Good News: We bring it, we make it.
The Good Gnus group is a community of readers, writers, activists, supporters, community builders, and patriots. We begin gathering every day at 7 a.m. ET to celebrate national good news. Our most active members are of course a subgroup of members of Daily Kos, whose Front Pages celebrate “News, Community, Action.” However, you don’t have to be a member of Daily Kos to be a Gnusie.
We are realists, not fools, idiots, or ostriches. We know we live in a world where active, nefarious, and evil decision-makers do very bad things and create stress and anxiety in us, our loved ones, our friends, our allies, and our neighbors, and destroy people and systems we hold dear, yet we choose to focus on the good news that people create around the country. Sometimes we ourselves create Good News. Together we are strong and resilient. We return regularly to these pages to revitalize.
In the era of Trump, form a union
About 3 years ago, I wrote on Daily Kos that my daughter instigated the series of meetings that led to the formation of a union at the Westland Public Library. Some readers may remember my notes from that period.
On hearing about an upcoming board meeting at that time, I suggested that the group livestream what was expected to be a particularly confrontational meeting. That video quickly received 17,000 views! Soon after the State of Michigan officially notified the board that employees intended to form an SEIU union, the library fired 5 librarians.
Several months of community action and support forced all members of the library board to resign, including the trumpian chair of the board. The library's director resigned as well. Union elections took place, my daughter was elected to lead the negotiations, the union signed their first contract, my daughter was elected chair of the on-site union, and she got a promotion.
The best part: The union negotiated a clause of their contract in response to the library's previous failure to pay for snow-day closures. That clause said essentially "If the library closes for any reason, staff will be paid." Therefore, now that the Westland Public Library is closed for the pandemic, all the employees at that library continue to be paid full wages. It’s in the contract. No waffling. The union did that!
Science, Because Science
Coronavirus Antibody Tests Expected in the U.S. in Days, Says Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci [said] at the last White House coronavirus task force meeting, the people responsible for developing, validating and disseminating the tests were saying “a rather large number of tests” will be available within a week. Fauci told CNN on Friday he’s ”certain that that’s going to happen.”
An antibody test could show whether a person was recently exposed to the coronavirus. Fauci [said] the test would say “that you were infected and if you’re feeling well you very likely recovered.” Fauci [said] medical experts could then try to determine how deeply the virus “has penetrated the society” and whether previously infected people would be vulnerable to reinfection, which is particularly “important for health care workers.”
World's oldest yarn fragment shows Neanderthals were smarter than we thought
Archeologists say they have found the world's oldest string of yarn or cord, which our Neanderthal ancestors made by twisting together natural fibers.
Researchers said the find is the earliest known evidence of textile and cord making and suggests that Stone Age Neanderthals were perhaps much smarter than we thought.
Hubble Telescope Captures Spectacular New Views of 'Pillars of Creation'
A famous deep-space object imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope 20 years ago has been reborn in an amazing new photo.
Scientists pointed the telescope at the iconic Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16 (M16), capturing the famous "Pillars of Creation" in sharper and wider view. The new and improved image was possible thanks to upgrades made to the Hubble Space Telescope over the past 25 years. You can see the new Pillars of Creation image in detail in a breathtaking new video of the Hubble views as well.
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The infrared image reveals that the pillars still exist after two decades because their dense heads shadow the gas beneath them. The massive young stars at their hearts are violent places, with rapid stellar winds blowing away the lighter material. Gas between the columns evaporated long ago due to the heat from bright young stars.
I’m sorry I posted that video about washing groceries 2 weeks ago. One of the video’s flaws is that it encourages people to wash and soak fruits and vegetables in soapy water. Don’t do that. Microbiologists tell me that soap kills our intestinal microbiome. And here’s Livescience.com:
Despite what a doctor in a viral video suggests, it's not a good idea to wash fruits and vegetables with soap and water, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, food scientists told Live Science.
"We've known for 60 years that there are toxicity issues about consuming household dish soaps," Benjamin Chapman, a professor and food safety specialist at North Carolina State University, told Live Science. "Drinking dish soap or eating it can lead to nausea, can lead to [an] upset stomach. It's not a compound that our stomach is really built to deal with."
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Editor's Note: Today (March 30) Dr. Jeffrey VanWingen emailed Live Science to say that "the video was made ahead of various experts weighing in. As we move forward I have reviewed the emerging opinions, consulting with many. We are working to edit the video right now to recommend that fruits and vegetables be washed with running water as your article outlines."