Month: January 2022

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • The overall cancer death rate dropped by about a third from its peak in 1991 to 2019, averting about 3.5 million deaths, CNN.
  • Uganda has immunized eight million children against polio in just three days. Uganda has achieved incredible results in childhood health over the past 20 years, with the mortality rate for under fives dropping by more than half. The East African.
  • Child mortality rate worldwide has also dropped by half over the past 20 years. UNICEF.
  • Tanzania has lifted a 20-year ban preventing adolescent mothers from attending school. The Citizen.
  • Fatal police shootings in America dropped by 13% between 2020 and 2021, reaching the lowest annual number on record. ABC.
  • The Philippines has banned child marriage. South China Morning Post.
  • Technology, education, and community efforts have helped Bangladesh reduce cyclone-related deaths more than 100-fold since 1970. The New Humanitarian.
  • Giraffe populations across Africa have rebounded by 20% since 2015. National Geographic.
  • Mexico’s endangered jaguar population increased by 20% between 2010 and 2018. Mongabay.
  • South Australia set an impressive new renewable energy record in the final days of 2021, with the state’s solar and wind farms and rooftop solar systems supplying an average of just over 100% of local demand every day for a period of almost one week. Renew Economy.

For more good news, check out The Progress Network, and Future Crunch.

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • The history of the end of poverty has just begun. Our World in Data.
  • First-ever pig-to-human heart transplant offers hope for thousands in need of organs. USA Today.
  • Researchers find a new target for a universal flu vaccine: the “anchor”. Freethink.
  • A Texas team comes up with a COVID vaccine that could be a global game changer for low income countries. NPR.
  • First female judge nominated for Pakistan’s supreme court. The Guardian.
  • mRNA vaccine technology has helped repair broken hearts in mice. New Scientist.
  • Grazing livestock among the trees is helping to prevent wildfires. Reasons to be Cheerful.
  • Beijing meets state air quality standards for first time in 2021. Reuters.
  • U.S. sees record job growth in 2021. Bloomberg.
  • Spain returns to pre-pandemic employment levels thanks to creation of 776,000 jobs in 2021. El Pais.
  • Thousands of seasonal farmworkers will get their much-deserved raises after all. Daily Kos.

For more good news, check out The Progress Network, and Future Crunch.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
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I’ve recently finished watching Deep Space Nine. The last time I left off in my irregular series of reviews was season three, so I’m picking up again with the season four opener, Way of the Warrior.

This is the point where Worf joins the cast. I’ve got to say this episode doesn’t feel like Star Trek with violence ultimately winning the day. The spaceship and hand-to-hand battles felt more like a Star Wars thing. Sisko not checking for survivors after a space battle because it might give away their position was particularly callous. I did like Garak saying that while the Klingons beat him up, he got in a couple of cutting remarks sure to cause emotional damage for years to come. Despite its reputation for being dark, Deep Space Nine is actually the funniest Trek series to come out before Lower Decks.

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Noise by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
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When it comes to errors in human judgment, we tend to focus on bias, but noise is also a cause of error. Bias is the average of errors committed by a group. You need to know the right answer to know what the bias is. Bias is systemic and predictable. Noise, on the other hand, is variable amongst a group of judgements. You can tell there’s noise even if you don’t know the right answer. It’s unpredictable and not easily explained.

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I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
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Harlan Ellison is considered one of science fiction’s grand masters and I’ve heard praise for the title story in this collection, so I decided to give it a try.

“I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream” doesn’t have much of a plot. Basically, four men and one woman are being tortured by an artificial intelligence the whole time. The woman has sex with all the men even though they beat her and ignore her cries.

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