Sunday, September 11, 2022

And another day of Ginni Thomas’s links, not being able to ‘mourn,’ stunning Ukrainian successes, how air pollution causes lung cancer, TX might tie community college funding to student outcomes, and male birth control comes to a close:

“I'm pondering the problem that our relentless "STEM, STEM, STEM!!!" educational drumbeat has created a new class of engineers who can solve any technical problem but also can't explain why Naziism is bad. This is adjacent to the problem that people in this country see no merit in studying any subject that cannot go on a resumé and be instantly monetized.” — David Bowman

Deaths

US: 1,075,668

World: 6,516,333

Cases

US: 97,095,092

World: 613,737,706

Ginni Thomas’s links to anti-abortion groups who lobbied to overturn Roe. Ginni Thomas, the self-styled “culture warrior” and extreme rightwing activist, has links to more than half of the anti-abortion groups and individuals who lobbied her husband Clarence Thomas and his fellow US supreme court justices ahead of their historic decision to eradicate a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy…“The Thomases are normalizing the prospect of too close an association between the supreme court and those who litigate before it,” said Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast. “This isn’t the first time that Mrs Thomas has had dealings with those who come before the court and seek her husband’s vote.” The revelation that there is substantial overlap between Ginni Thomas and the anti-abortion lobbying effort focused on her husband and the other conservative justices will intensify the growing sense of unease surrounding her hyper-energetic conservative activism.

‘I cannot mourn’: Former colonies conflicted over the queen. Upon taking the throne in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II inherited millions of subjects around the world, many of them unwilling. Today, in the British Empire’s former colonies, her death brings complicated feelings, including anger. Beyond official condolences praising the queen’s longevity and service, there is some bitterness about the past in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Talk has turned to the legacies of colonialism, from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British institutions. For many, the queen came to represent all of that during her seven decades on the throne.

Queen Elizabeth II had many subjects. They will not all mourn her death equally. But Britain was not the only nation to lose its ruler — the queen was the head of state of 14 other countries across the globe when she died, from New Zealand to my family’s Jamaica. You would be right to question why the queen remained the figure head for a former slave colony 60 years after it declared its independence, but this is just one of the many uncomfortable legacies of colonialism…Earlier this year, some Caribbean nations turned heads by publicly opposing the transfer of Commonwealth leadership to King Charles upon his succession. India is now the largest economy in the group, which has expanded to include Rwanda, Mozambique, Gabon and Togo — none of which were formerly British colonies. A changing of the guard is long overdue. By removing the centrality of the British crown, perhaps the group can focus on how to actually overcome the legacies of colonialism, rather than symbolically perpetuating British imperialism. And this, ultimately, is what royalists — and Fox News pundits — fail to grasp. Millions of people are mourning Queen Elizabeth II this weekend, as is their right. But millions more are hoping her death marks the end of the monarchy — and you need only to open a history book to understand why.

On the eastern front, a stunning week of Ukrainian success and Russian failures. The last week has seen a stunning transformation of the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, as a swift armored offensive by Ukrainian forces rolled through lines of Russian defenses and recaptured more than 3,000 square kilometers of territory. That is more territory than Russian forces have captured in all their operations in Ukraine since April.

Russia hits power stations after Ukraine counteroffensive. Russia attacked power stations and other infrastructure Sunday, causing widespread outages across Ukraine as Kyiv’s forces pressed a swift counteroffensive that has driven Moscow’s troops from swaths of territory it had occupied in the northeast. The bombardment ignited a massive fire at a power station on Kharkiv’s western outskirts and killed at least one person. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the “deliberate and cynical missile strikes” against civilian targets as acts of terrorism.

Scientists discover how air pollution causes lung cancer. Scientists say they have identified the mechanism through which air pollution triggers lung cancer in non-smokers, a discovery one expert hailed as “an important step for science – and for society”. The research illustrated the health risk posed by the tiny particles produced by burning fossil fuels, sparking calls for more urgent action to combat climate change.

Texas could tie community college funding to student outcomes. A commission tasked by the Texas Legislature to recommend new ways to fund community colleges is suggesting the state fund schools based on how successful students are at completing programs in high-demand fields and transferring to universities to continue their education.

Male birth control? UW seeking couples for study. Men apply the gel to both shoulders once a day. The hormones in it gradually lower sperm production to a level where a pregnancy would be unlikely. It does not reduce sex drive. The clear gel, which looks and feels like hand sanitizer, contains testosterone and progestin. The combination of hormones suppresses sperm concentrations.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.