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Leaving Florence today after a very fun #rustlab2023 ✈️
PSA for those leaving today: the marathon that should start about now-ish prevents traffic to the airport, including the tramway!
According to my hotel's staff, the only way is to walk up to outside the marathon's circuit and try to grab a cab (or just walk the 6km too the airport, it's not very fun, but doable.
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Leaving Florence today after a very fun #rustlab2023 ✈️
PSA for those leaving today: the marathon that should start about now-ish prevents traffic to the airport, including the tramway!
According to my hotel's staff, the only way is to walk up to outside the marathon's circuit and try to grab a cab (or just walk the 6km too the airport, it's not very fun, but doable.
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#rustlab2023 peeps who are still in Florence, don't skip on Museo Galileo, the collection is amazing. You have until tonight before I tell you what this marvelous thing is, place your bets!
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#rustlab2023 peeps who are still in Florence, don't skip on Museo Galileo, the collection is amazing. You have until tonight before I tell you what this marvelous thing is, place your bets!
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Intro again for new users:
I’m a #sociology #PhdStudent at #UCSantaBarbara studying #friendship #gender #masculinities #sexualities #SocialPsych #FeministTheory. Most of my research explores men’s friendship.
Outside of research, I’m a rank-and-file organizer with the UC #TeachingAssistant #union #UAW2865. We’re #OnStrike right now, and I’m happy to answer questions about it #FairUCNow -
#introduction :
I’m a #sociology #PhDstudent at #ucsantabarbara studying #friendship #gender #masculinities #sexualities #socialpsych #FeministTheory. Most of my research explores men’s friendship #sociodon
Outside of research, I’m a #rank-and-file organizer with the UC #teachingassistant #union #UAW2865 (we’re going #onstrike 11/14!) I have the best cat ever and love #plants #gardening #pottery. Currently taking extra time to care for my #hypermobile #hEDS body with #autoimmune #arthritis -
Hey there! On Wednesday, I completed the ILLC's Master of #Logic at the #UniversityOfAmsterdam :dr_tobydance: My supervisor and the rest of the committee were super nice to me, as were all the friends who have helped me throughout these two years. Amazing programme full of amazing people btw. :blobcat_heart:
I am starting my #PhD next month. I'll be working on the foundations of programming languages under @[email protected] at #SDU's #ACPSection in #Odense, #Denmark. I am super psyched! -
Zusammenfassung der wissenschaftlichen Lage zu SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 und dessen Folgeerkrankungen (Long Covid/PACS) auf Deutsch.
Špela Šalamon, MD, PhD Andrew Ewing, PhD Greta Fox Stephane Bilodeau, PhD Carlos Gershenson, PhD Matti TJ Heino Prof. Dr. Matthias F. Schneider Yaneer Bar-Yam, PhD SARS-CoV-2 und COVID-19: Von der Krise zur Lösung. WHN Science Communications 2024; 5 (5): 1-1.
https://doi.org/10.59454/whn-2405-255#WHN, #SarsCoV2, #COVID19, #Wissenschaft, #Zusammenfassung, #PublicHealth
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Fox host rages as Chasten Buttigieg calls the right out for alleged corruption & hypocrisy - LGBTQ Nation
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Finally Friday Reads: Project 2025 Plan to Destroy America is Offical
“I’m pretty sure all the Military Brass are impressed that the Secretary of War had his own personal makeup room built in the Pentagon. John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Most of us knew that Project 2025 would be the basis of policy. Republicans have wanted an Imperial Presidency for some time. Republicans have elected at least 3 useful idiots as President with the goal of destroying American democracy in mind. It’s why we have a huge deficit, and spending has been concentrated on the rich who can pay-to-play to get massive tax cuts and huge government subsidies.
There are examples in every state they control. Here in Louisiana, the damage from oil extraction and affiliated chemical industries has created massive damage, and just at the precise time that the EPA has been fully filleted. Not only has nothing real been done to abate the chemical spill that happened earlier this summer after a poorly managed plant that exploded in Roseland, a primarily black community, but it has not been fully abated. The actions behind the removal of LSU’s premier Lake Maurapas researcher have become clearer. Today, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health released this important research. “Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Is More Deadly Than Previously Imagined. New research shows that the industrial pollution—and the risk to human health—on Louisiana’s Cancer Alley have been significantly underestimated.
On an 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, communities exist alongside some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical production plants. Since the 1980s, the area has been known as Cancer Alley.
These plants process about 25% of the U.S.’s petrochemical products, Peter DeCarlo, PhD, associate professor in Environmental Health and Engineering, said in the July 2 episode of Public Health On Call—with many of the byproducts and emissions winding up in nearby communities’ air, water, and soil.
Residents of these communities suffer the effects of extreme air pollution, including increased rates and risks of maternal, reproductive, and newborn health harms; respiratory illnesses; and cancer. One area has the highest risk of cancer from industrial air pollution in the U.S.—more than seven times the national average.
But new research from DeCarlo, Keeve Nachman, PhD ’06, MHS ’01, professor in Environmental Health and Engineering, and their teams shows that the pollution—and the risk to human health—has been significantly underestimated.
In this Q&A, adapted from that podcast episode, DeCarlo and Nachman discuss their work measuring levels of pollutants in Louisiana and explain what these conclusions mean for how the U.S. should regulate carcinogens.
We may be drowning in toxic chemicals, but other states and cities are experiencing ICE Raids that resemble SS maneuvers. Additionally, we have new threats. Since the reality on the ground has embarrassed the Trump plan to send the military to “wartorn” Portland to defuse his imagined war on the ground, he’s come up with an alternative plan. This is from ABC News. “Leavitt says Trump exploring cutting aid to Portland.”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is exploring plans to cut federal funding to Portland due to what she said was a rise in “Antifa” related incidents.”
“We will not fund states that allow anarchy,” she told reporters.
Antifa is not a group, but rather a political philosophy or movement. The term comes from the longer “anti-fascist” and is used as a catchall for groups that oppose the concept of authoritarianism, neo-Nazism and white supremacy.
If you want to sum it up, try this hypothesis for size. Republicans are willing to let all of us starve and die as long as they can get paid for enabling modern-day Robber Barons.
About six months into this reign of terror, murder, and destruction, I’m still not certain the legacy media is getting the bigger picture. However, yesterday, an announcement by Trump made them perk their ears once more. Will it be enough? This is from the AP. “Trump no longer distancing himself from Project 2025 as he uses the shutdown to further pursue its goals.”
President Donald Trump is openly embracing the conservative blueprint he desperately tried to distance himself from during the 2024 campaign, as one of its architects works to use the government shutdown to accelerate his goals of slashing the size of the federal workforce and punishing Democratic states.
In a post on his Truth Social site Thursday morning, Trump announced he would be meeting with his budget chief, “Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”
The comments represented a dramatic about-face for Trump, who spent much of last year denouncing Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation’s massive proposed overhaul of the federal government, which was drafted by many of his longtime allies and current and former administration officials.
You may recall that the implication of this document was central to the Democratic Party campaign. Kamala Harris made it a focal point of the convention and other speeches.
Top Trump campaign leaders spent much of 2024 livid at The Heritage Foundation for publishing a book full of unpopular proposals that Democrats tried to pin on the campaign to warn a second Trump term would be too extreme.
