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Good News Roundup for Tuesday, September 19, 2023 [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-19

Hi there, I’m Ryan Busse, and I’m running to be the next Governor of Montana. I’m a father, a husband, a hunter, and a proud Montanan who wants our great state to be a place where all of our freedoms are protected. Check out this video to learn more about me and why I’m running pic.twitter.com/LzprugBFl1

And here’s the ad, from Busse’s Twitter. Although he’s a Democrat, he totally fits the mold of the archetypal Montanan.

“Two different Montanas, and I’ll never stop fighting for ours,” he said.

In the ad, Busse criticized Gianforte on issues like property taxes, abortion rights and public schools, and accused the governor of turning Montana into a “playground” for the rich.

“My Montana is a place where hardworking people make a good living for themselves, raise their kids with equal opportunity,” he said. “They hunt, they fish, they work hard, they play hard, they fight for the place that they love, together. Unfortunately the Montana that I love, and that my kids have been raised in, is being threatened right now,” he said.

A former firearms executive, now an author and activist, has announced he’s challenging Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte in next year’s election.

This may be a long shot in deep red Montana, but it’s good to bear in mind that from 2004 to 2016, Montanans elected Democratic governors. So a 2024 Dem win isn’t out of the question.

In a sign Biden, a Democrat, wishes to keep a tough front toward Iran and perhaps blunt Republican criticism, he announced U.S. sanctions on Iran's former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and its intelligence ministry "for their involvement in wrongful detentions.” “We will continue to impose costs on Iran for their provocative actions in the region," he said in the statement, in which he thanked the governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland and South Korea for their assistance in securing the releases.

It was unclear whether the exchange might bring progress on the many issues that divide the two nations, including Iran's nuclear program, its support for regional Shi'ite militias, the presence of U.S. troops in the Gulf and U.S. sanctions on Iran.

"Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement, shortly before the U.S. detainees descended the stairs of a Qatari jet to be embraced by U.S. diplomats. ✂️

Five U.S. citizens left Iran and landed in Doha on Monday in a prisoner swap for five Iranians held in the United States and the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian funds in a rare moment of cooperation between the long-time antagonists.

Biden is going to be taking endless flak from the Rs for this, but getting illegally detained Americans back is good news and a possible thaw in U.S.-Iran relations is good news, too.

Thanks to President Biden’s enlightened policies, “locally conscious renewal” is a reality in more and more parts of our nation. Now we need to spread the word!!

This is the Big Idea we’ve come to a decade later: That the potential for locally conscious renewal has finally sunk in at many levels of American life, from individual communities to some of the most powerful national institutions.

Now we feel as if the wind is at our back—that it is propelling communities and institutions in every state to expand their efforts and to connect with like-minded allies across the country.

Ten years ago, we felt as if we were fighting a headwind in saying that local-level renewal was underway, and that it mattered. A headwind of ideas, of outlook, of attention, of assumptions and mental blocks, of institutional priority.

It’s been ten years now since Deb and I began our reporting trips around smaller-town America. Every ten years or so, we realize that it’s time to think about what we have been doing and where we should be heading. ✂️

Good morning, Gnusies! I’m opening today’s GNR with an encouraging quote from James Fallows, who with his wife has been traveling and reporting from all across the nation to try to pick on the national mood. This is from a piece he published on September 3rd:

The IRS plans to crack down on 1,600 millionaires to collect millions of dollars in back taxes This is news from a couple of weeks ago, but it’s still worth celebrating. From AP: The IRS announced on [September 8 that] it is launching an effort to aggressively pursue 1,600 millionaires and 75 large business partnerships that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes. IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said that with a boost in federal funding and the help of artificial intelligence tools, the agency has new means of targeting wealthy people who have “cut corners” on their taxes. “If you pay your taxes on time it should be particularly frustrating when you see that wealthy filers are not,” Werfel told reporters in a call previewing the announcement. He said 1,600 millionaires who owe at least $250,000 each in back taxes and 75 large business partnerships that have assets of roughly $10 billion on average are targeted for the new “compliance efforts.” Werfel said a massive hiring effort and AI research tools developed by IRS employees and contractors are playing a big role in identifying wealthy tax dodgers. The agency is making an effort to showcase positive results from its burst of new funding under President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration as Republicans in Congress look to claw back some of that money. * * * * *

🍿 Repellent Republicans Rushing toward Ruin 🍿

The DKos community has been totally on top of all the schadenfreudelicious stories about the Rotting Republicans (or Rutting Republicans, in the case of Boebert). So for those who like to stay informed about all the various messes and may have missed any of these diaries, here are some recent links:

That guy Boebert got vulgar with in the theater? A gay-friendly bar owner who hosts drag shows.

