Feminism was the entry point for my activism. This is where I share things that need awareness, climate crisis info, resources, different perspectives on equity/transformative justice, all types of intersectional political work, world news and promote acceptance in all forms.
The red line is when Republicans ended the national assault weapons ban.
This is why when people say “assault weapons were poorly defined in that law” my brain does the missing the point meme very hard.
We can acknowledge that parts of it were poorly worded, and even rewrite it to fix that, without throwing out the whole concept of making powerful weapons hard to get.
Said it before and will say it again, but–no, gun control will never stop people with cruel intent from obtaining and using guns, including particularly powerful ones.
The idea, as I see it, is to put roadblocks in the way of the people who flirt with such intent, so that proportionately more of the people who end up with powerful weapons are people who don’t have such intent and really are just a handful of weird guys with interesting hobbies geeking out.
Will we ever be able to stop malefactors completely? No, but we can make it annoying as all fuck to be a malefactor, because some people don’t like being annoyed and will give up.
The ban started in 1994 and the poor wording meant it didn’t meaningfully impact the availability of said weapons, though. This infographic implies a causal relationship that didn’t exist.
A 2019 DiMaggio et al. study looked at mass shooting data for 1981 to 2017 and found that mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur during the 1994 to 2004 federal ban period.
🤷♀️
Multi-year averages help mitigate the impact of outlier years (Like 1999, for example) and make the broader trend more noticeable.
Here, I have highlighted the years the ban was in effect. The 10 years we had the ban had fewer individual events, fewer fatalities, and fewer injuries compared to the 10 years previous to the ban and 10 years after the ban. And way way way fewer than the 10 years after that.
The escalation of these events in both frequency and severity from 2014 to today should feel shocking. It is MAY 11TH and 2023 is now tied in number of events with the WORST year during the FAWB. If it feels like these events are happening way way more than they used to- you aren’t imagining it.
And like, I know correlation vs causation is a thing. But I have yet to see another proposed explanation for why 1994 to 2003 saw such unusually low numbers compared to both the preceeding and following decades. (Maybe it was the beanie babies. Maybe the beanie babies just made everyone chill out)
There is some evidence that it was FAWBs prohibition of high capacity magazines that was most impactful, rather than the prohibition against specific models of firearms, and it is worth noting that a majority of mass shooting events involve handguns- but those events tend to be less deadly than the ones using semi-automatic rifles. (Which is why the difference in ban and non-ban years is more dramatic for deaths than events.)
Over 70% of firearms used in mass shootings are obtained legally, and frankly, the idea that there is nothing legislation can do to mitigate or reduce these events is pure NRA propaganda and misinformation.
The red line is when Republicans ended the national assault weapons ban.
This is why when people say “assault weapons were poorly defined in that law” my brain does the missing the point meme very hard.
We can acknowledge that parts of it were poorly worded, and even rewrite it to fix that, without throwing out the whole concept of making powerful weapons hard to get.
Said it before and will say it again, but–no, gun control will never stop people with cruel intent from obtaining and using guns, including particularly powerful ones.
The idea, as I see it, is to put roadblocks in the way of the people who flirt with such intent, so that proportionately more of the people who end up with powerful weapons are people who don’t have such intent and really are just a handful of weird guys with interesting hobbies geeking out.
Will we ever be able to stop malefactors completely? No, but we can make it annoying as all fuck to be a malefactor, because some people don’t like being annoyed and will give up.
The ban started in 1994 and the poor wording meant it didn’t meaningfully impact the availability of said weapons, though. This infographic implies a causal relationship that didn’t exist.
A 2019 DiMaggio et al. study looked at mass shooting data for 1981 to 2017 and found that mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur during the 1994 to 2004 federal ban period.
🤷♀️
Multi-year averages help mitigate the impact of outlier years (Like 1999, for example) and make the broader trend more noticeable.
Here, I have highlighted the years the ban was in effect. The 10 years we had the ban had fewer individual events, fewer fatalities, and fewer injuries compared to the 10 years previous to the ban and 10 years after the ban. And way way way fewer than the 10 years after that.
The escalation of these events in both frequency and severity from 2014 to today should feel shocking. It is MAY 11TH and 2023 is now tied in number of events with the WORST year during the FAWB. If it feels like these events are happening way way more than they used to- you aren’t imagining it.
