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Good News Roundup for September 26, 2023 — Walking your talk [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-26
Multiple sources reported that 35,252 new voters registered that same day — the most since 2020 and a 23% boost from last year. The number of 18-year-olds registering has doubled since last year.
The nonprofit, which aims “to increase voting behavior and reach historically underserved voters of color and underrepresented young voters,” says that an hour after Swift posted on Instagram, the website saw a 1,226% increase in participation.
The singer then posted a link to the nonpartisan group Vote.org to direct fans to register “in less than 2 minutes.”
The singer then posted a link to the nonpartisan group Vote.org to direct fans to register “in less than 2 minutes.”
She continued: “Make sure you're ready to use them in our elections this year!”
“I've been so lucky to see so many of you guys at my US shows recently,” Swift wrote on Instagram. “I've heard you raise your voices and I know how powerful they are.”
The superstar and voting rights advocate used her platform for good this week by encouraging young fans to register to vote on September 21 — which is National Voter Registration Day. On her Instagram Stories that same day, Swift asked her fans simply, “Are you registered to vote yet?”
Taylor Swift is urging her fans to Speak Now by registering to vote — and her message may have helped usher in tens of thousands of new voters.
What does it mean to be a superstar? Taylor is redefining the term by making the best possible use of her platform.
So get ready to read more encouraging news about people doing instead of talking. But first pour yourself a nice big mug of your favorite morning beverage and find a comfortable chair. Ready? Let’s go!
Today’s theme just leapt out from the stories I found. People are getting serious about walking their talk, i.e., putting their beliefs and passions into action. Example #1 is our own awesome President, who will spend part of today on the UAW picket line, the first time ever that a U.S. President has shown such robust support for a strike. Go, Joe!!
New Jersey’s party system allows county organizations to give selected candidates preferential placement on the ballot, known as the line. That could complicate Menendez’s campaign if he remains in the race and the state’s Democratic officials continue to oppose his candidacy.
Kim flipped the 3rd District in 2018, ousting Republican Rep. Tom MacArthur by less than 2 points in a district that was redrawn after the 2020 census. A Rhodes Scholar, he previously worked as an aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the State Department. In the House, he serves on the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Select China Competition committees. ✂️
Menendez, who won his third full term in 2018 after an earlier bribery charge did not result in a conviction, dismissed calls to resign Friday from Kim, the state’s Democratic governor, the state party chairman and others in the House delegation, saying they were “rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat.” ✂️
“After calls to resign, Senator Menendez said ‘I am not going anywhere.’ As a result, I feel compelled to run against him. Not something I expected to do, but NJ deserves better. We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our integrity,” Kim said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. ✂️
New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim launched a primary challenge to Sen. Bob Menendez on Saturday as more Democrats joined the call for the senior Democratic senator to resign after an indictment on federal bribery charges.
Andy Kim is a true hero. I’ve loved him from the moment I saw the photo of him cleaning the Capitol rotunda after the insurrection. This is a man who, when he sees that something needs to be done, just does it. And it’s obvious that someone needs to run against Mendacious Menendez.
Democrat Trolls Kevin McCarthy With Bill Blocking Congressional Pay During Shutdown
Angie Craig saw that some major shade needed to be thrown on Squeaker McCarthy, so she brought it.
Also see the DKos diary by Walter Einenkel from Friday.
From The New Republic:
Angie Craig, another tough Dem hero! Democratic Representative Angie Craig is taking aim at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the looming Republican-prompted government shutdown with an excellently named bill. Craig introduced the “My Constituents Cannot Afford Rebellious Tantrums, Handle Your Shutdown Act,” or the “MCCARTHY Shutdown Act,” Wednesday afternoon. The bill would temporarily block the paychecks of Congress members during a government shutdown. Currently, shutdowns do not affect pay for lawmakers, but they stop pay for all other federal employees. “It’s ridiculous that we still get paid while folks like TSA workers are asked to work without a paycheck,” Craig said in a statement announcing the bill. The bill is unlikely to pass (or even make it to a floor vote in) the Republican-controlled House, but it makes a major point as the shutdown looms ever closer.
