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Reposted by Brandon Bishop

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 15h

Psst: Stop burning stuff on Earth for energy. Let the burning fireball in the sky be your energy source.

T&E @transportenvironment.org · 3d

NEW: Biofuels globally emit more than the fossil fuels they replace, our latest study shows.

The first-of-a-kind study looks at global biofuels production today and the potential impacts of government biofuel targets.
🧵⤵️

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 14h

when you understand the linear passage of time

In early 2007, the Indonesian Minister of Health, Dr. Siti Fadilah Supari,
withheld Indonesia's bird flu samples from foreign researchers in order to gain
bargaining leverage for vaccinations and bird flu treatment)0 Dr. Supari reasoned
that the global virus-sharing system, as currently constructed, was highly
inequitable to developing nations such as Indonesia, because it put them at a severe
disadvantage compared to wealthier nations."

Essentially, Dr. Supari aimed at exercising leverage
for more equitable access to vaccines in pandemic situations. 8 Likely, she sought
to prevent another 2009 where, during the bird flu breakout, only twelve wealthy
nations, which had placed advanced orders, received almost all of the first billion
doses of the bird flu vaccine produced.29

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 15h

consulted for any reorganization of the government.

The govt is accountable directly to the people. No single king-like president can just remake the govt as they like. If they think there is a problem, fine: make the case to the people and to Congress and do reform.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 15h

Several people have asked variants of “mass layoffs happen in the private sector all the time, why shouldn’t this be ok for govt employees too?”

A central principle of civil service law is the president doesn’t get to remove civil servants because he disagrees with them. And Congress must be…

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16h

Also, it is terrible for all the people whose careers are being toyed with, now and all year; all those who are being pushed out without cause, lawlessly.
Alongside all in the public who are being harmed by these attacks on our health and science.
Best to everyone.

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Reposted by Brandon Bishop

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16h

Looks from here like the goal is to create confusion, and focus public attention on a subset of the most outrageous firings — to distract from the other firings.

We shouldn’t be fooled, and should demand that all the illegal shutdown RIFs are made null and void. /end

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16h

So to summarize:

- There is a pattern where Vought makes the RIFs too wide, apparently to flood the zone with sh*t and see who will draw protests.
- They restore some people after outrage and work by us.
- But we are still left with many who remain fired at the end.

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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 14h

Remember when Mike Bloomberg installed "free speech zones" at the RNC?

Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast) @brainnotonyet.bsky.social · 15h

“Free speech curfew” is one of the most authoritarian and dystopian terms I think I have ever heard.

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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 14h

Not like we're not going to need some constitutional rejiggering anyway when this is all done with.

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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 14h

Fourth branch of government modeled vaguely on something like the Control Yuan/Censtorate.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 15h

Post-Trump government reform is obviously going to have to include moving a bunch of agencies out of the executive, but I think it probably also needs to include the creation of a watchdog org under congress that explicitly *always* has standing for constitutional violations by the executive.

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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 14h

Robert Putnam: Why is North Italy so much more prosperous than South Italy? Are the southerners less capable after centuries of social fragmentation?

Me, two seconds after looking at a map: Maybe. But could it also have something to do with the Po Valley being the one flat piece of land in Italy?

A topographic map of Italy showing most of the peninsula covered in mountains, but the wide Po Valley very apparent in the north

A map of population density of Italy with large concentrations in the Po Valley, Rome, and Naples

A map of life expectancy in Italy, with the greenest clusters in northern Italy, especially the Po Valley, while southern Italy is increasingly dark shades of orange

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Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 16h

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

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👁🌻🦊⚙️⚓ Bob, Engineer, Pusher of Paper @navmecheng.bsky.social · 21h

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 15h

www.gravityisgone.com/what-do-thes...

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 15h

This is coming to mind right now as the president goes to unconstitutionally appropriate and spend funds during a shutdown, a thing he absolutely cannot do, but which I imagine the courts will say that no one - save perhaps congress, collectively - has standing to sue to block.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 15h

Post-Trump government reform is obviously going to have to include moving a bunch of agencies out of the executive, but I think it probably also needs to include the creation of a watchdog org under congress that explicitly *always* has standing for constitutional violations by the executive.

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Josh Busby @busbyj2.bsky.social · 15h

And if anyone is wondering WTF is this guy and what's he up to? Project 2025 Architect from Heritage.
www.newsweek.com/departments-...

Departments hit hardest by Trump's mass layoffs—Report

President Donald Trump started discussing federal staffing cuts as the government shutdown started.

www.newsweek.com

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 15h

We really are going to need a special tribunal for these malefactors. It's the United States government they are destroying, and they must answer to the American people.

They are violating so many laws that a standard court of law won't be enough. And there are different levels of violation.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 15h

I am struck by how lack of standing seems to so frequently evade court challenge to unconstitutional government actions.

It's an odd thing missing, given that this problem was solved in ancient Athens: for certain matters the entire citizen body ('ho boulomenos,' 'whoever wishes') had standing.

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Dr. Wendy Bohon @drwendyrocks.bsky.social · 15h

There have been quite a few big earthquakes lately. Are they related? Are we having more big earthquakes than usual? Here’s a quick video addressing some of those questions.

youtube.com/shorts/WoKBH...

There have been a lot of earthquakes lately - are they related?

YouTube video by Dr. Wendy Rocks

youtube.com

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Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 15h

This *seems* like a good thing - but with no details on when and how the “rehiring” will happen, there’s a very real chance that it *won’t* happen, as the attention spans of everyone in power here are snowflake-in-hell short.

And in the meantime, critical responses and needed datasets wither.

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 15h

Update from @apoorvanyt.bsky.social Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error. Gift link: nyti.ms/48JjSSf

Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error

Friday’s layoffs swept up scientists involved in responding to the measles outbreak and running an influential journal. An official acknowledged the mistakes on Saturday.

nyti.ms

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 15h

Seagrasses are great but this is false. Most carbon in the ocean is dissolved inorganic carbon and seagrass carbon is a tiny fraction of that. The mixing of stock and flux is also unhelpful. The only way to stop climate change is not burning fossil fuels.

reasonstobecheerful.world/seagrass-res...

Despite covering just Q.2 percent of the sea floor, seagrasses account for an estimated 10 percent of all the carbon stored by the world's oceans. They are also able to capture carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests such as the Amazon.

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 1d

This is true and they are super endangered by poachers who shovel them up by the hundreds and sell them at flea markets and shit. You should not buy the plants and if you happen to kick the poacher in the shins on accident, no one will hear about it from me.

mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 1d

still amazing to me the number of movies, games, etc. which have Venus Flytrap-based creatures in some form compared to the actual native range of Venus Flytrap, which is like, the great untamed jungles of a few wet pine savannas in North Carolina

map illustrating the native range of Venus Flytrap plants, just a little half circle around coastal North and South Carolina in USA

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 21h

No, I really, really have not. I have been an NIH-funded researcher for 20 years, longer if I count my PhD and postdoc.

Destroy the US biomedical research enterprise and you set biomedical research worldwide back by decades. There is no substitute.

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 22h

People really have no idea, the extent to which the US has led the global biomedical research enterprise.

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