Good People Doing Good Things — A Trio Of ‘Em

Filosofa's Word

Well, folks, it’s Wednesday morning again, time for more good people doing good things!


A bank with a heart – no joke!

Typically, if you pondered a business that was least likely to win an award for altruism, it might be the banking industry.  Banks and bankers are not known for giving or being compassionate.  There is at least one exception, though … Ulster Savings Bank (USB) in upstate New York’s Hudson Valley.  Ulster started doing business in 1871 and this spring is celebrating its 170th anniversary!  But to celebrate, they aren’t giving raises or huge bonuses to CEOs, they are giving back to the community!

The bank’s CEO and President Bill Calderara explained …

“As a mutual savings bank, we were created for the benefit of our customers and the community, we have no shareholders. That enables us to keep all profits local and reinvest into the community…

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Vietnam Sees Hundreds of New COVID Cases, With Two Provinces Largely Locked Down — Radio Free Asia

Vietnam Sees Hundreds of New COVID Cases, With Two Provinces Largely Locked Down Vietnam’s northeastern provinces of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh now lead in new cases of COVID-19 infection in Vietnam since the fourth outbreak of the disease began on April 27, with both provinces under partial lockdown to control the spread, official sources say.

As of Wednesday, 605 cases have been reported in Bac Giang, with 353 cases reported in Bac Ninh.

The Ministry of Health has issued an urgent order to set up two field hospitals to treat the rising numbers of infected, with each hospital staffed by 500 health workers and holding 300 beds, with space prepared for a total of 500 beds each if needed.

Source: Vietnam Sees Hundreds of New COVID Cases, With Two Provinces Largely Locked Down — Radio Free Asia

New nano-fiber filter can capture nearly all coronavirus aerosols – Study Finds

Although many regions are rolling back their COVID-19 mask requirements, there are still plenty of situations which call for extra protection. Now, researchers have developed a nano-fiber filter using polymer nano-threads which can capture 99.9 percent of all coronavirus aerosols they encounter. That’s far more protection than any current mask can provide.

“Our work is the first study to use coronavirus aerosols for evaluating filtration efficiency of face masks and air filters,” says corresponding author Yun Shen, a UC Riverside assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering, in a university release. “Previous studies have used surrogates of saline solution, polystyrene beads, and bacteriophages — a group of viruses that infect bacteria.”

Engineers from UC Riverside and The George Washington University investigated and compared how well surgical and cotton masks, a neck gaiter, and electrospun nanofiber membranes could contain and destroy coronavirus aerosols. Results show the cotton mask and neck gaiter eliminated roughly 45 to 73 percent of the aerosols. Meanwhile, the surgical mask took care of 98 percent of virus particles. Ultimately, the electrospun nanofiber membranes are the clear-cut superior option with 99.9 percent efficiency. 

Source: New nano-fiber filter can capture nearly all coronavirus aerosols – Study Finds

Food giants accused of links to illegal Amazon deforestation | Amazon rainforest | The Guardian

Three of the world’s biggest food businesses have been accused of buying soya from a farmer linked to illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.

Cargill, Bunge and Cofco sourced soya beans from the Chinese-owned Fiagril and the multinational Aliança Agrícola do Cerrado, both of which have allegedly been supplied by a farmer fined and sanctioned multiple times after destroying swathes of rainforest, according to a new investigation.

Soya beans are a key ingredient in poultry, pig and cattle feed, particularly for animals reared on intensive farms.

Source: Food giants accused of links to illegal Amazon deforestation | Amazon rainforest | The Guardian

Stench of death pervades rural India as Ganges swells with Covid victims | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Stigma and cost of wood leave families with no choice but to immerse their dead in river

There was a time before when the Ganges was “swollen with dead bodies”.

In 1918, when the great flu pandemic swept through India and killed an estimated 18 million people, the water of this river – upon which so many lives depended – was filled with the stench of death.

Source: Stench of death pervades rural India as Ganges swells with Covid victims | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Banks Fight $4 Billion Debt Relief Plan for Black Farmers – The New York Times (Me: hundreds of years of profit from slave labor, not enough for US banks, they want more…)

The Biden administration’s efforts to provide $4 billion in debt relief to minority farmers is encountering stiff resistance from banks, which are complaining that the government initiative to pay off the loans of borrowers who have faced decades of financial discrimination will cut into their profits and hurt investors.

The debt relief was approved as part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that Congress passed in March and was intended to make amends for the discrimination that Black and other nonwhite farmers have faced from lenders and the United States Department of Agriculture over the years. But no money has yet gone out the door.

Instead, the program has become mired in controversy and lawsuits. In April, white farmers who claim that they are victims of reverse discrimination sued the U.S.D.A. over the initiative.

These Twins Lived Together. In Covid, They Died Together. – The New York Times

Joefred and Ralfred Gregory moved through life as one.

They went to the same college. They studied the same thing. They wore matching clothes. They trimmed their beards the exact same way.

Identical twins, they were two handsome young men in northern India who above all else really loved each other. And when they both were struck by Covid-19 last month and hospitalized, it was like they shared one sick body.

Hours after Joefred died, Ralfred’s mother told him that his brother was still alive, to keep his spirits up.

But Ralfred sensed his brother was no more and said, from his hospital bed, “Mummy, you’re lying.”

The next day, on May 14, Ralfred died too.

ImageGregory Raymond Raphael and his wife, Soja Gregory, last week, grieving with their older son Nelfred Raphael Gregory at St Luke’s cemetery after the burial of their twin sons Joefred and Ralfred in Meerut, near New Delhi. 
Credit…via Gregory Raymond Raphael

An ‘Army of 16-Year-Olds’ Takes On the Democrats – The New York Times

Ms. Walsh, a 16-year-old high school junior, has many of the attributes of Generation Z: She likes to refer to people (like the president) as “bestie.” She occasionally gets called away from political events to babysit her little brother. She is slightly in the doghouse, parent-wise, for getting a C+ in precalculus.

She is also representative of an influential new force in Democratic politics, activists who cut their teeth on the presidential campaigns of Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

The full strength of these activists — many of whom are not old enough to vote — did not become clear until last fall, when they were key to one of the year’s most surprising upsets, helping Senator Edward J. Markey defeat a primary challenge from Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, who had been heavily favored to win.