Greetings!
Greetings to all you Gnusies, Gnubies, occasional drop-ins, silent regulars, and first-timers! Come sit with us to find and share messages of hope and to celebrate all the ways good people are solving problems and triumphing over evil-doers. The task we have set ourselves here in Gnuville is to search out hope no matter how difficult the situation might be. We’ve learned over the past four years that hope can be found even in the darkest times. And with the Biden era off to a roaring start, there’s so much good news and so much hope that it’s gotten hard to pare Good News Roundups to a reasonable length!
Don’t forget that the Good News Roundup is a collaborative effort. We warmly encourage you to add your own good news finds in our comment section, The Best Comment Section on the Internet™, where sanity reigns, Gloomy Guses and Debbie Downers are encouraged to see the light, and pie fights are forbidden.
Settle in with your favorite morning beverage and get your day going with good news, good music, and a couple of fun videos!
Introduction
Approximately a year ago, I wrote a GNR with the headline “The Pandemic is a Portal,” inspired by a beautiful piece by Indian novelist Arundhi Roy:
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.
After finding the good news stories I’m posting today, I feel like we’re actually on our way to walking through that portal, despite all the forces dragging us back. I think it helps to remember the basic structure of the “hero’s journey” that Joseph Campbell defined decades ago. I won’t go into all the steps, but basically the hero has to overcome his reluctance and fear, fight bravely, and then return with the prize he won. The greater the prize, the harder the battles are.
Sound familiar, Gnusies? Over the past almost five years, we’ve had to overcome our reluctance to get involved, stop being intimidated by the forces trying to destroy our democracy, and fight hard and tirelessly to get out the truth and get out the vote — and both in 2018 and 2020 we were able to carry democracy to victory in two make-or-break nationwide elections. Another one is looming next year, and of course the run-up is already underway. So are we going to listen to the voices of doom and stop fighting? No way. The more dragons they sic on us, the more poisoned arrows they shoot, the more determined and powerful we’ll get. Unlike the solitary hero Campbell talks about, we have well over half the nation on our side. So let’s get them signed up to vote (especially by mail!), and let’s show them by our example that they don’t need to feel frightened and powerless.
For today’s opening music, I’ll repeat the same video I used in that GNR in May 2020 — the late, great Allen Toussaint with his inspiring and oh-so-funky tune “Yes We Can Can”:
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Good news in politics
Biden doubling FEMA funds for extreme weather preparations
I could have put this in the “good news for the environment” section, but it’s also an excellent political move.
From The Hill:
The Biden administration will direct $1 billion toward the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) fund for extreme weather preparation, a 100 percent increase over existing funding levels, the White House announced Monday.
The budget increase will go to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which provides support for local, state and tribal government preparation efforts. The increase, and the program in general, are part of an effort to “categorically shift the federal focus” from responding to individual disasters on a case-by-case basis to “research-supported, proactive investment in community resilience,” the White House said.
“As climate change threatens to bring more extreme events like increased floods, sea level rise, and intensifying droughts and wildfires, it is our responsibility to better prepare and support communities, families, and businesses before disaster – not just after,” the administration said in a statement. “This includes investing in climate research to improve our understanding of these extreme weather events and our decision making on climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation. It also means ensuring that communities have the resources they need to build resilience prior to these crises.”
Biden administration moves toward making the pandemic work-from-home experiment permanent for many federal workers
This is really smart politics. There are a lot of federal workers, and they’ve just been through five years of being demonized. They’re going to react to this policy change with gratitude, and the rest of America’s work force will also see that the Biden administration truly cares about the welfare of workers.
From WaPo [behind the usual paywall, so I’ll try to give you the gist of it]:
As the Biden administration contemplates how to return the massive federal workforce to the office, government officials are moving to make a pandemic experiment permanent by allowing more employees than ever to work from home — a sweeping cultural change that would have been unthinkable a year ago.
The shift across the government, whose details are still being finalized, comes after the risk-averse federal bureaucracy had fallen behind private companies when it came to embracing telework… .
