Good News Tuesday for June 22, 2021: Humpback Whales, Plastic Bottle Houses, Fur Trade, and Juneteenth Becomes an Official US Holiday

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Record-High Number of Humpback Whales Counted off the Coast of Japan

The recent edition of my Goodnewspaper reported a record of 1087 humpback whales were observed off Amani Oshima Island in Japan from December 2020 to March 2021. Out of the 670 pods observed, 105 included mothers and calves which is also a record. This is the first time the seasonal count of whales has exceeded 1000. Humpbacks and other whale species were decimated by commercial whaling in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The population increase of these intelligent, social mammals shows what global conservation efforts can do. I’ve added a video about whales in Hawaii at the end of today’s post.

To get your good news delivered, click the link below:

The Goodnewspaper: Get a beautiful print newspaper delivered (goodgoodgood.co)

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Strong Nigerian Homes are Made with Plastic Bottles

Plastic bottles filled with sand are being used to create houses in Nigeria. This bottle brick technology is reported to be
“18-times stronger than regular bricks.” You can read more about the innovative process and see the attractive houses in this article from the Good News Network.

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Israel to be the First Country to Ban the Sale of Fur

In six months it will become illegal to sell fur for “fashion” in Israel. ““Even with the exemption for traditional dress, … Israel’s fur ban will save the lives of millions of animals suffering on fur farms or languishing in cruel traps around the world, and it sends a clear message that fur is unethical, unnecessary, and outdated.” Claire Bass, Humane Society International UK. Here’s more from The Optimist Daily.

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Juneteenth Becomes a Federal Holiday in the US

Last week, the US Congress voted to make Juneteenth (June 19th) a national holiday. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Thursday, June 18th, in time for the 156th anniversary of the day African Americans in Texas were informed that the war was over and they were free. This New York Times article, includes information on the significance of the holiday which has also been known as Emancipation Day.

Here’s the signing ceremony. The video is long, but worth watching, even worth skipping the ads.

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Getting back to the whales, I hope you enjoy this video about humpback whales in Hawaii.

Got good new?

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SoCS: The Pursuit of Happiness

Today’s Stream of Consciousness post is:

“hat/het/hit/hot/hut.” Choose one, choose ’em all, put ’em in your post. Enjoy!

What? I don’t know. Hut is interesting from a Gilligan’s Island frame of mind. They had a good thing on that island. There’s a song in my head that goes, “Gilligan, take my advice. Don’t try so hard to escape paradise.” Maybe I’ll look for it later. Maybe not. In reality, I don’t know that I’d really want to live in a hut. Maybe if there was a nice bed with a good mattress, and a toilet, and toilet paper, and plenty of mosquito netting. A luxury hut. That might work.

I had to look up “het.” Come to find out, it is short for heterosexual. That’s me. I’m a het. I guess. Still, there’s a lot of what they used to call, “tomboy,” in me. When I was looking for a soulmate, while trying to not look and trying to be cynical, I figured that if I found someone who was compatible, someone who brought me comfort and joy and met my criteria, like loving dogs, being respectful, etc., it would not matter if the person was male or female. Logically, I still think that way. But I always imagined myself with a male partner, and that’s what I got. Imagination is powerful.

During the lonely years. I used to watch a lot of NCIS and found Gibbs to be more attractive over time. My husband does look a little like Gibbs, but taller. I’m grateful. So grateful. Step 5 in my short short book, From Loneliness to Love is, “Imagine the Best.” That doesn’t mean perfect, but perfect for what we need to grow and be happy. Reasonably happy.

Reasonably happy. Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Pursuit of Happyness is a great movie for Father’s Day. It’s based on a true story of a homeless father, played by Will Smith, who with heartbreaking perseverance, eventually gets a job on wall street.

On June 19th, 1865, years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Texas were finally informed they were free. They had the opportunity, knowing they had the right, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now, June 19th is a Federal holiday in the US. That’s good news for Good News Tuesday!

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Thank you to Linda Hill for our prompt and for hosting, SoCS! For more streams and rules, visit Linda’s blog:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 19, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Juneteenth, Jazz Hands, Smooth Jazz, and Just Mercy

Our prompt from Linda is: “zz.” Find a word with double-z in it and use it in your post. Enjoy!

Before I forget, because sometimes I get fuzzy, I want to say THANK YOU to my followers. Sometime in the past month, I passed 3000! Just because I don’t pay a lot of attention to stats doesn’t mean I don’t care. I do appreciate all my followers and wish I had more time to visit all of you.

Funny how things happen when we’re not watching like the pot boiling. Seems to have happened in the US and around the world. The pot is boiling. I can get dizzy watching the news, so I’m on a break right now from the news. But I am watching Just Mercy, finally, as I type this on Juneteenth. June 19th is the celebration of emancipation when a union general went to Galveston, Texas to enforce and reveal that slavery had been abolished more than two years earlier. You can read more here. 

Anyway, I finally watched Black Panther. Now I’m watching Just Mercy. Powerful! I don’t stream or do netflix, so I watch what’s on TV. Have to get up early, but I had a nap, so hopefully I’ll be able to watch it all. 

I was going to write about jazz hands, but Juneteenth and Just Mercy are important, so I needed to get that in, too. Jazz hands are waving, dancing hands I learned about Thursday night watching a Braver Angels debate on zoom. Braver Angels is an organization seeking to depolarize America. I know you might be thinking, good luck with that. They do workshops on communication skills with the goal of listening and understanding people who believe differently. Thursday night’s debate was about the proposal to “defund” the police. The main thing I got from this was that “defund,” is a confusing and misleading term. A better word would be, reallocate. The other thing I got from the debate was that there was a lot of common ground in knowing that police work is hard as hell, and that most people knew we need police for some things, and that there’s a huge need for reform in policing.

I didn’t speak as this was my first debate and there were about 200 people! But I (we)  used jazz hands as the way to express agreement or appreciation. Maybe jazz hands is a regular zoom thing which works well, because multiple people talking on zoom is dizzyfying.

Smooth jazz is my favorite for dinner or cooking dinner. The smoother, the better. Like this.

Smooth jazz is merciful. Now back to Just Mercy……

PS. I did finish watching Just Mercy. Cried at least twice. The last time were tears of joy.  It’s based on a true story and memoir. If you haven’t seen it, please do.

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For more zz streams and SoCS rules, visit Linda Hill at:

https://lindaghill.com/2020/06/19/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-20-2020/