Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org
Retired Analytical Chemist
League of Women Voters -voting methods, election security
Board Member Colorado Citizens for Science
Joined Oct 2022
@freemo I can agree with you on much of the implementation of the FDA in real life downside, and, I would imagine, on the parallel fact that if this is defeated in the Supreme Court it will likely have more to do with Big Money pressure from Big Pharma than judicial reasoning. The court opinions so far have been very much based on right wing dogma.
On the other hand, the FDA, is, or at least certainly ought to be, the mechanism by which scientific evidence should be able to restrain the worst attributes of Big Pharma and ideological fanatics.
Regulation by political pressure and the courts would be, in my opinion, be a complete disaster.
Judicial interference with mifepristone : " The FDA is a unique institution, bringing together intellectual resources from inside and outside government to make decisions on thousands of products each year. Once courts dismiss core scientific judgments by the agency, there is no reason to believe they will limit themselves to this one medication. There is already political pressure against vaccines, antidepressants and other psychotropic medication, and certain cell-derived therapies. If judges begin to dictate the terms of medication access, then others will seek to use ideology and influence to advance their agendas." https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi2587
Gaythia Weis
boosted
Here is a must-read post from children's author Maggie Tokuda-Hall on how Scholastic offered to publish her book — all she had to do was remove all mention of racism.
Sure, they're banning books in Tennessee and Texas. But it's not just the books that get published and then banned from the library. It's all the books that don't get published in the first place.
Those banning books know publishers like Scholastic pull this cowardly bullshit. It's their game plan.
https://www.prettyokmaggie.com/blog/2023/4/11/scholastic-and-a-faustian-bargain
Gaythia Weis
boosted
If this ruling stands, birth control is next.
(Judge)Kacsmaryk also said that mailing mifepristone across state lines is illegal based on the Comstock Act, which Congress passed in 1873, making it illegal to send contraceptive materials through the mail. He went further than that, though, going far beyond the Dobbs decision to embrace the concept that a fertilized egg is an “unborn human” from the time of conception."
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/april-7-2023?r=63j6s&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Gaythia Weis
boosted
Reestablish #LakeTulare
#California should seriously consider reestablishing Lake Tulare along with it's historic wetlands and ecosystem habitats. This should include enabling it's tributary rivers to substantially flow back into the southern San Joaquin Valley basin.
"Tulare Lake was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, and the second-largest freshwater lake entirely in the United States based upon surface area. ... Tulare Lake dried up after its tributary rivers were diverted for agricultural irrigation and municipal water uses." - Wikipedia
Building new dams in CA is not a solution to the long term water needs of CA especially with dryer periods caused by #climatechange.
A revitalized Lake Tulare could recharge the San Joaquin Valley ground water and could be used as a water resource during extreme #drought periods.
"Estimates have found that Tulare Lake could hold twice the water of the proposed Temperance Flat Dam at one-fifth the cost." - Wikipedia
Gaythia Weis
boosted
With the news today about #ClarenceThomas and his extrajudicial activities, it's worth looking back to what civil rights icon Rosa Parks said about him in 1991 (yes, Rosa Parks was still alive in 1991; she died in 2005):
Gaythia Weis
boosted
In Texas, Daniel Perry—a white man—posted "he might kill a few people," drove his car past a red light & into a previously peaceful BLM march, shot & killed a protestor (a US Vet), was duly charged, unanimously convicted—& TX Gov Abbott is pardoning him.😳
Texas is announcing to the world that in their view, murdering people for exercising their First Amendment right to peacefully protesting racism is OK.
This isn't democracy. It's fascism. This sets a literally deadly precedent for the future.
"The Tulare Basin is at the southern end of California’s San Joaquin Valley — and in essence, it’s a massive bowl. Before irrigators dug canals and rerouted water for farming in the late 1800s, Tulare Lake filled the bowl’s lower reaches. Shallow water stretched across the landscape, and the lake was the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi. " https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/long-dormant-lake-reappeared-california-bringing-havoc-rcna75942
Gaythia Weis
boosted
“After a GOP lawmaker was accused of sexually assaulting 15- & 16-year-old girls he had taught & coached, he was made chair of the education committee.”
Corruption's hardwired in Tennessee's political DNA.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/08/tennessee-descent-statehouse-mag-00091090
Gaythia Weis
boosted
Years ago, I attended a meeting about the future of democracy at Harlan Crow’s “house” (which was staged as a museum). I left deeply shaken by the Nazi memorabilia on display. Apparently I wasn’t alone. https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/07/clarence-thomass-billionaire-benefactor-collects-hitler-artifacts/
Indeed Crow’s house had statues of fallen dictators. I was told that these items were war trophies to commemorate how the “good guys” won. But no museum curator I know would glorify such artifacts that way. Hitler’s painting was signed, just hanging on the wall as art.