Gaetz attacks McCarthy in wild House speech

Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial escalates Texas Republican civil war

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Good news from my corner of the world

Oregon made the DKos front page on Saturday with this story:

Oregon launches legal psilocybin access amid high demand and hopes for improved mental health care

From AP via Daily Kos:

Epic Healing Eugene — America’s first licensed psilocybin service center — opened in June, marking Oregon's unprecedented step in offering the mind-bending drug to the public. The center now has a waitlist of more than 3,000 names, including people with depression, PTSD or end-of-life dread. No prescription or referral is needed, but proponents hope Oregon's legalization will spark a revolution in mental health care. ✂️ The Oregon Psilocybin Services Section, charged with regulating the state's industry, has received “hundreds of thousands of inquiries from all over the world," Angela Allbee, the agency's manager, said in an interview. “So far, what we’re hearing is that clients have had positive experiences,” she said. While psilocybin remains illegal in most of the United States, the Food and Drug Administration in 2018 designated it a “breakthrough therapy.” This summer, the FDA published draft guidance for researchers designing clinical trials for psychedelic drugs. Researchers believe psilocybin changes the way the brain organizes itself, helping a user adopt new attitudes and overcome mental health issues.

And here’s a recent story about additional medical issues that psilocybin might address, furthering the case for legalizing it for medical use throughout the nation:

One way to heal a brain injury? Let LSD open your mind—literally.

From National Geographic via Future Crunch (avoids the paywall):

In recent years, clinical trials and lab research has revealed that psychedelic drugs taken in a controlled, supportive environment can improve mood disorders including severe depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Now a growing number of scientists are exploring whether these powerful medicines might also treat physical injuries to the brain along with other disorders that result from different brain-wiring. This could have implications for stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI), as well as brain diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. ✂️ Most brain-injury research so far—conducted in test tubes and lab animals, with only a few small studies in people—points to the psychedelics’ potential to limit brain damage after injury, stimulate the birth of new neurons to replace impaired ones, and open the learning windows that let the brain acquire new skills. One recent study, published in the journal Nature, found lab animals taking psychedelics adopted skills as adults that were previously limited to childhood.

State of Oregon sues Fox over 2020 election coverage

Good, let’s pile on.

From The Oregonian:

The state of Oregon and New York City’s pension funds sued Fox Corporation on Tuesday, alleging the company harmed investors by allowing Fox News to broadcast falsehoods about the 2020 election that exposed the network to defamation lawsuits. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, accuses the company of inviting defamation claims by amplifying conspiracy theories about the election, including a lawsuit Fox News agreed to settle for nearly $800 million with the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems. In a statement, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said that Fox breached its fiduciary duties by disregarding legal risks. “The directors’ choices exposed themselves and the company to liability and exposed their shareholders to significant risks,” she said. “That is the crux of our lawsuit, and we look forward to making our case in court.” New York City’s pension funds are long-term shareholders of Fox Corporation, with shares valued at $28.1 million as of the end of July. Oregon holds shares in the company worth approximately $5.2 million. “Fox’s board of directors has blatantly disregarded the need for journalistic standards and failed to put safeguards in place despite having a business model that invites defamation litigation,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who manages the city’s pension funds.

Urban League on a ‘placemaking’ mission at Pendleton Round-Up

It’s very encouraging to find a hopeful story about bridging the rural/urban, White/Black divide in Oregon.

