Month: July 2023

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Between 1990 to 2019, the share of the global population living in extreme poverty dropped from 38% to 8.5%. World Bank.
  • 25 countries halved multidimensional poverty within 15 years. UNDP.
  • Deforestation in Colombia fell 29% last year. The Guardian.
  • New rapid malaria test: A breakthrough by Angolan twins. DW.
  • Philadelphia’s eviction diversion program kept thousands housed. New York Times.
  • How a simple tag helped India save fuel worth $8.4 billion. Rest of World.

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

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Trials have shown dementia drugs donanemab and lecanemab slowed cognitive decline by 35% and 27% respectively. The Guardian.
  • Cambodia has reduced its maternal mortality rate from 810 per 100,000 live births in 2008 to 154 per 100,000 live births in 2021-2022. During the same time, under-five mortality has fallen from 55 to 16 per 1,000 live births, and overall life expectancy has risen from 61 and 64 years to 74.3 and 76.8 years for men and women, respectively. Khmer Times.
  • Saudi Arabia introduced a set of legal reforms which increased women’s labor force participation from 22 percent in 2019 to almost 37 percent today. Arab News.
  • ‘Knock Knock’ enables victims of domestic violence in South Korea to report abuse to the police with just two taps on their smartphone. It shares the victim’s location and allows them to stream evidence to the police live. LBB.
  • 4ocean has recovered 30 million pounds of plastic waste and man-made debris from the world’s oceans, rivers, and coastlines since the company began in 2017. Oceanographic.

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

Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Between 2000 and 2022, 2.1 billion people gained access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion gained access to safely managed sanitation. WHO (PDF link).
  • Globally, deaths from drowning decreased by 44.5% between 1990 and 2017. BMJ.
  • In the United States, child poverty has been reduced by 40%, and the gains made by low-wage workers have reduced income disparity by 25%. Prospect.
  • Low emission zones in cities have reduced heart and circulatory problems, resulting in an estimated health cost savings of €4.4 billion. The Guardian.
  • Wind and solar saved consumers in Texas approximately $11 billion in 2022. PV Magazine.

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

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter R. Borneman

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

James Knox Polk was born in 1795 in a log cabin in North Carolina, within twenty miles of Andrew Jackson, who was 28 years older. His family was Presbyterian, but his grandfather became a deist and Polk himself wasn’t baptized due to his father getting into an argument with the local minister. His family moved to Tennessee in 1806.

Young James was sickly due to urinary stones. In 1812, when he was 17, he survived surgery to remove the stones. He started attending the University of North Carolina when he was 20. At the time, the university was staffed by a single administrator, a single professor, and a few tutors. He graduated in 1818, but was too frail to travel home right away.

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The Far Reaches

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

The Far Reaches is a collection of six short stories available for free for Amazon Prime subscribers. All of the stories take place in space. Colonization is a theme in half the stories. We get a wide variety of narrators including an AI, an alien, a human raised by aliens, and a clone. There’s a cozy science fiction story and an engaging murder mystery aboard a space ship. They’re all written by famous science fiction writers. I liked all of them, but my favorites are the stories by Rebecca Roanhorse, Veronica Roth, and James S. A. Corey.

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Good News Friday

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment
  • Belize certified malaria-free. WHO.
  • How data helped Mexico City reduce high-impact crime by more than 50%. World Economic Forum.
  • Israel reduced the suicide rate in the military by about 30 percent. Think Global Health.
  • Indonesia and Malaysia have cut deforestation in half in last five years. Yale 360.
  • China on course to hit wind and solar power target five years ahead of time. The Guardian.
  • A massive underground deposit of high-grade phosphate has been discovered in Norway, enough to satisfy world demand for fertilizers, solar panels and EV batteries for 100 years. Euractiv.
  • Conservation efforts celebrated as 26 Australian species no longer need threatened listing. The Guardian.
  • A new TB vaccine could save 8.5m lives over the next quarter of a century. The Economist.
  • Day care for less than $10: how Canada is easing the burden for parents. The New York Times.

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

John Tyler: The Accidental President by Edward P. Crapol

~ D. J. Moore ~ Leave a comment

John Tyler was born into wealth and privilege on a Virginia slave plantation. (Incidentally, he was born just twenty miles from his future running mate William Henry Harrison.) His father Judge John Tyler was Thomas Jefferson’s roommate at William and Mary and was elected governor three times. John Tyler was educated at the prestigious College of William and Mary himself and went on to practice law.

Tall and slender, Tyler was warm and affectionate and had a keen sense of humor. He relished parties and preferred champagne to hard cider (even though hard cider was an integral part of his vice presidential campaign). He liked to dance the Virginia Reel and play the fiddle. He fathered 15 children, the most of any president. He had toddlers underfoot until he was in his early seventies. He was a good public speaker and a prolific writer of letters and political tracts. He loved books and frequently quoted Shakespeare. There were 1,200 books in his library at the time of his death.

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