Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@social.cleverlibre.org

A jury ruled that Trump committed violent sexual assault.

A judge ruled he committed financial fraud.

Now another judge has found (what we all saw for ourselves) that he engaged in an insurrection.

How is it possible that he's still a candidate for president?

OPB: Yakama Nation descendants search for unmarked graves at former boarding school site

“At Fort Simcoe Historical State Park, the volunteer team is also using laptops, mapping tools and ground-penetrating radar to find potential burials.”

https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/20/yakama-nation-descendants-search-unmarked-graves-fort-simcoe-boarding-school/

#Washington

I feel bad for asking this, and it blows my mind that this is even an issue, as I always thought better of the human race, but when you're in a long checkout line, and you turn around and look right at someone who has a cane or crutch, who is OBVIOUSLY struggling furiously to remain standing upright, please, please invite them to cut in front of you. It's just polite. It's very, very hard for #Disabed people to even leave the house, but unexpected long lines are very, very painful

#ChronicPain

"3M dumped chemical waste in Lake Elmo, Oakdale and Woodbury landfills for years, but didn’t notify the state until 2003. The state health department began sampling the landfills in 2004 once it developed the right technology."

PFAS and similarly related chemicals are going to be a huge problem as analytical methods improve and agencies are finally able to detect all the PFAS.

I would recommend, as a water scientist, that you use either a refrigerator filter or a similar product on any tap water you drink. Even low-level repeated exposure should be avoided.

And make sure you change the filter regularly! An old filter won't cut it.

#PFAS #WaterPollution #Minnesota

https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/10/02/lake-elmo-family-has-been-fighting-17-years-for-city-water-after-state-pushed-pfas-into-their-well/?emci=87b65f12-3861-ee11-9937-00224832eb73&emdi=d5f98e41-3961-ee11-9937-00224832eb73&ceid=381474

"...evidence of an increasing risk of central nervous system cancers, low birth weight, preterm birth, and some birth defects in children exposed prenatally to nitrates in water. Importantly, these adverse health effects were found among children who were prenatally exposed to levels below the country's current 10 milligram nitrate standard.

"There's a growing body of evidence that the current standards are not sufficiently protective..."

A private well owner who drinks water contaminated with nitrate is probably also drinking 12-18 pesticides at low levels..."

There is too much nitrate in many drinking water sources, and people are getting sick because of it. It is beyond time to regulate nitrate more strictly, especially from agriculture.

#groundwater #nitrate #pollution

https://m.startribune.com/environment-water-dodge-county-west-concord-health-nitrate-atrazine-roundup-farms/600307012/?fbclid=IwAR2sO03d7ibfFQ-E1k8MufrY3RsDyfbWVcFqgu_Wzv20IKVfNx3xJI1QY8I

"The biggest threat to the corn lobby, though, isn’t a repeal of the mandate, it’s electric vehicles. When people no longer need gasoline, they can no longer be forced to buy corn ethanol.

Electric vehicle sales reached 5% of the U.S. new car market in 2022, and already this year they’ve hit 8.6%. JD Power projects 70% of new vehicles will be electric by 2035, with California leading the way at 94% by then.

Many agricultural communities are in denial about EVs, preferring to believe they will never catch on in numbers enough to threaten the importance of the corn crop."

#EV #BigAg #Environment

https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2023/09/30/a-bright-spot-at-the-intersection-of-farming-electric-vehicles-and-solar-energy/?fbclid=IwAR2DF6sDQpbfuvnCO62QKV8lq3qyVIPzFKW6edQWgOHBdHKeuto5pjjPblU

Shut. The. Front. Door!

This is a very cool website that NAGT (National Association of Geoscience Teachers) shared.

Will definitely find ways to utilize in future courses.

https://beta.visiblegeology.com/?fbclid=IwAR2H_7A9AKIG3aWx0G201zJHvbxiXaEWLJYJZcNSloMwgTxhjE__yIev92o

#EarthScience #Education

I often think that red-breasted nuthatches look a bit annoyed (or at least sassy) because of the eye stripe. You can also clearly see the large hind claw that helps them to go down tree trunks head first.
#birds #birdsofmastodon #birding #WildCanada #ornithology

Our travels north allowed few opportunities for photography, given the nearly continuous rain along our entire route, but a stop at Castle Crags State Park allowed a brief look at some ghostly spires.

"Given that up to 20% of clinical trial costs is related to the manual transfer and verification of data from the electronic medical record to a data capture system, as well as the site monitoring of such data, all of which are readily automated tasks, the application of AI to clinical trials could be revolutionary and is likely necessary."

Do Americans Value Democracy?
 
Brace yourselves, this isn’t going to be pretty: A deep dive into the best survey data we have on the ideas and attitudes that shape the political conflict in the United States.
 
New Democracy Americana: https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/do-americans-value-democracy

New commentary letter in Environmental Research Letters expressing views on new World Meteorological Organization #airquality guidelines.

"As we show in the following paragraphs, because of atmospheric chemistry and meteorology, these new guideline values can be unattainably low for some pollutants, are too high for other pollutants, and may be jointly unattainable for a key pair of pollutants for some cities."

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad039f

When we warn the real threat of AI is how it’s used against people in the present, not the fantasies that some day computers might think for themselves, this is exactly the kind of thing we’re talking about: health insurers using AI to deny care.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/ai-with-90-error-rate-forces-elderly-out-of-rehab-nursing-homes-suit-claims/

#tech #ai #health #healthcare

An Argentine farmer found this 20,000-year-old family of Giant Armadillos (Glyptodon) buried near a river.

They were all looking in the same direction, as if they were walking towards something, the largest being the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. It is estimated that they weighed around 2 tons. #Armadillos #Argentine

@histories_arch

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday the U.S. would begin issuing visa bans on "extremist" Israeli settlers committing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

"As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution," Biden wrote in the Washington Post.

"I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable. The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank," he added.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-18/ty-article/u-s-to-issue-visa-bans-on-israeli-extremists-attacking-palestinians-in-west-bank/0000018b-e409-df9a-ab8b-fec973190000

Global investment firms buying up local properties are hurting Atlanta families – especially Black ones.

Brian Y. An of Georgia Institute of Technology writes:
“In the Atlanta metro area, these [Wall Street] firms own nearly one-third of all single-family rental properties. They’re even more concentrated in predominantly Black neighborhoods, where more than 10 houses in a row can be owned by the same corporation.”

https://theconversation.com/i-studied-1-million-home-sales-in-metro-atlanta-and-found-that-black-families-are-being-squeezed-out-of-homeownership-by-corporate-investors-211478
@blackmastodon #BlackMastodon

Stuff this in your pocket for next year when anyone you know thinks about voting for a No Labels ticket...

"That’s $1.5 million going to the top six executives in the organization."

These are not people who give a rat's ass about working families.

No Labels is all grift
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/17/2206441/-No-Labels-is-all-grift