🍿 Repellent Republicans Rushing toward Ruin 🍿
Mutiny Erupts in a Michigan G.O.P. Overtaken by Chaos
Of course, for Republicans it’s chaos everywhere all the time, but I thought you might enjoy reading this especially choice example from Michigan which is a perfect microcosm of MAGA mishegas, including lack of interest among voters and candidates, financial malfeasance, purity tests, vicious infighting, and delay tactics.
From The New York Times:
The mutiny took hold on Mackinac Island.
The Michigan Republican Party’s revered two-day policy and politics gathering, the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, was an utter mess.
Attendance had plummeted. Top-tier presidential candidates skipped the September event, and some speakers didn’t show. Guests were baffled by a scoring system that rated their ideology on a scale, from a true conservative to a so-called RINO, or Republican in name only.
And the state party, already deeply in debt, had taken out a $110,000 loan to pay the keynote speaker, Jim Caviezel, an actor who has built an ardent following among the far right after starring in a hit movie this summer about child sex trafficking. The loan came from a trust tied to the wife of the party’s executive director, according to party records.
For some Michigan Republicans, it was the final straw for a chaotic state party leadership that has been plagued by mounting financial problems, lackluster fund-raising, secretive meetings and persistent infighting. Blame has centered on the fiery chairwoman, Kristina Karamo, who skyrocketed to the top of the state party through a combative brand of election denialism but has failed to make good on her promises for new fund-raising sources and armies of activists.
[In December], the internal dissension...erupted into an attempt to oust Ms. Karamo, which, if successful, would be the first removal of a leader of the Michigan Republican Party in decades. Nearly 40 members of the Michigan Republican Party’s state committee called for a meeting in late December to explore forcing out Ms. Karamo. Just before Christmas, Malinda Pego, Ms. Karamo’s running mate for state party chair and the co-chair of the committee, signed onto that effort, in an ominous sign for the embattled chairwoman. And ...eight of the 13 Republican congressional district party chairs asked Ms. Karamo to resign in a joint letter, pleading with her to “put an end to the chaos” by stepping down.
But that meeting has now been delayed, with no definite date on the calendar. Ms. Karamo has vowed to fight back, railing against the effort as illegitimate.
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The media messing up
Thanks to a tip from Wonkette, I found this excellent rant by Marcy Wheeler on her Substack, emptywheel. The subject is Biden’s Valley Forge speech on Saturday. The bolding is mine.
How Trump Manipulated 3 NYT Journalists to Make a Campaign Ad for Fascism
Then there’s the NYTimes, in a piece by Michael Bender, Lisa Lerer and Michael Gold. It seems to be a genuine attempt at cataloging Trump’s “brazen” attempt to “cast[] Mr. Biden as the true menace,” the subhead of the piece.
But it proceeded to quote just 31 words of what it calls Joe Biden’s “forceful” speech, before it aired:
- A 13-word false quote from Trump about his prosecution
- 30 words of projection from Trump, attacking Biden
- A 20-word false attack on Jack Smith
- 11 more words lying about DOJ, quoted from a Trump fundraising email
- Trump’s 3 word celebration of January 6 and another word rebranding convicted Jan6ers
- 36 words from Trump’s campaign managers attacking Biden (a statement the AP also quoted)
- In an attempt to label all this projection, Trump’s 5-word attack on Hillary Clinton
- A 3-word attack on Biden that Trump uses in rally signage
- 28 words of attack on DOJ from Marjorie Taylor Greene
- 21 words from a Trump supporter at a rally
And they did so in an article talking about the import of focusing on democracy, not on Trump’s false claims about it.
Even including a 33-word quote from Josh Shapiro about how Pennsylvanians have learned to see through Trump’s bullshit and 30 words about the threat of violence, NYT still quoted Trump or his supporters’ false attacks on Biden and rule of law almost twice as much as they did true claims about Trump.
