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Good News Roundup for Tuesday, April 25, 2023 [1]
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Date: 2023-04-25
Opening music
The people have the power The power to dream, to rule
To wrestle the world from fools
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Good news in politics
Biden announces he is running for re-election
I think this is an excellent announcement video — he frames the stakes of this election perfectly.
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Biden-Harris Administration Announces Latest Steps to Reduce Plastic Pollution Nationwide
It’s about time we got serious about plastic pollution, and I think most voters will agree.
🎩 to T Maysle for mentioning this in a comment in Saturday’s GNR.
From an EPA news release:
[On Friday], the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the draft “National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution” for public comment, a significant step forward in the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to reduce pollution and build a circular economy for all. EPA’s draft strategy includes ambitious actions to eliminate the release of plastic and other waste from land-based sources into the environment by 2040. “Plastic pollution negatively impacts our environment and public health with underserved and overburdened communities hit hardest,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “As a global leader in the efforts to address these challenges and pave the way for the future, we must combat plastic pollution from every angle and prevent it at every step of the plastic lifecycle. As we take comment on EPA’s draft national strategy, the agency will continue this work to protect people and the planet, ensuring the benefits reach our most vulnerable communities.” The release of EPA’s draft national strategy comes as the agency and the Biden-Harris Administration celebrate Earth Week, and was released alongside a new White House Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy. The IPC will coordinate federal efforts on plastic pollution, prioritizing public health, economic development, environmental justice, and equity to ensure that the benefits of acting on plastic pollution – including jobs, minimized exposure to harmful chemicals, and clean communities – are available to all.
IRS overhaul aims for tenfold increase in audits of the wealthy
This is both necessary and extremely popular.
From The Washington Post:
The IRS hopes to increase tax audits on the wealthiest taxpayers tenfold under the Biden administration’s plan for the agency, according to a senior administration official and the IRS’s new strategic operating plan. IRS and Treasury Department officials said Thursday that they will use $80 billion in new funding for the tax service to claw back unpaid balances from high-income earners and complex businesses — restoring audits on those taxpayers to higher rates from more than a decade ago — and boost customer service resources for middle- and low-income tax filers. The agency plans to digitize its tax-processing pipeline and begin developing government-backed online tax-filing software with money from the Inflation Reduction Act, one of President Biden’s chief legislative victories, officials announced in a 149-page report. [Biden has] signaled that a populist economic appeal will be a central theme [in his re-election campaign]. He has pledged not to increase taxes or audit rates on those making $400,000 or less. “The tax system is not fair. It is not fair,” Biden said during his State of the Union address. “No billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a schoolteacher or a firefighter. I mean it.”
Food stamps emerge as major Democratic talking point
Another 🎩 to T Maysle for this encouraging piece of Dem messaging.
From Axios:
Democratic leaders want to add SNAP to the third rail of politics, saying GOP food stamp cuts should be treated like touching Social Security or Medicare. ✂️ Democrats say the Republican preoccupation with food stamp abuse is misguided and could end up hurting their own constituents most. “President Biden and Dems are working hard to address the hunger crisis. Extreme MAGA Republicans are doing the exact opposite,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday.
“MAGA Republicans in Congress have introduced a bill that could take food assistance away from 10 million people – 4 million children – and put them at risk of going hungry,” President Biden said Wednesday.
"Speaker McCarthy’s desire to reduce food assistance, particularly in a period of high inflation, is villainous," Squad member Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) told Axios. ✂️ Democrats are quick to point out that perceptions about who benefits from food stamps are out of touch with what many Republican lawmakers believe. As of fiscal year 2022, there were roughly 17 million residents on food stamps in states that voted for former President Trump in 2020.
Many blue districts include rural, conservative food stamp recipients, said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Penn.), who was raised on food stamps and represents western Pennsylvania.
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🍿 Repellent Republicans Rushing toward Ruin 🍿
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News
Since this is one of yesterday’s biggest stories, there’s no dearth of anonymous Fox staff musings and pundit speculations to wade through if you choose. For a quick overview, here’s Kossack Hunter’s coverage: Tucker Carlson and Fox News part ways. My favorite bit of fallout so far is this:
x Hey @TuckerCarlson, you can always question more with @RT_com — RT (@RT_com) April 24, 2023
Trae Crowder on the Bud Light boycott
For a palate refresher, here’s my favorite comment on MAGA’s latest quixotic call to arms:
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Good news from my corner of the world
There’s lots and lots of it today! And I have the rare pleasure of reporting a truly momentous local good news story that broke just yesterday afternoon:
Phil Knight gives $400M to benefit Black Portlanders
I can’t even put into words how much this blows my mind. That this kind of paradigm-shifting philanthropy would come from Phil Knight is nothing short of miraculous. I would even have doubted its legitimacy if Albina Vision Trust hadn’t been involved or if the governing board weren’t filled with Portland’s most effective Black leaders.