But the coronavirus crisis — and a new president eager to rebuild the trust of federal workers who had been attacked by former president Donald Trump as “the swamp” — has convinced the country’s largest employer that in many departments, employees can serve the public just as well from home, officials said.
Notice of the change is expected in June, when the administration is set to release long-awaited guidance to agencies about when and how many federal employees can return to the office — likely in hybrid workplaces that combine in-person and at-home options, according to officials and memos obtained by The Washington Post. The bulletin is expected to address remote work policies in the immediate and long term.
Democrats: Roe v. Wade blow would fuel expanding Supreme Court
I’m including this because I think it’s shrewd politics for the Dems to be signalling their intentions now. That will put increased pressure on Roberts to hold the anti-abortion ideologues in check, since he really doesn’t want to see the court expanded or to have the overturning of Roe v. Wade become the only part of his legacy that people remember.
From The Hill:
Democratic senators say if the Supreme Court strikes a blow against Roe v. Wade by upholding a Mississippi abortion law, it will fuel an effort to add justices to the court or otherwise reform it. ✂️
“It will inevitably fuel and drive an effort to expand the Supreme Court if this activist majority betrays fundamental constitutional principles,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It’s already driving that movement,” he added.
Blumenthal said it doesn’t mean that a Congress led by Democrats would immediately be able to add justices to the court, but he suggested it would add momentum to reform efforts at a minimum.
“Chipping away at Roe v. Wade will precipitate a seismic movement to reform the Supreme Court,” he said. “It may not be expanding the Supreme Court, it may be making changes to its jurisdiction, or requiring a certain numbers of votes to strike down certain past precedents.”
Trump is sliding toward online irrelevance. His new blog isn’t helping.
Buh-bye.
From WaPo [behind a paywall, so I’m giving you the gist of it]:
On the Internet, former president Donald Trump is sliding toward something he has fought his entire life: irrelevance.
Online talk about him has plunged to a five-year low. He’s banned or ignored on pretty much every major social media venue. In the last week, Trump’s website — including his new blog, fundraising page and online storefront — attracted fewer estimated visitors than the pet-adoption service Petfinder and the recipe site Delish. ✂️
...Trump’s continued influence [within the Republican party] isn’t translating into a bigger online audience, according to a Washington Post review of data from four online-analytics firms. Social engagement around Trump — a measure of likes, reactions, comments or shares on content about him across Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Pinterest — has nosedived 95 percent since January, to its lowest level since 2016. ✂️
...people in his orbit...say Trump is increasingly resigned to his banishment from Facebook…, and he’s uninterested in joining many of the conservative-friendly online alternatives that have sought to win his endorsement.
To win back the spotlight, his team is working on a project they’re calling “Trump Media Group,” which would launch this summer and could include a new social media platform of Trump’s own. … But building a competitor to the juggernauts of social media — which have spent years of development and billions of dollars shaping some of the world’s most popular websites — will present a massive challenge that could further undermine Trump’s image of post-presidential power. And the early results from Trump’s most recent efforts offer little encouragement that he’ll be able to win back the parts of the American public that have moved on.
Patrick Leahy signals he'll run for ninth Senate term
Leahy is a good man, and it’ll be good news if we don’t have to spend time and resources defending this Dem seat with a new, less popular, and less well-known candidate.
From Politico:
The Senate’s longest-serving Democrat, long assumed to be on the cusp of retirement, is leaning toward giving it another go.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who has served since 1975 and is in the line of presidential succession, is asking colleagues to support his potential campaign for a ninth term, according to Democratic senators who have spoken to him. The 81-year-old has also indicated to them that he believes he’s “the only Democrat that can win the seat,” said a person briefed on the conversations. Given that Bernie Sanders is an independent who caucuses with Democrats, Leahy’s the only Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Vermont.
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Good news from my neck of the woods (Pacific NW)
You could win $1 million -- but only if you’re vaccinated against COVID-19, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says
Yup, Oregon has gotten onboard the vaccination lottery bandwagon. Whatever works, right?
