Biden Campaign Raises It’s Social Media Game, Bigly
From Hopium Chronicles:
The early Biden campaign’s social media efforts have been impressive. Last night they took it to a whole other level, launching a TikTok account with this video:
Aid bill for Ukraine, Israel on track to pass Senate early this week
Fingers crossed that using a discharge petition can get this passed in the House.
From The Washington Post (gift link):
Eighteen Republican senators joined Democrats on Sunday in voting to advance a $95 billion national security bill that contains funds for Ukraine and Israel, putting the bill on a path to pass the chamber early this week in what could be seen as a rebuke to former president Donald Trump’s recent comments deriding the NATO alliance.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is unlikely to take up the legislation if it ultimately passes the Senate, after many hard-right lawmakers have drawn a line on sending funds to Ukraine as it fends off a Russian invasion.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said an “obvious choice” to improve the bill’s chances in the House would be for Democrats to use a discharge petition to circumvent Johnson’s will. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said discussions are being held with House lawmakers to follow such a path.
* * * * *
Raucus Revolting Republicans Rushing to Ruin
The Republicans’ Truly Awful Start To 2024
As usual, Simon Rosenberg cuts through the fog of both-sides punditry and gets to the heart of the matter. BTW, because Simon encourages his Substack subscribers to “spread Hopium,” I feel comfortable posting this long quote almost verbatim.
By Simon Rosenberg in Hopium Chronicles, February 10th:
-
They are rallying behind the most unfit man to ever run for President, a candidate far weaker than he was when he lost the last election. He is running from the court house not the White House this time; he’s been indicted 91 times (!!!!!) and is out on bail; he is a verified rapist, fraudster and insurrectionist; he stole America’s secrets, lied to the FBI about it and shared them others; he and his family have taken more money from foreign governments than any family in American history; he is singularly responsible for stripping the rights and freedoms away from more than half the population. His performance on the stump is far more erratic, delusional and disturbing - he is greatly diminished; and he keeps making impulsive and reckless traditional political mistakes, like coming out against the ACA, which are the kinds of mistakes that cause candidates to lose elections. ...
-
Due to the escalating success of the Biden Presidency, their core attacks on the President - the economy, inflation, crime, war on energy - are evaporating. Their extremism and incompetence handed Biden and the Dems a huge win on the border and immigration this week, making it far less likely these too becomes issues they can use to their advantage. And I for one do not believe Biden’s age is a winning issue for them either, as any extended comparison to the historically unfit and deranged Trump will not work out well from them. All that’s left for them now is their madness, their extremism and their orange-faced leader.
-
Republican electoral struggles we saw throughout 2022 and 2023 are showing up in early 2024. Turnout in the Iowa Caucuses despite $100m spent and loads of candidate time was shockingly low; Trump only received 56,000 votes from the 750,000 registered Republicans in the state. Trump underperformed public polling in New Hampshire by 10-15 points (big yikes!!!), and Biden got a higher percentage of his primary vote despite not even being on the ballot there. In Nevada this week Biden got twice as many votes as Trump. They lost an important Florida state house seat in January every one thought they would win. And perhaps most importantly, we have seen in the polling in these early states a big chunk of the GOP electorate - 20%-30% with enormous reservations about Trump, and many who have openly stated that would be willing to cross over and vote for Biden.
-
The RNC is broke, and broken. It’s leaders are abandoning ship. Dozens of Republican leaders across the US have been indicted for working to overturn an American elections, many more are under investigation. GOP state parties in critical states are mired in epic scandals or have become dysfunctional. Trump spent more money than he raised last year - just holy cow - and a big judgment in NY State this week could bankrupt him, and potentially his 2024 campaign as well.
-
The MAGA led House is the worst in modern times. It’s blocking of Ukraine funding is the most reckless act by Congress in many many decades. They can’t govern - can’t keep a Speaker, can’t pass rules, can’t pass any legislation, can’t work with their Senate colleagues, can’t hold hearings without embarrassing themselves and will still have no 2024 budget 5 months into a 12 month budgeting cycle. Competent, experienced Members are retiring in droves. Their inept and ridiculous new Speaker lost two (!!!!!!) full floor votes this week, and walked into Dark Brandon’s trap on the border and immigration. They are shamefully flying in Rep. Steve Scalise on Tuesday, in the middle of life-saving cancer treatments, to do whatever it is they think they are doing to Secretary Mayorkas. This past week may go down as one of the worst weeks for a Speaker in American history.
