Good Morning, Gnusies!
Some of you may have read comments recently where I explained that I’d told my dad about us here at GNR, about my monthly round up, and how he’s been sending me stuff for future GNRs.
Well, here we are.
And here’s his first contribution:
Good news from one of my sports heroes:
Most minority owned small businesses were not able to take advantage of the short-term loans being offered by the federal government during the onset of the coronavirus. Thankfully, basketball legend Magic Johnson is here to help.
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According to CNBC, Johnson has partnered with MBE Capital Partners to source $100 million in loans to minority and women-owned small businesses. The loans will be distributed through the same federal government program that is currently issuing small business loans but will be earmarked to target businesses in need.
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"We have to remember that these businesses have been in urban communities for a long time," Johnson told CNBC. "They've been doing great things, and they probably didn't have a relationship with the banks when the stimulus package went out. So now, we're able to say, 'Hey, you can have a relationship with us.'"
A representative for MBE said the loans could help as many as 100,000 small businesses over the coming months, with an application process that is meant to simplify and expedite a process that has often been criticized as overly complicated and slow.
Even better, MBE CEO Rafael Martinez said the program could be expanded to upwards of $1 billion.
From the Warm and Fuzzy Files, and another contribution from my father:
A family of orangutans and a romp of river otters are the furriest of friends, according to zookeepers in Belgium who purposefully arranged for the primates' and mustelids' habitats to intersect.
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"The presence of a family of Asian small-clawed otters in [the orangutans'] territories is not a coincidence," Mathieu Goedefroy, Pairi Daiza spokesperson, told Live Science in an email. Orangutans (genus Pongo) share 97% of their DNA with humans, and like their Homo sapiens' cousins, orangutans "must be entertained, occupied, challenged and kept busy mentally, emotionally and physically at all times," Goedefroy said.
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"The otters really enjoy getting out of the water on the orangutan island to go and play with their big, furry friends," Goedefroy said. "It makes life more fun and interesting for both animal species, which makes it a very successful experiment."
I may live in Ohio, but the Governor I follow is Kentucky's Andy Beshear. I can't do this essay justice, in part because of long paragraphs, but I'll give you the opening. I urge you to read the rest if you have the time and inclination.
Every day at five in the afternoon, my governor, recently elected Democrat Andy Beshear, delivers an update on the Covid-19 pandemic in our state of Kentucky. Watching these televised press conferences has quickly become a quarantine ritual in my household. My family gathers in one room, in front of one television, to hear what Governor Beshear has to say. The information he shares is fairly standard: He provides updates on diagnoses and deaths, talks about “flattening the curve,” and explains any new measures being taken to slow the spread of the virus. But he usually doesn’t lead with these details. Instead, he starts these pressers like a sermon. He passionately speaks about the unity and sacrifice that is required from Kentuckians to fight the pandemic, imploring his flock to be “good neighbors.” He preaches the gospel of social distancing by explaining that it is the duty of each person to stay home when possible. He rebukes the sin of non-compliance, reiterating that following his guidelines can lead us to the end of these uncertain times.
And yes, I do tune in every day at 5 p.m. EST to listen to his updates.
To infinity and beyond! Science Files represent!
NASA, along with a number of partnering space agencies from around the world, have announced a new set of international agreements that will help to govern a “safe, peaceful, and prosperous future” of space exploration.
The recently-released “Artemis Accords” are the latest development of the Artemis Program, through which the agency vows to send the first woman—and next man—to the moon by 2024.
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“It’s a new dawn for space exploration!” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter last week. “Today, I’m honored to announce the Artemis Accords agreements—establishing a shared vision and set of principles for all international partners that join in humanity’s return to the Moon. We go, together.”
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“International space agencies that join NASA in the Artemis program will do so by executing bilateral Artemis Accords agreements, which will describe a shared vision for principles, grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to create a safe and transparent environment, which facilitates exploration, science and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy,” NASA said in a statement.
International partners that have signed on to the Accords include the Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, according to CNN.
Lots more info at the link!
From The Kids Are All Right Files, and another story I can’t do justice with an excerpt, but I’ll try:
Delivery driver Mikail Farrar had been driving through Suwanee, Georgia on his daily route last week when he saw a youngster chasing after his mail truck.
