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
Gaythia Weis
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Want to know what my research is about? Follow this thread 🧵 based on a 10min talk I've drawn for a meeting.
The talk was aimed at non-specialist space science colleagues (not the general public!). The slides were built up step by step, but I'm omitting this here & showing only the final graphs, less this becomes a 34-part thread. 11 is plenty enough!
So: "Understanding Winds of Massive Stars Using High Mass X-ray Binaries"
#astrodon #XraysAreTheBestRays #SciArt #scicomm #VicisAstro
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@alexwild @futurebird The students may need to use that strategy for out of state schools.
Gaythia Weis
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@futurebird I hope students realize that “took the illegal black history course” is the kind of thing many college admissions committees will consider favorably.
Gaythia Weis
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Several schools in Arkansas are defiantly teaching AP African American history. The state has warned them that the students will earn no credits.
Republicans continue to describe Black history as "indoctrination" and "teaching children to hate America" -- showing that they might benefit from the course themselves.
@bug_gwen Great video! This left me wondering how Mono Lake life copes with variations in alkalinity. Found this online but nothing about the fly: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gbi.12437
Gaythia Weis
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Start your weekend with an amazing video. This scuba diving fly lives in a lake 3X saltier than the ocean! https://www.kqed.org/science/1983796/this-daring-fly-swims-in-a-shimmering-bubble-shield
@souvlaki @androcat I think that the blame problem arises from exploitation of economic castes by oligarchical elites. People who are struggling just a few economic steps ahead of those eligible for services are primed to focus their resentments downwards rather than towards the idea a more equitable system would offer them benefits too.
@jwildeboer @reticuleena @smiddi @dkloke I think that the problem arises from time frames and the finite size of Yellowstone. The initially reintroduced wolves can get fat and happy on wildlife like deer that are plentiful and unused to their presence. So they have lots of pups. Which eventually leave to travel
downhill to discover other food sources like rancher's livestock. Expandng range is a natural thing to do. Pre-settlement, the river valleys below Yellowstone were lush ecosystems inhabited by large wildlife like bison, grizzly bears and wolves. And there was no "wild" devoid of people. Native Americans were there.
Also, especially if the Yellowstone ecosystem is not grazed by herbivores, wildfire will increase, taking out at least the under story plants and the wildlife utilizing them. But the forests are predominately lodgepole pine, which depend on fire. Nothing is static.
Gaythia Weis
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If you or I went into a state park and incinerated 4 acres and killed a pile of protected wildlife, we would face all sorts of fines, or even prison.
But Elon Musk gets to kill whatever he wants, with no consequence.
Gaythia Weis
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My latest: Public Pushes Back On #CDC’s Plan To Weaken Infection Control via
@forbes
Recap of the #HICPAC meeting
https://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2023/08/25/public-pushes-back-on-cdcs-plan-to-weaken-infection-control/?sh=2f292ef57179
#Covid #CovidIsAirborne #LongCovid #disabilities #ADA #aerosol #ventilation
Gaythia Weis
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I try to be patient that are misinformed. I really do. But for around the 25th time in the past two years, I've had someone tell me how Sweden was a #COVID19 success story despite having no restrictions. It is just an idiotic claim. Sweden had a MUCH higher death rate than comparable Nordic nations. It was a failure, not a success. (Also, the fact Sweden had no national mandates didn't mean people didn't choose to mask or isolate.)
@tess_machling The flower may be gone in a day, but the seeds are a problem in many areas, where morning glory is considered an invasive plant.
Gaythia Weis
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Australians urged to prepare for most significant bushfire season since black summer https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/23/australian-bushfire-season-how-to-prepare #climate #heatwave #bushfire
Gaythia Weis
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Not only are the Saudis mass murdering Ethiopians, but the Ethiopian regime, not content with committing genocide against Tigrayans, is denying that the Saudis are mass murdering Ethiopians. Both KSA and Ethiopia are invited to join the so-called BRICS while the Saudis are literally shooting Ethiopians for sport. Read this.
Gaythia Weis
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Less than a quarter of Americans know they don't have meaningful privacy protections on the internet. The first step to changing this fact might be to change this number. #Democracy https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/25/just-23-of-americans-know-the-u-s-has-failed-to-pass-an-internet-era-privacy-law/?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon
Gaythia Weis
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@schratze hypocrisy is the highest accomplishment to fascists. It's the ultimate freedom from consequences and rules, they're free from even being held to their own words.
Or, a Sartre quote:
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert.”
— Jean-Paul Sartre, “Anti-Semite and Jew” (1944)
Gaythia Weis
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Important read from @austiejfish on #EnvironmentalJustice #racism #airpollution
They all oppose the air quality regulation that is meant to prevent and mitigate the effects of things like the Atkore United Poly Systems fire.
Gaythia Weis
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Gaythia Weis
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Terrible news from a study out today on emperor penguins in the Antarctic (https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00927-x):
"Of the five breeding sites in the region all but one experienced total breeding failure after sea ice break-up before the start of the fledging period of the 2022 breeding season. This is the first recorded incident of a widespread breeding failure of emperor penguins that is clearly linked with large-scale contractions in sea ice extent."
Gaythia Weis
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🏳️🌈🖖🏽
After decades of fighting for our right to love and live freely, the LGBTQ+ community should be long past discrimination. And yet, the scapegoating of our community continues. As a Japanese American who experienced forced relocation and internment as a child, this déjà vu is both alarming and heartbreaking. We must remember the past, demand change, and act to safeguard our future. https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/takei-scapegoating-lgbtq-japanese-internment
Retired Analytical Chemist
League of Women Voters -voting methods, election security
Board Member Colorado Citizens for Science
Joined Oct 2022