Effectively, it rewarded Trump for telling “audacious” lies. By telling them, he got three NYT journalists to quote his lies about Joe Biden and rule of law over and over and over. The reason Trump projects his own failures on other people is because journalists never fail to reward him for it, presenting his false claims alongside true ones, leaving the impression that truth is up for debate, that professionals are helpless to discern which of these claims are true. Trump’s goal is to degrade the very notion of truth. And this kind of journalism only helps him do that.
Update: After I wrote this, NYT changed the headline of this piece, from “Clashing Over Jan. 6, Trump and Biden Show Reality Is at Stake in 2024,” to “Trump Signals an Election Year Full of Falsehoods on Jan. 6 and Democracy.”
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Good news from my corner of the world
Wyden, Merkley Announce $72 Million Federal Investment for Expansion of Microchip’s Gresham Facility
Oregonians are used to thinking of our state as a semiconductor hub, but those of you in other states may not be familiar with our “Silicon Forest.” The state’s largest private employer is Intel, and their Hillsboro campus is where their R&D takes place. And Microchip Technology has its largest silicon wafer fabrication facility in Gresham, which is where the $72 million will go.
From Ron Wyden’s office, wyden.senate.gov:
“Oregon is the beating heart of our nation’s semiconductor industry,” said Wyden. “When I brought Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to Oregon last year, I was confident that she would see the Silicon Forest for what it is: a world class launching pad for high-tech, high-paying jobs and the semiconductor industry as a whole. This investment shows that the Biden administration wholeheartedly agrees, and I expect it will be the first of many investments in the months to come.”
“The 21st century economy is built on tiny chips that hold enormous opportunities, and we must ensure their production, power, and possibilities are homegrown right here in Oregon,” said Merkley. “This crucial investment coming to Gresham is a huge win for the local economy that will generate good-paying jobs, help support our state’s leadership in semiconductor manufacturing, and protect our national security with strong domestic supply chains.”
As part of its Gresham expansion, Microchip is doubling its capacity to manufacture the chips that power cars, defense technology and other crucial products – and will result in an estimated 600 total new Oregon jobs. Microchip’s Gresham expansion will also benefit from the semiconductor manufacturing tax credit secured by Wyden in the CHIPS Act.
Two new laws require insurers to be more transparent, flexible during wildfire disasters
The recent disastrous wildfires in Oregon have exposed the flaws in wildfire insurance coverage. These two new laws will make a positive difference.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Two laws that will require insurance companies to be more transparent and flexible to Oregonians impacted by wildfire will go into effect at the start of the new year.
The two laws will require insurance companies to explain why they are raising rates for homeowners impacted by wildfire or dropping their coverage altogether.
They also require insurers to take efforts to harden homes against fires – such as clearing brush away from a home – into account when they set rates.
Jason Horton with the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services said parts of the new laws only apply if the governor declares a disaster. He said there are precautions homeowners can take now. “Know what kind of protections you have,” he said. “Some people might be under-insured and their policy might be outdated with the value of their home, or the contents in their home.”
The laws require companies to provide at least some compensation if a homeowner does not know the value of what was on their property when it burned. It also allows homeowners to take three years to rebuild if needed.
Parkrose School District installs washing machines at 3 elementary schools to curb absenteeism
Students skipping school because their clothes haven’t been washed is something I had never thought about, but this article makes clear that it can have a big effect on attendance. Good for Whirlpool for this innovative idea!
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Parkrose School District is installing washers and dryers in three elementary schools to help prevent students from missing class. Prescott, Sacramento and Russell elementary schools are joining a national initiative led by Whirlpool’s Care Counts Laundry Program in partnership with Teach for America. The program has installed washing and drying machines in schools in underserved communities since 2015, reaching more than 150 schools across 40 states. Parkrose is the first Oregon district to join. ✂️
Students miss school for several reasons, ranging from weather conditions and illness to anxiety or bullying. But educators have noticed not having clean clothes is one of the problems. About 15% of households in the United States don’t have washing machines and rely on laundromats, according to a report distributed by the independent think tank Future Ed and the nonprofit Attendance Works. ✂️
“If there’s a handful of students that are missing school because they don’t have access to clean clothes, or to laundry [machines],” [André] Goodlow [director of teaching and learning for the Parkrose School District] said, “we want to eliminate those barriers.”
