🍿 Refractory Republicans Risking Ruination 🍿
Republicans in chaos: Conflict with Trump endangers GOP Senate prospects
The field of electable Rethugs is getting smaller by the day, while the nutjobs fight each other in their attempts to dominate the primaries. Keep at it, guys!!
From Salon:
[Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan] is the third anti-Trump GOP governor to back away from a possible Senate bid despite a recruiting effort by McConnell and his allies. ...With no prominent Republicans eager to challenge Van Hollen, the party is now once again scrambling to field a candidate. A similar trend has played out in other key states. McConnell and Scott both sought to recruit Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who is leaving office thanks to term limits, to run against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly… . But Trump fired off an irate statement attacking Ducey, who refused to help the then-president try to overturn his loss in Arizona, and Ducey reiterated that he has no plans to run for Senate. ✂️
McConnell and his allies also tried to recruit New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu to challenge Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. ...But Sununu said he wasn't interested in going to Washington simply to be a Republican obstructionist. ✂️
Republican primary dynamics have also muddied McConnell's plans to win a majority. The GOP leader was instrumental in recruiting J.D. Vance, a longtime venture capitalist and the best-selling author of "Hillbilly Elegy," to run for Senate in Ohio… Vance's public persona has become ever more Trumpy. But Vance's internal pollster recently warned that the candidate has seen a "precipitous decline" among likely primary voters, according to Politico. ✂️
The party clearly needs Trump's fired-up base of supporters to turn out to win key states but Trump's feuds with a growing number of prominent Republicans threaten to hamper the party's chances in general elections. McConnell's primary focus is on winning back majority control in the Senate, while Trump appears far more interested in settling personal scores and establishing hegemony within the GOP.
Accounting Firm Cuts Ties With Trump and Retracts Financial Statements
Ruh-roh! Really bad news for tfg — which means bad news for all his RWNJ sycophants.
From The New York Times:
Donald J. Trump’s longtime accounting firm cut ties with him and his family business last week amid ongoing criminal and civil investigations into whether Mr. Trump illegally inflated the value of his assets, court documents filed on Monday show.
In a letter to the Trump Organization on Feb. 9, the accounting firm notified the company of its decision and disclosed that it could no longer stand behind annual financial statements it prepared for Mr. Trump. The firm, Mazars USA, compiled the financial statements based on information the former president and his company provided. ✂️
[New York attorney general, Letitia James’s] filing on Monday [Feb. 14] — which marked her latest attempt to press ahead with questioning Mr. Trump as well as Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump — included a copy of the Mazars letter, signed by the accounting firm’s general counsel.
And Raw Story adds this:
Tristan Snell, a former assistant attorney general for New York state who successfully sued Trump over fraud at Trump University, believes that the Mazars letter could lead to some significant financial pain for the former president.
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Good news from my corner of the world
Oregon Attorney General Greenlights Campaign Money Measures in Win for Petitioners
This is excellent news. As a 2019 story in The Oregonian noted: “Oregon today is one of just five states with no limits on the amount of money that a person, business or interest group can donate to a politician. The newsroom’s investigation showed that, per capita, Oregon lawmakers received more money from corporations than anywhere else in the nation.”
BTW, no one is sure what’s going on with Shemia Fagan, the Secretary of State who ran as a progressive Democrat and has proven to be problematic at best. But this bit of information might be relevant: “... public employee unions spent more than $3 million on Fagan’s own election two years ago, triple the amount raised by her Republican opponent, according to campaign finance records.” A perfect example of why we need this measure to become law!
From Willamette Week:
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum last night certified the language for three ballot measures that aim to cap campaign contributions. Her move keeps the reform effort alive after Secretary of State Shemia Fagan rejected the proposed measures yesterday because they didn’t include the entire text of Oregon laws they would change.
