Monday, February 13, 2023

And another day of another mass shooting, 35,000+ deaths, Americans urged to leave Russia ‘immediately,’ record high level of sadness for teens, Christian groups fighting against the Indian Child Welfare Act, and education may be best against cognitive decline comes to a close:

“The main thing Frost and AOC get--and that a lot of older Dems don't--is that Republicans are not redeemable. They can't be shamed into better behavior or reasoned with, so they need to just be exposed on the same information spaces they rely on--namely, social media.” — Dante Atkins 

“Republicans say they don't want to cut Social Security and Medicare but when you ask for their plan it sounds a lot like cutting Social Security and Medicare.” — Aaron Rupar

Michigan State University police: Shootings wound several. Multiple people were reported wounded in shootings Monday night on the Michigan State University campus, police said. On Twitter, university police said there appeared to be only one suspect, later described as a “short male with a mask.” -- It will never end. Ever. We choose to live this way because we continue to elect the fuckers that want to keep it this way.

“When Twitter becomes THE source for information in something like an active shooter situation is when you realize how insane it is that one rich guy views it as his personal soap box. How soon until one of Elon's new buds suggests it might be good to limit the reach of the gun talk whenever there's yet another shooting everyone is tweeting about? -- Schooley

Earthquake death toll tops 35,000 as the number of survivors found drops to a handful in devastated Turkey and Syria.

The U.S. is urging Americans to leave Russia 'immediately' due to security risks. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned of the "unpredictable consequences" of the war in Ukraine, and said dual U.S.-Russian citizens in particular risked being forcibly conscripted into Russia's armed forces.

1st infant in Kentucky surrendered anonymously at ‘baby box’. Kentucky has seen its first infant anonymously dropped off at one of its “baby box” safe surrender locations.

After their genitals were cut, some women search for healing. She remembers it all: How female relatives held her down when she was 11, legs spread and genitals exposed. The fear that stiffened her body. The stranger in black holding the scissors. And the pain.

Teen girls are experiencing record-high levels of sadness and violence: CDC. A report published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly 3 in 5 -- or 57% -- of girls reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, up from 36% in 2011 and the highest levels seen in the past decade. By comparison, teen boys also saw an increase, but from 21% in 2011 to 29% in 2021.

Portugal church sex abuse study: Victims may number 4,800. More than 4,800 individuals may have been victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church and 512 alleged victims have already come forward with their stories, an expert panel looking into historic abuse in the church said Monday. Senior Portuguese church officials had previously claimed that only a handful of cases had occurred. -- Leave the pews. You don’t need them.

The Christian Groups Fighting Against the Indian Child Welfare Act. This spring, the US Supreme Court will hear a case that could decide the future of the Indian Child Welfare Act, the 1978 landmark law that strengthened tribes’ rights to keep Native children out of the foster care system…Yet critics see that argument as merely the latest chapter in Christians’ long history of removing Native children from their communities to win more converts—a kind of a modern spin on the famous words of Richard H. Pratt, the Christian founder of the first residential school for Native children in the United States. “All the Indian there is in the race should be dead,” he wrote in 1892. “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”

The US government says women’s underwear should cost more than men’s. The average US tariff rate on women’s undergarments is 15.5%, compared to just 11.5% for men’s. That means women are being charged a tax that’s 35% higher than what their male counterparts pay...Most international tariff systems have flat rates applying to all underwear, regardless of gender. In Australia, that rate is 5%; it’s 10% in New Zealand; 18% in Canada; 20% in Colombia and Jamaica; 25% in India, 30% in Thailand, and 45% in South Africa. In Japan and the European Union, women are actually taxed at a lower rate. There’s no additional tax in Japan, while the EU levies a tariff of 6.5% on bras and corsets in Europe compared with flat rates of 9% and 12% for the rest.

A New Jersey restaurant is banning children under 10. People have feelings. A New Jersey restaurant that plans to ban children under the age of 10 is garnering both support and criticism on social media.

Twitter’s plan to charge for crucial tool prompts outcry. Nonprofits, researchers and others need the tool, known as the API, or Application Programming Interface, to analyze Twitter data because the sheer amount of information makes it impossible for a human to go through by hand. -- Elon Musk is a dick. Which is an insult to dicks.

Voice Actors are Having Their Voices Stolen by AI. Towards the end of 2022, there was a big boom in AI-generated art on social media and artist-friendly sites such as ArtStation. Though human artists have been quite vocal about how art generators are copying art that already exists from real creators, AI art is gradually becoming a part of that community and other parts of various entertainment industries such as books or music. And now a similar problem is arising in the voice acting space.

Education may be the best way to protect against cognitive decline, new research suggests. Education, in particular whether a person had finished college, made the biggest difference in cognitive abilities such as memory, judgment and focus, Ohio State University scientists reported Wednesday in a scientific journal...Study co-author Hui Zheng, a professor of sociology, suspects that the reason people with a college degree do better cognitively in their 50s is they are more likely to end up with a career that makes them use their brains.

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

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