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Good news is hard to find these days. But it is there, hidden amid the bad, and it's worth sharing, if only to brighten sombre moods. One bit I missed last week was buried in Apple's annual developer conference in California.
Come September, when the company's iOS 17 operating system is released, a ducking awful autocorrect function which has plagued generations of iPhone users will no longer turn an expletive laden sentence into a nonsensical one. "The RBA is going to crash the ducking economy..." will, thanks to AI, read as intended and not how the autocorrect assumes it should read.
Good news.
Speaking of smartphones, good news about them also flashed up last week in an Illawarra Mercury piece written by my esteemed and eternally cheerful colleague Janine Graham. "Without fanfare, a politician cutting anything, or even a big novelty cheque," she wrote, phone connectivity on the Illawarra rail line had undergone a major improvement, thanks to a technological upgrade. Good news indeed for the hundreds of commuters who suffer dropouts between Wollongong and Sydney. Good news, too, some lacklustre Member for Instagram wasn't there claiming credit.
Good news arrived for those worrying about the global transition to electric vehicles. British business journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard settled some misgivings about the carbon cost in the manufacture of EVs and the way the rare earths mined for their batteries are processed. In summary, he wrote: "The EV carbon footprint is plummeting across the three great industrial zones of Europe, America, and China. A deep dive by [EV market analyst company] McKinsey concluded that the emissions of leading battery suppliers would fall by 75 per cent over the next five to seven years."
And in further welcome news on this front, the federal government is considering slashing the luxury tax on low-emission vehicles as it hammers out a trade deal with the EU. That will help bring down the cost of a range of EVs manufactured in Europe.
Feeling better about life? That might depend on how your brain is wired. According to an article in the Canadian Medical Association journal, our brains' inferior frontal gyrus filters bad news when updating beliefs based on new information. They give us the optimistic bias which enables us to, say, take that trip to the snow even though we know from past experience the Monaro Highway will be jammed with traffic and impatient duckwits in high-powered Ford Rangers tailgating before overtaking at great risk.
"This optimistic bias is the reason why people tend to assume they will live longer and suffer fewer accidents than their peers. A stronger optimistic bias also appears to confer health benefits," the article said.
I came face to face with the health benefits of optimism on the beach a couple of weeks ago when I ran into Bruce, 80, still in the pink of good health, his copy of The Canberra Times tucked under his arm. I told him how healthy he looked.
"Oh, I'm an optimist," he said. "Such an optimist, I bought myself another motorbike for my 80th birthday present." While so many people his age and even younger no longer buy green bananas, he buys - and still rides - motorcycles.
Be like Bruce, I thought to myself. Look for good news, find the silver linings, put those inferior gyruses to work.
On a final note, thanks to some odd quirk of forelock-tugging history, most of you have the day off to mark some apparently important English bloke's birthday, even though it isn't.
See? You can even find good news in the monarchy.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Are you an optimist or pessimist? Or something in between? Do you turn away from bad news? Or are you a doomscroller? Share a good news story you've found this past week. Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to "front up" and be "unequivocal" in outlining their involvement in the politically charged Parliament House rape allegations.
- Australian wineries have prevailed on the international stage with more wines named among the world's finest than any other country. Aussie wine producers took home 10 Best in Show medals at the 2023 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).
- Aussies heading overseas for a European holiday face new requirements from next year. Travellers will need to apply for authorisation to enter 30 countries through the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS). The online application costs about $11 and is required for visa-exempt nationals from about 60 countries.
THEY SAID IT: "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." - Colin Powell
YOU SAID IT: It's time we rethought our obsessive memorialisation of war, wrote Garry, and ditched the khaki cult.
Kate says: "Paul Keating calls our excessive fawning of war and heroism 'Anzaccary'. I think it's a cover for our fear because Australians are relatively untried and untouched by war. Loved your analysis."
"Wouldn't it be great if all the money spent on war memorials and museums was spent on the returned soldiers' health and wellbeing, enabling them to adjust to civilian life?" says Elaine.
Heather says: "Excellent summary by Garry Linnell. The War Memorial money should of course have been spent on war vets. Time to end this Anzac myth."
"The only 'memorial' section of the Australian War Memorial is the courtyard area with the roll of honour and the tomb of the unknown soldier," says Deb. "The rest is a museum. The $500 million for the expansion of the museum could have been much better spent on social programs, such as assistance to victims of domestic violence. The fact that we spend huge amounts on a building to display weapons while effectively ignoring the plight of people who are living through war on a daily basis in their own homes speaks volumes about our society."
Chris says: "I think this article is completely in line with the ultra left to destroy our culture. Good luck, boys, but the 'average guy' won't let this fly. Keep trying to change us but the problem is the average person in Australia is catching on to what you're doing and it won't happen."
"It has been popular to criticise attitudes as un-Australian," says Christopher. "Now we see that that being 'Australian' is being 'unutterably stupid' - encapsulated in the sensationalising of Gallipoli. I have avoided the idiocy of late April as I have avoided RSI - repetitive strain injury. Our servility to war has been atrocious and AUKUS is the new symbol of that servility and stupidity. Any goodness in our way of life, what we supposedly go to war to protect, is being constantly eroded by our politicians and we keep on voting the same miscreants into office. How very Australian."