Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

The story of my profile image:

I enjoy making shoji lamps in the shape of polyhedra. This one, the "Pentafleur," is a rhombicosidodecahedron, a polyhedron made up of 12 pentagons, 20 triangles, and 30 squares, a shape which is revealed by the lamp's main maple frame.

If you look at the patterns created by the mahogany inner frames, you also can see the outline of an icosahedron, a polyhedron comprised of 20 triangles, as well as a dodecahedron, comprised of 12 pentagons, and even a Catalan deltoidal hexecontahedron, comprised of 60 kite-shaped faces.

Each face is backed by translucent washi, a traditional Japanese paper. When the lamp is lit, the washi glows with the light passing through it and casts a soft, warm, rich light into the room.

One of the papers in this lamp was made by Mrs. Sayoko Furuta, a washi master who was continuing an unbroken line of artistry that stretches back for more than a thousand years. She held the title of National Living Treasure of Japan.

Denied faculty positions despite his PhD, Turner went on to both inspire students and revolutionize entomology 🐝 https://theconversation.com/charles-henry-turner-the-little-known-black-high-school-science-teacher-who-revolutionized-the-study-of-insect-behavior-in-the-early-20th-century-184030

"Sheep living in pasture with solar panels benefit from shade in hot weather and more nutritious grass – and they stop weeds from growing on the panels"

Putting #SolarPanels in grazing fields is good for #sheep | #SolarEnergy |New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2357545-putting-solar-panels-in-grazing-fields-is-good-for-sheep/

Hoo boy. Just wait till DeSantis discovers that the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program is all about the theory of knowledge, critical thinking, and World peace. He’s turning Florida into an intellectual desert.

DeSantis threatens to rid Florida of Advanced Placement classes https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/14/desantis-florida-ap-classes-college-board/

“An MIT Technology Review investigation last April found that self-driving companies, including Tesla, took advantage of the collapse of Venezuela's economy by getting workers in the country to label self-driving data for an average of just over 90 cents an hour.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-ai-will-not-take-jobs-create-future-work-opportunities-2023-2

4/7
The famous quote in George Orwell’s 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” demonstrates that Orwell understood how important knowledge of #history is and how it can be manipulated by the powerful to serve their interests.
Inadequate history #textbooks help produce adults who can’t distinguish evidence from opinion, fact from fiction.

#BlackMastodon #politics #Education #literature #books #GOP #Texas #BlackHistory #psychology

Child labour. Seriously. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/02/11/child-labor-iowa/

#physics #weather The joy of a wind channel. This year, the Arctic air has decided to go through several wind channels, which open and close randomly. The big rains in Callie has a huge flow by Alaska. This is a smaller flow and may only soak north of callie.

I always imagined that when I finished my book I would discuss it and share about it on twitter. But I stopped using twitter on December 16th, when I decided I couldn't abide by Elon's ownership behavior.

It's a sacrifice of book sales and our message to not be on twitter, but it also doesn't really feel like a choice because I just can't.

I appreciate you taking an interest in my book and talking with me about therapeutic inclusion programming here on mastodon.

https://a.co/d/3eaiyFa

#inclusion #education #mentalhealth

I saw this story about a right wing parents' group called "woke busters" who were basically serving as the activist boots on the ground for Ron DeSantis's efforts to purge Florida's schools of the supposed scourge of "wokeness." So I dug a bit into that "woke busters" group. It's not great. https://www.salon.com/2023/02/03/call-the-woke-busters-ron-desantis-sends-volunteer-army-to-snatch-books-from-students-hands/