Eugene Weekly fighting to survive amid embezzlement and layoff of entire staff
No, not good news. But what is good news is that they’re fighting their way back and getting lots of help from good people. And proving that printed local news still matters to people.
Kossack Eternal Hope published a diary on this last Friday (Numerous Community Businesses, Groups Rally Behind Eugene Weekly), including a link to their GoFundMe page if you would like to chip in: www.gofundme.com/...
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Eugene Weekly has been the city’s alternative weekly paper since 1982. As editor Camilla Mortensen wrote recently, “We’ve sought to enlighten you. We’ve sought to entertain you. We’ve pissed you off even when we didn’t mean to. And most of all, we have stood as this community’s alternative voice, a watchdog that speaks up to power on behalf of everyone.”
However, one thing the Eugene Weekly can’t do at the moment is print the paper. The paper announced late last year that they had suffered a huge blow: alleged theft and mismanagement by a longtime employee amounting to a $70,000 debt to their printer and at least $90,000 in fraudulent payments. The entire 10-person staff was laid off three days before Christmas and the paper was not printed for the first time in more than 20 years. ✂️
[In an interview, Mortensen said,] “Laying off is not usually something I’ve ever really had to do and to tell, like, my calendar editor, my arts editor, my reporter, my copy editor, who operates on a shoestring, like, ‘I’m so sorry, we have no money. I have to lay you off,’ … it was just horrible. And I guess one of the things that made it less horrible is they were just so amazing and they’re just like, ‘Well, if you’re fighting, we’re fighting.’ So we’re going to, we’re not going to go down without a fight.”
“We’ve still put out a very small digital paper. So, it’s not what our readers want. Our readers are very print-focused. When you discover … how much something means to the community like this paper does, you can’t just take that away. So putting out a digital paper, fundraising, just doing everything we can to get this paper back.”
“Immediately like the next morning, there were people coming to our office, which technically was closed, but we went ahead and opened the doors. Coming to the office and doing anything from like, there was a local veterinary facility that knows almost all of us have pets … And they offered to provide medical care for our pets. People have offered food, they have made contributions, they have sent just lovely messages, just anything imaginable. There’s a local restaurant doing a fundraiser. There’s a local pub here in town that’s doing a fundraiser. It’s just unasked. Like, you know what, I asked in the sense that we’re like, please help us. But in the sense that people have just stepped up and been like, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do for you’ has just been just, I guess, reassures me of people’s belief in local independent journalism. … We’ve raised at least $100,000 in a week, which is just mind-blowing to me. It’s still a pretty big gap, but at the same time, if we can get ourselves printing, if we can start selling advertising again, then I’m, I’m feeling more and more like we really do have a chance.”
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Good news from around the nation
Newsom rolls out the firepower
It’s great to see serious money being put into improving mental health care for people living on the street. Let’s hope that this will inspire other Democratic-led states to do the same. (There’s no hope for Republican-led states, another reason we need to elect more Dems!)
From Politico:
Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it clear that overhauling mental health care in the state with Proposition 1 is his top priority this year. [On Jan. 3], he showed just how much muscle he has to bring to the fight.
The governor rolled out the Prop 1 campaign in L.A., standing alongside Mayor Karen Bass and some of the most prominent public safety and labor officials in the state for a campaign that already appears to be flying high in both the early polls and in fundraising.
As he and some of those with him made clear, Prop 1 will help the state deal with its No. 1 issue — homelessness — with a $6.38 billion bond to increase treatment and housing capacity and help get thousands of people off the streets.
