(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Good News Round Up for Wednesday: NASA, Weddings, & Historic Good & Goofy Notes [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-18 Good Wednesday morning all Ye Seekers of Good News, Uplift and a corner of the Internet where you DON’T have to grit your teeth or brace yourself, mental filters on and emotional defenses dialed up. This is the DailyKos Good News Round Up, with the accent on the Good. Every morning a rotating (spin, baby, spin!) dedicated crew of authors/assemblers/compilers/heaper-uppers bring the results they have found over the past several days that Accent-u-ate the Positive. We are not Pollyannas of the Rose-Colored glasses; we are just people wise enough to know you can’t keep absorbing the MSM/Corporate bilge day after day without slowly going nuts or throwing yourself into despair. (And by proof of wisdom, we eschew (eschew, I say!) virtually everything on Faux Noise and the media dreck to its political/fascist right.) “If it bleeds, it leads” may be a current requirement in journalism schools and necessary to keep a high-paying, visible job in the national or even statewide media, but its NOT HEALTHY as a steady diet. So……...this place. Good News from across the Internet: current stories, background information, positive developments, Ukrainian successes, bigots being stopped, yacht-owning crooks being arrested (looking at you Sam “Fried-Bankman”, FTX crypto-trader, scammer, Bankman/Bagman now on trial with a set of charges that, if convicted, will have the cellblock keys taken out of the crypto-vault marked “Throw Away these Keys.”) We revel in Steve “My Speaker Election was Stolen” Scalise (Hanging Chads on Line 2!), the coming come-uppance and especially the come-downance of Gymbo Jordan, the on-going dismantling of the Mango Menace of Mar-a-Lago and all his works and all his ways and all the MAGA-hatted followers. For us, such stories are balm for the soul and sparks of hope for us as Friends and Defenders of Democracy. Now let me set up some stories for you to absorb, react to, extend, amplify, comment on, and even crack wise over. (Snark in Good Taste is always taken as Good News around here.) Also, as keeper of the History Corner around here, you’ll notice bits and pieces from other and prior October 18ths from decades ago that were and are STILL Good and/or STILL Goofy. (While I usually try to balance these groupings between current and historical, this is one of those days when the historical stuff is sort of unbalanced. But I’ve often been accused of that myself, so I’m just going to roll with it…..). Good News in Society and Politics >>>>>>>>>Georgia on our minds! This coming MONDAY begins the first Georgia Election Interference Trial of 2 of the 19 defendants, Kenneth Cheesebro and Sidney (“Kraken”) Powell . We owe an immeasurable gift of thanks to Gnusie and Regular Poster on the Good News History Corner to WolverineForTJatAW for christening this trial with a name that should go down in History. Looking at their surname and nickname respectively, the other day she noted that the “Trial of Cheese and Krakers” is coming up! She’s right, it is, and this is the PERFECT way to call it!! THANK YOU! and BTW now comes THIS CONTEXT STORY noting that THIS FRIDAY (as in 48 hours from now) 450 citizens of Georgia, good and true, are summoned to the Fulton County Courthouse to report for Jury Duty. There will be excused absences, and several other trials launching, drawing on this mass of humanity, but in several days a good 12 of these 450 (plus a few alternates) are going to end up in History as part of the Cheese & Kracker Jury…..something some of them will one day impress their grandchildren with. Bring on the trial and let appropriate snack foods be supplied in abundance! I command it! >>>>>>>>>>Poland’s “Law & Justice” Party has been in power for two 4-year terms in Warsaw. During those 8 years they have taken several disturbing steps toward authoritarianism, all while despising Putin and all his works and ways. (Sure fire issue in Poland: be anti-Russian.) But Sunday came a new round of parliamentary elections, and while L&J still won the most seats as a single party (right around 200) the opposition, far more progressive and pro-EU parties (who are forming a typical coalition) racked up about 248, with 231 being the number for a bare majority. IOW L&J LOST, which is a Good Thing. THIS BBC write up lays out the state of play, and THIS FRESH THIS MORNING STORY both nicely explain, yes, we are allowed to cheer loudly for Democracy. >>>>>>>>>>Ethics? What ethics? We all know what those are, right? No one actually needs a Code of Hammurabi or a Ten Commandments to lay those out, right? Once you finish growling “oh yeah, I can name a few places that could use those,” the (Not Anymore) Supreme Court comes to mind. This year both Alito and Thomas have been in the news WAY too much to demonstrate the LACK of a code of ethics for the Supremes. There IS a Code of Ethics for the Federal Judiciary but the Supremes have exempted themselves from