From Oregon Public Broadcasting:

Founded in 1945, the Urban League focuses on providing advocacy and social services for Oregon’s Black communities. This year, the Urban League arrived in Pendleton 40-strong, the largest group the league has ever brought to the Round-Up. The organization aimed to give its members the full Round-Up experience: a day at the rodeo, a wagon in the non-mechanized Westward Ho! Parade and time to connect with people in Pendleton. While much of the group she was with had never been to Round-Up or even a rodeo in general, Urban League President and CEO Nkenge Harmon Johnson said she started bringing the organization out to Pendleton as a way of “placemaking,” creating a space for Black Oregonians who otherwise might not feel comfortable at an event where most of the participants are white. ✂️ Whether it was the actual sport of rodeo or the fashion in the stands, the Urban League visitors enjoyed the Round-Up on their own terms. ✂️ Urban League member James McKenzie poses under a Let 'er Buck sign at the Pendleton Round-Up Arena, Sept. 14, 2023. The Pendleton Round-Up takes place in Umatilla County, where only 1% of the population is Black. Other counties in the region have a similar or smaller share of Black residents. But at a meeting the Urban League held after the Westward Ho! Parade on Friday, the group reminded a small audience that Eastern Oregon is rich in Black history. Historians estimate one in four cowboys were Black during the early 20th Century, a fact reflected locally by George Fletcher, known as the “people’s champion” for his daring rides at the 1911 Round-Up. A few decades later, the all-Black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, known as the “Triple Nickles,” trained in Pendleton as smokejumpers during World War II. Further east, Black loggers helped make Maxville the largest town in Wallowa County in the 1920s and 30s before a logging company shut down its timber operation.

30 Wineries Sign Up to Refillable Wine Bottle Service in Oregon

I already had this story in my draft when I saw WineRev’s mention of it in his intro to yesterday’s History Corner. Thanks for boosting this good news from Oregon, Rev!

From Good News Network:

Bringing a bit of European small-time organization across the pond, a US/Dutch resident of Oregon is launching a startup to allow wine drinkers to bring bottles back to wineries for a refill. Such infrastructure exists in Europe, but in the US, where 765 million glass bottles are used every year in the wine industry, only one-third are even recycled, much less reused. The company is called Revino, and they collect, wash, and sanitize the bottles before removing labels and returning them to wineries to be refilled. The design is imprinted with a leaf to help customers identify them, and they are also tailor-made to fit into existing automatic filling machines. Customers can either take them directly to wineries for a refill or deposit the bottles at collection points at liquor stores and recycling facilities. ✂️ The manufacturing process produces bottles that are rated for 50 reuses, which can reduce the bottle’s overall carbon footprint by 85%, even if it meets just one-third of that total. There are many major companies already using recycled materials in the beverage industry, but Revino wants to prove what’s possible with small producers, and after their 2024 spring launch in Oregon wineries, O’Hern wants to move into Northern California where there are many small wineries with a lot of local consumption.

Here’s a video from the Revino website:

x YouTube Video

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Good news from around the nation

Planned Parenthood to resume offering abortions next [this] week in Wisconsin, citing court ruling

This is being challenged, of course, but so far, so good.

From AP:

Planned Parenthood announced Thursday that it will resume offering abortions in Wisconsin next week after a judge ruled that an 1849 law that seemingly banned the procedure actually didn’t apply to abortions. The resumption of abortions Monday at clinics in Milwaukee and Madison comes as the lawsuit challenging the state law continues in county court. It is expected to eventually reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which flipped to liberal control on Aug. 1. Abortion clinics across the state stopped offering abortions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Until then, Wisconsin’s decades-old statutes — interpreted to outlaw abortion in all cases except to save a mother’s life — were effectively nullified by the 1973 Roe ruling providing a right to abortion nationwide.

New York University will divest from fossil fuels in win for student activists

Since NYU is “one of the US’s largest private universities, whose endowment totals over $5bn,” this is very good news indeed.

From The Guardian:

New York University plans to divest from fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned, following years of pressure from student activists. The move from one of the US’s largest private universities, whose endowment totals over $5bn, represents a significant win for the climate movement, organizers said. The university first formalized the commitment in an August letter from William R Berkley, chair of NYU’s board of trustees, which was seen by the Guardian, addressed to a student activist group. “New York University commits to avoid any direct investments in any company whose primary business is the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels, including all forms of coal, oil, and natural gas, and not to renew or seek out any dedicated private funds whose primary aim is to invest in the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels,” he wrote. ✂️ The letter follows a February meeting between the NYU board of trustees’ investments committee and the university’s chapter of the youth-led climate organization Sunrise Movement, which has led recent advocacy for divestment on campus. ...In an unusual move, Berkley addressed the letter directly to Sunrise organizers. “I’ve read a lot of other divestment announcements from other schools and it’s not common for them to name, much less to celebrate, the success of the student groups that got them there,” said Alicia Colomer, an NYU senior who co-founded the school’s Sunrise chapter in 2020, and also serves as communications coordinator for Fossil Free Research, an advocacy group focused on eliminating oil and gas funding in academia. Students have been pushing NYU to divest from fossil fuels since at least 2004, but were previously rebuked.