In Oregon, the attorney general must vet initiative language before sponsors can gather signatures to get on the ballot. Rosenblum’s decision doesn’t override Fagan’s decision, but it means Honest Elections can take both the dispute with Fagan and any other challenges to the measures’ language to the Oregon Supreme Court all at once. With favorable rulings, the measures could remain on schedule, [Jason] Kafoury [co-founder of Honest Elections Oregon] says.
Honest Elections plans to file a brief ... asking the Oregon Supreme Court to hear its dispute immediately, bypassing lower courts and arguing that the issue is time sensitive. Honest Elections has until July 8 to gather 112,020 signatures, a task that becomes much more difficult if the group has to start the initiative process over with new ballot language.
Link to Honest Elections (🎩 to Hinoema01).
Give Black youth the megaphone
This is a great idea, and I hope it gains traction. I’m going to look into how to sign up to participate in a tour.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
With “In My Shoes,” Black youth are sharing their voices, dreams, and experiences — along with sharp insights about their communities.
Each weekend in February, young Black men are leading tours across Portland and Vancouver, inviting the community to get to know them and their neighborhoods. ✂️
In My Shoes was started by the local nonprofit Word is Bond, whose mission is to change the relationship between young Black men and law enforcement. Word is Bond founder Lakayana Drury says the idea came after watching the program’s participants do ride-alongs with the Portland Police Bureau. He saw a need for a reciprocal program, where the young men could tell their stories too.
“Black stories in Portland are not heard enough,” Drury says. “Black stories in the United States are not told enough, and often when they’re told, they’re not told by Black people, and they’re often very negative stories….So we want to amplify the richness of stories that exist within the Black community.” ✂️
[19-year-old Ja’Mari] Etherly says that media narratives about his neighborhood tend to fall into one of two camps: either celebrating new business developments or sensationalizing it as a dangerous place. … “A lot of the things you hear about our neighborhood are just bad,” Etherly says. “Like, you know the shootings and everything going on. But kids are out here now, hooping, and it’s like, 30 degrees. There’s always something good going on in each neighborhood. It’s just, the only thing that gets seen as newsworthy is the bad stuff.”
Dashdok [— an invention that could save Black drivers’ lives during traffic stops]
This idea is pure genius. Interested in buying one? Here’s the link: https://www.dashdok.com
From Willamette Week:
“We’ve all seen the headlines,” [Jeremy] Roberts says. “We know what happens when traffic stops get tense. I know firsthand and have personally been involved in some terrifying police encounters on the road.” ✂️
The solution he landed on was disarmingly simple: a wallet that attaches magnetically to a car dashboard, allowing drivers to reach for their license and registration with their hands in plain sight. ✂️
Dashdok wallets are, well, wallets: flat, leather and stitched with five pouches. A magnetic strip at the wallet’s base lets it dock to the dashboard of the car. The wallets start at $26, for cotton, and rise in price to $212, for goatskin. A leather model sits in between, at $90.
“What we’re doing, it knows no socioeconomic bounds,” Roberts says. “We wanted to create something that was affordable to the masses, but also that appeals to people accustomed to designer luxury.” So far, he’s sold a few dozen wallets —all presale units. His goal for 2022 is to sell 10,000. “It’s ambitious,” he says, “but what’s a goal without being ambitious?” ✂️
What is perhaps more unusual is that Roberts’ invention comes with the endorsement of Portland police officers. Roberts chose to seek the input of police—the people he feared would pull him over—to improve his design.
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Good news from around the nation
Vermont May Become First State To Make Abortion A Constitutional Right
Good for Vermont! If they approve this amendment, I’m hoping it’ll encourage Oregonians to try to get a similar one into our constitution — at this point, although there are legally no restrictions on abortion here, that right is guaranteed only by current law, not by the constitution.
From Wonkette:
Last week, the Vermont House approved Prop 5, which will give voters a chance to add the right to a safe and legal abortion to their state's constitution, along with access to contraception and other reproductive care.
