Non-Profit News

The Polaris Dawn Mission To Earth’s Orbit Will Test SpaceX’s Capabilities For A Commercial Space Program

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 4:00am

SpaceX’s upcoming Polaris Dawn mission aims to be historic in more ways than one. Polaris Dawn plans to not only orbit Earth higher than any astronauts have in more than 50 years but to also feature the first private spacewalk.

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A Third Of The World’s Population Lacks Internet Connectivity − Airborne Communications Stations Could Change That

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/28/2024 - 3:00am

About one-third of the global population, around 3 billion people, don’t have access to the internet or have poor connections because of infrastructure limitations, economic disparities and geographic isolation.

Today’s satellites and ground-based networks leave communications gaps where, because of geography, setting up traditional ground-based communications equipment would be too expensive.

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A Lincoln Studio Helps Artists With Developmental Disabilities Find Their Voice. It Was Almost Shuttered.

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/21/2024 - 7:00am

Joey Dowding gets a helping hand from studio program manager Samantha Wieland as he throws a pot at Lincoln’s Live Yes Studios on June 11, 2024. Dowding, who also plays guitar and hosts a racing podcast, said he has been coming to Live Yes since 2018.
(Eric Gregory / Flatwater Free Press)

Joey Dowding sits at the ceramics wheel on a Wednesday morning in June. He’s sporting a flower-print apron and a hesitant look directed at the hunk of brown clay before him.

“Faster,” instructor Samantha Weiland says reassuringly as Dowding eases his foot on the wheel’s pedal. She guides his hands around the spinning clay. Dowding’s classmates chime in with encouragement.

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Our Focus Should Be On Using Educational Resources For The Benefit Of All Students

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/21/2024 - 6:00am

I am writing in response to the recent article on the “Opportunity Scholarship” and the significant opposition it has generated among Nebraskans. I write from my experience as a parent who had children in both private and public schools, an education professional, a mother of a student with a disability, and the President of The Arc of Nebraska (Nebraska’s largest membership organization for people with disabilities and their families) board.

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A Hunter’s Graveyard Shift: Grabbing Pythons In The Everglades

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/21/2024 - 5:00am

Thomas Aycock, a contractor with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, brings out a toy snake to show reporters.
(Wilfredo Lee / AP Photo)

HOLEY LAND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA, Fla. (AP) — It's after midnight when the windshield fogs up on Thomas Aycock's F-250 pickup truck. He flashes a low smile as he slowly maneuvers through the sawgrass, down dirt roads deep in the Florida Everglades.

His windshield just confirmed it: When the dew point drops in the dead of the night, it’s prime time for pythons.

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Could We Use Volcanoes To Make Electricity?

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/21/2024 - 4:00am

A construction crew member is shown March 6, 2007 working near well #6 at Puna Geothermal Venture, in Puna, Hawaii. Hawaii seems like a perfect candidate for energy independence because its Pacific gusts, ample sunlight and a continuously erupting volcano can be used to make natural electricity.
(Tim Wright / AP Photo)

Turning red-hot lava from an active volcano into electricity would be dangerous and unreliable. Volcanoes don’t erupt on predictable schedules, and lava cools too quickly. But many countries, including the U.S., have found ways to tap volcanic heat to make electricity.

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Nebraska Treasurer Establishes Crowdfunding Website As Savings Program For People With Disabilities

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/21/2024 - 3:00am

Josh Swanson, Josh Whitfield, Kathy Rohwedder and Whitfield’s service dog, Albert Noah Pooper, from left, joined a news conference announcing a crowdfunding website for Nebraskans to donate to accounts for people with disabilities, Aug. 14, 2024.
(Zach Wendling / Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — A new crowdfunding website led by the Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office is seeking to help Nebraskans with disabilities live a full, involved life in their community.

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The Trash In Mali's Capital Is Piling Up. Donkey Carts Are Coming To Help

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/21/2024 - 2:00am

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — When handling the garbage of a city of over 3 million people and equipped with little more than a face mask and gloves, it helps to have a sense of humor. Yacouba Diallo decided to name the two donkeys that pull his cart after his cousins, Keita and Kanté.

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Conservatives Have Nicknamed Tim Walz ‘Tampon Tim’

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 8:00am

Originally published by The 19th

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Republicans have a new nickname for Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz: “Tampon Tim.”

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Welcome To Nebraska The Home Of Vice Presidents

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Wed, 08/14/2024 - 7:00am

Welcome to Nebraska the home of Vice Presidents.

Tim Walz joins Gerald Ford and Dick Cheney as the latest vice presidential candidate to be born in the Good Life State. And while it’s true all of them left the state before they got the gig, that doesn’t stop a lot of Nebraskans from having a little bit of hometown pride in what he’s accomplished.