Inspirational and good news.
The BBC is reporting that the UK government has agreed to allow two huge windfarms to be built off the eastern coast.
“The £1.5bn London Array scheme will have 341 turbines rising from the sea about 12 miles (20km) off the Kent and Essex coasts, as well as five offshore substations and four meteorological masts.
The government said both schemes would make “a significant contribution to the aim of a five-fold increase in the UK’s renewable energy resource by 2020”.
Voice-Activated Laptops for Our Injured Troops, known as Valour IT, tries to help wounded American soldiers psychologically recover from battle by blogging. Regardless (or irregardless if you’re Dubya Bush), of what you think of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and Terror, humans who are injured still need support to heal their wounds. You can read about the success the program has had at the MediaShift blog at PBS.
“It started last year when Army Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss injured both his hands and wanted to get back to blogging. His blog readers pitched in for Dragon Naturally Speaking software, and he and another blogger, FbL, put together Valour-IT and have raised more than $330,000 with two online Veteran’s Day fundraisers fueled by milbloggers.”
Since every Friday we try to cover more fun news than normal I figured today is a good day to announce that we will be changing the site a fair bit in the 2007.
I can’t say much about right now, because we are still looking into some new ideas. We are already looking at some better ways to streamline getting good news up here on the site. There is so much good news out in the world that is looking to be shared, and we want to make that process easy!
If you any ideas (or comments) please share them with me via email at adam [at] ThingsAreGood
Some new research (from a company that makes tea) has found that tea has a chemical that helps people be more attentive.
“Every cup of tea naturally contains the amino acid theanine. Tea is virtually the only dietary source of theanine, apart from the edible bay boletes mushroom, which explains why sometimes only tea will do.
The effects of 50mg theanine – the amount present in 2-3 cups of PG tips tea is known* to stimulate alpha brain waves which are associated with being relaxed yet alert. Alpha activity is thought to be important for the ability to focus attention.”
Researchers have discovered that in lab tests on animals soy helped restore the animal’s muscles. The animals had a multiple sclerosis (MS) like disease. Now they are theorizing that a similar treatment could work on humans. The soy-based substance that was used was Bowmann-Birk Inhibitor Concentrate (BBIC), and the results were promising.
“The scientists are not sure how BBIC works in multiple sclerosis, but they theorize that it suppresses the immune response to some extent, in addition to inhibiting proteases. Dr. Rostami sees BBIC as being used as a single therapy or in conjunction with other drugs in treating MS. He notes that because current therapies for MS involve injecting drugs such as interferon and copaxane, one goal is to develop an oral agent. BBIC could be given by pill daily.”