Even those opposed to the measure at least claimed to disagree not on the usual ridiculous anti-choice grounds, but on the grounds that people sometimes change their minds about things, which says a lot about what goes and doesn't go in the state. It also suggests there is a pretty good chance Prop 5 will succeed. ✂️
Other signs it may succeed include that it is supported by the state's Republican governor, Phil Scott; about 70 percent of the state believes abortion should remain legal; and finally, the one anti-choice lady representing the citizen opposition says she can't think of any possible legal challenge to it should it go through.
Removing Money to Remove Bias
This isn’t a done deal, but it would right a long-standing wrong and does have a chance to become law in California. And if it succeeds there, it could succeed elsewhere in the country.
From Reasons to be Cheerful:
District attorneys accepting money from police unions and then prosecuting cases that involve those same cops is a conflict of interest — or at least, so says SB710. The groundbreaking law, introduced in the California legislature in February 2021, would require D.A.s who have taken contributions from police to recuse themselves from cases involving them.
SB710 was passed by the State Senate in June. But a full year after its introduction, as Black Voice News reports, the bill remains mired in the State Assembly, where legislators are (supposedly) working out the kinks before bringing it up for a vote. Supporters say the first-of-its-kind legislation would set a legal precedent other states could adopt, and could mitigate bias in the system that leads to police rarely being convicted of crimes.
Not surprisingly, the District Attorneys Association opposes the law. But with D.A.s in several California counties up for election this year, it may find renewed focus. “Close relationships between district attorneys’ offices and the police has led criminologists, those who advocate for civil liberties, legislators, as well as families of those killed and injured by police, to call for an end to this conflict of interest,” writes the author.
The City Owned by Locals
An inspiring story from South Bend, IN. Click the link to read the whole thing — it’s worth a few extra minutes.
From Reasons to be Cheerful:
Typically, urban real estate is developed by well-funded companies. Those companies have access to large bank loans or cash, and focus primarily on neighborhoods that will yield high revenue returns. They are also unlikely to be based in the area, or even the city or state. That means locals typically have little say in what types of housing or businesses come into their neighborhood — and reap very few of the financial benefits.
Many solutions to this problem have been piloted across the U.S. A federal program called Opportunity Zones that creates tax incentives for investing in certain areas went into effect in 2018, for example. ArtSpace, a nonprofit that helps towns apply for grants to build space for low-income artists, has built 58 properties across the country.
But very few solutions put ownership in the hands of everyday people, and research shows that ownership matters. “Renters are more vulnerable to displacement as their communities gentrify, and unlike owners, they reap none of the rewards that rising home prices and rents can bestow,” according to a 2020 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
Incremental investment does the opposite. Instead of funnelling tax credits and grants to large-scale developers with the hope that the benefits trickle down to residents, it puts the power in the hands of the people. Less a program and more a movement, the growth that comes with incremental development typically stems from a network of committed people who share critical, detailed knowledge, creativity and support.
Today in South Bend, that network is about 200 people strong — 200 micro-scale developers that, according to some reports, now collectively make up the largest developer in the city.
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Good news from around the world
Small brick hospital in Bangladesh wins world’s best building
From The Optimist Daily:
This year, the recipient of the renowned Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) international prize for the world’s best building is a small brick hospital situated in rural Bangladesh.
The architect, director of Urbana Kashef Chowdhury, managed to create a functional yet elegant hospital that models climate-conscious design achieved with modest means and minimal resources. “There is water everywhere here,” says Chowdhury. “But it’s not always the useful kind.” Chowdhury decided to make water the centerpiece of the building by forming a canal that zigzags its way through the site and harvests every drop of rainwater that falls during the rainy season. Every roof and courtyard surface drains into the central canal, which leads to two storage tanks at either end of the site.
The canal also helps cool the surrounding courtyards during the hot summer season, provides a barrier between the inpatient and outpatient departments, and separates the two sides of the site across shared courtyards with no need for an imposing wall to indicate the divide. ✂️
The hospital campus [which was completed within a small budget of under $2 million] feels like a village, with buildings set at angles around courtyards and framed with colonnades designed to help shade the wards inside. The deep outdoor corridors also shelter people from hard rains, ensure that the buildings are well ventilated without the need for air conditioning (except for in operating theatres and delivery rooms), and bounce natural light back inside to limit the use of artificial light.
