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GOOD NEWS.............Look up..... it's beautiful

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Stop looking down
Look up,
Any time....
It's free,
Beautiful,
Whatever the weather :)

We live in troubled times, life can be overwhelming........but the world is more good than bad, and full of very wonderful people.
Here is a place to post good stories about good people, good/beautiful stunning world views, anything lovely that takes your fancy:)




How a Melbourne anti-nuclear campaign won the Nobel Peace Prize
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The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has taken out one of the world’s most prestigious awards, the 2017 Nobel Prize for Peace.

So how did a campaign from Melbourne make its way to the international stage?

So what is ICAN?
ICAN describes itself as a coalition of non-governmental organisations in 100 countries promoting adherence to and implementation of the United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty.

That global agreement was adopted by 122 countries – but not by Australia – in New York on July 7 this year.

How did it form?
ICAN set up its first office in Melbourne, with disarmament campaigner Felicity Hill as the coordinator.

It officially launched in Vienna, Austria, in April 2007 during the Non-Proliferation Treaty preparatory committee meeting.

The campaign’s founders were inspired by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which had played a major role in the negotiation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, also known as the Ottawa treaty.

That treaty prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel land mines

It’s also had some pretty big supporters

The Dalai Lama has been quoted as saying: “I can imagine a world without nuclear weapons, and I support ICAN”.

ICAN also has the support of artist Yoko Ono and actors Martin Sheen and Michael Douglas.

Douglas joined ICAN’s Beatrice Fihn in May last year to highlight the role that civil society plays in the work to ban nuclear weapons.

How did ICAN win a Nobel Peace Prize?
There were more than 300 nominations for the award, and it can recognise both accomplishments and intentions.

Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said ICAN “has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world’s nations to pledge to cooperate … in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.”

She said that while similar bans had been reached on chemical and biological weapons, land mines and cluster munitions, nuclear weapons had so far avoided a similar international ban despite being more destructive.

“The organisation is receiving the award for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition on such weapons,” Ms Reiss-Anderson said.

While some asked whether a prize should be awarded for symbolism, since no international measures against nuclear weapons with all countries had been reached, Ms Reiss-Andersen said: “What will not have an impact is being passive.”

The group still has more work to do
Back in July, 122 nations adopted the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

But nuclear-armed countries like the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France stayed out of the talks.

Australia also decided to not to participate, leading then-Greens Senator Scott Ludlam questioning whether Australian diplomats acted like “weasels” during the nuclear disarmament negotiations.

Today, ICAN issued a statement thanking the Norwegian Nobel Committee for the award, but said it was still a time of “great global tension, when fiery rhetoric could all too easily lead us, inexorably, to unspeakable horror”.

“We applaud those nations that have already signed and ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and we urge all others to follow their lead,” the statement said.

“It offers a pathway forward at a time of alarming crisis.

“Disarmament is not a pipe dream, but an urgent humanitarian necessity.”

Our world is beautiful, a jewel in the universe

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My local council, awesome
And, there are a lot of elderly around here, and they use the council building lots, has a library, art gallery and services

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Good news........going to Melbourne? You can now have a doggie companion....

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PARK HYATT NEWEST STAFF MEMBER....MR WALKER COMFORT DOG

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Mr Walker is there to greet guests when they first walk in the door, lounging in the hotel's lobby in his custom-made Tasmanian oak bed

Guests can request to take Mr Walker out for morning walks and play with him in the the park

International guests are already calling ahead so they can request a walk with Mr Walker 'well before they arrive'
The 18-month-old pup was actually trained by Guide Dogs Victoria to provide assistance and companionship to people with blindness or low vision.
He was raised by a volunteer family for a year before returning to the organisation to begin his guide dog training.

Although he did well in the program, it was decided that the guide dog life did not bring out the best of Mr Walker's larger-than-life personality.

So Mr Walker was brought to the Park Hyatt to serve as an ambassador, where he not only brings smiles but also raises awareness - as well as funds - for guide dogs.
 
How A Team Of Aussie Geniuses Are Creating Robotic Prosthetics From Recycled Plastic
They've already created a prosthetic leg, finger and hand.

a team, known as Re:purpose For Good is beginning to turn plastic waste into robotic prosthetics.

The idea came from a combination of Robotics & Prosthetics Engineer Gerardo Montoya's project of creating prosthetic limbs for children in Mexico, and the research on the environmental impact of eight million tonnes of plastic entering our oceans.


The team behind Re:purpose For Good, which includes a robotics engineer, a sustainability specialist, biomedical engineer and an industrial designer, recently launched a Chuffed startup campaign, which reached its goal of $10,000 within four weeks.




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"Our designs are comfortable and, most importantly custom built for a fraction of the cost."
A prosthetic hand, for example, will cost between $3,000-4000, while a 3D printed hand, made from recycled plastic, will cost around $200.

So far, the team has created a prosthetic leg, finger and hand. Since winning the People's Choice award at Pitch@Palace, Re:purpose For Good is onto it's next R&D phase; to make prosthetics using recycled plastic.

"What we're doing is a world first. These plastic recycling machines exist, and 3D printing exists, and 3D printed prosthetics exists. But this will be the first design to use all three systems together. Additionally, the designs will be ergonomic and totally customisable to the user's taste; if you want a blue hand, you can," Scullin said.