While many of the policies outlined in its 900-plus pages aligned closely with the agenda that Trump was proposing — particularly on curbing immigration and dismantling certain federal agencies — others called for action Trump had never discussed, like banning pornography, or Trump’s team was actively trying to avoid, like withdrawing approval for abortion medication.
Trump repeatedly insisted he knew nothing about the group or who was behind it, despite his close ties with many of its authors. They included John McEntee, his former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, and Paul Dans, former chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump insisted in July 2024. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
Trump’s campaign chiefs were equally critical.
“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way,” wrote Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita in a campaign memo. They added, “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.”
Trump has since gone on to stock his second administration with its authors, including Vought, “border czar” Tom Homan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller and Brendan Carr, who wrote Project 2025’s chapter on the Federal Communications Commission and now chairs the panel.
Heritage did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. But Dans, the project’s former director, said it’s been “exciting” to see so much of what was laid out in the book put into action.
“It’s gratifying. We’re very proud of the work that was done for this express purpose: to have a doer like President Trump ready to roll on Day One,” said Dans, who is currently running for Senate against Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.
It was frequently averred that Stephen Miller was central to all plans for the project’s implementation. Only a few public intellectuals continued to warn of the plan and steps taken, while Yam Tit still shrugged off any implication that he was following the plan’s blueprint during the first six months. Well, that curtain has dropped.
AXIOS sums this evolution up neatly. “Trump charts path to total control amid government shutdown.’ This is reported by Zachary Basu.
President Trump is seizing on the government shutdown as an “unprecedented opportunity” to consolidate control in the Oval Office, accelerating a trend toward unchecked power.
Why it matters: Many Democrats see the shutdown as a necessary evil to halt — or at least slow — Trump’s steamrolling of democratic norms and independent institutions. So far, the standoff is only emboldening the White House.
Zoom in: Trump said he met Thursday with White House budget chief Russ Vought to discuss what “Democrat agencies” should get cuts, casting the shutdown as a chance to shrink a federal workforce Trump has long viewed as hostile.
- Goading Democrats, Trump flaunted Vought’s role in Project 2025 (“he of PROJECT 2025 Fame”) — the hard-right blueprint for expanding executive power that Trump disavowed on the campaign trail after it became a political liability.
- For Vought, the shutdown offers a unique opening: a live test of theories he has spent years refining on how to weaken Congress, purge the bureaucracy and concentrate power in the presidency.
Already, Vought has announced the termination of nearly $8 billion in funding for clean-energy projects in 16 states, all of which voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 and have Democratic senators.
- He also has frozen $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects, a thinly veiled shot at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
- Legal challenges are inevitable: Congress controls the power of the purse, and federal officials privately have warned that Vought’s plans for mass firings during the shutdown may violate appropriations law.
The big picture: As Axios has documented, the shutdown is only one front in Trump’s broader campaign of consolidation.
- Military: In an unprecedented partisan address this week, Trump told more than 800 generals and admirals to prepare for a “war” against domestic “enemies,” urging them to treat America’s cities as “training grounds.”
- Academia: The administration is asking universities to sign a 10-point “compact” that would grant preferential access to federal funding if schools agree to freeze tuition, protect conservative speech, apply strict definitions of gender, limit international students and other Trump priorities.
- Rule of law: Days after Trump publicly pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to charge his political enemies, the Justice Department indicted former FBI director James Comey. Other Trump foes, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), are under investigation.
- Civil society: FBI director Kash Patel severed ties with the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, accusing the Jewish civil rights group of “functioning like a terrorist organization” after MAGA activists discovered that Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA was listed in its now-removed “Glossary of Extremism and Hate.” Trump also has urged the Justice Department to investigate Democratic megadonor George Soros’ Open Society Foundations as part of a crackdown on liberal groups following Kirk’s assassination.
- Corporate America: Trump demanded last week that Microsoft fire its head of global affairs, Lisa Monaco, because she served in the Biden administration — a reminder that even corporate giants aren’t immune from political retaliation. Trump had previously called on Intel’s CEO to resign over alleged ties to China, but backed off after the U.S. government took a 10% equity stake in the chip-maker.
More at the link.
MSNBC’s Maddow Blog has this analysis. As usual, Steve Benen has the led. “Trump picks a convenient time to change his tune about the Project 2025 agenda. Remember last year when Trump feigned ignorance about the right-wing governing blueprint? A year later, the president no longer bothers with the pretense.”
As the second full day of the latest government shutdown got underway, Donald Trump published an odd message to his social media platform, which raised plenty of eyebrows throughout the political world.
“I have a meeting today with [White House Budget Director] Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat [sic] Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” the president wrote.
We don’t yet know what transpired at that meeting, but Trump’s weird phrasing was itself notable. For example, there are no federal departments or offices that should be called “Democrat Agencies.” There are only American agencies, which do work on behalf of the American people and which are currently led, at least in part, by Trump’s own appointees.
Similarly, the idea that federal agencies deserve to be condemned as “a political SCAM” is every bit as bizarre as it sounds. We’re talking about offices, some of which have been around for many years, that were created by Congress. Their existence is reinforced in federal law, which the president is required to enforce.
As for the possibility that Trump and the far-right head of his Office of Management and Budget might “permanently” weaken departments that the White House no longer likes, it’s worth keeping in mind that such efforts might very well be illegal.
But let’s also not brush past that other phrase: Vought, the president wrote, is “of PROJECT 2025 Fame.” As The Associated Press summarized:
President Donald Trump is openly embracing the conservative blueprint he desperately tried to distance himself from during the 2024 campaign, as one of its architects works to use the government shutdown to accelerate his goals of slashing the size of the federal workforce and punishing Democratic states.
For those who might benefit from a refresher, throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump realized that the Project 2025 agenda was so radical and unpopular that he treated is as radioactive. “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it,” the Republican said over the summer about the blueprint largely written by members of his own team. He added, “I have nothing to do with them.”
Here’s some analysis from Time Magazine‘s Editorial Fellow Connor Greene. “Trump Is No Longer Denying Support for Project 2025: What to Know.”
President Donald Trump has changed his tune on the conservative policy plan Project 2025 after actively distancing himself from it for months during his reelection campaign.
Trump announced on Thursday that he would be meeting with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, “he of PROJECT 2025 Fame,” to decide which “Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”
The post marks a significant shift from the President’s past disavowals of the unpopular right-wing policy blueprint, which was created by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation ahead of the 2024 election. “I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it,” Trump said in a debate last year with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Despite Trump’s repeated insistence that he didn’t know anything about Project 2025, however, he had close ties with a number of its authors, several of whom have served in his Administrations—including Vought. And since he returned to the White House in January his second Administration has taken steps to implement a number of the proposals detailed in the over 900-page document.
Now, amid the government shutdown, Trump is moving to further fulfill Project 2025’s goals of reducing the federal workforce and extending his executive powers—and, it appears, openly embracing the plan.
The big question sis what does this mean for the shutdown and the country?
Despite his criticisms of Project 2025, many of the Trump Administration’s actions since he returned to office have mirrored aspects of the blueprint. An analysis by TIME in January found that nearly two-thirds of Trump’s early executive actions reflected—in whole or in part—proposals in Project 2025.