Ammon Bundy, others blocked from moving assets

Bad news for Ammon is always good news for us. And this ruling is an excellent way to make sure he pays the damages to St. Luke’s that he’s been ordered to pay.

From Idaho State Journal:

An Idaho judge has blocked Ammon Bundy and others from moving financial assets... The lawsuit, brought by St. Luke’s Health System, alleges that Bundy has made fraudulent property transfers to evade collection of millions of dollars in damages awarded to the health system in its initial lawsuit against him, People’s Rights Network and his campaign for governor. “Unless the Court reconsiders the ruling, the preliminary injunction will remain in place until the lawsuit is resolved, by motion or at trial,” attorney Erik Stidham, representing St. Luke’s Health System, told the Idaho Capital Sun in a text message. ✂️ The preliminary injunction blocks Bundy, his wife Lisa Bundy, his campaign for governor and People’s Rights Network from: Selling, transferring or conveying any real property;

Transferring any ownership interests they hold in an entity;

Causing an entity they hold an ownership interest in to transfer, sell or convey interest in real property or material assets;

Transferring monetary assets from any banks;

Incurring new material obligations. White Barn Enterprises, LLC, which Bundy sold his home to, is only blocked from transferring or selling the home. The Bundys are allowed to spend up to $5,750 per month on living expenses and can pay the minimum on regular bills.

Colorado mountain honoring governor who led Indigenous massacre renamed

One more genocidal asshole can now be forgotten.

From The Guardian:

Federal US officials renamed a Colorado mountain that was previously named after a disgraced governor of the state who led a massacre against Indigenous people. Members of the US Board on Geographic Names voted to change the name of Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky, at the request of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Mount Blue Sky The new name was approved on Friday during a Council of Geographic Name Authorities board meeting in Oregon, according to a press release from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. The new name holds significance for both tribes. The Arapaho are known as the Blue Sky people, and the Cheyenne Tribe hold an annual ceremony that is called Blue Sky… . The mountain, a nearly 15,000ft peak in south-west Colorado, was previously named after John Evans, the notorious state governor who resigned in 1865 for his role in the Sand Creek massacre, when more than 200 Arapaho and Cheyenne people were killed in a south-eastern region of Colorado. Most of those killed were women, children and people who were elderly, the AP reported. The governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Reggie Wassana, celebrated the renaming as an important part of the “healing process”.“It is a huge step, not only for the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, but also for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, Southern Ute tribe, Northern Arapaho tribe, Northern Cheyenne tribe, and other allies who worked diligently to begin the healing process, bringing honor to a monumental and majestic mountain,” Wassana said in a statement published by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Tribune. Both tribes are now working to have the name of the Mount Evans wilderness area, which sits adjacent to the peak, changed to the Mount Blue Sky wilderness area.

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Quote of the day

From the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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Good news from around the world

Growing number of countries consider making ecocide a crime

Creating a legal structure to prevent ecocide is increasingly important, and it’s good to see it taking hold in Central America, where colonialism left a legacy of ecological destruction.

BTW, note the irony of the fact that Russia is one of the few nations to have criminalized ecocide, which they’re committing daily in Ukraine.

From The Guardian:

A growing number of countries are considering introducing laws to make ecocide a crime. Mexico is the latest country where politicians are seeking to deter environmental damage – and to get justice for its victims – by criminalising it. Karina Marlen Barrón Perales, congresswoman for Nuevo León, has submitted a bill to the Mexican congress introducing a new crime of “ecocide”. While damaging the environment is already an offence in most countries, recognition of ecocide elevates the most egregious cases to a crime – with accompanying penalties. The new Mexican bill looks to criminalise “any unlawful or wanton act committed with the knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment”. If passed, anyone found guilty of ecocide could be jailed for up to 15 years and fined as much as 1,500 pesos (£70) a day. The Mexican bill uses a definition of ecocide developed by an international panel of legal experts in 2021. The definition was mainly intended to be adopted by the international criminal court through an amendment to the Rome statute – the key goal of the Stop Ecocide Foundation – but is now also being used for national-level legislation. Only a few states around the world have criminalised ecocide, including Vietnam, Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine’s public prosecutor is already investigating a possible case of ecocide against Russia for breaching the Nova Kakhovka dam.

