Stephan: If you live on a well as my wife and I do, particularly if you suffer flooding or there is a chemical industrial monocultural farm adjacent or near your property, I urge you you have your water tested at least once a year. This article explains why I make this recommendation.
Marcelino Maceda looks for items in the remains of his mobile home after a wildfire destroyed multiple homes in Estacada, Ore., in September 2020. With climate change causing more frequent and intense wildfires, people who rely on wells for drinking water are at particular risk. Credit: Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty
PORTLAND, OREGON — Don Myron is probably best known as the guy who survived one of the deadliest fires in Oregon’s history by sheltering overnight in a river with a patio chair. So there was never any question that Myron would rebuild his home in Oregon’s Santiam Canyon after the house was destroyed in the Labor Day wildfires of 2020.
The well Myron shared with nearby homeowners was no longer available, which meant one of his first tasks was to drill his own new source for drinking water.
“It’s hard to rebuild without water,” Myron said. “It’s hard to do anything without water. It was a priority.”
But with climate change confronting communities across the West, people who rely on wells are at particular risk as wildfires grow […]
Stephan: Yet another research study revealing that the consciousness of bees is far more sophisticated than anyone suspected, let alone believed. Who knew bees could add and subtract and tell odd from even numbers. Humanity's wellbeing is linked to the wellbeing of bees, and we desperately need to learn that and institute policies that foster the wellbeing of bees. Our lives depend on it, and that is not an exaggeration.
“Two, four, six, eight; bog in, don’t wait”.
As children, we learn numbers can either be even or odd. And there are many ways to categorise numbers as even or odd.
We may memorise the rule that numbers ending in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 are odd while numbers ending in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 are even. Or we may divide a number by 2 – where any whole number outcome means the number is even, otherwise it must be odd.
Similarly, when dealing with real-world objects we can use pairing. If we have an unpaired element left over, that means the number of objects was odd.
Analysis of the world, from experts
Until now odd and even categorisation, also called parity classification, had never been shown in non-human animals. In a new study, published today in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, we show honeybees can learn to do this.
Why is parity categorisation special?
Parity tasks (such as odd and even categorisation) are considered abstract and high-level numerical concepts in humans.
Interestingly, humans demonstrate accuracy, speed, language and […]
Emily Guskin and Scott Clement , Reporters - The Washington Post
Stephan: Here are the facts about where Americans stand on a woman's right to control her own body based on a survey taken by The Washington Post and ABC last week.
A majority of Americans say the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last week finds.
With the Supreme Court poised to overturn the right to abortion, the survey finds that 54 percent of Americans think the 1973 Roe decision should be upheld while 28 percent believe it should be overturned — a roughly 2-to-1 margin.
The Supreme Court is consideringa Mississippi law that would ban abortion after 15 weeks. Such a restriction seemed forbidden by Roe and a subsequent decision that said states could not place undue burden on the right to abortion before fetal viability, usually seen as 22 to 24 weeks. The Supreme Court is preparingto overturn Roe in this case, according to a leaked draft of the opinion published Monday by Politico.
Stephan: If the leaked Alito draft judgment becomes reality, as I think will happen, it will only be the beginning, as this report explains. This decision is but one step on a long-term strategy to increase authoritarian control over citizens. Next, it will be outlawing receiving abortion medications by mail. Do you notice something about these steps? This is all tied to abortion because that issue welds the male-dominant Christians to the corporate fascists; that's what created christofascism. The oligarchs don't care about this issue, but the fundamentalist do, and by indulging them, the rich get the popular backing they want to create law that condones authoritarianism. Add to that gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc. etc. This is the deliberate creation of anocracy. They have been at this for years.
Activists march holding portraits of women who died because of the lack of legal right to abortion on International Women’s Day, 8 March, in Los Angeles. Credit: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty
As abortion bans proliferate in states around the US, some state legislatures are likely to go even further than just ending abortion in their jurisdictions – taking aim at the growing numbers of people seeking procedures and medications out of state, experts warn.
If, as the bombshell leak of its private votesuggests, the supreme court weakens or overturns Roe v Wade – the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion – in an upcoming decision on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, states will be left with a confusing patchwork of laws that will probably lead to legal challenges.
A fresh wave of restrictions will probably center around patients who leave their state to obtain legal abortions in other states, or who order medications to manage their abortions at home.
Lawmakers in Missouri weighed legislation early this year that would allow individuals to sue anyone helping a patient cross state lines […]
Maggie Koerth and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, Senior Science Writer - FiveThirtyEight
Stephan: I wrote my comment for the previous article and decided to see if others saw the probability of the right using abortion as a way to get control of the mail established as a legal right. They do, and I think it should seriously alarm us. I also see that this November's election is a Rubicon. If enough people don't turn out to give the Democrats not only continued control of the House and Senate but also a larger majority the conversion of America to a christofascist anocracy will be significantly advanced.
The things Desireé Luckey remembers most about finding out she was pregnant for the first time are how fast the little test strip turned positive — and how irritated it made her feel. It was one more hassle in a summer that already felt overwhelming. Within the span of a few weeks in 2012, Luckey had graduated college, ended an emotionally unsafe relationship and started a new — but frustratingly unpaid — job with former President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. From her dorm bathroom, she immediately began figuring out what she’d need to do to get an abortion.
Kelsea McLain also knew she wanted an abortion as soon as she found out she was pregnant. Graduating college during the Great Recession, she was surviving on unemployment and about to lose her apartment. Both women wanted private, inexpensive abortions. Because of that, they chose medication abortion — two pills that, when taken together, effectively mimic the biology of an early miscarriage. Medication abortion allowed Luckey and McLain to abort their pregnancies at home. It […]