“We are in a unique position to take what we have been promoting these promises, make them real, and finally address the issue that defines more stress and more frustration than any other issue in this state, and that’s what’s happening on the streets and sidewalks,” Newsom said in one of his first public appearances of the year.
Bass said she is convinced the measure will pass in March, a claim supported by recent polling which shows more than two-thirds of likely voters support the steep bond.
The campaign supporting the measure is also flush with cash — raising nearly $5 million last month alone.
Meet the 15-year-old deepfake victim pushing Congress into action
One of the ways this courageous girl fought back after she became a victim of deepfake pornography was to create a website called AI Heeelp!!! (aiheeelp.com) to provide tools for victims of deepfakes and strategies for protection. Do click the link and check it out, especially the powerful short video in the section “Protect Yourself.”
From MIT Technology Review:
In October, Francesca Mani was one of reportedly more than 30 girls at Westfield High School in New Jersey who were victims of deepfake pornography. Boys at the school had taken photos of Francesca and her classmates and manipulated them with artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit images of them without their consent. (Westfield High School said in an email that "matters involving students are confidential" but claims that "far fewer" than 30 students were affected.)
The practice is actually stunningly commonplace, but we rarely hear such stories—at least in part because many victims of sexual harassment very understandably don’t want to talk publicly about incidents that are so private. But within just a day of learning about the violation, which she calls “shocking,” 15-year-old Francesca started speaking out and calling on lawmakers to do something about the broader problem. Her efforts are already starting to pay off with new momentum behind proposals for state and federal legislation… . That includes a bill cosponsored by New Jersey state senators Jon Bramnick and Kristin Corrado that would establish civil and criminal penalties for the nonconsensual creation and sharing of deepfake porn.
[In an interview with the author, Francesca explains why she took action:] “Until I was one of the victims, I didn’t really know how complex and scary AI technology is. So it’s made me understand the importance of self-education in regards to the technology, because AI is here to stay, and we need to learn how to live with it without hurting ourselves and others. So this is actually why I have created a website called AI Help, which will help educate and protect us from AI. And this tool will provide resources that will help AI victims self-advocate. I also want to make sure that we have state and federal laws to protect us—children and women—from deepfakes, and that’s already being put into action.
New York’s Met museum agreed [to] the return of stolen sculptures
The larger story of looted Cambodian antiquities was covered in a very thorough and fascinating “60 Minutes” segment a few weeks ago (www.cbsnews.com/...)
From Positive News:
Antiquities looted from Thailand and Cambodia and trafficked by a disgraced art dealer are to be repatriated by New York City’s Metropolitan Museum.
The Met volunteered the return of 16 Khmer sculptures after they were linked to the late British art dealer Douglas Latchford. They date from the 9th to the 14th centuries and are thought to have been looted during the upheaval of the Khmer Rouge regime.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said it has recovered “dozens” of stolen Cambodian antiquities over the last decade. Latchford was charged in the US in 2019 with trafficking stolen art, but died the following year.
Said Max Hollein, the Met’s director and chief executive officer: “The Met has been diligently working with Cambodia and the US Attorney’s Office for years to resolve questions regarding these works of art, and new information that arose from this process made it clear that we should initiate the return of this group of sculptures.”
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Good news from around the world
‘We make magic here’: the Amazon community creating a future out of chocolate
Stories of transformative initiatives started by a handful of people can be found all over the world. Margaret Mead’s familiar quote says it best: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."
From The Guardian:
On the banks of the River Acará in the Brazilian Amazon, about 50km (31 miles) south of the city of Belém, the rich smell of melted chocolate wafts out from a boatyard turned small factory. “We make magic here,” says Diana Gemaque, 33, a member of the Cacao Guardians chocolate cooperative in the riverside community of Acará-Açu.
In 2021, Gemaque and several other women from her community were invited to take part in a chocolate-making workshop organised by the Amazonian chocolatier César De Mendes. Inspired by the experience, eight of them got together to form the Cacao Guardians. What began as an experiment in someone’s kitchen is now a registered business with an artisanal factory that produces 130kg of chocolate a month.