Water and Pesticide Use Cut Nearly in Half After ‘Better Cotton’ Helps Farmers Become Sustainable

From Good News Network:

It’s everyone’s favorite fabric—and over the last decade it’s become way more sustainable. Better Cotton just published a major annual impact report highlighting significant progress in India that has slashed pesticide and water use, while making improvements to farmers’ livelihoods. Sustainable cotton in India The world’s largest cotton sustainability initiative charted the performance of Indian farmers from 2014 to 2022 and found overall pesticide use decreased 53%—with water usage dropping by nearly one-third. Enrolled in the Better Cotton Program, almost a million farmers also saw their costs reduced by 15.6% per hectare of land (equal to about 2.5 acres), since the group launched its India operation in 2011. The report shows a dramatic reduction in the use of pesticides and highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) by Better Cotton Farmers as a result of the adoption of capacity strengthening trainings on an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the delivery of effective awareness campaigns. ✂️ Over one-fifth of the world’s cotton is now grown under the Better Cotton Standard, with 2.9 million farmers in 23 countries receiving training on sustainable farming practices, and 2.2 million farmers earning Better Cotton licenses.

Look for this label on the cotton clothing you buy:

WCK restaurant model uplifts local economy in Ukraine

World Central Kitchen doesn’t just feed people — they also help to boost economies disrupted by war and natural disasters.

From World Central Kitchen:

WCK began building a network of restaurants in Ukraine within days of the full-scale Russian invasion. Even before our Relief Team was able to enter the country, restaurant partners were cooking meals for people fleeing the conflict or sheltering in the face of relentless attacks. In the months that followed, this network expanded to include more than 500 restaurants, food trucks, and caterers that helped provide millions of meals to Ukrainians in need, ensured restaurants and their staff could keep cooking, and offered much-needed economic support. WCK pioneered this restaurant model in 2020 when we saw millions of people struggling to access fresh, nutritious food while thousands of stocked restaurant kitchens sat unused. In light of the exponential need, we launched our Restaurants for the People program, which tackled the growing crisis on two fronts by paying local restaurants to cook nourishing meals for their neighbors in need—getting food to hungry people while at the same time keeping restaurants and their teams open and working. Both in response to Covid and to the invasion of Ukraine, this model has disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars to support businesses at a time of extreme hardship. Today, acute food needs in Ukraine have shifted to newly liberated and frontline communities—mostly along the country’s east and south. As a result, many of our restaurant partners in other parts of the country have reopened to the general public, buoyed by the support they received from WCK. Our teams still maintain close relationships with many restaurants and several remain invaluable partners helping our Emergency Response Team provide food as quickly as possible to civilians impacted by Russian attacks. x YouTube Video

And more good news for Ukraine from WCK:

Seeds of Hope: Here’s what is growing in Ukraine’s soil

Black soil is the most fertile soil found on earth—and 65% of Ukraine’s land is covered in it. Because of this, more than half of Ukrainian households grew their own home gardens before Russia’s full scale invasion began. In the months since, this rich soil has sat fallow as backyard farmers throughout the country have been unable to continue growing their own food. They face a myriad of challenges including constant threat of attack, damaged infrastructure, a disrupted financial system, and lack of access to seeds. In recent months, WCK has worked to remedy part of the problem. As of June, we have provided more than 165,000 seed kits to the people of Ukraine. The packets include a variety of vegetables and herbs, like cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, lettuce, beets, dill, eggplant, onions, and peas. Now, our teams throughout the country are met with excitement and pride. “Whenever we go to someone’s house, every single time, they show us their garden,” said Ned, WCK’s Relief Team lead for Ukraine. “There’s something about cucumbers—they’re pulling all these cucumbers off and they’re like, ‘Try it!’ So I’ve been eating a lot of cucumbers.” These cucumbers, and the other vegetables in the gardens, grew from WCK-provided seeds planted in the rich black soil. ✂️ The idea to provide seed kits to Ukrainians came from a friendship José [Andrés] formed with two restaurateurs in Chernihiv—a city in northern Ukraine. From there, the simple idea sprouted into a regional program offering more than just a temporary fix. “It empowers individuals to sustain themselves by equipping them with the necessary tools to grow their own food,” said Yuliia, WCK’s media and translation lead in Ukraine. Ned adds: “There really is this sort of hope and optimism that comes from the growing of seeds.”

