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Disgusting. Infuriating.

“During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737.“

propublica.org/article/clarenc

I'm quoted here by TechCrunch on Zoom's EU law problems in justifying their claim that they can use personal data gathered from users of their service to train AI models.

techcrunch.com/2023/08/08/zoom

@Tupp_ed How did Zoom AI system learn to prepare meeting summaries if it hasn't been looking at meetings already? What data sets did they use?

“Even after ProPublica has published multiple stories on repatriation over the past eight months, it is still unsettling to ponder the sheer scale at which museums stored away the bodies of so many Indigenous ancestors. Six thousand at Harvard University. Nine thousand at the University of California, Berkeley. “
Mary Hudetz on her experience reporting on @ProPublica’s Repatriation Project.
propublica.org/article/what-it

@freemo Yes, and it gets codified in certain circles of educational academia. I remember a first grade teacher telling me that 6 year olds were too young to comprehend fractions. And I'm like what??? 2 year olds can grasp 1/2 easily and have no difficulties in visually dividing things up equally with a small group of friends. Just try giving one an extra cracker and see what the rest have to say about it.

@freemo Yeah, I would agree that adults spewing baby talk probably have very few thoughts about language skills. Pronoun confusion aside, 2 year olds can actually have quite a lot to say.

@freemo Conveying English grammar can be confusing. Adult to toddler: Do you want me to pick you up? Toddler holds up arms and agrees; Pick you up! Adult: No, when you talk about yourself you should say me. Say pick me up. How is that supposed to make sense? (but I guess it will eventually).

If you know anyone in Ohio, make sure they know that today is the special election for Issue 1, and urge them to vote No. If it passes, it will raise the threshold for passing ballot issues from 50% to 60%, allowing a 40% minority to veto ballot issues.

The GOP spent a ton of donor and taxpayer money to set up a special election, just for this one issue, hoping it will pass with low turnout, because it would remove one of the few remaining checks on a heavily gerrymandered statehouse.

Polls will be open from 6:30am until 7:30pm.

votenoinaugust.org/facts/

#Ohio #OhioIssue1 #OhioIssueOne #Issue1 #OhioPolitics #USPolitics #StatePolitics #Politics #GOP

416 active #BCwildfires in British Columbia burning today, as of 'B.C. Day' (Aug 7, 2023). That's a decrease by 62 from two weeks ago.

BUT, many fires have shifted to southeast from central area of province.

Red dots: Out of control = 226 (54%)
New wildfires in last 24 hours: 47

Icon w/ flame in red & white: "highly visible or poses a potential threat to public safety"

Many evacuations in #KamloopsBC area

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #fossilfuels #wildfiresinBC

Ohio! If you haven’t voted yet, tomorrow is the big day. The GOP is trying to rig the system with Issue 1. Vote it down.

This Thur 8/10 at 7pm
"Knowledge is Power: Drinking in the Knowledge prevents Flushing and Forgetting" by Ted Brodeur, Supervising Engineer with LA County Sanitation Districts
We had such a rollicking & educational meeting with him in June that he never got to present the second half of his talk. So we scheduled him to come back this Thursday to teach us how the LA County Sanitation Districts turns wastewater into clean water.
Register for zoom link:lwvbeachcities.org/natural-res

Greenbrier legislator's wife targets Little Free Libraries' content
Censors are coming for Faulkner County's Little Free Libraries.

arktimes.com/news/2023/08/07/g

Despite many claims to the contrary, monarchy really is extinct. Sightings still get reported and investigated, but as a general rule if it looks like royalty, it's probably just a trust fund baby with variant plumage.

According to a draft contract seen by Mongabay, Liberia may sign away the rights to nearly 10% of its total land mass to a United Arab Emirates-based firm for carbon offset development.

The firm is owned by Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, the youngest member of Dubai’s royal family and an investor in energy projects across Africa and the Middle East.

By Ashoka Mukpo
news.mongabay.com/2023/08/mass

#News #Conservation #Environment #Carbon #ClimateChange #Forests

Exactly this, this all day, *THIS THIS THIS*.

"That Trump will be tried for his coup attempt is not a violation of his rights. It is a fulfillment of his rights. It is the grace of the American republic. In other systems, when your coup attempt fails, what follows is not a trial." - Yale historian Timothy Snyder via heathercoxrichardson.substack.

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