Biden’s new Climate Corps will train thousands of young people
This is probably my favorite recent example of Biden walking his talk. And wow, will it make a difference!!
All voters, but especially young ones, need to see action instead of words. The American Climate Corps is smart policy and smart campaigning.
From The Washington Post (gift link):
President Biden on Wednesday announced an initiative to train more than 20,000 young people in skills crucial to combating climate change, such as installing solar panels, restoring coastal wetlands and retrofitting homes to be more energy-efficient. The American Climate Corps comes as Biden seeks to win over young voters, a critical constituency, before next year’s presidential election. Polls show that climate change is a top concern for young people, who are more likely than older generations to face raging wildfires, stronger storms and rising seas in their lifetimes. ✂️ “I can’t speak on behalf of every single youth voter, but if President Biden continues to take bold climate action like this, I think it could go a long way,” Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of Sunrise Movement, said in an interview. “Young people need to see more policies like this from the administration in the lead-up to the election.”
It even got a bouquet of praise from Forbes!!
The American Climate Corps could become the connective tissue enabling the IRA to create a just transition and build resilient communities. ✂️ ...the Civilian Conservation Corps boosted lifetime earnings and the long-term health of participants… . Boosting earnings and building infrastructure are just as important today as they were in the 1930s. ✂️ Potential corps projects are almost endless, considering the country’s under-invested infrastructure needs. Corps members could tackle some of the National Park Service’s $12 billion backlog of needed repairs. They could help prevent the unprecedented wildfires raging across the Western U.S. by thinning forests and conducting prescribed burns, both of which are underfunded and underserviced by the federal government. They could restore wetlands, which occupy half of their historic acreage, but provide tremendous carbon sequestration benefits and are often the first line of defense for hurricanes and coastal flooding. They could retrofit our homes and businesses for energy efficiency, reducing consumer bills and energy consumption. They could help respond to the growing scourge of billion-dollar extreme weather disasters pushing federal and state services to a breaking point.
The Biden Administration Is Making It Easier To Get Government Benefits
Americans have wanted less bureaucratic red tape for decades. This is something else that the Biden/Harris administration paid attention to and decided to take action on.
From HuffPost:
The federal government offers a plethora of benefits designed to help alleviate poverty and help those in dire straits, whether it’s Medicaid, disability, food assistance, unemployment insurance ― or any of the thousands of other programs offered from farm loans to disaster relief. But too often, the discovery and application processes are designed not to facilitate enrollment, but rather to hinder those trying to sign up. … The Biden administration is finally trying to do something about this. ✂️ ...those who study the role of administrative burdens are incredibly optimistic about the Biden administration’s burden reduction program. “The administration has been remarkably aggressive at making government more attentive to the negative experiences that people encounter when they interact with government and trying to make those experiences better,” [Don] Moynihan [a social science professor at Georgetown University, who along with [Pamela] Herd published the book Administrative Burden: Policymaking By Other Means] said. “I haven’t seen another administration commit this much effort to the topic any time in the past.” The end goal, according to Herd, is for benefit programs to have the same uptake as the Social Security retirement program, where 97% of eligible recipients receive it. “That should be the end goal...that everyone eligible for these programs is actually receiving benefits, and they’re not spending enormous amounts of time and energy to have access to those benefits.”
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🍿 Repellent Republicans Rushing toward Ruin 🍿
Trump to Oppose Striking Auto Workers at Non-Union Plant
Wow — way to read the room, Donnie! (See the Data for Progress Poll above.) Knock yourself out...
From Meidas Touch Network:
While Joe Biden arrives in Michigan this week as the first US president to join a picket line of striking union workers in over 100 years, Trump will appear at a non-union auto parts plant to complain about electric vehicles. ✂️ Trump will...side with auto manufacturers and non-union plants with worse pay, benefits and working conditions than their union counterparts. Trump, throughout his business career, has been overtly hostile to union workers, and this trip will highlight that.
