asked to encourage those who have grown up from questionable pasts to "move forward" with their lives and leave such things behind them.

Scientists have created a fabric made from living algae that actually absorbs C02 and releases oxygen. They are starting to make t-shirts.

A Boston hospital converted their entire roof into a veggie garden and they grow fresh fruit and vegetables for patients' meals.

[Unbeliever]

In the Netherlands a new trend has started called "Kow knuffelen" which is "Cow Hugging" as a method to combat mental health problems which have had positive results so far in reducing stress. Apparently this practise has also had some obvious positive effects on the cows as well as indicated by some major changes in their behaviours.

Several tribes in the Amazon rainforest have been trained to fly drones over their territories and have been given the equipment to immediately report to authorities illegal hunting and deforestation activities. So far the program has had amazing success.

New Zealand has implemented a "gold star" recycling program. Anyone who does a "good job" with their weekly recycling gets a special gold star put on the front of their bin every week. The bins gradually accumulate more and more stars that their entire neighbourhood can see whenever they put their bin out on the street encouraging others. This simple program has massively increased recycling efforts and participation rates in entire neighbourhoods in New Zealand suburbs.

Scientists have found that feeding cows seaweed cuts out 99% of methane emissions from their farts and burps... and is in fact better for them as seaweed has more nutrients than regular grass and hay.

Rome has recently implemented a new system that allows people to pay for their public transport tickets with vending machines that take plastic bottles as currency. In a very short time they have already recycled over 350 000 plastic bottles and it is becoming more and more popular for commuters every day.

Vienna has started giving out free tickets to museums, art galleries and concerts to those using public transport or bicycling rather than driving cars.

[quirkywords]

unbeliever thanks for providing this list of positive stories.

Cow hugging is interesting, I can recommend hugging big soft toys!!

Good news story

Masahiko Kimura began creating his first bonsai designs in his mid-teens.

Featuring dead wood sculpted by tools of his own design, they broke traditional rules dating back centuries.

Perhaps Kimura’s rebellious rule breaking shouldn’t be too surprising: His first dream? To be a rock and roll star.
Over the decades, Kimura’s unique style has gone on to become accepted and even revered—with fans nicknaming him “The Magician.”
These days Kimura—who is now in his 80s—is one of the country’s rare bonsai masters, and he has apprentices all over the globe.

[Unbeliever]

Prisons in Brazil reduce their prisoners' overall sentence by 4 days for every non-repeated book they read and submit a detailed book report on (up to a maximum of 48 days a year). Because they found that prisoners that read books cause less trouble during their sentence, walk out of prison with a greater education than when they walked in and are less likely to reoffend and end up back in prison.

In New York, every Sunday, there is a hairstylist who goes around the city and provides free haircuts to homeless people.

There are several window washing companies in the US that will dress up as superheroes (Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Captain America, etc) when cleaning the windows of various Children's Hospitals... much to those children's delight, many of whom are fighting terminal conditions.

In Florida, Glenn Buratti,who suffers from autism and epilepsy, invited all 16 of his classmates to his 6th birthday party. Not one of his classmates came and Glenn was devastated. His mother posted on social media what had happened and 3 days later, members of the local Sheriff’s office and fire service visited Glenn at home to wish him a belated birthday. They were in full uniform, they brought gifts and all of their best service vehicles to give him a full tour. A rescue helicopter even flew overhead, low enough so Glenn could see the pilot waving.

In Wisconsin, firefighters responded to a call that an elderly man had collapsed from a heart attack while shovelling snow from his driveway. They got him to hospital in time and then immediately returned to the man's house afterwards and cleared his driveway for him.

In Vancouver Canada, 10 year old Kiana Jones asked her mum if she could sell all of her stuffed animals and donate the money to their local RSPCA. She raised $40 Canadian and sent it to them with a card... "I sold my stuffed animals, so real animals can get better care. I got $40 bucks for you! From: Kiana”

In Japan, passengers on a platform collectively worked together to move a train carriage in order to rescue a trapped woman. Dozens of Japanese commuters successfully pushed the 32-tonne train carriage away from the platform and freed a woman who had fallen into the 20cm (8 inch) gap between it and the platform.

