I've entered t-shirt design contests that you can vote on. You can find my submissions here… or if you want to see all the designs (for the STEM contest), here. There's only one more day left to vote.
The new Alphasmart. No price, yet. (Grokked from Gwenda Bond)
"Observers noted that the plot appears to mirror Rowling's own experience of taking heat and losing fans for expressing transphobic views in recent years. Rowling has said publicly that the book was not based on her own life, even though some of the events that take place in the story did in fact happen to her as she was writing it." Rolls eyes hard. Although, to give her some credit, this does happen to several authors where real life overtakes their fiction, and the wheels of publishing (even for the JK Rowlings of the world) grind slowly. But this controversy (of her TERF comments) has also been going on longer than a year.
"In recent years, climate scientists have warned thawing permafrost in Siberia may be a 'methane time bomb' detonating slowly. Now, a peer-reviewed study using satellite imagery and a review by an international organization are warning that warming temperatures in the far northern reaches of Russia are releasing massive measures of methane—a potent greenhouse gas with considerably more warming power than carbon dioxide."
"Severe drought is forcing some cattle ranchers to slaughter livestock early. That's producing a glut of beef in the short term, but it's also likely to lead to higher prices in the future." We've seen this movie before.
"Access to land and the ability to purchase it were rated as the top barriers to entering farming in a new survey released by the National Young Farmers Coalition and analyzed by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center. According to the survey, 59% of young farmers named finding affordable land to buy as very or extremely challenging, and 45% of young farmers named finding available land to buy as very or extremely challenging. The rates were higher — 68% — among farmers of color."
"But this hasn't been enough to solve the dual problems of food insecurity and diet-related disease. Food policy leaders say it's time to think anew and build on what we've learned. The U.S. can't 'fix' hunger by just feeding people cheap, high-calorie, processed foods – the food that's so abundant in our food supply, they say. Instead, it's got to find ways to nourish people with healthy, nutrient-dense foods." Note that this situation was a direct result of that conference in '69. Unfortunately the new thought is to use SNAP and change the limitations to drive people in a different direction when the actual solution would be to remove ALL limitations of SNAP and incentivize healthier choices (like the double bucks program). But the easier, less potentially problematic, solution will be to make rules around what food people on SNAP can buy. But also note, this isn't a problem with people on SNAP, it's a cultural problem in the US.
"Tech billionaires are buying up luxurious bunkers and hiring military security to survive a societal collapse they helped create, but like everything they do, it has unintended consequences."
"That's the concept behind Vinh Pham's new book, Sit Up Straight: Futureproof Your Body Against Chronic Pain with 12 Simple Movements. Pham, a physical therapist with over a decade of experience, shares a set of exercises aimed at helping to prevent bodily pain that lasts for over three months due to injury, exercise, bad posture or other factors — and relieve it, too. Practicing these movements consistently, he says, can extend your range of motion and increase your flexibility."
"Gen Z workers make up about 12.6% of the workforce as of 2020, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and typically earn about $32,500 annually, according to an August analysis by GoBankingRates." As a comparison, while that's slightly better than my starting wages as a "professional" (ie, post my BFA), it is less than what I was making in the later 90s.
"Amazon appears to be losing its case to unravel the union victory that formed the company's first organized warehouse in the U.S.… After workers in Staten Island, N.Y., voted to join the Amazon Labor Union this spring, the company appealed the result. A federal labor official presided over weeks of hearings on the case and is now recommending that Amazon's objections be rejected in their entirety and that the union should be certified."
"Last week, President Biden laid out a sweeping plan to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower. To get that maximum, individuals must earn less than $125,000 a year, or less than $250,000 a year for couples, and must have received a Pell Grant in college. Non-Pell borrowers who meet those income requirements qualify for $10,000 of forgiveness… Beneath this seemingly straightforward plan, though, is a mountain of uncertainty about how, exactly, it will work. Naturally, borrowers have questions. Here are the answers we know so far…"
"So while he found relief in many of the announcements coming from the White House on Aug. 24 — $10,000 in debt forgiveness, another payment pause extension through the end of the year — Short was most interested in the announcement of proposed changes to income-driven repayment plans." Like I said, while the media focused heavily on the $10-$20,000 figure, this is where the real meat is.