I promise to follow up on this story and keep you Gnusies informed.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting (bolding mine):
Phil Knight, the billionaire co-founder of Nike, is contributing $400 million to a new investment fund to support Portland’s Black residents. The gift from Knight and his wife Penny Knight to the 1803 Fund – a new initiative revealed Monday – is meant to fund education services, art programs and other projects for Black Portlanders in the inner North and Northeast Portland neighborhoods once known as Albina. Albina was the center of Black society and business in the early 1900s, but was decimated by the 1960s after city-backed urban renewal projects leveled homes and community hubs. These construction projects, which built spaces like the Memorial Coliseum, Legacy Emanuel Hospital, the Moda Center and a stretch of Interstate 5, cratered Albina’s Black population. The community, which is now represented by Eliot, Boise, Humboldt, Overlook and Piedmont neighborhoods, was further harmed by the decades of gentrification that followed these projects. The 1803 Fund intends to repair some of this damage by investing in programs that support Black Portlanders. The fund was created by Rukaiyah Adams, the former investment chief of Meyer Memorial Trust and board chair of the Albina Vision Trust, a nonprofit with a similar focus on economic investment in the historic Albina neighborhood. (Adams also chairs OPB’s Board of Directors). ...“[It] has the potential to significantly change the culture and landscape of Portland,” Adams said. “A place-based effort of this magnitude is unique and has never been done before in Portland – let alone the United States.” ✂️ The 1803 Fund’s board of directors is made up of longtime Black leaders in Portland, including Tony Hopson, CEO of Black youth advocacy nonprofit Self-Enhancement Inc, Ron Herndon, CEO of Albina Head Start, and Larry Miller, former Trail Blazers executive and chair of Nike’s Michael Jordan brand.
Semi-automatic rifle ban passes Washington state Legislature
A similar law in Oregon, passed as a ballot initiative last November, is working its way through the courts.
From AP:
A ban on dozens of semi-automatic rifles cleared the Washington state Legislature on Wednesday and the governor is expected to sign it into law. The high-powered firearms — once banned nationwide — are now the weapon of choice among young men responsible for most of the country’s devastating mass shootings. The ban comes after multiple failed attempts in the state’s Legislature, and amid the most mass shootings during the first 100 days of a calendar year since 2009. The Washington law would block the sale, distribution, manufacture and importation of more than 50 gun models, including AR-15s, AK-47s and similar style rifles. These guns fire one bullet per trigger pull and automatically reload for a subsequent shot. Some exemptions are included for sales to law enforcement agencies and the military in Washington. The measure does not bar the possession of the weapons by people who already have them. ✂️ [Democratic Gov. Jay] Inslee said lives will be saved because of the semi-automatic rifle ban and two other measures approved by the Legislature this session: one that introduced a 10-day waiting period for gun purchases and another to hold gunmakers liable for negligent sales.
Speaking of how these weapons were “once banned nationwide,” this chart makes crystal clear the consequences of the Republican refusal to renew the ban:
Portland and police union agree on body camera policies
This has been a loooooong time coming.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
A years-long impasse between the city of Portland and the Portland Police Association over body-worn camera policies ended Thursday night, as the two sides reached a tentative agreement that would govern a pilot program. The stalemate centered on when officers would be able to review their footage: before writing their reports or after. The police union wanted officers to be allowed to review footage before writing their reports or giving a statement, even when an officer kills a member of the public. The compromise would prevent officers from immediately reviewing body camera footage for cases involving a death. Instead, an officer would need to provide an on-scene statement to a supervisor and, within 48 hours, give a recorded interview to internal affairs. After that point, the officer could view their camera footage. Officers aren’t the only ones limited in viewing the footage, according to the agreement. Internal affairs investigators will also be prohibited from watching the footage before they speak to an officer for an initial interview. According to the policy, after the officer gives their initial statement to investigators, the group will take a break to watch the body camera footage. The interview will then resume and officers will have the opportunity to clarify any discrepancies between the footage and their initial statement. Officers who witness deadly use of force will be allowed to view their footage before providing a statement or writing their report. Officers involved in lower-level uses of force, such as using an impact munition, pepper spray or a police dog, will be required to “provide a full and candid account of the facts and circumstances of the event” to their supervisor at the scene prior to viewing their footage. In the lowest level uses of force, those statements will not be recorded. Release of footage will be handled by the police bureau’s records division and subject to Oregon public records law, which requires footage to be blurred so people are not identifiable. “It was important to all parties that our policy was consistent with common practice, supported the unique needs of our city, and addressed privacy and transparency concerns highlighted by the community,” a press release from Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office said. “It was also vital that the policy is usable for officers and supported by science.”
Clinical social worker picked as new Portland police training dean
Portlanders are hoping that more enlightened training will eventually stop the abuses that the Portland Police Department has become notorious for, especially violence against minorities.
