Facelift!

The Good Times is getting a facelift! Our new design will be ready in a few days.

Meanwhile, let us know what you are doing to bring about positive change or make a difference, or send us information on the current scientific exploits, achievements, inventions, breakthroughs in medicine or other fields you know about.

Let's disseminate the positive news!

Peter Diamandis: Abundance Is Our Future

Peter Diamandis is Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, a non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, thereby inspiring the formation of new industries and the revitalization of markets that are currently stuck due to existing failures or a commonly held belief that a solution is not possible."

The X PRIZE is a $10 million award presented to the winners of a specific challenge set by the X PRIZE Foundation. The Foundation also conducts competitions for the X CHALLENGE, a $2.5 million award for a breakthrough in solving a certain technical problem.

Both the X PRIZE and the X CHALLENGE competitions are divided into four prize areas: Exploration (Space & Deep Ocean); Energy & Environment; Education & Global Development; and Life Sciences.

Click on this link to hear Peter Diamandis remind us of humanity's amazing progress over the last 100 years and why abundance is our future. 

Harmony in Music and Effort

The Harmony Program is a New York-based non-profit music education organization that “provides daily after-school music lessons to children from economically disadvantaged communities. Harmony's unique model taps the city's college- and graduate-level music students as teachers, training them to develop the talents of young people who would not ordinarily be exposed to music education.”

The program is modeled on a popular music project started in Venezuela 36 years ago called El Sistema. It’s a social activity that is less about music than about developing the child. Music is used to help children commit to something, including time and effort. And the music is also used as a tool to teach children to listen to each other, and to give them the sense that they belong to something. It gives them self-confidence. Since it was started in 2008, students in the Harmony Program have attended school more regularly.

Public school 129 in Harlem is one school that has adopted the Harmony Program. It is offered every day after classes to 3rd through 6th graders from 3:00-5:00 PM. The students are provided free instruments and free instruction, as well as a safe and supportive environment to develop their talents, strengths, and potential.

The Program is funded through private donations. Learn more here.

Making the Impossible Possible

It's expensive to keep people poor!" Those are the words of Bill Strickland, CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporatio​n. His business aims "to create empowering educational environments for adults-in-transition as well as urban and at-risk youth, enriching Southwestern Pennsylvania and, eventually, the world." In particular he has built the Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh, an adult career training institution that offers horticulture, pharmaceutical and culinary art studies. But Bill believes in bringing art and business practices together, so his educational centers also teach orchid care, real estate, music and ceramics.

As described on his website, Bill Strickland is indeed a "visionary leader who authentically delivers educational and cultural opportunities to students and adults within an organizational culture that fosters innovation, creativity, responsibility and integrity." He calls himself a "wild dreamer" and says "life is about exposure - if exposed to opportunity, you can start to conceive them." He also says his dream is constantly evolving - it's a process. What is sure is that Bill has given opportunity and hope to a multitude of disadvantaged people and a second chance to those who want to seize the opportunity he offers.

His book is Make the Impossible Possible.

Humanity among Tragedy

"This story is ultimately about how small acts of kindness can bring a little humanity, even in a tragedy that defies all imagination." It's an account of what a retired undertaker has achieved in Kamaishi, Japan. Atsushi Chiba took it upon himself to clean and tend to the dead bodies of hundreds of last year's earthquake and tsunami victims, preparing them for their family members (in case they're found) and burial.

Read the moving story in The New York Times as we recall the events of one year ago.

Aung San Suu Kyi Is Allowed to Make a Campaign Speech

Today, as reported by the BBC, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to deliver a campaign message and even to criticize her country's political system. A clear sign that things are changing positively in Burma, she was able to speak for 15 minutes on national television and radio as part of a new government provision that gives parties in the 1 April by-elections the right to outline their political themes and aspirations for the country. Forty-eight parliamentary seats are being contested in the upcoming election. Hopefully her National League for Democracy (NLD) party will win many.

Dramatic changes are occurring in Burma. That's good news!

