Woodrow Wilson by John Milton Cooper, Jr.

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

Thomas Woodrow Wilson born was born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia. He was the third child and first son of Reverend Joseph Ruggles Wilson, minister of First Presbyterian. Reverend Wilson was a heavy smoker, scotch drinker, and billiard player. He was outgoing, witty, and fond of puns. (Woodrow Wilson himself didn’t smoke, but had the occasional scotch.)

Like his mother, Tommy had blue-gray eyes that changed color with his mood. In 1857, his father was called to Augusta, Georgia and the family had slaves to serve them leased by the church. His father got an honorary doctorate and went by Dr. Wilson thereafter. 

Tommy was four when the Civil War broke out. Not only did southern states leave the union, but southern Protestants also seceded from their national organizations. Dr. Wilson was a high ranking member of the Confederate Presbyterians. However, two of his brothers were Union generals and his father was anti-slavery. He never reconciled with his family after the war. Tommy didn’t get to know his Wilson relatives until he was a grown man.

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Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • New tiny home village will house the homeless with $300 monthly rent and free healthcare. Good Good Good.
  • In Brazil, nearly 656,000 teens gave birth in 1996. In 2025, that figure had plummeted to around 276,000—a 58 percent drop in under three decades. Rewire News Group.
  • Scientists identify 64,000 sq miles of coral reef capable of surviving climate crisis. Reuters.
  • Arizona’s 26 wildlife crossings have reduced collisions by 90%. Good Good Good.
  • UK sales of electric vehicles just overtook petrol cars for the first time. CarbonBrief.
  • Renewable energy is overtaking traditional power projects across Africa. AP.
  • In a scientific first, researchers recovered ancient DNA that humans left behind on rock art and cave walls. Smithsonian Magazine.

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

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • In 2025, slightly fewer than 5.4 infants died for every 1,000 born in the US — down from the 7.5 of 30 years ago. CDC (PDF link).
  • Experimental hepatitis B drug might offer ‘functional cure’ for a subset of patients. CNN.
  • Young women in the UK now have ‘close to zero’ risk of cervical cancer death after HPV jab. BBC.
  • Global rice production has nearly doubled over 50 years despite climate change. Phys.org.
  • In 2019, EVs made up just 1% of new car sales globally. By May 2026, 63% of new cars sold were electric. DW.
  • UK’s EV drivers are now saving £1,100 each a year. CarbonBrief.
  • A brain implant is helping a man with paralysis to communicate with his family and friends and to use his personal computer at home. Nature.
  • A Chinese expedition accidentally found a 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale graveyard. Nature.

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

The Simpsons Season 13

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

Up to this point, this has been a Simpsons rewatch, but now with season 13, we’re getting into episodes I haven’t seen before. Back when this was originally on the air, I did see most, but not all of the episodes this season. In future seasons, there’s going to start being more and more episodes that are new to me as we go forward. I’m predicting that the new-to-me episodes probably won’t impress me as much since I won’t have any nostalgia for them. Case in point, I hadn’t seen “Treehouse of Horror XII” (S13, E1) before and I wasn’t impressed.

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Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Breakthrough pancreatic cancer drug nearly doubles survival in trial. USA Today.
  • Over 90 per cent of countries have laws guaranteeing the rights of persons with disabilities. UN News.
  • A chemo-free treatment was found effective in kids with an aggressive blood cancer. The trial’s survival rate was 99%. Medpage Today.
  • The number of global deaths from enteric infectious diseases fell from 3.69 million in 1990 to 1.27 million in 2023. Rotavirus vaccine makes big impact. CIDRAP.
  • A study in Italy found that remote work wiped out much of the “motherhood penalty,” the earnings loss that often follows having a child. CEPR.
  • Solar overtakes gas power in Asia for first time ever. CarbonBrief.
  • Used EVs are now the most affordable cars. The Wall Street Journal.
  • Lost to science for more than 70 years, the black-lored waxbill was only recently rediscovered in a marshy region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yale Environment 360.
  • While buildings in London or New York can take three years to complete, China built a 26-story tower in just five days with 100 workers. IDR.

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

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • The United States saw a 3.3% drop in homelessness, marking the first decrease since 2016. AP.
  • After peaking in 2021, the combined age-adjusted rate of deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide declined by 16 percent in 2024. Trust for America’s Health.
  • Electric vehicles cut pollution in China and prevent 260,000 premature deaths. Nature.
  • Pakistan imported more Chinese solar panels than any other country on earth in 2025. No subsidy program drove it. No national rooftop scheme. No feed-in tariff. People just did it. Bright Spots.
  • The New Zealand orange-fronted parakeet has twice been declared extinct, only to be rediscovered. Now, a pair of super breeders named Nacho and Trixie have produced 55 chicks, making them responsible for more than 10 percent of the total population. France 24.
  • New solar desalination breakthrough makes fresh water without toxic brine. ScienceDaily.

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

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • A combination of vaccine and immunotherapy for skin cancer helped reduce risk of cancer spreading to another part of the body ​by 59% after five years of follow-up. Reuters.
  • Experimental hepatitis B drug may offer functional cure for some patients. AP.
  • Papua New Guinea has reduced its malaria death rate from 13 to one per 100,000 over 25 years. The National.
  • 58% of the global population now has access to safe sanitation up from only 31% in 2000. Our World in Data.
  • One of the world’s largest deep-sea coral reefs has been discovered off the coast of Argentina—and it’s home to dozens of species new to science. Mongabay.
  • Once endangered, the IUCN has formally reclassified the green sea turtle as Least Concern. It skipped two classifications entirely, jumping straight from Endangered to Least Concern without pausing at Vulnerable or Near Threatened. Rolf Skeldon.
  • West London’s Greenford Tube station used to flood whenever it rained heavily. After a family of beavers resettled nearby built a dam, the flooding stopped. NPR.

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

The Devil Sat on My Bed by Erin E. Stiles

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

This is a collection of miracle stories told by Mormons living in Cache Valley. Stiles isn’t a Mormon herself, but presents Mormon beliefs respectfully. Since I grew up Mormon, I found much of this book to be unnecessary since I already know the Mormon beliefs she describes. I’d say this is largely written for a non-Mormon audience, although Mormons will still find some stories they haven’t heard before. It was interesting to read an anthropologist discussing Mormonism like it’s an exotic culture when I was raised in it.

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Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

“To go to war is easy. It is peace that is hard.”

This is very reminiscent of Dune at first. There’s mentats (called scholiasts), sword masters, transparent shields that block fast projectiles but not swords, and a ban on thinking machines due to trouble in the past. The saying “Fear is the death of reason” replaces Dune’s “Fear is the mind killer.” Doctors also have a symbol tattooed on their foreheads. Moisture‐recycling clothing gets mentioned and the hero has a vision of countless billions of deaths that will occur in the future.

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