The Clarence Thomas Corruption Saga Just Got Even Worse
How could it possibly be any worse?? Well, read on… And then get ready to get loud about forcing Thomas to recuse himself from hearing the upcoming case that could overturn Chevron v. NRDC.
From The New Republic:
Clarence Thomas has secretly participated in events for the Koch donor network for at least a decade, despite the fact that the group has brought cases before the Supreme Court, according to a bombshell new ProPublica report. ✂️ The first mention of Thomas in connection with the Koch network, recently rebranded as Stand Together, was in 2010, when donors received an event invitation that said the Supreme Court justice had spoken at a previous summit. He also spoke at an event in 2018, when he was flown in on a private jet. In now classic Thomas fashion, he revealed none of these connections on his financial disclosure forms. It is unclear who paid for the private jet that took him to the 2018 fundraising event. But all of his appearances were arranged with the help of dark-money king Leonard Leo. ✂️ During the period when Thomas has been documented spending time with the Koch network, his position on government regulation has shifted dramatically. The most significant example is the 1984 case of Chevron v. NRDC, which found that government agencies are responsible for determining the rules that put laws into effect. The Koch network has repeatedly challenged this precedent over the years. Thomas wrote the majority opinion in a 2005 case that expanded the protections from Chevron. By 2020, he had rejected his own opinion as unconstitutional. In the upcoming Supreme Court term, the justices will hear a case that could overturn the Chevron precedent. Thomas’s shocking switch could help deliver the Koch network a major victory.
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The media misbehaving
This is low-hanging fruit, but I just can’t resist. Brooks is such a smug asshole, and Warren Leight’s comment is just so perfect.
For more chuckles, go to Aldous J Pennyfarthing’s DKos diary.
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Good news from my corner of the world
[Gov.] Kotek announces details of $26 million to 26 rural counties to fight homelessness
Kotek knows that we’ve talked enough about homelessness and that what’s needed is action with plenty of money behind it. Of course, this is just a start.
From Oregon Capital Chronicle:
Another slice of the more than $200 million allocated by the Legislature this session for homelessness is headed toward rural counties in Oregon. Gov. Tina Kotek announced Tuesday that 26 rural counties will receive a total of $26 million to get people off the street, out of their cars and away from other precarious situations by housing them either temporarily in shelters or permanently in homes. The money was designated by the Legislature in House Bill 5019, which passed early in the session as part of $200 million allocated to fight homelessness. It is expected to pay for 100 new shelter beds and get 450 households into stable living situations by June 2025. The 26 counties – Baker, Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Curry, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Hood River, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lincoln, Linn, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Tillamook, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, Wheeler and Yamhill – were excluded from Kotek’s emergency homelessness declaration in January. That order targeted the counties with the biggest increases in homelessness and led to Kotek allocating nearly $80 million to large urban counties in April, including central Oregon and the Portland, Eugene, Medford, Salem and Ashland areas.
Oregon awarded more than $58M to reduce extreme heat risks with trees
The research showed how important tree canopies are, now we have some action to create more of them where they’re most needed.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Oregon’s tree population is about to get a lot larger. The state this week received more than $58 million in federal funds aimed at increasing tree canopy in community spaces and neighborhoods that most need to reduce the impacts of extreme heat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Thursday the agency will dole out more than $1 billion to 385 projects nationwide. The goal is to increase equitable access to trees and nature, provide shade to neighborhoods that need it and reduce the effects of climate change. Oregon’s portion will be dispersed between eight entities, including the city of Salem, Hermiston and the Oregon Department of Forestry. ✂️ [ODF’s Urban and Community Forestry program manager Scott] Altenhoff said he is excited to see money for nature-based solutions to climate change like tree planting. “We’ve known for many decades how critical green infrastructure exposure to trees and nature are for human wellbeing,” he said.