How a Titanic Telescope Could Equal African Development

Africa is a contender, along with Australia and New Zealand, in a project to build a really huge telescope – the Square Kilometer Array. Although the decision on where to build it won’t be known until late March or early April at the earliest, the project is already in full swing. Made up of 3,000 radio-frequency receivers, it will cover a collective area of 1 square kilometer, hence its name (see artist’s rendering of SKA dishes below, courtesy SKA website). The receivers will range from large dishes to small fish-eye antennas, all aimed at a different radio frequency in the sky.

Only 20% of the antennas would be located in this square kilometer, 50% would be located within 5 kilometers and some would be located as far away as 3,000 kilometers – giving the scientists who will eventually work on the project access to the entire universe, and giving the project access to an entire continent, and maybe more. If it is built in Australia, the SKA could stretch all the way to New Zealand. If built in southern Africa, it could stretch to the Indian Ocean islands.


Astronomers and engineers from more than 70 institutes in 20 countries are designing it. It will be 50 times more sensitive, and will survey the sky 10,000 times faster, than any other telescope. And they are looking to study some pretty cool things:

• How do galaxies evolve and what is dark energy? (See artist’s rendering of dark energy below, courtesy SKA website.)
• Are we alone? It will be able to detect very weak extraterrestrial signals and will search for complex molecules, the building blocks of life, in space.
• How were the first black holes and stars formed?
• What generates the giant magnetic fields in space?
• Was Einstein right? It will investigate the nature of gravity and challenge the theory of general relativity; it will explore the unknown and, if history is any guide, it will make many more discoveries than we can imagine today.

The 20 participating countries share the nearly $2 billion cost, as well as its operating costs of $130 to $200 million per year. That is a lot of money, especially for countries in southern Africa where the development possibilities attached to such a huge project are endless: millions for power, communications and data processing alone. And let’s not forget all of the side businesses and other business spin-offs that would come from the work.

“The impact on Africa would be very far-reaching and a lot more than anywhere else in the world,” said Bernie Fanaroff, Project Director, South Africa, in a recent Time magazine article on “Africa’s Eye in the Sky”. “It would be good for getting business into Africa, and we would be creating people with skills and expertise to solve problems not just in astronomy, but energy, water, food security, disease and transport.”

As a matter of fact, some smaller dishes that will be used for the project are already in the pipeline or active in Africa, and it is local populations, not foreigners, who are reaping the benefits. These include general investments in the regions where they are being built, and full-fledged programs aimed at training local populations – scientists, engineers, physicists, especially women and blacks – creating world-class astronomy teams.

Thus this program isn’t only about reaching out into the cosmos, but about the far-reaching impacts it can have right here on planet Earth.

First published as an S3 communiqué on Scientifically Yours at www.spacebridges.com/S3-blog-English/.

Good News from the United Nations

This story has been reported by several news channels in the last few days, but it's worth repeating.

The UN has reached one of the millennium development goals ahead of schedule. Goal number 7 is to "Ensure environmental sustainability." Within that goal, target 7C is to "Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation". That's the one that's been achieved. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says, "The successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water are a testament to all who see the MDGs not as a dream, but as a vital tool for improving the lives of millions of the poorest people.”

Read more here.

Congratulate India on 1 Year Without Polio!

Yes! It's time to rejoice and congratulate all those who contributed to an entire year without polio in India! Do so here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Good Times wishes you optimism and more positive news in 2012!

