Manzabar's blurbloghttps://manzabar.newsblur.com/2024-03-08T18:11:28.743000ZManzabarAdorable giant cat takes over cashier duties at Japanese store2024-03-08T18:11:28.743000ZPopkinhttps://boingboing.net/2024/03/02/adorable-giant-cat-takes-over-cashier-duties-at-japanese-store.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/03/02/adorable-giant-cat-takes-over-cashier-duties-at-japanese-store.html" rel="nofollow" title="Adorable giant cat takes over cashier duties at Japanese store"><img alt="Giant Cat Cashier Charms Shoppers" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" height="857" src="https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/cat-cashier.jpeg?fit=1500%2C857&ssl=1" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="1500" /></a><p>Imagine stepping into a store where your usual human cashier is <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/zq7g5x/parttime_cat_at_nambamarui_osaka_japan/">replaced</a> by an adorable, giant cat. That's exactly the surreal, yet charming scene at Namba-Marui in Osaka, Japan, where a "cat cashier" will ring up your groceries. It's not every day that you encounter a life-sized feline handling your purchases, complete with realistic fur, wide-eyed expression, and dainty paws. — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/03/02/adorable-giant-cat-takes-over-cashier-duties-at-japanese-store.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/03/02/adorable-giant-cat-takes-over-cashier-duties-at-japanese-store.html">Adorable giant cat takes over cashier duties at Japanese store</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p>Zoomable, explorable online version of Fra Mauro's 15-century world map2024-03-08T18:10:22.753000ZRob Beschizzahttps://boingboing.net/2024/03/03/zoomable-explorable-online-version-of-fra-mauros-15-century-world-map.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/03/03/zoomable-explorable-online-version-of-fra-mauros-15-century-world-map.html" rel="nofollow" title="Zoomable, explorable online version of Fra Mauro's 15-century world map"><img alt="" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" height="1340" src="https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/image-12.png?fit=2546%2C1340&ssl=1" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="2546" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://mostre.museogalileo.it/framauro/en/interactive-exploration/explore.html">Fra Mauro's World Map</a> is a zoomable, explorable online version of his 15th-century mappa mundi. </p>
<p>It comes complete with exhaustive resources, <a href="https://mostre.museogalileo.it/framauro/en/historical-context/venice-in-the-era-of-fra-mauro/commerce.html">videos and texts about the historical context</a>, too.</p>
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<p>The orientation of the map by Fra Mauro (active ca. 1430-ca.</p>
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<p> — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/03/03/zoomable-explorable-online-version-of-fra-mauros-15-century-world-map.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/03/03/zoomable-explorable-online-version-of-fra-mauros-15-century-world-map.html">Zoomable, explorable online version of Fra Mauro's 15-century world map</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p>Reggaeton-Be-Gone Disconnects Obnoxious Bluetooth Speakers2024-03-01T15:06:49.785000ZBryan Cockfieldhttps://hackaday.com/2024/02/23/reggaeton-be-gone-disconnects-obnoxious-bluetooth-speakers/<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/reggaeton-be-gone-di/1493574:4c2d15">shared this story</a>
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<div><img alt="" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" height="600" src="https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/reggaeton-main.jpg?w=800" style="margin: 0 auto; margin-bottom: 15px;" width="800" /></div><p>If you’re currently living outside of a Spanish-speaking country, it’s possible you’ve only heard of the music genre Reggaeton in passing, if at all. In places with large Spanish populations, though, it would be more surprising if you <em>hadn’t</em> heard it. It’s so popular especially in the Carribean and Latin America that it’s gotten on the nerves of some, most notably [Roni] whose neighbor might not do anything else but listen to this style of music, which can be heard through the walls. <a href="https://bandini.medium.com/reggaeton-be-gone-6fa55f46a9d7" target="_blank">To solve the problem [Roni] is now introducing the Reggaeton-Be-Gone</a>. (<a href="https://bandini-medium-com.translate.goog/reggaeton-be-gone-6fa55f46a9d7?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true" target="_blank">Google Translate from Spanish</a>)</p>
