Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

Today is the #WorldWetlandsDay. I can only hope that this place, which I pass many times on my way to work, will still be so wet in the coming years.

#Polesia #wetlands

Nice blurb on my forthcoming book from UC Merced. https://cogsci.ucmerced.edu/news/2023/want-use-math-and-computers-understand-society-read-prof-smaldinos-new-book

Damning story by @ProPublica reveals UnitedHealthcare's pursuit of a top goal for private medical insurance companies in the U.S.—spend as little on actual health care as possible.

Records uncovered by a family that sued UHC over claim denials "offer an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at how one of America's leading health care insurers relentlessly fought to reduce spending on care, even as its profits rose to record levels." https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-insurance-denial-ulcerative-colitis #health #healthcare

Documents and recordings offer an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at how one of America's leading health care insurers, ⁦‪@UHC‬⁩, relentlessly fought to reduce spending on care, even as its profits rose to record levels. ⁦‪@ProPublica‬⁩

https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-insurance-denial-ulcerative-colitis

We don't talk enough about how morally bankrupt the insurance industry is. Like bottom of the barrel bare-faced profit-over-people practises.

At best they nickel and dime people who have been through trauma. Too often they are much worse.

Hiding behind the loopholes and inaccessible language of policies to wriggle out of holding up their end of bargains. Burying people in crisis in bureaucracy hoping they'll give up.

Read this from @ProPublica https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-insurance-denial-ulcerative-colitis

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !

I'm still not ready to talk about Black history. I want to talk about white US history.

Q: "Why don't Black people build any generational wealth? Newer immigrant groups seem to be doing just fine? Must be a lazy and shiftless people!"

A: Because for most of US history, white folk have *intentionally* destroyed the wealthiest Black neighborhoods in the US and stolen all the wealth.

Greenwood. Allentown. Seneca Village. Rosewood. Freedmen's town.

1/N

#BlackMastodon

Shameful to see the College Board cave to the demands of DeSantis and white supremacists, especially as we kick off Black History Month. Just shameful.

Good morning, the empty bookshelves in Florida schools keep my head busy, since I'm a teacher with a library in my classroom in Berlin myself. That's a history lesson in front of our very eyes and exactly how fascism started in Germany. Books were banned and then burnt and everyone said, well, I can't do anything, I don't want to loose my job, I don't like it, but... Many little steps were made by many little people who didn't stand up against a new little rule. You know how this ends.

This is important — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.

There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.

Via @carltonreid in Forbes. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople #cities #cars #streets #urbanism #Spain

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/03/08/closing-central-madrid-to-cars-resulted-in-9-5-boost-to-retail-spending-finds-bank-analysis/

@StillIRise1963 Not an answer, but extremely important context:

“Between 2010 and 2016, the number of disenfranchised Floridians grew by nearly 150,000 to an estimated total of 1,686,000. In 2016, more than one in five of Florida’s Black voting-age population was disenfranchised.”

It’s not just about changing mind. It’s about Jim Crow.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-rights-restoration-efforts-florida

The Brooklyn Public Library Gives Every Teenager in the U.S. Free Access to Censored Books

https://www.openculture.com/2023/01/the-brooklyn-public-library-gives-every-teenager-in-the-u-s-free-access-to-censored-books.html

If you want to read one thing on DeSantis' attempt to mandate state history and censor black history, read this astute comment by @Jelaniya histodons: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/ron-desantis-battles-the-african-american-ap-course-and-history?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Magazine_Daily_013023&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5c192664f730431b75254506&cndid=55695599&hasha=1ce6fe0fb4ec2af92ddf4642e6c3756e&hashb=099b60d52365ea4c2d25b84e86a605aff0739cf4&hashc=0a8efecca4b62757268ae564559f0c94fa2b776d8b36c0f9fd495a55556f97ef&esrc=&utm_term=TNY_Daily

I don’t know if my mastodon follower reach is enough to get traction but can anyone direct me to resources in the UK for trans and non gender conforming people who get illegally terminated from work as a teacher? Like are there legal groups addressing that there?

We are excited to present our new study combining in vivo CRISPR perturbation sequencing with barcode-based lineage tracing. Our study reveals a mechanism by which selective enhancer activation establishes the identity of GABAergic projection neurons. This work may help to better understand neurologic disease caused by MEIS2 mutations. Thanks to @Elena_dvoretskova, May, Volker, our collaborators, and
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.30.525356v1
#neuroscience #devbio #devbiol #Genomics #NGS #Genetics #science #neuro #neurodevelopment#ERC

A #LipidBilayer is a polar membrane that acts as barrier around cells, protecting them but also making sure ions, proteins and other molecules don't diffuse in areas where they shouldn't be. How cool is #biology ?

#SciArt #SciComm #ScientificIllustration #Blender #Blender3d

Republicans Are Committing The Voter Fraud That They Claim To Fear. | Republicans believe that voter fraud should be punished severely except when it's committed by Republicans. Case in point:
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/01/30/4th-resident-of-the-villages-admits-to-voting-twice-in-the-2020-election/

DeSantis' proposal for higher ed in Florida appears Soviet: it will allow the ruling party to bypass existing university hiring structures, conduct ideological purges and make sure only Party-approved faculty teach Party-approved subjects.

Also note the emphasis on re-directing public universities to "high paying jobs" (=still serving as underlings to the ruling class), instead of producing independent public thinkers, leaders, and entrepreneurs.

#DeSantis #HigherEd #Florida