What Went Right - 19 JAN 2017

Another three articles about "what went right" (rather than "what went wrong") from the mainstream media.

New snail species discovered on Kimberley islands showcase 'amazing diversity', scientist says by Matthew Bamford (ABC Western Australia)

A group of scientists have been performing a survey of some remote islands off the Kimberley coast, and have found a number of new and unique snail species. The article includes some pictures of three of them.

Genetically modified fruit flies show promise in eradicating expensive Medfly by Michelle Stanley and Joanna Prendergast (ABC Rural, Western Australia)

A group of researchers in the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia have been experimenting with a genetically modified fruit fly imported from the United Kingdom, to determine whether it would be effective in reducing pest numbers of the Mediterranean fruit fly here in Western Australia.

Construction of powerful ASKAP telescope on 'home stretch' by Sebastian Neuweiler (ABC Western Australia)

The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope is nearly finished construction, with one third of the antennas already functioning and the other two-thirds coming online over the next twelve months.

So there's my three stories for the day. If you've found any stories in your mainstream media feeds about "what went right", why not share them in the comments?

Administrivia/Meta: What Went Right

I've been asked how long I'm planning to keep up the "What Went Right" series of posts. My answer to this is "as long as is humanly possible".

I started this series in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, as a variation on a personal anti-depression tactic. The tactic, which I'll include here so other people can use it if they wish, was to write down, every day, three things which had "gone right" (in the sense of "not going wrong") in a notebook. Didn't matter how big, didn't matter how small. At least three things, every day.

In the wake of the Trump election, I noticed a lot of people were despairing and upset, and there was a lot of negative focus - people were looking at how terrible things were now (not that much had actually changed at that point) and getting anxious about how terrible things were going to be in the future. I was being affected by this myself - and as someone with depression, I knew I couldn't really afford to let myself be dragged down by it.

So I decided (following a bit of inspiration from a friend, and a link to an article about things which had gone right in 2016), to revive my old "three things" habit - with a twist.

I've found this has helped me in a lot of ways - I'm reading the news more than I used to, and I'm getting more informed. I'm also learning there's a lot more positive news out there than you'd think - it's just that we, as readers, need to build the habit of looking for it. So my plan here is to keep posting these posts, keep up the series of "what went right" articles every day, and keep boosting the signal on the positive stuff in this world.

It is not all doom and gloom, no matter how much you may feel it is, and no matter how much other people want to convince you this is the case. There are small things going right every day - you just have to look for them.

Now, on to the administrivia side of things: at present, I try to get the "What Went Right" post up as early as possible each morning (I wake up at 6am most days, I do about 10 minutes journal writing - I'm building up on this - and the "what went right" post is the next thing I start working on each day). However, come February, I'm going to be starting university study again (part-time), and also I may be required to perform Work for the Dole again. This means I may wind up posting later in the day on some days. If I have to change my posting time, I'll try and let you all know ahead of time.