We need to hear more good news. I'm so exhausted from the gloom. Cheer me up.
Eat It
"Scientists have discovered a worm that can digest plastic, and they are currently trying to copy it's digestive system. This can help solve a huge problem."
my_username_30
It's Doable
"An Arkansas school district installed 1,400 solar panels, turned a $250k deficit into a 1.8 million dollar surplus due to the amount of energy they saved, and are now raising teachers' salaries by 2,000 or 3,000 dollars."
washyourhands--
"School of dreams!"
InfamousPudding6052
Deep Breathes
"On the surface of Mars, the mars rover was able to successfully separate oxygen from carbon dioxide."
Upstairs_Toe_1402
"That's interesting, but if people are hoping for a breathable Mars, it's far from the only hurdle. Mars' atmosphere is much too thin to ever be surface friendly and IIRC has no ozone layer. Still, it's useful potential technology for any subsurface colony."
imgrandojjo
Webb
"The public release of the first images captured by the Webb space telescope is just ten days away!"
JuniusBobbledoonary
"I've been counting down the days for this! I don't participate in astrophotography myself but I'm absolutely fascinated by it and blown away by what we already have. The Hubble deep-field blew my mind when it really soaked in for me. Webb is immensely more powerful so I can't wait to see what comes through in the future from it."
Merry_Dankmas
Action!
Movie Theater Reaction GIF by CBSGiphy"Some journalist wrote something based off of one of my tweets and now I accidentally named a movie. Even if it sucks I hope the film gets a release since that's a notch on my belt."
artpalos
Now this is the news we need to hear. CNN should sprinkle more of this in.
"Whiskey War"
Alec Baldwin Whiskey GIF by Product HuntGiphy"Canada and Greenland (Government of Denmark) have just come to a peaceful resolution of the 38 year territorial dispute over the highly coveted Hans Island, where they've agree to share the island and split it right down the middle. This is of course the famed 'Whiskey War.' The main aspect of it (swapping schnapps with whiskey or vice versa), I imagine, will remain in some part as a celebrated border-crossing tradition."
i_f**kin_luv_it_mate
Miracles
"Several extremely promising treatments for cancer are being developed."
46from1971
"As someone who lost their dad to cancer, seeing all these breakthroughs is so exciting. He did some experimental treatments, and I know that he helped move some of this along."
OHManda30
"I lost both of mine to cancer… specifically pancreatic cancer for my mom. I heard about the potential breakthroughs with finding a cure for the disease. I’m beyond excited for what this could mean for people suffering."
TheCallousCurd
The kids are alright...
"I was at the Phoenix airport a couple weeks ago. An older gentleman sat next to me at our gate. Both his feet were wrapped in some sort of bandage and he was struggling to get around with a cane. On his other side were a pair of teenagers just giggling over kitten videos on their phones."
"They were strangers but made sure this man got helped to the restroom, had a drink, carried his bag, got to his seat, had access to a wheelchair when he got off the plane! It was seamlessly selfless. The kids are alright. They really are. I'm 47. I am seeing it around me so often."
GoingApeCostume
Wonderful!
"Polio was officially eliminated from Africa last year."
Less_Reflection_7601
"I was in Africa ten years ago and saw it a lot. It's devastating and tragic, and oh so preventable. What a great thing to hear for those people!"
M33tm3onmars
"break the cycle"
Bel Air Reaction GIF by PeacockTVGiphy"More people are seeking to 'break the cycle' of all the crap they had to deal with as children, and I couldn't be prouder."
No-Championship21
You name it...
"The amount of machines in development to clean up plastic pollution is just crazy. Want a large boat patrolling the oceans? What about a small drone for busy waters? A gate stopping plastic in rivers from entering the oceans in the first place? You name it, someone is working on it."
MarcoYTVA
Rubbish
"The ocean cleaner that everyone said wouldn't do anything years ago has carried itself into an outstanding success!"
MsMcClane
"They've also figured out like 7 locations where all the ocean rubbish ends up because of currents. Wonder if this is going to be targeted there now?"
_artbreaker
"Are you sure about that? Last time I checked the number of trash that we dumped in the ocean was several times larger than what any of these projects could clean."
lazyfinger
"trigger"
"Astronomer here! I'm pretty psyched for the first James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) pictures and data, which will be released to the public in just 10 days! One is going to be of the farthest galaxies we've ever seen, and one is going to be of the spectrum of an exoplanet, and probably one or two other things showing the capability of the telescope we don't know yet. The fact that JWST has worked without a hitch, and that we are finally getting to see all this, is so exciting!"
"My own group has JWST time by the way, to study a neutron star merger (I'm not on it, but will definitely be looking over the shoulder of the person in charge when our data comes in!). Our time starts this very month and lasts for a year, and we have no idea when the universe will deliver on the 'trigger' we need to spin JWST in that direction- could be later today, could be in June 2023- I guess we shall see!"