gelukkige nuwejaar / voorspoedige nuwejaar / ilufio ètussé / Gëzuar vitin e ri / e glëckliches nëies / güets nëies johr / عام سعيد (aam saiid) / sana saiida / shnorhavor nor tari / amokitanone / yeni iliniz mubarek / aw ni san'kura / mbuee / urte berri on / З новым годам (Z novym hodam) / subho nababarsho / asgwas amegas / mbembe mbu / bonne année / sretna nova godina / bloavezh mat / bloavez mad / честита нова година (chestita nova godina) / hnit thit ku mingalar pa / sun lin fi lok / kung hé fat tsoi / bon any nou / xin nian kuai le / xin nian hao / pace e salute / sretna nova godina / šťastný nový rok / godt nytår / sale naw tabrik / mbu mwa bwam / gelukkig nieuwjaar / happy new year / feliĉan novan jaron / head uut aastat / eƒé bé dzogbenyui nami / mbembe mbu / gott nýggjár / onnellista uutta vuotta / gelukkig nieuwjaar / lokkich neijier / bon an / feliz aninovo / გილოცავთ ახალ წელს (gilocavt akhal tsels) / ein gutes neues Jahr / prost Neujahr / kali chronia / kali xronia / sal mubarak / nootan varshabhinandan / rogüerohory año nuévo-re / bònn ané / barka da sabuwar shekara / hauoli makahiki hou / שנה טובה (shana tova) / ombura ombe ombua / nav varsh ki subhkamna / nyob zoo xyoo tshiab / boldog új évet / gleðilegt nýtt ár / selamat tahun baru / ath bhliain faoi mhaise / felice anno nuovo / buon anno / sugeng warsa enggal / akemashite omedetô / asseggas ameggaz / hosa varshada shubhaashayagalu / nav reh mubarakh / zhana zhiliniz kutti bolsin / sur sdei chhnam thmei / ngethi cya mwaka mweru / umwaka mwiza / seh heh bok mani bat uh seyo / sala we ya nû pîroz be / sabai di pi mai / felix sit annus novus / laimīgu Jauno gadu / bón ànno nêuvo / bonana / mbula ya sika elamu na tonbeli yo / laimingų Naujųjų Metų / gelükkig nyjaar / e gudd neit Joër / Среќна Нова Година (srekna nova godina) / arahaba tratry ny taona / selamat tahun baru / nava varsha ashamshagal / is-sena t-tajba / kia porotu te ano ou / kia hari te tau hou / navin varshaachya hardik shubbheccha / kaoha nui tenei ehua hou / ose:rase / Шинэ жилийн баярын мэнд хvргэе (shine jiliin bayariin mend hurgeye) / wênd na kô-d yuum-songo / umyaka omucha omuhle / ngeu' shwi pong mbeo paghe / godt nyttår / bon annada / subha nababarsa / naba barsara hardika abhinandan / naya sar Mubarak / felis anja nobo / nawe kaalmo mobarak sha / سال نو مبارک (sâle no mobârak) / szczęśliwego nowego roku / feliz ano novo / ਨਵੇਂ ਸਾਲ ਦੀਆਂ ਵਧਾਈਆਂ (nave saal deeyan vadhaiyaan) / bun di bun onn / baxtalo nevo bersh / un an nou fericit / la mulţi ani / С Новым Годом (S novim godom) / ia manuia le tausaga fou / nzoni fini ngou / bonu annu nou / bliadhna mhath ur / srećna nova godina / Срећна нова година / mwaha mwema / goredzva rakanaka / nain saal joon wadhayoon / shubha aluth awuruddak weiwa / šťastný nový rok / srečno novo leto / dobir leto / sanad wanagsan / feliz año nuevo / wan bun nyun yari / mwaka mzuri / heri ya mwaka mpya / gott nytt år / es guets Nöis / manigong bagong taon / ia orana i te matahiti api / assugas amegaz / iniya puthandu nalVazhthukkal / yaña yıl belän / నూతన సంవత్శర శుభాకాంక్షలు (nuthana samvathsara subhakankshalu) / สวัสดีปีใหม่ (sawatdii pimaï) / tashi delek / losar tashi delek / sanat farah wa khare / tshidimu tshilenga / itumelele ngwaga o mosha / posa varshada shubashaya / yeni yılınız kutlu olsun / gluk in'n tuk / Vyľ Aren / Щасливого Нового Року / З Новим роком (Z novym rokom) / naya saal mubarik / yangi yilingiz qutlug' bo'lsin / Chúc Mừng Nǎm Mới / Cung Chúc Tân Niên / Cung Chúc Tân Xuân / ene boune anéye, ene boune sintéye / blwyddyn newydd dda / bon lanné / dewenati / nyak'omtsha / a gut yohr / unyaka omusha omuhle

MassiveGood

Check out MassiveGood, and fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and improve maternal and child health. How?