Among the parts of the plan that Trump has carried out is its recommendation to aggressively reduce the size and scope of the federal government.
Trump and hisDepartment of Government Efficiency moved quickly to cut more than 200,000 federal employees, though some of the layoffs have since been held up in the courts after being challenged by lawsuits. His Administration has also looked to slash federal funding through various freezes, clawbacks, cuts, and recissions.
Trump has announced plans to execute still more cuts amid the government shutdown. In the leadup to the deadline to fund the government this week, the White House directed agencies to prepare for mass firings in the event that Congress couldn’t reach a deal, rather than furloughing those not deemed essential as in past shutdowns.
The Administration has additionally used the shutdown to cancel $8 billion in green energy projects in Democratic-led states, withhold $18 billion in transportation projects in New York City, and pause $2.1 billion in infrastructure projects in Chicago.
Here’s a just a bit of the latest information on Russell Voight. This startling headline is from Politico. “Thune warns Democrats about Russ Vought: ‘We don’t control what he’s going to do’ The Senate majority leader spoke out as some Republicans express qualms about the White House slash-and-burn campaign.” The reporter for this piece is Jourdain Carney.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune isn’t endorsing the slash-and-burn campaign White House budget director Russ Vought has planned for the federal government during the pending shutdown.
But he says Democrats have no one to blame for it but themselves.
“This is the risk of shutting down the government and handing the keys to Russ Vought,” the Senate majority leader said in an exclusive interview Wednesday in the Capitol, adding that “there should have been an expectation” among Democrats that Vought’s Office of Management and Budget could broadly target government workers and programs in a shutdown.
Thune spoke on the same day that several Republicans aired discomfort with Vought’s moves after the shutdown went into effect. Rep. Mike Lawler of New York spoke out against his decision to hold up major transportation projects in his state, while Reps. Blake Moore of Utah and Brian Babin of Texas spoke up on a private House GOP call with Vought raising qualms about potential mass layoffs.
Vought’s actions also risk being a distraction for Republicans, who have sought to stick to a simple message putting the onus on Democrats to reopen the government. Pressed on whether Vought was muddying the waters, Thune said, “The only thing I would say about that is yes, and we don’t control what he’s going to do.”
The White House has made no secret that its strategy is to inflict maximum political pressure on Democrats to try to get them to reopen the government. Vought warned ahead of the start of the shutdown that OMB would take aggressive steps beyond typical furloughs, where employees are brought back to work after the government reopens.
The budget office directed agencies in a memo first reported by POLITICO last week to put together plans for reductions-in-force — or firings — of federal employees. Vought himself told House Republicans during the Wednesday call that those firings would start in a “day or two.”
“I can’t control that,” Thune said about decisions made by OMB. “But the Democrats ought to think long and hard about keeping this thing going for a long time, because it won’t be without consequence, I’m sure.”
This final suggested read is from Mother Jones. “Russ Vought Is Trump’s Shutdown Hero. His Neighbors Think His Work Is “Abhorrent.” The people living near Trump’s “grim reaper” of government cuts have put up signs letting him know they stand with federal workers.” This is reported by Isabela Dias.
On Thursday night, President Donald Trump shared a music video on Truth Social. In it, an AI-generated Russ Vought—Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget and a Project 2025 mastermind—is the grim reaper, carrying a scythe along a hallway lined with portraits of Democratic leaders. Vought, the video’s soundtrack explains, “wields the pen, the funds, and the brain” to enforce the president’s plans to axe federal workers.
“Everyone still remembers when he said he wanted to cause maximum trauma to federal workers,” the neighbor said. “And that’s hard to forget.”
Most of Vought’s neighbors I talked to for this article declined to speak on the record or asked to remain anonymous. Some said they didn’t want to create a rift in an otherwise cordial neighborhood, while others worried about retribution or negative repercussions from their employers.
“I just wish he would have gotten to know us,” Hunter said. “We consider ourselves good Americans, we have good values. And I don’t think he’s been interested in getting to know any of us, in hearing if we might have a difference of opinion.”
Last week, Vought sent around a memo blaming Democrats’ “insane demands” for the imminent lapse in funding and instructing agency heads to start making plans to cut non-mandatory programs “not consistent with the President’s priorities” and “use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force.” Appearing on Fox Business, Vought claimed an “authority to make permanent change to the bureaucracy here in government” during the shutdown.
He has since announced pauses to funding for infrastructure projects in New York—home state of House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), who called Vought a “malignant political hack”—and slowdowns in clean energy projects in several blue states.
Vought, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said on Fox News, “has been dreaming about and preparing for his moment since puberty.”
AsIwrote in a profile of Vought from 2024, the bespectacled official spent years as a Washington insider and government bureaucrat before becoming the architect of a supersized second Trump presidency.
An avowed Christian nationalist and dedicated America First warrior, he once described the job of OMB director as the “keeper of ‘commander’s intent” and criticized the federal bureaucracy for standing in the way of the president’s agenda. During Trump’s first term, Vought tried to implement an executive order that would have made it easier for political appointees to fire career civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists. Now, he’s getting to realize his vision while earning points with the president.
See what’s in the cards for us? Read them and weep. The Voight cartoons are from The Nation. They have a primar on Vought that you really should read. “Project 2025: Vought’s Your Problem? Not too bad to be true.” Steve Brodner is the artist and his cartoons have descriptions of their design. Go see the rest!
I’ve been a little late today, I’m sorry. I woke up late last night in a lot of pain and took some acetaminophen for relief. In my mind I was seeing it as some sort of ritual to defang Trump’s war on Health Care. I also got a call from youngest with my first grandson. Aiden, like his mémé is quite verbal. I really worked on this piece because I wanted to get as many sources as I could on this abomination and put my time in it than usual. I was researching stuff like the researcher I am. I am vorasciously reading up on this and I suggest you do too.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
#Repeat1968 #DestructionOfFederalAgencies #governmentShutdown2025m #JohnBuss #LousianaSCancerAlley #PeoplePower #Project25 #RussVought #StevenBrodner
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Leopards’ Roars Are Actually Hidden Big Cat Fingerprints
Leopards’ Roars Are Actually Hidden Big Cat Fingerprints | Researchers from the University of Exeter have discovered that each #leopard possesses a distinctive roar, allowing for individual identification with 93% accuracy. This finding opens new avenues for monitoring and conserving these elusive big cats. Leopards are #vulnerable due to #palmoil #deforestation, #poaching and other threats. Help them every time you shop and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
🐆🔊 Exciting #research reveals #leopards have unique roars 🎶🎵 enabling individual identification with 93% accuracy! This breakthrough aids in monitoring and protecting these majestic #bigcats. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-9PJ
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitterhttps://youtu.be/lYN0KJM17j0?si=FU7qPIDAah_af1a-
University of Exeter. (2024, December 23). Individual leopards can be identified by their roars. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241223135204.htm
A recent study has revealed that leopards can be individually identified by their unique roars, achieving an accuracy rate of 93%. This breakthrough offers a novel method for monitoring these solitary and nocturnal creatures, which are often challenging to study due to their elusive nature.