From The Oregonian:
Gov. Kate Brown announced Friday lottery prizes ranging from $10,000 to $1 million for Oregonians vaccinated against COVID-19 -- a strategy meant to address the dramatically decreasing numbers of residents inoculated each day.
All residents 18 and older who’ve received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine by June 27 will be entered into the “Take Your Shot Oregon” lottery, which will be held on June 28.
One lucky vaccinated Oregonian will receive a $1 million jackpot. Thirty-six others -- one from each Oregon county -- will win $10,000 prizes. That means residents in the least populated counties -- tiny Wheeler County has just 1,440 residents -- will have a far better chance of winning a $10,000 prize than residents in the most populous counties. Multnomah County is the largest with about 830,000 residents.
Oregon Lottery rules don’t allow anyone under 18 to participate in the cash drawings, but a special drawing will be held for vaccinated youth ages 12 to 17. Five winners will each receive $100,000 contributions to Oregon College Savings Plan accounts in their names. The money can be used for college or trade schools.
High Desert Museum in Bend wins prestigious national museum award
This award is richly deserved. Do visit this museum if you’re ever in the Bend OR area — it’s delightful.
From The Oregonian:
The high desert of central Oregon is in the national spotlight today, as Bend’s own High Desert Museum is honored with a prestigious award.
The High Desert Museum was one of six recipients of the 2021 National Medal of Museum and Library Service, the museum announced Tuesday, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries. ✂️
[Dana Whitelaw, executive director of the museum] said the award is considered the “Pulitzer for the museum world.” ✂️
The nearly 40-year-old High Desert Museum is dedicated to the culture, history and natural environment of central Oregon. With more than 100,000 square feet of museum space and 135 acres of land, the museum educates visitors about Indigenous culture, native wildlife and the modern history of central Oregon, with rotating exhibits and live animal enclosures.
Their efforts to continue serving the public during the coronavirus pandemic – including creating a new program for local elementary school students, offering free memberships to frontline workers and providing technology to students for online education – were specifically recognized by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which hands out the awards.
Oregone? 7 Oregon Counties Vote To Back Seceding, So Citizens Can Vote GOP In Idaho
Well, not exactly good news, but I’m including it because it’s yet another RWNJ quixotic quest that will crash and burn, giving us yet another chance to laugh at them.
From NPR:
In rural Oregon, voters in several counties want their state to go from Democratic blue to Republican red — and to do that, they hope to leave Oregon altogether and join neighboring Idaho. Five counties approved ballot measures this week, joining two others that had already voted in favor of the idea.
"This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon," said Mike McCarter, president of the advocacy group Citizens for Greater Idaho.
He added, "If we're allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well."
All seven counties voted heavily for former President Donald Trump — whose name appears 17 times in the advocacy group's 41-page proposal to shift the borders. ✂️
Despite seven counties now backing it, the push to secede is not likely to succeed. As Oregon Public Broadcasting notes, "the Oregon and Idaho legislatures and the U.S. Congress would need to sign off" on the plan.✂️
On the political front, organizers predict that voters in Oregon "will be glad to get rid of 'Trump-voting low-income counties.' " They also say that with fewer Republicans in the legislature, Oregon's Democratic lawmakers wouldn't have to worry about political deadlock.
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Good news from around the nation
Fresh Off A Viral Library Gig, The Linda Lindas Get A Record Deal
Goodie introduced us to The Linda Lindas on Saturday, and we all fell in love with them. Now they have a record deal!!
From NPR:
Just last week, the internet thrilled to The Linda Lindas, screaming and crunching power chords in the middle of the stacks of the Los Angeles Public Library. "Racist, Sexist Boy" — written and performed by four tween and teen punks calling out anti-Asian American bias and misogyny — immediately became something of a 2021 anthem. ("Poser! Blockhead! Riffraff! Jerk face!")