How it all works:

  • The prosthetic is designed using 3D modelling for the mould, automation, programming and electronics.
  • Waste plastic is gathered, llike ABS and PET plastic (PET is waste such as water bottles and peanut butter jars and ABS is items like keyboards and Lego) that goes through a mechanical process for it to be used as material to 3D print the design.
  • The first step is shredding the plastic in to pellets (machine 1).
  • Then the next machine washes the pellets (machine 2).
  • Next is the extrusion process, where pellets are turned into filament (machine 3). This filament is what's used in the 3D printer (machine 4).
"We also use e-waste, like old smartphones that have all the circuitry and microprocessors we need that enable us to use intuitive design models so that a user with a prosthetic hand, for example, can grasp objects from the first fitting," Scullin said.
 
Divers stunned to find a mysterious hole in the Great Barrier Reef that is home to incredible, healthy coral colonies
  • Divers discovered the Blue Hole over 125 miles from Daydream Island
  • In their initial dive, they travelled 20 metres (65 feet) into the hole
  • Blue Holes are marine sinkholes that formed during previous ice ages
  • The discovery of healthy coral in the Blue Hole may come as a surprise to experts, following extensive coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ue-Hole-Great-Barrier-Reef.html#ixzz4xAIA8Gyl
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook


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The Blue Hole lies over 125 miles (200 kilometres) from Daydream Island, off the coast of north east Australia.

While little is known about the hole, the initial exploration suggests that despite extensive coral bleaching in the area, the formation is home to healthy coral colonies.



VERY GOOD NEWS:)
 
This is the most beautiful story...................

Beautiful 8 year old Aussie girl, wins science prize....and she is off to Nasa.......portable lifter, for the wheelchair bound
When I was nursing my sis, this would have been heaven, she would get so tired with struggles in and out of wheelchairs
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Eight-year-old Melbourne student Amelia Fox has won Origin’s littleBIGidea competition for inventing a ‘portable wheelchair hoist’.
The fabric hoist is located in the seat of the cushion, and attaches to hooks for easier and safer lifting when trying to assist someone out of a wheelchair.

The idea for the invention came after Miss Fox watched her parents struggle to help her brother get out of his wheelchair after surgery.

“A few years ago my brother had hip surgery, and he had to have a hoist to move around. I’ve been thinking about this idea for maybe five years or something,” Miss Fox said.

“Before he had the metal plates put in he was a lot lighter. A few days after the metal plates were put in, mum and dad were struggling because they were quite heavy.”

The surprise announcement was made in front of Amelia and her classmates at Brunswick North Primary School this morning, with judges calling her invention a ‘stand-out’ from over 1000 national entries in her age group.

“I’m pretty sure it works really well,” Miss Fox said.

“It felt really good [to win] and I was definitely not expecting it.”

As part of her prize, Amelia has won a trip to NASA in the US.
 
Senate passes same-sex marriage bill
BREAKING: The Senate has passed a bill to legalise same-sex marriage bill today after major changes were rejected.

THE bill to legalise same-sex marriage has passed the Senate today without any major changes.

Applause filled the chamber after the Senate passed the bill with 43 members in favour and 12 against. The decision means it will go to the House of Representatives next week for a final vote.

Those who voted against the bill include Liberal senators Eric Abetz, Slade Brockman and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells; National senators Matt Canavan, Barry O’Sullivan and John Williams; and Labor’s Chris Ketter and Helen Polley as well as One Nation’s Brian Burston and independents Cory Bernardi, Fraser Anning and Lucy Gichuhi.

Others including One Nation’s Pauline Hanson abstained from the vote.
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For your information

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GOD IS CHECKING QUEENSLAND......PROBABLY LOOKING FOR LOONIE RED HEADS TO SMITE

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HANDS OF GOD
 
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THESE plants are glowin’ up.

Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States have succeeded in creating plants that light up for hours at a time.


“The vision is to make a plant that will function as a desk lamp — a lamp that you don’t have to plug in,” Michael Strano, co-author of the study, recently published in NANO Letters, said in a statement.

“The light is ultimately powered by the energy metabolism of the plant itself.”

Researchers from MIT infused kale, watercress, arugula and spinach with luciferase — the enzyme that makes fireflies glow.
Then they dunked the plants in a solution containing more luciferase and luciferin — the molecule that reacts with luciferase to spark the light — and applied pressure. The pressure allowed the chemical mixture to sink into the plants’ tiny pores, where the luciferase and luciferin interacted to give the leafy green its glow.

The team made the plants glow for about 45 minutes in the first experiments. But by the time of the paper’s publishing, they reported greens that can glow for up to three and a half hours.

The watercress had an especially strong reaction to the chemical formula, producing a brightness comparable to half of a one-microwatt LED light.


The effort to engineer plants that light up isn’t new. In 2013, the Glowing Plant project raised nearly half a million dollars on Kickstarter but ultimately failed in their attempt to directly edit plant DNA. The team at MIT, whose research is funded the US Department of Energy, embedded the chemical into the plant rather than alter its DNA make-up.

While the work is still in the initial stages, scientists hope these plants will some day illuminate our books, homes and neighbourhoods, with the idea that they might eventually replace streetlights.

“Plants can self-repair, they have their own energy and they are already adapted to the outdoor environment,” Mr Strano said. “We think this is an idea whose time has come.”

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How neat
And I recall Sheldon tried this with fish in BBT
 
These 2 just proved you can be famous without being famewhores and arseholes

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Together 16 years
Just had twins

Private, smart people
 
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