Decent News, 2003

Some of the more decent news in the world: hopeful, courageous, funny, or just cool. A few are not pleasant, but are stories I think need to be heard. The following are all LINKS to external sites. Some links (e.g., many boston.com, many NY Times) stop working after a few days; some do not. URLs are added when appropriate (not necessarily daily).

Also on this page: News to Think Over

Link to: HappyNews.com and HeroicStories.com.

  • Medical team from Mass. heads to Iran to help quake victims Boston.com 12/28/03
  • Mid-East rivals seek polar harmony "A group of Palestinians and Israelis have set off on an expedition to Antarctica to prove that the two communities can work together." BBC News 12/28/03
  • Amid the death, new hope: From education to vaccines, a drive to halt malaria takes off Boston.com 12/28/03
  • Homeless for the holidays: Women in transition look with hope to the new year Boston.com 12/28/03
  • MIT students pay unique tribute to first flight Boston.com 12/17/03 (Woot!) and Boston Globe 12/18/03 and MIT News Office 12/17/03
  • Doctors Promote Healing, With a Zing of the String of a Harp NY Times.com (12/16/03)
  • Family forgoes Christmas to save dog Boston.com 12/16/03
  • An Obelisk Is Going Home; a Bolt of Lightning Helped NY Times 12/9/03
  • Sister Jeanne Poor Boston.com 12/7/03 'God provided. We didn't even have to whisper what we needed. Things would come to us.'
  • Rural Haitians Are Vanguard in AIDS Battle NY Times 11/29/03 Harvard teacher saving lives in Haiti!
  • Necessity Is the Mother of Invention NY Times 11/30/03 - MIT instructor making inventions for people who REALLY need them.... Mother of Invention (A different MIT inventor) 12/28/03
  • 311 Hotline Is Making the Most of Complainers NY Times 12/1/03
  • A drug that works -- for some Researchers try to solve mystery of lung cancer medicine Helping Soweto Youths Make the Music of Their Lives NY Times 11/22/03 (wow)
  • Ivy Leaguers Play Chess With Inmates AP at NY Times 11/21/03
  • Surfer Girl Won't Give Up Her Passion AP at NY Times.com 11/21/03 also same story here Boston globe 11/21/03
  • Music for Life: Tony DeBlois was born blind, mentally retarded, and autistic, but he was also born a jazz savant. Today, he plays 20 instruments, knows 8,000 songs, and is forging a career in the music industry. Boston Globe 10/26/03
  • "Seeing" Stars: Excited by the heavens as a boy, this blind astronomer now brainstorms methods of searching for extraterrestrial life. Boston globe 11/02/03
  • AP Interview: Bishop-elect makes friends at women's prison Boston.com 10/31/03
  • Bringing in the Harvest, Without a Farm in Sight NY Times 10/27/03
  • Women pioneers take a bow: Dedication of memorial underscores contributions Boston.com 10/26/03
  • The ordinary and the exceptional tell their stories for posterity in new oral-history program AP at Boston.com 10/23/03
  • Transmitter helps rescuers find patients who become lost Boston.com 10/12/03
  • Still homeless, but she says she sees the light Boston.com 10/12/03
  • 19 years later, innocence comes home Boston Globe 10/12/03 ...about time, but this man harbors no hatred.
  • EBay Founder Raises Foundation Endowment to $300 Million NY Times 10/9/03
  • Agreement in Maine Will Remove Dams for Salmon's Sake NY Times 10/7/03
  • Bison Burgers, for Humanity's Sake NY Times 10/5/03
  • A Classical Move: How a string quartet binds an urban community. Boston Globe Magazine 9/28/03
  • Life with Dyslexia: As a boy, the writer was ashamed because of his classroom difficulties. But he concealed his problems well into adulthood. Boston Globe Magazine 9/28/03
  • Not just a predator: Wolves bring a suprising ecological recovery to Yellowstone Boston Globe 9/30/03
  • He keeps a discerning eye on the ocean floor Boston Globe 9/23/03
  • Man gives ex-wife part of his liver at new fiancee's suggestion Boston.com 9/23/03
  • Blind pet kangaroo gets help for owner after injury Boston.com 9/23/03
  • Dances With Bears: An innovative wildlife researcher embraces captive cubs, then maintains the relationships when they mature in the wild. Boston Globe Magazine 9/14/03
  • Refuge for the Wild, With No Land Mines, Please NY Times - Limpopo National Park Journal 9/03
  • FARM SCENE: Christian camp revived as 'learning farm' by Methodists Boston.com 8/8/03
