Posts tagged “school”

• Five Quick and Easy Habits Suggested by Sports Psychologists is a phenomenal resource. Read it.
• The DMARC Guide from Global Cyber Alliance is an invaluable tool for anyone who manages email servers.
• An endurance swimmer aims to become the first person to swim around Martha’s Vineyard, getting in the water during the start of white shark migration season, in a bid to change perception of the predators shaped by Jaws. See also: Jaws Turns 50
• I still can’t get over the serendipity of Harvard not realizing they had an original copy of the Magna Carta. It would be very convenient if someone could find a copy of Constitution somewhere soon. It seems like almost everyone currently in Washington, D.C. hasn’t read it lately.
• Long-distance relationships are always difficult, even for KGB spies.
• A Hazy Shade of Winter:
  • Moderna pulls application for COVID–flu combination shot. – via carlbergstrom.com
  • Majority of US states now have laws banning or regulating cellphones in schools, with more to follow. [Maybe parents wouldn’t be so desperate for a way to contact kids during school if we weren’t always terrified of them getting shot.]
  • An AI-generated summer reading list was published in major newspapers. [Tip of the iceberg. Canary in a coalmine. Whatever you want to call it. It’s going to get worse.] – via boghuma.bsky.social
  • Diseases are still spreading, but the CDC is no longer warning the public about them.
  • The House and Senate both voted to loosen regulations on air pollutants like dioxin and mercury, which are associated with higher cancer risk.
  • This might be the dumbest thing he’s ever said, and he’s said some of the dumbest things anyone has ever heard in human history. (And that I don’t even need to tell you who he is because you already know supports this claim.)

• “Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure.”
• In Praise of The Pitt, the Most Normal Show on Television
• Bluesky has overtaken its flailing rival Twitter in hosting posts related to new academic research. – via eicathomefinn.bsky.social
• How do you get over losing The Masters?
• Rick Steves is now on Bluesky!
• For your enjoyment: Here is Secretary of Education Linda McMahon talking about implementing AI in schools, but pronouncing it “A1” as in “A1 Steak Sauce” – via joshkovensky.bsky.social
• This Is Not Normal:
  • Daughter captures the moment masked ICE agents smash the window of her mother’s car in order to take her into custody. – via mims.bsky.social
  • America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era
  • WITAF? Members of the cabinet, as well as Congresspeople and Senators, are being instructed to wear a golden POTUS bust lapel pin as a tribute to their inglorious, convicted felon leader. – via kwcollins.bsky.social
  • Just weeks away from graduation, at least 50 international students at Arizona State University have inexplicably had their visas revoked and have been blocked from completing their degrees.
  • The acting head of the Internal Revenue Service resigned after the Treasury Department and Homeland Security reached an agreement to share tax data from some immigrants living in the country without legal status.
  • The director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that deportation should operate just like Amazon “But With Human Beings” – via thebasement.nz
  • Days after being confirmed in February, FBI Director Kash Patel was apparently removed from his post as the acting chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – via girlsreallyrule.bsky.social

• Gators!
  • Florida rallies past Houston to win March Madness 2025 NCAA championship
  • How Florida drew from back-to-back champs to stop Houston, start new reign over college hoops
  • After Final Four slugfest with Auburn, Florida stands alone as the class of an all-time SEC
  • Dramatic title game between Florida, Houston delivers end to greatest Final Four ever
• I NY: New York public schools tell [current] administration they won’t comply with DEI order
• Why Big Pharma wants you to eat more meat – via Curious About Everything
• Creating and sharing deceptive AI-generated media is now a crime in New Jersey
• You Can’t Always Get What You Want:
  • Border Czar Tom Homan Faces Backlash in His Hometown for Locking Up a Local Family / ICE disappeared a mother and 3 children. Neighbors said hell no. / BREAKING: Third grader & family abducted by ICE will return home
  • Judge says deportation of Maryland man to an El Salvador prison was wholly lawless.
  • Massive, Unarchivable Datasets of Cancer, Covid, and Alzheimer’s Research Could Be Lost Forever – via meyerweb.com
  • “When children die from measles, it means that adults have catastrophically failed to protect them because they have rejected basic science.” – via luckytran.com
  • RFK Jr. says he plans to tell CDC to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water
  • Ousted Vaccine Chief Says RFK Jr.’s Team Sought Data to Justify Anti-Science Stance – via carlzimmer.com

• If you can’t get excited about Jack Black as Steve, you really need to spend more time interacting with elementary school children.
• We need to work on bringing the phrase, “the whole megillah,” back into regular use. I feel like abandoning this wonderful expression was a bad idea, even though I’ll freely admit that I thought it was spelled “magilla” until about ten minutes ago.
• I have started listening to the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast and really love it. Of course, the three episodes I’ve heard so far were ones featuring interviews with Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, and Jeff Goldblum, three of my favorite actors, so my opinion may be biased. But all three had me laughing out loud at one point or another and it’s nice to hear Conan’s voice again.
• A month after the death of his mother, Tiger Woods says he’s recovering after surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles, likely ending his 2025 season.
• An 11-year-old boy who pulled the Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch card will likely sell it for more money than Skenes will make from his 2025 Pirates base salary. – via @jacksongagne.com
• Tim Walz to launch national tour of town halls in Republican House districts. (Go get ’em, Tim!)
• Madness:
  • The Pentagon Keeps Pouring Cash Into Golf Courses – Even As [Administration] Slashes Government Spending
  • USDA ends program that helped schools serve food from local farmers
  • Department of Justice Official Says She Was Fired After Opposing Restoring Mel Gibson‘s Gun Rights
  • Pete Hegseth is expected in the coming weeks to start a sweeping overhaul of the judge advocate general’s corps as part of an effort to make the US military less restricted by the laws of armed conflict. – via @jamellebouie.net
  • NIH officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research. – via @kwcollins.bsky.social

