Two Breakthrough Therapies Improve Parkinsons Symptoms
Researchers in China report high efficiency in stem cell therapy, helping Parkinson’s patients regain lost movement. Transplanting stem cells into the brains of six participants resulted in rapid improvement and sustained increase in dopamine with one patient showing dramatic improvement. Independent has the story HERE.
In a related story, Rand Laycock of Ohio was able to conduct an orchestra again after deep brain stimulation significantly reduced his Parkinson’s symptoms. Good News Instead has that story.
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A Retired Cop Created a Mobile Laundry Bus to Help Homeless People
Since retiring from the police department, Wade Milyard has been traveling around his city near Washington offering laundry service he created for people experiencing homelessness. You can read Wade’s story from The Good News Network, and please watch the video below from Steve Hartman:
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Canadian Bystanders Help Pilot Whales Get Back Out to Sea
Mark Rankin and Grant Cameron braved the waves in their underwear to help guide three pilot whales back out to sea on a Nova Scotia Beach. The Good News Network has details that are mostly in this video:
Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ship.’” Use it as a noun, a verb, or slang … or all three! Enjoy!
In the late 1960s when I was 11, I fantasized about serving on the starship Enterprise. My dad was serving in Vietnam, and my mom was often incapacitated by depression. Star Trek may have saved my life, or at least gave me a harmless way to escape. Star Trek reinforced my interest in science and showed how people of different races could get along, at least in the Federation of Planets. The idea that non-humans could be as intelligent or more so than humans resonated with me, like in the episode, “The Devil in the Dark” in which a “monster” who looked like a moving rock was just protecting her babies.
On the Enterprise, I would have been a biologist (biology was my first major in college) or perhaps a counselor (psychology was my final major in college) maybe even a diplomat. The only problem might be that I get motion sickness really bad. Would they have a cure for that lasting during away missions?
If you’ve read my blog for a while, you might know that Mr. Spock was my first crush – logical, dependable, intelligent, and handsomely tall to my awkwardly tall 11-year-old self. Naturally, the episodes where Spock falls in love, once with red-head Mariette Hartley in a cave and again on the planet with the spores and his old wannabe flame – those episodes captivated me. Spock’s father married a human woman, so Spock was half human. It seemed that human women could melt his facade at least for an episode.
My husband David is somewhat Vulcan-like: logical, dependable, intelligent, and handsomely tall. When he’s intensely focused on practical matters, I remind myself that after the two chaotic post-divorce rebounds, I thought, maybe I need someone like a Vulcan…. The universe and God heard that thought.
In high school and early college, I fantasized about serving on a Greenpeace ship – saving the whales. I was going to be a marine biologist. But higher mathematics and physics led me to change my major to psych. Plus, the motion sickness has gotten worse over the years.
I still love Star Trek and Greenpeace. But serving on a ship, nah. I suspect that ship has already sailed.
But then again, anything is possible.
Spock, Star Trek and saving whales come together in the movie, The Voyage Home.
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On Tuesday, we finally got a closer look at Pilot Mountain, aka, Jomeokee, the Great Guide, from the Little Pinnacle Overlook trail.
“Pilot Mountain is a metamorphic quartzitemonadnock rising to a peak 2,421 feet (738 m) above sea level….. It is a remnant of the ancient chain of Sauratown Mountains. The Saura Native Americans, the region’s earliest known inhabitants, called the mountain “Jomeokee”, meaning “great guide”.[1]” (From Wikipedia)
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Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G. Hill.
Iceland’s government has suspended this year’s whale hunting until 31. A “government-commissioned report concluded the hunt does not comply with Iceland’s Animal Welfare Act.”
“There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea, and so we urge the minister to make this a permanent ban,” said the Humane Society International’s executive director for Europe, Ruud Tombrock.
This article from The Guardian reports that Iceland’s whaling season runs from mid-June to mid-September, and “it is doubtful (the one remaining company) would head out to sea that late in the season.” Warning: The article opens with a photo that may be difficult to look at.
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Japan Broadens Definition of Rape and Raises Age of Consent
Japan recently passed laws to redefine rape from “forcible sexual intercourse” to “non-consensual sexual intercourse.” The new law raised the legal age of consent from 13 to 16, and the statute of limitations for reporting rape was increased from 10 to 15 years. It also specifies situations where a person may find it difficult to give consent. BBC has details.