  • Astronomers count the stars BBC News 7/22/03
  • Japanese plant takes on e-waste BBC News 7/23/03
  • Saving the Kattens Boston Globe 7/13/03 ...Saving a Jewish family in Germany right before World War II.
  • 'Hate is a useless emotion': Experts confirm what many victims feel: Forgiveness can have the power to heal Boston Globe 7/16/2003
  • Hundreds line up to pay respects to Maynard Jackson Boston.com 6/26/03
  • Richard Pough, conservationist and author of National Audubon Society bird guides, dies at 99 Boston.com 6/26/03
  • Finding trilobites by the bucket, for free CNN.com 6/26/03
  • What Would Jesus Do? Sock It to Alabama's Corporate Landowners NY Times 6/10/03 (reg. req'd) An application of Christianity in politics to actually help the poor. What a concept!
  • Surprise Role for Ex-Senator: Male Breast Cancer Survivor NY Times 6/10/03
  • Exhibits prove the power of art in times of illness Boston Globe 6/4/03
  • Salvation in slow motion: An ancient martial art has brought Heg Robinson, founder of the Roxbury Tai Chi Academy, from hopelessness to harmony Boston Globe 6/4/03
  • What drives Karen Moncrieff?: Making her directing debut with 'Blue Car,' she aims to draw complex portraits of women Boston Globe 5/26/03 This is so true: "In romantic comedies, it's just enough that the girl is beautiful, and so she's worthy of love. We're supposed to understand why two beautiful people want to get together. It's like -- who cares?"
  • 34 Years Later, One Coach's Sweetest Victory NY Times 5/16/03 "New York Giants Coach Jim Fassel and his wife, Kitty, were reunited with their son, John Mathieson, whom they had put up for adoption three days after his birth on April 5, 1969."
  • He's 20, and at 93, She's His Oldest Friend NY Times 5/14/03 ... charming news story.
  • Young Lives Transformed, Guided by a Camera Lens NY Times 5/6/03
  • Fowl play: Caroll Spinney reflects on his life inside America's most beloved bird Boston Globe 5/5/03
  • Thai women compete to be 'Miss Jumbo' BBC News 5/1/03
  • Shedding light on the shadows of a mother's hidden affliction Boston Globe 5/1/03
  • The dress-up do-gooder: Taunton woman's nonprofit collects donated gowns to cut costs so all teens can experience the prom thrill Boston Globe 5/1/03
  • More Than a Roof for Girls Leaving Foster Care NY Times.com 4/21/03
  • A Scholar Follows Her Family's Dusty Footprints NY Times 4/19/03
  • Ask Beth column, second half Boston Globe 4/15/03
  • Matchmakers: Two couples trade kidneys Boston Globe 4/15/03
  • Inviting Humans to Sprout Wings and Soar NY Times 4/15/03
  • Russian Reports He Has Solved a Celebrated Math Problem NY Times.com 4/15/03
  • Remembering a student who truly lived his dreams 4/8/03
  • Keeping up the fight: Exile's determination to bring freedom to Iraq is forged by a painful past Boston Globe 4/7/03
  • California peace activist who was ousted from Baghdad says her group aided by Iraqis AP at Boston.com 4/4/03 "But even after we had bombed their hospital, they took us in and shared with us the little they had."
  • Marines taste defeat on football pitch BBC News 4/3/03 (British soldiers defeated at soccer in Iraq)
  • BBC News Country Profiles Shallow, but interesting nonetheless.
  • Deep sea monster squid found cool squid CNN.com 4/3/03
  • Residents rebound from two '01 quakes Boston Globe 4/2/03
  • Italy buries virus doctor A remarkable doctor - he was also the president of Medecins Sans Frontieres Italy. BBC News 4/2/03
  • Fiber in diet helps older adults Boston Globe 4/2/03
  • Smoke ban found to cut heart attacks Boston Globe 4/2/03
  • Female filmmakers present stories of strength, survival, and empowerment at annual festival Boston.com 3/31/03
  • A Sign of the New Kenya: A Briefcase Filled With Cash Is Spurned 3/28/03
  • China Lets Tibet Nun, Long Jailed, Go to U.S. NY Times (3/30/03)
  • Helping Hand for Bangladesh's Poor NY Times (3/25/03)
  • Child donates $1,000 to senior center AP at Boston.com 3/24/03
  • Kenya Burns Weapons in Anticrime Crackdown NY Times 3/16/03
  • Scientists Explore the Molding of Children's Morals NY Times.com 3/18/03
  • Reeve Breathing on His Own NY Times.com 3/13/03
  • Black College Diversifies, Luring Russian Town NY Times.com 3/12/03
  • Old Ways Bring Tears in a New World" 3/7/03
    News to Think Over
    And Pray About....