From The Oregonian (this may be behind a paywall):
Portland’s new police training dean, with a background as a clinical social worker and director of the master of social work program at George Fox University. Rebecca Arredondo Yazzie, a clinical social worker and university program director, has been selected to become Portland Police Bureau’s first civilian dean of training. Yazzie, 42, was a psychiatric social worker at Oregon’s MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility. She served as a mental health clinician at Clackamas and Washington county jails. Later, she led focus groups of women prisoners to advise the Oregon Department of Corrections on how to improve programming and supervision for the women. Most recently, Yazzie...was the director of George Fox University’s master of social work program. ✂️ The selection of a civilian head of training is one of the steps the Police Bureau agreed to take to comply with the city’s settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. The agreement followed a [2012] federal investigation that found Portland officers used excessive force against people with mental illness. It called for widespread changes to use-of-force and Taser policies, training, supervision and oversight, a restructuring of police crisis intervention services and quicker investigations into alleged police misconduct. In April 2021, the Justice Department issued a formal notice to the city that it had failed to meet key reforms under the settlement, citing inappropriate police use and management of force during 2020′s racial justice protests, inadequate training and subpar supervision by higher-ups.
PSU, Willamette Partnership win EPA grant to create environmental justice center serving Pacific Northwest
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
On [April 17], the Environmental Protection Agency awarded $10 million to Portland State University, Willamette Partnership and the Rural Community Assistance Corporation to lead the creation of a new center focused on environmental justice. The Environmental and Energy Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center, also known as TCTAC, will support clean energy and climate resilience for underserved communities by providing leadership training and technical assistance, such as aiding in policy analysis, grant navigation and construction projects. ✂️ The center will be based at PSU’s Institute for Tribal Government and will be one of two in the Pacific Northwest aiding tribes and other underserved and rural communities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. In total, the EPA has released $177 million to create 17 environmental justice technical assistance centers throughout the U.S. The EPA also this week awarded $12 million dollars to the University of Washington to establish a second center in the Pacific Northwest with the same goals of providing assistance to communities disproportionately impacted by pollution and climate change.
An Eastern Oregon district does the math and finds way to give teachers ‘life changing’ raises
Seeing this enlightened policy put in place in conservative Eastern Oregon is truly mind-blowing and profoundly encouraging.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
The president of the Baker Education Association had gathered the district’s faculty in February to make an announcement, requesting they turn their cameras on so she could see their reactions. She hadn’t told them the reason they were all gathered virtually, and by the end of it, some teachers were in tears. Myers told members of the teachers’ union that they would all be getting a raise next school year. The upcoming raise isn’t just a simple cost of living adjustment or a new column on the salary scale, it’s a fundamental shift in the living standard for teachers in rural Oregon. As first reported by the Baker City Herald, the Baker School District is raising the salary floor for certified teachers from $38,000 to $60,000. The ceiling will see a bump as well. ✂️ It’s a move teachers described as life changing. The significant pay bump will mean they can afford child care and utility bills. It means they could stay in Baker County or simply stay working as a teacher. The teachers’ union didn’t need to engage in contentious bargaining sessions or go on strike to secure the raise. In fact, district administration proposed the idea to the union. District officials believe the raises can achieve a number of benefits: a motivator for current educators to stay in Baker, a recruiting tool in a profession that’s facing a labor shortage and an economic stimulus for a county where the district is the largest employer. It could also set the tone for a debate swirling around the Oregon Legislature about whether the state should set a wage floor for every teacher. But most of all, Baker believes that higher wages will lead to better taught students. “If we talk about the single most effective strategy to affect student learning, it’s sticking a highly effective qualified teacher in front of every classroom,” Baker School District Superintendent Erin Lair said.
One year in at The Sports Bra, the first (and only) women’s sports bar in the world
Owner Jenny Nguyen wants to replicate The Sports Bra in other cities, so you might be lucky enough to get one near you!
From The Oregonian:
Customers fill The Sports Bra dining room and bar in Portland, Oregon on Friday, March 17, 2023. The concept is so simple, it seems outrageous no one had thought of it before – a sports bar that plays only women’s sports. But, imagining it and bringing it to life are two very different things. To make it happen, a person would need capital, industry experience, sports experience, buy-in from fans and enough women’s sports on TV to make it possible. In 2022, Jenny Nguyen had or found what she needed. Plus, she had a name: The Sports Bra. And it turns out her timing was right, too. “We couldn’t have done this five or 10 years ago,” Nguyen told me from across a table at the back of the bar, a few weeks earlier. ✂️ The Sports Bra has joined Powell’s Books and Salt & Straw as a must-see Portland stop for tourists. Nguyen and her bar have been featured on ESPN and CBS Sunday Morning. They’ve been in the pages of in Sports Illustrated, Vogue and The Washington Post and hosted a senator and the WNBA commissioner as part of Portland’s bid for its own professional women’s basketball team. Of course The Sports Bra shows professional women’s basketball and games. But visit on a random afternoon, and you can enjoy a burger and a pint while watching women’s college basketball, softball, tennis or even gymnastics. Nowadays all the TVs are playing, usually a different sport on each one. If the schedule allows, one TV might even be replaying the Portland Thorns’ latest NWSL Championship-winning game (from 2022, in case you forgot).
