#good news in north carolina

[petnews2day]

Ripken the Bat Dog prepares for another season with Durham Bulls

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/BtEVB

Ripken the Bat Dog prepares for another season with Durham Bulls

The Durham Bulls are an institution in the Bull City. So is “Ripken the Bat Dog,” an American Black Lab trained retrieve loose bats on the field during games. Durham has long been the younger sibling city living in the shadow of its capital neighbor, Raleigh. Sure, they have a smaller population and they get […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/BtEVB #DogNews #Community, #Durham, #GoodNewsInNorthCarolina, #Hardgate, #Sports, #ThingsToDo

[reasonsforhope]

"One of the least respected but most important ecosystems on Earth are seagrass meadows, and a pioneering robotic solution is helping marine scientists restore these underwater gardens.

The ReefGen Grasshopper can plant dozens of seagrass seeds per minute. Not only is this faster than a human diver, but much safer as well.

It works by injecting a tiny slurry of sediment wrapped around the seagrass seed into the seafloor. After covering a growing plot of four seeds, the robot ‘hops’ about 30 centimeters away and starts again.

Despite covering a minuscule portion of the seafloor, seagrass meadows are estimated to hold 35-times more carbon than terrestrial forests—amounting to around 18% of the total carbon stock of the world’s oceans.

ReefGen’s founder Tom Chi dreamed up the idea after watching the degradation of coral reefs on his home island in Hawaii. The first iteration of the robot set coral ‘plugs’ onto existing reefs to help regrow them, but the technology was prohibitively expensive for wide-scale use.

Now however, broader selections of off-the-shelf parts have driven down the costs of manufacturing and maintaining underwater robots, according to Chris Oakes, CEO of ReefGen.

“Manual planting works, but robots are really good when things are dull, dirty, dangerous, or distant—the four Ds,” Oakes told CNN, adding that at the moment, Grasshopper is piloted with a controller by a human on the surface.

“Right now, we’re focused on the planting, the biology, and the mechanical aspects, once we’re confident that that’s all designed the right way, we will overlay more semi-autonomous features like navigation, so you don’t actually have to pilot it,” he said.

ReefGen has been able to not only expand into restoration of seagrass meadows, but also see its robots used in oceans around the world. This July, Grasshopper planted 25,000 seeds in Wales. In October, ReefGen teamed up with the University of North Carolina (UNC) Institute of Marine Sciences to test various seed replanting methods out on the state’s declining seagrass meadows.

Oakes says that as cool and “flashy” as a robotic solution might seem, the most important factor in its success will be the long-term monitoring of the fields it’s replanting. Are they growing to maturity, are the seedlings dying off before then, will they live long enough to seed and germinate fields of their own, how do fields it plants compare to fields planted by hand??"

-via Good News Network, December 24, 2024

[cleolinda]

Mark Robinson, the “I’m a Black Nazi who left comments on porn sites, because people comment on porn sites for some reason” guy, has officially lost the governor’s race.

[teaandinanity]

I feel a little weird that my biggest problem during what appears to have been the apocalypse was being without power. Like, now that I am caught up on what's happening in the world outside my direct line of sight? Holy shit.

I am the moron who only notices she's in a zombie movie 2 days in when she tries to go get Starbucks.

[keefechambers]

“My definition of success is a child who is respectful, responsible, and fun to be around.”

SHARE ME ON TWITTER.

[erik-powery-for-america]

Check out "Cold Blood" feat. J. Cole and Canei Finch [Explicit] by Yo Gotti [feat. J. Cole & Canei Finch] on Amazon Music https://music.amazon.com/albums/B00GJ4LNX4?trackAsin=B00GJ4LXDO&do=play&ref=dm_sh_SdX20CjU9C2dfxvjyZhSGRe2Q : Produced by Canei Finch

[annahotesquivel]

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

A North Carolina pastor has been helping children in need throughout his county, whether they need clothes, housing, or even a family—with programs like his church’s Foster and Adoption Ministry. A few years ago his City Church in Gastonia started Hope Closet, a clothing giveaway for kids who may be...

