Notices by Ada Palmer (adapalmer@wandering.shop), page 2

Ghana's free high school policy has increased the completion of senior high school by 14.9% since its implementation in 2017. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://fixthenews.com/r/c4747c0c?m=d62c57a4-125a-4b9d-b04d-bdfd23b8627c

The largest-ever global deployment of rapid diagnostic tests for cholera started today. More than 1.2 million tests will be shipped to 14 countries. They will equip health workers with the critical data needed to stop outbreaks early. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://www.who.int/news/item/05-04-2024-global-deployment-of-rapid-diagnostic-tests-to-boost-fight-against-cholera

Renewables have grown at an incredible rate since 2014 and now account for 22 percent of electricity in the US. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://grist.org/energy/wind-solar-account-for-more-of-the-us-energy-mix-than-ever-before/

Germany's emissions fell by a record 10.1% last year. This puts them on course for their 2030 target of a 65% cut compared to 1990 levels! #ShareGoodNewsToo https://fixthenews.com/r/66a10f9a?m=d62c57a4-125a-4b9d-b04d-bdfd23b8627c

In Medellín, a city of 2.5 million people in Colombia, the Green Corridors urban restoration project has planted 880,000 trees and 2.5 million plants, reducing pollution and bringing temperatures down by 2 degrees C. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://fixthenews.com/r/4f92a0c2?m=d62c57a4-125a-4b9d-b04d-bdfd23b8627c

Amazing piece about the incredible cystic fibrosis drug, Trifakta, that came out in 2019. Cystic fibrosis once all but guaranteed an early death. Today, those who begin taking the drug in early adolescence can expect to survive to age 82—an essentially normal life span. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://fixthenews.com/r/284bbd7b?m=d62c57a4-125a-4b9d-b04d-bdfd23b8627c

In one of the first initiatives of its kind in the world, pharmacies in Catalonia, Spain, have begun to provide free products for the region's roughly 2.5 million people who menstruate. They will receive one menstrual cup, one pair of underwear for periods, and two packages of cloth pads at local pharmacies free of charge. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://fixthenews.com/r/e910f77a?m=d62c57a4-125a-4b9d-b04d-bdfd23b8627c

Advanced economies saw a record decline in their CO2 emissions in 2023 even as their GDP grew. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://www.iea.org/reports/co2-emissions-in-2023/emissions-in-advanced-economies-fell-to-their-level-of-50-years-ago?ref=fixthenews.com

Hugo Noms close today! Reminder:

You can nominate awesome 2023 indie films, like Poor Things, Lola, Mars One, Plan 75, Aporia, & The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future!

Ditto graphic works in translation, like Junji Ito's Soichi, and Mo Xiang Tong Xiu & Luo Di Cheng Qiu's Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation!

And since people have asked, yes my essay on the cross-influence of Anglophone & Japanese SF was 2023 and is eligible in Best Related: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/a-mitfreude-of-anime-and-mangas-relationship-with-anglophone-science-fiction-or-this-essay-will-not-try-to-get-you-into-anime-and-manga/

Earlier this month, as relentless rains pounded Los Angeles, the city’s sponge infrastructure helped gather 8.6 billion gallons of water. That's enough to sustain over 100,000 households for a year! #ShareGoodNewsToo https://fixthenews.com/r/3e18ac9a?m=d62c57a4-125a-4b9d-b04d-bdfd23b8627c

Some local good news today: Chicago Board of Education unanimously votes to remove police from schools, and invest instead in restorative justice, mental health, and non-carceral systems. Excellent piece on it from our local paper: #ShareGoodNewsToo

https://www.hpherald.com/evening_digest/chicago-board-of-education-unanimously-votes-to-remove-police-from-schools/article_d1910fc6-d2a9-11ee-b54f-bf76197eafa7.html?

GOOD NEWS: Last month (Jan 2024) saw the first mass malaria vaccine rollout AND we crossed what every metric predicts will be global maximum carbon, so global emissions will be LOWER in 2024 than 2023 and lower every year thereafter. These two achievements will EACH save more lives than any other single thing in human history, but hardly got any news coverage because bad news gets more clicks than good. Don't give into the doomscroll! #ShareGoodNewsToo https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews2023/?ref=future-crunch-newsletter

Research shows that while there is often initial resistance to congestion pricing and pedestrianization schemes, once they are implemented and people see the benefits public opinion shifts. "We can't find a single example of a traffic-reduction measure that's been in place for more than two years that's then gone on to be removed because of a lack of public support." #ShareGoodNewsToo https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240122-from-london-to-new-york-can-quitting-cars-be-popular?ref=futurecrunch.com

One of my fish finished transitioning! 🏳️⚧️💕 Swordtails change sex in many circumstances; this one chose to be female when young & shy, but some larger fish were removed making the tank feel safer & he’s now grown the male’s long tail. Some stay female longer then transition when tired of having babies

Green and Hawksbill sea turtle nests and populations are up at last! I remember working on turtle conservation education when I was a volunteer at the aquarium twenty-five years ago, and it's amazing to see the slowly but surely method working! #ShareGoodNewsToo https://archive.md/80Tee

World solar power doubled in the past 18 months. China passed 50% renewables with incredible and unanticipated speed, Europe is down to getting only 17% of its power from fossil fuels, solar has firmly outstripped coal in use and cost, and all signs point to 2013 as peak world carbon emissions, that we've hit the turn of the curve and carbon will now be lower every year. It's working! #ShareGoodNewsToo
https://futurecrunch.com/r/4f79a213?m=d62c57a4-125a-4b9d-b04d-bdfd23b8627c

When facing the "All we need is STEM!" approach to education, my usual response is:

Developing the vaccine was the STEM problem; distribution & getting shots in arms was the Social Science problem; getting people to trust it & combatting misinformation was the Humanities problem -- which did we fail?

#SomethingBeautiful Three bronze monkeys on a fountain in the Boboli Gardens

#SomethingBeautiful Corinth canal, crossing the isthmus of Corinth in Greece

Yay, the first of my regular column essays for Strange Horizons is out! I worked super hard on this one, a history of the symbiosis & mutual influence between western genre fiction & Japanese anime/manga. Designed for non-anime-fans interested in learning how the fandoms nourished each other. W/ bonus WWII history & sparkly musicals! http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/a-mitfreude-of-anime-and-mangas-relationship-with-anglophone-science-fiction-or-this-essay-will-not-try-to-get-you-into-anime-and-manga/