ICYMU: This Week in Gnuville
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WineRev’s Good and Goofy Notes
Watch for WineRev’s G&G notes in the comments to see what others went through, struggled with, and surmounted in the past. His G&G comments are mini Good News Roundups. You can find all his comments here, even today’s, once he posts it. Tech Tip: You can search for >>> in Roundups to quickly find his comments.
WineRev, last Sunday, 12/31:
For the last time! For the Last, freakin’, ever-lasting TIME! After 364 repeats this is the LAST TIME any of us have to show up at the Gnuville Breakfast Brunch and Chronology Salon for coffee, tea, mocha-cocoa or mimosas (Buy one this morning, get a 2 for 1 chip for tomorrow morning!) in 2023! You can have it! Be done with it. Be over it. Wash your hands of it (puffy towels right behind you for drying off.) Give 2023 the Big Finito! The Send Off! Even the Big Kiss Off!
2023? It all over now; just a bit of shouting in every hour on the hour in each of 24 time zones from pole to pole, some fireworks, a bit of singing (‘Auld Lang Syne’ is a popular choice among English speakers), the odd, slowly descending ball over Manhattan and …….. DONE WITH. Close the book! Reach the endpoint! Culminate (may call for heavy breathing…….)! 2023 has its tombstone carved. The wind-up is ready to wind down in mere hours. Seven swan’s a-swimming from last Monday’s Christmas bash have assembled in a 2023 Septet along the S(e)wanee River to sing a song of swans in a swan song to put paid to all of 2023. Whew!
Science
Keeping up with vaccinations greatly decreases chance of long COVID
Mark Sumner, Daily Kos Staff:
The United States is experiencing a surge in new cases of COVID-19. By some metrics, this is the biggest increase in new cases in over a year and one that is threatening to strain hospital capacity. In late December, hospital admissions for COVID-19 exceeded 29,000 a week and deaths were up 10% week over week. The rise in cases, as well as rises in cases of flu and RSV, has caused some health care facilities to reinstitute mask mandates.
And all these new infections are sure to result in new cases of long COVID. Estimates of how many Americans have suffered from long COVID vary wildly, from 7.5% to 41% among nonhospitalized adults. And even relatively minor initial cases can result in lasting disease, which can severely affect even healthy, young people for months or years.
With all of this bad news, there is some very good news. A new series of studies and meta-analyses have concluded that there is one thing everyone can do to greatly reduce the chances of getting long COVID: Keep up with the latest vaccines.
Madeline Holcombe, CNN:
a new study published Wednesday in The Lancet Healthy Longevity journal.
“What we found was that there was a 24% lower risk of mortality for people who use hearing aids,” said Dr. Janet Choi, an assistant professor of clinical otolaryngology-head and neck surgery with the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and an otolaryngologist with Keck Medicine of USC.
✂
The study looked at the data of 10,000 people — more than 1,800 of whom were identified as having hearing loss — and followed up on their mortality between 1999 and 2012.
✂
There was no difference in risk of death over the research period between people who used hearing aids occasionally and those who never wore them, but regular users were at a significantly lower risk, the study showed.
Please share good science news with us! (Especially JSWT, health, environment.)
A good place to look for science news if you are waiting for the Sunday Roundup is the archive of Overnight News Digest. On Saturdays, the OND always focuses on science, though not all of it is devoted to what I would call Good Science News.
Need more good news?
… arhpdx posted a list of good news sites toward the top of a recent Roundup, or you can find that same list in my comment: Good News Sources. Thank you, arhpdx and Mokurai!
[On a desktop, you could open that comment in a new Tab by clicking the timestamp, and then you could Bookmark that page or save it to your Favorites.]
Our map of Gnuville: 847 of us have shared our global locations!
To leave your mark, please Reply in the comments to tljdk or the map-building comment. Please indicate only your general location, NOT street number and street. (Please persist, we are volunteers.)
Image: Screenshot of the Google Map of the world showing locations of members of Daily Kos's Gnuville (the Good News Roundup group) on 14 May 2023. You can use the map’s zoom arrows to resize the view and focus on your pin to find neighbors. Please note that the Google Map, though convenient to operate, is visually inaccurate because, among other issues, it enlarges North America and shrinks Africa [Maps present a distorted view of the world by kos].