Now, in what has become a very familiar cycle to music-industry watchers, the band landed a record deal almost as soon as its video went viral. Its signing to the longstanding LA punk label Epitaph Records was confirmed by Variety. By Friday, the band's performance of "Racist, Sexist Boy" had been posted to Epitaph's YouTube channel.
The quartet, whose members (Bela, Eloise, Lucia and Mila) range in age from 10 to 16, got its start in 2018 at Girlschool LA. Member station KQED says the band has been mentored by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
The Linda Lindas' current Bandcamp bio describes the group as "Half Asian / half Latinx. Two sisters, a cousin, and their close friend. The Linda Lindas channel the spirit of original punk, power pop, and new wave through today's ears, eyes and minds."
ICYMI:
Cloudflare says it’s time to end CAPTCHA ‘madness’, launches new security key-based replacement
Wouldn’t it be great if we never had to look for bridges or busses in those stupid tiny photos ever again?!?
From The Verge:
Cloudflare, which you may know as a provider of DNS services or the company telling you why the website you clicked on won’t load, wants to replace the “madness” of CAPTCHAs across the web with an entirely new system.
CAPTCHAs are those tests you have to take, often when trying to log into a service, that ask you to click images of things like busses or crosswalks or bicycles to prove that you’re a human. (CAPTCHA, if you didn’t know, stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”) The problem is, they add a lot of friction to using the web and can sometimes be difficult to solve — I’m sure I’m not the only person who has frustratingly failed a CAPTCHA because I didn’t see that corner of a crosswalk in one image.
In a blog, Cloudflare says it aims to “get rid of CAPTCHAs completely” by replacing them with a new way to prove you are a human by touching or looking at a device using a system it calls “Cryptographic Attestation of Personhood.” Right now, it only supports a limited number of USB security keys like YubiKeys, but you can test Cloudflare’s system for yourself right now on the company’s website.
I can’t resist following this story up with a hilarious video that I’ve posted before:
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Good news from around the world
UK government to pay older farmers to retire
From the BBC:
Older farmers in England will be paid to retire under a UK government scheme to bring new blood into the trade.
The average farmer could receive a lump sum payment of £50,000 - capped at £100,000 for farmers with most land.
It is part of a massive overhaul of farm grants, incentivising farmers to protect the environment.
Some older farmers are resistant to new "green" methods, Environment Secretary George Eustice believes, and he wants them to move on.
Currently, under the old EU system, farmers receive grants based largely on the amount of land they farm. ✂️
Mr Eustice says the EU's grants system encourages some farmers "to coast, to take no risks" and hold on to their land in order to collect the subsidy.
Hence the need for help for older farmers to move on.
At the Oxford Farming Conference earlier this year, Mr Eustice said some veteran farmers were "standing in the way of change" and coasting along on state subsidies.
He said: "I understand the burden of expectation that can exist to loyally continue the family tradition (of farming) and how this sometimes stands in the way of change."
But, he said: "A fresh perspective can make a world of difference. New entrants are the lifeblood of any vibrant industry and farming is no exception."
“The man who stopped the desert”
From Future Crunch:
Meet Yacouba Sawadogo, a farmer in the West African nation of Burkina Faso known as ‘the man who stopped the desert’ after he reintroduced an indigenous farming practice called Zaï and transformed barren land across Africa into forest and crops.
Born sometime around 1946, Yacouba was working as a salesman at a local market when severe drought and famine changed the direction of his life in the early 1980s. ...
He began experimenting with Zaï, a traditional farming technique that involves digging pits into the earth to trap precious rainfall. Yacouba innovated by digging deeper holes and filling them with manure and other biodegradable waste to enrich the damaged soil and enhance water retention. The results were striking: trees began sprouting in the arid ground and the crops he planted thrived.
Despite his success, locals called him a 'madman' and even set his forest on fire. Yacouba was undeterred. He persisted, and by 1984, was hosting 'zaï markets' on his land to teach other farmers how to regenerate the soil. Today he receives visitors from all around the world and continues to train young farmers in his adaption of Zaï.