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Good news from around the nation
Beau on the Dominion settlement
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Michigan Clears Criminal Records for Thousands of Low-Level, Nonviolent Offenders–‘Meaningful 2nd Chances’
From Good News Network:
Criminal justice reforms signed three years ago in the U.S. state of Michigan took effect last week, with nearly 850,000 residents seeing at least one conviction automatically set aside. The bipartisan “Clean Slate” legislation, as advocates call it, triggered an automatic expungement process starting last Tuesday, wiping clean a range of convictions from people’s records following a defined waiting period. Michigan has about 2.8 million people with criminal records. Many of those convictions are low-level, nonviolent offenses, while others were committed as juveniles. Before the new expungement laws, those offenses stuck to records and acted as barriers to housing and employment opportunities. ✂️ The new program’s algorithm automatically searches the state’s criminal record database every day to find convictions newly eligible for expungement. Offenses not eligible for expungement include arson, child abuse, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, first-degree murder, felonious assault, manslaughter, stalking, and others. ✂️ “This groundbreaking, nation-leading reform will be transformational for thousands of our neighbors in West Michigan, and for our member businesses who have thousands of job openings to fill,” said Josh Lunger, vice president of government affairs with the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. “Building sustainable talent pipelines and creating economic opportunity for more people is a critical piece of supporting a thriving and prosperous West Michigan for all.”
San Francisco Board of Supervisors Unanimously Passes Resolution in Support of Digital Rights For Libraries
From Internet Archive:
..late [last Thursday] afternoon the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to support a resolution backing the Internet Archive and the digital rights of all libraries. Supervisor Connie Chan, whose district includes the Internet Archive, authored the legislation and brought the resolution before the Board. “At a time when we are seeing an increase in censorship and book bans across the country, we must move to preserve free access to information,” said Supervisor Chan. “I am proud to stand with the Internet Archive, our Richmond District neighbor, and digital libraries throughout the United States.” ✂️ What’s in the resolution? “Resolution recognizing the irreplaceable public value of libraries, including online libraries like the Internet Archive, and the essential rights of all libraries to own, preserve, and lend both digital and print books to the residents of San Francisco and the wider public; supporting the Internet Archive and its public service mission; and urging the California State Legislature and the United States Congress to support digital rights for libraries, including controlled digital lending and the option for libraries to own their digital collections. “
Cities Are Rethinking What Kinds of Trees They’re Planting
From Eos:
The U.S. Forest Service estimates that cities are losing some 36 million trees every year, wiped out by development, disease and, increasingly, climate stressors, like drought. In a recent study published in Nature, researchers found that more than half of urban trees in 164 cities around the world were already experiencing temperature and precipitation conditions that were beyond their limits for survival. “So many of the trees that we’ve relied upon heavily are falling out of favor now as the climate changes,” said Nathan Flack, the urban forest superintendent for the city of Santa Barbara. Conifers, like pines and coastal redwoods, once extensively planted along the coast, are dying in droves, he said. “The intensity of heat [and] the longer periods [without] rainfall really force us, as urban forestry managers, to reimagine what are good street trees.” Trees help keep neighborhoods cool, absorb rain water and clean up air pollution. But in order for them to provide those critical functions they need to survive those same conditions. For many cities, that means reconsidering what species are planted. ✂️ Cities may soon see some relief. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last year, includes $1.5 billion for the Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, amounting to a five-fold increase in the program’s annual budget.
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Good news from around the world
Innovative Plant-Based Plastic Helps Build Safe, Dry Homes for Refugees
From EcoWatch:
A refugee shelter built with jutin in Bangladesh. An Austin-based bioplastics startup and a Bangladeshi scientist have teamed up to develop a plant-basedplastic that can be used to construct stable, dignified shelters for refugees. ✂️ The homes are made from plant-based building blocks called BTTR Board internationally and jutin in Bangladesh. Jutin comes from jute, a plant that has been harvested in the country since ancient times but grew into a major international export from the subcontinent beginning in the 1790s. ✂️ So how exactly does Applied Bioplastics turn jute into a home? First, the jute is woven into burlap. Then it’s layered on top of a tin base covered with a Mylar film, then treated with a proprietary chemical mixture that Blum says is non-toxic and food safe. Afterwards, the board is painted with thermoset resin and placed in a mold weighed down with bricks. “That whole process takes about 45 minutes, and then you wait an hour and then you crack it out of the mold and you’ve got a wall,” [CEO of Applied Bioplastics Alex] Blum said. The process is designed to be low-tech and doable by hand, though you can also use a heat press to speed it up. The cost of both labor and materials is around $1,000 for a house that measures 14 square meters (approximately 151 square feet) and 2.6 meters (approximately 8.5 feet) tall.