Conducted across a 450 km² area in Nyerere National Park, Tanzania, researchers employed a combination of camera traps and autonomous recording devices to capture both visual and auditory data. By analysing the temporal patterns of the leopards’ “sawing” roars—a series of low-frequency sounds used for communication—the team successfully distinguished individual animals.
Lead author Jonathan Growcott, a PhD student at the University of Exeter, emphasised the significance of this discovery: “Discovering that leopards have unique roars is an important but fundamentally quite basic finding that shows how little we know about leopards, and large carnivores in general.”
This advancement in bioacoustic monitoring presents a non-invasive approach to studying leopard populations, facilitating more accurate population estimates and aiding in conservation efforts. Given that leopards are classified as ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN Red List due to habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict, such innovative monitoring techniques are crucial for their preservation.
The study also highlights the potential of integrating multiple technologies to gather comprehensive data on wildlife, enhancing our understanding of ecosystems and informing effective conservation strategies.
University of Exeter. (2024, December 23). Individual leopards can be identified by their roars. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241223135204.htm
ENDS
Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture
Global South America S.E. Asia India Africa West Papua & PNGMalayan Flying Fox Pteropus vampyrus
Mountain Cuscus Phalanger carmelitae
Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus
Sumatran Tiger Panthera tigris sondaica
Bateleur Eagle Terathopius ecaudatus
Learn about “sustainable” palm oil greenwashing
Read more about RSPO greenwashing
Lying Fake labels Indigenous Land-grabbing Human rights abuses Deforestation Human health hazardsA 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)
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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20
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Trump’s theatrics intensified over the weekend. He was photographed at a car race with his entourage in tow. His co-conspirator and personal Valet is now carrying a large briefcase. Got me thinking what was inside… John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Just when I think that Donald’s supporters can’t be any more idiotic, the groupthink leads them to some next-level crazy. Their latest efforts are wearing adult diapers outside their jeans and touting the masculinity of diaper-wearing by adult men. Seriously, who thought this up? Well, here’s one explanation by FirstPost explainers. “Oh, S**t! Why are Trump’s supporters wearing nappies to rallies?”
After Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen nicknamed him ‘Von ShitzInPantz’, the Republican candidate’s supporters are making diapers great again…or at least trying to. They are thronging rallies wearing nappies; some are donning T-shirts and holding placards with slogans like ‘Real Men Wear Diapers’ and ‘Diapers over Dems’
Just when you think US presidential elections can’t get more bizarre, they throw up a surprise. Donald Trump’s supporters do not disappoint. They are showing up at his rallies wearing nappies and shirts that read “Real Man Wear Diapers”.
But why?
Trump supporters, aka MAGAs, are responding to recent developments in the former president’s hush money trial case, where his lawyer Todd Blanche read out a string of offensive posts by his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen in the courtroom.
It’s not exactly on the same level as turning “Let’s Go Brandon” into Dark Brandon, is it? SkyNews reports that “Donald Trump supporters have started wearing nappies. They also have a new slogan: Real Men Wear Diapers.” Something tells me that not one of these folks was ever the cool kid or the nerdy kid in school.
The peculiar new craze began after Mr Trump was described as “Von ShitzInPantz”.
Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, said in a post on X last month: “Hey Von ShitzInPantz…your attacks of me stink of desperation. We are all hoping that you take the stand in your defence.”
He added, a couple of days later: “Oh… Von ShitzInPantz. Keep whining, crying and violating the gag order you petulant defendant!”
On Thursday, during Mr Trump’s hush money trial, the prosecution alleged he had further violated a gag order connected to the case.
On Tuesday, he was fined $9,000 (£7,100) and held in contempt by the judge for breaches of the same order.
But Mr Trump’s defence lawyer, Todd Blanche, said his client was the victim of attacks by both Mr Cohen and the media.
Mr Blanche also referred to comments from President Joe Biden, referring to Donald Trump experiencing “stormy weather”.
Since then, Trump supporters have apparently been trying to get back at Mr Cohen by wearing nappies and declaring that “real men” do the same.
If this is the best they can do to “own the libs,” then count me ROFLMAO. Can you imagine what that kid in the red shirt would do if his mom made him do it for any other reason? There are so many conspiracy theories out there that you just wonder if there’s a movement to drop Republican babies repeatedly on their heads. This article from Salon is just eye-opening. “Who believes the most “taboo” conspiracy theories? It might not be who you think. White men with graduate degrees, a new study finds, are highly likely to hold especially noxious beliefs.” Paul Rosenburg is the writer and provides some insight into the study.
Like Henry Ford before him, Elon Musk has emerged as America’s top conspiracy spreader. But he’s hardly alone. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the conspiracy-theory candidate for president, and as Paul Krugman observed last summer, was attracting “support from some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley”:
Jack Dorsey, who founded Twitter, has endorsed him, while some other prominent tech figures have been holding fund-raisers on his behalf. Elon Musk, who is in the process of destroying what Dorsey built, hosted him for a Twitter Spaces event.
Krugman didn’t focus on conspiracy theory as such but on something closely related: distrust of experts and skepticism about widely accepted facts. He described this tendency as the “brain rotting drug” of reflexive contrarianism, quoting economist Adam Ozimek.
That wasn’t exactly scientific, but a new paper entitled “The Status Foundations of Conspiracy Beliefs” by Saverio Roscigno, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Irvine, is. Its most eye-catching finding is the discovery of “a cluster of graduate-degree-holding white men who display a penchant for conspiracy beliefs” that are “distinctively taboo.”
Specifically, Roscigno writes, “approximately a quarter of those who hold a graduate degree agree or strongly agree” that school shootings like those at Sandy Hook and Parkland “are false flag attacks perpetrated by the government,” which is “around twice the rate of those without graduate degrees.” Results are similar for the proposition that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust “has been exaggerated on purpose.”
These findings are striking for many reasons. Most obviously, they go against the common belief — long supported by research — that conspiracist beliefs are more common among lower-income and less-educated individuals. They also challenge the formulation popularized by Joseph Uscinski that “conspiracy theories are for losers,” and should be understood as “alarm systems and coping mechanisms to help deal with foreign threat and domestic power centers” that “tend to resonate when groups are suffering from loss, weakness, or disunity.”
Von ShitzinPants, by @deAdder
What follows the introduction is an interview with Roscigno that is quite enlightening. Follow the link to read more.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has laid out some important election messaging. “‘If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall,’ says Jeffries in stressing importance of elections.” This is reported by Nick Robertson at The Hill.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) emphasized the stakes of the 2024 election in a “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday, warning that much more than abortion rights are at risk if former President Trump gets a second term.
He told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell that reproductive freedom will be an “incredibly significant” issue in the race.
“And the extreme MAGA Republicans have set in motion the erosion of reproductive freedom,” he said. “We’re gonna fight for it with everything that we’ve got at our disposal.”
“If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall,” he continued. “Social Security can fall. Medicare can fall. Voting rights can fall. And God help us all, but democracy itself can fall. If Roe v. Wade can fall, then anything can fall.”
Jeffries’ comments come as Democrats turn their sights on battleground states focusing on abortion rights arguments, as Arizona, Florida, Montana and others prepare for abortion rights ballot issues.
