Good News Tuesday: Free Meals, Pet Friendly Shelter, Solar Progress, and Help for Chimp Haven

Syrian Refugee’s “Nicest Place in America” Gives Free Meals to Government Workers

Yassin’s Falafel House in Knoxville, Tennessee was voted the “Nicest Place in America” by Reader’s Digest. Now they’re  giving away free meals to government workers and their family members affected by the shutdown. If ever I go to Knoxville, I hope to stop in.  (The commercial is short.)

 

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Pet Friendly Shelter at Old Montreal Hospital

Patient rooms at the Royal Victoria Hospital have been converted to provide  80 Beds for homeless people and their animal friends.

 

 

 

 

 

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Solar Progress Around the World

A Navajo Nations Solar Project is producing electricity for 13,000 homes. “The contractor hired and trained about 200 Navajos to build the plant,…” Here’s the story:

http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2017/09/navajo-nations-first-solar-project-now.html

While in India new solar installations planned for 2019 will reach nearly 14 gigawatts (GW), which is about 50% more than the capacity added last year.

Egypt is making significant progress in solar energy.  This hopeful 2018 video reports that Egypt owns the largest solar power plant in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Anonymous Donation for Chimps

This article from The Good News Network reports that an anonymous $2 million donation made at the end of 2018  will provide sanctuary for chimpanzees who have been living in research facilities.  In the following video,  Jane Goodall shares her observations of Chimp Haven and the importance of choice for these intelligent beings. Fewer Chimps are being used in research today. Maybe some day they will all have a choice.

 

 

 

 

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12 Year Old Gives Out Free Lunches with Love

Liam Hammond of Cambridge, Massachusetts has fed more than  2000 homeless people. Each lunch bag has a positive handwritten message.

 

 

 

 

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Got good news? Feel free to share in the comments!

It can be personal, local, or global.

Bringing a little Balance, one Tuesday at a time.

From Prison Cells to Sanctuaries

I have mixed feelings about zoos. I enjoyed taking my kids to the Milwaukee Zoo when they were young, and the zoo in Asheboro, NC had a lot of wide open spaces when we visited many years ago. Still, the big cats could have had more room. These zoos are more like parks, with some cages. The elephants, rhinos and antelope had plenty of pasture to roam. They were a far sight better than the roadside zoos which unfortunately still exist.

The zoos where animals are caged in spaces that remind me of prison cells should be illegal by now. I imagine what it would be like to have to stay in my living room all the time. That’s what some cages in roadside zoos are like for lions, and tigers and bears. They pace back and forth. I hate to even think about it.

In an ideal world, there would be no zoos, only sanctuaries and parks with natural habitats. But since zoos do exist, we can be sure to only support the most humane and natural facilities, or none at all. I applaud the work of Jane Goodall who has done so much to improve conditions for chimps, and those who create and maintain sanctuaries like the one Shirley goes to in this moving video:

We can make a world with no chains and no more cages, a world with love and compassion.

Today’s stream of consciousness prompt was, “zoo.” If you’d like to find out where your stream of consciousness take you, visit:

https://lindaghill.com/2016/04/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-3016/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!