Cambridge student designs plastic windows for Ukraine homes
From BBC News:
[Cambridge PhD student] Harry Blakiston Houston created the Insulate Ukraine project to replace bullet and bomb-damaged windows. According to the United Nations, millions of people in Ukraine live in buildings with insufficient protection. [Mr Blakiston Houston] has paused his biotechnology studies to concentrate on the initiative, which has already installed hundreds of windows across Ukraine. [He] designed it as a simple way to make a difference to those in liberated areas of Ukraine who have been left picking up the pieces following Russian retreats. The window design uses polyethylene, PVC piping, pipe insulation and duct tape, to create four layers of insulation. It costs around £12 per square metre of window, and can be built at home in 15 minutes. The project aims to create hubs across the country that can replace any shattered window within 24 hours, with the work largely being carried out by local people.
Brazil evicts miners from Yanomami territory, prepares for more removals
From Reuters:
Brazil has ousted almost all illegal gold miners from the Yanomami territory, its largest indigenous reservation, and will remove miners from six more reserves this year, the head of the federal police's new environmental crimes division said Tuesday. Police are setting up new Amazon bases and seeking international cooperation on law enforcement in the region, including the development of radio-isotope technology to prove the illegal origin of seized gold, Humberto Freire told Reuters. Freire is the director of the newly-created environment and Amazon department of the federal police, marking what he called a new era in the battle against environmental crime and in defense of indigenous people in the rainforest. Adding to the urgency in the early months of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's term, the government in January declared a humanitarian crisis in Yanomami territory. The territory had been invaded by thousands of gold miners threatening communities with firearms, spreading malaria, polluting rivers and scaring off wild game, which led to malnutrition and hundreds of deaths. ✂️ Enforcement operations supported by satellite imagery and aerial photography have destroyed 250 miner camps - many of which were already deserted - and 70 dredging rafts, along with speed boats and planes, he said. Police have seized some 4,500 liters of fuel and 1.2 kilos of gold, he added. x YouTube Video
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Good news in medicine
New gel offers hope for brain tissue regeneration
From Warp News:
Researchers at Hokkaido University have developed synthetic hydrogels that provide an effective scaffold for neuronal tissue growth in areas of brain damage. This discovery could offer a new approach for treating life-threatening conditions caused by brain hemorrhage and brain cancer. Photograph of the semitransparent hydrogel used in this study. Scientists led by Satoshi Tanikawa have found that a neutral hydrogel with a 1:1 mixture of anionic and cationic monomers (C1A1) generated the most suitable scaffold for attachment, growth, and differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs). They used cryogelation to create pores in the C1A1 hydrogels, allowing for a 3D culture of cells in the porous structure. The hydrogel's stiffness was also adjusted to match that of brain tissue, a crucial factor in directing stem cell differentiation. After optimizing the hydrogel formulation, the researchers tested its potential for in vivo brain tissue reconstruction using a mouse model. The porous hydrogel was implanted into a cylindrical cavity created in the mouse brain. On day 56 after implantation, the boundary between the brain tissue and the hydrogel was obscured, while cavities clearly remained in control brains. Immune cells and astrocytes from surrounding brain tissue had infiltrated into the pores of the implanted hydrogel. To induce vascularization, the C1A1 hydrogel was immersed in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) before implantation. This step led to the formation of blood vessels inside the hydrogel two to three weeks after implantation. ...The researchers emphasize the importance of the two-step process, as implanting the hydrogel and NSCs simultaneously proved unsuccessful. The mice implanted with hydrogels showed no behavioral abnormalities or deaths.
Scientists from Singapore and Sweden achieve promising results towards restoring vision in blindness caused by cellular degeneration in the eye
A third 🎩 to T Maysle for mentioning this in a comment in Evening Shade on Monday 4/17.
From Duke-NUS Medical School:
A preclinical study using stem cells to produce progenitor photoreceptor cells—light-detecting cells found in the eye—and then transplanting these into experimental models of damaged retinas has resulted in significant vision recovery. This finding, by scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School, the Singapore Eye Research Institute and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, marks a first step towards potentially restoring vision in eye diseases characterised by photoreceptor loss. ✂️ The degeneration of photoreceptors in the eye is a significant cause of declining vision that can eventually lead to blindness and for which there is currently no effective treatment. ✂️ [Assistant Professor Tay Hwee Goon, first author of the study] and her team developed a procedure to grow human embryonic stem cells in the presence of purified laminin proteins that are involved in normal development of human retinas. In the presence of the laminins, stem cells could be directed to differentiate into photoreceptor progenitor cells responsible for converting light into signals that are sent to the brain. When these cells were transplanted into damaged retinas, the preclinical models showed significant recovery of vision. A diagnostic test called electroretinogram also identified significant recovery in the retinas via electrical activity in the retina in response to a light stimulus. The transplanted cells established connections with surrounding retinal cells and nerves in the inner retina. They also survived and functioned for many weeks after transplantation. Moving forward, the team hopes to refine their method to make it simpler and achieve more consistent results than earlier attempts to explore stem cell therapy for photoreceptor cell replacement.