Biden administration promises $200 million to help reintroduce salmon in Columbia River
This is great news, and a long-postponed making of amends to the tribes whose lives were upended by the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
The Biden administration agreed Thursday to spend more than $200 million to fully fund Native tribes’ plans to reintroduce salmon in the Upper Columbia River Basin — more than 80 years after construction of the Grand Coulee Dam rendered the fish extinct in parts of Washington, Idaho and British Columbia. The unprecedented show of federal support is a course correction from the previous efforts of some federal agencies to resist tribal salmon restoration, which were documented in an August 2022 investigation by Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica. “This agreement is the start of fixing a wrong,” Greg Abrahamson, chair of the Spokane Tribe of Indians, said during the announcement of the agreement. “Grand Coulee Dam allowed the desert to bloom, and many faraway cities enjoyed the cheap electricity it produces, at my people’s expense.” ✂️ Construction of Grand Coulee Dam destroyed the Columbia River fishing site of Kettle Falls, a regional trading hub and sacred site for many salmon-dependent tribes. It cut off hundreds of miles of river habitat for salmon, who migrate to the ocean as young fish and return to their home waters to spawn as adults. Salmon and other oceangoing fish once accounted for an estimated 60% of the historic diet for Northwest Indigenous people. After the construction of Grand Coulee and other dams in the Upper Columbia Basin, those fish disappeared. After nearly 80 years without those fish, a coalition of tribes along the Upper Columbia River developed in 2015 a multiphase plan to reintroduce salmon into areas where they’d been blocked. The tribes’ long-term plan involves building hatcheries, releasing fish into waters above Grand Coulee, tracking their migration and developing plans to pass fish safely around the dams through techniques like trapping them and trucking them up or downstream. They designed the plan to ensure it does not interfere with hydropower generation at the federal government’s biggest dam on the Columbia.
ODOT [Oregon Department of Transportation] nixes plans for third lane, some tolling on I-205
Yesterday, Jessiestaf quoted from an excellent article about this from City Observatory, which noted “Bad projects die with a whimper, not a bang.”
Here’s how our conservative-leaning daily paper covered the story. My impression is that the editor said, “Let’s keep this story small. The less said, the better.” It’s perfectly clear if you read between the lines that neither the tolling nor the now-$2 billion Rose Quarter expansion is likely to overcome the obstacles they face. What should — and probably will — be constructed are the freeway covers reconnecting the severed Albina neighborhood.
From The Oregonian:
The Oregon Department of Transportation is scrapping previously planned tolling on an Interstate 205 bridge, even as it moves ahead with tolling on a second span. It will also roll back plans to build a third lane on a seven-mile stretch of the road between Tualatin and Oregon City, agency staff members said [Sept. 14th]. ✂️ The changes were the latest in a slew of freeway projects ODOT has pared down in the face of a funding shortfall. This summer, the agency said it was short at least $2.6 billion to complete all its planned freeway projects, and presented a modified financial plan to Gov. Tina Kotek on how to move forward . As its own anticipated revenue sources have dwindled, the transportation agency was relying on several tolling projects to help fund construction on several freeway projects. But in May, Gov. Tina Kotek directed ODOT to delay tolling until 2026 so that the state could further study its impact on local communities. The agency has already put on hold a major revamp of I-5 through Portland’s Rose Quarter. That project, which would add lanes to one of the state’s most congested stretches of freeway, saw its price tag balloon from about $500 million to nearly $2 billion. The increase comes in part from rising material and labor costs and in part from incorporating plans to build freeway covers that would reconnect Lower Albina, a historically Black neighborhood that was partially razed for the freeway’s construction in the 1950s.
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Good news from around the nation
Striking Hollywood writers reach tentative deal with studios
Everyone still needs to read the fine print, but this looks very promising.