[unforth]

Everything feels awful right now but it isn't really. We still don't officially have a winner, but regardless of how the presidential election ends up, I wanted to take a minute and find what lights I can in the 3 a.m. darkness. Here's what I know:

* Kentucky overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to undermine the public education system by offering private school vouchers:

* Delaware has elected a transgender woman to the House of Representatives, the first out trans person of any gender ever elected to congress:

* For the first time in history, two Black women will be serving in the senate at the same time, and they are only the fourth and fifth Black women ever elected to the senate:

* New York State has passed a constitutional amendment enshrining the rights of pregnant people (including the right to an abortion), LGBTQIA+ people, the disabled, immigrants regardless of legal status, and other at-risk groups:

* Democrat Josh Stein has beaten self-avowed Nazi Mark Robinson to become governor of North Carolina:

That's everything I know off the top of my head. It's not many bright spots, but it's not zero. I'm going to try to find more and I'll add them to the post. It's the only thing I can think of to do that isn't sobbing and throwing up or looking up Canadian immigration rules.

If you know more good news, I encourage you to add it in reblogs.

[fsfsfsgkgkgk]

BTS vs. Nacho Libre vs. Donald Trump

[downfallofi]

Pretty damned cruel to offer me Wawa knowing that it is NOT in fact on the West coast, Tumblr

[reasonsforhope]

"The number of teenage abortions in Finland fell by 66% between 2000 and 2023, its public health institute THL said on Monday, attributing the reduction to the offer of free contraception to adolescents and compulsory sex education in schools.

Finland also passed a law in 2022 liberalising abortion, at a time of deep divisions over abortion rights in Europe and court rulings in the U.S. that restricted access to terminations of unwanted pregnancies for millions of people there.

The number of abortions among women under 20 rose during the 1990s in Finland, which led the Nordic country to respond at the start of the 2000s by making morning-after pills available without prescription from 15 years of age and sexual education compulsory in all schools.

"We can assume that sexual education plays a significant role," THL's research professor Mika Gissler told Reuters, adding that increased access to contraception from a young age was another factor behind the change.

The number of abortions fell 66% to 722 in 2023 from 2,144 in 2000 among all teenagers aged 19 or younger in Finland, while the drop was even steeper at 78% among those under 18 in the same period, THL's statistics showed.

"Since the latter half of the 2010s, the decline in the number of young people's abortions has also been influenced by the introduction of free contraception in many welfare regions," THL wrote in a report...

Under the 2022 liberalisation, Finland from September 2023 stopped requiring women to give a reason for having an abortion, making it available upon a pregnant person's request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

[Note: That's actually not a very long window for abortion! Many conservative states in the US have actually instituted 12-week bans, and it's caused terrible upheaval and limits to medical services. Sounds like Finland should liberalize further, imho! Still, important progress!]

THL said it was too early to conclude whether the legislative change, which took effect last year, will have an impact on the number of abortions."

-via Reuters, June 3, 2024

[shipsonmymind]

Abolish the Republican Party.

[petnews2day]

What I Learned at the Dog Show – Garden & Gun

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/p8PkT

What I Learned at the Dog Show – Garden & Gun

People write books for many reasons: adventure, fulfillment, curiosity, passion, money. I wrote my new book, Bornfor all those reasons. But also: I needed some dogs in my life. My wife and I had fourteen years with a yellow Lab mutt named Fred. He was the best dog, even when he ate the drywall in […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/p8PkT #DogNews #Charlotte, #GoodDog, #NorthCarolina

[batboyblog]

But I don't live in a swing state?!

every 4 years I see people talking about how they live in a red state (or more rarely a blue state) so their vote doesn't matter and I just want to briefly point out that I think nearly every state is either a swing state for the Presidential election, having a key Senate Race that will decide control of the Senate, has one or more key House races that'll decide control of the House, or is having an important Governor's race that'll could flip control of the state

Presidential Swing states:

Arizona

Georgia

Michigan

Nevada

North Carolina

Pennsylvania

Wisconsin

Key Senate Races:

Arizona

Florida

Maryland

Michigan

Montana

Nevada

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Texas

Wisconsin

States With Key House Races:

Alabama

Alaska

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Florida

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Maine

Maryland

Michigan

Minnesota

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Texas

Virginia

Washington

Wisconsin

Swingable Governor Races:

New Hampshire

North Carolina

there are lots of local and state level races that are very important to, but my point was basically odds are very very good, you live somewhere where your vote will help decide what America looks like in 2025. Don't get tricked into thinking just because your state isn't one of the ones always mentioned in the news as a swing state that it doesn't matter what you do