Good news thread

[Ritterin Sophia]

And for the record..that kid was pretty stupid! He may have had balls..but the other guy was twice his size.

According to everything I can find, including the other students and their parents, Casey has been picked on unmercifully for his entire High School life and has been passive the entire time. That is until now, the little brat probably didn't honestly expect it to push Casey over the edge.

[weemadando]

I'm glad that Casey has been the subject of universal backing in this case. I haven't seen a single word of support for the little idiot.

[Edward Yee]

As for the universal support though... I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it is because Casey was clearly the bigger of the two, and therefore you'd think wouldn't be the bullied one... but when he finally snapped, he made the most of it and now has his fifteen minutes of Internet glory.

Mortal Kombat voice: "Flawless, Victory."

Because of this show Jason "Mayhem" Miller has become my new hero.

A shame that nowadays it seems to be "fixed" -- maybe after enough would-be bullies watched the show to know not to accept invites from the spastic guy with the funny hair and voice?

My favorite episode was the Jake Shields one though just for the subsequent history between Mayhem and Shields.

[FSTargetDrone]

Good news, let's see... let's see.... gosh, it IS hard to find any...

How about - a 4 month old baby swept away in the Japanese tsunami was found alive and reunited with her very grateful parents. Looks like the baby is OK - just a bit dehydrated, chilled, and very hungry. Should be completely recovered within a day.

Story on that:

Miracles in Japan: Four-Month-Old Baby, 70-Year-Old Woman Found Alive
By: William Lee Adams



A Japanese officer smiles as he holds a 4-month-old baby girl who was rescued in Ishinomaki, in Miyagi prefecture, on March 14, 2011

Yomiuri Shimbun / Reuters

Amid the silent corpses a baby cried out—and Japan met its tiniest miracle.

On March 14, soldiers from Japan's Self-Defense Forces went door to door in Ishinomaki, a coastal town northeast of Senda, pulling bodies from homes that had been flattened by the earthquake and tsunami. More accustomed to hearing the crunching of rubble and the sloshing of mud than sounds of life, they dismissed the baby's cry as a mistake. Until they heard it again.

They made their way to a pile of debris and carefully removed fragments of wood and slate, shattered glass and rock. And then they saw her: a 4-month-old baby girl in a pink woolen bear suit.

A tidal wave literally swept the baby from her parents' arms when it hit their home on March 11. Afterward, her parents — both of whom survived the disaster — took refuge in their wrecked house, worried that their little girl was dead. Soldiers managed to reunite the baby with her overjoyed father shortly after the rescue.

"Her discovery has put a new energy into the search," a civil defense official told a local news crew. "We will listen, look and dig with even more diligence after this." Ahead of the baby's rescue, officials reported finding at least 2,000 bodies washed up on the shoreline of Miyagi prefecture. How the child survived drowning — or being crushed by fallen trees and houses — remains a mystery.

In a nation short on good news, other rescues have buoyed morale too. In Iwate prefecture, a devastating tidal wave swept away an elderly woman along with her house — but it didn't extinguish her will to live.

Rescuers found the 70-year-old alive inside her home on March 15, four days after the wave wiped out much of the region. Osaka fire department spokesman Yuko Kotani told the Associated Press that the woman is receiving treatment at a local hospital. She is conscious but suffering from hypothermia.

Elsewhere, 60-year-old Hiromitsu Shinkawa survived two days at sea by clinging to his floating rooftop. He was discovered 10 miles (16 km) off the Japanese coastline. "Several helicopters and ships passed, but none of them noticed me," he said after his March 13 rescue. "I thought that was going to be the last day of my life." (via Daily Mail)

[Coyote]

Good news?

People power has proven effective in many Arab states, and dictators know that they, at some point, can only go so far before the leash gets yanked. People actually stood up to Gaddafi and have driven him over the brink of madness, his Sheen-like meltdown a public spectacle. And the glory of it? None of this is because of meddling on the part of us or mideast religious whackaloon groups.

And with Wisconsin, people may finally be waking up to what a threat the GOP/Profits over People Party is. Maybe it'll carry some water through the elections. Maybe.

The Chinese are not just taking the lead in manned space operations, they are seizing it with some bold plans. Awesome promise there.

That's just off the top of my head.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I think its free streaming for Schats since he is a US citizen.

Thanks for letting me know that dude, but you guys know you can fiddle with a proxy so you can watch the MTV videos?

[Twoyboy]

Tony Abbott has been forced to back down and concede that climate change is real and cause by humans.

That was the best news all day.

WTF? Link please!

http://www.news.com.au/national/climate ... 6022104925

[mr friendly guy]

And for the record..that kid was pretty stupid! He may have had balls..but the other guy was twice his size.

According to everything I can find, including the other students and their parents, Casey has been picked on unmercifully for his entire High School life and has been passive the entire time. That is until now, the little brat probably didn't honestly expect it to push Casey over the edge.