In forty years, Yacouba has created a 40-hectare forest on his land with more than 60 species of bushes and trees. His innovation has helped villages across Burkina Faso and Niger become food secure and produce crops even in years of drought.
Yacouba is now facing another challenge as the expansion of a nearby city is threatening the land he’s regenerated. Without formal ownership of the land, houses are been constructed on the edge of his forest but Yacouba will not give up easily. “It’s not possible to avoid hardship or being challenged by other people for your goals. You have to be ready to challenge them back and defend your position. The world is counting on it.”
Rewilding from beyond the grave: the burial plots that heal broken landscapes
From Positive News:
The concept is simple. People invest in their own one-acre burial plot through [Will] Brown’s nascent Return to Nature enterprise [in Scotland], which uses the money to plant upwards of 500 native trees on it.
With any luck, it will be many years before plot purchasers have to be laid to rest. By this time their site will host a native woodland that will continue to flourish long after their death, linking with neighbouring plots to form a forest.
“I’m a huge believer in long-term thinking,” said Brown. “I believe the only way that we’re going to get out of this mess [the climate and biodiversity crises] is if we start integrating long- term thinking into our everyday actions.”
In this case, long-term is 200 years after your death, which is the timescale that Brown encourages would-be clients to think in.
However, Return to Nature is not just about restoring broken landscapes. Brown also wants to support bereaved people, by ensuring that their loved ones leave a positive legacy. “Losing someone can be a horrendous experience,” he said. “We’re never going to make it good, but we can make it potentially less bad.” ✂️
The location of the burial plots has also yet to be confirmed, but Brown is in talks with landowners across Scotland. He aims to crowdfund the purchase of the land, and plots will cost around £2,500 each – “slightly more expensive than a woodland burial”.
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Good news in science
U.S. DEA is Finally Allowing Companies to Grow Their Own Cannabis for Scientific Research
This has been a long time coming.
From Good News Network:
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has just ended what’s been described as a 52-year monopoly on growing cannabis for research purposes.
Several large-scale cannabis growers have now been awarded contracts to produce weed for federal research, a move that will hopefully go a long way towards proving what many state and foreign governments already know: Cannabis has powerful medicinal properties, particularly for pain control.
Award-winning journalist Bruce Williams described the marijuana produced on the 12-acre farm at the National Center for the Development of Natural Products at the University of Mississippi—the only federally approved supplier of cannabis for research purposes in the United States—as “terrible, low-THC ‘schwag’.”
That “schwag” has led to several public relations disasters. In one case, Johns Hopkins University pulled out of a medical cannabis trial because they requested marijuana with at least 12% THC, and couldn’t get it from the federal agency. Scientists at the Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI) involved in the trial, speaking with PBS at the time, said what they did receive was contaminated with mold, and “didn’t look like weed [or] smell like weed.” ✂️
Matthew Zorn, an attorney who co-led the FOIA-based lawsuit [that pushed the DEA to change its policy], told Leafly that now scientists will be able to conduct research on the kind of cannabis that people are actually using.
3D printing’s new challenge: Solving the US housing shortage
From AP [their stories sometimes disappear behind a paywall, so I’m quoting all of the opening paragraphs]:
A new generation of startups wants to disrupt the way houses are built by automating production with industrial 3D printers.
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, uses machines to deposit thin layers of plastic, metal, concrete and other materials atop one another, eventually producing three-dimensional objects from the bottom up. In recent years, 3D printers have mostly been used to create small quantities of specialized items such as car parts or prosthetic limbs, allowing consumers or businesses to produce just what they need using the machines at home or work.
Now a small number of startups around the world are applying 3D printing to home construction, arguing that it’s faster, cheaper and more sustainable than traditional construction. They say these technologies could help address severe housing shortages that have led to soaring home prices, overcrowding, evictions and homelessness across the U.S.
But 3D home construction is still in the early stage of development. Most startups in this field are developing new technologies and not building homes yet. And two of the highest profile and best-financed companies – Mighty Buildings and ICON – have delivered fewer than 100 houses between them.