Some good advice from a 109-year-old man: Stay positive
From Today:
[Vincent] Dransfield considers himself an optimist. He also has a great sense of humor and likes knowing everybody’s name in town, his granddaughter says. “He always had such a positive upbeat attitude, even when my grandmother passed away. He lived for her, but he was determined to keep on living,” [she] notes. “I keep positive. I never think any other way when something’s wrong,” Dransfield says. Thriving on positivity
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Good news in science
AI-driven robots start hunting for novel materials without help from humans
From Science:
Imagine a cookbook with 150,000 tempting dishes—but few recipes for making them. That’s the challenge facing an effort at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) known as the Materials Project. It has used computers to predict some 150,000 new materials that could improve devices such as battery electrodes and catalysts. But the database’s users around the globe have managed to make just a fraction of these for testing, leaving thousands untried. “Synthesis has become the bottleneck,” says Gerbrand Ceder, a materials scientist at LBNL. Now, Ceder and his colleagues have married artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to eliminate that bottleneck. The AI system makes a best guess at a recipe for a desired material and then iterates the reaction conditions as robots try to create physical samples. The new setup, known as the A-Lab, is already synthesizing about 100 times more new materials per day than humans in the lab can manage. “This is the way to go,” says Ali Coskun, a chemist at the University of Freiburg who isn’t involved with the A-Lab, but attended the Materials Research Society meeting here last week, where the new AI approach was announced.✂️ Previous automation efforts randomly mixed compounds in search of new materials, Ceder says, but the new AI-driven approach is more akin to the way traditional chemists do their jobs. The AI starts by coming up with a plausible way to synthesize a material, using its understanding of chemistry. It guides robotic arms to select among nearly 200 different powdery starting materials, containing elements such as lithium, nickel, copper, iron, and manganese. After mixing the precursors, another robot parcels out the mix into a set of crucibles, which are loaded into furnaces where they can be mixed with gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. The AI then determines how long to bake the different mixes, the temperatures, drying times, and so on. After the baking, a gumball-like dispenser adds a ball bearing to each crucible and shakes it to grind the new substance into a fine powder that’s loaded onto a slide. A robot arm then grabs each sample and slides it into an x-ray machine or other equipment for analysis. Results are fed back into the Materials Project database of materials structures and properties, and if the outcome isn’t what was predicted, the AI setup iterates the reaction conditions and starts anew.
Scientists identify mind-body nexus in human brain
From Reuters:
The relationship between the human mind and body has been a subject that has challenged great thinkers for millennia, including the philosophers Aristotle and Descartes. The answer, however, appears to reside in the very structure of the brain. Researchers said on Wednesday they have discovered that parts of the brain region called the motor cortex that govern body movement are connected with a network involved in thinking, planning, mental arousal, pain, and control of internal organs, as well as functions such as blood pressure and heart rate. They identified a previously unknown system within the motor cortex manifested in multiple nodes that are located in between areas of the brain already known to be responsible for movement of specific body parts - hands, feet and face - and are engaged when many different body movements are performed together. The researchers called this system the somato-cognitive action network, or SCAN, and documented its connections to brain regions known to help set goals and plan actions. This network also was found to correspond with brain regions that, as shown in studies involving monkeys, are connected to internal organs including the stomach and adrenal glands, allowing these organs to change activity levels in anticipation of performing a certain action. That may explain physical responses like sweating or increased heart rate caused by merely pondering a difficult future task, they said.
Scientists Discover Pristine Deep-Sea Coral Reefs in Galápagos Marine Reserve ‘Teeming With Life’
In yesterday’s GNR Lightning Round, Jessiestaf provided a link to Reuters’ coverage of this story.
From Good News Network:
Scientists have discovered extensive, ancient deep-sea coral reefs within the Galápagos Marine Reserve in Ecuador—the first of their kind ever to be documented inside the marine protected area since it was established in 1998.The reef supports a breathtaking mix of deep marine life found at a depth of nearly 2,000 feet below the surface (400-600 meters deep). The research submarine Alvin Cresting the ridge of a submerged volcano, and stretching over several kilometers, the impressive reef structure was discovered by Dr. Michelle Taylor (University of Essex, UK) and Dr. Stuart Banks (Charles Darwin Foundation, Ecuador) while diving in the human-occupied vehicle known as Alvin. It was the first time Alvin had explored this region of the Reserve. ✂️ The submersible vehicle recently received an ultra-high definition 4K video imaging system, as well as enhanced sampling capabilities, which allowed for the stunningly clear video of the newly discovered reef sites, as well as the delicate sampling required of the reef. ✂️ Scientific findings such as this help inform effective management and conservation actions. The discovery also comes at a time when the Eastern Tropical Pacific countries of Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador are actively collaborating to create protected marine corridors that cross borders.
