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, October 1, 2023:
From potluck to techtalk to ruminations you have a Sunday morning brunch selection of 23 (count ‘em!) TAGS to snap onto or add to your coffee, tea, mocha, or mimosa! Thanks to 2thanks and that tap dancing entourage of TAGS acting like a Busby Berkeley film that is running off the take-up reel onto the floor of the projection room, arriving Gnusies in the Great Ballroom of the Gnuville Breakfast Brunch form a sweeping, twirling array of arrivals following the “Dance to your Sitting Spot” theme of the day. Those already esconced (esconced, I say!) in their seat, booth, recliner, kitchen nook or long table salon can look on with bemusement and raised eyebrows as later arrivals make their way (with breakfast plates in hand!) to their favorite spot with a waltz (what elegance from GNR!), a duck walk, a samba (lovely, Chloris, LOVELY!), a hoedown, or even a tango (daring, Mokurai, daring!) to settle in for a Sunday munch-and-read. Come one, come all (in your choice of body motion…….although put a throttle on the twist when carrying liquids) and see what Good News stories and links 2thanks and everyone else puts up for today’s Round Up….and BTW, you have 23 chances to say “TAG, you’re it!”
Science
skralyx, member of Daily Kos: It’s pretty easy to get the salt out of seawater. All you have to do is boil it, freeze it, or just wait for rain! But those things take a lot of energy and/or time that many of us don’t have to spare. So people have been working on low-cost and low-energy-input ways to do it, such as solar desalination.
We seem to have hit on a really good one here, thanks to a collaboration between MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). I couldn’t even cram all the benefits of this thing into my diary title.
This device breaks the record for rate of fresh water production from seawater by a solar device, and as awesome as that is, it’s actually kind of a charming side note. The bigger breakthrough is that the device can keep running up near this rate for a long time without getting fouled by salt accumulation, and it does this by emulating natural processes that occur in the sea. That cuts costs by about 10x compared to typical solar desalination, making the cost of the fresh water it produces comparable to that of tap water.
Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday, 10/7/23, jck, from Science Daily: Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda first proposed umami as a basic taste -- in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter -- in the early 1900s. About eight decades later, the scientific community officially agreed with him.
Now, scientists led by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences have evidence of a sixth basic taste.
In research published Oct. 10 in Nature Communications, USC Dornsife neuroscientist Emily Liman and her team found that the tongue responds to ammonium chloride through the same protein receptor that signals sour taste.
"If you live in a Scandinavian country, you will be familiar with and may like this taste," says Liman, professor of biological sciences. In some northern European countries, salt licorice has been a popular candy at least since the early 20th century. The treat counts among its ingredients salmiak salt, or ammonium chloride.
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.]
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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
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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
- 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 …
A Triple for Gnuville, USA
1 — Protect Democracy — Re-elect Joe Biden!
(Announced by GoodNewsRoundup here.)
$5.8 K so far, 60% of goal. Thanks!
Please donate here.
2 — 24 in 24! Win Back the House!
Donate funds to 24 races that are key to winning the House in 24! Originally announced by GoodNewsRoundup here.
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3 — New Faces in Congress
Weekly diaries on Sundays at 7:30 a.m. ET by bilboteach announce the week’s addition to our New Faces candidates. Today’s offering: Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Shining Star of Dallas
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Total raised $14.1K! Thank You, Readers, Members of Daily Kos, and Gnusies!
Action Steps from Gnusies
Four of our Good News writers regularly post a panoply of fantastic action steps in every one of 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.
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)