Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@social.cleverlibre.org

I’m somewhat surprised how much the expression ‘explaining something so simple that one’s mom can understand it’ has persisted. It’s so obviously sexist and condescending, and I cringe every time I hear it, especially from people who should know better.

A handful of billionaires now have unprecedented control over banking, the food we eat, the health care we can access and, now, the information we receive.

This is what oligarchy looks like.

The waxing, setting moon tonight not long after sunset. When it's this close to new, it tends to get this "earthshine" that allows the viewer to see the dark of the moon. @kimmnunez

I am furious. For 10 days, Lakota Sioux have been snowed in and trapped in South/North Dakota. I just now heard about this. People are dying. Many have no heat, they can’t get food or fuel. They are burning clothes.

In America. In 2022. The National Guard was called out, *finally*. Unconscionable.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64083848

I am waiting to hear re: donations but this appears to be a start (not sure how quickly the goods can be delivered): https://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/a-blankets-quilts-comforters-donation-drive-for-pine-ridge-reservation/

As a human rights lawyer who has done extensive immigration work, let me make something absolutely clear.

Asylum is legal immigration.
There's no "port of entry" requirement.
There's no "visa" requirement.
There's no "first country" requirement.
You enter the United States, and you apply for asylum.

Because asylum is legal immigration. Period.

Period.

The “War on Christmas” propaganda was always the silliest version of the Culture Wars. But even in this most ridiculous form, it’s significant as a manifestation of the Right’s increasingly desperate attempts to uphold white Christian patriarchal dominance in America.

Behind Blue Eyes

Did you know that reindeer are the only known mammal whose eyes change seasonally from golden in the summer to a wintry blue? Their eyes also become a thousand times more sensitive in winter, adapting to dim light in the near darkness to avoid predators.

Part of this is because of changes in the tapetum lucidum (TL), a mirror-like layer under the retina. 1/n

#ScienceSunday #ScienceMastodon #Christmas

Happy Birthday to a brown-skinned Jewish refugee and migrant, a major prophet in Islam, a socialist, a champion of equality, who was arrested and abused by authorities, who preached for love and against exorbitant wealth, hatred, hunger, and homelessness. Merry Christmas, friends! ❤️

The NORAD Twitter account has been suspended for doxxing the location of Santa's sleigh.

#Science Santa and a Cellular #Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the lab
Not a creature was stirring, not even a postgrad.
The pipetmen and tip boxes were arranged with care,
In hopes that scientists soon would be there.

The postdocs were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of job offers danced in their heads.
The PI, at home, took off her many caps
And rested her brains for a well-deserved nap.

1/n

"If women would just say what they mean using the right combination of words in the right place at the right time in the right pitch, tone and volume using appropriate body language and demeanour while wearing the right clothes and doing their hair and makeup just so, men wouldn'...

Journalist & suffragette Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a founding member of the NAACP. She was known for her tireless crusade against lynching.

After the lynching of her friend, Tommie Moss, https://tinyl.io/7Zwg, Wells-Barnett set out to investigate the causes of lynching.

Her writings on white mob violence resulted in her Memphis, TN newspaper being torched; she moved to Chicago afterward. https://tinyl.io/7Zwi

#BlackFriday #History #WomensHistory #BlackHistory #Journalism #Lynching

I continue to see articles trying to attribute increases in RSV/flu to COVID-induced immunodeficiency. I continue to be unimpressed by these arguments. During acute COVID, many studies found reduced T cells in the blood. But after resolution, the counts bounce back up. This is not consistent with T cells dying, as in AIDS. It's more consistent with cells migrating to sites of inflammation, and coming back to the blood when the infection is resolved. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1038-6

Some of you may have seen Elon Musk's endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s crazy antivax conspiracy theories today.

Over at post.news, I just posted a long-form piece about this, and about how science education needs to adapt to online disinformation.

Please a look. If you like it, boost it there or here or — if you dare — over on the birdsite.

https://post.news/article/2J7VEapSIpNWsrC0EawD8CopYqo

Now that the work of the Jan. 6 committee is over, focusing solely on Trump himself would be a mistake. Mending weak points in our election system must be a bipartisan priority. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-prevent-another-january-6

Interesting paper looking at the impact of vaccination for COVID19 with vaccine plus infection ie hybrid immunity on T cells. T cells are white blood cells that have critical roles in immunity for example support B cells to make antibody and can directly kill virally infected cells or virus. As expected antibody production increased from B cells (this been show before) post vaccine/hybrid immunity but little was known about T cells. https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(22)00477-3

Henrietta Lacks was a poor, Black, young mother diagnosed w cervical cancer in 1951. When her cells were collected w/o consent, scientists saw they multiplied remarkably fast.

“HeLa” cells changed #science. They’re used globally to study viruses, drugs, hormones, genes, diseases & develop vaccines. Lacks passed away at 31 w no recognition.

Rebecca Skloot’s beautiful book about her life & legacy is changing that. Now her statue will replace Robert E. Lee in NC. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/us/henrietta-lacks-statue-roanoke-virginia.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare #history

Does making #seashells 🐚 in seawater to draw down atmospheric CO₂ sound like a good #climate solution to you?

Then you’re the target audience of this blog from @mtyka explaining how precipitation of calcium #carbonate to make shells actually releases CO₂.

http://mtyka.github.io/climate/2021/07/01/calcium-carbonate.html

Proposal to stop referring to covid in the past tense and climate change in the future tense.