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Last Fifth Thursday Good News: Are We Having Fun Yet? [1]
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Date: 2022-12-29
Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy (Official Music Video)
with Robin Williams and Bill Irwin
We must accept the fact that
and resolve to enjoy the meshugas, along with the
Regularly Scheduled Good News
The Tax Returns!
x BREAKING: the House Ways and Means committee will release six years of Trump’s tax returns in their entirety on Friday according to CNN. Accountability matters and we deserve to see them. What a great gift for us and democracy before the end of the year. — Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) December 27, 2022
Burning Documents!
Former Trump White House aide told Jan. 6 panel Mark Meadows burned documents a dozen times during the transition period
The January 6 committee released another batch of transcripts Tuesday, including two more of its interviews with blockbuster witness Cassidy Hutchinson and testimony from several other Trump White House officials. The transcripts shed new light on how then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows regularly burned documents during the transition period, according to Hutchinson. She also described how Meadows occasionally told staffers to keep some Oval Office meetings “close hold” and potentially omitted from official records.
Gunz!
Part of the vast array of legislation introduced this year is MD Rep. Kweisi Mfume’s proposal to start collecting, archiving, and analyzing data on mass shooters, so the we can start recognizing them in advance, and using existing legal tools to disarm them, get them help for mental health problems, or otherwise intervene. It will direct the National Institute of Justice to collect, study and analyze online content to identify potential mass shooters before they act.
H.R.9441 - Identifying Mass Shooters Act
x UP NEXT: Congressman @RepKweisiMfume, who introduced the "Identifying Mass Shooters Act" joins "The Beat" on steps to prevent future shootings. — The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) December 28, 2022
Republicans claim to be big on mental health as a cause for mass shootings, so maybe we can get a few of them to vote for this. Fox reacted relatively mildly, not screaming about plans to take your guns away.
Democrats want government to ID mass shooters before they shoot by studying social media posts
The Daily Caller likewise.
Good Deeds!
Buffalo ‘angel’ saves 64-year-old man from deadly snowstorm on Christmas Eve
The story of how Sha’Kyra Aughtry saved Joe, a developmentally disabled man, from the blizzard appeared on the SweetBuffalo716 blog’s Facebook page and has caught the attention of people throughout Upstate New York and the world. According to SweetBuffalo716, Aughtry heard Joe in distress and crying for help. With the help of her boyfriend they found Joe and her boyfriend carried him out of the snow bank and into their home early on Saturday, Christmas Eve.
The regular ambulance service was out in the storm. People on Facebook organized a ride for Joe to the hospital while Aughtry treated his frostbite as well as she could in her home.
There are a number of other such rescue stories from Buffalo. Darius Pridgen, Buffalo City Council President, was on MSNBC tonight talking about being out in the storm all day to deal with that and other problems during the storm and driving ban. The city is now concerned about all of the snow melting tomorrow, causing some freezing flooding.
30% of Barbados Seas to be Protected Under “Blue Bond” Financing That Saved The Seychelles
As part of a debt-for-nature refinancing program, the island nation of Barbados is set to unlock $50 million in funding for conservation of its entire marine ecosystem. Barbados committed at last year’s COP to protect 30% of its territorial waters but lacks the funds to do so. The Nature Conservancy announced it will work with partners to buy a piece of Barbados’ national debt and refinance it to facilitate this goal.
Science! Animals! Weirdness!
And Whatever This Is
I searched for “science” on Twitter yesterday, and got nothing but this meshugas. I had to go find the specific feeds, like “Reuters Science News” and “NASA” to get anything real.
x A good start, but the policy would be better without the qualifier “reasoned.” Otherwise, the issue becomes: Reasoned according to whom? Questioning of science should be protected on a platform dedicated to free speech regardless of whether it’s broadly perceived as “reasoned.” — Justin Amash (@justinamash) December 28, 2022
which is apparently why I am seeing more climate trolls and antivaxxers on Twitter recently. Not Creationists, thank Dog.
Now, Back to Normal Animal Weirdness
x 📸 2022 Top Posts - Twitter 4th Place 📸
"This Box Jellyfish has only been seen twice in the wild, the first was back in 1997, 25 years ago, and the second is this video which was captured by Scuba Ventures -Kavieng in late 2021 near Papua New Guinea!"