* * * * *
The media messing up
There’s such a ridiculous number of recent examples of this that I was going to sklp this category today, but then one of my favorite writers, Stephen Robinson (formerly of Wonkette, now writing on his own Substack blog “The Play Typer Guy”) posted this masterful takedown of the NY Times at its worst. I encourage you to read the whole thing — and skip reading the NYTimes piece, though I do provide a link to it.
New York Times Declares Biden Decrepit Old Man, Trump Strong Youthful Dancing Machine
If you insist on reading the NYTimes piece in question, here’s the link: Why the Age Issue is Hurting Biden So Much More Than Trump. Take your blood pressure meds first.
From The Play Typer Guy (Stephen Robinson):
Saturday, the New York Times published the following exercise in bad journalism, Why the Age Issue Is Hurting Biden So Much More Than Trump. The article is wholly absurd and a transparent attempt to justify the Times’ own lousy coverage of this issue. If voters think President Joe Biden is one of the walking dead, it’s because the Times and other mainstream media outlets keep talking about it. Reporter Rebecca Davis O’Brien’s article was one of a half dozen the Times ran over the weekend in response to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s hit job last week. He threw the ball and the Times played fetch.
Biden was old when he announced his candidacy in 2019, older still when he defeated much younger candidates (excluding Bernie Sanders) in the Democratic primary, and had just turned 78 when he won the presidency. His advanced age never stopped people from voting for him. ✂️
[Trump] is heavyset and tall, and he uses his physicality to project strength in front of crowds. When he takes the stage at rallies, he basks in adulation for several minutes, dancing to an opening song, and then holds forth in speeches replete with macho rhetoric and bombast that typically last well over an hour, a display of stamina.
This reads like a Leni Riefenstahl script. It’s horrifying to see an American journalist associate “strength” with Trump’s fascist displays of public humiliation, cruelty, and bullying.
O’Brien makes it sound as if Trump wows the audience with dance moves like James Brown before a rousing show with multiple encores. The bias is clear: Biden holds his “upper body stiff, adding to an impression of frailty,” yet Trump stiffly waving his fists around is a “display of stamina.”
* * * * *
Good news from my corner of the world
[Oregon] Treasurer Tobias Read Will Ask Investment Council to Approve Fossil-Fuel Divestment Plan
The trend toward fossil fuel divestment is growing, and it’s an effective strategy.
From Willamette Week:
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read [presented his plan] for reducing the emissions intensity of his agency’s investments to the Oregon Investment Council on Feb. 6.
In a new report, Read has outlined a plan to cut the investment portfolio’s emissions intensity—a measurement of tons of CO2 emissions per million dollars of assets under management—by 60% by 2035 and to net zero by 2050.
Working with consultants, the Oregon State Treasury used the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund portfolio in 2022 as the baseline for reductions. That portfolio was worth $91.9 billion but reduced for some investments that are short term or over which the treasury has insufficient control to mandate changes. That left a value of $73.2 billion, or 80% of the treasury’s total holdings, that are subject to the emissions reduction pledge.
The agency established emission reduction goals that parallels those planned by other large pension funds in California, New York and Canada, and come in response to international agreements to combat climate change. ✂️
It plans to do so through a combination of strategies. Broadly speaking, those will include investing in companies that have net zero plans of their own, increasing investments in green energy, and reducing investments or not investing in companies that generate emissions.
Oregon’s new Kid Governor wants to talk about mental health
The “Kid Governor” program is wonderful, and I find it especially heartening that her fellow fifth-graders in Oregon voted for Zoya Shah’s platform of mental health awareness and compassion for kids suffering from anxiety.
From The Oregonian:
Oregon’s newest governor – the Kid Governor – was sworn in Thursday during a ceremony in the Oregon State Capitol Senate chambers. Kid Governor Zoya Shah is a fifth-grader from Findley Elementary in the Beaverton School District. She was elected by fifth-graders across the state on her platform of mental health awareness.
