In a world of conflict news stories are often overshadowed by breaking news. What’s a recent news story, good or bad, you feel went under the radar?

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/germany-climate-seagrass/

People restoring sea grass to the Baltic Sea.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/08/the-serial-killer-and-the-texas-mom-who-stopped-him

This woman stopped a serial killer.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/plastic-eating-bacteria-enzyme-recycling-waste

Plastic eating bacteria could change the world.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-28/quoll-thought-extinct-found-south-australia/102911364

An animal called a quoll thought to be extinct for 130 years has been rediscovered.

Since 2021, a French company named Carbios has been running an operation that uses a bacterial enzyme to process about 250kg of PET plastic waste every day, breaking it down into its precursor molecules, which can then be made directly into new plastic. It’s not quite composting it back into the earth itself, but Carbios has achieved the holy grail of plastic recycling, bringing it much closer to an infinitely recyclable material like glass or aluminium.

That’s a significant step forward from when the last time I read up on the plastic eating bacteria. Granted, I’d prefer it if it was recycled into something other than more plastic… but I’ll still take it.
- I think it's highly likely there's a catch, like you have to grow 250 tons of bacteria. Usually there is with amazing advances which get a news story but not a lot of reaction from other academics.
- Well, how would we change it from plastic into something else?
Anyone else wonder if plastic decomposing bacteria might be a disaster? I'm interested in it's research and development but can't imagine how it would be contained to stop it from eating everything we have.
- Don't worry, we'll invent a type of plastic immune to this bacteria and start the whole process anew!
  
  As an aside, 'plastic eating bacteria' have been 'discovered' countless times over the past several decades.
- No idea about that, but your bringing up the issue reminded me of the movie Andromeda Strain...
  
  "Just as he has this insight, the organism mutates into a non-lethal form that degrades synthetic rubber and plastic"
  
  Apparently there's a TV show based on the same story.
That Vanity Fair story is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read, thanks for sharing!
- Isn't that bonkers? I read it twice I was so interested.
Nice! As a follow up, is there a good app/source to get more positive articles Ike this regularly?
- Also enjoy this article on drive in sex boxes in Zurich, giving a new meaning to public spaces: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/aug/26/zurich-drive-in-garages-prostitutes
- I tend to read Metafilter (https://www.metafilter.com/), it's not all good news but it's a weblog of really interesting content.
The quoll species in question (it is a small doglike marsupial, a carnivore, and very cute) was known to be alive and well in Queensland (a state to the north) and was only extinct in South Australia. It seems to have spread back to the southern state.

There are other species of quoll.
- Oh ok sorry. Still interesting though!

The death of all the coral in Florida.

It was front-page news where I live a few days ago but not a blip of it could be seen anywhere else.

It’s easily the most important news of the past two months and will negatively affect life on the planet anywhere but fuck all if humans outside of a local area could bring themselves to give a shit.

I hate to inform you that corals are dieing all around the world, not just in Florida.
Fellow Floridian here. I hope we can get someone better after DeSantis' term limit is up. We live in one of the most climate change prone regions and a region where environmental changes mean a great deal.

this won't get reported in the news but i started my dream job after 10+ years of shitty jobs and that makes me happy 😊 I've got no motivational advice, life sucks and then you die lol

If I was the news, I'd interview you.
Tbh would be nice to see this kind of news once in a while. Just a random wholesome thing, but no actual life advice (which might sometimes sound a bit condescending with the wrong words).

A police officer drover over and killed an Indian student in Seattle, and when he found out, he laughed about it. He did apologize later but the system that led to it is still in place. Hate the game.

I hate it when it happens with terrible news, but... I lost the game.

Millennials, Gen Z committing fewer violent crimes than previous generations of youth

Probably due to the absence of lead that the previous generation got due to leaded gas emissions.
- And maybe microplastics have the opposite effect. But this is just speculation, and afaik no sources support this.
  
  Edit: I dunno why I got downvoted. Maybe I should be more specific that my claim, "maybe microplastics have the opposite effect", has no support. I didn't mean OP's claim was unsupported.
Millennials are so lazy they can't even commit acts of violence... Smh
- They are killing the murder industry
I mean we're not bothered to do anything nowadays. Not even bothered to commit crime. Why kill people irl which would lead to court and having to defend yourself and whatnog when you can just chill and do it in a video game with no consequence?

It's a french news but in Rouen an empty appartement building full of asbestos burnt to the ground some days ago but due to the Hamas attack on Israel no news outlets talks about it anymore.

Is burning asbestos bad for you? I think it's about breathing in the small parts of it, not toxic fumes.
- Asbestos doesn't burn(it's the biggest reason of why it was used everywhere) but the falling asbestos will break and create dust/particles that will propagates in the air and will go further and faster due to hot air being lighter thus creating updraft.

Baltimore schools are some of the most publicaly-funded in America. And yet, in 23 schools, 0 students passed a math proficiency test. ZERO. There were 10 high schools, 8 elementary schools, three middle/high schools, and 2 elementary/middle schools.

The news broke when a father raised the alarm. His daughter graduated high school with honors and was accepted in a military college. When she started classes, it became very apparent that she was not anywhere near ready to begin those classes and was put on academic leave. Turns out, instead of funding programs to get students up to speed, these schools just kept lowering standards for graduation, so that more students could pass, inflating graduation numbers.

Damn, that’s infuriatingly sad and scary.

I have the feeling we should talk more about bio char. Seams like a feasible improvement for three very different problem mankind faces right now.

Can you expand on that or provide some resources to learn about biochar. I've never really heard about it before.
- Okay, in some ways bio char itself is like the regular charcoal we know from BBQs and the manufacturing process can be quite similar. But like most things, it's a very complex topic, therefore, I'll only give a very rough overview for now but I’ll also share some links to further information 👍 • While charcoal is mostly made from valuable wood, bio char can be made from every form of biomass, meaning it can be made from every form of biomass waste.
  • During the manufacturing process, the chemical carbon in the biomass is put into a form that is stable for several thousand years, so unless the bio char is burned again it can’t reenter the atmosphere. • Each ton of bio char produced using plant based waste is equivalent to 2.6 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide captured by those plants. • The manufacturing process generates a small amount of base-load energy which can be, depending on the size of the facility, enough for several hundreds of households. • The end product can be used to revitalize the extremely degraded soils we're fighting in industrial agriculture right now.
  
  Tl:dr we (indirectly) take something very bad from the atmosphere, generate useful energy with it and then store it within our dead soils to revitalize it.
  
  It is not THE solution but I think it’s a feasible improvement.
  
  I’m happy to answer more questions... here are some links ✌️
  
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/biochar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

Ethan Liming.

Was a kid in Akron Ohio who was driving around with black friends.

They drove past a group of black kids playing basketball, and one of his friends shot them with a bright orange water gel blaster.

Ethan ended up being brutally murdered (the only one), fractured skull, bootprints on his chest, then the group stole their car and took it on a joy ride to prevent him being taken to the hospital.

They were just found not guilty.

What did being black have anything to do with this story?
- Sounds like they’re claiming race was a motive in his beating, but I don't know enough about this story to weigh in.
It's almost like you'd have to try to get it this wrong.

Spanish princess is in the military academy now and today at the national day parade she was wearing her uniform. It would be front page news if not for the war.

Hunter's biden laptop scandal. No news about it

Did they finally find more dick pics or something? What's new to report?
- Don't your read the news? They are about to find all of the evidence and as soon a it is revealed it will change everything. Just like last month!
I dunno what news you look at but it’s all over the news I read.
- I'm European sorry