To move beyond a niche market, construction firms will need to significantly ramp up production and persuade home buyers, developers and regulators that 3D printed houses are safe, durable and pleasing to the eye. They’ll also need to train workers to operate the machines and install the homes.
One material, two functionalities
Fascinating cutting-edge materials science.
From Technology.org:
For the first time, physicists have now developed a toolbox to create materials that feature multiple … properties simultaneously. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research that led to the new materials was carried out by physicists Aleksi Bossart, David Dykstra, Jop van der Laan and Corentin Coulais from the University of Amsterdam. Using the toolbox, they created a material that changes its behaviour as it is compressed either quickly or slowly. New materials like this can be very useful for shock absorbers in cars, for construction materials that can withstand earthquakes or flow-regulating pressure valves. ✂️
Though not always easily carried out, the idea, therefore, seems simple: if you need a material with a specific property, find a clever physicist to design it for you. But what if you need a material that has two special properties? And what if, depending on the circumstances, you want to be able to switch between the two properties?
This is precisely the type of question one encounters when, for example, searching for materials that can withstand earthquakes. Such material should respond very differently to the small vibrations that are present in a building’s everyday life than it should when experiencing a shock due to an earthquake. With applications like this in mind, Bossart, Dykstra, Van der Laan and Coulais set out to design materials that have not one but multiple functionalities within a single structure.
In particular, they managed to create metamaterials that can either shrink or expand on the side when compressed, depending on how fast the compressing force is exerted.
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Good news for the environment
The International Energy Agency Issues a Landmark Statement About Fossil Fuels
Definitely a sign that we’re entering a new era.
From The New Yorker:
The crucial turning points of the climate era can be found in a series of sentences, some of them pretty opaque, but all of them critical. The latest came on Tuesday morning in a report from the International Energy Agency, in Paris, and it could very well signal the start of the end of the fossil-fuel era. ✂️
The statement on Tuesday from the I.E.A. is a recommendation. It reads, “There is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply in our net zero pathway. Beyond projects already committed as of 2021, there are no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway, and no new coal mines or mine extensions are required.” That emphasis is in the original—in fact, in the new report that sentence is in headline-size type, as well it should be. It says that, after two hundred and fifty years, in the view of the I.E.A., the time has come to stop exploring for oil, gas, and coal. No rational plan for getting to 1.5 degrees (or anywhere near it) can deal with any new supply. Instead, the “the focus for oil and gas producers switches entirely to output—and emissions reductions—from the operation of existing assets.” That is, we obviously can’t stop burning fossil fuel tomorrow, but we have to be headed decisively in that direction—which means stopping the development of new fields and draining what we must from existing fields to hold us over until we’ve built enough solar panels and wind turbines.
This message comes from a credible source—indeed, the I.E.A. has always been captive to the fossil-fuel industry, or at least to the countries, such as the United States, where that industry has held sway. For years, its forecasts of how fast renewable energy would spread were understatements; it was an engine of the status quo.
But now governments and corporations, pushed by civil society—and, perhaps, by a recognition of our climate plight—are suddenly committing to net-zero targets. Virtually all the big banks, for instance, have made this pledge. And now the I.E.A. has told them what it means.
Half of Shell’s Energy Mix to Be Clean Next Decade, CEO Says
Another sign of evolved decision-making from a surprising source.
From Bloomberg Green:
Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s head expects clean energy to make up half of the company’s energy mix “somewhere in the next decade.”
“If we do not make that type of process by the middle of next decade, we have a problem not just as a company but as a society,” Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said in an interview with AXIOS on HBO.
Like its European peers, the Anglo-Dutch major has set itself an “ambition” to become a net-zero emissions energy company by the middle of this century. The feat involves producing less oil, more gas and renewables, as well as using technologies still in their infancy like hydrogen and carbon sequestration. Not everyone is convinced, with the energy giant set to clash with some shareholders on the matter at its annual general meeting later this month.
Long-lasting Solid-state Lithium Battery From Harvard May Solve a 40-year Problem
This looks promising.