GOP state lawmakers in Arizona overturned a Civil War-era abortion restriction last week after multiple attempts and mass criticism from Democrats, while another strict abortion law went into effect in Florida on Wednesday.
But Jeffries also said that Democrats need to run on a positive message, in addition to warning about what Republicans could take away. He pointed to the gun safety regulation and investments in manufacturing as the “real results.”
However, most Americans still perceive the Biden economy as weaker than the economy under President Trump, according to polls, as the Biden campaign struggles to change the narrative.
The biggest problem is that many Americans believe completely untrue things. That last sentence shows just one. Here’s another lie that Donald spins constantly.
"…crime in the United States has dramatically decreased — 73 percent, to be precise — over the last thirty years. 2023 saw the biggest national drop in murder rates ever recorded…"
Crime is not on the rise — so why do so many Americans think it is?https://t.co/wWEN8dwcTI
— Portia ♍️ McGonagal Same On 🐳 (@PortiaMcGonagal) May 6, 2024
Given that crime is a staple element of tabloid news, coverage of local tragedies, rather than seeming to occur at a distance, brings the specter of mayhem into communities that experience little or no crime. As Gideon Taffe of Media Matters reported in January 2023, Fox produced “a misleading narrative” about the United States being in the grip of a crime wave in 2022, devoted 11 percent of its reporting to the topic in advance of the midterm election. But that crime wave was “largely created by its own relentless coverage,” Taffe writes. “By focusing on racist stereotypes, smearing progressive prosecutors and pushing conspiracy theories, Fox made crime one of the biggest perceived ailments in the country and pushed far-right policy prescriptions ahead of the election.
The only sane policy responses, Fox hosts proclaimed, were those embraced by the Party of Trump. And these “draconian solutions” meant a return to policies forcibly ended in the courts as civil rights violations:
”Fox personalities began arguing for a return to “Broken Windows” policing, which involves aggressive enforcement and harsher sentences for lower level crimes. In reality, there is no evidence that this strategy works as a deterrent to reduce crime, and other heavy-handed policing tactics based on the broken windows theory have been found to significantly discriminate against Black Americans and other minority groups.
But as Taffe also pointed out, crime in the United States has dramatically decreased — 73 percent, to be precise — over the last thirty years. 2023 saw the biggest national drop in murder rates ever recorded (6 percent) and murders in cities dropped 12 percent. Yes, there are periodic crime spikes. (There was one during the pandemic). But overall, the trend is towards less crime.
The Atlantic’s crime reporter, Jeff Asher, pointed out that less crime doesn’t mean no crime. Yet “declining murder does not mean there were not thousands upon thousands of these tragedies this year,” he wrote on his Substack:
Nor does it mean that there was an acceptable level of gun violence, even in places seeing rapid declines. It simply means that the overall trend was extraordinarily positive and should be recognized as such.Detroit is on pace to have the fewest murders since 1966 and Baltimore and St Louis are on pace for the fewest murders in each city in nearly a decade. Other cities that saw huge increases in murder between 2020 and 2022, like Milwaukee, New Orleans and Houston, are seeing sizable declines in 2023. There are still cities like Memphis and Washington, DC, that are seeing increasing murders in 2023, but those cities are especially notable because they are the outliers this year, not the norm.
How can Jeffries and others get through the roar of Donald and Fox News(sic) lies? Trump spent the weekend in Florida fundraising and propping up his propaganda machine while moaning about the unbearable whiteness of being. He just can’t get any breaks, can he? This is from the Washington Post. “After big weekend in Palm Beach, Trump returns to N.Y. courtroom.”
A donor luncheon at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate over the weekend provided the former president a chance to size up his potential 2024 running mates, several of whom were in attendance, and to escalate attacks on prosecutors in his four criminal cases. On Monday, he is back in a New York courtroom as a trial continues in one of those cases. Trump has been charged with falsifying records to cover up paying hush money to an adult-film actress during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Two potential VEEP candidates are not doing well in the media spotlight. We all know now about poor Cricket’s demise at the hands of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Now, Tim Scott is looking worse all the time. This is from CNN. “‘A very chilling signal’: Ex-Trump DHS official reacts to Tim Scott’s answer about accepting election results
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), a potential vice presidential pick for Donald Trump, refused to commit to saying he would accept the results of the 2024 presidential election. Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at the US Department of Homeland Security, says it is part of Scott’s audition to be Trump’s running mate.
Both display a worrying lack of character, much like Trump supporters show few signs of higher brain function. It really gets to me after a while. Last night, some crazy drunk guy emptied two clips near a Bed and Breakfast catering to the gay community where there was a courtyard full of partiers. One of my neighbors found out that he was mad that his car broke down. It was less than a block from me. Thankfully, the police got him immediately, and no one was hurt. Two other shootings in the city were reported, but not this one. I’m waiting for the rationale behind this, even though none exists. Our governor and his legislature just removed all the civil rights gains we made in criminal law and policing here. We also are now a state that no longer requires permits for any kind of gun ownership.
I heard the first round while sitting here at my desk. I heard the second round of shots, and then there was the loud, short sound of a police siren. Temple, eager for her last walk, and I stuck our heads out the door and saw that there were at least 10 police cars but no SWAT van, EMS, or Coroner. The amazing number of blue lights made me tip-toe out of my gate and up to the bar on the corner. I had a nice conversation with the two guards at the abandoned navy base and found out as much as I could. I didn’t sleep well last night and am still slightly shaky as I write this. The number of shots that came from each clip was beyond imagination.
Among all the other things we need, like access to proper healthcare, criminal justice reform, respect for differences, and such, we really need sensible gun laws.
And, ah, the burden of whiteness!!
Assholes
CNN – Black voters won a big victory in Louisiana. Some White voters said it violated their ‘personal dignity’https://t.co/y8guTSXoHk
— Lola Gayle (@LolaGayleC) May 6, 2024
In the current phase of the dispute, a three-judge trial judge panel sided with a group of 12 self-described “non-African American” voters who alleged that their “personal dignity” had been injured because the new map with two Black-majority districts “racially stigmatizes,” “racially stereotypes” and “racially maligns” them.
Their lawsuit said that the congressional plan amounted “to the application of affirmative action in redistricting, unseen in previous racial gerrymandering” cases and violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
Last week, the two Trump-appointed judges in the majority rejected arguments from the state that the lawmakers had other reasons besides race for drawing the plan the way they did. The state had pointed to the desires by state lawmakers to protect certain congressional incumbents.
I hope your week goes well. Mine is starting off a bit weird. All hugs are appreciated!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
It’s times like these you learn to live again
It’s times like these you give and give again
It’s times like these you learn to love again
It’s times like these time and time againhttps://skydancingblog.com/2024/05/06/mostly-monday-reads-the-blinding-white/
#DeAdder #Repeat1968 #DiaperDonald #ItSTimesLikeThese #JohnBuss #MichaelDeAdder
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We are proud to introduce the featured Online Autscape workshop, Radical Self-Acceptance Through Creative Writing & Reading, delivered by the brilliant Kate Fox.
Kate is a stand-up poet, spoken word artist and broadcaster. She is a regular contributor to Radio 4's spoken word cabaret “The Verb”, and she has a PhD in stand-up comedy. She is also a neurodivergent advocate whose latest show “Bigger on the Inside" explores neurodiversity through the lens of Doctor Who.