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Good news for the environment
A huge new clean energy transmission line gets the green light
Another great story that Jessiestaf included a link to in his Lightning Round yesterday.
From Canary Media:
After a nearly two-decades-long permitting process, a 732-mile transmission line capable of sending power from what will be the largest onshore wind farm in North America to western states got the green light last week. The Bureau of Land Management gave final approval to begin building the $3billion TransWest Express high-voltage transmission line. The infrastructure project will deliver 3 gigawatts of power from the 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project, which broke ground this year in a former coal-mining community in Wyoming, to grids in Arizona, Nevada and California. That’s enough energy to power about 2 million homes. ✂️ While streamlining approval of interstate projects could help the U.S. meet its climate goals faster, it can’t be done at the expense of environmental review and community input, said Jeremy Firestone, an expert on wind energy at the University of Delaware. “If we are going to do this transition,” he told Grist, “we need to be open and transparent and provide good information about the environmental and social effects, and the positive attributes of these projects as well, like the fact that they’re going to replace fossil fuel generation.” The TransWest Express could be particularly impactful for California, which has a goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2045. To meet that goal, the state would need to retire fossil fuel sources such as natural gas and coal plants while simultaneously accounting for increased power demand from sources like electric vehicles. In a 2021 report, the state said it would have to triple its grid capacity by 2045.
Compostable Plastic Wrap Made from Seaweed Withstands Heat–and Biodegrades in Weeks
I can’t wait for biodegradable food wrap! I use plastic wrap almost daily, and I hate having to put it in the garbage that winds up in landfills.
From Good News Network:
An invasive seaweed species from the Caribbean has been turned into a compostable plastic wrap that has the potential for mass production. Furthermore, it may have the properties to transform the whole supply chain of this ubiquitous product used in huge quantities every day in restaurants around the world. The breakthrough comes from the University of Leeds, in the UK, where Keeran Reed and his colleagues were looking to turn the brown seaweed species called sargassum, (Sargassum natans) which inundates the shores of Reed’s home of Trinidad and Tobago, into a sort of biopolymer. Despite this rapid decomposition, the films were robust and held together at temperatures of around 450°F (230°C). Also, the film didn’t leach out any of the chemicals when left in water over a period of 10 days, meaning it can be safely used to cover moist containers of food like chopped fruit.
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.
Here’s Rosy’s choice: good news about her wolf cousins. BTW, the full article provides many interesting details about wolf behavior and how Washington state is trying to stop potential conflict between ranchers and the wolf packs.
SW Washington has 1st wolf pack in century and pups are likely soon
From The Oregonian:
A gray wolf photographed in central Washington state. Southwest Washington has its first wolf pack in a century, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says. The Big Muddy Pack so far has only two known members, one male and one female. But that’s enough to meet the minimum requirement to be recognized as a pack: two or more wolves traveling together in winter. It’s likely the pair will have pups soon, the wildlife agency’s wolf biologist Gabe Spence told Columbia Insight last week. ✂️ The wolves have established a territory in the southwest portion of the reservation and western Klickitat County, Spence said. It’s a sparsely populated area where local livestock producers have long been anticipating the arrival of wolves and are already testing strategies to prevent conflicts with cattle. After years of trapping, poisoning and government-sponsored bounty programs, the gray wolf was almost entirely eradicated from the Pacific Northwest by the early 1900s. The last wolves in the Columbia River Gorge were documented in the 1920s. In the 1970s, wolves received federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. By the 2000s, a small number of dispersing wolves had migrated to Washington from Idaho and British Columbia. Since 2008, when the first resident pack was documented in northeast Washington, the numbers of wolves and wolf packs have continued to grow each year.
Nora chose this hilarious and heartwarming story. And she wants you to know that she’s always been slim and sleek ;)
She adopted a 40-pound cat, and now they’re on a weight loss journey together
From The Washington Post (gift link):
Patches, a 6-year-old domestic short-haired cat, arrived at the Richmond Animal Care and Control shelter earlier this month, surrendered by his owner. Staff was stunned by his enormous size. ✂️ 40 pounds of floof!! Shelter staff shared Patches’ story on social media on April 19, along with a photo that features his balloon-like belly, hoping to get him adopted quickly. Animals that require extra attention and care are sometimes harder to place, but Young soon learned that there was something about Patches that touched people. ✂️ “I would love to help that cat out,” [Kay] Ford, a retired business owner in Richmond, recalled thinking to herself. “I am the kind of cat parent that would do what I needed to do.” ✂️ She wrote an email to staff at the shelter, detailing why she would be the perfect pet parent for Patches. “I am very flexible, retired, home a lot, and I’m willing to dedicate the time and resources to help Patches achieve the goal that you all set,” Ford wrote. “Patches actually could be a wonderful inspiration for me. Perhaps we can do the weight-loss journey together,” she continued. “I’m not unhealthily overweight, but I gained 20 pounds over the pandemic that I would love to shed.” ✂️ After sifting through emails from prospective adopters, staff replied to Ford. “We thought that she would be the best fit,” [Robin] Young, [an outreach coordinator at the shelter] said, adding that she asked Ford if she was available for a meet-and-greet later that day. ...After a discussion with the vet about Patches’s unique needs and weight-loss regimen, Ford signed the paperwork and made the adoption official. She brought Patches home that afternoon.