From the Good News Network:
Long-lasting, quick-charging batteries are essential to the expansion of the electric vehicle market, but today’s lithium-ion batteries fall short of what’s needed — they’re too heavy, too expensive and take too long to charge. ✂️
“A lithium-metal battery is considered the holy grail for battery chemistry because of its high capacity and energy density,” said Xin Li, Associate Professor of Materials Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). “But the stability of these batteries has always been poor.”
Now, Li and his team have designed a stable, lithium-metal solid state battery that can be charged and discharged at least 10,000 times — far more cycles than have been previously demonstrated — at a high current density. The researchers paired the new design with a commercial high energy density cathode material.
This battery technology could increase the lifetime of electric vehicles to that of the gasoline cars — 10 to 15 years — without the need to replace the battery. With its high current density, the battery could pave the way for electric vehicles that can fully charge within 10 to 20 minutes.
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Good news for and about animals
Size Doesn’t Matter to a Dolphin Mom As She Adopts a Whale Calf
Off the coast of New Zealand, a group of marine biologists has discovered a mother bottlenose dolphin that had adopted a baby pilot whale.
The Kiwi-based Far Out Ocean Research Collective discovered the mammals sailing in the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand, and has now documented the pair on two separate occasions five weeks apart.
While it’s not unheard of that dolphins adopt other species’ babies, it’s very rare to record the phenomenon with such a significant difference in species size. Bottlenose dolphins can reach 300 kilograms, which is no small fry—except that pilot whales can grow to two tons and reach six meters in length. ✂️
The Independent reported in 2019 that researchers in French Polynesia found a bottlenose dolphin that had adopted a melon-headed whale calf, and that the pair stayed together for three years.
Scientists don’t know why exactly this happens, and hypotheses exist that it’s misplaced mothering instinct—perhaps accentuated if a dolphin mother has lost her calf and finds a calf who has lost its mother. ✂️
Regardless of what brings them together, these cases of adoption only last as long as the weaning stage, as whales and dolphins hunting patterns are so different—and at that point the adopted whale makes it off into the world alone.
Children’s comic competition celebrates ‘misunderstood’ spiders
I’ve gone from being an arachnophobe to carrying them out of harm’s way. They’re really fascinating and admirable creatures.
From Positive News:
If ever a creature was in need of a PR overhaul, it’s the spider. Stepping up to the task is author Jane McGee, who organised a comic strip competition to encourage children to create stories that portray arachnids in a positive light.
“Spiders have a pretty bad reputation because they look so different from humans and just about any other animal we know,” said McGee. “They are a vital part of the ecosystem but unfortunately they often get killed for no reason except irrational fear.”
McGee’s children’s book Cobweb Capers was designed to challenge the phobias that children inherit from adults, and now she hopes the competition will do the same.
Launched on her Facebook page, it received a boost when TV naturalist Chris Packham shared it. “Let’s help to raise the profile of a very misunderstood and misrepresented creature,” he wrote. Entries came flying in.
The competition had two categories. The winner of the category for three to five-year-olds was Luna. In her comic strip, a spider shares a home with a lady who keeps trying to squash her – until the arachnid foils a burglary by spinning a web around the robbers.
The winner of the category for six to eight-year-olds was Amie, whose spider superhero saves a forest from destruction.
Owing to the success of the competition, McGee is now planning another competition.
‘Unluckiest Swan’ Becomes a Mom After Crafty Raft Rescue From Rising Waters
From the Good News Network:
Rob Adamson, who lives and works at Jones Boatyard in St Ives, England has been a longtime spectator to the world’s “unluckiest swans” efforts to become parents.
For a decade, he looked on sadly as the poor birds’ eggs fell prey to poaching foxes and rising waters. This year as the Great Ouse began to flood, he knew he couldn’t stand by and let another clutch perish on his watch.
“You’re not supposed to interfere, but it had got to the point where they were all going to die,” Adamson told the BBC. “I couldn’t go to bed knowing that. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t do anything to save them… I needed to make sure they survived.”