From Reuters:
Hollywood's writers union said it reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios on Sunday, a deal expected to end one of two strikes that have halted most film and television production and cost the California economy billions. The three-year contract still must be approved by leadership of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) as well union members, before it can take effect. The WGA, which represents 11,500 film and television writers, described the deal as "exceptional" with "meaningful gains and protections for writers." ✂️ The WGA settlement, while a milestone, will not return Hollywood to work. The SAG-AFTRA actors' union remains on strike.
And a story in Time yesterday provided these further details:
While we won’t see the fine print of the contract until the final language is agreed upon by both sides, the WGA did craft a residual formula for streamers—like Netflix, Max, Hulu, and Prime Video—in which TV shows and movies that reach certain performance benchmarks are essentially given bonuses. And a formula was created in which the number of episodes in a season will determine, on a sliding scale, how many writers must be hired to work on a show. Using AI to generate content—a major concern for both writers and actors—seemed to be a sticking point, and were among the last details debated before bargaining ended.
After Florida restricts Black history, churches step up to teach it
Truth refuses to be buried.
To see the tool kit being shared with the participating pastors — and to make a donation if you like — go to www.faithinflorida.org/...
From The Washington Post (gift link):
“BLACK HISTORY MATTERS” proclaimed television screens facing the several dozen men and women settling in at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. An institution in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Liberty City, “The Ship” had borne witness to many of the seminal events of the past century, shepherding its followers during Jim Crow and the heyday of the KKK, through the civil rights movement to the racial justice protests of recent years. Now, as a new school year started, the Rev. Gaston Smith was standing at the pulpit with a lesson on one of those chapters. After months of controversy over new directives governing classroom instruction in Florida — changes that critics said sanitized or even distorted the past — he and other Black pastors across the state agreed their churches had no choice but to respond. They would teach Black history themselves. ✂️ Their resolve has drawn a groundswell of support. A nonprofit coalition of religious institutions, Faith in Florida, put together an 11-chapter tool kit to guide the churches and suggest books, articles, documentaries and reports covering the Black experience through what it calls “the lens of truth.” The chapters, featuring content for all ages, cover a lot of ground. “From Africa to America,” one is titled. Another highlights “Race, Racism & Whiteness.”
Denver’s pallet shelters house people and their pets
As this report notes, unhoused people would rather sleep under tarps on the street than give up their beloved pets. So shelters need to accommodate them.
x YouTube Video
Former President Jimmy Carter makes an appearance at Georgia festival days before his 99th birthday
It’s so good to know that Jimmy and Rosalynn are still enjoying life. They deserve every happiness! ❤️
From NBC News:
Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, were spotted Saturday at a festival in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. The Carter Center re-shared a video of the former President, 98, and former first lady, 96, riding in a black SUV at the Plains Peanut Festival. "Beautiful day for President & Mrs. Carter to enjoy a ride through the Plains Peanut Festival! And just a week before he turns 99," the center wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "We’re betting peanut butter ice cream is on the menu for lunch! #JimmyCarter99." The outing comes more than six months after the longest-lived U.S. president entered hospice care at his home following a series of brief hospital stays. ✂️ Jason Carter, chairman of the Carter Center’s Board of Trustees, told USA Today last week that the couple is happy. They marked their 77th wedding anniversary in July. "They are together. They are at home. They’re in love, and I don’t think anyone gets more than that," he said. "I mean, it’s a perfect situation for this time in their lives."
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Good news from around the world
India's parliament approves bill to reserve third of seats for women
It’s wonderful to see women gaining more power in the world’s most populous democracy.
From Reuters:
India's parliament on Wednesday approved a landmark bill to reserve a third of its seats in the lower house and state assemblies for women to boost female participation in politics that had been disproportionately low for decades. Women now comprise nearly half of India's 950 million registered voters but only 15% of lawmakers in parliament and 10% in state assemblies, leaving the world's largest democracy at the bottom of global rankings on gender parity in legislatures. The bill, introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on Tuesday in the new parliament building's special session, secured the support of all opposition party leaders. ✂️ More than 450 MPs from across party lines voted in favour of the bill, two MPs voted against and about 80 were not present. The bill now requires the approval - widely expected - of lawmakers in the upper house and a majority of state assemblies.