And like, I know correlation vs causation is a thing. But I have yet to see another proposed explanation for why 1994 to 2003 saw such unusually low numbers compared to both the preceeding and following decades. (Maybe it was the beanie babies. Maybe the beanie babies just made everyone chill out)
There is some evidence that it was FAWBs prohibition of high capacity magazines that was most impactful, rather than the prohibition against specific models of firearms, and it is worth noting that a majority of mass shooting events involve handguns- but those events tend to be less deadly than the ones using semi-automatic rifles. (Which is why the difference in ban and non-ban years is more dramatic for deaths than events.)
Over 70% of firearms used in mass shootings are obtained legally, and frankly, the idea that there is nothing legislation can do to mitigate or reduce these events is pure NRA propaganda and misinformation.
This article documents the severe and ongoing specimen neglect I witnessed over 12 months working at Florida State Collection of Arthropods. FSCA actively solicits donations, then picks and chooses what specimens to care about based on individuals’ personal favorites. The rest are left to rot.
Please take a look and consider sharing this, it’s extremely important for people (especially in science, taxonomy, natural history, museum curation, etc) to know how and why scientific material is being lost.
Sorry all, I’m extra sad about this today. I keep writing about this situation and deleting it later because I’m still scared they’re going to come after me.
I got fired from FSCA not because of my skill as a curator or the amount of effort I put in (I used to come in on weekends for no extra money just because I enjoyed the work, totally honest) but because I complained anonymously on my twitter about head curator Paul Skelley continuing to hang around in my office and try to talk to me after I had told my boss Felipe Soto-Adames MULTIPLE TIMES that Paul made me very uncomfortable. In a moment of weakness, I complained about it to strangers on the internet because my boss refused to do anything to help me out (he has personally confirmed) out of fear of retaliation/firing. While I was working at FSCA my job was basically covering for Paul, fixing the specimens including holotypes that he and others had neglected for longer than I’ve even been alive. So, yes, having to fix his gross negligence eight hours a day while also having to politely stroke his ego whenever he felt like chatting me up eventually shredded my nerves.
What’s extra pathetic is I still miss that job despite everything. I miss curating and having that goal of fixing up the whole wet collection even though I should not have had to do that and I wasn’t being treated well at all. I learned afterwards that Paul has gone after other young “troublemaking” employees before me and I am only the most recent target.
FSCA has probably burned all evidence that I ever worked there in a ceremonial fire by now but I still think about the place every day. I moved to my current apartment specifically for that job, and I had promised my boss I would stay there permanently even though the pay was barely enough for me to live. I don’t have many job skills. I was just going to stay there and work on my weird shrimp even though there were some jerks around.
I don’t know what to end with, I’m just still sad about this and I’m going to be sad for a while.
If you are in biology or natural history, please don’t forget about Paul Skelley and all the effort he went through just to get back at me personally because I got frustrated at him one time. My life is considerably harder now because I insisted on sticking up for not only myself but for the other people whose thousands of hours of work have rotted into nothing under his watch. Don’t let this guy stay famous for being a great scientist, he is not.
People are asking me how they can help, unfortunately I have limited ideas now. I have let professional organizations know about the situation but I don’t hear back. Individual scientists have told me that they share the undark article, and I think that helps. My former coworkers will not speak to me at all so I have no reason to believe anything has happened. I don’t know what to do except to try and get more eyes on the story so maybe other scientists or journalists can speak out in a way FSCA will actually take seriously.
Nothing is more important to them than their reputation, and right now they’re claiming to be one of the best collections in the world. Here’s what the holotypes were marinating in. You tell me if this is “world class”
Pasteups in NYC denouncing Facebook for collaboration with Nebraska police to sentence a teenage girl to 90 days in jail for using using the abortion pill to terminate her pregnancy.
Facebook gave the cops ALL THE DATA of the teen and her mother, based on a hunch by some random fucking cop. This included years worth of photos, videos, ‘private’ chats and THEIR FUCKING LOCATION DATA.
DON’T TRUST SOCIAL MEDIAS WITH ANYTHING
ID: Text pasted on a wall reading “Facebook gave Nebraska cops a teen’s DMs so they could prosecute her for having an abortion” /End ID
The legislators themselves don’t know yet what bill the language will be slipped into, but we expect they’ll hear it next week, possibly as early as Monday, April 24.
What To Do:
They’re moving fast, so if you live in Indiana and feel strongly about libraries and censorship, please call your reps and senators NOW. Even if you already contacted them earlier this session!
Here are some talking points and the general gist of our concerns:
Charging librarians and educators with felonies is not an appropriate response to the issue of challenging books.
It is a librarian or educator’s job to ensure that children have access to a range of well-reviewed quality books. They are trained and follow objective processes for material selection.
