Magazine Posts

"I’ve been teaching English for 12 years, and I’m astounded by what ChatGPT can produce.......  Barring outright plagiarism, students have always arrived at that moment when they’re on their own with a blank page, staring down a blinking cursor, the essay waiting to be written...... Now that might be about to change" Read more

"On carbon-negative Samsø Island, renewable energy is collectively owned — which means that the greener the island gets, the more everyone benefits"....... Read more

"Moore v. Harper is a test of whether this Supreme Court can ever be trusted with power." Click to read th full article at Vox

"Northwest SOIL promised to help students with serious disabilities. But when school districts urged action, the state let the private school stay open and receive millions in tax dollars..... For years, the complaints languished with Washington state education officials." ...."Northwest SOIL’s corporate owner, Universal Health Services, has for years skimped on staffing and basic resources while pressuring managers to enroll more students than the staff could handle..." Read more at ProPublica

An analysis released by Accountable.US "reveals that election-deniers that ran for federal office during the 2022 cycle received nearly $65 million from all corporate interests combined including trade groups, despite their open peddling of false claims undermining confidence in democracy. The National Association of Realtors (Realtors PAC) ranked as the top overall donor with over $821,000 in contributions". Read the full article at Accountable.US

Business - Environment - Government - Politics

~ The math on Twitter's debt :: Daring Fireball
~ Beyond passenger cars and pickups... :: The Conversation
~ Chief Justice John Roberts puts temporary hold on release of Trump’s tax returns to Congress :: CNN
~ Only the GOP Celebrates Political Violence :: The Atlantic

"In the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, more than 100 major companies pledged to suspend political giving to the members of Congress who voted to invalidate Joe Biden's presidential victory." However, since then, "At least 228 Fortune 500 companies have provided financial support to members of Congress who sought to invalidate the 2020 presidential election results. Together, the companies have poured a total of nearly $13.2 million into those politicians’ war chests. By contrast, about 100 companies from the Fortune list have not given to these members through their corporate PACs". Read more

"The state officials who administer fair, accessible and secure elections have historically operated quietly without garnering much public attention. Elections happen, votes are counted, the winners are declared and democracy moves on".

"But since 2020, secretaries of state and other state officials who oversee elections have come under increasing scrutiny and been exposed to increasing abuse"......... "given the increasingly polarized and hostile political environment in the U.S., is the country about to experience an Election Day filled with conflict, contested election results and chief election officials who are no longer trusted?.... Read more 

"Psychosis is a temporary state of being in which a person undergoes a disruption in their experience of commonly shared reality that is markedly different from others in their cultural group. During this state, someone can have unusual experiences" ... Read more

When the federal government set up boarding schools in the 19th century to assimilate Native American children into American culture, one of the objectives was to get them to turn away from the use of their native languages. In recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the U.S., The Conversation turned to Daryl Baldwin, a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma who is a leader in Native American language and cultural revitalization and a member of the National Council on the Humanities, for insight into a tribal community’s efforts working with a university to help bring languages back...Read more

Kids are naturally curious. But various forces in the environment can dampen their curiosity over time. Can anything be done to keep kids’ curiosity alive? Read more

Wealthier neighborhoods in St. Louis have armed themselves with private police, giving them a level of service poor areas can’t afford and fueling racial and economic disparities.... Read more