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Company to Pay 10.3 Billion Over US Water Contamination
Chemical manufacturer 3M Co. will pay at least $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over contamination of about 300 U.S. drinking water systems with potentially harmful PFAS “forever chemicals” used in nonstick and water-resistant products. The money will help with costs of filtering PFAS from systems where it’s been detected and testing others. AP has more.
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Pregnant Bus Driver Gets All Students off the Bus Before it Burns
Imunek Williams got all 37 students off her bus before it burned. Here’s the video:
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Got Good News?
Feel free to share your good news in the comments!
Today’sprompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “wild animal.” Choose a wild animal (or many wild animals) and use it any way you’d like in your post. Enjoy!
Wild animals are not necessarily wild to each other. People can act as wild as (other) animals sometimes. Elephants grieve the loss of their loved ones in ways that we can see. Whale mothers carry their dead babies for days or weeks, not wanting to let go. Dolphins, Chimpanzees, and birds have been seen using tools. Wolves use strategic pack coordination in hunting. What makes them wild and humans not wild?
You can read about the emotional lives of “wild” animals
Today, penguins have been on my mind. Our choir director used to call us penguins because we dressed out in black and white choir garb. He has a collection of stuffed penguins on the organ. Now, his body is becoming overwhelmed by cancer. He’s been moved to hospice. It’s real now.
Chris has been a big part of my life for years of Wednesday night choir practice. His strange sense of humor made practice interesting. When Mama Cat was living at the church in the pre-pandemic years, Chris was the main person to feed her. She had a reputation as being mean, like a wild animal, but she was really scared. Her first expression of affection to a human was to rub against Chris’s legs. During the pandemic, when we were not having church, Mama Cat came to live with me. She’s not wild anymore.
Since Chris has been sick, I’ve been picking most of the music for Sunday mornings and playing my guitar to lead the congregation in singing. We tried a couple of hymns acapella, but that is risky. My guitar skills are very basic and much softer than Chris’s organ playing, but the guitar helps us be on key as I find the confidence to sing loud and clear enough to lead the singing.
On Tuesday, after seeing the scripture readings, I emailed my suggestions for Sunday’s music. Our priest added a suggestion from the hymn book. I started to feel a little overwhelmed. Sometimes it’s hard to find the guitar chords for traditional hymns so I’ve been leaning toward more contemporary songs. Now, I’d have to look for the chords and see how hard they were. I started to respond in an email that I was feeling a little overwhelmed. But I got a nudge. I checked one of my songbooks with chords and found the hymn there. The chords were easy! No problem.
Yesterday, I was praying. I started by giving thanks for the blessings of my life. I suddenly realized that with all the blessings – David, retirement, security, and relatively good health – I realized that preparing and leading music at church for a while is the least I can do. This is a temporary situation. Life is temporary. I can do this ministry with love and gratitude.
Animals act wild when overwhelmed by fear or maybe hunger. They act on instinct to protect themselves. The same thing can happen with us humans. We get anxious or confused. I think, this is too much. It’s not going to work. My stomach tightens and not in a good way. But if I take a deep breath, pray, and get more information, things work out. I also want to remember that most things are not life and death situations, except when they really are.
Here are some old and new photos:
Feral Mama CatDomestic Mama CatMe with Penguin FriendsOur Good Shepherd WindowLight beam on church pewChurch windows reflecting sunset
I can’t get the “Eagles Wings” song chorus out of my head and that’s okay.
It goes like (this with God saying):
And I will raise you up on eagles wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of my hand.
Here’s our choir singing it a few years ago with Chris playing the organ.
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Update: Chris passed away this morning. I’m very sad, but thankful he did not suffer long.
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For more information about Stream of Consciousness Saturday
Iceland has announced that there will be no new commercial whaling permits after the current permits expire in 2023. Contributing to the decision were decreasing economic demand and The World Wildlife Fund’s “Meet Us, Don’t Eat Us,” campaign. Here’s more from The Good News Network.
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80-Year-Old Man on Foot Rescues People in Three Cars from Blizzard
Andre Bouvier Sr., a retired rescue worker in Canada, walked through a “Saskatchewan Screamer” to rescue people in three cars. He then led the people to his home. Read this remarkable story from The Good News Network including a video from CBC.
