If you’ve been impacted by the recent flooding and landslides in Washington, you may be eligible to sign up for health coverage outside the normal enrollment window.
Learn more & how you can sign up at wahealthplanfinder.org.
Liam, a teenager in North Carolina, reached out to us at the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation in the fall of 2025. To earn his Eagle Scout award, Liam wanted to build 30 CR Boxes for a local STEM elementary school.
What a thrill it has been to watch this project blossom.
This is fascinating. A new geometrical object
mymodernmet.com/soft-cell-ti...
The focus on handwashing over ventilation 12.32. As 2020 progressed, it was increasingly understood that airborne transmission of Covid-19 was a substantial risk and, by 23 July 2020, SAGE had endorsed the importance of good ventilation.
ON AIR-BORNE INFECTION.* STUDY II. DROPLETS AND DROPLET NUCLEI. BY W. F. WELLS, t (Beceived for publication June 14, 1934.) The infective range of droplets expelled from the nose or mouth depends primarily upon the time interval spent in the atmosphere. The unresisted falling time from mouth to ground can be readily shown by Newton's Law to be less than a second. Air resistance becomes a negligible factor in determining the time of fall of droplets larger than a tenth millimeter through the height of a man. As droplets decrease in diameter the volume and weight, or gravitational pull, decrease more rapidly than the surface area which determines the resistance to fall through air. Particles smaller than a tenth millimeter diameter soon reach a velocity which remains constant. This fact is expressed by Stokes' Law % which says that the velocity is proportional to the surface area of the droplet or to the square of its diameter.
droplets would reach the ground in less than ten seconds (table 1). Whether droplets falling two meters obey Stokes' law or Newton's law, therefore, the time they spend in the air would be small, and their radius of spread would be limited to a few feet. Infection caused by such droplets would therefore appear to be limited both in time and space to the immediate vicinity of the source. TABLE 1. Settling of water droplets in saturated air. Diameter of droplet Falling velocity Time in seconds of Millimeters Centimeters per second falling two meters > 1.0 981 X time in seconds .6 .1 30. 6. .01 .3 600. = 10 minutes .001 .003 60,000. = 16.6 hours It would be incorrect to conclude merely from this, however, that air receiving infected droplets cannot convey such infection long distances. To do so would be to neglect a most important characteristic of liquid droplets, namely their tendency to evaporate. Evaporation causes the volume of water droplets to change, and this change becomes more rapid as the droplet decreases in size. Careful determination of the rate of evaporation has proved that at constant temperature and humidity the rate of change of surface is constant. The life of droplets in unsaturated air is therefore proportional to the square of their diameter. It becomes quite short for small droplets, in fact much shorter than their time of fall if they settled without evaporation. Approximate evaporation times for droplets of different sizes are tabulated below. We find, therefore, that minute droplets settle slowly and evapoTABLE 2. Evaporation time of water droplets in unsaturated air at 18° C* Diameter of droplet Evaporation time Millimeters Seconds 2 660. 1 165. .5 41. .2 6.6 .1 1.7 .05 4 * Computed from data given in chapt. 15, "Evaporation of Droplets." Smoke: A Study of Aerial Disperse Systems; R. Whytlaw-Gray and H. S. Patterson, page 176 Edward Arnold & Co., London, 1932.
A chart from Wells (1934) showing that particles smaller than 100 microns shrink (via evaporation) to a size small enough to remain airborne indefinitely before they have time to fall to the ground. Associated text reads: "This is an important difference since it produces a complete change in state of small droplets in comparison with large drops. On chart 1 the curves of evaporation time and falling time (to fall two meters in saturated air) are seen to be almost similar in shape but opposite in direction. The point of intersection gives the size of droplets which would evaporate and particles which would fall two meters in the same time. Somewhere between .1 and .2 mm. lies the droplet size which identifies droplets of mouth spray that reach the ground within the life of the droplet as against droplets that evaporate and remain in the air as droplet nuclei with attached infection."