It was important to Chowdhury that every ward has a beautiful view of a courtyard. “When somebody is ill or needs care,” he says, “one of the most important things is the mental aspect of it, not just the physical care. I think the kind of spaces you inhabit during treatment—with a view of water and trees, the sounds of birds, the feel of a breeze—goes a long way towards healing.”
Solar-powered bikers are busting illegal wildlife poachers in South Africa
From EuroNews:
Off-road motorbikes are an important tool for anti-poaching rangers in South Africa, allowing them to quickly reach remote destinations where wildlife crime occurs. … But ‘bush bikes’ can be loud with the roar of their petrol-powered engines alerting poachers to their presence before they arrive. So a virtually silent solution is needed to help them be more stealthy on their patrols.
Swedish company CAKE has teamed up with the Southern African Wildlife College (SAWC), a conservation training initiative near Kruger National Park in South Africa, to find one. … Together they have developed an electric motorbike that allows rangers to approach poachers without being detected - all while reducing pollution and costs. ✂️
Mobile charging stations and solar panels allow these electric bikes to be charged using the sun instead. It means they can operate off-grid and independently from traditional power sources. ...“We can charge these bikes with two batteries, one battery always being, you know, with the power station, the other battery being in the bike.” ✂️
After five months, the college has seen a cut in running costs for its anti-poaching initiative. That means money can now be dedicated to hiring more rangers, increasing their pay and running additional patrols.
Legal ivory sales are coming to a close in Hong Kong
From WildAid:
After more than 150 years, the legal ivory trade in Hong Kong is coming to an end. The Legislative Council passed an amendment in 2018 to phase out the local ivory trade and the final phase comes into effect on December 31st. All ivory possession permits will expire except for antique ivory and mammoth ivory. Permit holders can still legally keep their ivory for non-commercial use.
“This ban on the ivory trade is so important for protecting elephants. We remain grateful to the legislators and citizens for supporting this law. Along with the new wildlife provisions in the Organized and Serious Crime Ordinance, Hong Kong is leading by example on shutting down the wildlife trade,” said John Baker, WildAid Chief Program Officer. ✂️
The Hong Kong public has overwhelmingly supported the ivory ban and ending the ivory trade. According to our 2015 survey, 76% of the Hong Kong public supported the ivory ban and about 90% said they never bought ivory nor did they know anyone who bought ivory in the previous 3 years.
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Good news in medicine and science
Cannabis Could Hold the Key to Preventing Neurodegenerative Diseases, Including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
From Good News Network:
Cannabis could hold the key to preventing neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as it contains a chemical that protects brain cells against aging, according to new research.
What’s more, the ‘miracle compound’ CBN (cannabinol) is non-psychoactive. In other words, it doesn’t get people high.
Senior author Professor Pamela Maher said, “We’ve found cannabinol protects neurons from oxidative stress and cell death—two of the major contributors to Alzheimer’s. This discovery could one day lead to the development of new therapeutics for treating this disease and other neuro-degenerative disorders—like Parkinson’s disease.”
Studies on medical cannabis have focused on the active substances THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol). Little is known about the therapeutic powers of CBN—which is molecularly similar but less heavily regulated.
Experimental Robot Surgeon Can Operate Without Human Help
From Gizmodo:
A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere say their robot was able to pull off a complicated and delicate surgical procedure on a pig without the assistance of humans for the first time. What’s more, the robot even appeared to do the job better than human surgeons.
The use of robots in the operating room isn’t new, but current technologies in wide use, like the Da Vinci system, are still controlled by a human surgeon. The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot, or STAR, system being developed by Axel Krieger and his colleagues is different.