“As someone who has suffered from extreme anxiety, this issue is very close to my heart,” Shah said in her campaign video. “I was lucky to get the support and tools I needed, but not everyone may get the needed help, and that’s why I’m here to ensure no kid who is suffering has to fight this alone.”
Her platform includes a three-point plan for positive mental health: creating awareness, identifying the triggers for feeling anxiety or depression, and then acting and providing support. She said she hoped to start a club to offer mental health support to students, and she encouraged schools to dedicate five minutes each day for guided meditation or practicing mindfulness.
“The more we talk about it, the more we normalize it and remove the stigma around it,” Shah said. “My vision is to create an environment where you can say ‘I missed school because I had an anxiety attack’ just as easily as saying ‘I missed school because I had a fever’ without the fear of being judged.”
* * * * *
Good news from around the nation
FEMA to compensate schools, hospitals for adding solar panels after disasters
This is a terrific win-win for communities destroyed by natural disasters and for the Biden administration’s ambitious goals to increase renewable energy.
From The Hill:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will compensate local and state governments for energy efficiency upgrades to school and hospital facilities in the wake of natural disasters, the agency announced [on January 30th].
Under the new policy, FEMA’s Public Assistance grant program will offer funding for net-zero energy installations including solar panels and heat pumps for public facilities damaged by extreme weather and other disasters.
The Biden administration has set ambitious goals for the proliferation of renewable and net-zero energy. The announcement also comes as natural disasters, many of them intensified by climate change, have become more numerous and expensive. Last year, the U.S. experienced a record 28 disasters with damages of at least $1 billion, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). More than 80 disasters have been declared across FEMA’s 10 regions in January. ✂️
FEMA’s Tuesday announcement comes a week after the agency announced it would expand aid eligibility for those affected by natural disasters, pointing to the increasingly visible effects of climate change. That rule expands eligibility for immediate cash assistance as well as establishing a new “displacement assistance” fund for people unable to return to their homes in the immediate wake of a disaster.
Kansas Plans to Phase Out Subminimum Wage for Disabled People
It shocked me to learn that these obviously unjust wages were still legal anywhere! Thank goodness Kansas’s initiative is shining a light on this shameful practice and may prompt the U.S. Department of Labor to end it.
From Mother Jones:
On [February 8], Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed legislation into law that would start to phase out subminimum wage for disabled people in the state. For decades, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 has made it legal to pay disabled people less than minimum wage if they have a certificate. Only thirteen other states have passed laws to phase out this practice.
“I’m signing this bipartisan legislation to create more opportunities for people with disabilities, grow our workforce, and ensure every Kansan can work with dignity and respect,” Gov. Kelly said.
In states where subminimum wage is still legal, companies apply for 14(c) certificates which allow them to pay disabled people below both the federal and their state’s minimum wage. A US Government Accountability Office report found that most 14(c) workers earn less than $3.50 an hour.
The US Department of Labor is currently reviewing the 14(c) certificate program, but it is not clear if they will end the subminimum wage.
A sustainable subscription? This startup will pick up your hard-to-recycle waste
My husband and I subscribe to Ridwell and absolutely love it. They pick up dead batteries and light bulbs, moth-eaten sweaters, shoes with holes in the soles, plastic bags, plastic wrap, and on and on. And they don’t just take all that stuff to the landfill — they won’t take anything that they can’t pass along to a company that will recycle it appropriately. You can check them out at www.ridwell.com.
From GoodGoodGood:
Ryan Metzger, along with his then six-year-old son Owen, were trying to responsibly dispose of their hard-to-recycle waste that gathered around the house in 2018. The quest to recycle batteries turned into adventures of disposing of styrofoam, plastic clothing hangers, light bulbs, and more. Metzger had a light-bulb moment himself, realizing that his neighbors were probably in the same conundrum, unsure of how to actually dispose of these everyday items at the end of their lifespans.
He started a recycling carpool in his Seattle neighborhood, collecting items in his community that would otherwise be on their way to a landfill. And then demand grew.
Metzger then created his startup, Ridwell, which has one simple mission: “Make it simple to get rid of your stuff responsibly.” Now, the company operates in dozens of cities across seven states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. The service now reaches over 90,000 users.