this (“Its good to be Supreme….”) But it has been a bad year for them and while nothing is being formally proposed, there is talk in many quarters. Now comes THIS STORY the other day from Minnesota. Justice Amy Barrett came for a public chat at the University of Minnesota Law School. There were protestors too, but she did flat out say that she thought a Supreme Court Code of Ethics would be a Good Idea. On the one hand a “well, duh!” moment, but also possibly a trial balloon/first mention sort of thing to lay the ground work for such a thing to happen. If there is talk of actual ethics applying to the Supreme Court, and being floated in public by a member of said Court, well then something may be stirring. >>>>>>>>>>January 6. “Lost Tourists in the Capitol Building Day” We all remember watching those busloads from Wacko Whirlwind Tours taking that new amusement park ride, “Storm the Capitol and Try to Overthrow Democracy.” (A couple busloads paid a bit extra for the Level 9 Side Variant called “Hang Mike Pence.”) The overwhelmed and un-reinforced Capitol Police gamely hung in there, offering up themselves in honor. Afterwards, the Police and the FBI went to work busting and arresting Proud Boys (not so Proud now, right boys? As in the Boyz of Cellblock 23…..) and Oath Keepers (many now being Kept by jailers who know their Real Oaths.) Over 1000 arrests and trials still going on, with a conviction rate overwhelmingly in favor of the DOJ. And when the dust settled and the pursuit began, the authorities “asked members of the public with any information to come forward” and assist. And they did. In particular, a loose network of computer types, good with images and video techniques, formed themselves into an ad-hoc (and later, a more hoc) cyber group calling themselves the “Sedition Hunters.” (Motto: “If you were on-line on J6, and most of you bastards were, we will FIND YOU.”) Salon e-zine has a FINE ARTICLE HERE describing and retelling the pursuit and satisfaction of running down the enemies of democracy in a very telling way (that none of them sitting in cells will ever forget; oh and BTW, when you get out and apply for a job, be sure to put your convictions and time served on your resume…...that will impress the HR interview team…../s) Of course Social and Political issues and matters have been around for ages, and for ages they have also been of the Good News persuasion. Like these October 18th happenings: 1648 Boston By permission of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the shoemakers of Boston were allowed to form a guild, to support and protect the craft. It is the first American labor organization. 1767 Maryland and Pennsylvania The Calvert family was a powerful force in Maryland, while the Penn family exercised comparable influence in Pennsylvania. There were long-standing disputes on just where the boundary line ran between the 2 colonies. Back in 1763 the Calverts and the Penns at last jointly hired two British surveyors and amateur astronomers to settle the matter. On this day, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon present their final maps and supporting documents, and both sides accept the Mason-Dixon Line as accurate. Ominously, the line, extended in 1784, became the unofficial dividing line between free-soil states and slave states, storing up much trouble to be settled later. (And now you know----and I have also learned—- where and why THAT famous line came into place….) 1918 Pittsburgh People of many European nations have come to this brawny city to work in the steel mills. With World War I many of them follow the war closely, wondering if there might be chance for their people in the Old Country to have a chance at independence. While the Germans are now retreating from France, Austria-Hungary has collapsed. Czech patriots seize Prague, renounce the rule of Vienna’s Hapsburgs rule and declare independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Here in Pittsburgh, leader-in-exile Tomas Masaryk proclaims the founding of Czechoslovakia. Good News in Science and Engineering One of our prominent Front Page Good News posters like to use the phrase, “I love living in the future” when some cool, new discovery/breakthrough or invention moves us that much closer toward life in the future documentary “The Jetsons.” October 18th happens to feature only one Historical Good News moment in the Sci-Engineering Sector today, but for Gnusies living in the US, this was a big, freakin’ deal 1892 Chicago AND New York City. After several months work the first long-distance telephone line begins service between the two cities, the first such in the US. The line could only carry one call at a time, so to use it you needed to call the operator and make a reservation for time (and length of call.) (On this point, I will grudgingly admit cell phones (at least 2G and 3G) are an improvement. Now if I could just avoid that damned browser so it still acts like a PHONE…..) From a few years later, an old joke from the 1920s when cross-country long distance became possible. A well-to-do family