The negligent, outdated beliefs of medicine's management class (everywhere; from the UK inquiry here) contrasted with well-understood science from 👉1934👈. If you got sick after being told that COVID falls to the ground within 3 feet and N95/FFP2/FFP3 respirators aren't needed, 👉it was their fault.👈
Officials in Tennessee aren't just banning books, they're now demanding information on who checked out contested (largely LGBTQ+) books, including names, addresses, and "household composition."
A librarian who was given the directive has come forward asking for whistleblower protections.
LOL... Pentagon released a new AI military chatbot and it immediately pointed out that Pete Hegseth is a war criminal.
abovethelaw.com/2025/12/pent...
GOOD NEWS! Researchers have made a HUGE breakthrough towards a UNIVERSAL antiviral. By targeting sugar molecules found on the surface of many viruses that SHARE structural similarities, they identified FOUR compounds that successfully BLOCKED infections from SEVEN different viruses.
While no one was watching: Tenuous status of CDC prion unit, risk of #CWD to people worry scientists
If the Prion and Public Health Office is shuttered, human CWD cases could go unnoticed.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...
Photo: Lorie Shaull / Flickr cc
Archaeologist here. For 99.5% of human history (ca 300-400,000 years), we were peaceful (no war). There was conflict and smaller scale violence, but countless studies on the 119 known modern hunter gatherer groups show cooperation, negotiation, and peace instead of conflict. Please read books.
"The attorney in the New York office spoke in depth about the plan being recently updated to include mosques and liberal synagogues in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s recent win in the New York City mayor’s race."
🧠 Daily Feed of Brain Damage 🧠
www.frontiersin.org/journals/neu...
A photo of Katie Wilson seated in a wooden chair beside a white brick fireplace smiling at the camera with her hands folded
an image of the election results from King County
SEATTLE!!!
We’ve now taken the lead by 91 votes! 🤯 This thing is certainly not over! Over 1,000 ballots have been challenged, so if you haven’t tracked your ballot yet get on it! Our trusty volunteers have been working hard to "cure" ballots so they count! We're so close!
Shame can and does reach them.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/07/f...
The current GOP lie is that they’re going to replace Obamacare with something better.
Bullshit. In all of the majorities they’ve had since Obamacare passed, they’ve never once tried to replace it.
They’ve tried to repeal it a whole bunch, but never actually make it better.
SIGNATURES For Cornell University: Michael I. Kotlikoff President of Cornell University Office of the President 300 Day Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 Ben the Winited States (including but not limited to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Servives and the U.S, Department of Education): /N istant Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 For the Department of Health and Human Services: Paula Matana S Paula M. Stannard Director, Office for Civil Rights U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201 Effective Date: 14/7/2025.
BREAKING: Cornell caved.
Here is the settlement agreement, signed today by the university's president, Michael Kotlikoff: statements.cornell.edu/2025/documen...
Sacramento remains on track to launch a first ever city-led guaranteed income program for foster youth.
The program is expected to provide monthly cash payments of at least $750 starting next July.
Maine rejected a ballot measure that’d have restricted mail voting and imposed voter ID.
By a large margin, 64/36.
The no got 90% in the city of Portland. (!) boltsmag.org/five-ways-20...
I asked SPD's comms department to confirm this 2 days ago and they ignored me as usual. (All my questions have to go through their PR person—literally, I cant't get yes/no answers without a whole special delaying process. It's wild!) Anyway, here's the press release they did instead of answering me.
Shamblin’s conversation partner wasn’t a classmate or friend – it was ChatGPT, the world’s most popular AI chatbot. A CNN review of nearly 70 pages of chats between Shamblin and the AI tool in the hours before his July 25 suicide, as well as excerpts from thousands more pages in the months leading up to that night, found that the chatbot repeatedly encouraged the young man as he discussed ending his life – right up to his last moments.
