Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

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

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.

https://journa.host/@zekuzelalem/110945121388013106

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

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.

https://sourcenm.com/2023/08/17/albuquerque-plastic-fire-gives-air-regulators-this-moment-in-history-to-make-the-right-decision/

This summed up my thoughts in a pithy format.

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."

More here: https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/loss-of-sea-ice-causes-catastrophic-breeding-failure-for-emperor-penguins/

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

All these red states are now boasting about how they are withdrawing from the American Library Association. They aren’t just satisfied with banning books, they want to get rid of the places that keep and lend them, too. The Christian Right is on the march.

Carl Sagan once warned us of the “dumbing down” of America. He warned of a time when our “critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...”

That time is upon us. We must do all we can to prevent that darkness from taking hold.

The NYT team here might read the paper's own editorial from this morning, which points out that Trump was indicted not for what he said, but what he did, and lays out those charges. Instead, this piece frames the indictments as prosecution of the former president for lying. This is not accurate and is in fact misleading. Hard to figure. Also still missing: historical context (which editorial offered). https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/us/politics/trump-indictment-lies-vs-free-speech.html?unlocked_article_code=7wkIKoHBqxzjFiwcYahfDykINWiKVWnm6d6Js-Z6LO6iTmJrkb0B6pO70Avpz0z0yv-uFa-ewCGfgSxJ5WMGCRIIrw-5RtJbxhi6mPVYfIqMXM1KXRCJWdIyxwJJXgH3y2HzzDbawhVjSLjm7zq7JCQbI0E8-psFPcMcQCyHToXhZnFdrpYEn3jRcqdn7AGUUMD0BwiETWxwsYH2NuOoR1EvILZodSw5EBVK2fE6h0dRCApf4eaFrbZJfbObo-oDV15J_iAU085NIYOtrkf40ivqVTD35PP097uGh9uD8grsScS4BmdnUsJr3cjrPCDFbI-y6dqRGPs-OuCZmOfNSgajitLaRaX8EcGj9Y5_8VL6uw&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

The great thing about being the self-appointed "paper of record" is that you get to write your own revisionist history that completely ignores the role your editors and reporters played in minimizing the threat of COVID— time, and time, and time, and time again

I have that book for my daughter. It’s fantastic. If anything, the book teaches children to be unashamedly themselves.

Telling someone they can't be who they are is wrong. The fact that we are in such shortage of teachers and she was fired for it is ridiculously short sighted.

Being open to acceptance, understanding, empathy, and inclusion benefits everyone.

A Georgia school board fires a teacher for reading a book to students about gender identity |
https://apnews.com/article/georgia-teacher-fired-reading-book-gender-identity-64f8428af86ed47bea093fba5167506a

#Introduction I'm a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, studying government performance and people's experiences of government #AdministrativeBurden.

Also blog at https://donmoynihan.substack.com/

BREAKING -- It is now once again legal to provide food and water to people waiting in line to vote in Georgia.

A federal court just struck down Governor Brian Kemp's attempt at voter suppression.

Young people: The GOP is floating an amendment to raise the voting age from 18 to 25. Vivek Ramaswamy is openly promoting it. They’re scared of your votes and want to silence you. Act appropriately in 2024.

#Maui sued #BigOil 3 years ago, saying #ClimateChange would lead to #wildfires of “increased frequency, intensity and destructive force.” https://news.yahoo.com/maui-sued-big-oil-2020-113828101.html

I remember the 2000 Election. There were enough votes for Ralph Nader to hand the election to George W. Bush.

I remember the 2016 Election. There were enough votes for Jill Stein to hand the election to Donald Trump.

In 2024 the Green Party is running Cornell West. Let’s not repeat this history, friends

Your vote is not a marriage. You’re not choosing a life partner. It’s a chess move for what’s best for the country and the world.

Data brokers are launching an attack on proposed CA legislation #SB362 that would let people opt out from all #databroker services en masse. Because they know everyone will do it if they can. The #DELETEAct would be good for Californians. Tell your legislator you support it and don't let these dodgy businesses kill it. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/16/ad-industry-tries-to-quash-proposed-data-broker-regulations-00111513

This is Arp 271, a pair of spiral galaxies locked in a gravitational dance. In a few billion years the #MilkyWay and the Andromeda galaxy might look like this!

This is the very last #photo ever taken with the VIMOS instrument at ESO's Very Large #Telescope in #Chile, back in 2018. After I finished the decommissioning procedures that night, I decided to take one last image as a farewell, and this was the result.

➡️ https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1821a/

#astrodon #astronomy #space #astrophotography