At the online workshop, Kate will use poems by neurodivergent poets such as Joanne Limburg & Audre Lorde as prompts to encourage you to explore themes of self-acceptance through creative writing.
Participants are welcome to have their cameras on and to engage by speaking, or to reply by messaging, but it’s also fine to have the camera off for some or all of the time.
❓Not familiar with Autscape events yet?
Autscape events are created and organised by autistic volunteers. All profit from attendance fees goes to organising more events.
Autscape events offer autistic space, where the rules of interaction are determined by autistic people, but they are not meant only for us - non-autistic people are welcome to join in.
Online Autscape 2026 spans three days, from 6th Feb evening to 8th Feb afternoon, with a variety of presentations and workshops and a Discord server for discussions. You can select the parts that interest you most and drop in whenever you like.
Find out more about Kate's workshop and other fascinating sessions on our website:
www.autscape.org/2026/onlineAttendance fees:
£40 standard adult
£20 low income adult
£75 professional
£10 youth (13-17 y)
Attendance fees in Euros:
48 € standard adult fee
24 € low income adult
90 € professional
12 € youth (13-17 y)#autism #neurodiversity #creativity #writing #poetry #autisticspace #onlineautscape2026
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Advances in neurosurgical treatments like focused ultrasound and deep brain stimulation are moving the field towards more personalized care for Parkinson's disease. To learn more, tune in to my conversation with Dr. Doris Wang in this new podcast episode in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research!
#Parkinsons #ParkinsonsDisease #PD #DBS #BrainStimulation #Neurosurgery #neuroscience #research #science #sciencecommunication #Scicomm #podcast #podcasts #STEM
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Intro again for new users:
I’m a #sociology #PhdStudent at #UCSantaBarbara studying #friendship #gender #masculinities #sexualities #SocialPsych #FeministTheory. Most of my research explores men’s friendship.
Outside of research, I’m a rank-and-file organizer with the UC #TeachingAssistant #union #UAW2865. We’re #OnStrike right now, and I’m happy to answer questions about it #FairUCNow -
Intro again for new users:
I’m a #sociology #PhdStudent at #UCSantaBarbara studying #friendship #gender #masculinities #sexualities #SocialPsych #FeministTheory. Most of my research explores men’s friendship.
Outside of research, I’m a rank-and-file organizer with the UC #TeachingAssistant #union #UAW2865. We’re #OnStrike right now, and I’m happy to answer questions about it #FairUCNow -
Intro again for new users:
I’m a #sociology #PhdStudent at #UCSantaBarbara studying #friendship #gender #masculinities #sexualities #SocialPsych #FeministTheory. Most of my research explores men’s friendship.
Outside of research, I’m a rank-and-file organizer with the UC #TeachingAssistant #union #UAW2865. We’re #OnStrike right now, and I’m happy to answer questions about it #FairUCNow -
Intro again for new users:
I’m a #sociology #PhdStudent at #UCSantaBarbara studying #friendship #gender #masculinities #sexualities #SocialPsych #FeministTheory. Most of my research explores men’s friendship.
Outside of research, I’m a rank-and-file organizer with the UC #TeachingAssistant #union #UAW2865. We’re #OnStrike right now, and I’m happy to answer questions about it #FairUCNow -
This is one of a very small edition of hand-printed aluminum foil lithographic prints of a wolpertinger, a composite creature from German folklore. A mythical deer-hare hybrid, something like a jackalope, often described as a fanged hare with antlers, bird parts (like wings or feet or even beaks) and other small mammal parts like those from a fox, pine marten or, as in this case, a squirrel body. 🧵 https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/1693165861
#printmaking #wolpertinger #foilLithography #mythical #mastoArt
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Hey there! On Wednesday, I completed the ILLC's Master of #Logic at the #UniversityOfAmsterdam :dr_tobydance: My supervisor and the rest of the committee were super nice to me, as were all the friends who have helped me throughout these two years. Amazing programme full of amazing people btw. :blobcat_heart:
I am starting my #PhD next month. I'll be working on the foundations of programming languages under @[email protected] at #SDU's #ACPSection in #Odense, #Denmark. I am super psyched! -
Hey there! On Wednesday, I completed the ILLC's Master of #Logic at the #UniversityOfAmsterdam :dr_tobydance: My supervisor and the rest of the committee were super nice to me, as were all the friends who have helped me throughout these two years. Amazing programme full of amazing people btw. :blobcat_heart:
I am starting my #PhD next month. I'll be working on the foundations of programming languages under @[email protected] at #SDU's #ACPSection in #Odense, #Denmark. I am super psyched! -
Hey there! On Wednesday, I completed the ILLC's Master of #Logic at the #UniversityOfAmsterdam :dr_tobydance: My supervisor and the rest of the committee were super nice to me, as were all the friends who have helped me throughout these two years. Amazing programme full of amazing people btw. :blobcat_heart:
I am starting my #PhD next month. I'll be working on the foundations of programming languages under @[email protected] at #SDU's #ACPSection in #Odense, #Denmark. I am super psyched! -
Hey there! On Wednesday, I completed the ILLC's Master of #Logic at the #UniversityOfAmsterdam :dr_tobydance: My supervisor and the rest of the committee were super nice to me, as were all the friends who have helped me throughout these two years. Amazing programme full of amazing people btw. :blobcat_heart:
I am starting my #PhD next month. I'll be working on the foundations of programming languages under @[email protected] at #SDU's #ACPSection in #Odense, #Denmark. I am super psyched! -
Fox News goes all in on DINO Fetterman - Daily Kos
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I'm honored to be partnering with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to discuss the latest advances and discoveries in neuroscience with experts as the host of this new research-focused podcast! Two new episodes are out!
https://www.michaeljfox.org/research-podcast
#neuroscience #neuro #neurology #parkinsons #ParkinsonsDisease #PD #MovementDisorders #research #science #innovation #scicomm #podcast #podcasts
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.@machawk1 is kicking off the 2023 Web Archiving and Digital Libraries (#WADL2023) workshop at #JCDL2023
For more information: https://fox.cs.vt.edu/wadl2023.html
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Now we have the #JCDL2023 panel “Who can submit an excellent review for this manuscript in the next 30 days? — Peer Reviewing in the age of overload” with Hamed Alhoori, Edward A. Fox, Ingo Frommholz, Haiming Liu, Corinna Coupette, Bastian A. Rieck, Tirthankar Ghosal, and Jian Wu
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While everyone is distracted with "aliens" a major environmental catastrophe is unfolding in #Ohio
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/health/ohio-train-derailment-white-noise/index.html
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-dies-owners-arms-after-ohio-train-crash-releases-toxic-gas-1780529Some technical info about the event here, and testimonies about animals dropping dead.
https://cen.acs.org/safety/Safety-questions-remain-Ohio-train/101/i6#vinychloride #environment #spill #disaster #chemicals #transportation #derailment #EastPalestine
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How forest loss has changed biodiversity across the globe over the last 150 years
The Earth’s forests have been changing ever since the first tree took root. For 360 million years, trees have grown and been felled through a dynamic mix of hurricanes, #fires and natural regeneration. But with the dawn of the 17th century, humans began replacing large swathes of forest with farms and cities. The global pace of #deforestation has slowed in the 21st century, but #forests are still disappearing – albeit at different rates in different parts of the world. In the tropics, forest loss is accelerating in previously pristine wilderness. Help rainforests, wild animals and indigenous peoples to survive #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
How #deforestation has changed #biodiversity 🌿🦏🦧🐘🦉 across the globe over the last 150 years. Fight back and resist #extinction every time you shop, go #Vegan 🥔🍆🫑 and #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🩸🚜💀🔥🚫⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/24/how-forest-loss-has-changed-biodiversity-across-the-globe-over-the-last-150-years/
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitter The Amazon rainforest over timeAs forest cover has fluctuated over time, the biodiversity within forests has changed too. Forests support around 80% of all species living on land, but the species we see on our woodland walks today are likely to be different from those people saw in the past. Many species, such as the Alpine longhorn beetle, survive in intact old-growth forests, while species like the red fox have managed to thrive in areas with higher human impact.