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Seal Nudge Inspires Man to Keep Swimming
Scott Thompson thought he was going to die after falling from his boat into frigid water wearing only a T shirt and shorts. Then a seal nudged him from below inspiring Scott to swim five more miles to reach help. Read more in this article including a video of Scott telling his story
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Marcus Gets a Kidney
In 2019, Marcus Edwards held up a sign at Chicago Bears football game. The sign said, “I need a kidney, O Positive, with his phone number. Jennifer Michel saw the story and couldn’t help but shake the feeling that she was the one who could help. In October of 2021, Mr. Edwards got Jennifer’s kidney. Sometimes things take longer than we hope, but they can still work out for the best.
Got Good News?
Feel Free to Share Your Good News Story or GNT Link in the Comments!
Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “close eyes and point.” Grab the closest printed material to you when you sit down to write your post, open it up (if it’s a book, flyer, etc.), close your eyes, and point. Whatever your finger lands on, use that as your prompt. Have fun!
Thanks Linda!
It’s Friday morning, earlier than I usually write my post for SoCSaturday. I’ve got a busy day getting ready for tomorrow’s artisan fair at my church. It’s a big deal to me. The forecast is for a lot of rain, but it’s an indoor event, so I hope they don’t cancel it. This afternoon will be clear skies, or at least not much chance for rain, so that will be good for the set up. I’ll share some more later about that if the stream takes me there.
So, sitting at the table which doubles as my desk, there is a pile of papers to my left. The one on top is a green piece of scrap paper that I’ve written notes on from one of my organizations – Northside Food Co-op. I live near the northside of town which is part of a large food desert that includes my neighborhood. We’re starting with a Saturday farmers market and the plan is to have an affordable grocery store in the area. I signed up to be on the community engagement committee. (This was after telling myself not to sign up for anything new.) Anyway, there was a zoom meeting and a guest who is a former resident of the northside. The young African American woman talked to the committee about growing up without regular access to food, the poverty of not knowing, watching her mother struggle, and some personal trauma that she experienced. I asked her what helped her get through these things, and she said she just did – she got through it. She shared a spiritual awakening as an adult that has given her enthusiasm to go back and help those in the old neighborhood.
I didn’t point with my eyes closed, because when I looked at the green piece of scrap paper trying to decipher my notes, I was pulled to the word, “gratitude” in the middle of the paper. The young woman who grew up on the northside said,
“I have a purpose. Gratitude is a big fire inside.”
That would make a nice one-liner for Wednesday. But here it is in the stream. A big fire inside makes me think of heartburn, so I don’t normally think that way. But for some people, a fire inside is a motivator for enthusiasm, a warm glow that gets things going. I could use some of that. I’m pretty busy right now, but I need more exercise as I get older. There is a tendency to want to be a couch potato which is okay sometimes. Good thing I have all these ideas that get me off the couch and nice weather of the autumnal kind to get me walking outside.
This morning David texted me that he has known me for 50 years. The party where we met in 1971 was on November 6th. That was so cool that he remembered, even if he remembered it a day early. He is the farthest thing from a couch potato. It’s interesting how partners compliment each other. I’m a night owl and he’s a morning person…….
I am filled with gratitude that God brought David back to me when the time was perfect. I’m also grateful that I have the flexibility in retirement to be busy, when ignited by the fire inside, or to sit on the couch and watch the Lord of the Rings or whatever I want to watch.
Here’s my favorite recent piece I’m taking to the artisan fair Saturday. I believe I already have a buyer!
“Blessing the Whales” ~ Acrylic on Wood Panel
Here are some other projects I’ve been working on for the artisan fair. David drilled holes in the mimosa cookies so they can be ornaments. We had to cut the mimosa way back when we had the roof redone. It grew back well.
Angel on Mimosa Cookie
Angel with Golden Dog – acrylic on canvas
Fun with shells – a work in progress
Maybe this is my way of thanking the angels for all these years of protection and nudges.
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For more streams of consciousness, rules, etc. visit our host Linda Hill by clicking here.
Record-High Number of Humpback Whales Counted off the Coast of Japan
The recent edition of my Goodnewspaper reported a record of 1087 humpback whales were observed off Amani Oshima Island in Japan from December 2020 to March 2021. Out of the 670 pods observed, 105 included mothers and calves which is also a record. This is the first time the seasonal count of whales has exceeded 1000. Humpbacks and other whale species were decimated by commercial whaling in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The population increase of these intelligent, social mammals shows what global conservation efforts can do. I’ve added a video about whales in Hawaii at the end of today’s post.