The women work with fermented cacao beans supplied by the business next door, run by Gemaque’s cousin Zeno, who buys the harvested fruit from communities up and down the river. Most of their production is bars of 100% cocoa made to order for a client in São Paulo; the rest is sold in shops in Belém and at chocolate fairs around Brazil as 20g bars, packaged in dried cacao leaves and named Acaráçu – a brand that now encompasses various local projects.
“We realised [our chocolate] was more than just cacao, it’s our territory, our community, our potential,” says Luciene Gemaque, 34, another cousin.
The Cacao Guardians’ work has led to a rethink of the community’s way of life and inspired the creation of other grassroots initiatives that seek to preserve the forest. These include a football club that takes saplings to its games to encourage its opponents to plant, and a group introducing an agroforestry system – the integration of native trees and shrubs with crops – on their smallholdings, which they are reforesting without pesticides.
The EU put the brakes on fast fashion
This is smart policy, and we need to adopt it, too.
From Positive News:
The European Union has struck a note for sustainability by banning the destruction of unsold clothes and footwear.
Big retailers have two years to get in line with the new measure, while SMEs [small and midsize enterprises] have been granted up to six years to comply. It’s part of a broader sustainability drive aimed at tackling premature obsolescence and making products easier to repair and upgrade.
MEP Alessandra Moretti has spearheaded the legislation and said it was time to “end the model of ‘take, make, dispose.’”
“Sustainable products will become the norm, allowing consumers to save energy, repair and make smart environmental choices when they are shopping,” she said. “Banning the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear will also contribute to a shift in the way fast fashion manufacturers produce their goods.”
‘You can resist much more than it seems’ St. Petersburg librarians on Russia’s book bans and the ways they fight back
It’s heartening to see any resistance in Russia these days.
From Meduza:
On December 19, the day after the Russian authorities declared writer Boris Akunin persona non grata, the head of one of St. Petersburg’s district library systems got a message from the local cultural department: “Dear colleagues, Akunin has been added to the list of ‘terrorists and extremists.’ Put [his books] into deep storage immediately. Do not issue them!!! When books of his are returned, mark them with Category 5.”
A librarian from the district told [independent news outlet] Bumaga that “Category 5” is assigned to books that aren’t lent out at all, for various reasons. The designation is often given to very expensive or very old books, or to new books that haven’t been cataloged yet. After someone else called for the removal works by both Akunin and poet and writer Dmitry Bykov, who’s also spoken out against the war, their books were put up on a far shelf, out of view.
But these requests don’t appear to have been official. Representatives from all city library systems’ acquisition departments first met to discuss the “Akunin question” on December 22, after the district’s “ban.” The librarian thinks that library management isn’t behind the push to remove Akunin from circulation, but that the people who work there are “system conformists.”
Despite some libraries removing Akunin and Bykov’s books, there’s no official city-wide ban. Local news outlet Rotonda reported that another St. Petersburg library issues Akunin’s books “upon request,” but they can’t be found on the shelves. “Apparently, all the district libraries were just scared to different extents. Some were less scared than us,” says the librarian from the district that removed Akunin’s works. The ban on Akunin is the first major restriction of its kind in her memory. ✂️
“I’ve been working in the library system for three years, and for all three years, we’ve been getting completely unreasonable orders,” says a district librarian. Employees are told to hang pro-war posters and show videos promoting the war in Ukraine in the library halls. But, according to her, no one in their library does this or plans to do so: “They demanded that we hang up a portrait of the president, but we didn’t want to. The library management and administration spent three days thinking about where to hang it. We came up with arguments why it couldn’t be hung: here there was one sign, there another, here there was a bathroom. In the end, it’s in a closet in the far corner. I can’t say I’m happy that it’s there, but at least it’s not hanging by the entrance like they wanted.”
