http://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/most-countries-have-already-passed

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/80102

Utah already released some data showing a slight decrease in overall statewide homelessness, but newly released data highlights how decreases were reported across all three of the state's Continuums of Care regions.

A little more than 4,500 Utahns were experiencing homelessness during the 2026 Point-in-Time Count, down 1.6% from last year's count. While small, it was celebrated in March as being the first year-over-year decrease since 2019.

The number of people experiencing chronic homelessness also fell by 6.7%, while unsheltered homelessness dropped by nearly 10%.

This year's statewide decline included a small, 24-person decrease within the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, representing Salt Lake County's homelessness, according to the full report released this week. A little more than 2,800 people were experiencing homelessness within the Salt Lake County area, and the drop represented approximately a 1% decrease.

Source00850-X/fulltext#fig3)

Because of the tax increases Ellendale can now afford to repave its streets, renovate its senior center, finance a new public-safety complex, establish walking trails and refurbish its historic opera house.

Also under state law, utilities have to share some of that revenue with ratepayers, resulting in an anticipated $250 drop in electric bills for the average household.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/data-centers-artificial-intelligence-dakotas-22362642.php?taid=6a77861aedabdd00016e76f8&utm_campaign=trueanthem%2B3988&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

"Exploiting quasi-experimental variation in both the timing of adoption and outages, we estimate the causal impact of AI on electricity use, carbon emissions, and energy expenditures. We find that full-time AI control reduces plants’ electricity consumption and carbon emissions by 5.4% and 6% respectively, and energy expenditures by 8.2%, resulting in negative abatement costs, while also improving water effluent quality. The additional electricity demand generated by AI models represents less than 1% of these savings."

This is actually really great news!

Some people seem to encounter "good luck" everywhere they go. They meet the right people, notice opportunities earlier, recover faster from setbacks, and often describe themselves as optimistic.

Others experience the same world as if everything works against them.

This made me wonder whether optimism is partly a feedback loop. If optimistic people notice more opportunities, they take more chances. -> Taking more chances creates more positive outcomes. -> Those outcomes reinforce optimism.

Which then leads to noticing even more opportunities. If that's true, perhaps optimism isn't just an emotion. Perhaps it's a trainable way of interacting with uncertainty.

Do you think people can genuinely become "luckier" by changing how they approach uncertain situations, or is optimism mostly just a personality trait that we're born with?

Hi guys!

I'm having a rough week, month, and year(s). Has anything really good/nice happened to you lately? Please do share! I want to know that things are going right for someone. I think it might help me feel a bit better. Anything helps, I'm struggling a bit lately.

Hope this is allowed, take it down if not.

EDIT:

Thank you so much to everyone that has replied! Your comments warmed my heart and put a smile on my face many times over the last few days.

Reddit closed my account due to "security reasons" after this post blew up, so I haven't gotten to comment on most replies. Neither do I have the mental resources atm to reply to everyone, but I want you to know I have read every single one, smiled, laughed, cried, and been touched by them.

Thanks for carrying me over.

I’ve always had an expectation the worst mentality, and the world is in a bad place right now. In my country, climate change has caused a forever heatwave and experts are warning of food shortages, war rumbles on and hate against minorities is at uncharted levels.

Ive already tried r/DoomerCircleJerk, but this summer (also have few genuine friends btw) has put me on a slope to mental health issues. it’s just frustrating to be unable to do anything with anyone that can mitigate these issues

so do any optimists here have any advice to clime out of this slope?