Good morning, g’nusies!
Goodie, our wonderful founder and bringer of Saturday inspiration and laughs, needs to take a break after posting here for 5 years straight. She hopes to be back soon, after a well-deserved rest. We can’t fill her shoes, but we’ll do our best to start your Saturdays with hope and humor.
It is a pleasure and a privilege to have the opportunity to step in for the day, and offer words of good cheer, hope, and joy. Let’s get started!
When plants get thirsty, they release a particular chemical into the surrounding soil. The technology, from a company called Responsive Drip Irrigation, uses tubes that are embedded with a pore-filled polymer that can sense those chemicals. “When the plants give off the chemicals, micropores start releasing the water,” says Jan Gould, founder of Responsive Drip Irrigation. “So the water starts free-flowing, and the plants can slowly drink what they need.” When the plants have enough water, they stop emitting the chemical, and the pores close, turning the tubes into a tiny underground stream until the plants need irrigation again. The system can also be used to deliver fertilizer or soil amendments directly to the roots of plants.
The technology, originally developed by a chemistry professor, is now in use in places like Abu Dhabi, where farmers are growing local vegetables in the desert. It saves substantially more water than drip irrigation, another type of system that emits water out of small tubes. It can also help beyond farms: In Los Angeles, the company is currently working with the local water utility to test using it on urban landscaping. “If you tear out all the turf and tear out the plants, you create another set of issues —creating a heat island in the city with too much concrete and hardscapes,” says Gould. “Plants are important in the environment. So what they were looking to do is find out ways to keep some green, but to use less water to do it.” In side-by-side tests with a drip irrigation system in the L.A. pilot, the newer technology used 45% to 50% less water.
Nicole Slenning (Abeyta) @NicoleAbeyta: * Aug 31
This is me and my sis from our reunion Friday night. I surprised her for her birthday- which is today. Can’t believe we’re together and this video sums it up just how it’s felt to be away from her.
[ Goodable @Goodable * Aug 31
Meanwhile in Canada:
Due to the border being closed, Kirsten hadn’t seen her sister in twenty months.
Her husband staged an elaborate surprise to bring them together.
This was her reaction.
[Canadian flag icon] [red heart icon]
[Short video of shock, happy tears, and clinging between two sisters]
The first of its kind to be installed in Scotland, BODYHEAT uses heat pumps and fluids to capture body heat generated by SWG3’s crowds, channeling their combined energy into twelve 150m-deep bore holes drilled beneath the venue. This heat can then either be used immediately to cool the audience, or stored under the ground until it’s needed to heat the building.
Idly mingling, a human body radiates about 100 watts of excess heat, which can add up fast in confined spaces, and the enormous amount of heat that people dancing at clubs or gigs generate is currently ejected into the atmosphere as waste.
“With this new system in place,” says the club, “we’ll be able to utilize that warmth, consuming minimal electricity and gas on site, and in turn minimizing our carbon emissions”
Goodable @Goodable:
This is Frank Grasberger, a WWII Veteran.
Twelve years ago, he received a letter from a 9-year old girl, thanking him for his service.
It meant so much to him that he carried it around in his wheelchair.
This is the exact moment they met.
You'll need a tissue…
[red heart icon] [American flag icon]
[Video of now-21-year-old meeting Frank for first time]
“We did it during Katrina and, you know, people need a place to stay. They’ve been disrupted from their homes by this terrible hurricane, so it’s the least we can do. We’ve got lots of mattresses, lots of sofas and anybody needs a place to stay, come out to Gallery Furniture,” McIngvale told KPRC News. “It’s just the right thing to do.”
Any evacuee with a Louisiana ID will be offered shelter in the store. And, while Houstonians arrive hourly with cars full of supplies to send to Louisiana, McIngvale is scouting a location for a distribution warehouse from which to disperse the truckloads of relief supplies once they arrive.
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Houston’s Lakewood Church was also holding a 2-day collection drive that ended today, and has opened its doors to offer shelter for those who fled the hurricane.
“We are preparing to help the people coming from New Orleans and Louisiana… We want them to know that Lakewood is open if they need a place to stay. We’ll accommodate as many as we can safely,” Pastor Joel Osteen told KPRC.
I couldn’t do this one justice. Just go read it:
Baking Bad: Ex-Cons Are Mentored as Bakers and Now Their Bread is in the Best Restaurants
One Year Since Bipartisan Bill Funds Repairs at National Parks: See What Projects are Underway in 40 States
Passing with massive bipartisan support, the bill permanently authorized the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a critical source of funding for public land maintenance, with $900 million in annual spending for parks, forests, lakeshores, campgrounds, roads and other infrastructure, down to the smallest playgrounds in your local neighborhood.
In Shoshone National Forest, a dilapidated bridge has been replaced; a scenic byway and drain culvert will be replaced in Umatilla and Malheur National Forests; National Forests such as Daniel Boone, Ozark St. Francis, El Yunque, George Washington-Jefferson, and all those in Florida and North Carolina, will be receiving new roads, wastewater treatment systems, campgrounds, trail restoration, bridges, and much more.
Discovered near Goolboodi (Orpheus Island) in March 2021, the hemispherical Muga dhambi measured 5.3 meters tall (17 feet) and 10.4 meters wide (34 feet), making it the widest and sixth-tallest coral in the 2,900 reefs that make of the barrier system.
“We were running a citizen science workshop… and were interested in exploring the North Coast of Goolbodhi which is a very remote area often restricted by weather,” Kaillash Cook, part of the workshop team and co-author of the new paper on the discovery, told WaL in an email. “It was here Dr. Adam Smith found this breathtaking coral and instantly assigned people to take measurements, surveys and coordinates for the coral”.
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After a torrid few years, the 2020-2021 long-term monitoring program of the Great Barrier Reef has found that while COVID ran rampant above, the reef’s own pandemic, coral bleaching, was hardly noticeable, and hard coral cover increased across all three regions of the reef over the last year.
A review of the environmental events that have occurred in the past 450 years indicates that Muga dhambi may have survived up to 80 major cyclones and centuries of exposure to invasive species, perhaps 100 coral bleaching events, low tides and human activity.
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“We found that about 30% of the colony was dead which is a completely natural and healthy occurrence as it supported the growth of turf algae, turtle weed and sponge which all play important roles in the ecosystem,” said Cook. “This diversity of benthos meant that lots of fish were attracted to hide in the coral structure, feed off the turf algae and turn Muga dhambi into a thriving microecosystem”.
Breaking Good News Alert:
Afghanistan's two Paralympic athletes have arrived in Japan!
When the Taliban took over, Hossain Rasouli and Zakia Khudadadi had to flee — and put their Paralympic Games dreams on hold.
They're now in Tokyo and will be competing for gold medals.
[red heart icon][gold medal icon]
[photos of Afghanistan’s Paralympic athletes]
On the Lighter Side
Most (but not all) of the memes were collected by REDACTED, who forwarded them on to NNNE. Thanks, REDACTED!
That’s a wrap! Thanks for hangin’ in there and joining us today!