Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

EFF has had a ton of victories in the past few weeks. Learn about them, and more work that we are doing defending digital freedoms with this issue of EFFector. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/digital-rights-updates-effector-346

Beyond excited for my grad class on 19th-Century US Women's History in the spring! It was unbelievably difficult to narrow down the readings, but LOOK at this final lineup of #WomenAlsoKnowHistory! #histodon

The current state of #Mastodon does remind me much of the glory days of #Usenet so very long ago. But it's worth remembering that what ultimately "brought down" Usenet as an effective communication tool, was not the technical issues of communications between distributed hosts without any true centralization, but abuse problems caused by a percentage of users, which proved to be effectively intractable.

Newly obtained records show how Leonard Leo, an architect of the right-wing takeover of the courts, has been funding groups pushing to change #elections and anti-discrimination laws.

Flush with money after receiving the largest-known political advocacy donation in U.S. history, #conservative activist Leo & his associates are spending millions of dollars to #influence some of the most consequential recent #SupremeCourt cases.

#DarkMoney #Politics #SCOTUS #Courts

https://www.propublica.org/article/leonard-leo-scotus-elections-nonprofits-discrimination?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

The fact that the federal minimum wage has stagnated at $7.25/hour since 2009 is atrocious.

But in reality, it's actually far worse than that.

The federal minimum wage is worth 28% less today than it was worth in 2009.

It’s worth 41% less than in 1968.

An absolute disgrace.

John Wesley Powell and His Stunning Map

Decades after John Wesley Powell finished his exploration of the Grand Canyon ( https://c.im/@vickyveritas/109435308102411931 ), he became one of America’s foremost scientists, and the head of the US Geological Survey. As such, he became the voice of the land and was looked to for leadership for the nation.

Senators from the west formed a committee to explore how the federal government could bring water to the western deserts and open the land to new pioneers as part of the US vision of Manifest Destiny. They looked to Powell for answers. Powell did not give them the answer they wanted.

In a thorough study and report complete with maps, Powell’s 1878, “The Arid Regions of the United States,” contains one of the greatest maps ever created: the “Arid Regions of the United States Showing Drainage Districts” showing the area carved up into watersheds in riotous color instead of political boundaries.

This was the first time a map had been used to visualize the intersection of hydrology with topography and in such an effectual manner that minimized the political. Powell argued that America should move cautiously and conservatively to preserve natural resources and maintain sustainability and stewardship of these arid places.

In this way, the one-armed geologist, John Wesley Powell, in prescient fashion outlined a way forward for a land now locked by climate-change and wracked with drought and water shortages. America should have listened.

From: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/visionary-john-wesley-powell-had-plan-developing-west-nobody-listened-180969182/

See also: https://pubs.usgs.gov/unnumbered/70039240/report.pdf

#JohnWesleyPowell #WatershedMap #TheAridRegionsOfTheUnitedStates #Map #Hydrology #Geology #ScienceMastodon

#Texas AG’s office sought state data on #transgender Texans

“Employees at the TX Dept of Public Safety in June received a sweeping request from #Republican AG Ken Paxton’s office: to compile a list of individuals who had changed their gender on their TX driver’s license & other dept recs during the past 2 yrs.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
#TXAG #discrimination #equality #lgbtqia #persecution #KenPaxton #GregAbbott
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/14/texas-transgender-data-paxton/

"Rather than providing care themselves, telehealth companies often act as middlemen connecting patients to affiliated providers covered by HIPAA. As a result, information collected during a telehealth company’s intake may not be protected by HIPAA, while the same information given to the provider would be." https://themarkup.org/privacy/2022/12/13/out-of-control-dozens-of-telehealth-startups-sent-sensitive-health-information-to-big-tech-companies

The goal isn't to plug the same old inequitable, inefficient, GDP focused economy into a new power source. Or it shouldn't be.

The goal is to reorient everything toward wellbeing of people and planet. Which will require a new power source, but a lot more creativity too.

First post, because why not. Shameless plug: If everyone bought one right now for themselves, and one for a friend, this book, Algorithms of Oppression, could have a chance at improving the internet for women and people marginalized by tech...and I hope you will buy it from Eso Won Books, a Black-owned Los Angeles independent bookstore we’ve treasured so dearly: https://www.esowonbookstore.com/

Hi everyone! I'm @basktastic on Twitter but am trying out my real name here. My #chembio #cellbio #lipidtime lab at Cornell develops tools for imaging and editing the lipidome, drawing on #bioorthogonal chemistry, #clickchemistry, #chemoproteomics, #optogenetics, #directedevolution, and more. https://baskin.wicmb.cornell.edu

The Fed should pause interest-rate hikes long enough for the nation to see they’re harming workers and consumers more than corporations that have raked in record profits. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-fed-is-dead

The annual NOAA Arctic Report Card is available today for 2022. It discusses recent changes in the #Arctic, extreme events, and broader human/environmental impacts.

+ Report: https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2022
+ Video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MDG-moe0tZs
+ Summary: https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card

I am happy again to have played a small role in this year's report - see our section on Arctic sea surface temperatures: https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2022/ArtMID/8054/ArticleID/988/Sea-Surface-Temperature

Also check out the fantastic collection of visuals by at https://climate.gov/news-features/features/2022-arctic-report-card-image-highlights

Just remembering how Jack Kirby was inundated by threats and complaints from Nazi sympathizers after the publication in 1941 of his famous cover showing Captain America punching Adolph Hitler.

No reason.

Railroads were exempted from Obama's 2016 executive order requiring federal contractors to give their employees 7 paid sick days. (Railroads have been federal contractors since the mid-19th century.)

Today would be a great day for POTUS to de-exempt them by executive order.

"The value of the smoked fish isn’t in its sale. It’s in the teachings I can share with my son while he’s fishing. It’s in the way the Elders’ eyes light up when you give them a fish. It’s in the hope I get every time the salmon returns."
- Jared Qwustenuxun Williams

IndigiNews: https://indiginews.com/first-person/how-do-you-put-a-price-on-sacred-foods

#salmon #food #VancouverIsland

The UC strike is not just an effort to raise thousands of academic workers out of near poverty. It’s a movement whose success requires a reversal of the austerity that has subverted public higher education across America. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-most-important-strike-in-the