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Good news in medicine

Could a multiple sclerosis drug help treat Alzheimer’s?

This is exciting new research.

From Medical News Today:

..a new study by scientists at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine...found that a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) could also be used as a therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. This finding is based on research in both mouse models and human brain cells. ✂️ While the main symptoms of Alzheimer’s include memory loss and cognitive deficits, a person with the disease can also experience mobility issues similar to those in MS, including balance and coordination problems. As the disease advances, people with Alzheimer’s disease may lose the ability to stand, walk, and eat. ✂️ For this study, researchers focused on a drug called ponesimod — under the brand name Ponvory — that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat MS. “Ponesimod inhibits a specific cell signaling pathway that induces neuroinflammation in multiple sclerosis,” Dr. Erhard Bieberich, a professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and lead author of this study explained to Medical News Today. “We reasoned that ponesimod would also inhibit neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease.” ✂️ ...the researchers found...mice treated with ponesimod had a better attention span and working memory than non-treated mice Additionally, the scientists tested their theory on human brain samples, finding data collected from both tests were consistent and showed ponesimod could be used as an Alzheimer’s therapy. ✂️ MNT also spoke with Dr. Santosh Kesari, a neurologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, and regional medical director for the Research Clinical Institute of Providence Southern California, about this study. “I think this is exciting as it’s becoming increasingly clear that Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions are really rooted in inflammation and immune dysfunction in the brain as the cause of the disease or promoting the symptoms of the disease,” he said when asked about his first reaction to the study findings.

Better nutrition can cut risk of TB deaths by 60%, Indian study finds

This is wonderful news.

To read the study abstract, go to this link.

From The Guardian:

Infectious, deadly and long associated with poverty, tuberculosis causes weight loss, while poor diets increase the likelihood of developing the disease. Now, a study in India has found that improved nutrition can cut the risk of death by 60% and reduce the chances of infection within families by about 40%. India has the highest burden of TB and TB deaths globally and has launched an ambitious plan to reduce incidence and death rates by 80% and 90% respectively by 2025. The trial, called Rations (Reducing Activation of Tuberculosis by Improvement of Nutritional Status), is the largest so far to provide evidence that good nutrition improves TB treatment rates and prevention. It was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research. ✂️ “This is the first trial globally for the prevention of TB in family members by nutritional supplementation,” said [Dr Anurag] Bhargava, who led the project with his wife, Madhavi, a surgeon turned public health specialist. They started the three-year study involving more than 10,000 people in 2019, travelling to remote, often hard-to-reach villages in Jharkhand state. Family members of someone with infectious TB were given a monthly food basket of 5kg of rice, 1.5kg of pulses and micronutrient pills for six months. In the following two years, researchers found incidences of TB had reduced by between 39% to 48% compared with people not receiving the extra nutrition.

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Good news in science

DNA-based computer can run 100 billion different programs

Yup, we are indeed living in the future!

From NewScientist:

A liquid computer can use strands of DNA to run over 100 billion different simple programs. It could eventually be used for diagnosing diseases within living cells. Fei Wang at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and his colleagues set out to make circuits similar to those on a computer chip, except with DNA molecules acting as wires and instructing the wires to configure in certain ways. When you enter a command on a conventional computer, it instructs electrons to flow through a specific path on a silicon chip. These circuit configurations each correspond to different mathematical operations – adding functions to chips means adding such paths. To replace the wiring with DNA, Wang and his team modelled how to combine short segments of DNA into larger structures that could serve as circuit components, like wires, or function to direct those wires to form different configurations. ✂️ They called the building blocks of their computer DNA-based programmable gate arrays (DPGA), and each DPGA could be designed to implement over 100 billion distinct circuits by adding different short molecules into its tube. In one experiment, they connected three DPGAs, comprising about 500 DNA strands, to make a circuit that solves quadratic equations, and in another, they made a circuit for taking square roots. They input numbers by adding molecules of a specific shape that then participated in chemical reactions with molecules that made up the circuit, analogous to an electron moving through wires. ✂️ They used a similar method to design a DPGA that could classify different small RNA molecules, picking out the ones that are known to be related to a type of renal cancer. This last experiment is the beginning of what the team ultimately wants to do with DPGA technology.