It makes sense, as the mounting issue of “wishcycling” sullies communal recycling bins with trash that doesn’t belong. And with reducing, reusing, and recycling a more dire responsibility, consumers are itching for a simpler solution.
For a fee of $14, $18, or $24 a month, depending on a user’s needs, Ridwell members get reusable canvas bags, a special Ridwell bin, and the knowledge that their recyclables will be picked up from their doorstep every two weeks.
YouTubers Dan & Phil raise thousands for humanitarian aid during livestream
This is a really sweet story. More proof that the kids are definitely alright!
From GoodGoodGood:
Dan Howell and Phil Lester have been YouTube content creators for nearly two decades, building a dedicated fanbase of both their individual videos and their joint gaming channel, DanAndPhilGAMES. … For Lester’s birthday on January 30, the pair hosted a livestream on their shared channel, with the intention of raising funds for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.
“Obviously this is Phil’s birthday, and we want the vibes to be high; this is about all of you guys and us having a nice time, and we’re going to do a variety of shenanigans, but this is [also] about something that’s more important,” Howell started at the top of the two-hour stream. “The situation in Gaza is terrible. There have been over 26,000 people who have died, and 10,000 of them are children. … The Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, they provide the most essential services, humanitarian aid, blankets, medical supplies, and it really makes a difference.”
By this point, the livestream had been available for under three minutes, and the donation total had reached $9,000. ✂️
Ultimately, at the end of the two-hour livestream, Phil blew out the candles on his cake, and the pair had raised a total of $83,000 for the PCRF. … Just 19 hours after the livestream, Dan and Phil’s channel showed a total of over $100,000 raised for the humanitarian organization.
* * * * *
Musical break
It wouldn’t be a righteous celebration of New Orleans music without a track by the inimitable ReBirth Brass Band!
* * * * *
Good news from around the world
WCK conducts [their] first airdrop of food into Northern Gaza
I’ve run out of superlatives for World Central Kitchen. José Andrés definitely deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
From WCK.org:
World Central Kitchen conducted an airdrop of 500 pallets of food into Northern Gaza. José Andrés, WCK’s founder and Chief Feeding Officer, joined the Jordanian Royal Air Force and the Royal Netherlands Air Force as part of the international effort to complete our first delivery of this kind. Our teams have provided more than 32 million meals in Gaza since first responding to the escalating conflict in the region.
The WCK food pallets were delivered to a Jordanian field hospital in hard-to-reach northern Gaza. The shipment included rice, dates, tomato paste, oil, fava beans, a variety of spices, and other desperately needed food for families on the brink of famine. ✂️
WCK is also running convoys of food to the North, but our teams are only able to get there a limited number of times each week. When our team goes, they take two trucks: one transports meals for hospitals. The other carries food for the crowds of Palestinians the drivers encounter along the route. Masses of people gather around this second truck and distribute the food amongst themselves to take back to their families. “The team has developed a three-to-four day meal box that is much more dense in calories and variety,” said John, WCK’s Response Lead. “We are preparing to send these boxes in secured convoys to the north where there has been very little support.”
Meanwhile, we are innovating our response on a daily basis. This is what WCK’S Director of Emergency Response Sam believes is the secret to WCK’s success in Gaza. “I would say if there was one magic ingredient, it would just be pure tenacity from our team and persistent pushing on every possible avenue every day.”
Somalia’s first-ever women-led current affairs TV program shakes things up for the better
This is great news for women in a culture that has routinely oppressed them.
From The Optimist Daily:
Somalia is preparing to launch its first-ever current affairs TV show led by women. The pioneering show, created by Bilan, the country’s only all-female media team, represents a dramatic shift in a male-dominated media sector. ...Bilan, founded in 2022 with United Nations Development Programme backing, has emerged as a beacon of change in a traditionally male-dominated media sector. ...
The new show’s monthly concept, reminiscent of the UK’s BBC Question Time, will take the discussions to various sites across the country, enabling audience members to actively participate in conversations on important and often sensitive topics. It will make its debut on March 8, 2024, which is International Women’s Day.