Researchers gave 200 people $10,000 each to study generosity
Rutger Bregman won’t be surprised by this.
And as this article notes, “With members of the wealthy Baby Boomer generation beginning to pass away, an unprecedented transfer of wealth is about to unfold. … If the present study is any indication, a significant amount of money could soon be spent for the public good.”
From Big Think:
With the help of a pair of wealthy donors, researchers affiliated with the University of British Columbia, Yale University, and Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) ran an experiment to find out [if people would be generous if given a large amount of money to spend]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the team broadcasted via TED’s social media channels an offer to apply for a vague “mystery” experiment. People located across the globe signed up. Two hundred from Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom were eventually selected, and they were no doubt elated when they learned what the experiment entailed. The experimenters were going to give them $10,000, with the only conditions being that they spend all of it in three months, don’t save or invest any of it, and report to the researchers precisely how they spent it. Half were further stipulated to regularly share on social media how they used the money. So how did they spend the windfall? Did they share it with others or hoard it for themselves? As the researchers found, generosity reigned. Participants spent 68% of their cash prosocially, benefiting others and sometimes simultaneously themselves (paying for a shared vacation or dinner, for example). On average, they also donated a fifth to charities or other causes.
Canadian Transphobes Thought Millions Would March For Them. It Didn't Quite Work Out That Way.
A good news story seen through the satirical eye of Wonkette’s Robyn Pennacchia.
From Wonkette — 🎩 to T Maysle for quoting it in a comment on Saturday:
… this Wednesday, Canadian transphobes tried to hold a multi-city 1 Million March 4 Children. They dreamt that busybodies in practically 100 cities and towns all over the Great White North would make their own kids walk out of school at 9 a.m. and take to the streets in order to chastise transgender people, children in particular, for existing. Indeed, to chastise the whole darn world for not being as shitty to trans people as they would like, under the guise of “protecting children,” who very likely do not give a flying shit what gender people identify as without the helpful assistance of weird, backwards, bigot parents from whom they will likely be estranged when they grow up. Specifically, the organizers — who were in cahoots with groups like Gays Against Groomers along with anti-abortion groups and groups supporting the anti-vax Freedom Convoys — said they were “advocating for the elimination of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum, pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms in schools.” ✂️ The protests, in most areas, did not turn out very well for them. Erin Reed of Erin In The Morning reports that in cities like Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver, only a sparse few turned out for the bigots, who were wildly outnumbered by supporters of trans rights. Democratic leaders and teachers unions showed their support in the streets, while mayors and city governments flew progress pride flags and tweeted their support for trans youth. ✂️ It’s good (and important) that every time these people try to go out they are met with resistance, because it’s their belief that they represent the majority that strengthens them and motivates them to keep doing what they are doing. But 70 percent of Canadian parents say that if they had a trans child, they would do whatever they could to accommodate them, and while it’s certainly not perfect, that’s the real majority.
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Good news in medicine
UK scientists develop 10-minute blood test to diagnose diseases
This sounds like an amazing breakthrough.
From Financial Times (🎩 to Future Crunch for putting this item in their newsletter):
UK scientists have developed a finger-prick blood test that can detect the proteins associated with a wide range of diseases from long Covid to Alzheimer’s in 10 minutes or less. Attomarker, a spinout from the University of Exeter, ...gave its first clinical results this year in diagnosing long Covid from the presence of six antibodies that showed the Sars-Cov-2 virus persisting in a patient’s body. It is also being developed to detect “biomarker” proteins associated with female fertility, food allergy, diabetes and Alzheimer’s, and to fight antimicrobial resistance by distinguishing bacterial from viral infections. At present, the technology, which delivers results within seven to 10 minutes, runs on a benchtop laboratory instrument. But next year Attomarker expects to launch a handheld device with a diagnostic cartridge connected to a mobile phone. ✂️ Attomarker’s technology works with gold nanoparticles printed on an array of sensor spots. The nanoparticles on each spot are treated to bind to a particular protein, and the array can scan for up to 20 biomarkers from a blood sample of just 0.01ml. In contrast, a routine hospital blood test takes a 30ml sample. When the spots are illuminated from below as blood flows over the array, the nanoparticles scatter the light with a pattern that indicates the quantity of biomarkers that has stuck to the surface.
