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July 30 GNR: Bonus Wednesday Good News. There is always a light at the end of the frog. [1]

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

Date: 2025-07-30

Ah, the joy of months not neatly fitting into years. We get some bonus days. Messes up all of our internal work schedules when we meet twice a month on a particular day rather than fortnightly. Also messed up one work place that forgot that fortnightly pay means that every so often you have and extra pay period in year, that was quite the frog to walk through. You’d have think they noticed that all the other times it happened before.

So on the bonus Wednesday, be the Regimbartia attenuata. No matter what frog eats you, just keep on walking. It will be dark, it may be long, it is slimy and wet, and you come face to face with a butt hole, but it beats the alternative.

Sugiura, Shinji

Current Biology, Volume 30, Issue 15, R867 - R868

___________________________________________________________________________________

Roy Cooper running for Senate in North Carolina

Rachel Maddow interviewed Roy Cooper last night, and outlined what the wish list you would have for a candidate to flip the NC Senate Seat Thom Tillis is retiring from. The light at the end of the frog is getting brighter here in NC.

And now Roy Cooper’s main opposition for the Democratic Primary has dropped out

x Former Rep. Wiley Nickel dropped his bid for North Carolina’s open Senate seat Tuesday and endorsed Roy Cooper, all but clearing the field for the former Democratic governor.



[image or embed] — Politico (@politico.com) July 29, 2025 at 10:48 AM

This is fairly common in NC to avoid a punishing primary season, but it is kinda early even for us.

This might be part of what prompted and early out.

x Roy Cooper raises $3.4 million in first 24 hours of his Senate candidacy. The former North Carolina governor set a fundraising record with his day-one campaign haul.



[image or embed] — Politico (@politico.com) July 29, 2025 at 12:23 PM

Democrats fighting back

The Democratic National Committee is sending 30,000 volunteers to Texas to fight back against the Republican effort to further gerrymander the state.

The Democratic National Committee announced a new national organizing program aimed at deploying its 30,000 volunteer organizers to contact persuadable Republican and independent Texas voters to let them know exactly how Greg Abbott and legislative Texas Republicans are attempting to disenfranchise their vote and rig the Texas maps at the behest of Donald Trump. Instead of focusing on flood relief, Texas Republicans are focused on rigging the map in a last ditch effort to hold their House majority. Polling shows that this effort is widely unpopular by Texans of all stripes, and now the DNC is targeting persuadable Texans to let them know the names exactly behind this. Through geotargeting and identification of persuadable Republican targets via the DNC’s data and analytics team, the DNC’s organizing team will make persuasion calls to thousands of Texas voters in key Republican districts along with deploying Texas volunteers to tell their stories and submit public comments, call their own state representatives, and organize in-person and online to build Democratic power in the state.

Early evidence for a cause for Multiple Sclerosis

Scientists think they found two key bacteria that cause multiple sclerosis.

Note the protective language with “think”. This is still early days, but looks to be promising. These are particular gut bacteria (insert all the existential screaming I have about all the pseudoscience about gut heath) that not only eat the fiber you can’t eat, but when hungry will munch on the mucus that keeps the stuff in the gut away from the immune system in the blood. This is a couple of very specific species of bacteria that tend to live in the small intestine.



This started with twin studies. Usually starts by comparing frequency of disease in identical and fraternal twins. The assumption is twins raised together have similar environments (but not always identical exposures to all the things). When something has a genetic component, but is not purely genetic, the pair of identical twins will have the same disease more often than fraternal twins (which are as genetically related as any other pair of siblings born in separate births). When you find something that has a big genetic component, but also has some sort of environmental component, researchers start looking for what is different in the two twins that could be the environmental trigger that set off a disease process.



Note: broad spectrum powerful antibiotics can trigger a flare up of autoimmune diseases, so this won’t be as simple as just kill all the bacteria in the gut willy-nilly. Knowing what usually sets off the losing your immune system knowing what had you lose your sense of self for this particular thing may help target treatments, and maybe even lead to the possibility of prevention if you can screen for who is vulnerable before they get sick.



So early days, don’t expect a cure is on the horizon. I have friends and family members with MS, it can be an awful disease to try to manage. I hope this may help us find the cloaca of this particular frog.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle News

Today, InventWood is bringing Superwood to market with a 90,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Its initial offerings will be home sidings, which require minimal certifications, but will hopefully be available in many more products in the not-too-distant future.

Anything that makes homes even a bit more resistant to fires makes the light at the end of the climate crisis frog burn brighter.

More Fire Prevention News

x Hundreds of goats will mow down dead vegetation across hilly terrain in Reno over the next month in an effort to reduce wildfires in an area prone to burning. via @nevadacurrent.com www.newsfromthestates.com/article/goat... — States Newsroom (@statesnewsroom.com) 2025-07-28T12:50:16.502Z

Find Out News

x Statehouse Democrats across the country are aiming to link their Republican counterparts to President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending cuts package. via @stateline.org

www.newsfromthestates.com/article/stat...



[image or embed] — States Newsroom (@statesnewsroom.com) July 29, 2025 at 10:40 AM

“They need to drive it home and hold on to that forever — that your life, over the next five, 10 years or whatever, all the decline in your quality of life is a direct result of the Republican Party,” Mcelwain said. Some state-level Democrats believe Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides a perfect opening.

Do you find 10,000 steps a day way too much

10,000 Daily Step Count Goal Debunked by Huge Study

Even if you are in good health and physically able a lot of the “everyone should do this” recommendations are too much, take too much time, are too hard to achieve.



10,000 steps was picked by the marketing department of one of the early pedometers companies, not based on science.



So what do you need:

Based on a meta-analysis of studies published since 2014, increasing daily step counts above 2,000 was associated with a risk reduction

Like most things the first little bit gives the biggest bang for the buck with more and more adding less and less benefit. After people get to 7,000 steps a day there is no statistical difference no matter how many more steps you get.



You can start slow, build up bit by bit. Find what works for you in your life and what you can sustain.



And other research finds that you can save up and do a bunch of it in 1-2 days a week. Your long-term average is more important than getting the same amount every day.

Clean Energy News

x US clean energy helps prevent blackouts during heatwave www.semafor.com/article/07/2... — Semafor (@semafor.com) 2025-07-29T17:34:01.723Z

Hurricane Forecasting News

x NOAA also confirming with me this morning that the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) will be continuing its distribution of DMSP satellite data, which means our hurricane forecast tools should stay in tact. Crisis averted 🙌



[image or embed] — Michael Lowry (@michaelrlowry.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 11:21 AM

Breathing a little easier here in NC as hurricane season is about to start ramping up.

And the dogs were good again this week

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