Forests around the world are changing, affecting unique biodiversity. Malkolm Boothroyd, Author providedWe wanted to know how changes in biodiversity worldwide are linked to changes in the world’s forests, but this was always difficult, as the effects of forest loss vary from one place to the next. How biodiversity shifts over time following forest loss hadn’t been explored across the globe – until now.
The Alpine longhorn beetle persists in old-growth forests across continental Europe. Gergana Daskalova, Author providedDiverse responses
In our new paper, we matched estimates of forest loss throughout history with records of the numbers and types of plants and animals monitored each year by scientists around the world.
Harnessing over five million records across 150 years at over 6,000 locations, we were surprised to find that forest loss didn’t always lead to declines in biodiversity. Instead, when forest cover declined, changes in biodiversity intensified, with increases in the abundance of some species and decreases in others. The composition of forest life – the different types of species present – was altered too. The rate at which these changes happened in each location accelerated as forest cover shrank.
Photos by Craig Jones Wildlife Photography in an RSPO certified palm oil plantation in Sumatra
The effects of forest loss were not uniform in all places. The loss of the same sized patch of forest led to biodiversity declines in one area and increases in another. Knowing the history of a particular place was important for understanding this variation. Whether or not forest loss of that magnitude had occurred at that location in the past usually determined what happened in the present. Once pristine forests saw biodiversity declines and historically disturbed forests often experienced no change or even saw increases in biodiversity.
When forests were lost in previously pristine wilderness, we found declines in the abundance of animals like swift parrots in Australia, tigers in Russia and capercaillies (a type of grouse) in Spain. These species only tend to thrive in ancient and lightly disturbed forest habitats.
The species that we discovered increasing in abundance after forest loss included white storks, Eurasian skylarks, red deer and red foxes – species which have evolved alongside disturbance and are more adaptable.
Delayed effects
Changes in biodiversity didn’t always immediately follow forest loss. We discovered that the pace at which forest loss altered biodiversity differed among short-lived species, such as light-loving plants like St John’s wort, and longer-lived species like red-tailed hawk. The longer the lifespan of a species, the longer it took for the effects of forest loss to register.
Sometimes the effects carried across generations. Red-tailed hawks may manage to raise their young alongside deforestation, but these offspring may struggle to prosper in the shrinking habitat, and ultimately fail to produce young of their own. If resources are scarce, species with longer lifetimes could persist but not reproduce for decades. That’s how the impact of forest loss on such species might only appear decades after the first wave of deforestation.
The pace at which biodiversity responds to forest loss can vary from a couple of years to several decades. Gergana Daskalova, Author providedThese delayed effects highlight how important it is to monitor plants and animals over decades. A single snapshot in time cannot detect the full extent of human impacts on biodiversity. With a longer perspective, we are better equipped to conserve Earth’s biodiversity not just now, but for decades to come.
By combining datasets from around the world, we can understand the state of the world’s forests and of the millions of plants and animals they support. Changes in the biodiversity matter because they directly affect the benefits that forests provide for people, such as clean air and a brake on climate change. With a better understanding of how forest loss influences biodiversity, we can improve future conservation and restoration efforts around the planet.
Maria Dornelas, Reader in Biology, University of St Andrews; Gergana Daskalova, PhD Candidate in Global Change Ecology, University of Edinburgh, and Isla Myers-Smith, Chancellor’s Fellow in Global Change Ecology, University of Edinburgh
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Jingle Bells (Batman Smells): an incomplete festive folk-rhyme taxonomy
Gather round the fire, everyone, and let me tell you a story. It has everything you could want in a Christmas blockbuster: superheroes and villains, a car crash, children singing, a mystery to solve and even a cameo appearance by Bart Simpson.
On a cold winter’s night, not so very long ago…
I asked the good folks of BlueSky which version of the school playground ditty “Jingle Bells (Batman Smells)” they remembered, and whether it bore any relationship to the one I’d had stuck in my head for several hours already that day, much to my abundant irritation, and which, dating from a playground in late 1980s London went: “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away. Father Christmas lost his knickers on the motorway! (Hey!)”
It would turn out (spoiler alert!) that almost nobody recognised my version—though I did have it attested by a couple of people—but I was overwhelmed by the sheer number and variety of the versions that came like an avalanche into my mentions, so much so that I started noting down some of the variations and then ended up, if I’m perfectly honest, thinking about the whole Batman Smells situation in way too much detail.
As some of you know, I work in lexicography but came to this work via a science background, and it felt very much like what I was looking at was taxonomy: an evolutionary tree if you will, with certain characteristics conserved between different forms of the rhyme, while mutations cause changes which are selected—or not—by the playground troubadours, and die out or spread, to mutate again. Now, obviously like any random sampling approach there is absolutely no way that the list of versions that I collected is anywhere near comprehensive, and the range of contributors is necessarily composed of the people in my wider network on BlueSky (itself famously the social media retirement home of Xennials and their fellow-travellers). That said, I got a good harvest of lyrics from both the UK and North America, along with a handful of Antipodeans (who reasonably enough should have been fast asleep when I was asking), enough, I think, to make a preliminary analysis and draw out one or two interesting trends.
First, let me show you the most ridiculous diagram I have ever made:
Think of it as a semi-quantitative taxonomy: basically the lyrics in larger type are more common in my data than the ones in smaller type, though none of that is remotely to scale. The two coloured lines through the lyrics represent the most common version from the UK (above, in green) and in North America (below, in gold), with the variations from those clustered around them. If I’ve made the chart correctly you should be able to find any variation of the rhyme I was given by following a route through the available lyrics.
Robin laid a WHAT?
This is the Great Transatlantic Divide. Almost none of my UK-attested versions involved an egg-laying Robin and essentially all of the North American ones did.
“Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg. The Batmobile has lost a wheel and the Joker got away.”
Overwhelmingly my American contributors remembered this version of the rhyme or very minor variations from it. One thing which was really obvious from my data was how heavily clustered the American versions were compared to the UK ones. The vast majority of American contributors in my comments were people replying “Yes, that was mine too!”, whereas the UK versions were much more diverse with most being attested by only one or a small handful of people. If the diagram were to scale the most common North American through-line would be absolutely enormous compared with the rest of the text.