-jellyfish_science' (IG) pic.twitter.com/EqyWPkPUUR — PADI (@PADI) December 29, 2022
Real Carbon Capture
Carbfix imitates and accelerates these natural processes, where carbon dioxide is dissolved in water and interacts with reactive rock formations, such as basalts, to form stable minerals providing a permanent and safe carbon sink. The Carbfix process captures and permanently removes CO 2 .
This has been proven in tests in Iceland. Now Carbfix is ready to scale up.
World’s Biggest Factory to Suck Carbon from the Sky and Store it For Millions of Years Turns on in Iceland
Built in the geothermal park in Hellisheidi, the company hopes this is merely a stepping stone necessary to scale up the model by a factor of 80, and thereby remove millions of tons of CO2 by the end of the decade.
OK, that’s a real start. But we need to capture and store a trillion tons of carbon, a million times the capacity of the next larger plant in this program. So we need trees, carbon-negative cement, lots more carbon in soils, and everything else we can think of. We are discussing seeding oceans with iron to create plankton blooms, but not doing anything about it yet because of environmental concerns. We’ll get there.
Medicine
x TG Therapeutics Inc said on Wednesday that the U.S. health regulator had approved its monoclonal antibody for treating patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, sending its shares up 47% in afternoon trade.
https://t.co/uFIOk890zg — Reuters Science News (@ReutersScience) December 28, 2022
Cuteness Attack
That Makes Sense
x The verdict is in: female dogs actively evaluate human competence.
https://t.co/QLvftP3y77 — Scientific American (@sciam) December 28, 2022
Catwalk
The Science of Buddhist Non-Attachment
x Leaving aside a cherished objective may benefit psychological and even physical health
https://t.co/BapMfFMK2O — Scientific American (@sciam) December 28, 2022
Catwalks
Puppers and Ducklings
Languages
x Sprechen Sie … Navajo?
Chances are, you or someone you know is using Duolingo, a free, fun, self-paced language-learning site where technology – & an owl named Duo – is your personal tutor.
Well, guess what? @NSF gave Duolingo its wings!
https://t.co/lWgckwkrhH
📷: Duolingo pic.twitter.com/m9556ypDOa — National Science Foundation (@NSF) December 26, 2022
Beyond the stardom, at the core of Duolingo is artificial intelligence research, guiding each learner through individualized learning experiences. Today, Duolingo is valued at over $3 billion, and the research that allowed Duo to take flight was originally supported by NSF.
I finished their Ukrainian course a while back, and I am getting close to wrapping up Yiddish. And yes, they do teach Navajo and other endangered languages.
Inouye Solar Telescope
x The sun is waking up, & Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope - the world's largest solar telescope - is watching! Check out this detailed image of the SURFACE OF THE SUN! Inouye is operated by @AURADC @NatSolarObs for the National Science Foundation @NSF
https://t.co/hapKsWNcPW — Dr Heidi B. Hammel (@hbhammel) December 22, 2022
I remember Sen. Inouye (井上). Some of the Watergate crooks called him “Aint’ no way” because he was too honest for them. He had served in Italy in WW II along with many other Japanese-Americans whose families were in internment camps.
Pink Iguana Babies
x ICYMI: Scientists have discovered hatchling and juvenile populations of the Galapagos pink land iguana for the first time since the species' discovery just decades ago
https://t.co/hUhbbSxbDH pic.twitter.com/7pigw2Op4y — Reuters (@Reuters) December 25, 2022
New Black Hole from Supernova
No, it’s not a kilonova from two merging neutron stars. It’s a failed supernova from a star too big to create a neutron star.
x A great video from @NSF about the discovery of a kilonova by astronomers using @GeminiObs:
https://t.co/BvcOpr8bdf — Gemini Observatory (@GeminiObs) December 15, 2022
Actual Kilonova
x #News: Two independent teams of astronomers using telescopes in space and on Earth, including the @GeminiObs telescopes on Hawai‘i & Chile have uncovered the unexpected hallmarks of a kilonova, the colossal explosion triggered by colliding neutron stars.