Andromeda321
Hey Jon
Excited John Cena GIF by WWEGiphy"There is a video going around of this Ukrainian refugee woman who told her son that they were going to see Jon Cena in order to get him to escape with her. Jon Cena heard the story and flew over there to see them so he could meet her son."
idk0897
Smells
"I bought a mess ton of milkweed and wildflowers and got rid of 20% of my grass lawn to make a meadow. Bees are thriving in my lawn. I also successfully seed bombed quite a few places in my area from last year's fall that are BLOOMING this year."
SadlyCantGoToEdc
"Good on you! I keep my yard wild and full of flowers. They are pretty but they are for the bees mostly. Have you smelled the milkweed flowers? They smell so good!"
MartoufCarter
501st Legion
"Chapters of the 501st Legion, people dressing as Star Wars characters, visit children's hospitals all over the world. Connecticut has free admission all Summer for kids at museums, zoos and aquariums."
Bigbird_Elephant
"My neighbor is in the 501st! They do a lot of good."
IvoryRosebud93
Killing the Layers
"Ozone layer has been almost 100% repaired after the CFC bans from years ago."
PulverizedAnus
"Really? Do you mind linking your sauce? I didn't think that was possible so soon, like I know CFC's are the worst for Ozone, but I thought there are still plenty of other ozone depleting gases we're producing - methane, halons, nitrous dioxide, etc."
i_f**kin_luv_it_mate
"I've been wondering about this lately. I remember CFCs being called the worst thing for the environment in the 90s, and that we needed to stop using aerosol cans immediately. But I still see aerosols everywhere."
thespickler
I See
Happy Feeling Good GIFGiphy"I know it may be selfish to put here but I’m proud of myself for this. I went from not seeing a purpose in living to living every day with purpose."
DudeManThing1
See there is some good in the world. Let's report more.
Redditor DJWP137 was curious to hear which inventions the Reddit community thought may have done the world a disservice, leading them to ask:
"What, in your opinion, is the worst thing humans ever created?"
My kids couldn't grow up soon enough
"Caillou."- Cerinthus
Benefits absolutely no one
"Torture devices."
"All of them."
"A tool with no other purpose than to inflict misery is about as far from humanity as humanly possible."
"I’m referring to the definition of humanity which means 'humaneness or benevolence'."
"Not 'having to do with human kind'."- Willzyx_on_the_moon
"Chemical and biological weapons."- SuvenPan
Always remember to hold your breath when pumping gas.
"Leaded gasoline."
"It's believed that in the U.S. alone, leaded gasoline caused the loss of about 824,000,000 IQ points."- DeletedImmediately
gas gasoline GIFGiphyJust round up the measly penny!
"Items that end in .99 cents."
"Pure evil!"- CarloTheGoat
One less step to damage your lungs!
"Pre-rolled and packaged cigarettes."
"In the 1950’s, a pack of cigarettes was just 25 cents."
"Cheap, convenient, and easily available, even to children."
"While a responsible store might not sell them to a ten year old, supermarket vending machines didn’t care."
"The public didn’t know much about their danger back then and ads even told the public about how Doctors loved to smoke, implying that smoking had the blessing of the medical establishment."- Sxzym
Hours wasted in front of a screen
"League of legends."- _Duckling04
"Social Media in some ways."
"Social media has had an amazing amount of influence, but for all the good that it does, it also creates a 'toxic mirror' effect."
"This is the concept of making people feel bad about themselves by constantly being exposed to information that would make them create negative opinions about themselves."
"The toxic mirror makes anything that isn’t physical, emotional, and mental perfection, ugly and bad for that person."
"Beyond the toxic mirror, many people use social media in ways that hurt the people around them."
"The manifestation of a social persona can often present the opportunity for a user to put out very public misinformation."
"This break from reality further muddies people’s ability to properly identify risk, putting them in harmful situations."
"The Internet is filled with trolls, stalkers, and bullies."
"These groups are allowed to run rampant, as people don’t have a lot of resources to ward against them."
"These individuals hide behind their Internet persona, making civil action against them extremely difficult."
"Cyberbullying, specifically, can cause great harm to people of all ages."- KnotKarma
social media facebook GIF by weinventyouGiphyThey achieve nothing except making me feel bad about myself
"Credit scores and algorithms that value engagement over quality of content so that sh*tty provocative things which get 100s of hate responses and volatile comments are all anyone sees and thinks we're all the worst of humanity."
"It's like that South Park arc about the Danish trolls coming to fruition, a posts something to get a rise out of b who responds which makes c and d respond and so on."
"Only it's like all the internet is."
"A pyramid scheme of rage clicks."- renaaria
Only time will tell what else modern inventors have in store for us.
For better or worse.