I will set aside the question of poetics here: I’m told that in a number of (particularly Midwestern) US accents the phonetic agreement between ‘egg’ and ‘away’ is a somewhat-imperfect rhyme rather than the absolute mystery that it seems to my British ear. But the dramatic dominance of a particular version, over such a large and diverse country, and over time, seems curious to me.
But before we look at this in more detail, we need to make a little detour to Springfield to visit The Simpsons.
The Simpsons? Why?
Because the North American Standard Version appears in the very first episode of the Simpsons, titled “Simpsons Roasting on an Open, Fire”, broadcast in the US on Fox in December 1989. Several of my social media reporters specifically mentioned this episode of the Simpsons, and it would appear that, at least among the younger generations of schoolyard crooners, there is a belief that this is where the rhyme actually originated. That much is abundantly false, as I have plenty of reports from the 1970s and 1980s which antedate the Simpsons phenomenon substantially.
However: is it possible that the appearance of this particular version of the rhyme in a show with such a profound influence on generations of kids (young and old) may have retconned people’s memories, and replaced different versions they originally knew in their memories with this consensus version? Or is it just that the writers knew the same version as (almost) everyone else was already singing and that’s why it ended up in the script?1
But, one might reasonably wonder, if this is a case of a highly popular media franchise essentially overwriting previous folk memories, why didn’t Robin’s egg, Batmobile’s wheel and the Joker exiting stage right become prevalent in the UK? After all, the Simpsons was (and remains) a TV phenomenon here, too? I have a theory, and it’s a boring one to do with the broadcast environment here compared with North America.
The first episode of The Simpsons aired on Sky1 (a satellite broadcast channel) in September of 1990. Satellite broadcasting had only really launched in the UK, and it wouldn’t reach its first million subscribers until the following year. It was only in 1996 when the BBC picked up the broadcast rights to The Simpsons that it finally reached a mass audience here. The older series were sporadically repeated but would not have reached a mass audience, and critically not at the time of year when kids would have been singing this in the school yard.
Back up a bit here, how does Batman come into this?
Good question! I’m not a comics historian so I had to look this up. Wikipedia tells me that Batman first appears as a character in 1939, and the first Batmobile first appears by name in 1941. The emergence of Batman as a playground hero—and the particularly camp Batmobile we all know and love—most likely dates from the TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward which first screened between 1966 and 1968.
Looking at the clustering of variations, Americans, generally, seem more faithful to the canon: in addition to almost all the rhymes being Batmobile-related, the other characters that get a mention also come, by and large, from the Batman universe, with appearances not just from the Joker, but from Penguin, the Riddler, and the Commissioner.
It’s probably not surprising that the Batmobile consistently loses or breaks one or more wheels, the rhyme is a gift, and the mental image is strong: between these two things that lyric is going to be pretty sticky. We observe a rarer but nevertheless persistent variation on the final phrase where the Joker does / takes / learns ballet—and these taken together would be the second most popular N. American version—none of my reporters were able to account for it, but you have to admit that Joker doing a pirouette is a joyful little mental image and a great deal more fun than him simply making good his escape.
On the other side of the Atlantic, not only is there much more ‘biodiversity’ on display with many different versions jostling for position, but the choice of secondary characters is a lot less canonical. I collected appearances by incidental characters including Father Christmas, Wonder Woman, Uncle Billy2, and Kojak in addition to Penguin. These secondary characters and their adventures, where they appear, displace the wonky-wheeled-Batmobile in the third part of the rhyme, though they are often losing important items of their own, often—but not universally—on the motorway (a variation not seen in North America, presumably due to ‘interstate’ being a piss-poor rhyme choice).
The differences between these and the North American versions start sooner though, as in almost all cases in the UK Robin either flew away (this is most common), ran away, or got away. Despite our enlarged cast of characters, by a relatively small margin, the Batmobile losing a wheel pips other options at the post for the third clause. By a fairly narrow lead the most common UK version appears to be: “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away. The Batmobile lost a wheel on the motorway!”
Which, being as it’s pretty boring, and self-explanatory, I intend to say no more about.
Something interesting we see in UK sources is localisation of the rhyme—absent from the North American versions I was given. So when things are occurring ‘on the motorway’, there’s about a 50:50 chance they’re reported happening on a specific motorway, the M1, the M4, M5 and M6 appeared in my attestations, usually the local motorway to where the rhyme was picked up. A Scottish Batmobile lost its wheel and landed in the (river) Tay.
While I had very few antipodean attestations, Wonder Woman lost both her bosoms and her knickers (apparently on separate occasions) while flying TAA3. The tendency to lose underwear and body parts is probably best attributed to the fact that bosoms, willies, and knickers are just straightforwardly hilarious when you’re seven.
There are extra variations which I can only encourage you to scroll around the graph and enjoy, as time presses on.
The one thing I was pretty sure about when I started was that whatever else happens, everyone agreed that Batman smells.
But before I finish I just want to mention the tantalising possibility of a living fossil…
A living fossil?
Think of a Lamprey. Sometimes as the evolutionary process carries on a species gets… left behind, doesn’t go extinct, doesn’t change much, just sort of hangs around and occasionally bites chunks out of sharks? Living fossil.
I had a single report of a Batman-free rhyme (the very first thread that separates from the main versions in the chart): “Jingle Bells, [kid’s name] smells, twenty miles away. He made a fart behind the cart and blew up the U S A.”
While I didn’t find a second attestation for a whole version of this, I picked up a UK-based version where, after Robin flew away, he “Did a fart behind the cart and blew up the IRA” (Surrey, 1970s) and a further attestation, after the chart was drawn, from the UK for “Jingle Bells, [kid’s name] smells, let’s all ran away” (Lancashire, 1970s), though the reporter couldn’t remember the rhyme having a second part. There are also sporadic final parts of the rhyme where someone or something ends up in the hay, which makes much more sense in cart-related contexts than anything else.
The original version of Jingle Bells (then titled “One Horse Open Sleigh”) was composed by James Pierpont and first published some time around 1857. It’s a catchy little ditty, and, if you think about it, it’s quite likely that kids were butchering it (and using it for a bit of casual bullying!) long before Batman got on the scene…
***
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, please try not to lose any wheels on the motorway, any rolling in the hay should be strictly consensual on all parts, and anything that looks like it might be Robin’s egg should probably be treated with the same suspicion given to yellow snow…
Thank you for sharing this journey with me. See you in 2026!
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and buy my letterpress prints in my Ko-Fi shop.- This question, obviously, isn’t one I can answer with the information currently at my disposal, and is therefore left as an exercise for some future scholar to pick up. It’s interesting that the same version makes it into the 1992 episode of Batman: The Animated Series “Christmas with the Joker”. ↩︎
- The same Uncle Billy, presumably, who had a 10 foot willy? ↩︎
- A now defunct Australian regional airline which, we speculate, may have been noted for its careless baggage handling. ↩︎
[The header image is based on the photo ‘Christmas Bells‘ by C. P. Storm. The original image is licensed under the Creative Commons CC:by licence. The original file can be found here.]
#batman #children #Christmas #folkMusic #history #music #taxonomies #writing