What about a thread for good news?

[Büge]

Veteran officer gives up his burial plot so a lesbian couple can be buried together

“I’ll tell you what,” Johnson wrote. “I will donate the plot I earned in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery to you and Jean. I am happy to give my fellow veteran that small peace of mind. And I do it to honor all the great Americans I’ve served with along the way – gay, straight, whatever.”

[Mongrel]

MIssouri man rightfully convicted of robbery 13 years ago was never sent to prison due to a clerical error, but was eventually arrested last year. Judge orders him released based on his exemplary life since then

So it basically worked out like a suspended sentence.

He never tried to hide and seems to have spent the whole time waiting to be picked up. A cynical man may point out that maybe that knowledge contributed somewhat to his good behaviour. But credit where it's due; after thirteen years, the habit of being a decent person may be a hard one to break.

[Mongrel]

Britain bans creationism from being taught in any school receiving public funding of any kind.

[Mongrel]

In one of those "Well, duh!" moments of life, Montreal industrial designers find a way to add fixtures to any fire hydrant which will allow it to double as a water fountain.

[Mongrel]

Neat: Australian Post opens up a warehouse in Oregon to provide a US address for Australians

There are a variety of commercial services that do this sort of thing in many countries, but this is the first time I've ever heard of a country's own actual government postal service doing something like this. Very cool!

[Thad]

In one of those "Well, duh!" moments of life, Montreal industrial designers find a way to add fixtures to any fire hydrant which will allow it to double as a water fountain.

[Mongrel]

German town, tired of annual neo-Nazi march, arranges matters such that the march funds a denazification charity

[Mongrel]

This is actually pretty big as well as being topical: DC city council moves to massively reform civil forfeiture in DC

- DC police will no longer get money from civil forfeiture, including directly and via loophole where forfeitures are farmed to the Feds
- Taking away property is going to be significantly harder and there's an exemption that would make cash under $1000 immune to forfeiture
- Targets of forfeiture will no longer have to pay $2,500 in up front bullshit charges to attempt to recover their property

The bad news is that this isn't slated to take effect until 2019, and of course it still has to actually pass, but man, at least someone is doing something.

[Mongrel]

Cards Against Humanity sent people signed up for the CAH Christmas promotion a list of all the donors to their respective state's senators. Some of the lists people received were very, very long.

Turns out they've also donated $300,000 to the Sunlight Foundation.

[Mongrel]

Holder just kicked asset forfeiture in the nuts.

Holy shit. Well how about that.

Now that is some seriously, genuinely good news.

[Büge]

Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said, “There is some grave concern about the possible loss of significant funding while local police and state police are being asked to do more and more each year.”

[Mongrel]

Bloomberg: Justice dept leaning against Comcast/TW merger.

'Course it don't mean a thing until the decision comes down. But it's still good news for now.

[Mongrel]

Looking better and better... CNN: Unofficial for now, but it appears Comcast is backing out of TW acquisition.

[Mongrel]

HuffPo: Obama administration approves ferry licenses to Cuba for two companies

[Thad]

So which South Carolina classroom projects listed at Donors Choose will be funded this year?

All of them, courtesy of one Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Mos Def Colbert, D.F.A., Heavyweight Champion of the World.

[Mothra]

Stephen, you are the best.

[Thad]

Via a Tumblr called Good Stuff Happened Today:

Why NASA Called The Northwest Indian College Space Center

Big schools like MIT and Vanderbilt University came to the competitions with fancy equipment: digital scales, specialized aluminum parts and fancy servo motors.

Northwest Indian College used discarded computer parts, bubble levels and mouse traps.

Irons said they worked with what they had.

“It comes down to sometimes, ‘Oh, do you have a paperclip, I need to put a paperclip in here to make sure this is secure,’” she said. “And so, honestly, it’s just whatever you have that works, you need to use it.”

And it did work.

That resourcefulness, borne out of poverty, has helped the Northwest Indian College Space Center outperform some schools with far greater resources. That gumption is what caught NASA’s attention.

I don't see an original source linked, which is irritating. But it's a good story.

[Sharkey]

Sooooo... reddit banned /r/FatPeopleHate along with a bunch of other pretty loathsome things for serial harassment, telling people to kill themselves, etc. Naturally, a bunch of entitled jackholes are in full pitchfork mode over this. Pretty much the same bunch that were pissed off when they banned /r/Jailbait. Because first they came for the pedophiles and I said nothing... then they came for the stalkers and bullies and I said nothing... Yeah. Not providing a free forum for vile, awful, actually illegal shit is totally a violation of your right to free speech. Somehow.

Anyway, this has apparently prompted a massive exodus of complete fucking assholes to Voat.co.



I'm putting this in good news just on account of maybe the conversation over there will become slightly more tolerable now. Kind of like how Goobergoats lit out of 4chan and overnight shit became slightly more bearable.

[Mongrel]

Apparently it was largely the same motivation as the imgur thing where they're banning porn or something about porn - because the site owners want to pursue a lot more aggressive monetization, paid placements, advertising content that can't be downvoted, and all that.

Not that I'm implying this isn't good news or that the underlying reasons somehow make this a bad thing; it's still great.

[Büge]

I'm putting this in good news just on account of maybe the conversation over there will become slightly more tolerable now. Kind of like how Goobergoats lit out of 4chan and overnight santorum became slightly more bearable.

It's not like the echo chamber of festering hatred went away. They just couldn't rally under that banner.