Bilan’s show stands out for its commitment to having a panel of at least 50 percent women. … The show’s agenda includes a variety of difficult themes, such as the shortage of female teachers and the challenges that women confront when joining politics. Bilan’s show strives to spark discussions that are frequently ignored in mainstream media by confronting such issues head-on.
A successful trial in December, in which the panel reviewed period teaching in schools, demonstrated the devastating effect of a lack of information on women’s health. The show’s host, Naima Said Salah, recalled a moving event in which a young woman in the audience expressed confusion and fear during her first menstrual period owing to a lack of information.
* * * * *
Good news in medicine
Brain cancer blood test a ‘breakthrough’
It looks like this amazing new tool in the fight against brain cancer will be ready for doctors to use in as little as two years.
From Positive News (UK):
Scientists have developed a simple blood test that could offer early diagnosis for glial brain tumours in future, improving patient outcomes.
Brain tumours are the deadliest form of cancer for children and adults under 40. Identifying them early is key to boosting survival rates but many tumours go undetected for too long.
The TriNetra-Glio blood test could change that. It works by isolating tumour cells that have broken free from the tumour and are circulating in the blood. The cells are then stained and can be identified under a microscope.
The test was pioneered by scientists at the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at Imperial College London. Experts said that patients could benefit from the technology in as little as two years.
“A non-invasive, inexpensive method for the early detection of brain tumours is critical for improvements in patient care,” said Imperial College’s Dr Nelofer Syed. “Through this technology, a diagnosis of inaccessible tumours can become possible through a risk-free and patient-friendly blood test.”
A Startup Has Unlocked a Way to Make Cheap Insulin
It looks like the expiration of the patents used by Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, who have greedily jacked up the price of insulin to ridiculous levels, is finally allowing some innovation in the production of biosimilar insulin that will ultimately save patients thousands of dollars.
From Wired:
One biotech startup, rBIO of Houston, is aiming to make insulin more affordable by producing a copycat version of the drug—known as a biosimilar. It’s not the only company developing biosimilar insulin, but it says it has invented a new process to do so using custom-made bacteria.
CEO Cameron Owen says his company has created novel strains of bacteria that can produce insulin at twice the yield than is currently possible. Thursday, rBIO announced it had completed lab tests of its biosimilar insulin to determine that it is structurally and functionally similar to a brand-name one. It plans to begin a clinical trial later this year to determine whether its insulin works as well as a product already on the market. “The high price of insulin is nothing short of price gouging,” Owen says. A 2020 estimate by the RAND Corporation put the average list price of a vial of insulin at $98 in the US compared with $12 in Canada and $7.52 in the UK.
Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone that the pancreas makes to regulate blood sugar. Companies manufacture synthetic versions for people with diabetes, whose bodies don’t make enough of it.
Three manufacturers have long dominated the US insulin market—Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi. These companies set the list prices for insulin and work with intermediaries called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to get their products covered by health insurance plans. Drug manufacturers often pay PBMs rebates or offer discounts to get a prime placement. As rebates got larger, insulin manufacturers raised their list prices to keep up. Patients, meanwhile, don’t benefit from these rebates. The practice has helped fuel the increase in insulin prices. ✂️
...some key patents have expired, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has paved the way for biosimilar versions of insulin—so-called because they’re almost identical to another product already on the market. ...Owen’s company, founded in 2020, has designed supercharged E. coli-like bacteria that can produce much greater amounts of insulin than existing strains used in insulin production.
* * * * *
Good news in science
How our drinking water could come from thin air
This is a truly innovative solution to a very challenging problem.
From BBC:
Southern Nevada is in the grip of one of the worst droughts it has experienced in recorded history, leading to water shortages and restrictions on use. So, in water-stressed areas such as this, the prospect of wringing water from thin air is an appealing prospect. And it is exactly what Cody Friesen is trying to do. Friesen, an associate professor of materials science at Arizona State University, has developed a solar-powered hydropanel that can absorb water vapour at high volumes when exposed to sunlight.
It is a modern-day twist on an approach been used for centuries to pull water from the atmosphere, such as using trees or nets to "catch" fog in Peru, a practice that dates back to the 1500s and is still being used today. Amid the flashy transparent televisions and electric vehicles at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January, there were a few start-ups claiming to have new ways of exploiting this ancient, and often overlooked source of clean drinking water. And with the help of artificial intelligence, they're finding ways of pulling even more water out of the air.