<p>Inspired by the TV-B-Gone devices which purported to be able to turn off annoying TVs in bars, restaurants, and other places, this device can listen to music being played in the surrounding area and identify whether or not it is hearing Reggaeton. It does this using machine learning, taking samples of the audio it hears and making decisions based on a trained model. When the software, running on a Raspberry Pi, makes a positive identification of one of these songs, it looks for Bluetooth devices in the area and attempts to communicate with them in a number of ways, hopefully rapidly enough to disrupt their intended connections.</p>
<p>In testing with [Roni]’s neighbor, the device seems to show promise although it doesn’t completely disconnect the speaker from its host, instead only interfering with it enough for the neighbor to change locations. Clearly it merits further testing, and possibly other models trained for people who use Bluetooth speakers when skiing, hiking, or working out. Eventually the code will be posted to <a href="https://github.com/ronibandini/reggaetonBeGone/blob/main/README.md" target="_blank">this GitHub page</a>, but until then <a href="https://hackaday.com/2016/02/05/a-geeks-revenge-for-loud-neighbors/">it’s not the only way to interfere with your neighbor’s annoying stereo</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks to [BaldPower] and [Alfredo] for the tips!</p>Illinois becomes 3rd state to remove Donald Trump from the primary ballot2024-03-01T14:44:21.415000ZCarla Sinclairhttps://boingboing.net/2024/02/29/illinois-becomes-3rd-state-to-remove-donald-trump-from-the-primary-ballot.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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<a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/29/illinois-becomes-3rd-state-to-remove-donald-trump-from-the-primary-ballot.html" rel="nofollow" title="Illinois becomes 3rd state to remove Donald Trump from the primary ballot"><img alt="" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" height="1000" src="https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Emperor-Trump-1.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="1500" /></a><p>Last year, Illinois pushed back on MAGA-fueled fascism by <a href="https://boingboing.net/2023/05/29/illinois-bans-book-bans.html">banning book bans</a>. And yesterday, the Prairie State went further, becoming the third state to take federally indicted Donald Trump off the primary ballot. </p>
<p>Following Colorado and Maine's lead, Judge Tracie R. — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/29/illinois-becomes-3rd-state-to-remove-donald-trump-from-the-primary-ballot.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/29/illinois-becomes-3rd-state-to-remove-donald-trump-from-the-primary-ballot.html">Illinois becomes 3rd state to remove Donald Trump from the primary ballot</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p>That moment when you land on the Moon, break a leg, and are about to topple over2024-02-29T15:14:04.446000ZEric Bergerhttps://arstechnica.com/?p=2006682<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<img alt="A photo of <em>Odysseus</em> the moment before it gently toppled over." src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IM1-800x437.jpg" />
<p class="caption" style="font-size: 0.8em;"><a class="enlarge-link" href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IM1.jpg">Enlarge</a> <span class="sep">/</span> A photo of <em>Odysseus</em> the moment before it gently toppled over. (credit: Intuitive Machines)</p> </figure>
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<p>After six days and the public release of new images, engineers have finally pieced together the moments before, during, and after the <em>Odysseus</em> lander touched down on the Moon.</p>
<p>During a news conference on Wednesday, the chief executive of Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, described what his company has learned about what happened last Thursday evening as <em>Odysseus</em> made its powered descent down to the Moon.</p>
<p>From their control room in Houston, the mission operators watched with fraying nerves, as their range finders had failed. A last-minute effort to use altitude data from a NASA payload on board failed because the flight computer on board <em>Odysseus</em> could not ingest it in time. So the lander was, in essence, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/it-turns-out-that-odysseus-landed-on-the-moon-without-any-altimetry-data/">coming down to the Moon without any real-time altimetry data</a>.</p></div><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2006682#p3">Read 12 remaining paragraphs</a> | <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2006682&comments=1">Comments</a></p>Why Isn’t Taxpayer-Funded U.S. Broadband Mapping Data Owned By The Public?2024-02-28T18:31:47.388000ZKarl Bodehttps://www.techdirt.com/2024/02/26/why-isnt-taxpayer-funded-u-s-broadband-mapping-data-owned-by-the-public/<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/why-isnt-taxpayer-fu/1190:b2c067">shared this story</a>