“In contrast, STAR is the first robotic system to plan, adapt, and execute a surgical plan in soft tissue without human intervention,” Krieger, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins, told Gizmodo in an email.
Over the years, Krieger and his team have demonstrated that STAR can perform important surgical tasks as well as or even better than human surgeons, though still with some human input involved. In their latest research, published Wednesday in Science Robotics, they present data showing that STAR can autonomously perform a complex soft tissue surgery in pigs laparoscopically, mean done with only small incisions. ...Compared to data obtained from human-performed operations, the team reported, STAR’s suturing and stitches were deemed to be more accurate and consistent. There were also no leaks detected in the operated-on pigs.
New machine speeds up DNA sequencing - hours instead of weeks
From Warp News:
Sequencing a patient's entire DNA and getting the results back can currently take doctors several weeks. But a new method developed by researchers at Stanford Medicine can cut that time to hours instead.
The researchers use a new sequencing machine from Oxford Nanopore Technologies to achieve such fast sequencing. The device can analyze DNA in 48 sequencing units simultaneously. This makes the analysis very fast and generates vast amounts of data in a short time. Therefore, the researchers also had to develop new software that could analyze all data in real time.
The researchers' software scans the entire genome and looks for errors that could cause diseases. One difference from today's methods is that the software analyzes longer gene strings.
"Mutations that occur in large chunks of the genome are easier to detect if you read long strings. Some variations would be almost impossible to detect without reading long strings. In addition, sequencing is faster, which was a big reason why we used that method", says Euan Ashley, professor of medicine at Stanford Medicine and one of the researchers behind the study, in a press release.
A new multipurpose on-off switch for inhibiting bacterial growth
From Science Daily:
Researchers in Lund have discovered an antitoxin mechanism that seems to be able to neutralise hundreds of different toxins and may protect bacteria against virus attacks. The mechanism has been named Panacea, after the Greek goddess of medicine whose name has become synonymous with universal cure. The understanding of bacterial toxin and antitoxin mechanisms will be crucial for the future success of so-called phage therapy for the treatment of antibiotic resistance infections, the researchers say. The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
So-called toxin-antitoxin systems, a kind of on-off switch in many bacterial DNA genomes, are increasingly being found to defend bacteria against attack by bacteriophages -- viruses that infect bacteria. Activation of toxins allows bacterial populations to go into a kind of lockdown that limits growth and therefore the spread of the virus. As such, understanding the diversity, mechanisms and evolution of these systems is critical for the eventual success of phage therapy to treat antibiotic resistance infections. -- Toxin-antitoxin pairs consist of a gene encoding a toxin that dramatically inhibits bacterial growth and an adjacent gene encoding an antitoxin that counteracts the toxic effect. It is like keeping a bottle of poison on a shelf next to a bottle of the antidote. While toxin-antitoxin pairs have been seen to evolve to associate with new toxins or antitoxins before, the scale of the neutralisation ability seen with Panacea -- so called hyperpromiscuity -- is unprecedented, explains researcher and group leader Gemma Atkinson at Lund University, who has led the study.
AI can identify heart disease from an eye scan
From The University of Leeds:
Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that can analyse eye scans taken during a routine visit to an optician or eye clinic and identify patients at a high risk of a heart attack.
Doctors have recognised that changes to the tiny blood vessels in the retina are indicators of broader vascular disease, including problems with the heart.
In the research, led by the University of Leeds, deep learning techniques were used to train an AI system to automatically read retinal scans and identify those people who, over the following year, were likely to have a heart attack. ✂️
Writing in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, the researchers report in their paper - Predicting Infarction through your retinal scans and minimal personal Information - that the AI system had an accuracy of between 70% and 80% and could be used as a second referral mechanism for in-depth cardiovascular examination.
The use of deep learning in the analysis of retinal scans could revolutionise the way patients are regularly screened for signs of heart disease.
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Good news for the environment
Non-fossil fuels forecast to be 50% of China's power capacity in 2022
From European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy [the original Reuters story is behind a paywall]:
Non-fossil fuel energy sources such as wind, nuclear, solar and hydropower may make up half of China's total power generation capacity by the end of 2022, for the first time ever, the country's electricity council has forecast.