https://t.co/9wBhDWpyCx pic.twitter.com/tyBAJORgsX — Gemini Observatory (@GeminiObs) December 7, 2022
5 U.S. States Are Repaving Roads With Unrecyclable Plastic Waste–And Results Are Impressive
Headache-inducing plastic waste such as printer cartridges and plastic bags are being turned into aggregate material for asphalt road mixtures around the country. Plastic roads have built up a head of scientific steam recently, with scientists and regulators seeing roads as a decent place to reutilize plastic that is difficult to recycle in a cost-effective manner. Pilot programs are ongoing in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, California, and Hawai’i, with transportation regulators monitoring performance and durability of the roads, and environmental regulators on the lookout for potential microplastic contamination. All in all plastic roads could be a big part of future societies, as the programs all show good results, and for the moment at least, no microplastic pollutant runoffs in several states.
Top 12 Animal Stories of 2022: the Adorable, the Absurd, the Astounding
Ginger Cat is Local Star for Stealing Hundreds of Toys and Presenting Them Sweetly to Neighbors Bride Has ‘Slowest Walk Down the Aisle’ as Her Ring Bearer Pet Tortoise Steals the Limelight on Her Big Day A Pod of Whales Adopted a Young Stray Narwhal – and They May Have Little ‘Narwhales’ Sloth Is Friends With Zookeeper and Won’t Get Out of Bed Until They’ve Had Morning Cuddles
and eight more just as Good and Goofy.
Event Horizon 'Scope
x #YearInReview: Here are some of our most popular Twitter stories of 2022! (In no particular order)
First up: NSF-supported @ehtelescope revealed the FIRST image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy:
https://t.co/iT1AWBZcuU #ourblackhole #bye2022 pic.twitter.com/dIAgrIlGxA — National Science Foundation (@NSF) December 28, 2022
Geckos
A Tiny Gecko is Enjoying a Big Recovery After International Collaboration has Nearly Doubled Their Numbers
x The Union Island gecko, a Critically Endangered species, has seen its numbers nearly double from 10,000 to 18,000 in just four years thanks to international conservation efforts! #conservation #endangeredspecies pic.twitter.com/bPQ8DhZMKx — diffusedbot (@diffusedbot) December 21, 2022
Hubble Lives!
x Imagine if spaceflight were simple and safe enough that a private spaceship could go dock with Hubble and prolong its incredibly productive life. That's where we are in history - details:
https://t.co/n8iAh9RnfV @NASA @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/XrLkH3ROHw — Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) December 28, 2022
Funny Animal Photos
The Funniest Wildlife Photos of 2022 Win Big Laughs in Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
See also Funny Animal Photos @FunnyAnimals101 on Twitter
Idiots! It Doesn’t Weigh Anything! It’s in Space!
What Does the Milky Way Weigh? Hubble and Gaia Investigate
Curious astronomers teamed up the Hubble Space Telescope and European Space Agency's Gaia satellite to precisely study the motions of globular star clusters that orbit our galaxy like bees around a hive. The faster the clusters move under the entire galaxy's gravitational pull, the more massive it is. The researchers concluded the galaxy weighs 1.5 trillion solar masses, most of it locked up in dark matter. Therefore, the Milky Way is a "Goldilocks" galaxy, not too big and not too small. Just right!
What a Wonderful World
x What a wonderful world pic.twitter.com/fAUVsqWM6M — Herodot (@Heredot85276728) December 28, 2022
Funny or Cry
Republican Horoscope
x Today's Political Cartoons last one 12/27/22 pic.twitter.com/bVeUWwgjJY — Nancy Wesley (@SansDisk2013) December 28, 2022
❤️ 🧡 💜 🖤 💛 💚 💙
x Steve Breen, The San Diego Union-Tribune @sdutBreen pic.twitter.com/MXFKcJChJB — Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) December 25, 2022
x Today's Political Cartoons last one 12/26/22 pic.twitter.com/MJ2l6R84oZ — Nancy Wesley (@SansDisk2013) December 27, 2022
Do I detect a theme?
You Go, Ella
[END]
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