The Good News Page

12/10/2020

COMPETITION TIME 🥳🥳🥳🥳

Not got your PS5 pre ordered for Christmas yet? Then get entered into our competition

As a massive thank you to all our lovely customers we’ve decided to give away a PS5

All you have to do is LIKE our page, Comment WIN
and SHARE our competition

Competition ends Friday 16th October

Winner will be announced on 20th November

Good luck 😉

07/08/2020

Todays good news. The Weather....enough said.

29/07/2020

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Scientists are hopeful that their discovery might be a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research, after experiments with oxytocin showed it might be useful in treating, and maybe even reversing, degenerative disorders.

The research, published on July 20, has revealed for the first time that the chemical oxytocin, also known as the ‘cuddle hormone,’ could have therapeutic benefits for cognitive disorders, including dementia.

Oxytocin is released by the pituitary gland and is known for its role in the female reproductive system and in inducing feelings of love and happiness. It can also can boost learning and memory, scientists found.

The study suggests that signals in the brain that become blocked, leading to dementia, may be able to be unblocked.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disorder in which the nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain and the connections among them degenerate slowly, causing severe memory loss and deterioration in motor skills and communication. One of the main causes is the accumulation of a protein called amyloid beta (Aβ) in clusters around the brain neurons, which hampers their activity and triggers their degeneration.

This deterioration affects a specific trait of the neurons, called “synaptic plasticity”, which is the ability of synapses—where neurons swap signals—to adapt to an increase or decrease in brain activity.

29/07/2020

When George Ahearn heard that farmers in Washington state were giving away onions and potatoes they suddenly couldn’t sell, his instinct for goodwill led him on a journey that would lead to the rescue of 200 tons of vegetables arriving in food banks to support people in need.

The breakdown of farm supply chains and customers due to COVID-19 shutdowns means crops are destroyed or left to rot—and in rural Washington, farmers knew that if they could get their crops to the food banks in Seattle, it would certainly be preferable.

Inspired by the farmers’ plight, Ahearn asked on Facebook to borrow someone’s truck or trailer for the day, to haul around 2,000 pounds of restaurant-grade onions and potatoes. The response to his altruistic post was dramatic, and soon 4 trucks and 2 trailers had hauled 9.3 tons of crops grown in the east to feed hungry people in the west.

This voluntary act of kindness grew into a nonprofit organization called EastWest Food Rescue. It has saved over 2.4 million pounds of food from fields, while also amassing enough donations to help compensate farmers for their loss.

“The whole thing started because of COVID,” Nancy Balin, one of the people who responded to Ahearn’s initial request, told Seattle Times. She now helps direct the program.

RELATED: Kroger Buys and Redirects Dairy Farmers’ Excess Milk, Sending 50,000 Gallons Per Month to Food Banks

All photos by EastWest Food Rescue – Facebook
“They immediately lost all the restaurant contracts they had for these quality potatoes and onions. And since European countries were shut down, they weren’t exporting them because their restaurants were closed.”

On that first inaugural run, Ahearn relied on several Washingtonians beyond Nancy Balin with her trucks. Zsofia Pasztor, a farmer and fellow nonprofiteur began donating crates and boxes for transporting the crops because food banks originally admitted that they couldn’t accept a semi-truck load of ‘loose’ potatoes.

“The whole thing was extremely organic and took on a life of its own almost immediately,” said Balin, who is now president of the organization and runs it as a team with Pasztor and Ahearn, and more than ten staff members who volunteer.

RELATED: Family Farms Use ‘Crop Mobsters’ APP to Prevent More Than 1 Million Servings Of Food From Going To Waste

The goal is to rescue 10 million pounds of food, for which Ahearn is trying to raise $250,000. Ahearn says one of the most important priorities is to get refrigeration capacity for fruit and other produce, as well as for milk and eggs.

All photos by EastWest Food Rescue – Facebook
Ahearn had originally planned to shut down the operation after they reached 70 tons, so he could spend more time with his family, but that was long ago, and he accepts that in this moment he “can’t stop.”

27/07/2020

27/07/2020

An image of a smiley face was projected onto the Houses of Parliament to spread an uplifting message of positivity during tough times.

Any smile—but especially one that is 27 yards wide—can go a long way to cheering people up, especially when it’s directly across the river from a hospital.

The lipstick-wearing smiley was beamed onto the famous structure last night, on the eve of World Emoji Day.

The positive image was in full view of St. Thomas’s hospital, and it stood as a reminder of how good it feels to smile. Passersby who saw the images last night said it brightened up their evening considerably.

“Seeing the smiley made me laugh,” said Dave Crawford. It’s also opposite a hospital, and you hope that people get to look out and see it.”

RELATED: Boy Sets Up ‘Drive-By Joke Stand’ to Spread Laughter During Quarantine

Everybody knows we need more smiles right now—especially because it’s hard to know if people are smiling behind their face masks.

SWNS
Another onlooker, Kate Sandison, said the projection was a great surprise. “It looks great and makes you feel good. It made me smile.”

Commissioned by the cosmetics company Ciaté London, founder and CEO Charlotte Knight said they designed a new range of Smileys that include lashes and lipstick, created in partnership with the originators of the concept.

“Particularly at times like this it’s important to see the positives in everyday moments by sharing smiles.”

27/07/2020

Without human visitors to keep them entertained, these penguins have been gifted an adorable new form of entertainment during their time in quarantine.

Pickles the penguin enjoys playing with bubbles at the Newquay Zoo in Cornwall. SWNS.
Staffers at the Newquay Zoo in Cornwall, England had been trying to find new ways to keep their feathered residents entertained when a zoo patron suddenly donated a bubble machine.

Penguin caretaker Dan Trevelyan said the bubbles help to keep the penguins’s predatory reflexes sharp.

27/07/2020

80 years ago today, Bugs Bunny, the wisecracking Warner Bros cartoon character, first debuted in an animated short entitled A Wild Hare. Supervised by Fred ‘Tex’ Avery, it featured a hunter named Elmer Fudd pursuing a wily rabbit voiced by Mel Blanc. The pair became beloved, and their debut received an Oscar nomination for Best animated short.

The cartoon opens with Elmer tiptoeing as he tells the audience, “Shh. Be vewy, vewy quiet; I’m hunting wabbits.” Elmer then tries to lure Bugs out of his hole with a carrot, while hiding behind a tree. Bugs’ arm reaches out of the hole, feels around, and snatches the carrot, but soon sees Elmer’s double-barreled shotgun. It quickly gets bent into a bow before Bugs shows up later, saying while eating another carrot, “What’s up, Doc?”, which reportedly brought down the house in every movie theater—and became his signature line. WATCH the opening and closing scenes… (1940)