Good News Roundup:

Many good things are happening or are about to happen these days.  Compared to bad things, the good is completely overwhelming.

The stock market is up.  The economy is up.  Inflation is still non-existent.

Obama deported a record number of criminal illegal aliens, showing that anyone can do better than Bush.

Republicans are looking ready to sweep the midterm elections, now just a couple weeks out.  At this rate even obamacare might not survive.

World of Warcraft's new expansion finally has a release date, December 7th.  The pre-Cataclysm patch is already live and chock full of new abilities and graphics for the various classes.  For a game with an economy larger in real dollar worth than most countries in the world and 12 million players, larger than the population of most countries on Earth, a new Warcraft expansion is more important than, say, the fate of all the Balkan states and their perpetual troubles combined.

The new Magic the Gathering set is out, Scars of Mirrodin, a set revisiting the most successful set ever released in Magic's history, (Mirrodin, if anyone was wondering.)  It's no wonder the set is full of lovable mechanics and smooth gameplay.

The fall anime season began October 1st.  Already a few series stand out above the crowd:  Bakuman, Ore Imouto, and The World God Only Knows.  Only time will tell if these series can join my already crowded top 30 list.  ((Maybe I need to go ahead and stretch that list to the top 50.))  The new series join old favorites Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail, Index, Dragonball Kai, and Katanagatari, which are all currently releasing new episodes in Japan.  The blu-ray releases of Haruhi, Mahou Shojo Lyrical Nanoha, Angel Beats, and K-On are also ongoing, giving people a chance at the highest quality anime viewing experience of the highest quality anime.

The new Wheel of Time book, Towers of Midnight, is set to be released November 2nd.  It's obviously going to be the story of Mat saving Moiraine from the Tower of Genji.  Can it get any better than that?  I mean really?  Does it ever get better than that?  Maybe Memory of Light can top it. . .hopefully that will be out next year, and everyone will get to know the true ending of the greatest fantasy saga ever written.

The Hobbit has been green lit for filming, with Peter Jackson back at the helm again.  Hopefully he makes another masterpiece like he did the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Hopefully he goes on to make the Silmarillion too (which is Tolkein's best work by far).

Star Wars is going to be released in 3D in theaters, apparently right after their blu-ray releases, which means we'll have to go buy yet another version of the films.  Why not?  We're talking about the greatest movies ever made after all.

Google has made two huge announcements -- It's already built and deployed working cars that drive themselves.  Autonomous Vehicles, or, 'auto-mobiles' might be a good term.  :).  I predicted this was coming soon, but I'm delighted to find out that the 'future' is 'now.'  Since these cars have already driven our streets, without our knowing, for 100,000 miles without an accident, I don't see why this technology can't be incorporated into all future car models starting today.  Google has a less aggressive strategy and says everything is still 'years' away.  But every year hundreds of thousands of people are dying due to traffic accidents.  Every year billions of dollars are lost to traffic accidents, traffic fines, traffic laws, traffic jams, paying taxi drivers, and paying for parking spots (or just not finding any parking at all)-- all of which auto-mobiles would solve.  Every year parents have to waste their time ferrying their children around to far-away friends or club activities, another problem auto-mobiles can solve, which, like cell phones, can give children and parents equally a new measure of freedom.

The second huge announcement is that Google is building a giant electricity cable in the Atlantic seaboard.  Wind farms will be connected to this transmission line and deliver power to the areas that need it most, the heavily congested energy-hungry northeast.  Because the development is offshore, it doesn't need permits from every last cow farmer to gain the right to use their land.  Because the Atlantic ocean is so near to New England, it won't cost nearly as much to connect as a wind farm in the great plains would have.  Has any company done so much good for the world as Google?  This is just on top of their Google translate project, which has allowed everyone on Earth to reasonably understand one another without spending ten years of study per foreign language.

An Earth-like planet, Gliese 581g, which one scientist went so far as to predict is '100% certain to be habitable,' has been discovered, not many light years away.  If we wanted we could go settle it tomorrow.  If we're looking for reasons to go into space, we have now found one.

Angela Merkel has admitted that multiculturalism has 'utterly failed.'  Meanwhile, the regular German when polled says Turks can't integrate and that immigration should be cut off.  10% went so far as to wish a 'Fuhrer' would come in and 'solve' things.  If Germany, land of the perennially guilty and repentant, can start thinking like this, Europe might still be saved.  Just one truth teller in a high position started all of this, Thilo Sarrazin, God bless his soul.  How powerful the Truth is!  One lone voice and the whole nation changes.  What an inspiring call on everyone else who knows the Truth to go ahead and say it where they live too!