Friesen founded his own company Zero Mass Water in 2014 following his research on solar-powered hydropanels. Today the company is called Source Global, operates in more than 50 countries and has a private valuation of more than $1bn (£800m). The panels work by using sunlight to power fans that pull air into the device, which contains a desiccant material which absorbs and traps moisture. The water molecules accumulate and are emitted as water vapour as the solar energy raises the temperature of the panel to create a high-humidity gas. This then condenses into a liquid before minerals are added to make it drinkable. ✂️
Friesen's goal is to democratise access to water for people with few options, such as rural and tribal communities that don't have electricity, and regions devastated by natural disasters. Among Source's customers is a sub-Saharan school in Africa where girls once had to trek for hours a day to find fresh water, and now can spend their time learning instead.
It turns out NASA’s Mars helicopter was much more revolutionary than we knew
I never get tired of reading about Ingenuity. This piece gives us a few more reasons to celebrate it.
From Ars Technica:
Much has been written about the plucky exploits of NASA's small Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. And all of the accolades are deserved. "The little mission that could" did, flying 72 sorties across the red planet and pushing out the frontier of exploration into the unknown.
Yet as impressive as Ingenuity's exploits were over the last three years, and though its carbon fiber blades will spin no more, its work has only just begun.
Ingenuity was groundbreaking in two significant ways that will ripple through the culture of NASA and its exploration efforts for decades to come. Although it is impossible to know the future, both of these impacts seem overwhelmingly positive for our efforts to divine the secrets of our Solar System.
First of all, and most obviously, NASA has now demonstrated that powered flight is possible on other worlds. This is an idea that's no longer theoretical; it's grounded in reality. "Engineering has absolutely shattered our paradigm of exploration by introducing this new dimension of aerial mobility," said Lori Glaze, NASA's overall director of planetary science.
In another, arguably more important way, Ingenuity may forever change the way NASA, other space agencies, and eventually private companies explore and settle the Solar System. The program did so by using commercial, off-the-shelf parts. The scientists and engineers who built the helicopter had no choice. Flying on Mars is incredibly demanding. The air is so thin it is equivalent to flying at an elevation of 80,000 feet on Earth, or three times higher than the peak of Mount Everest. … So to meet the demands of Mars, Ingenuity's designers had to be ruthless in their choices. They could not afford the mass of radiation-hardened components, like for batteries and computers. So they bought commercially available parts and rolled the dice—with astonishing results. Many NASA missions will never be the same.
* * * * *
Good news for the environment
Federal court rules the medically important antibiotic streptomycin can no longer be used as a citrus pesticide
It’s about time for the irresponsible use of antibiotics in agriculture to end.
From PIRG:
The medically important antibiotic streptomycin can no longer be used as a citrus pesticide, after a federal appeals court ruling vacated the Environmental Protection Agency’s prior approval of that use.
Life-saving antibiotics like streptomycin should be used to keep people healthy, not prop up industrial agriculture systems, and we’ve campaigned to stop antibiotic overuse in both citrus groves and factory farms. Wherever antibiotics are overused, the bacteria they don’t kill can develop resistance, presenting a significant health threat. Antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” already kill 35,000 Americans and sicken millions each year.
This ruling is a significant step toward better antibiotic stewardship in agriculture, and the EPA should take heed of the global health crisis of antibiotic resistance when considering whether to approve other uses of these precious medicines in the future.
This ancient material is displacing plastics and creating a billion-dollar industry
Everything old is new again.
From The Washington Post (gift link):
...cork is experiencing a revival as more industries look for sustainable alternatives to plastic and other materials derived from fossil fuels. The bark is now used for flooring and furniture, to make shoes and clothes and as insulation in homes and electric cars. Portugal’s exports reached an all-time high of 670 million euro ($728 million) in the first half of 2023.