It's "the social network generation’s solution to put a stop to the millions of deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and to improve maternal and child health in the developing world. If social media has revolutionized the way in which we interact, why can’t we harness its power to change the way we think about humanitarian aid? Is it possible to use the reputed “network effect” to raise awareness and increase funding for some of the most pressing global health issues in the 21st century? MASSIVEGOOD does both, by creating a worldwide community based on a simple and easy act—the 'micro-contribution'.”

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY

Bicycles for Africa

Got an old bicycle in your garage that you don't know what to do with? Send it to Bern, where it will be restored and shipped to Africa so people living in rural areas can cycle to work. That's what Paolo Richter does. His company, Gump-& Drahtesel hires unemployed individuals to recycle old bicycles for Africa, while helping them get back into the labor force in Switzerland.

Hundreds of jobless people work in Richter's bicycle and wood workshops, where they learn to be mechanics or sales people, and receive professional and personal training to reenter the job market. Over 7,000 repaired bikes are sent to Africa each year. Gump-& Drahtesel also makes lamps, jewellery and decorative items from spare bicycle parts, which are then sold in Bern to support the company's African project, while giving unemployed individuals work experience.

What a great idea: employing people who need work, training them in new skills while providing a product that offers greater mobility to people who need transportation to get to work.

Grocery Audits and Change Clubs

Here's something worth knowing about. Women out there are actually conducting grocery audits, walking down store aisles scrutinizing the ingredients in food products and translating their findings into actions that provide communities with suggestions on how to be healthier.  One idea to help parents in grocery stores identify healthy snacks for children quickly is adding labels next to those items on the shelves.

Groups of women in the United States in "Change Clubs" have been leading campaigns to do such things as analyze the food on shelves, wander through neighborhoods to make out what prevents the locals from walking and exercising more, and discover ways to help people become healthier.

Dr. Miriam Nelson, professor of Nutrition at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is the one who actually started the Change Clubs. Her idea is to use the power of women working together to increase health in communities. With 8 initial Change Club sites in the US, click here to form a Change Club, helping women support change and healthiness in your area. 

Logistics Emergency Teams

Here's a message from the Geneva-based World Economic Forum:

"In case of a major humanitarian disaster, the primary mechanism for coordinating humanitarian assistance is the Cluster system - unique cooperation involving key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners.


The Logistics Emergency Teams (LET) developed by the World Economic Forum and partner companies are the first example of a successful operational partnership between the private sector and the Cluster system. The Logistics Emergency Teams have deployed in support of emergency relief efforts in Mozambique, Philippines, Pakistan, Haiti, Indonesia, Myanmar, Chile, Japan and the Horn of Africa since 2008.

This week LET and the Forum hosted the global meeting of the Logistics Cluster [at Forum Headquarters] in Cologny - bringing together our partner companies with over 50 humanitarian logistics leads from the World Food Programme, World Health Organization, OXFAM, Save the Children, UN Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNICEF, and many others.

This meeting allowed a global sharing of best practices and lessons learned. It is an excellent example of multistakeholder cooperation to assist those in need. We will continue to support the further development of the Logistics Emergency Teams to improve preparedness for emergency response."

Chaka Chaka

South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka empowers communities in the fight against diseases and poverty.

In addition to being UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador against malaria and an Ambassador for Roll-Back Malaria, a worldwide initiative to fight the disease sponsored by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization, among other institutions, Yvonne ceaselessly endeavors to raise money for the cause. In 2006 she created the Princess of Africa Foundation to further combat malaria and "to carry out community and social charity works."

As she herself says, "We want to raise awareness and take initiative to eradicate this needless disease. People need to know more about malaria because it kills almost one million Africans a year, most of them children."

Yvonne Chaka Chaka holds degrees in adult education and government administration, and has lectured on literacy.  In addition to all that, she promotes the empowerment of African women as they battle disease, poverty and gender discrimination.

So do you suppose that's why she's called the Princess of Africa?

