So the world is a hard, ugly, and dangerous place. What are we going to do about it? We're going to remember that it's getting better all the time.
Item 1
Competition Good for Broadband
The threat of competition from wireless broadband providers is forcing incumbent telcos to speed-up the roll-out of DSL services.
What's more, incumbent that fail to react to competitive pressures will face losing punters as they shop around for alternative broadband and telecoms providers.
Why this is good news:
Broadband for everybody! Competition isn't always encouraged (or even allowed) in European markets, so it's encouraging to see it here in full force: not only helping to bring broadband to the masses, but getting those incumbent (often state-controlled) telcos off their butts and producing some positive results.
Item 2
Sony Drops Playstation Prices
Sony expects a long life for its PlayStation 2. So this week it dropped the gaming console's price to keep sales brisk while simultaneously announcing new online services designed to keep gamers coming back.
Why this is good news:
Self-evident.
Why this is bad news:
It's only bad news if you're a parent who just ran out of excuses for buying one of these things, or you just bought one last week at the higher price.
Item 3
World's Youth Better Off Today
(from the Great News Network)
The world's youth are better off today than earlier generations, although many are still severely hindered by a lack of education, poverty, health problems, unemployment and the impact of conflict, the United Nations says in a new report released today, the first to examine the global situation of young people.
The World Youth Report 2003 measures progress in 10 priority areas - education, employment, extreme poverty, health issues, the environment, drugs, delinquency, leisure time, the situation of girls and young women, and youth participation in decision-making - identified by Member States when they adopted the 1995 World Programme of Action for Youth.
Why this is good news:
Apparently, young people are doing better (on average) in all of these areas than they have in years gone by. It's especially encouraging that a positive report on the state of the world's youth would come from the United Nations, a group whose bread is buttered by the existence and worsening of global problems rather than by their elimination. (Which stance would explain everything that follows the "although" in the first paragraph.)
Let's face it: if the UN says that life is getting better for the world's young people, it really must be.
Why this is bad news:
It's only bad news for people who have a vested interest in believing that the world is going down the tubes. (But then that applies to all the news covered in Better All The Time.)
Item 4
An Inspiring Story
Who says you can't choose your family? Susan Tom of Fairfield, California, has done just that, adopting 11 special-needs children and giving them love, hope and as close to a normal childhood as possible.
Winner of the Audience Award and Director's Award at 2003's Sundance Film Festival, MY FLESH AND BLOOD follows a year in the life of this remarkable family as it confronts a litany of daily routines, celebrates life's small pleasures, and copes with major crises.
Why this is good news:
The good news here is that this documentary is currently running on HBO. Sure, go ahead and Tivo The Sopranos and Deadwood, but leave a little room on the box (and in your viewing schedule) for a program that has an unreservedly positive message about family, courage, and humanity.
Item 5
Hydrogen Powered Cars
(via FuturePundit)
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are developing a system to rapidly produce hydrogen from gasoline in your car. "This brings fuel cell-powered cars one step closer to the mass market," said Larry Pederson, project leader at PNNL. Researchers will present their developments at the American Institute for Chemical Engineers spring meeting in New Orleans, on April 27th, 2004.
Fuel cells use hydrogen to produce electricity which runs the vehicle. Fuel cell-powered vehicles get about twice the fuel efficiency of today's cars and significantly reduce emissions. But how do you "gas up" a hydrogen car? Instead of building a new infrastructure of hydrogen fueling stations you can convert or reform gasoline onboard the vehicle. One approach uses steam reforming, in which hydrocarbon fuel reacts with steam at high temperatures over a catalyst. Hydrogen atoms are stripped from water and hydrocarbon molecules to produce hydrogen gas.
Why this is good news:
Hey, if you can create hydrogen from gasoline, even the oil companies are going to get behind it.
Why this is bad news:
The bad news is that hydrogen made from petroleum won't help reduce our dependence on foreign oil as much as would hydrogen from other sources. (Also, aren't we supposed to run out of oil one of these days?) Still, this could be an important first step. If we can get cars running on hydrogen made from gasoline, eventually we should be able to make them run on fuel cells made of borax or some other hydrogen-rich material.
Item 6
Wetter World Counters Greenhouse Gases -Scientists
Australian scientists have found the Earth may be more resilient to global warming than first thought, and they say a warmer world means a wetter planet, encouraging more plants to grow and soak up greenhouse gases.
"Contrary to widespread expectations, potential evaporation from the soil and land-based water bodies like lakes is decreasing in most places," the scientists said.
An increase in trees and shrubs in the world's grasslands in recent decades was a major counter to greenhouse gases, they said.
Why this is good news:
Speaks for itself, doesn't it?
Why this is bad news:
I guess it would be bad news for anyone whose stand on climate issues is based less on this kind of research and more on tie-ins to cheesey movie premiers and that sort of thing.
Item 7
New Intel chipset
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, unveiled its Pentium M chipset yesterday based on the Dothan processor developed in Israel.
Why this is good news:
New mobile chip. Better. Stronger. Faster.
Plus, Israel continues with the technological breakthroughs in spite of all the regional turmoil.
Item 8
"Tooth Stem Cells Could Treat Parkinson's"
An effective treatment for neurological diseases such as Parkinson's could be developed from stem cells found inside teeth.
Researcher Christopher Nosrat and colleagues at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in Ann Arbor have found that dental pulp-derived stem cells can protect and promote the survival of dopaminergic neurons—brain cells involved in movement.
Why this is good news:
Apart from the obvious – that we may soon have a new and much better treatment for Parkinson's Disease - it's good news that scientists see potential in adult stem cells.
Even if you have no ethical qualms about using embryonic stem cells for treatment of disease, it's a political reality that many people in this country oppose embryonic stem cell research.
Also, the expense of cloning and extracting these cells is, presently, prohibitive. If treatments using adult stem cells prove to be effective, it will be good news for everyone.
Why this is bad news:
This is a bit of a stretch, but if adult stem cells prove to have little versatility by comparison to embryonic stem cells, then this scientific dead end may provide political cover for the opponents of stem cell research in two ways.
First, while scientists investigate the potential of adult stem cells, embryonic stem cell opponents can say to the public, "see, we support stem cell research," even as they block research of the most promising form of stem cells. Most of the public has not made the distinction between embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.
And second, if adult stem cells really do prove to have little use, research opponents will say that embryonic stem cells will have little use as well.
Why we should be optimistic:
Adult stem cells will almost certainly prove to have some versatility in the treatment of disease. At the same time, research of embryonic stem cells will continue (to some extent) here and elsewhere. As effective treatments develop, embryonic stem cell research will come to be accepted.
Either that, or a method will be developed for creating an embryonic stem cell equivalent without making an embryo.
Item 9
Quote of the Day
(Ray Kurzweil via Ken Novak)
An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). .. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity -- technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.
Item 10
More effective coffee drinking
(from FuturePundit
Here is some useful news you can use. Morning "big gulp" coffee drinkers are misusing the power of caffeine. Researchers at the Sleep Disorders Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago along with colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School have shown that caffeine is best admnistered in a larger number of smaller doses with the doses coming later in the day.
Why this is good news:
I'm about a half-a-pot-a-day man, StarBuck's French Roast. Since I'm going to drink it anyway, I might as well get the most out of it.
Why this is bad news:
Anti-caffeine buzzkills who are always trying to get us to switch to decaf have just lost some ground.
Better All The Time is compiled by Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon. Thanks to David Gertsman, Reason, and Sam Ghandchi. Special thanks to John Atkinson for linking to us and supplying the Speculist motto for this week:
Viva la future, dude!