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Good News Roundup Wednesday 6/14/23: Love Will Prevail [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-06-14
Good Morning, Gnusies!
Boy, have we had an avalanche of good news in various arenas in the last week or two. As always, I’m here to fill in the gaps, with offerings that get drowned out, buried, and pushed to the sidelines by so much political…stuff. Yeah, stuff, we’ll go with that.
On with the Good!
Let’s start with some ear candy:
x YouTube Video
It’s Pride month!
Drag Queen Pattie Gonia Celebrates Pride with Yosemite Park Rangers — And It’s Fabulous This was Pattie’s third-consecutive Pride celebration in Yosemite, and by the looks of it, the festivities are getting bigger and brighter every year. It’s also part of their summer tour, where Pattie and partnering organizations host drag events and environmental stewardship outings across the country. Pattie goes on to clarify that this wasn’t just a Pride party for visitors of Yosemite Valley — but an event specifically for park employees. “As you can see, there are literal hundreds of queer Yosemite employees,” Pattie’s voiceover points out, as footage shows joyful, rainbow-clad park rangers rejoicing outdoors. The video depicts quick clips of marching, dancing, smiling, and adventuring folks enjoying the outdoors together, and, of course, Pattie, in a stylish park ranger look. While these celebrations are cause for contagious queer joy, they also speak to Pattie’s larger mission of intersectional environmentalism: making the outdoors a safer and more welcoming place for all kinds of people.
Go look. It’s fabulous.
The Canadian wildfires, like wildfires elsewhere, everywhere, are a huge concern, a danger to people, infrastructure, the climate, etc., etc., etc.
It’s also in the face of disaster that we see the face of the future, the brightest of humanity, the generosity of spirit, and the bridging of cultures that bring tears of empathy and joy and relief.
Sound up. SOUND UP. (Tissues recommended.)
x This week, more than 200 firefighters from South Africa landed in Canada to help fight the wildfires.
When they arrived, they greeted everyone with song and dance.
Volume up🔊pic.twitter.com/kD16PhUYWp — Goodable (@Goodable) June 13, 2023
[Text:
@Goodable
This week, more than 200 firefighters from South Africa landed in Canada to help fight the wildfires.
When they arrived, they greeted everyone with song and dance.
Volume up
{Video in the airport of 200+ firefighters in black and yellow uniforms singing and dancing, with South Africa flags and other banners being held up}]
From the “The Kids are All Right” files:
10-year-old’s Backyard Discovery Reveals ‘Mind-blowing’ Interaction Between Plants and Insects 2 years ago, little Hugo Deans from Pennsylvania found some red-colored seeds on the ground by an ant’s nest in his backyard. Hugo was excited—he didn’t know ants collected seeds, and his excitement grew when he showed his father Andrew, an entomologist at Penn State, who didn’t know they did either. The two bug enthusiasts didn’t know it at the time, but Hugo’s discovery was to prime a canvas on which was to be painted a scientific discovery of dramatic complexity—a co-dependent relationship between oaks, ants, and wasps that highlights the incredible interconnectedness of our planet. … “First, we observed that, while these galls normally contain a fleshy pale-pink ‘cap,’ the galls near the ant nest did not have these caps, suggesting that maybe they were eaten by the ants,” Andrew Deans told Penn State press. “Ultimately, this led us to discover that gall wasps are manipulating oaks to produce galls, and then taking another step and manipulating ants to retrieve the galls to their nests, where the wasp larvae may be protected from gall predators or receive other benefits. This multi-layered interaction is mind-blowing; it’s almost hard to wrap your mind around it.”
I hope these, and other unconventional solutions to problems, conventional or otherwise, catch on elsewhere.
x Japan just installed vending machines that automatically offer free food in the event of an earthquake or natural disaster.
The machines have been installed in the city of Ako, which is vulnerable to earthquakes, and placed in buildings designated as evacuation shelters. pic.twitter.com/bld4vi03x0 — Goodable (@Goodable) June 4, 2023
[Text:
@Goodable
Japan just installed vending machines that automatically offer free food in the event of an earthquake or natural disaster.
The machines have been installed in the city of Ako, which is vulnerable to earthquakes, and placed in buildings designated as evacuation shelters.]
I have read elsewhere that the vending machines also contain other emergency supplies. I love living in the future.
Drones, drones, everywhere! As controversial as they have been, drones have also been game changers in many situations, from delivering desperately needed medical supplies, to reducing carbon emissions produced in everyday deliveries, to assisting our Ukrainian allies in their fight against Russian aggression, to, well, now firefighting.