[Unbeliever]

In Staten Island, when a disabled war veteran Michael Sulsona’s wheelchair broke in their Mariners Harbor home-improvement store, three employees decided to stay an hour past closing time in order to fix it. After they finished the repair job, Sulsona said, the men were too modest to accept his thanks. The employees just kept repeating, “It was an honor to help you sir. It was an honor,” he said.

In Iran, people started putting hooks on street walls to display clothing for the homeless in various different Iranian cities called "Walls of Kindness". Next to the hooks are the words... "If you don't need it, leave it. If you need it, take it." Overnight donations of coats, trousers and other warm clothing started to appear and the idea quickly spread to other cities, fuelled by thousands of Iranians on social media.

In Greece, a cafe called Hott Spott (in Lesbos) opens its doors to homeless dogs that have been abandoned on the street during winter and allows them a safe warm place to sleep overnight every night after their customers leave.

Arron Culling of New Zealand spotted the pair at a local food market in Papua New Guinea, threw down $50 (about US $33), put them in his truck and released them back into the wild. “I found these at the local market, got them for 50 bucks, drove 5 km up the road and let them go" he said and admitted that this is not the first time that he and a friend have done this.

In Somerset, Massachusetts police officer Matt Lima was called in to arrest 2 women accused of shoplifting food around Christmas time. When questioned, the family said they had fallen upon hard times and could not afford to pay for all the food for a Christmas dinner for their family. Mr Lima served them with a "no trespass" order, but did not press charges as all the items on the shopping receipt were for food. He then bought them gift cards worth $250 US with his own money so the women and their two children would be able to buy food for their Christmas dinner at another shop of the same chain.

In Austin Texas, when an animal shelter was flooded hundreds of local residents and people from nearby towns all came out in force to adopt all of the animals within. The line extended all the way down the street with people patiently waiting and wanting to help.

[Unbeliever]

In 2018, 70 year old grandmother Pat Smith watched a documentary about plastic pollution in our oceans and decided to dedicate herself to cleaning up beaches in the south west of England. She successfully fully cleaned up 52 beaches singlehandedly in just 12 months armed only with gloves, bags and an extendable litter claw.

In Burton, Michigan. Angela Peters was turned away for a manicure due to her cerebral palsy tremors. The staff at Da Vi Nails had told her that "she moves too much" refused to do her nails and told her to leave. A lady called Tasia Smith was on her lunchbreak from her cashier's job at a local supermarket and witnessed this happen. She told Angela to wait at a local subway while she bought some nail varnish and then spent her break doing the woman's nails for her for no other reason than "she wanted her to have a good day".

In Worcester, 5000 people waited for hours in the rain to get tested to see if they were a match to save Brady, a 5 years old suffering from an extremely rare form of cancer after his parents pleaded for help. A match was found in 2017 by an anonymous donor.

In the Netherlands there is a long term aged care facility that offers college students a place to stay for free in exchange for 30 hours of volunteer work with the elderly residents per month. Often this can be just just talking to them after a class, party or concert and telling the residents about what happened and their adventures outside of the facility which many of them are now incapable of leaving.

Some researchers taught African Grey Parrots how to use tokens to buy food. As an experiment they gave some parrots 10 tokens and others they gave none. The researchers found that the parrots with the tokens would give away tokens to their "broke" brethren so that they could also eat without any benefit to themselves for doing so.

7 year old Cavanaugh Bell, spent $600 of his own money (saved up from two birthdays and three Christmas days) to purchase and package 65 “COVID-19 Carepacks” along with 31 hot meals from a local restaurant, "Buca Di Beppo", to serve to senior citizens and help the local businesses impacted by being closed after the Covid shut down of local restaurants. On top of that, he also helped feed 90 international students in need who are trapped and cannot get home but have no governmental support.

There is a beachside cafe that offers a free coffee to anyone who collects a "bucket of rubbish" from the beach. They also loan out the buckets.