Reading

Created
Wed, 10/04/2024 - 03:30
Don’t let him forget it What he said yesterday was that because he needs to get elected and he thinks this issue is hurting him so he’s just saying that he isn’t for a federal ban to get it off the table. But what Healey says above shows why he can’t take it off the table. He’s the reason all those states now have abortion bans and he’s proud of it. Normal people don’t care for the idea of women in neighboring states dying or young incest victims being forced into childbirth because Donald Trump is trying to split the difference. He created this problem when he and Mitch McConnell packed the court with wingnuts and now they have to live with it. I noted yesterday that Lindsey Graham had come out with a big statement against Trump’s decision, pushing for a 15 week national ban, and Trump went on a tirade against him on Truth Social. By the end of the evening I became convinced this was a kabuki dance, at least on Graham’s part, to portray Trump as a “moderate.” “See, he’s not so bad!” I’m not entirely convinced Trump is in on that, however.
Created
Wed, 10/04/2024 - 03:00

You may have heard the news that high schoolers will have to take the SATs if they plan to attend college. The temporary break from standardized tests is over.

The New York Times recently posted an interactive test featuring a few questions from the reading and writing section of the SATs. If you haven’t needed to take a standardized test for the past twenty to sixty years, you could try taking it, or you can just hit yourself over the head with a large plumber’s wrench.

We’re not saying you have to do that; you’re an adult who doesn’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Certainly, you don’t have to retake the SATs. Even if your child is currently applying to college, there’s simply no reason you also have to take the test that was the bane of your existence as a teen. You also don’t have to hit yourself in the face with a big steel wrench.

Created
Wed, 10/04/2024 - 02:00

This blog post was written by DrupalCon Portland Higher Education Summit Committee members Megan Bygness Bradley and Michael Miles.

As a part of the landscape of higher education web technology, many of us are navigating the digital realm somewhat disconnected from one another. We’re solving similar problems, but do not often have the opportunity to talk to others about the whys, hows, and the gotchas of implementing within the sphere of higher ed. DrupalCon Portland's Higher Education Summit is tailor-made for you! It's not just another conference; it's an amazing opportunity to connect, collaborate, and elevate your expertise in Drupal with your peers in the higher education sector.

Created
Wed, 10/04/2024 - 00:30
Trump gave all of us more reason to vote this fall If it was not clear before that reproductive freedoms will be the central issue of this presidential campaign, Donald Trump made that clear on Monday, as Digby noted. Every time he does, he’ll drown out his own party’s messaging about border security, age, inflation or any other bit of spaghetti they hope sticks to the wall. But then keeeping his mouth shut about “our Great Roe v. Wade Victory” is not one of Trump’s strong suits. This is one Trump message the left should amplify, and Biden-Harris is on it. The GOP wants to leave all our freedoms up to individual states. Where once we were North and South, segregated and less-so, MAGA Republicans want to make what freedoms we Americans enjoy contingent not on the Constitution but on where we live. They want to leave our freedoms up to the states. Not if we leave it up to our votes. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
Created
Tue, 09/04/2024 - 23:31

Recently, you may have noticed that the hot weather is getting ever hotter. Every year the United States swelters under warmer temperatures and longer periods of sustained heat. In fact, each of the last nine months — May 2023 through February 2024 — set a world record for heat. As I’m writing this, March still has a couple of days to go, but likely as not, it, too, will set a record. Such heat poses increasing health hazards for many groups: the old, the very young, those of us who don’t have access to air conditioning. One group, however, is at particular risk: people whose jobs require lengthy exposure to heat. Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that... Read more

Source: Republicans Have Plans for Working People appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Tue, 09/04/2024 - 23:00
No Confederate flags When the eclipse reached totality Monday afternoon, we looked around and thought this one was much darker than the total eclipse that passed an hour away in 2017. Seven years ago when the celestial light dimmed it was dusky, but not dark. This time we were on the edge of night. What’s up with that? It turns out that the explanation was out there. The geometry of the Earth, Moon and Sun were slightly different this time, making the path of totality wider (Mashable): Setting aside weather conditions, the wider path of totality is also the reason some solar eclipse observers could be treated to a darker sky, Zeiler said, allowing people to see more stars against the backdrop. If a person stood in the center of the narrower path in 2017, then went to the center of the broader 2024 path this April, the sky could appear darker the second time around. The duration of the eclipse and the level of darkness are related. “If you’re in the center, then you’re a farther distance away from sunlight. That’s what it boils down to — how far you are from the edge of the shadow,” he said. So it was near Bloomington, Indiana.
Created
Tue, 09/04/2024 - 23:00

- - -

Swamp or bog? Guilt or shame? Club soda or sparkling water? From food to fashion, ethics to architecture, there are thousands of words and ideas that we tend to collapse, conflate, or confuse. For hairsplitters and language lovers, Tendency contributor Eli Burnstein’s Dictionary of Fine Distinctions: Nuances, Niceties, and Subtle Shades of Meaning explores the world of the vanishingly small, offering up witty deep dives and lively illustrations by Liana Finck to help sharpen these differences and bring us clarity at last.

Today, we offer a small sample of the many important (and funny) distinctions that can be found in this important (and funny) book.

Created
Tue, 09/04/2024 - 22:51
Den värld vi lever i är i grunden osäker och kvantifierbara sannolikheter är undantaget snarare än regeln. Om ”Gud inte spelar tärning” som Einstein hävdade, skulle jag tillägga ”inte heller människor.” Världen som vi känner den kan endast i begränsad omfattning förstås utifrån antaganden om säker och fullkomlig kunskap. Dess inneboende och nästan obegränsade komplexitet […]
Created
Tue, 09/04/2024 - 22:00

From 2006 to 2016, Sarah Walker offered excellent and specific instructions for essential activities of everyday life, like bullfighting and performing tracheotomies. Thanks to her, our standards of living were improved by 100 percent. Today, to help celebrate our twenty-five (and a half) years of online existence, she returns with more valuable advice.

- - -

First, don’t panic.

You’ve been in this exact same situation before, which begs the question: Why? Why did you come back to the lonely roadside diner on a stretch of desert highway that the motorcycle gang frequents? And how, having lived through this nightmare once, did you manage to knock over an entire row of their motorcycles again?

Well, earlier in the afternoon, your mom woke you up and said, “You need to lose your fear of motorcycles, motorcycle gangs, and sometimes Vespas.”

Created
Tue, 09/04/2024 - 22:00

From 2006 to 2016, Sarah Walker offered excellent and specific instructions for essential activities of everyday life, like bullfighting and performing tracheotomies. Thanks to her, our standards of living were improved by 100 percent. Today, to help celebrate our twenty-five (and a half) years of online existence, she returns with more valuable advice.

- - -

First, don’t panic.

You’ve been in this exact same situation before, which begs the question: Why? Why did you come back to the lonely roadside diner on a stretch of desert highway that the motorcycle gang frequents? And how, having lived through this nightmare once, did you manage to knock over an entire row of their motorcycles again?

Well, earlier in the afternoon, your mom woke you up and said, “You need to lose your fear of motorcycles, motorcycle gangs, and sometimes Vespas.”

Created
Tue, 09/04/2024 - 19:50

On a cool London day in 1928, the towering African-American actor and singer Paul Robeson sat down for a much-anticipated lunch. Seated with him were his new acquaintances: a Miss Douglas, the Irish playwright Bernard Shaw, and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, the wife of American President Calvin Coolidge. Robeson witnessed a heated debate ensue between Shaw […]