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Tech Talk for Kosacks
- Load-More Workaround: On a desktop or laptop, to banish the Daily Kos Load More buttons, click this link, which opens the main Daily Kos page and shuts off the Load More buttons at the same time. You must Reload any open Daily Kos pages. After that, you’re good to go, but you may need to come back here and click that link again in a few weeks. According to the DK Help Desk, the “Load More” option also resets the user back to the display of the old-style, React comments.
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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:
- Mondays The GNR Newsroom (Jessiestaf, Killer300, and Bhu)
- Tuesdays arhpdx and niftywriter
- Wednesdays: 2nd MCUBernieFan, 3rd WineRev, 4th karij. 1st and 5th: lemay50, Andrew F Cockburn, DoctorStrange.
- Thursdays Mokurai
- Fridays chloris creator, regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays GoodNewsRoundup, the one and only!
- 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. For instance, we do not welcome grammar-police comments in Roundups.
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. Find Evening Shades here or on the Trending List.
For more information about the Good News group, please see our detailed Welcoming comment, one of the first comments in our morning diaries.
How to Resist: Do Something …
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GoodNewsRoundup:
bilboteach (as described in detail here.)
1/7 Total $28.9K. Thank you!
(Updated 1/7, 7:45 a.m. ET usually on Sundays.)
Action Steps from Gnusies
Four of our Good News writers regularly post a panoply of fantastic action steps in their Good News Roundups. If you don’t see a way to become active that suits your personality, your funds, or your time, please review their most recent diaries for many different options to volunteer and/or donate:
On Daily Kos:
We welcome comments in Roundups every day regarding:
- National or local Good News.
- Links, stories, music, videos, quotes, tweets. (No tweets or images of the saffron chlamidiot, please.)
- Your resistance activity.
In my Sunday smorgasbord Roundups, I especially welcome the following types of comments:
- Who won YOUR week?
- Questions about Daily Kos tech issues or our map.
- Good News Roundups and you.
- How are you resisting?
- How are you supporting Democratic candidates?
- Please let’s stick to Good News today, no mews or databases.
In the comments of all Roundups, we do not welcome Grammar Police or Debbie Downers.
Top Image: Edward Song created the top image of 3 cavorting gnus using an AI tool, Dalle.
A Little Bit About Me: A little bragging and a smile
In November I read an article in The Guardian, Searching for the perfect republic: Eric Foner on the 14th amendment – and if it might stop [the former guy]. I learned a lot from it and recommend it. In that article, two renowned historians conversed. Ted Widmer interviewed Eric Foner, the oft-quoted winner of a Pullitzer Prize. In that article, I read this paragraph:
But who remembers John Bingham, the congressman from Ohio, who was more responsible than anyone else for the first section of the 14th amendment, about the federal government having the power to prevent states from denying Americans equality? We don’t remember Thaddeus Stevens, the great radical Republican from Pennsylvania who was the floor leader in the House, who did more than anyone else to get the 14th amendment ratified. We don’t remember [Jacob] Howard, from Michigan, who got it through the Senate. In other words, the 14th amendment is not seen as fundamental to our constitutional system, whereas, of course, the original constitution is. [“As amended on 1 January 2024.”]
As frequent readers may remember, I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life (but you won’t be quizzed about this). However, I had never heard of Michigan Senator “James Howard” getting the 14th Amendment through the Senate, so I decided to research him. I found this Wikipedia entry, which showed that the senator’s first name was Jacob, not James.
Therefore, I sent The Guardian Readers' editor's office an email in December, and this week they responded:
Dear [2thanks],
Belated thanks for your email. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, but the article has now been amended to name Jacob Howard, and a footnote added to explain the change.
Best wishes,
[Name removed by 2thanks]
Guardian readers' editor's office
There you have it. It’s a minor accomplishment, but when I think about correcting a
major historian as quoted in
a major news source, I get a minor smile in my cheeks and just behind my forehead, and now I hope I’ve given you a smile too.
Our Roundup is almost open!
Thank you for fighting for truth and justice with all us Gnusies! 40% of our Readers don’t visit every day, 50% of us do, and 10% are here for the first time! We all do what we can. For 5 years, we’ve shared positive news, laughed, organized, resisted, rebelled, revolted without being revolting, relied, rested, mentored, created, crossed rivers, chewed our cud, puffed methane out both ends, and laughed. Here’s looking at you, kid, and standing upwind!
As always, please share more Good News than I can find or provide.
This is a group diary, and by my power I declare this Good Gnus Salo(o)n open! Let the good-news sharing and community building begin!
Power with, not power over ❤️ ✊ ❤️
2thanks (he, him)