@unklar The "science of reading" approach here is a tragically ridiculous component of the wild pendulum swings used by educational academics and related advocates for instructive methods commercialization take in order to act as if new products and methods are new. English isn't a fully phonetic language, although a knowledge of phonics sometimes helps. Nor was it completely effective to use an all "look say" or "whole language" approach, although that worked for some. Anyone involved with education for decades can see these "new' but actually repetitively old methods come and go. Why can't a multifaceted approach take hold?
It's silly to talk about "methods rooted in research about how the brain learns to decode written language" without noting if the brain is trying to comprehend a very phonetic language like Spanish, a fully non phonetic system like Chinese characters, or an inconsistently phonetic language like English.
The very difficult to surmount barrier to our public education system's effort to provide equal opportunity are rooted in the inequities in society at large. Some children are born into a stimulating,verbally rich, reading material bountiful environment, some are not.
The parts of this Oregon literacy initiative that focus on providing extra support to students who can use such support could be very effective, if not bogged down in educator dogma.
Gaythia Weis
boosted
May 2022: Winter ticks wiped out nearly 90% of the moose calves scientists tracked in part of Maine last year
by Kevin Miller and Esta Pratt-Kielley, Maine Public Radio
"“The winters have shortened and the falls are longer, which means longer time for those ticks to quest and actively seek their host, which means (moose) have accumulated much more on them,” said Siren, who has worked closely with Kantar and his counterparts in New Hampshire."
#Maine #NewHampshire #Moose #Ticks #ClimateChange #ClimateBreakdown #ClimateCatastrophe #ClimateCrisis #NewEngland
Read more: https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/05/18/moose-tick-deaths-climate-change
Gaythia Weis
boosted
Ultimately, the challenge is to pay attention to the underlying reactionary political project, to the multi-level attempts to entrench traditional hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth, to the increasingly authoritarian measures to prevent multiracial, pluralistic democracy.
Gaythia Weis
boosted
I’ve posted about the Great Unconformity several times now (and you still must capitalize it), and had the chance to see when visiting the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area in Las Vegas.
After almost 5 years, I didn’t trust I’d be able to find it again. I decided to search Google maps and sure enough, there it was. Thank you to the wonderful person who put it on the map, and thank you Google for adding it! See the location below.
In the last picture it is in the rocks near the left of the picture where the trail can be seen and the metal sign is standing (zoom in). They are the same rocks layers known as the Great Unconformity at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in an easily accessible part of Las Vegas. You’re welcome.
The Great Unconformity
https://maps.app.goo.gl/THA4SbtdXtqvVotVA?g_st=ic
Refresher:
Tapeats Sandstone - 525 million years old
Vishnu Schist - 1.7 billion years old
Time Gap of 1.2 billion years = The Great Unconformity
Gaythia Weis
boosted
This absurd analysis would require throwing out *most* FDA drug approvals. Few drugs ever have a requirement that providers report all adverse events.
That the FDA required it for mifepristone shows how they were *stricter* with mifepristone approval than the law requires.
Gaythia Weis
boosted
So how did the anti-choice plaintiffs have standing to challenge the FDA's approval of #mifepristone , a drug they don't use and didn't suffer any harm from?
Because the judge, a man appointed by Trump, decided he knew what was best for all women. Some excerpts.
Full opinion here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jnm4r233xat6tv4/ND%20Tex%20FDA%20decision.pdf?dl=0
Gaythia Weis
boosted
Reinfection, immune evasion, and protection of residents in #LTC
This thread looks at multiple studies that help reveal why #SARS2 can #reinfect hosts and evade #immune response, #vaccine waning, and what protects residents in #Ontario #longtermcare and #retirement homes. 🧵 1/
The one page easier to share version of this thread can be found at: https://pingthread.com/thread/1644664310172467201
Gaythia Weis
boosted
COVID-19: Stats, Guides, Articles, Calculators
COVID-19 guides, useful info, stats, calculators & 600+ scientific articles: http://covid.gilchrist.ca
Ottawa, Canada weekly stats: http://covid.gilchrist.ca/Ottawa.html
Ontario, Canada weekly stats: http://covid.gilchrist.ca/Ontario.html
Calculate the Amount of Shared Air in an Indoor Space using CO2 Levels: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iGpS3zacl79GuPduH7QHjBWQisT8nHlxFLgXPE1Xh0U/edit?usp=sharing
Gaythia Weis
boosted
Young people are running away from the Republican Party.
Because they oppose the rule of gun cultists and reject the reactionary vision of a world in which they would have far fewer rights than what their parents enjoyed?
Nah. Gotta be the “liberal indoctrination.”
Gaythia Weis
boosted
Repeat after me: Wages aren’t pushing up prices. Corporate profits are pushing up prices.
Instead of relying on the Fed to raise interest rates, which could slow the economy toward a recession, Congress and President Biden should be taking aim at corporate price gouging.
Retired Analytical Chemist
League of Women Voters -voting methods, election security
Board Member Colorado Citizens for Science
Joined Oct 2022