Libraries and schools already have processes in place for challenging books on their shelves, and these processes work.
This is extremely important, y'all. They’re trying to Hyde Amendment trans care for people of all ages.
Medicaid and Medicare coverage would go away, no matter what state you are in. ACA plan coverage would go away. Hospitals would fully just have to stop offering trans care, full stop, or lose their federal funding.
I know we hate the phone but we absolutely can’t sleep on this. If you have a Democrat rep, you absolutely have to tell them to hold the line against this.
Remember, Republicans won’t stop with just eradicating trans healthcare.
Yours will be on the chopping block all to soon, if we do not stop them NOW.
To be clear: this MUST NOT PASS THE HOUSE. It is in an appropriations bill, which is the sole role of the House. The Senate has some power, but not much. This must not pass.
My reps are both Republicans so :P but if they aren’t (or if they are in a purple region and might not risk something this controversial_) CALL THEM
With immediate effect, the Republic of Niger under the leadership of General Abdourahamane Tchiani, and supported by the people of the Republic, announced the suspension of the export of uranium and gold to France on Sunday.
In parallel to the decision, protestors were surrounding the French Embassy in Niger calling for the end of French colonial practices repeating the slogan “Down with France!” and reaffirming their support to the coup leader, Tchiani.
Wazobia Reporters, a Nigerien news website, reported on protestor proclaiming “We have uranium, diamonds, gold, oil, and we live like slaves? We don’t need the French to keep us safe.“
Simultaneously the Nigerien coup leader has faced condemnations and threats from African governments that maintain ties with the European linked institutions such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the EU as well as the African Union. In that regard, Tchiani said, "We want to once more remind ECOWAS or any other adventurer of our firm determination to defend our homeland.”[…]
Currently, uranium production in Niger occurs mostly through a French majority-owned company called Orano which owns 63.4% of Société des Mines de l’Aïr (SOMAÏR). The remaining 36.66% of this is owned by Niger’s Société du Patrimoine des Mines du Niger, known as Sopamin.
In 2021, the European Union utilities purchased 2905 tU of Niger-produced uranium making Niger the leading uranium supplier vis-a-vis the EU.
Unispace found that nearly half (42%) of companies with return-to-office mandates witnessed a higher level of employee attrition than they had anticipated. And almost a third (29%) of companies enforcing office returns are struggling with recruitment. In other words, employers knew the mandates would cause some attrition, but they weren’t ready for the serious problems that would result.
Meanwhile, a staggering 76% of employees stand ready to jump ship if their companies decide to pull the plug on flexible work schedules, according to the Greenhouse report. Moreover, employees from historically underrepresented groups are 22% more likely to consider other options if flexibility comes to an end.
“The survey equates the displeasure of shifting from a flexible work model to a traditional one to that of experiencing a 2% to 3% pay cut.”
…Hmm, I wonder if that’s because, in many cases, RTO is equivalent to a 2-3% pay cut? And more, in many cases – with commute costs, the cost of lunch in the office, and the leisure time lost to commuting, for anyone not making six figures, those can easily be 5% or more of one’s pay for the day.
(I am fairly well-paid; I work in the office 1 day a week. Commuting costs about 3% of my day’s earnings; if I buy lunch from a cafe instead of bringing it & cooking it in the office microwave, that’s likely another 5%.)
i’m in Ireland and the search for that bastards name is still blocked and hidden… the legnths the british go to defend and protect their instruments of colonialism and violence is beyond belief. no justice for the victims and yet every measure taken to protect David James Cleary and his fellow murderers.
Never a better time for the Streisand Effect than when it’s a government covering up acts of brutality and evil.
holy fuck okay so like. i grew up in northern ireland and finally seeing the context to this is WILD.
towns at a point used to fly banners that said ‘protect Soldier F’ on them. I, and I’m sure many others, were never told what this meant. It was very much a ‘don’t talk about it’ scenario.
the fact that i grew up in that bastarding country and I am only learning this NOW at the ripe age of 22, and I no longer even live there, speaks volumes on how much they try to cover this shit up.
Every person David Cleary killed was shot from behind. Several were shot multiple times. One man, Bernard McGuigan, was waving a white hankerchief as he was trying to get to Patrick Doherty, another man Cleary had shot.
We celebrate the purported geniuses who discovered the cure–but we don’t acknowledge that discovering a cure means nothing unless and until we get the cure to the people who need it–an enterprise we’ve failed at to a remarkable degree over the last 70 years.
ALT