6-year-old Cooper Morgan had flagged Farrar down so he could ask him to deliver a gift to his skateboarding idol: Tony Hawk.
The gift was a worn-out skateboard deck that had Tony Hawke’s name written in black marker on one end of the board and Cooper’s name written on the other. Although the board was not properly packaged or addressed, the youngster told Farrar: “Get this to Tony Hawk from me. Tell him it’s from Cooper.”
Farrar did not want to disappoint Cooper; so he took a chance on the internet and posted a video to his Tik Tok channel explaining his predicament. A few hours after uploading the post, he checked his phone and was stunned to see a flood of notifications from social media users tagging Tony Hawk and praising Farrar for the adorable gesture.
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Hawk thanked Farrar for connecting him with his young fans and sent a private message with his home address so Farrar could mail the skateboard. Hawk also said he would be mailing several new skateboards over to Cooper and his family in return.
From the DIY Joy files:
The Victory Family Church in Norman, Oklahoma used a Zoom call to record “Don’t Worry Be Happy”, using only kitchen appliances, utensils, and voices.
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“Many people have been cooking at home a lot more recently… Someone tossed out the song Don’t Worry Be Happy, and it immediately just made sense; I think we really just wanted to do something positive and uplifting for everyone,” says Colten.
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“Once the idea started coming together, we quickly realized that it was just a great representation of all the different people in our community, and how we’re all in this together.”
Another addition from Dad:
As if you guys didn't know I'd be bringing the Green Files:
Super-green Hydro (SGH2) is launching the plant in partnership with the city of Lancaster, which will start processing 42,000 tons of solid waste into hydrogen energy around the start of 2021.
“We are the only company in the world delivering green hydrogen that is cost-competitive with the cheapest, dirtiest hydrogen made from coal and gas, and much less expensive than other green hydrogen,” says SGH2 CEO Dr. Robert Do. “Our technology can scale quickly and produce fuel 24/7, year-round.”
Operating 24 hours a day for 7 days a week, the Lancaster plant will produce 24,000 pounds (11,000 kilograms) of hydrogen per day. According to SGH2, this makes them 3 times bigger than any other hydrogen energy plant, a source which they describe as being the “missing link” to a decarbonized world.
SGH2 have created a system whereby oxygen-rich gas is fed into a chamber containing a plasma torch that heats the inserted trash component past 3,500 degrees Celsius. This rapid change of state—from solid, to liquid, to gas, and finally to plasma—separates the hydrogen atoms from hydrocarbon molecules which is then used for energy. The high heat also removes any tar or particulates that can sometimes be produced as byproducts.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab performed a lifecycle carbon analysis of the hydrogen produced this way and found that for every ton of hydrogen produced, the technology mitigated 23 to 31 tons of carbon dioxide.
More info in the article.
The Green Files, part 2:
A must-have in green building design, solar chimneys can slash energy costs up to 50%—now research reveals they could also help save lives in a building fire.
In a world-first, researchers designed a solar chimney optimized for both energy saving and fire safety, as part of the sustainable features of a new building in Melbourne, Australia.
Modeling shows the specially-designed solar chimney radically increases the amount of time people have to escape the building during a fire—extending the safe evacuation time from about 2 minutes to over 14 minutes.
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In the new project, a collaboration between RMIT University and the City of Kingston, researchers designed a solar chimney to maximize its efficiency for both ventilating fresh air and sucking smoke out of a building in case of fire. The study was published this week in the journal Energy and Buildings.
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“This will differ from building to building, but we know that any extra time is precious and improves fire safety, which could ultimately help to save lives,” he said.
The last several months have been a slog — even more so than the last couple of years because of reasons we all understand, and I avoid even mentioning in my roundups. In the process of continuing on in travelling this road of life, I’ve come to realize that one of the things that I think has been not exactly rekindled, but more re-recognized, re-realized by humanity at large, is that sense of community we all belong to. And in digging through my recent emails with family members across the country, I dug up this example, a contribution from my brother, and a song I grew up with and have held close to my heart for decades:
MCUBF out.