In today's troubled times, this counts as good news. THIS COUNTS.
4th March, 2017 - Muslims offer to guard Jewish sites in US
"Following the recent spate of bomb threats against Jewish community centres and the desecration of graves at cemeteries in Philadelphia and St. Louis, some Muslims have turned to social media to offer to guard Jewish sites."
Military servicemen, lawyers, Emmy-award winning TV broadcasters - the list goes on. I love stories like this so much.
3rd March, 2017 - Man Planted Trees In Same Spot Every Day. 37 Years Later...
This lovely little Nat Geo clip shows what a person can do with time and perseverance.
Since 1979, Jadav Payend has created a forest of over 550 hectares (Central Park is 341 hectares) - in it live elephants, rhino deer and even tigers. He's determined to restore his home island of Majuli to its former, forest-y splendour. BOSS.
2nd March, 2017 - Organutan kisses point to the dawn of spoken language
"New research may help to unlock the mystery of why and how our evolutionary ancestors first combined a consonant with a vowel to make the first word."
Those kiss-squeak noises that orangutans make may actually be early examples of consonant-vowel combos - or WORDS. How cool is that.
1st March, 2017 - One woman's battle against food waste
You and me both, Selina
This boss comes grew up in Communist Russia and was used to major scarcity, so when she came to Denmark and saw its abundance she immediately started finding ways to cut down the incredible amount of waste going on.
28th Feb, 2017 - Another 100 companies pull advertising from Breitbart
Chin up, cunt
Sleeping Giants, a group campaigning for advertising transparency, are naming and shaming companies that advertise on white supremacist site Breitbart News, formerly headed by primo cunt Steve Bannon.
And companies, driven as we know by profit, are moving away from advertising on the site; its increasingly toxic reputation is bad for business. Another 100 companies have reportedly pulled their advertising from the site, with more undoubtedly to follow. This feels empowering, it really does. Be sure to name and shame companies you see advertising in places that peddle hate and fear. If we his their wallets, they'll change.
27th Feb, 2017 - Cards Against Humanity co-creator sends newest board game, Secret Hitler, to all 100 U.S. senators
Secret Hitler is a great little hidden role game that I backed on Kickstarter because I love that kind of thing (even though Cards Against Humanity - a game co-created by Max Temkin, who also co-created SH - is a real pile of shit).
It's a game about the horrible rise of fascism in 1930s Germany, and despite the schlocky title, is a surprisingly astute take on the ways in which evil can creep into power, and good, if weak people, can underestimate it, or worse - try and use it for their own gains.
Read more26th Feb, 2017 - Trudeau apologises for Canada's colonial history
Good egg and all-round dreamboat Justin Trudeau has apologised for Canada's history of discriminating against Asian immigrants. Because there are decent people around.
25th Feb, 2017 - Woman gets revenge on catcalling van drivers
This is delicious. Woman is catcalled by jerks in van, then cycles after them and breaks a wing mirror in revenge. If it makes just one bell end think twice before verbally abusing someone for no reason then good for it.
24th Feb, 2017 - NASA & TRAPPIST-1: A Treasure Trove of Planets Found
"A treasure trove of new planets were found around a tiny, nearby, ultra-cool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Three of the seven planets are firmly in the habitable zone."
SENTIENT LIFE FTW???
23rd Feb, 2017 - A ‘Refugees Welcome’ Banner Hung on the Statue of Liberty Today
“Refugees Welcome,” the Statue of Liberty declared Tuesday afternoon, when a group unfurled a banner across the pedestal of the monument just before 1 p.m. “We have no formal group, but are just private citizens who feel that the principles that make America great are under attack,” the protesters, who used the name Alt Lady Liberty on Twitter, told Daily Intelligencer in an email. “Some of us have never done anything like this before but felt the need to act now.”
22nd Feb, 2017 - On the Milo Bus With the Lost Boys of America’s New Right
This is a blisteringly good article by Laurie Penny, full of righteous anger and frustration at the shit show currently going on in America, and indeed, around the world. It's a reasonably long read, but utterly gripping and damning of the youth who have been hoodwinked into supporting the alt-right and the right wing machine that is happy to chew them up as fodder when they need them and leave them to their own devices when they're done.
21st Feb, 2017 - The Gates Foundation Plans To Give Birth Control To 120 Million Women Worldwide By 2020
I mean, it's ridiculous - truly, utterly ridiculous - that it has to come from mega-wealthy rich people, and abortions happen according to their whims, but at least these mega-wealthy rich people are doing something decent. Fuck, America. You're the worst.
20th Feb, 2017 - London Girls' School Praised By Campaigners For Allowing Students To Chose Their Gender Identity
This article was shared by a friend of mine who attended the school in question, (St. Paul's school) and did not have a good time. But despite that, she was absolutely 100% in praise of this move, even accepting that it was in a comfortable liberal bubble and from a position of absolute comfort and power.
Still, it's a great step forward. Change has to come from somewhere.
19th Feb, 2017 - Proof that you're a socialist
Jonathan Pie has done lots of political videos where he pretends to be on camera, then rants between takes about whatever nonsense is going on that week. Clearly it's a golden age for satire, and some of his stuff is good, but often I find his targets are poorly chosen or lacking in real bite.
Then he makes this video about what it means to be socialist, and lots of things fell into place for me. This is vibrant, spine-tingling commentary and it awakened part of my brain in a simple and primal way. It made me realise: I am a socialist. I come from a socialist country. No matter what the current dreadful lot are trying to do. And that is a powerful feeling.
Watch the video here. There's a great slam at the end.
18th Feb, 2017 - Danes have the best work-life balance in the world thanks to these 3 important beliefs
I have asked a friend living in Denmark if any of this is true, but in the interim, there may some good lessons to be gleaned. Have a read.
17th Feb, 2017 - Swedish nuclear physicist just got the world’s first approved birth control app - as effective as the pill but using only mathematics
Oh, Sweden. You'll outlive us all
Boss nuclear physicist and professional Swede Elina Berglund has developed an app that is able to calculate a woman's fertility daily by taking a temperature measurement under the tongue every morning. A clinical study has proved it's as effective a method of birth control as the pill.
She's come under fire from various camps, but the app now has over 150,000 users in 161 countries and is kicking butt.
16th Feb, 2017 - Romania: government retracts controversial decree after protests
Yeah you will
Amazing news in Romania as citizens protest the government's attempts to make corruption legal. CORRUPTION. There's some great videos out there of the mass of citizens (compared to a "sleeping giant awakened", but this one of the pres Grindenau eating his fucking words will have to do for now.
Making corruption legal...are you fucking kidding.
15th Feb, 2017 - These dapper gentlemen are changing the way the world sees Iraq
#gorge
Hot young Kurds show the world there's more to Iraq than conflict by showing off their quality threads. Excellent stuff.
14th Feb, 2017 - Big Green Bookshop Tweets Entire Harry Potter Book To Piers Morgan After JK Rowling Spat
I love everything about this
"Celebrity toady" (Rowling's words) and "complete cunt" (mine) Piers Morgan has been getting into an ill-advised Twitter feud with JK Rowling after she laughed at him being called out for his bullshit on American TV.
She has already owned him several times, but now a bookshop in North London has decided to tweet the entirety of the first Harry Potter book to him, after he claimed (despite using it to selling his own writing) that he'd never read of them, and thought they were shit.