  • Africa's World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old's Eyes NYTimes.com 10/29/06
  • An Elephant Crackup? 10/8/06 NYTimes.com What have we done to elephants? Why do some of them still treat us like one of their own?
  • Let Us Now Kill All The Dogs China slaughters tens of thousands of canines with giant clubs. How appalling is it? SFGate.com 8/9/06 Asks some tough questions.
  • New energy law limits public's say in decisions. Activists dismayed: Cash flows from gas pumps to industry's pockets, they say The Salt Lake Tribune 8/12/05
  • Tracking the Imperiled Bluefin From Ocean to Sushi Platter" NYTImes.com 5/3/05 "...the intensifying trade in bluefin may soon empty the waters of this master of the sea"
  • LIVING IN THE SHADOWS: Bay Area doctors join fight against a rare genetic skin disorder that afflicts an alarming number of Mayan children in rural Guatemala. SFGate.com 11/28/04
  • Decapitating Appalachia NY Times.com 1/13/04 "In 2002, the administration essentially repealed a longstanding provision of the Clean Water Act prohibiting the dumping of mining wastes in streams. Now...."
  • Quarantining dissent: How the Secret Service protects Bush from free speech SF Gate.com 1/4/04
  • Searching for hope in Uganda BBC News 12/28/03
  • U.S. Proposes Easing Rules on Emissions of Mercury NY Times 12/3/03 ...Mercury is a potent toxin that causes brain damage, folks....
  • For Billions of Birds, an Endangered Haven NY Times 9/23/03
  • New lessons from a look at Hitler's rise 5/15/03 Particularly: "Ed Gernon, an executive producer, lost his job last month after telling TV Guide that the social climate in Germany during Hitler's rise was similar to that in the United States as it headed into war with Iraq." Might the action of firing him be another step down the same road?....
  • The press and freedom: some disturbing trends courier-journal.com 4/20/03
  • Groups Fault Rule on Automatic Detention NY Times 3/31/03 Yes, we are the land of the secret tribunal. "One Sudanese woman, who said she had fled to the United States to escape slavery that she lived under in Kenya for 14 years, said she was handcuffed, placed in leg shackles and paraded through the Newark International Airport after she filed for asylum in November 2001." `Referring to the automatic detention of new applicants, the woman, who was once jailed for a month in Iraq, said, "That's horrible. It's not much different than what I went though in Baghdad."'
  • Bush Administration Wins Court Victory on Guantanamo Detentions NY Times 3/12/03
  • Plastic Invades Ocean KGO-TV from 11/12/02 ...pretty alarming and really disgusting.
  • Rep. Howard Coble's support of the internment of American citizens during WWII....
  • NASA Dismissed Advisers Who Warned About Safety NY Times 2/3/03
  • KMart reports evidence of wrongdoing: Internal investigation uncovers evidence of "grossly derelict" actions by former top managers. CNN.com 1/25/03 ... in other words ... the way our laws are now, if you want to be a thief and live the high life, become a CEO.
  • Two Scientists Contend U.S. Suppressed Dolphin Studies NY Times 1/8/03 ... maybe minor on the human scale of things, but more indications of the usual politics, this time hurting other species.
  • Court says military may hold citizens: Panel finds broad powers for president during warfare Boston Globe 1/9/03 ... sure some stuff is necessary, but is the government so trustworthy this won't be abused?
  • Half a Million Afghan Refugees Left Homeless and Cold in Cities NY Times and Orangutans Said to Exhibit Hallmarks of Culture NY Times (reg. req'd) 1/2/03 - just as we begin to learn, we are destroying them....
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