From most articles in question

A NSW Department of Education and Training spokeswoman said the school "does not tolerate any violence and deals with all cases according to its community-agreed discipline code".

This is the same education department where (back in the 90s when I was in high school) allowed a gay kid to be openly tormented with homophobic slurs including f@**ot right in front of the teachers. That kid ended up sueing them, although I am unsure of the result. So fuck these slack arse teachers and the stupid education department. Hey, maybe they should have suspended the bullies earlier before Casey had to resort to giving the kid the Imperial smackdown.

Oh, and BTW. I openly laughed when the kid got his just desserts, just as I laugh when a bully gets smashed and humiliated on Bully Beatdown.

[weemadando]

You would probably appreciate the fact that every MMA fighter and journo I.follow on twitter all went bananas over how great it was to see the bully get smashed.

[Zixinus]

The good news that is discussed is kids beating up each other?
Somehow I find that alone depressing.

[weemadando]

The good news that is discussed is kids beating up each other?
Somehow I find that alone depressing.

Well, more the fact that a kid who had been bullied for years finally snapped and face planted fuckhead #64297 into the ground.

It may not be the greatest news, but it does warm your cockles.

[Zixinus]

Well, more the fact that a kid who had been bullied for years finally snapped and face planted fuckhead #64297 into the ground.

I find it terrible. I apologize if I sound like a sacrosanct, saintly asshole but all I see here is tragedy.
Namely that a kid has been suffering bullying like this for years and that the abuse the kid received has reached the point where the victim actually had an episode of violence. What has the kid learned? That violence is the best answer if someone bothers you.

What I find more terrible that it appears that there is a SYSTEM THAT ENCOURAGES THIS. That a school system is so incompetent that they allow bullies to go free.
Perhaps my somewhat-fucked-up-and-rather-forgotten-memories of childhood and bullying is playing a role here, but I see this not as kids learning to be adults but damaging each other. What has the bully learned? That he needs to be more sure on who he picks on and that he has to use greater force. What has the victim learned? That display of violence is not only an acceptable response but the one that is expected and actually gains respect. Not hard work, not better social communication but sheer ruthlessness.

Sorry, I am not sure I am communicating what I really feel or think, but again: all I see is kids beating up each other. The only "good" part about it that the smaller one has been driven to the point where it is lashes out like a caged animal and surprise his opponent.

[Edward Yee]

But what did the bully learn from all this?

According to the Daily Telegraph (AU), the bully was also suspended, but...

Casey's father said yesterday his son had been the victim of bullying for several years and feared for his safety if he spoke about the fight.

"There'll be reprisals from other kids in the school and he still has to go to school somewhere," he said.

"He's not a violent kid, it's the first time he's lashed out and I don't want him to be victimised over that.

"He's always been taught never to hit. Apparently other people's parents don't teach their kids that."

The boldfaced part being what I see as the potential downside of his Internet fame.

Not hard work, not better social communication but sheer ruthlessness.

Considering how long he's been bullied, I doubt that any of that actually did work in his case.

Then again, look at how common what you described is for adults.

[Aaron]

Good news?

Ontario is apparently still committed to adding new reactor units and upgrading our current ones. The government has also been fairly clear that what happened to Japan can't happen here (fucking duh).

[Pu-239]

UN has passed resolution to intervene in Libya.

[Big Orange]

UN has passed resolution to intervene in Libya.

It was voted by 10 to fucking 0.

And the growing feeling of the world turning into shit is exacerbated by a international media that's become so invasive, with the internet accessed by practically everyone these days and 24 hour news channels becoming much more ingrained (and not just novelties in hotel rooms for most people before the mid to late 2000s), so you pick up on much more stuff.

[phongn]

Not sure if this is 'good news' - but a story of bravery in the face of certain death:

Miki Endo was a 25 year-old public worker who worked in the Crisis Management Dept. of the city of Minami Sanriku, one of the worst-hit cities in the Miyagi prefecture - of its 17,000 inhabitants, 10,000 perished and only 7,000 or so survived the tsunami.

Many of those 7,000 that survived escaped death because of Miki Endo’s broadcast. Mainichi Shimbun reports that Miki Endo did not let go of her microphone, even during the very moment the black waves of the tsunami engulfed the city, so that every last villager could hear her warning call. One co-worker told Miki’s mother, that he saw Miki being swept away by the tsunami wave.

A 61 year-old man named Taeza Haga heard Miki Endo’s warning broadcast, and scrambled to his car, just his cellphone in hand. He barely made it to the higher regions of Minami Sanriku, where he could see entire buildings and houses being swallowed up by the tsunami. Mr. Haga noticed Miki Endo’s mother, standing anxiously by the list of survivors, and took hold of her hand, and told her -

I could hear your daughter’s voice all the while I came up here.