Etidorpha, or the End of Earth by John Uri Lloyd

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

I got this book a while ago and don’t remember why I got it in the first place. I’d say this book is about half fiction and half philosophical musings. There are long lecture-type sections about a variety of topics including alchemy, intoxicants, and the limitations of science. He claims all food is really sunshine and only seems like it’s other things because matter is the carrier of sunshine. He claims liquid can sometimes go against the force of gravity. I kept wishing he’d just get on with the story rather than lecturing us so often and at such great length.

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Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Maternal mortality in Oman has fallen by 53 per cent. Observer.
  • An integrated primary health care model in northern Togo cut the risk of death before age five by 29%. Gavi.
  • The proportion of girls married before the age of 18 in Cambodia dropped dramatically, from 26.3% to 9.5%, while marriage before age 15 declined from 2.5% to just 0.6% thanks to the Time to Act Project. Asia News Network.
  • A record 1 in 3 U.S. workers now have access to paid leave. The 19th.
  • In 2025, solar and wind produced more electricity than fossil fuels in the European Union. Our World in Data.
  • BYD rolls out EV batteries with 5-minute flash charging. Tech Crunch.
  • UK emissions fall 2.4% in 2025 as coal hits 400-year low. CarbonBrief.
  • After being hunted to local extinction in the early 20th century, bearded vultures have returned to the Alps. BBC.
  • Black soldier fly larvae show promise for safe organic waste removal. ACS.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • The share of the world population living in extreme poverty has never declined as rapidly as in the past three decades. Our World in Data.
  • Malaria vaccination reduces hospitalizations, deaths of children in northwestern Nigeria. Gavi.
  • Oil spills from tankers have fallen by more than 90% since the 1970s. Our World in Data.
  • Chile becomes the first country in the Americas to eliminate leprosy. WHO.
  • Croatia is officially free of landmines, three decades after the Yugoslav wars. TVP World.
  • Renewables generated 26% of the United States’ electricity in 2025, a new record. Bloomberg.
  • How ‘smog capital of Poland’ saved 6,000 lives by cutting soot levels. The Guardian.
  • North Aral Sea regains a third of its water thanks to restoration efforts spearheaded by Kazakhstan. Euronews.
  • The kakapo, a flightless New Zealand parrot, was down to 51 individuals in 1995, but has bounced back to a population of 236. The New York Times.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

We Dance Upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

“Most people don’t change the world, and yet, most people still matter.”

Nisha works in an abortion clinic in Chicago. The forty days leading up to Easter are the most difficult as there’s extra protesters during Lent. To make things even worse, her ex-boyfriend Aaron now works at the clinic with her. He used to be an anti-abortion protester so she doesn’t trust him.

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Psych

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

Psych (2006-2014) is a hilarious show about a guy named Shawn who is hyper-observant and has a perfect memory, yet somehow forgets a lot of things and often lacks common knowledge. He pretends to be a psychic and solves murders with his best friend Gus. There are a lot of eighties references and famous guest stars (many from the eighties). It doesn’t entirely hold up (there’s some scattered instances of homophobia and objectification of women in a few episodes here and there which I thought was old-fashioned even when it originally aired), but overall, it’s still watchable.

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The Simpsons Season 10

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

Since US Presidents are an interest of mine, I’ve been keeping track of presidential references in The Simpsons. For season 10, we have a reference to then-current president Bill Clinton in “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace” (S10, E2). A couple radio DJs joke that the President has a new website: http://www.[whistling noise].[boing noise]. This is a reference to Clinton’s womanizing ways. It’s interesting that The Simpsons is said to be a liberal show when, so far at least, they make fun of Democrats as much as, or more than, Republicans.

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Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Almost all countries have ended large-scale forced labor. Our World in Data.
  • WHO validates elimination of trachoma as a public health problem in Libya. WHO.
  • Denmark becomes first country in the European Union to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. WHO.
  • Deforestation has been reversed in Europe, North and Central America, and large parts of Asia. Our World in Data.
  • Electric car sales almost double in India in 2025. Bloomberg.
  • One of the world’s largest steelmakers is using a battery that harnesses waste heat to curb emissions. Canary Media.
  • Costa Rica once had one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, but around the turn of the century its forests started growing back. Now, natural forests blanket well over half of Costa Rica, making it one of the few places on Earth that has revived its lost ecosystems. Vox.
  • ‘Universal vaccine’ protects mice against multiple pathogens. Nature.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Carry Me to My Grave by Christopher Golden

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

After Malcolm’s mother dies, he’s determined to carry out her final request to bury her in the town she was born in over a thousand miles away. His sister-in-law Violet, who’s he’s in love with, comes along, as well as a pair of Irish twins hired by his mother before she died. It starts out delightfully weird with a stalker wearing a raven mask and something hiding in the roots of a tree. It quickly becomes a road trip from hell as zombie/vampire-like creatures try to stop his mother from being buried.

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Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Measles cases in Europe, Central Asia drop 75% in 2025. Reuters.
  • Death penalty on the decline in Southeast Asia. DW.
  • Ireland made its basic supplementary income for artists scheme permanent after an analysis found that it more than paid for itself in productivity gains and reduced reliance on other forms of welfare. The Guardian.
  • India installs record 36.6 GW solar in 2025. PV Magazine.
  • The number of animals farmed and killed for fur production plummeted from 140 million in 2014 to just 20.5 million in 2024. Good Good Good.
  • This cat with ‘otter-like feet’ went extinct in Thailand nearly 30 years ago. Then trail cameras caught it on film. Good Good Good.
  • The first-ever inhaled gene therapy for cancer has been fast-tracked by the FDA. Veritas News.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Jamaica’s poverty rate fell to 7.8% in 2024, the lowest level in at least 50 years, down from around 30% in the 1970s. Jamaica Observer.
  • In 2000, fewer than 10% of people in Indonesia had access to clean cooking: by 2023 it was 91%. Cleaner stoves mean less fine-particle pollution in homes where families actually breathe, and death rates linked to indoor air pollution have fallen sharply as a result. Our World in Data.
  • Armenia adopts universal healthcare insurance. OC Media.
  • San Francisco to make childcare free for families earning up to $230,000. The Guardian.
  • China’s CO2 emissions have now been ‘flat or falling’ for 21 months. Carbon Brief.
  • Finland’s last two coal plants were shut down last year. HSY.
  • Romania has cut emissions by 75% since 1990, while doubling its economy. The Guardian.
  • Nearly one in three cars produced in Germany was purely electric in 2025. Clean Energy Wire.
  • Bermuda snail thought to be extinct now thrives after a decade’s effort. The Guardian.
  • Aluminum tubes that float even when punched full of holes are bringing us one step closer to unsinkable ships. ZME Science.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.