Redwire Space prints human knee cartilage in space for the first time
The idea of 3-D printed human tissue is kind of creepy, but how wonderful it would be to be able to get a new meniscus!
From TechCrunch:
Redwire Space has successfully “bioprinted” a human knee meniscus aboard the International Space Station, a landmark development that could help people recovering from meniscus injuries here on Earth. The meniscus cartilage was printed on Redwire’s BioFabrication Facility (BFF) on the ISS. As part of the investigation, called BFF-Meniscus-2, after the BFF printed the meniscus with living human cells, it was transferred to Redwire’s Advanced Space Experiment Processor for a 14-day enculturation process. After the culture process was complete, the meniscus was packaged up and sent back to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission. ✂️ Redwire Space has made major strides into biotechnology in recent months. Earlier this summer, the company announced it would open a 30,000-square-foot research park focused on biotech and microgravity in Indiana.
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Good news in science
Concrete Made 30% Stronger by Adding Waste Coffee Grounds — Cutting Emissions and Mining in the Process
A terrific win-win.
From Good News Network:
Engineers in Australia have found a way of making stronger concrete by utilizing coffee grounds, giving the roast a “double shot” at life and reducing waste going to landfills. The RMIT University team developed the technique that makes concrete 30% stronger by adding waste coffee grounds after it is turned into biochar using their “low-energy process”. Globally, 11 million tons of spent coffee is generated annually. Disposing of organic waste poses an environmental challenge because it emits large amounts of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane, which is 21 times worse than CO2 for the climate. Furthermore, concrete used in construction projects around the world requires 50 billion tons of natural sand mined every year. Coffee biochar can replace a portion of that sand, which is a finite resource, explained research team leader Professor Jie Li. “The ongoing extraction of natural sand around the world–typically taken from river beds and banks–to meet the rapidly growing demands of the construction industry has a big impact on the environment. ...With a circular-economy approach, we could keep organic waste out of landfill and also better preserve our natural resources like sand,” said Li.
The gold jewellery made from old phones
It’s good news that we can recover gold — and probably other precious metals — from e-waste.
From Future Planet (UK):
Hayley Messenger, a chemist specialising in sustainable precious metals,...and a team of chemists and chemical analysts, together with Canadian start-up Excir, have invented and patented a clean, energy-efficient way which they claim extracts 99% of gold from the printed circuit boards found inside discarded laptops and old mobile phones. Later this year, the Royal Mint is opening a new multi-million-pound factory which will be able to process 90 tonnes of circuit boards per week once fully operational, recovering hundreds of kilogrammes of gold every year. ✂️ E-waste (also known as waste electrical and electronic equipment or WEEE) is the world's fastest-growing waste stream. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, an estimated 50 million tonnes of e-waste is produced globally every year, weighing more than all of the commercial airliners ever made. But only 20% of that is formally recycled, and most gets thrown away and either sent to landfill or incinerated. ✂️ Like all critical raw materials, gold is a finite resource, yet 7% of the world's gold is currently sitting in disused electronics. Gold extraction usually involves exporting devices to the EU or Asia where e-waste is smelted down at extremely high temperatures in a very crude and carbon-intensive process. "We want to recover as much of the precious metals as we can from things which are currently waste," says Messenger. "Our focus is on doing this sustainably within the UK, using a process that's effective at room temperature while producing a lot less greenhouse gas emissions than smelting."
