Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

"I admit that I started thinking about this after spending the weekend walking underneath a grove of hundreds-of-feet-tall, centuries-old California Redwoods. As I gazed at the morning fog settling over the giant trees, I wondered: Why are we really spending billions on GPUs and data centers, fueling a spike in water consumption during a drought? For products consumers may or may not want or need?" -Sharon Goldman

https://venturebeat.com/ai/why-ai-is-teetering-on-the-edge-of-a-disillusionment-cliff-the-ai-beat/

Wow it gets better.

“she was forced to leave Temple University for neighbouring UPenn after a dispute with her boss, who then attempted to have her deported.”

& Penn

“They issued an ultimatum, if she wanted to continue working with mRNA she would lose her prestigious faculty position, & face a…pay cut.”

”…that same week, I had just been diagnosed with cancer…I was facing 2 operations, & my husband, who had gone back to Hungary to pick up his green card…got stranded…”

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mrna-coronavirus-vaccine-pfizer-biontech

This is huge. And likely to go under the media radar.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4236066-arizona-governor-revokes-saudi-owned-alfalfa-farm-lease/

The Guardian article on the #NYC #rainfall #deluge and #flooding and the analysis on which it is based are okay, but entirely miss the key point - "with every degree (Celsius) of warming, the atmosphere can hold 7% more moisture"[1]. In greater #NY / #NJ the temperature is now about 2.2C over the 1900 - 2020 average [2]. This equates to the atmosphere holding 15.4% more water than average. No "rapid attribution study" necessary. It's simple atmospheric #physics.

Guardian - "Type of storm that drenched New York is up to 20% wetter due to #ClimateCrisis. Rapid attribution study finds storm 10-20% wetter after city experienced a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours on Friday"

Guardian article -
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/02/new-york-city-flooding-rain-storm-climate-change

[1] ZDF Report (in German) -
per #ZDF weather expert, meteorologist Özden Terli
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/panorama/klima-starkregen-hitze-experten-100.html

[2] US Temperature Data per #US #EPA
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-temperature

#ClimateEmergency #Climate #Klimakrise #Klima #ClimateDiary #GlobalWarming #NewYork #NewJersey #Weather #TorrentialRain #Floods #FlashFlood #FlashFloods #Meteorology

The University of Pennsylvania, where Kariko was on track for a professorship, decided to pull the plug on her when her grant rejections piled up.

"I was up for promotion, and then they just demoted me and expected that I would walk out the door," she told AFP in an interview from her home in Philadelphia in December 2020.

Kariko didn't yet have a green card and needed a job to renew her visa. She also knew she wouldn't be able to put her daughter through college without the hefty staff discount.

She decided to persist as a lower-rung researcher, scraping by on a meager salary.

It was a low point in her life and career, but "I just thought...you know, the (lab) bench is here, I just have to do better experiments," she said.

Now, her pioneering work—which paved the way for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines—has won her the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
#NobelPrize #medicine #nobel #mrna #Kariko
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-katalin-kariko-scientific-maverick-paved.html

Psst... get your COVID booster everyone, it's based on Nobel Prize-winning technology!

On Monday, President Biden is to deliver remarks to celebrate the Americans with Disabilities Act (#ADA), which he cosponsored as a senator, and to mark #DisabilityPrideMonth, according to the White House.

Sigh.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/23/online-misinformation-jim-jordan/

There’s another GOP candidate debate coming up with the leader of the pack notably missing again. The rest of them should have to answer questions that he has raised in his latest “Truth Social” postings about Gen. Mark Milley, Jack Smith and Fani Willis. Do they agree with him? Do they condemn his words? The GOP has got to start to take ownership for the things their de facto leader says. They can’t be allowed to continue to deflect and dissemble.

Research Warns White Supremacists Are Building a Shadow Militia https://www.voanews.com/a/research-warns-white-supremacists-are-building-a-shadow-militia-/7280445.html

This makes my heart happy
#JimmyCarter

Jimmy, #RosalynnCarter surprise parade crowd at Georgia festival - UPI.com

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/09/23/former-president-jimmy-carter-spotted-at-plains-peanut-festival/3371695494086/

@MikeDunnAuthor I live in Oklahoma, and my kid’s school system has been targeted by the state superintendent. We have lost so many really good teachers. One of our favorites was a social studies teacher who went to work in a remote tech job for probably more than 2x the salary—and no need to worry about getting death threats for teaching about the Tulsa Race Massacre. I don’t blame her one bit.

I got the new #COVID mRNA vaccine. If it’s available where you are, it’s a great way to protect you & your community from serious illness.

Clarence Thomas twice spoke at the Koch brothers’ annual fundraising retreat. A sitting Supreme Court justice is actually fundraising for a partisan organization that routinely brings cases before the Supreme Court, which he routinely rules in favor of. Naturally he has not disclosed this. https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus

#Wisconsin Republicans Went to Extremes in #Gerrymandering. Now They’re Scrambling to Protect That Power.
--

Heavily redrawn #election districts in the battleground state gave #Republicans firm control of the legislature — and the leeway to move aggressively against officials and judges they perceive as threats.

#Impeachment #Judges #Redistricting #Midwest #News #Politics

https://www.propublica.org/article/wisconsin-gop-gerrymander-elections-janet-protasiewicz?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

Australia: "Rooftop solar 'cannibalising' power prices as Australian generators pay to stay online" (OH NO, THINK OF THE POOR COAL BURNING POWER PLANTS AND THEIR PROFITS!) #solar #cleantech #energy https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-23/rooftop-solar-cannibalising-australian-power-market/102889710

Fully one-third of U.S. states have election deniers in some of the highest positions overseeing elections. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/election-deniers-17-states-1234826808/

If you’re going to interview Donald Trump, you had better be prepared to fact check him in real time. Our media does a terrible job of allowing him to spew falsehoods and spread conspiracies without calling him out on them. This is not the time to platform Trump like he is some regular politician. He is an existential threat to our democracy, including to institutions such as the free press. Do better.

@aprilfollies @aburka @futurebird @zzzeek the idea of election day as a federal holiday sounds really compelling, except the people who have a hard time voting because of their work schedule don’t get holidays off anyway. Plus most public transportation systems run limited schedules on federal holidays because people aren’t working, which is counter to the purpose too. Universal early voting and vote by mail are the way forward.

Good read. I doubt any of my followers think that the fever will break once Trump is gone, but many people including members of the press do.

Young Republicans grew up with Limbaugh/Tea Party/Palin/Trump "conservatism.” They're in it for the performative politics and the shared grievance and victimhood. It’s not going anywhere soon.

The GOP put a fascist in the top seat and wants more of that. That’s why the rest of us have to work together and do it wisely.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/09/why-the-gop-cant-quit-donald-trump-american-psychosis/