in San Francisco is having dinner one night when the phone rings. The maid goes to the front hall to answer (since there was only ONE PHONE in the house). She picks up, listens a few seconds, then says, “It certainly is!” and hangs up. About a minute later the phone rings again, and the maid again answers so the family can keep eating in peace. Once again she listens, announces, “It certainly is!” and hangs up. The father of the house summons the maid into the dining room and asks what’s going on. The good woman replies, “Oh it’s some sort of prank call. Some woman keeps calling up and saying, ‘Its a long distance from New York City,’ and I just politely agree with them and end the call.” _____________________ Nowadays for long distance, we have NASA. I mean, not only do they have gadgets and gizmos in endless orbits around the Earth, they go Out There as well. Just the other week, after years of work and navigation, they got a space probe to visit an comet/asteroid, take a dust sample, and then track back to Earth. The probe dropped the sealed sample as arranged to a landing spot in the Utah desert, and astro-scientists of all sorts are simply thrilled down to their toenails. Now NASA is readying a new probe, named ‘Psyche’ that they, well, feel pretty good about. The STORY LINK HERE explains the probe will be sent to 16 Psyche, a “metal asteroid” discovered back in 1852. Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis got a bead on the blip and gets credit for the discovery. Later research has turned up the fascinating fact that unlike nearly all asteroids up there (which are mostly made of rock) 16 Psyche has a very high percentage of metals of various kinds….a LOT of metal. So the probe is going to visit to check on the mining possibilities, and to probe the question “Is this the remnant of a destroyed planet?” OR “Is this the starter core of a planet that never really got formed, so that just the heavy metal core is all that got organized?” (Needless to say, a certain slice of pop music wants to be the sound track choice when Psyche meets 16 Psyche in a Heavy Metal meeting…..) BTW, to get into orbit around 16 Psyche, will the Psyche probe come up carefully and then send a signal, “Headin’ for Jupiter!” and then, when the asteroid lurches that way, the probe hauls off on the Mars side and sends a message of ...”Psych!” Just wondering…… UPDATE TO PSYCHE! Promoted Comment! I need to wonder no more! Poster AKALib in the comments below posted this NASA inspired (commissioned? contracted?) Heavy Metal Psyche recording. (Seat belts definitely required; this band is taking no prisoners…….) AKALib notes there is ART Work to go with it, thanks to art students at ASU. (Given some of these Power Chords in the piece, I think NASA may have hit on a way to slice off a sample for return to Earth; those chords are REALLY shredding it, and properly aimed and tuned, ought to be able to do sonic snipping (and to do that in space without air is a really impressive feat.) x YouTube Video >>>>>» Of course, NASA has been using all its Ready for Space talent and knowledge and inventions to make things better on Earth for LONG TIME. After all, the whole world has forgotten what orange juice really tastes like ever since “TANG, Like the Astronauts Drink” . Also there is Teflon, which has been applied to politicians since the Reagan Administration by NASA to ensure they don’t have their funding cut. But now comes an EXCITING STORY that some of NASA’s Space technology has come down to Earth for a major kick start and addition to the entire “Lets move the world off fossil fuels onto electricity” movement to save the climate and the world. We are getting good at making Green Electricity but there is still the matter of Storage. This story notes that NASA developed a “stand up to all sorts of harsh conditions in space” battery technology using a nickel-hydrogen core to hold a charge. The big deal here is that the method can be scaled, as in scaled up BIG TIME. so that the new companies mentioned in the piece think this approach can supply electric storage/battery power at GRID scale! Mind you its going to need a REALLY BIG USB-C port to access that juice, but the prospect is exciting because it looks like its ready to go into production. >>>>>» Well I’ll drink to NASA, that’s for sure. Here’s to ya! Now, if you’d like to offer up that toast with simple fresh water, there is another GREAT development anywhere there happens to be a seacoast. (Since the planet is over 70% ocean, that is a LOT of shoreline.) True, the stuff supporting surfboards is SALT water, but there have been decades of de-salinization tech applied to the problem, some quite clever (like using solar power (and no moving parts) to evaporate the salt water under a dome, so the (fresh) water drips down the sides and leaves the salt in its original pan. Well now comes THIS DIARY (ICYMI) from last week noting a solar powered breakthrough that produces fresh water from sea water for less than 1 cent/ gallon. Gets around the salt depost issue too and uses some of the heat of its