"A senior Russian oil executive has died after falling from the window of a Moscow hospital, months after his company criticised the Russian invasion of Ukraine… Ravil Maganov, the chair of the board of directors of Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, 'fell from a window at Central clinical hospital', the Interfax news agency wrote on Thursday, citing a source. 'He died from injuries sustained.'" Be careful, my Russian friends, the "falling out a high window" virus is going around again. (Grokked from Dan)
"Foreigners must tell the Israeli defence ministry if they fall in love with a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, according to new rules… If they marry, they will be required to leave after 27 months for a cooling-off period of at least half a year… It is part of a tightening of rules on foreigners living in, or wanting to visit, the West Bank."
"Young, armed Taliban guards protect the entrance, searching visitors before they enter the museum grounds… The last time the Taliban were in power, at the direction of then-leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, they smashed ancient statues and other objects in this museum that they deemed un-Islamic and idolatrous."
"Chileans head to the polls on Sunday to either approve or reject what has been described as the world’s most progressive constitution, which would replace the 1980 document drawn up during Gen Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship."
"Marshall lives in west Jackson, in the US state of Mississippi - a predominantly black and poor part of the city. He has no choice but to drink the tap water that Jackson residents have been told to avoid. When he turns the tap on - the water runs brown… He says it's been like this for about eight months and he has no choice but to drink it… 'Yes ma'am. I been drinking it.' He smiles when we ask whether it worries him. 'I turn 70 later this month,' he says. Marshall doesn't have a car, so he can't get to the sites where water is being handed out by the National Guard. He also doesn't have electricity or gas because of a recent fire in the house next door, which means he can't boil the water to help make it safer."
"Math and reading scores for America's 9-year-olds fell dramatically during the first two years of the pandemic, according to a new federal study — offering an early glimpse of the sheer magnitude of the learning setbacks dealt to the nation's children."
"One year after Texas implemented what was then the most restrictive abortion law in the country, a majority of Texas voters are expressing strong support for abortion rights… In a new survey, six in 10 voters said they support abortion being 'available in all or most cases,' and many say abortion will be a motivating issue at the ballot box in November. Meanwhile, 11% say they favor a total ban on abortion."
"In a report released on Monday, the commission highlighted the presence of the Ku Klux Klan mounted marker at the entrance to Bartlett Hall, a science building at West Point, the U.S. Army's elite training school."
"An attorney for the far-right, anti-government group the Oath Keepers has been indicted in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol… Kellye SoRelle, who was arrested in Junction, Texas, is latest person with ties to the group to face charges stemming from the insurrection. A grand jury in Washington, D.C., handed up an indictment charging her with four counts, including conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding and obstruction of justice."
"Kiwi Farms is an internet message board known for being an epicenter of vicious, anti-trans harassment campaigns. It has operated for nearly a decade with the backing of some tech companies that refuse to drop services for it. But now, as the site’s users launch a wave of anti-trans attacks, a trans Twitch streamer targeted by Kiwi Farms is spearheading an unprecedented campaign to take down the fringe website." Supposedly Cloudflare has pulled their support of Kiwi Farms.
"Shrink-wrapped inside the truck are the workings of a clinic that will offer abortions through all trimesters of pregnancy: an ultrasound machine, recovery room chairs, patient gowns, and boxes upon boxes of medical instruments and equipment."
"A jury of six people found Seminole County GOP Chairman Ben Paris guilty on Thursday of causing his cousin’s name to be falsely listed on independent 'ghost' candidate Jestine Iannotti’s campaign contribution forms in 2020."
"Former President Donald Trump was required to return all documents marked as classified as part of a grand jury subpoena issued in May, regardless of whether or not the former president believed he'd declassified the documents, the Department of Justice wrote in an Aug. 29 court filing made public Friday."
"The FBI recovered more than 11,000 government documents and photographs during its Aug. 8 search at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, as well as 48 empty folders labeled as 'classified,' according to court records that were unsealed on Friday." You know how you take home empty folders to use for your own stuff and use a sharpe to cross out what was on the tab and then put your own label on top.
"The former president said: 'The FBI and the justice department have become vicious monsters, controlled by radical-left scoundrels, lawyers and the media, who tell them what to do.'… Trump nominated the FBI director, Christopher Wray, in 2017."
"President Biden on Thursday warned Americans that democracy is under attack from a faction of the Republican party led by former President Donald Trump, and called on Democrats, mainstream Republicans and independents to 'speak up, speak out, get engaged — vote, vote vote.'" And the right-wing nut-o-sphere goes full on bananas.
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