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Good news for the environment
This is what exponential growth looks like.
🎩 to Future Crunch for posting this in their newsletter
SEC Brings Much-Needed Transparency to Sustainable Investing
It looks like this rule could be more robust, but it’s a good start.
From Environmental Defense Fund:
[On Wednesday], the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)... approved on a bipartisan basis a final rule that will help protect investors from misleading marketing, including about sustainable investments. ✂️ Congress expressly authorized the SEC to regulate potentially misleading fund names in 1996. The SEC then issued its original Names Rule in 2001. The rule requires certain funds to align at least 80% of their assets with the characteristics suggested by the fund name. Today’s update will bring terms like “sustainable” and “green” within the scope of the Names Rule. The update does not set specific definitions for those terms, but does require funds to define the terms used in their name and describe how those terms relate to their investment practices.
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Rascal, and Nora, who is still here in spirit.
Rosy likes this story because it shows both the pup’s resourcefulness and the crocs’ surprising compassion.
Crocodiles push stray dog to safety after it falls into danger-filled river
From The Independent:
In an apparent example of interspecies compassion, a group of crocodiles appeared to usher a dog to safety after it fell into a dangerous river. The dog, believed to be a stray, was being chased by a pack of other feral canines when it jumped into the River Savirtri in India out of harm’s way, or so it thought. But the river was infested by local mugger crocodiles, and three of them were floating near the stray. This should have been the end of the helpless pup, with the crocs being “well within the striking range,” according to a report published by scientists in the Journal of Threatening Taxa. However, the crocodiles appeared to usher the dog back to safety on the shore. “These crocodiles were actually touching the dog with their snouts and nudging it to move further for a safe ascent on the bank and eventually escape," the researchers wrote. "The muggers were well within the striking range and could have easily devoured the dog, yet none of them attacked and instead chose to nudge it towards the bank, implying that the hunger drive was absent." ✂️ The crocs are friendly, but the pup is a bit leery. The researchers said they believe that the pup rescue could be a sign of the crocs having emotional intelligence. "The curious case of a dog ‘rescued’ by the group of crocodiles reported here seems more on lines of empathy than altruistic behaviour," the scientists said.
Rascal loves stories about his fearsome ancestors. The newest one is impressive!
A Kind of Cretaceous Crane Enters Fossil Record as Long-Legged Wading Dinosaur Found in China
From Good News Network:
Reconstruction of Fujianvenator prodigiosus China has produced more feathered or gliding dinosaurs, or those that share intimate similarities with flightless birds like emu, than any other country, including this one: a new 150-million-year-old avialan theropod found in Zhenghe County in Fujian Province. Chinese scientists say the previously unknown species was a “high-speed runner” who lived in a “swamp-like” environment during the Jurassic Period. They said the new species, named Fujianvenator prodigiosus, or (Fujian hunter) exhibits a strange mixture of features shared with other predecessors of today’s birds. “Our comparative analyses show that marked changes in body plan occurred along the early avialan line, which is largely driven by the forelimb, eventually giving rise to the typical bird limb proportion,” said study corresponding author Dr. Wang Min, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
Nora always rooted for endangered cats. She would have loved this one.
Rare clouded leopard kitten born at OKC Zoo
From USA Today:
Steppin’ out! OKC Zoo's clouded leopard Rukai gave birth to a male kitten on July 18 after a 90-day gestation period at the Zoo’s Cat Forest habitat, the zoo said in an update on social media. "Caretakers report the kitten is healthy and doing everything a newborn should be doing – eating, sleeping and growing," said the zoo. As the male kitten continues to strengthen and thrive, he will eventually be moved to another Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited zoo to breed. He will also act as a demonstration animal for the program as an ambassador for his species, raising awareness and promoting conservation efforts. The OKC Zoo has been an active participant in the AZA's Species Survival Plan (SSP) for clouded leopards. This plan aims to ensure the preservation and survival of this vulnerable species.
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