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
Statement from The NewsGuild of New York and Condé United on illegal firing of four union leaders who demanded answers about this week’s layoffs at Teen Vogue, other brands Late Wednesday night, Condé Nast’s VP of Labor Relations notified the Guild that the Company was immediately terminating four Condé United leaders for engaging in the protected concerted activity of gathering in their 1 World Trade Center office to demand answers on this week’s abrupt layoffs at multiple brands including WIRED and the consolidation at Teen Vogue. These egregious terminations are a flagrant breach of the Just Cause terms of our contract and an unprecedented violation of their federally protected rights as union members to participate in a collective action. Through these illegal terminations, Condé Nast management is attempting to intimidate and silence our members' advocacy for the courageous cultural and political journalism of Teen Vogue, as well as diverting attention away from the obvious lack of corporate leadership at the company. Condé United members illegally fired are: Alma Avalle: Writer, digital producer at Bon Appetit; NewsGuild of New York first vice president, trans activist, and union leader Jake Lahut: Wired senior reporter covering the Trump White House Jasper Lo: Senior fact checker at The New Yorker and US Army veteran: outgoing first vice chair of The New Yorker Union Ben Dewey: Videographer at Condé Nast Entertainment, former vice chair of the CNE unit “Management’s attempt at union-busting, using intimidation and grossly illegal tactics to try to suppress protected union activity, will not stand,” said Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York. “The NewsGuild of New York has zero tolerance for bad bosses who harass, target and disrespect our fellow Guild members. We represent nearly 6,000 media workers across the tri-state area and we stand firmly in solidarity, ready to fight for the rights of our members illegally fired from their jobs at …
Breaking News: Late last night Conde Nast illegally fired 4 union organizers who asked company execs to explain the downsizing of Teen Vogue and continued layoffs. We’ve filed a grievance.
The Rutherford County Library System in Tennessee is temporarily closing two branches in order to remove books from them.
Why? Because the Secretary of State told them to do it, citing laws and Executive Orders that undermine the Constititon.
bookriot.com/rutherford-c...
Our friends @weneeddiversebooks.bsky.social are gathering information about "soft censorship" happening in the US According to School Library Journal, soft censorship is a "quiet banishing that often comes without explanation." If you've seen it in your community, please respond to their survey
Three urinals in the men's room, each with a small digital screen above it showing the Cuomo campaign logo.
A glimpse from the Andrew Cuomo official watch party at Ziegfeld Ballroom, via NYPost's Matthew Fischetti
Cover of The princess in black and the prince in pink by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and LeUyen Pham. It shows a young girl in black mask and superhero outfit dancing with a young boy in pink mask and pink hero outfit. Bands of words stripe the cover, saying "all kids have a right to exist" and "please let's show love for all kinds of kids"
This has been a really rough few days. I recently learned of a controversy around our book THE PRINCESS IN BLACK AND THE PRINCE IN PINK. Some were outraged that Deseret Book carried it (a chain of bookstores in the west). Deseret Book appears to have complied to their demands and removed it. 1/
NEW: Paul Newby, a born-again Christian, has turned his perch atop North Carolina’s Supreme Court into an instrument of political power.
Over two decades, he’s driven changes that have reverberated well beyond the borders of his state.
By @dougbockclark.bsky.social
📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms).
It’s also concerning. 1/
The AWS outage bricked people's $2,700 smartbeds, leaving them in a reclining position or with the heat up. People were unable to use them, basically. A GitHub repo exists that lets people operate their beds without reliance on the normal infrastructure
www.404media.co/the-aws-outa...
A US tech bro corp in the US has decided the night sky should go away. They've made that decision for everyone on Earth.
Naturally they've named the first searing orbital array (many times brighter than the moon) after Eärendil, the light bearer, from Tolkien's work
www.space.com/space-explor...
Correct.
Listen for yourself, directly from the mouth of this protobacco child labor advocate.
youtu.be/HGaYDUS19Lo?...