China, the world's biggest greenhouse gases emitter and coal consumer, is expected to add 180 gigawatts (GW) of new power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources during 2022, driving total non-fossil fuel capacity to 1,300 GW, according to a report issued by the China Electricity Council (CEC) late on Thursday.
That equates to half of the CEC's forecast of total installed power generation capacity in China of 2,600 GW by the end of 2022, of which 1,140 GW would be coal-fired power capacity, the report said.
Georgia Power plans to retire all coal-fired power plants by 2035
I was tipped to this story by Future Crunch, who commented “White flag time at Southern Company's Georgia Power, one of the United States' biggest utilities, and once one of the most adamant coal-burning utilities/lobbying forces.”
From The Hill:
The largest electric utility company in Georgia plans to shift away from coal power and ramp up the use of renewables and natural gas as part of its transition to cleaner and more economical sources of energy.
In a filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) this week, Georgia Power revealed proposed plans to shut down its remaining coal-fired power plants by no later than 2035, as coal-fired generation continues to be less economically viable, and double its renewable and solar energy generation.
The company’s plan includes shuttering 12 coal units it operates that produce more than 3,500 megawatts (MW) of power starting this year through 2028. Two remaining coal units at Plant Bowen in Georgia’s Bartow County would remain operational until 2035 to ensure a reliable supply of electricity to the utilities 2.7 million customers.
“We know that to continue to meet the changing needs of our customers we must prepare now to build the electric system and energy infrastructure of the future,” Chris Womack, president and CEO of Georgia Power, said in a release.
These Indigenous women are helping save endangered coral reefs
From The Optimist Daily:
Coral reefs are some of the most important ecosystems on the planet. In addition to providing essential habitat for marine life, they also protect coastal areas from waves, storms, and floods, all while providing a key source of income for hundreds of communities around the world. ...our oceans have lost half of their coral reefs since 1950, and scientists estimate that 90 percent of these lush underwater structures are likely to disappear by mid-century.
An NGO called Sea Women of Melanesia wants to prevent that from happening by providing Indigenous women with the knowledge and tools necessary to protect coral reefs from the threat of climate change.
“The Sea Women of Melanesia is a team of women from Melanesia, who are passionate about marine conservation and who are willing to go back to their community to set up marine reserves, ” says team leader Naomi Longa.
For more than five years, the NGO has been working together with communities on marine conservation in the Solomon Islands and in Papua New Guinea, reports euronews. Its efforts have attracted the attention of the United Nations Environmental Programme, which awarded the organization the Champions of the Earth prize in the Inspiration and Action category.
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.
Rosy’s choice is this cool collection of action shots. She’s really sorry that the photographer works only in England — she’d love a photo of herself jumping, and so would I!
Photographer Captures Dogs Jumping Over Branches
From PetaPixel:
[Photographer Nigel Wallace’s] knack for patiently nailing shots has come in handy with his latest project featuring dogs making “Superman poses” as they jump.
Wallace shoots the portraits for the dogs’ owners, capturing various species from dachshunds to Rottweilers flying up to three feet above the ground as they sprint and jump over obstacles in their path.
“The dogs can easily get two or three feet off the ground,” [Nigel] Wallace says. “They do the paws-out ‘superman flight’ as I like to call it. You can almost draw a cape on the back of them.”
Wallace’s telephoto lens allows him to create portraits with a shallow depth of field — the dog and its expression are in sharp focus while the backgrounds are beautifully blurred.
“It’s just giving dog owners something fun and different,” Wallace says. “They can’t capture this on a walk on their phone.”
