Return of Good News Report...

Good News From the American Resistance and Its Global Allies

Disclaimer: As always, Good News like beauty and humor is often in the eyes of the beholder, hopefully something makes you smile, even if its just a picture at the end.

1. Amazon will pay $2.5 billion to settle claims that it tricked customers into signing up for Prime, then made it hard to cancel.

How to determine you are eligible and how to get your refund

It's really just for folks who signed up in 2019, and it's no more than $51.

2. "Prototype device controlled by silent speech
( Read more... )

Alterego - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03084-7

3.The health and economic benefits generated by vaccines against COVID-19 in the first year alone — a return of $60 to $475 on the dollar.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2496200-covid-19-vaccine-benefits-worth-up-to-38-trillion-in-first-year-alone/

4. "Podcast: an AI health oracle
( Read more... )

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03026-3

5. Colorado pastor and wife ordered to repay $3.4M to victims of their crypto scam

( Read more... )

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/colorado-pastor-and-wife-ordered?publication_id=95153&post_id=173867959&isFreemail=true&r=335kz&triedRedirect=true

6. New research on nature’s effect on focus is so compelling.
( Read more... )

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/nature-walk-focus-attention-1.7109264

7. "With dementia rates expected to double by 2060, it’s normal to think about ways to stay sharp. Unfortunately, many popular brain-training apps and games don't produce lasting memory benefits, but there’s a simpler approach that doesn’t even require a screen.

( Read more... )

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/12/11/114

8.New research reveals a connection between grip strength and mental health.

https://www.askmen.com/fitness/mental-health/the-surprising-connection-between-grip-strength-and-mental-health.html

9.Remember the race to cure HIV? We're closer than you think. Remember the race to cure HIV? We're closer than you think.
A new clinical trial in South Africa delivered a rare but extraordinary outcome: One young woman may be cured of the virus.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/08/25/g-s1-84393/whatever-happened-to-the-race-to-cure-hiv-theres-promising-news

10. The Dutch are quietly shifting towards a four-day work week
Opponents say they make us less productive. Fans say they give us freedom. What do the results really say?

https://www.ft.com/content/7b61e52c-93fc-4634-b9ad-fdacac5d6538
( mostly situations of resistance and medical health improvements like above - 46 in all )

Sunday wanders into an art fair....

It was a lovely day, the sky bright as a robin's egg, so I took a long walk to the local art festival or Artmeggadon - which allegedly had over 400 artists participating. ( Read more... )

But I found it a bit crowded in places, and often hard to see the art, so chose not to walk any further into the fair, and zig-zagged back home taking in the scant offerings on the way. It being Brooklyn, I saw a variety of landscapes on the walk - from multi-family homes that one might well see in the wealthy suburbs of Connecticut or Mass, with their broad porches, arched roofs, and well manicured lawns - to the brick multi-storied pre-war apartment buildings, and old school shops. Upon two walls were painstakingly painted murals, telling their own stories of the people who lived here, with songs in their hearts.

As I neared my own block, I chose to snap a few photos of the sunflowers growing in wild abandon in front of stone and mortar house that dated well back to the 1950s and the pre-war apartment building next door.



Television this weekend

* Great British Baking Show - up to Episode 13

* The Newsreader on Prime - it only has season 1, and it's leaving in four days, after that you can only see it and the next season on AMC. S3 has aired in Australia but isn't available yet on streaming. It takes place in yesteryear - the yesteryear in question, 1986. And focuses on a National News/Local News broadcast station in Melbourne, Australia during 1986. It stars Sam Reid (Lestate in Interview with a Vampire), Anna Torv (Fringe), and Robert Taylor (Longmire). I finished S1. The later seasons aren't available on streaming (outside of AMC). But S1 kind of stands by itself, and wraps up neatly on its own. I didn't really need to see anything after it? It doesn't really require more episodes, although there is obviously more story there. It's a workplace serial. Also discusses homosexuality and bisexuality through a 1980s lens - which is painful at times, but accurate and informative - it's good to see how far we've come, I think.

* Call the Midwife - this is a partial re-watch continuation. I can't remember when I stopped watching the show? I think it was somewhere around S6 or S7? Since I vaguely remember the episodes I'm watching now.
But not well enough to skip ahead. It's a comforting series that takes place in the 1950s-60s in London - Great Britain. It's on Netflix, so it's just streaming from one episode to the next. I'd originally watched it on PBS several years ago.

*Angel the Series - started my re-watch. It's better than I remembered and holds up better than expected. Things I didn't realize? ( Read more... )

****

Question a Day Meme - End of September

22. Are you good at managing your time, or would you love to be better organized?

Yes. Perhaps too good - work wise. I've had to be - because of deadlines, and I get anxious. So, I don't procrastinate on big things, and get them done quickly. Also, I don't over-schedule myself.

23. Do you know how to perform the ‘Heimlich manoeuvre’?

No. I used to, ages ago. But I don't now.

24. Have you ever seen a comet in the sky?

No.

25. ‘Rotomontade’ is a bragging speech or rant. When was the last time you had a really good rant about something?

My rants tend to be more kvetching not bragging? I don't tend to brag? Bravado is not a skill of mine.

26. Have you ever been fruit-picking? What kind of fruit did you pick, and what did you do with them?

Yes. Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries as a child. We made pies with them and put them over cereal and ice cream. Also muffins and cake with the blueberries. I can't remember if we picked apples.

27. Do you know how to change a tyre/tire on a car? Have you ever had to do it?

No. And no.

28. Have you ever eaten caviar?

Yes. It's salty, but I'm not really a fan? Expensive but not worth the price or the bother.