ZingerLearns @ZingerLearns@qoto.org

The Texas Observer will remain open thanks to more than 4,000 donors, but our GoFundMe effort will close by the end of the day today! The work is not done yet! You can still donate to the #Texas Observer and help keep liberal Texas #journalism alive!

GoFundMe Link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/laid-off-texas-observer-journalists-and-staff
Donation Link: https://www.texasobserver.org/donate/

#TexasNeedsAnObserver #KeepTXOAlive

Nazi-Karen LibsOfTikTok lead her millions of followers to call in bomb threats into Iowa schools over “This Book Is Gay” — a book allowing LGBTQ students to learn more about themselves

Northwest Junior High had to be evacuated on consecutive days last week while police searched for explosives

Chaya Raichik is a domestic terrorist.

White Christian nationalists are domestic terrorists.

Special mention for Elon Musk’s Twitter for creating the algorithm to promote hate.

ICE car values plummet in China and it is the canary in the coal mine | Electrek

https://electrek.co/2023/04/01/ice-car-values-plummet-in-china-and-it-is-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/

This subheading from Inside Higher Ed perfectly encapsulates a fundamental problem with U.S. public universities. Their leaders are too often more concerned with their own careers than with protecting one of the most vital institutions in the world. #highered @academicsunite https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/03/31/floridas-college-presidents-stay-silent-major-reforms

An update on recess: It's immensely valuable yet still not required in most states; indeed, it's treated not only as unnecessary but as a privilege that a teacher may snatch away at whim to punish children: https://is.gd/fXOUrY

Greetings #Fediverse members!

I've been joining a number of conversations about the recent growth on the Fediverse, and I keep hearing the term "users".

I'd like to remind everyone here that the community is made up of people, humans, members.

"Users" dehumanises, alienates, and allows for a particular brand of technospeak that smacks of addicted eyeballs and lost privacy.

I am a member of the community, not a user of software. Please try to reduce, ahem, using the word.

#FridayThoughts

TurboTax spent millions in lobbying to prevent an IRS Free File program and employs deceptive tactics to hide their free program and get people to pay.

You don't have to give them your money. The free government program is online at https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile

Elementary school bans Dolly Parton/Miley Cyrus duet because song had the word ‘rainbow’ in the title https://deadstate.org/elementary-school-bans-dolly-parton-miley-cyrus-duet-because-song-had-the-word-rainbow-in-the-title/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

There it is, folks.

Republicans already passed a NATIONAL bill to target transgender youth

Lauren Boebert added an amendment to forcibly out students to their parents

Your reminder the books the Nazis were burning in May 6, 1933? They were transgender studies materials from the Institute of Sexology

If we don’t stand for trans citizens now then who will stand for us when it’s our turn?

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5/text

#TransRightsAreHumanRights

There’s a body cam video now and I’m not going to link it. Yes, these officers did their jobs and it’s a job most people don’t want to do.

But for those who say that schools just need to hire a security guard or a resource officer or arm teachers, they should watch the video. It took numerous highly trained officers to stop this shooter, who was armed to the teeth with weapons intended for war and it was after the deceased were already gone.

A resource officer isn’t going to stop anything.

Meritocracy musings: Successful people, including scholars, want to believe their status is earned. @DavidLabaree is honest enough to tell a different story about his own career trajectory: https://is.gd/qS3tQB.

This passage on teaching/assessing jumped out at me:

Sustaining Education for Today & A Lasting Future: Building the Interdisciplinary Subject - Human Restoration Project awarded $75,000 to continue implementation of Holistic Think Tank interdisciplinary learning curriculum. @HolisticTT #restorehumanity

http://www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/sustaining-education-for-today-a-lasting-future-building-the-interdisciplinary-subject

Each year, #USNews & World Reports rank colleges and universities, as follows: they try a bunch of different ranking algorithms, see which generates the results they like, and then choose which to deploy.

I mean we all knew that the #USNews & World Report rankings were absolute crap, but the fact that anyone would out and admit this in public—while not under oath–is truly remarkable.

These #climate #graphics highlight that net-zero targets are helpful,

but it's the total CO2 emitted until then which determines our planetary future.

Developed with talented MSc student Kasia Kruk, feel free to reuse!

https://zenodo.org/record/7767084

It's so strange, reading NYT smugness pieces bewailing how Trump supporters have decided they can ignore fact, now.

At a time when the NYT just helped lead the COVID minimization push and declare the pandemic over despite the science.

Certainly, the Trump crowd is more anti-fact by orders of magnitude.

But, the irony remains.

State policy makers often raise or lower cut scores on their standardized tests to get whatever results are politically useful (to prove either that they've made progress or that more "accountability" is needed). It's like shooting an arrow, then drawing target around it.

Well, it turns out this same con game defines US News's higher ed. rankings: https://is.gd/GtTxnV. One more reason (as if they needed it) for all institutions - undergrad, not just top law schools - to refuse to participate

1. After January 6, hundreds of corps announced they were cutting off support for members of Congress who voted to overturn the election

They didn't want to support members who helped set the stage for violence

Two years later, Trump is back at it and nothing has changed

🧵

No, Bill Maher, Student Debt Cancellation Is Not a “Giveaway” https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/student-loan-cancellation-maher-sanders/