“We have a very strong team, great projects, grants, and the library system needs us. And they know that we’ll leave. We really will leave if necessary. It turns out you can resist much more than it seems,” she told Bumaga.
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Good news in medicine
Novel compound protects against infection by virus that causes COVID-19, preliminary studies show
A nasal spray that keeps viruses from entering and infecting cells is something we need ASAP!
From Medical Xpress:
Compounds that obstruct the "landing gear" of a range of harmful viruses can successfully protect against infection by the virus that causes COVID-19, a study led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists shows. Based on the findings, researchers have launched a human clinical trial of one such compound made by chemically stabilizing a key coronavirus peptide.
If the compound, called a stapled lipopeptide, proves effective as a nasal spray in the trial, it could be the basis for a new drug modality to prevent or treat COVID-19, say the authors of the study, posted online Jan. 4 in the journal Nature Communications.
Because such compounds foil a mechanism many viruses use to enter and infect cells, stapled lipopeptides may also be effective against dangerous and potentially deadly viruses such as RSV, Ebola, and Nipah, as the authors demonstrate in their study.
"Although vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and small molecule drugs have played a crucial role in protecting people from life-threatening COVID-19 infection, there remains a critical gap in the treatment arsenal," said Loren Walensky, MD, Ph.D., Physician and Principal Investigator, Linde Program in Cancer Chemical Biology at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. … "The constant evolution of the virus and the emergence of new variants has markedly decreased the effectiveness of immune-based approaches, requiring periodic reformulation of vaccines. What has been missing are fast-acting, easy-to-administer, and resistance-proof agents that can be used before or after exposure to the virus to prevent infection or reduce symptoms directly. Our study is an encouraging indication that stapled lipopeptides offer that potential," Walensky added.
Scientists Hail New Antibiotic That Can Kill Drug-Resistant Bacteria
Fighting Gram-negative bacteria is one of medical researchers’ top priorities, and this research looks promising for fighting all of them, not just the one targeted in this trial.
From Good News Network:
An entirely new kind of antibiotic has been found to be 100% successful in animal trials in eliminating one of three antibiotic-resistant infections believed to pose the greatest risk to human health. Known as Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, or CRAB for short, it is classified as a priority 1 pathogen by the WHO, a significant cause of damaging infections in patients, particularly those on ventilators, and resistant to several antibiotics.
Designed by Roche Pharma Research in Basel, Switzerland, the new antibiotic is called Zosurabalpin, and it was able to defeat strains of CRAB-induced pneumonia and sepsis in mouse models.
Many resistant bacterial species come from a family known as Gram-negative bacteria, which boast a defensive shell made of a toxic substance called lipopolysaccharide. The Guardian reports that no new drug has been developed to combat Gram-negative bacteria in 50 years. In one of the preliminary studies for efficacy, a team from Harvard found that Zosurabalpin prevented the bacteria from transporting the LPS to its exterior shell, rendering it vulnerable to all kinds of attacks.
“LPS allows bacteria to live in harsh environments, and it also allows them to evade attack by our immune system,” Dr. Michael Lobritz, the global head of infectious diseases at Roche Pharma, told the Guardian. “This is the first time we’ve found anything that operates in this way, so it is unique in its chemical makeup and mechanism of action.”
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Good news in science
The Surprising Possibilities of See-Through Wood
How cool is this!!
From Smithsonian Magazine:
Thirty years ago, a botanist in Germany had a simple wish: to see the inner workings of woody plants without dissecting them. By bleaching away the pigments in plant cells, Siegfried Fink managed to create transparent wood, and he published his technique in a niche wood technology journal. The 1992 paper remained the last word on see-through wood for more than a decade, until a researcher named Lars Berglund stumbled across it.
Berglund was inspired by Fink’s discovery, but not for botanical reasons. The materials scientist, who works at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, specializes in polymer composites and was interested in creating a more robust alternative to transparent plastic. And he wasn’t the only one interested in wood’s virtues. Across the ocean, researchers at the University of Maryland were busy on a related goal: harnessing the strength of wood for nontraditional purposes.