process for other work. Embedded link to a Science journal publishing the scientific details this morning in their Oct. 18 issue. Good News Arts, Culture, Food and Fun Weddings are one of those cross-cultural events that counts as a Big Deal, regardless of language, history, religion or traditions. Some things between these 2 people (until recently, a member each of the Other gender) just have to be celebrated, and noted, and remembered. Including children in a wedding can be a high-risk, high-reward proposition. When things go badly with the children (the High-Risk side), there are tears and fury and tantrums (and those just from the bride), chagrin and embarrassment, apologies and dirty looks (from mothers-in-law to be, the junior usher, and maybe the shirt-tail uncle who started the reception early with his personal hip flask.) But when it goes well, yes, there is the High Reward. In this clip there is a wedding in Italy. Fear not, you do not need to know a single word of Italian. The couple is at the altar, the priest blesses them and then…..asks for the ring for the bride. See? Now here is one of those “children in a wedding” moments that can steal your heart as the (usual) little boy steps up with a pillow holding The Ring. But in this wedding the groom earns his stripes as a man worth marrying. You see, the bride is a working woman. She teaches pre-school children with Down’s Syndrome, so her level of patience and dedication and empathy are all off the charts. The groom knows this. To his just-about-wife he has arranged for the Ring to be now presented…….not just by any little boy…….but by her students! (Kleenex alert at Def Con 5!!) x YouTube Video Now while that is a stunning modern story, there are other Good News stories of October 18ths from long ago that are also worth recalling this day about this day. 1706 Venice, Italy Birth Baldasaare Galuppi , harpsichordist and composer. Son of a barber (day job) who played violin for a theater orchestra (night job), dad taught Baldasaare to play the fiddle. When he was 12 the chief organist at St. Mark’s Cathedral (the one in all the pictures of Venice) took him on as a student, and he took a shine to the harpsichord and at 15 tried his hand at writing an opera. Got a job playing violin in Florence 5 years later and tried his hand at opera again, with better results (it got staged.) Back to Venice he became director of music in a theater. Got to stay a couple years in London (where Handel attended one of the premieres of one of his new operas), and also served 3 years as the court music director in St. Petersburg for Czarina Catherine the Great. Produced a large block of sacred music (several Masses and many individual pieces) as well as about 40 secular operas. These were usually in the “galant” style, the 25 years or so as Baroque gave way to the coming Classical period. Very popular in his day and considered a master of the “opera buffa” (comic opera). After his death his manuscripts were looted by Napoleon’s army of invasion and scattered across Europe. He was forgotten until the 1950s and has enjoyed something of a revival starting in the 1990s. (Almost an hour here: to keep you going all of your Wednesday!) x YouTube Video 1776 Elmsford, New York Down in Manhattan there’s a Revolution happening, complete with the British Navy and General Washington and all that. But in this village not far from White Plains, there is a bar in a tavern that this day makes revolutionary history by coining a terrifically important English word. The bar is decorated in feathers on the back wall of the bar. They are from many different species, typically the tail feathers, and they form a riot of colors. The bar’s glasses and bottles of spirits are grouped just under these. On this day bartender Betsy Flanagan welcomes a customer: “What’ll you have?” The patron (who’s name has been lost) points at the back wall and asks for a glassful “of those cocktails.” History does not record if this was shaken or stirred, but the first in history so named was served. Mimosas a la Flanagan for all the Gnusies. I’m buying! Prosit! 1851 London. Herman Melville finally finds a publisher for his novel, which goes on sale this day under the title of “The Whale.” Sales are fairly good, and soon Americans want to read him too, so it was re-published here with the title “Moby Dick.” (American sales were good; so good you could say ‘Jaws-dropping.’ So good they had to get a bigger boat…..) 