Using Heat Instead of Electricity to Power More Efficient Computers

This looks like an amazing breakthrough.

From TS2:

A new approach to computer technology could revolutionize the energy efficiency of neural networks and artificial intelligence systems. Researchers are exploring the possibility of using heat instead of electricity to power these computational systems, which could significantly reduce their energy consumption. According to Nicolas Brunner, a researcher at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, the energy consumption of AI systems like ChatGPT is currently unsustainable. ChatGPT, for example, consumes an excessive amount of energy, estimated to be comparable to the daily energy consumption of over 30,000 households in the US. By harnessing the power of heat, researchers believe that computers could run algorithms that efficiently power neural networks and AI systems, while also reducing their energy demands. This novel approach could potentially solve the energy inefficiency issues that currently plague these computational systems. The use of heat as a power source for computers has the potential for significant benefits. In addition to reducing energy consumption, it could also improve the overall performance and speed of AI algorithms. Heat-based computing could lead to the development of advanced neural networks and more powerful AI models. This breakthrough in computer technology could have far-reaching implications for various industries that heavily rely on AI systems, such as healthcare, finance, and transportation. It could pave the way for more sustainable and environmentally friendly computational solutions, while also driving advancements in AI capabilities.

Teen Finds Whale Skull from 34 Million Years Ago While Fossil Hunting in Alabama

What a thrilling discovery for a budding paleontologist!

From Good News Network:

[Lindsey] Stallworth has been looking for sharks’ teeth on her family farm since she was little, and after her first biology class at the Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile, she learned her new teacher, Andrew Gentry, was a paleontologist. Showing him a plastic bag of some of the teeth she had found over the years, one in particular caught Gentry’s eye, and he was curious to look in the area where she’d found it. Not long ago geologically speaking, Alabama was covered in shallow seas, and it’s why Stallworth finds shells and sharks’ teeth nowhere near the beach. She invited Gentry to come along on a fossil hunt on the farm, and it’s where they found the staggering discovery. “To find one that’s this complete is actually very rare,” Gentry told NBC 15’s Andrea Ramey. “We’re very excited by the fact that we got the majority of the skull out and that there is more of the skeleton left to uncover, which could give us the complete animal.” The animal is from the family Basliosauridae, a group of extinct, primitive, toothed whales that may have included the heaviest and largest animal ever to live. ✂️ Lindsey working to uncover more of the skull. It took months to extract the skull from the rock and bring it to the ASMS in Mobile for further examination. The date—34 million years ago—indicates that it’s likely to be a new species of Basilosaurid.

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Good news for the environment

This Texas building has self-cooling walls

This seems like an idea that could be easily implemented wherever heat is a recurring problem.

From Fast Company:

When Houston hit 109 degrees in late August—tying an all-time temperature record for the city—26 of the previous 27 days had been over 100 degrees. As the hot city gets even hotter because of climate change, it also keeps using more energy for air conditioning. But in the suburb of Conroe, one new building is pioneering a strategy to stay cooler: “self-cooling” concrete walls with a scalloped shape that helps repel heat. The deep grooves in the corrugated pattern give more surface area for heat to move away from the wall. “In a way, the wall is working a bit like a very large radiator,” says Phu Hoang, founding director of the architecture studio Modu, which worked on the design with a climate-focused engineering firm called Transsolar. In tests, Hoang and cofounder Rachely Rotem discovered that the patterned material could stay as much as 18 degrees cooler than a flat wall. The newly-completed building, a 14,000-square-foot commercial space that will soon house retail stores and medical offices, also has white walls to reflect sunlight, another design choice that keeps the interior cooler. Since white paint can sometimes look dirtier, the architects chose a type of paint that repels dirt. “You get the environmental performance without the associated maintenance,” says Hoang.