Now, after years of experiments, the research of these groups is starting to bear fruit. Transparent wood could soon find uses in super-strong screens for smart phones; in soft, glowing light fixtures; and even as structural features, such as color-changing windows. ✂️
Wood is made up of countless little vertical channels, like a tight bundle of straws bound together with glue. These tube-shaped cells transport water and nutrients throughout a tree, and when the tree is harvested and the moisture evaporates, pockets of air are left behind. To create see-through wood, scientists first need to modify or get rid of the glue, called lignin, that holds the cell bundles together and provides trunks and branches with most of their earthy-brown hues. After bleaching lignin’s color away or otherwise removing it, a milky-white skeleton of hollow cells remains.
This skeleton is still opaque, because the cell walls bend light to a different degree than the air in the cell pockets does—a value called a refractive index. Filling the air pockets with a substance like epoxy resin that bends light to a similar degree to the cell walls renders the wood transparent. … And with the resin added, transparent wood outperforms plastic and glass: In tests measuring how easily materials fracture or break under pressure, transparent wood came out around three times stronger than transparent plastics like Plexiglass and about ten times tougher than glass.
Why the 2024 total solar eclipse will be such a big deal
Lucky you living on the path of this eclipse! If you live outside the path and want to see it, you should probably book accommodations now.
From Science News:
Solar eclipses are dramatic events as a rule. But the total eclipse coming on April 8 is going to ratchet up the experience.
Compared with the last total eclipse that crossed the United States, in 2017, this year’s total eclipse will last longer, the sky will fall darker, and the sun itself will put on a much livelier show. And millions more people will be able to step outside their front doors to see one of the most astounding astronomical events of their lives.
It will also be the last major eclipse to cross North America for 20 years. All of that means that it’s an especially rare opportunity for casual observers and scientists alike. ✂️
...the sun will be close to solar maximum in 2024. That’s the peak of its roughly 11-year activity cycle. As a result, lots of bright, petal-like streamers of plasma will extend from the solar corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere. The increase in solar activity also ups the chances of a coronal mass ejection, a large puff of hot gas trapped in a loop of magnetic field that’s blasted away from the sun’s surface.
A longer time to observe the eclipse and a more active sun will make it both a better show and a boon for scientists who have more telescopes, sensors and satellites available to study the sun than ever before. Even viewers without other equipment should be able to see the streamers and a coronal mass ejection, if it occurs.
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Good news for the environment
How Tiny Wetlands in the Midwest Are Combating the Gulf of Mexico’s ‘Dead Zone’
A convincing example of the “butterfly effect” — runoff from Midwest farms can kill aquatic life 600 miles away. But creating even these micro-wetlands has the opposite effect.
From Reasons to Be Cheerful:
On a corner of one Fulton Farm field in Saunemin, Illinois, a small green wetland is a crossroads for local wildlife. James Fulton, whose family has farmed in this town since 1893, has seen a nesting pair of ducks, egrets and redwing blackbirds among the tall grasses and reeds. The last time he stopped by, deer tracks crisscrossed the soft ground. A heron took off and perched in a nearby cottonwood, watching the humans below. … Until five years ago, this corner was farmed as part of the surrounding field, hosting a rotation of crops like soy and corn in the midst of one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country. ✂️
On fields, fertilizer components like nitrogen and phosphorus help to spur crop growth. But as water runs off farmland, it carries leftover nutrients downstream, where it can contribute to major environmental problems. Excess nitrogen can threaten safe drinking water. Nutrients also disrupt ecosystems, contributing to unpleasant and harmful algal blooms, which can kill off aquatic life. Runoff from farmland high in the Mississippi River watershed, including Illinois, fuels an annual summer “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that, at its peak, measured 8,776 square miles.