Rascal loved this story, and I do, too.
An eagle tried to hatch a rock. Now, he’s a ‘stepdad’ to an orphaned bird.
From The Washington Post (gift link):
Visitors to the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Mo., ...saw [Murphy] the 31-year-old bald eagle sitting in one spot in the aviary, barely moving, and worried that he was sick or injured. As the month went by, so many visitors brought their concerns to the keepers that the sanctuary posted a sign near the enclosure explaining why the eagle sat so still underneath his perch and atop a makeshift nest. “Murphy is not hurt, sick, or otherwise in distress,” the sign read. “He has built a nest on the ground, and is very carefully incubating a rock. We wish him the best of luck!” A tweet about Murphy’s mission quickly went viral, leading thousands to follow along as he tried to hatch the rock, though they knew it was impossible. Then, in a twist, Murphy’s new fans got to see the eagle become a father after all when, in early April, he began to bond with an eaglet the sanctuary received. “He was sitting on a rock and everybody told him, ‘It’s a rock, it’s not going to hatch,’” said Dawn Griffard, CEO of World Bird Sanctuary. “And all of a sudden, in his mind, it hatched and he has a chick.” ✂️ A few days after Murphy had started to protect his “rock baby” too aggressively, on April 4, the sanctuary staff moved him to a separate, private enclosure, she said. Little did Murphy know that soon he’d have a real chick under his wings. That same week, rescuers brought a baby eaglet to the sanctuary… After the eaglet was checked for injuries, the sanctuary staff’s next task was to figure out which eagle to bond it with. They wanted to avoid any imprints with humans, as that would prevent it from being released back into the wild. Griffard said Murphy was “the best choice...He was already showing the hormonal aspects of raising a chick,” she said. “And he was taking such good care of his rock that we decided that he would be our best bet.” ...sanctuary staff decided to place the eaglet in a small cage they then put inside Murphy’s nest. ...The eaglet was released from its cage on April 13, after about a week in the nest with Murphy. That was when Murphy “really showed interest,” Griffard said. ✂️ “People are saying he’s not the stepdad, he’s the dad that stepped up,” Griffard said.
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Art break
Photoshop Troll “Fixes” People’s Photos in the Most Hilarious and Literal Ways
All of the photos are wonderful, so do open the link!
From My Modern Met:
..while most Photoshop experts use the software for professional graphic design, British digital artist James Fridman uses it to troll the Internet. He’s known for taking requests to “fix” the images of people from all over the world. However, rather than take their directions seriously, the witty artist interprets their commission literally, resulting in hilarious and surreal images. Fridman has been making funny photo edits for several years, but people online can’t seem to get enough of his creations. Everyone who submits their photo to Fridman knows they will get something funny in return, but the Photoshop expert always manages to deliver the unexpected.
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Hot lynx
www.newyorker.com/… How One Mother’s Love for Her Gay Son Started a Revolution. An important, inspiring, and moving history lesson.
meduza.io/… ‘It never goes away’: International courts expert Victor Peskin on the significance of the ICC’s war crimes warrant for Putin. A fascinating deep dive into the history and work of the International Criminal Court in The Hague and the significance of its arrest warrant for Putin.
www.currentaffairs.org/… The French Understand That Work Sucks. Americans should have the same high expectations that French workers do for a comfortable retirement.
www.yesmagazine.org/… 8 Must-Reads by Women Who Take on White Supremacy and Patriarchal Power. A list of recommended books that tackle those two challenging issues head on.
wapo.st/...[gift link] What I learned about America at 3 miles per hour. A thoughtful and beautifully written piece celebrating slowing down and paying attention.
www.newyorker.com/… A Long Life as a Disney Animator. A charming short piece about the happy life of a man who spent his entire career doing what he first dreamed of doing at the age of six.
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Where Ever is Herd
Morning Good News Roundups at 7 x 7: These Gnusies lead the herd at 7 a.m. ET, 7 days a week:
As noted last week, our lineup has changed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Thanks again to niftywriter for holding down truth and justice on Wednesdays for so many years!
Thanks to all of you for your smarts, your hearts, and
your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.
❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! 💙❤️
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