• Utah teen arrested for taping fish to ATMs – via kottke
• Lorne Michaels Is the Real Star of Saturday Night Live
• Egyptian officials announced the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II, the last of the lost tombs of the kings of ancient Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, which reigned for over two centuries. It’s the first royal Egyptian tomb to be discovered since the final resting place of King Tutankhamun was found in 1922. – via @indyfromspace.bsky.social
• Mexico threatens to sue Google over name change of Gulf of Mexico on US maps
• The most disturbing part of this headline is that anyone — anyone — could be shocked by this: “Julianne Moore in ‘Great Shock’ after POTUS Bans Her Children’s Book Freckleface Strawberry from Schools”
• “DOGE” seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS. Here is an excellent TL;DR of the article: The POTUS has ordered the IRS to hand over all of your personal information to a Holocaust denier who works for the richest man on Earth, who is a Nazi. – via @theophite.bsky.social, via anildash.com
• Related? The IRS Is Buying an AI Supercomputer from Nvidia
• “President Plane Accident” – via @rollingstone.com

• Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) barged into the office of House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday and challenged him about the “DOGE” team gaining access to a sensitive payment system at the Department of the Treasury.
• Workers at NASA were told to ‘Drop Everything’ to scrub any mentions of indigenous people and women from its websites.
• Federal Judge Blocks Executive Order Intended to End Birthright Citizenship
• “It’s sad that Wile E. Coyote will always be remembered for his failures and not his amazingly realistic tunnel paintings.” – via @sean_with_an_ean_damnit
• This is the sort of thing that makes my blood boil. Federal law mandates wholesome lunches, but much of it gets trashed because there isn’t time to eat it. – via Jodi Ettenberg
• The “DOGE” Government Data Heist Is the Entire Ballgame is a chilling plea written by a federal employee.
• The US Treasury Claimed “DOGE” Technologist Didn’t Have ‘Write Access’ When He Actually Did: Sources tell WIRED that the ability of Marko Elez to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending was rescinded days after US Treasury and White House officials said it didn’t exist.
• All of this, of course, depends on a functioning justice system. (Things Are Going to Keep Getting Worse Until They Get Better, Part 339.)
• CDC Posts, Then Deletes, Data on Bird Flu Spread Between Cats and People
• Conservative “Christian nationalist” Russell Vought, former vice president of Heritage Action for America and one of the architects behind Project 2025, believes there is nothing left to conserve. He desires revolution — and to burn down the system. And the Senate just confirmed him to be the head of OMB. (I would link you directly to the official White House website for OMB, but… it’s been deleted.)
• This tutorial on installing a newsletter replacement for Jetpack looks promising.
• “Just gonna slide this information in here. The Eagles refused to go to the White House after their Super Bowl victory in 2018. Do with that what you will.” – via @brandi-rene.swifties.social
• Oh, and Taylor Swift is expected to attend the Super Bowl on Sunday night. Obviously, she won’t be sitting in the same suite as POTUS.

• FDA has given two biotechnology companies approval for clinical trials that will transplant organs from genetically modified pigs into patients with kidney failure.
• That “fresh” apple you just grabbed at the grocery store was probably picked a thousand miles away and over a year ago. The latest episode of Radiolab, Forever Fresh, was full of surprising facts about the food industry. (Spoiler: It’s all about plastics.)
• Here are two fascinating links on the importance and function of sleep: Our Sleep, Brain Aging, and Waste Clearance and Scientists Uncover How the Brain Washes Itself During Sleep – both via Jodi Ettenberg
• I’m considering adding my bluesky feed to a (new) sidebar on this site using Robert Devore’s WordPress Plugin.
• How do MAGA voters feel after the first two weeks of idiotic executive orders, flagrant disregard for the Constitution, economic upheaval, and diplomatic absurdities? They’re mostly fine with it, which is as horrible and disturbing as it is unsurprising. It was never about eggs.
• Five VSCode Extensions to Supercharge Your Markdown Writing has me interested in looking into VSCode again. (I’ve been using Nova (née Coda) from Panic forever, but really hate the way it handles remote servers and connections.)
• Rather than understand – or even acknowledge – the paradox of intolerance, the increasingly-popular newsletter / publishing platform Substack has decided to double-down on it.
• “Dr. Potter will not be silenced by UnitedHealthcare‘s attempts to threaten and harass her.” Pop Quiz: Without knowing any of the details about this legal issue, would you root for the health insurance company or the doctor?
• A second grade teacher in Philadelphia is using football to help her students score big in math. Her students take inspiration from their hometown football team — the Eagles — practicing their math skills by counting rushing statistics held by Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. – via George Conway

I had this lunchbox and bathrobe.

Every parent in the US who sends their kids to school knows that they are playing a lottery – today could be the day that their kid is shot. It could happen anywhere, any time. There’s no safe place.
It’s utterly, utterly fucking insane that we live like this.
@drvolts