Amid efforts to curtail excess nutrients in the planet’s water, wetlands are proving to be nature-based heroes for improving water quality. While some efforts focus on large-scale restoration projects, research finds that even small, carefully planned, constructed wetlands, like the one on Fulton’s field, can make a critical difference.
Remove dams to fight the climate crisis — Ten reasons bringing down these barriers are key for mitigation and adaptation.
When the subject of removing dams comes up in GNRs, readers sometimes ask why it’s necessary. Here’s an excellent summary of how important dam removal is for the environment.
I’m providing a bullet list of the reasons. Just click the link to read them in detail.
From High Country News:
1. Greenhouse gas emissions
2. Natural flows
3. Carbon sinks
4. Biodiversity
5. Forests
6. Sediment transport
7. Fish populations
8. Water supply
9. Climate resilience
10. Cooling effect
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Rascal, and the spirit of lovely Nora.
Trail Cam Captures the Candid Moment When a Wolf Family Strikes a Majestic Pose
Rosy loves her wild cousins, so she was thrilled to see this gorgeous trail cam photo.
From My Modern Met:
It's hard enough for a skilled photographer to convince an animal to strike a pose, so it doing so on its own is incredible luck. And if it weren't for a trail cam at the non-profit Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) in South Salem, New York, we might have never seen this striking image. In fall 2019, a Mexican gray wolf family gathered for a storybook photo as a group of six lined up on large logs in a majestic “V” formation. Most of the creatures are looking at the camera as if they are following the directions of a photographer. But amazingly, this shot is completely candid with no human intervention.
When Maggie Howell, executive director of the WCC, looks at the family photo, she sees it as a symbol of the species clawing its way back from extinction. “The Mexican gray wolf or ‘lobo’ is the most genetically distinct lineage of wolves in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most endangered mammals in North America,” Howell explains to My Modern Met. “By the mid-1980s, hunting, trapping, and poisoning caused the extinction of lobos in the wild, with only a handful remaining in captivity.” Today, 196 Mexican gray wolves remain in the wild in the U.S.
The WCC is part of the active effort to save the Mexican gray wolf. “[We] are one of a network of facilities participating in the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan—a bi-national initiative whose primary purpose is to support the reestablishment of Mexican gray wolves in the wild through captive breeding, public education, and research.”
(Re)name that bird! Now’s your chance
Rascal likes the idea of naming birds for how they look or where they live, not for the person (usually a European or American male) who “discovered” them. He’s happy that Senegal parrots are named for their homeland.
From High Country News:
A whole flock of birds will get new names in the coming year, and bird lovers of all stripes — from casual backyard watchers to serious peepers — will have a chance to help. The American Ornithological Society, the authority on North American bird names and identification, plans to rechristen species named after human beings and include public input in the process.
The society’s governing council made the decision after years of discussion on how to handle birds whose English names may have harmful or offensive historical and cultural associations. AOS President Colleen Handel said that birders should be able to study and enjoy species freely without having to hear, or use, harmful and possibly racist names. “There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today,” Handel said in a statement. “We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focuses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves.”
The AOS English Bird Names Committee ultimately decided to revise all eponymous names, not just those linked to violent histories.
“We do expect the names to reflect aspects of the bird’s appearance, distribution, habitat or behavior — essentially names that describe the bird itself,” Jordan Rutter, co-founder of Bird Names for Birds, said. She hopes that the public’s involvement will spark creativity in the renaming process. “These are perspectives we haven’t had before and should allow for memorable and captivating new names.”
For example, in recent informal public polls to rename the Say’s phoebe, a small long-tailed flycatcher whose feathers shift in color from gray above to burnt orange on its belly, bird lovers came up with such evocative monikers as the mesa phoebe, cinnamon phoebe and sunset phoebe.
Wild mammals are making a comeback in Europe thanks to conservation efforts
And all the non-human editors of this GNR were excited (as was the human one!) to see this great news from Our World in Data:
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