Researchers put a fresh spin on depleted turbines

A great win-win for the environment: keep turbines out of landfills and use them to build pedestrian bridges.

From Positive News:

Upcycled wind turbines could be turned into bridges, street furniture and telecoms towers, say researchers from Queen’s University Belfast. Turbine blades, which are made of glass fibre reinforced polymer material, have a 20 to 25-year lifespan and as they are not currently recyclable they have to be landfilled or incinerated. Queen’s has partnered with fellow academics from Ireland and the US on the Re-Wind project to find new purpose for decommissioned blades. It estimates that in the next two decades, a global 8.6m tonnes will need to be upcycled. Angie Nagle, who co-founded BladeBridge – a company that repurposes unwanted wind turbine blades into pedestrian bridges and outdoor furniture – told BBC News the potential for repurposing turbine blades was “huge”. “It’s very expensive material, it’s incredibly durable, it’s incredibly strong,” she said. “They have been basically cyclically loaded for 20 to 30 years, but when put in static applications, such as using them as girders for pedestrian bridges, they can last for another 60 years.”

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Good news for and about animals

Brought to you by Rosy, Rascal, and Nora, who is still with us in spirit.

Rosy, Rascal, and our beloved departed Nora

Rosy said there was only one possible choice for her “good dog” story this week.

A 4-year-old police dog named Yoda detained fugitive Danilo Cavalcante, bringing an end to the exhaustive, nearly 2 week-long manhunt

From CNN:

Hero dog Yoda Moments after law enforcement officials spotted convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante’s head peeking through the underbrush, they released a police dog who bit and subdued Cavalcante, leading to his apprehension nearly two weeks after he escaped prison, officials said. The dog, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois male named Yoda, was from one of two tactical teams that moved in on Cavalcante at around 8 a.m. in a wooded Pennsylvania area, ending an intensive manhunt that drew hundreds of law enforcement officials to the area without any shots fired during the arrest. Yoda was a significant force in the takedown, preventing Cavalcante from using a stolen rifle in his possession that lay within arms-reach, said Lt. Colonel George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police during a news conference Wednesday. “He was just essential as far as the tracking and searching, as were numerous other K-9s that were here,” Robert Clark, supervisory deputy US Marshal for Pennsylvania’s eastern district, told CNN on Wednesday. “All these K-9 resources were utilized from different tactical teams from the area, and they were just incredible resources.”

Rascal liked this story about how farmers can grow better crops and create better conditions for birds at the same time.

Amid steep global bird declines, farmers create refuges

From The New Lede:

Farms that make use of smaller plots, varied crops, and tracts of forest, are helping boost bird populations in Costa Rica, scientists wrote in a paper published [on September 4th] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings add to previous evidence that diversified farming is an important conservation tool, said co-author and Stanford University researcher Nicholas Hendershot. ✂️ Hendershot and his colleagues determined that over 18 years, bird species living on diversified Costa Rica farms were more likely than those in forests to have increasing, rather than decreasing populations. The varied crops and natural features on diversified farms provide a home for the birds and for insects and other animals that birds eat, said Hendershot. The Resplendent Quetzal, one of Costa Rica’s most beautiful birds On intensified farms, which generally plant only one crop and make use of high amounts of pesticides, the only species of birds thriving long-term were those that were adapted to highly-degraded landscapes, indicating the importance of diversified farms to provide habitat for other bird species, he said. The research also “confirms what Indigenous communities around the world have already known for a long time, which is that humans can and should have reciprocal relationships with the rest of the local ecological community they are part of,” said Tadashi Fukami, an author on the paper and a professor of biology at Stanford University. ✂️ Birds are especially important as they tend to indicate the health of a whole ecosystem, said Hendershot, making them a good proxy for understanding human impacts on ecosystems. Birds also contribute to food security and ecosystem health by pollinating crops and devouring crop pests. “We’re so dependent upon birds and the services they provide for us,” he said.

Nora chose this story a few days before her death. She always loved stories about cats helping people, especially kids.

x YouTube Video

And our little family was happy to see that The New Yorker marked Nora’s passing by choosing a cover for the latest issue that features a black bodega cat who looks a lot like her:

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Hot lynx

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