Firefighting Drone Can Douse Wildfires, Tackling Flames on Hillsides Where Fire Professionals Can’t Go In one of Europe’s technical centers for firefighting research, a nimble drone that can carry a fire hose is being tested for quick-response firefighting. ... In a demonstration video, a pile of burning roadside brush the size of a 4-door sedan was snuffed out by the jets in about 15 seconds. Called SAP (for “ported nozzle system” in Portuguese) the device took 4 years to manufacture at the University of Coimbra’s Forest Fire Research Laboratory. … It’s designed to be user-friendly and as light as possible (46 pounds or so). While it’s limited in range to the length of its hoses, the developers believe it will be ideal for fires that are dangerous to approach such as those created by chemicals or explosives. ... Reporting on the subject, the BBC adds that another pair of eyes in the sky—satellites—are becoming one of the most important tools for firefighters, as they can scan forest reserves for the early stages of wildfires, as well as use smart-computing to create a picture of the wind conditions.
x This waiter surprises restaurant patron with Sign Language. His reaction is everything! 👏 LOVE to see it! (🎥:ikique & luanastavern)
pic.twitter.com/S3eao9ONGN — GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) June 11, 2023
[Text:
GoodNewsCorrespondent @GoodNewsCorres1
This waiter surprises restaurant patron with Sign Language. His reaction is everything! LOVE to see it!
{Video of waiter and patron conversing in sign language with captions; Waiter introduces himself as Enrique, a proud CODA (child of deaf adult), and points out the signage on his restaurant.}]
Not just man’s best friend!
This Super Sniffer Dog Can Help Save the Endangered Species of Great Crested Newts The six-year-old English springer spaniel’s powerful nose can sniff out the semi-aquatic creatures even when they are hiding underground, say scientists who found that Freya was able to locate the newts 87% of the time. The great crested newt is a species of special conservation concern across the UK as well as central and northern Europe. While much is known about their life in the water, little is known about their behaviors on land, as they’re often underground and out of sight in mammal burrows or rocky crevices. By being so hidden, it’s difficult to gather data about them. … Study author Nikki Glover believes other dogs would likely require significant training to achieve success rates as high as Freya, with accuracy also depending on the specifics of the detection site. “This pioneering research shows how detection dogs can be a valuable addition to the current toolbox used to locate threatened amphibian species, particularly those using subterranean shelters,” said Ms. Glover, a research student at Salford University.
From the “Age is just a number” and “Don’t let anyone tell you you’re too old to do what you love” files.
Don’t be fooled — it says two. There’s actually three.
x Dancing into Monday like...
These two have all the moves! 🎶🎵🕺🏻👴🏼🧓🏼💃🏽🎵🎶
(🎥: _415tae)
(🕺🏻:ogmikechaos)
(🕺🏻:doclockn) pic.twitter.com/9gdP6sTq2c — GoodNewsMovement (@GoodNewsMVT) June 12, 2023
[Text:
GoodNewsMovement @GoodNewsMVT
Dancing into Monday like…
These two have all the moves!
(film: _415tae)
(dancer: ogmikechaos)
(dancer: doclockn)
{video of three men bustin’ moves}]
..TBH, I kinda wish I’d ever had moves like that.
From the “I got 99 problems and 1 solution” files:
Fungi Could Be the Answer to Global Warming as They Store a Third of All Carbon Emissions Now, an international team of researchers pooled data from hundreds of studies on plant-soil processes. Their calculations show that more than 13 gigatons of CO2 is transferred from plants to fungi annually, turning the soil beneath our feet into the biggest carbon sink in the world, bigger even then the oceans. It offers a potential solution to managing fossil fuel emissions, and needs consideration in biodiversity and conservation policies, said the researchers. Co-author Professor Katie Field, of Sheffield University described the find as a “blind spot” in global carbon modeling—one of many, and certainly not the first. “The numbers we’ve uncovered are jaw-dropping. When we’re thinking about solutions for climate we should also be thinking about what we can harness that exists already,” said Dr. Field. It’s a good point. Mycelium can be grown extremely fast, while producing mushrooms as a food source. They could potentially be the best overall source of carbon storage available to humans at this moment.
Not just edible mushrooms (and derivative not!meat products), but also pharmaceuticals, building supplies, alternatives to packaging materials, and a whole lot more.
And because I couldn’t resist adding a reciprocal example of humanity as many countries, many cultures, and yet a single community:
x Meanwhile in Canada:
An American firefighter came to Nova Scotia to help fight the wildfires.
When the community found out it was his birthday, what did they do?
They surprised him with a birthday party.
🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/OTvsQ23RN3 — Goodable (@Goodable) June 11, 2023
[Text:
@Goodable
Meanwhile in Canada:
An American firefighter came to Nova Scotia to help fight the wildfires.
When the community found out it was his birthday, what did they do?
They surprised him with a birthday party.
{Photograph of ~15 people around a very long table eating dinner}]
That’s a wrap for me! Play us out!
[END]
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