See her in action:

The Whale Song Project

Help marine scientists identify whale "dialects," by listening to them online. Whale songs translate into a complex language that researchers are trying to decipher. You can help marine researchers understand what whales are saying simply by listening to their sounds and deciding which calls match, grouping them into categories.

The Whale Song Project aims to "understand how and why marine mammals respond to various sound stimuli. These studies are badly needed in order to establish regulations and guidelines to mitigate the impact of man-made sound on marine life."

Click here to hear the sounds and have fun helping science.

The Three Paradoxes that Obstruct Water Conservation, and How We Can Resolve Them through H2Ownership

Here's part 4 of the series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured here.

James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment and co-founder of SmartMarkets LLC, an online utility-based platform that unlocks equitable water and energy markets for cities using the system that has sustained the Kalahari’s indigenous people for 30,000 years.

IV. Resolving the 3 Paradoxes of Water Conservation:
Forget virtue, durable conservation must tap human vice

In April 2001, US Vice-President Dick Cheney famously trashed the idea of doing more with less: “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue,” he said, “but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”

It pains my liberal conscience to admit it, but ten years later it seems he’s right. To save water and energy and build deep-seated resilience from the grassroots level up, cities need to start tapping into a far deeper human instinct: avarice.

Yes, yes. I know that sounds rather crass, even for me, but hear me out.

We can agree that climate mitigation demands clean energy; likewise climate adaptation demands efficient water use. Building on that, we all know that water and energy conservation remains by far the fairest, fastest, cheapest and cleanest route to global security. It restores a resilient society, a stable climate, an autonomous foreign policy and a robust economy while avoiding political land mines of regulations, carbon taxes or cap-and-trade treaties.

The Value of Volunteering

Globalteer is an "organisation independent of government, politics and religion with the objective to help projects and communities around the world." It is a non-profit charity that aims to help those in need.
According to Globalteer's website, the organization's mission includes: 

• Support - To provide support to communities and projects in need.
• Awareness - To raise awareness in developed countries of the plight faced by poverty stricken countries.
• Education - Educate locals and volunteers about environmental issues and the need to protect wildlife.

Currently the charity has projects to help children in Cusco, Peru; Medellin, Colombia; and Siem Reap, Cambodia, as well as wildlife and conservation ventures in Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Globalteer says: "We send volunteers to schools to provide free education to children who are unable to pay fees to go to local schools. We work closely with centres that care for children providing support and funding to allow a safe and comfortable environment in the most important and vulnerable time in their lives. In developing countries the poorest people are often overlooked as there is little governmental funding available to provide support. We work with projects that help the most vulnerable children and communities. By providing an education and vocational training to children we give them an opportunity to break the relentless cycle of poverty and support their own families by becoming a useful and productive member of their society."

Want to help? Make a donation or volunteer!

The Three Paradoxes that Obstruct Water Conservation, and How We Can Resolve Them through H2Ownership

Here's part 3 of the series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured here.

Last installment: next Friday!

James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment and co-founder of SmartMarkets LLC, an online utility-based platform that unlocks equitable water and energy markets for cities using the system that has sustained the Kalahari’s indigenous people for 30,000 years.

III. The Third Paradox of Water Conservation: Monopoly
Why must solvent utilities encourage and reward waste?

Let me introduce you to my friend – a professional schizophrenic – who manages conservation programs at a local urban water utility in the US.

She’s hardly alone in her mental instability or the predicament that caused it. Using her name would jeopardize her career. But based on 53,000 American water utilities, I estimate at least 100,000 people like her suffer from split personality in the US alone. Her symptoms remain mild – a nervous twitch, sweaty palms and rolling eyes – but worsen as water scarcity puts competing stresses on her utility’s ageing system.

The roots of her disorder are simple. Nearly a decade ago she was hired, given a small staff, budget and discretionary funds to promote ambitious conservation programs and rebates throughout the service area of her water utility. It was the ideal job to match her ideals, a rare opportunity that pays you to do what you love. But there was, alas, a deep and hidden problem, which gave rise to psychological complications.