To get your good news delivered, click the link below:
Strong Nigerian Homes are Made with Plastic Bottles
Plastic bottles filled with sand are being used to create houses in Nigeria. This bottle brick technology is reported to be “18-times stronger than regular bricks.” You can read more about the innovative process and see the attractive houses in this article from the Good News Network.
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Israel to be the First Country to Ban the Sale of Fur
In six months it will become illegal to sell fur for “fashion” in Israel. ““Even with the exemption for traditional dress, … Israel’s fur ban will save the lives of millions of animals suffering on fur farms or languishing in cruel traps around the world, and it sends a clear message that fur is unethical, unnecessary, and outdated.” Claire Bass, Humane Society International UK. Here’s more from The Optimist Daily.
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Juneteenth Becomes a Federal Holiday in the US
Last week, the US Congress voted to make Juneteenth (June 19th) a national holiday. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Thursday, June 18th, in time for the 156th anniversary of the day African Americans in Texas were informed that the war was over and they were free. This New York Times article, includes information on the significance of the holiday which has also been known as Emancipation Day.
Here’s the signing ceremony. The video is long, but worth watching, even worth skipping the ads.
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Getting back to the whales, I hope you enjoy this video about humpback whales in Hawaii.
Though more safety data is still needed, Pfizer reports the COVID 19 vaccine they’ve been working on has shown to be 90% effective in early phase 3 tests. Proving safety and going through FDA approvals could take up to four weeks. Here’s more from Good Morning America
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Good News for Whales from Iceland
“…..commercial whaling may be one step closer to a permanent end in Iceland and possibly the world. For the second year in a row, Iceland, one of three remaining whaling nations, will not hunt any whales.” Source: National Geographic
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Solar Energy Success
In October, South Australia met 100% of its electricity demands with solar energy with most of it coming from rooftop panels. This article from the Good News Network has details including that “Solar is now the cheapest electricity in history.”
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Political Civility
NBC’s Today Show reports on two candidates who ran for governor of Utah. Together they released a short video about civility and working together. The good news within the good news is that their video has gone viral. I believe that’s because people are getting tired of rudeness and hungry for civility and cooperation.
My personal good news is that I’m reporting from my balcony, surrounded by trees, in the Appalachian Mountains AND my son got married on Saturday!
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No Whaling in Icelandic Waters this Summer
“A shrinking demand for whale meat” has led the major whaling companies of Iceland to “abandon their summer harpooning.” Let’s hope this trend continues to spare the lives of highly intelligent and social beings.
Here’s more of the story from the Good News Network:
In 2018, professional singer, Elly Brown had life changing surgery for oral cancer. Doctors removed half of her tongue and part of her jaw. They later used bone and muscle tissue from this her leg to repair her tongue. Her recovery process has been a long and continuing road. She wants us to share this video to give hope to people with oral and facial cancer. You can read her story while she sings.
Got good news?
Feel free to share!
I might take a while to respond to comments. The birds are singing, and the fresh mountain air is intoxicating. The years of heartache fade into history as my soul overflows with amazed gratitude. Oh! And there were fireflies here last night!
NotOK is an app that sends a text message and current GPS location to up to five pre-selected contacts. The idea came to Hannah Lucas, 16, after Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome and bullying led to severe depression, anxiety, and a suicide attempt. Her brother Charlie who is 13 helped create the app. You can read more in this Parade article and see the video below to hear from Hannah and Charlie.
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Community Helps Donut Shop Owner Spend More Time with Wife
John and Stella Chhan have run this donut shop since 1990. Now, Stella is recovering from a brain aneurysm and everybody misses her, including John. His customers are buying out the donut inventory early every morning so John can go home and be with his wife. Here’s the heartwarming story.
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Two Beluga Whales to be Released to an Ocean Sanctuary
A Shanghai aquarium has agreed to release two beluga whales to a sanctuary being built in Iceland. The organization Sea Life Trust hopes to transport them in March of 2019 as the whales and the sanctuary are being prepared. I have to admit, I’m a little nervous about their safety, but I’m also hopeful. This is a step in the right direction.
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Good news is more abundant than the mainstream media lets on. Good News Tuesdays seeks a little balance, one Tuesday at a time. Got good news? Please share it!
Anything is Possible! 