During the night, Adamson fashioned a makeshift raft and moored it with a line to the bank. It was well after dark when he gingerly lifted the nest and its occupants—nine eggs and one hissing mama—to safety, all under the wary eye of Papa swan.
As a breed, swans have a reputation for beauty that’s only surpassed by their fierce temper. That neither of the pair attacked Adamson is unusual. Perhaps the two sensed that he was only trying to help...
Wild Magpie Knew Exactly What This Family Needed
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Favorite video finds
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Hot lynx
www.newyorker.com/… A liberal Zionist’s move to the left on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ”Peter Beinart, once a staunch defender of Israel, is arguing for the Palestinians’ right to return. ...’If Palestinians have no right to return to their homeland,’ he wrote, ‘neither do we.’ “ An important thought-provoking piece.
onefairwage.site/… It’s a wage shortage, not a worker shortage. A study by the Berkeley Food Labor Research Center “documents the massive exodus of workers from restaurants, their reasons for leaving, and what would make them stay.” Spoiler: significantly higher wages and better, safer working conditions.
www.newyorker.com/… Burnout: Modern Affliction or Human Condition? Brilliant historian Jill Lepore traces the history of burnout and why it’s become our malady of the moment: “If burnout is universal and eternal, it’s meaningless. If everyone is burned out, and always has been, burnout is just . . . the hell of life. But if burnout is a problem of fairly recent vintage—if it began when it was named, in the early nineteen-seventies—then it raises a historical question. What started it?”
www.politico.com/… Doug Emhoff didn’t want this life — but he’s happy as hell to be here. A charming piece about a charming guy.
theconversation.com/… Long-lost letter from Albert Einstein discusses a link between physics and biology, 7 decades before evidence emerges. “...[in] a previously unknown letter written in 1949 by Albert Einstein…, the German-born mathematician and physicist discusses bees, birds and whether new physics principles could come from studying animal senses.”
www.washingtonpost.com/… Listening to her older records, Joan Baez hears perfection in an ‘unsurpassable’ voice. A lovely interview. Here’s an example of that “unsurpassable” voice from her very first album (I must have played it a thousand times when I was a teenager). Listen to how perfectly in control of that exquisite instrument she is, even when she was only 19:
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Where Ever is Herd
Morning Good News Roundups at 7 x 7: These Gnusies lead the herd at 7 a.m. ET, 7 days a week:
- The Monday GNR Newsroom (Jessiestaf, Killer300, and Bhu). With their five, we survive and thrive.
- Alternating Tuesdays: NotNowNotEver and arhpdx.
- Wednesdays: niftywriter.
- Thursdays: pucklady the 1st Thursday, Mokurai the 2nd, oldhippiedude the 3rd, MCUBernieFan the 4th, and Mokurai the 5th (when there is one).
- Fridays: chloris creator. Regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays: GoodNewsRoundup. Heart-stirring and soul-healing introduction and sometimes memes to succumb to.
- Sundays: 2thanks. A brief roundup of Roundups, a retrospective, a smorgasbord, a bulletin board, an oasis, a watering hole, a thunder of hooves, a wellness, a place for beginners to learn the rules of the veldt.
hpg posts Evening Shade diaries at 7:30 p.m. ET every day! After a long day, Gnusies meet in the evening shade and continue sharing Good News, good community, and good actions. In the words of NotNowNotEver: “hpg ably continues the tradition of Evening Shade.” Find Evening Shades here.
oldhippiedude posts Tweets of the Week on Sundays at 6:00 p.m. Central Time — New time! Our second evening Gnusie hangout zone! In search of a TOTW diary? Look here or here.
For more information about the Good News group, please see our detailed Welcoming comment, one of the first comments in our morning diaries.
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Closing music
I just had to choose Joan Baez again! It’s too bad we don’t see her in this video, but the shots of the crowd are moving. And of course the message of this song is always timely:
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Thanks to all of you for your smarts, your hearts, and
your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.
❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! 💙❤️