
Good News, Part 1 - mathgenius
https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2015/12/24/good-news-part-1/
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anon4
Kind of a missed opportunity to not stick an "everyone" in there :-). Or is
the phrase copyrighted/trademarked?

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waynecochran

        "(There seem to be people who are too optimistic—but
        strangely, I don’t know them personally. Am I just 
        avoiding them, or are they avoiding me?)"
    

Interesting question -- optimism, at least in the extreme, seems much rarer
then pessimism.

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HCIdivision17
When I watched Tomorrowland, this is the idea that struck me: that it had been
a _long_ time since I've seen anyone who was so determined to be optimistic.

There's a really great quote I came across in a comic [0]:

    
    
      Max: Fear is easy. Fear is cheap. 
        Instead of fear, we're going to give the people hope. 
      Sam: Fear vs. Hope. Hardly an even match. 
      Max: That's because you think of hope as something light
        and fragile. My version of hope has calluses and dirt
        under the fingernails and isn't past bringing brass
        knuckles to a fight.
    

I like to think there's a sort of grinding optimisim that really gets things
done. Where people slog through the hard work, slowly and gradually dragging
us to a slightly better future. You can knock a lot down with some FUD
conflagration, but there's some stuff that will be lasting. And this article
highlights stuff that will - at least - last a couple decades.

[0]
[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/Freefall](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/Freefall)

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teddyh
I think that custom demands that one provides a link to the actual comic:
[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2500/fv02418.htm](http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2500/fv02418.htm)

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HCIdivision17
Yup, looking back TVTropes linked to it; not sure how I missed it the first
time. It's one of my favorite lines, but I always have a hard time searching
for it. At least I'll be able to find it through via the sideways channel of
your comment now!

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OliverJones
Lots of good news. But we should be careful not to misinterpret one point.

The Ebola virus isn't "defeated." It has gone back into hiding in animal
populations. It may well appear again.

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ChuckMcM
True, however we also have a vaccine now so pandemics are less likely. So that
is an improvement in the state of the art.

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lisper
Ebola has never been the global threat it has been made out to be. It can be
controlled by simple sanitation and common sense (i.e. avoid contact with
bodily fluids emanating from people with active cases of Ebola). This was
demonstrated by the fact that when the virus was introduced in the U.S. it
didn't spread. For Ebola to spread requires some pretty abominably lax public
sanitation practices. Having a vaccine in hand is just a bonus.

Oh, there's also probably a treatment for ebola if someone can be bothered to
do the study: [http://blog.rongarret.info/2014/12/the-cure-for-
ebola.html](http://blog.rongarret.info/2014/12/the-cure-for-ebola.html)

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raglof
I really find this type of news reporting refreshing. I've always found it
hard to find a good feel-good-news site, it really lightens the mood. I've
wondered why there was no central website that was dedicated to feel-good-
news; instead, a bunch of small sites and posts scattered throughout the
internet. Any reccomendations?

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amelius
Related:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10793969](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10793969)