1873 New York City A panel of coaches and athletes from Rutgers, Yale, Columbia and Princeton this day finished working out a common set of rules from among the 4 schools of a new outdoor sport: a field to be sized at 140 yards long by 70 wide, marked with chalk dust lines every 10 yards. The field had to be this big since each side could field 20 men apiece on the field. There was a leather ball that had to be kicked. A team would have 4 chances to gain 10 yards or more to get a fresh set of 4 chances. Intercollegiate football was born, sort of. Harvard and Tufts did not attend (“we have our Standards…..sniff”) because their version of the rules allowed picking up the ball and carrying it, along with allowing tackling of a ball carrier to stop play, and only 11 on a side on the field . (These were adopted by everyone two years later.) The forward pass, leather helmets, tailgating, cheerleaders, mascots, and the Ohio State Best Damn Band in the Land all came later. x YouTube Video 1926 St. Louis Missouri Birth of Charles Edward Anderson Berry, singer, composer. Charles’ father was a contractor and his mother a certified school principal, so their boy had a good education. Still, he got in trouble with the law and was in a Missouri Reformatory for 4 years. While there he formed a band with three others and they were good enough the authorities let them perform off site from time to time. Released on his 21st birthday he picked up odd jobs, got married and kept playing guitar on the side for extra money. Learned to play better from T-Bone Walker , started incorporating some country riffs into his playing (to the point fans asked “who is that black hillbilly?” before dancing madly to his stuff) and recorded a couple singles he wrote including “Ida Red.” Muddy Waters heard it and invited “Chuck Berry” to move to Chicago, where he introduced him to Leonard Chess of Chess Records . Berry re-wrote “Ida Red” which Chess released as “Maybelline” ---beyond rhythm & blues now came rock and roll! The legend begins ----and (literally) goes out of this world. In 1976 the Voyager 1 satellite was launched to boldly go out of our solar system where no one had gone before. It carries THIS SAMPLING of human music, and “Johnny B Goode” flies alongside Navaho chanting and Beethoven’s 5th . Go Johnny GO! Indeed. (How will other species react to “Johnny B Goode”? Well first, let’s finish with OUR species. Here is a “reaction video”, where a group of (in this case) Gen Z teens who in their short lives have NEVER HEARD of or seen Chuck Berry record their reaction…...almost as fun to watch as Chuck himself…...) x YouTube Video 1943 Across America. On this day CBS Radio begins broadcasting a daytime, crime-action series named its main character, “Perry Mason.” In 1957 (14 years later!) CBS wanted to take it to TV but was adamant Perry needed a love interest. Erle Gardener, the author of the book series and holder of most of the rights, flat-footed wouldn’t do it. CBS sponsor Proctor & Gamble (the soap company, so “soap opera”) hired a team of writers to convert the radio show and characters into what CBS wanted. The show premiered in 1957 every weekday for 15 minutes (later 30) as “The Edge of Night” (which ran until 1987! My mom was a big fan.) CBS agreed to an evening show as well, much more in line with Gardner’s novels, and hired Raymond Burr as the star of crime & courtroom drama, which also debuted in 1957 (and made 39 episodes a year for 9 years, so there are some 350 episodes for reruns. My dad was a fan.) 1961 New York City. The Museum of Modern Art is justly proud of being a cutting-edge gallery for rising new artists and honoring earlier pioneers. On this day Henri Matisse's "Le Bateau" went on public display amid a good bit of excitement. It was 46 days later that MOMA had to sheepishly admit that they had hung it upside down …..but NOW, by gum, going forward, they would really honor Matisse…… And finally, before all of you begin the comments, link-ery, respond-ery, snark-ery and expand-o-matic Goodies that make the Good News worth calling Good, I post a small personal request. Feel free to skip right on down to Tip Jar and related phenomena. (Personal/Professional request: I am final proofing a novel of mine that I hope to e-publish as an e-book before the year is out. As I have looked into the e-book realm for the first time as an author, I find that, for instance, Amazon’s Kindle franchise typically offers paper copies for sale as well, produced in a POD: Print On Demand manner. This means I need a cover for both print and pixels, so I am in need of a graphic artist. Can someone recommend themselves or an acquaintance in the field? I am willing to negotiate and pay a professional fee for services. I would be happy to provide such a graphic artist a full copy of the work with an expectation they would read it first before producing possible covers. The story is on that line between a romance wrapped around an adventure, or an adventure with a romance built in. The 2 main characters are in their mid-70s, a man and woman living in “Independent Living” and they don’t like it. One dark and stormy night they make a break for it…….from Minnesota all the way to Spain. They want to live, and be treated like adults, and figure out their relationship. ( Seniors need adventure and romance too!) If you could post something in the comments, or, perhaps better, DM me via KosMail, I would be grateful.) May all your News be Good, comforting and inspiring. Shalom. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/18/2198851/-Good-News-Round-Up-for-Wednesday-NASA-Weddings-amp-Historic-Good-amp-Goofy-Notes?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/