But cork is more than a trendy green material. In addition to jobs, the forests where it grows provide food and shelter for animals, all while sequestering carbon dioxide. And unlike most trees grown commercially, cork oaks are never cut down, meaning their carbon storage capacity continues through the 200 years or more they live. ✂️
The process of harvesting cork takes precision and years of practice. The stroke of the ax must be strong, but also delicate to avoid hitting the inner bark and damaging the tree. Because it is so specialized, it’s one of the best paying agricultural jobs in Portugal.
The bark can only be harvested between late May and August, when the tree is in its active phase of growth, which makes it easier to strip the outer layer without damaging the tree trunk.
The cork oak is unique in its ability to regenerate its bark. Once it is removed, workers write the last number of that year with white paint on the exposed golden brown trunk — a three means it was harvested in 2023. The bark will slowly grow back and be ready for another harvest after nine years.
* * * * *
Musical break
Allen Toussaint was one of the giants of the New Orleans music scene for many decades, writing and performing great tunes like this and serving as arranger and producer for the work of many other artists, like Dr. John and Patti LaBelle. This is a great example of his effortlessly funky style.
* * * * *
Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Rascal, and the spirit of lovely Nora.
‘This is Cecil. He has never done anything bad in his life until he ate $4,000.’
Rosy is a bit offended that I chose a “bad dog” story to post today, but the story and photos are just too hilarious, so I couldn’t resist. And Cecil’s owners were kind enough not to get mad at Cecil and managed to salvage almost all the money. So it really is a good news story after all.
From The Washington Post (gift link):
Clayton Law pulled $4,000 out of his joint savings account last month. He and his wife were having a fence installed at their home in Pittsburgh, and the workers asked to be paid in cash. After returning from the bank with a sealed envelope full of $100 and $50 bills, he set the money on a kitchen counter, intending to stash it away. But he never got the chance. Thirty minutes later, Law was stunned to find tiny pieces of chewed-up bills strewn across the floor. ✂️
Cecil is a 7-year-old goldendoodle that has lived with the Laws since he was a puppy. ...“Cecil’s a goofy guy and he’s very particular — you could leave a steak on the table, and he wouldn’t touch it because he’s not food motivated,” said Carrie, 33. “But apparently he is money motivated.” ✂️
While Cecil skulked away to take a nap on the living room sofa, the Laws called their vet to see if they should bring him in to be checked out for eating the stack of cash. “Given his size of 100 pounds, we were told as long he was eating and drinking and going to the bathroom, he should be fine,” Clayton said. ...He and Carrie then decided to salvage what they could. They gathered up the torn bills and were able to piece together about $1,500, Carrie said. She then called the bank and told a manager what had happened. ...The manager explained that the bank would take back any bills that had been taped together with the full serial numbers visible on the front and back… ✂️
Clayton intrepidly donned a mask and gloves, grabbed a bunch of plastic bags and accompanied Cecil on his backyard rounds over the next two days as the dog relieved himself. He and Carrie then sifted through the dog’s droppings and washed the torn bits of bills with dish soap in a utility sink. “I never thought I’d be able to say I’ve laundered money, but there is apparently a first time for everything,” Carrie said....She and Clayton were able to retrieve about $1,800 from Cecil’s backyard deposits, boosting their total to $3,550.
A purple martin dubbed Roxa flies 8,000 miles to Brazil before returning home to Oregon
Rascal admits to being very impressed by Roxa.
From The Oregonian:
A GPS device in a miniature harness, strategically placed to avoid obstructing movement, resolved the migration mystery of the [Western purple martin, a] broad-chested bird with a stubby forked tail.
The yearlong study using GPS technology, the first time for the Western purple martin, pinpointed its almost 16,000-mile roundtrip: from estuaries in Oregon to Brazilian rainforests, with fueling stops along the way at the Isthmus of Panama and a national park in Venezuela. ✂️
From 2020 to 2023, researchers from the Klamath Bird Observatory, the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey and Cape Arago Audubon Society in Coos County outfitted about 30 adult Western purple martins in Oregon with an archival GPS tags, a lightweight harness made of stretchy jewelry cord.
The device’s small battery can only store data, not transmit it. Researchers had to wait until tagged birds returned after a year-long migration to retrieve the geospatial data. ...
In the summer of 2021, the team recaptured a tagged female Western purple martin they nicknamed “Roxa” (”purple” in Brazilian Portuguese).
* * * * *