Here’s Nora’s choice, some good news about her tiger cousins:
This Year of the Tiger, WWF Spotlights Both Progress and Urgency for Tiger Recovery
From World Wildlife Fund:
In the previous Year of the Tiger, 2010, the Global Tiger Initiative was formed and the first-ever international meeting for tiger conservation, the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit, was convened. The event and initiative ignited international collaboration across the 13 tiger range country governments and the global conservation community towards a common goal for tiger recovery. This represents one of the greatest degrees of political will ever mustered for the protection of a single species… ✂️
Some highlights captured in WWF’s Impact on Tiger Recovery 2010-2022 report include the designation of the world’s largest tiger protected area in China and a national park in Russia...where tiger numbers have tripled. In Bhutan’s Royal Manas National Park, ...the use of the Spatial Monitoring and Report Tool (SMART) and other conservation measures have resulted in a doubling of tiger numbers since 2012. ✂️
“Wild tigers have made remarkable progress over the past twelve years. The species had been in continual decline for about a century until the historic reversal of that trend in 2016,” said Ginette Hemley, Senior Vice President of Wildlife Conservation at WWF-US. “India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia and China have demonstrated what it takes to increase wild tiger numbers and conserve their habitat. As these countries show, the communities living alongside tiger habitats are instrumental stewards of the nature around them and their partnership is vital. Hopefully, the success of these countries will inspire others, particularly in Southeast Asia, to step up efforts to protect wild tigers and secure the species’ future beyond 2022.”
Parrot steals GoPro and films airborne escape
Rascal says he’d do exactly the same thing if he had the chance.
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Hot lynx
www.washingtonpost.com/… A Rhodes Scholar barista and the fight to unionize Starbucks. The surprising backstory of the Starbucks union in Buffalo NY, which is now inspiring Starbucks workers everywhere.
theconversation.com/...Everything we see is a mash-up of the brain’s last 15 seconds of visual information. ”Instead of analysing every single visual snapshot, we perceive in a given moment an average of what we saw in the past 15 seconds. So, by pulling together objects to appear more similar to each other, our brain tricks us into perceiving a stable environment.” Fascinating!
www.emilydamstra.com/...Please, enough with the dead butterflies! It turns out that the iconic image of a butterfly — wings outspread with the forewings lifted to fully expose the hind wings — can only be done with a dead butterfly. The author, an illustrator, argues for more life-like poses.
www.dailykos.com/...Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: No True Scotsman! I hadn’t seen this DKos series before last week, so if it’s new to you, do check it out — it’s really valuable. The full list is at the bottom of the linked diary.
www.dailykos.com/… The Joy Collective: A roundup of happy videos that are guaranteed to make you smile. A new weekly series on DKos! Maybe our Gnusie positivity is spreading???
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Wherever is herd…
A tip of the hat to 2thanks for creating this handy info sheet for all Gnusies new and old!
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: Mokurai the 1st and 2nd Thursdays, WineRev 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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How to Resist: Do Something …
The following invaluable list was put together by chloris creator:
Indivisible has created a Truth Brigade to push back against the lies.
Propaganda, false characterizations, intentionally misleading messages, and outright lies threaten our democracy and even our lives. We can effectively combat disinformation, despite the well-funded machines that drive it. They may have money, but we have truth and we have people. People believe sources they trust. When we share and amplify unified, factual messages to those who trust us, we shift the narrative. When we do this by the thousands--we’re part of the Indivisible Truth Brigade, and we get our country back. Join us.️
Our own Mokurai is a member. You can see all of the diaries in the Truth Brigade group on DK here.
From GoodNewsRoundup (aka Goodie):
Most important: DON'T LOSE HOPE. This is a giant and important fight for us but, win or lose, we keep fighting and voting and organizing and spreading truth and light. We never give up.
And I’ll add a recommendation for you to check out Activate America (formerly Flip the West), which is recruiting people to send postcards to Dem voters whose GQP Representatives voted against the infrastructure bill. The message is about all the benefits of the new law so they’ll be likelier to vote for the Dem challenger.
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Closing music
More encouragement to persist, sung in one of the most beautiful voices ever to perform in R&B.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
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! 💙❤️
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