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<p>We’ve <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/01/06/shitty-us-broadband-maps-are-feature-not-bug/">noted for decades</a> how, despite all the political lip service paid toward “bridging the digital divide,” the U.S. doesn’t <strong>truly</strong> know where broadband is or isn’t available. The FCC’s past broadband maps, which cost $350 million to develop, have long been accused of all but hallucinating competitors, making up available speeds, and excluding a key metric of competitiveness: price.</p>
<p>You only need to spend a few minutes plugging your address into the FCC’s <a href="https://broadband477map.fcc.gov/#/">old map</a> to notice how the agency <strong>comically</strong> overstates broadband competition and available speeds. After being mandated by Congress in 2020 by the Broadband DATA Act, the FCC struck a new, $44 million contract with a company named Costquest to develop <a href="https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home">a new map</a>. </p>
<p>While an improvement, the new map still has problems with over-stating coverage and available speeds (<a href="https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home">try it for yourself</a>). And the FCC still refuses to collect and share pricing data, which industry opposes because it would only work to further highlight monopolization, consolidation, and muted competition. </p>
<p>But there’s another problem. As broadband industry consultant Doug Dawson notes, <a href="https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2024/02/14/shouldnt-broadband-mapping-data-belong-to-the-public/">the public doesn’t even own the finalized broadband mapping data</a>. Costquest does:</p>
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<p><em>“…the FCC gave CostQuest the ability to own the rights to the mapping fabric, which is the database that shows the location of every home and business in the country that is a potential broadband customer. This is a big deal because it means that CostQuest, a private company, controls the portal for data needed by the public to understand who has or doesn’t have broadband.”</em></p>
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<p>In addition to the $44.9 million the FCC paid Costquest to create the maps, Costquest received another <strong>$49.9 million</strong> from the NTIA to provide the databases and maps for the $42 billion broadband subsidy and grant program (included in the 2021 infrastructure bill). Third parties (like states trying to shore up access to affordable broadband) have to pay Costquest even more money to access the data. </p>
<p>So it’s all been incredibly profitable for Costquest. But <strong>taxpayers are closing in on paying nearly half a billion dollars for broadband maps that not only still aren’t fully accurate, but which they can’t transparently access and don’t own despite paying for. </strong></p>
<p>That’s fairly insane any way you slice it, and as Dawson notes, it’s a detriment to the cash-strapped folks who could be helping expand access to affordable broadband (and helping fact-check the data):</p>
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<p><em>“Our industry is full of data geeks who could work wonders if they had free access to the mapping fabric database. There are citizen broadband committees and retired folks in every community who are willing to sift through the mapping data to understand broadband trends and to identify locations where ISPs have exaggerated coverage claims. But citizens willing to do this research are not going to pay the fees to get access to the data – and shouldn’t have to.”</em></p>
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<p>For decades, feckless and corrupt state and federal regulators turned a blind eye as regional telecom monopolies dominated the market and crushed all competition underfoot, resulting in spotty access, high prices, and terrible customer service. Usually under the pretense that “deregulation” (read: very little real consumer protection oversight) had resulted in immense innovation. </p>
<p>Not only did government not address (or often even acknowledge) that problem, they’re still proving somewhat incapable when it comes to transparently mapping its impact. </p>
<p>The $42 billion in subsidies flowing to many states to shore up access <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/27/biden-re-announces-42-billion-investment-in-broadband-because-apparently-people-didnt-notice-the-first-time/">is a good thing</a>, but its impact will most assuredly be corrupted by feckless bureaucrats who can’t stand up to industry giants, aren’t keen on the idea of data transparency, and will lack the courage necessary to ensure giant monopolies with a history of fraud (like Comcast and AT&T) don’t <a href="https://communitynets.org/content/charter-comcast-continue-dominate-state-grant-awards">pocket most of the funds</a>. </p>John Oliver offers corrupt Clarence Thomas a luxury RV and $1 million a year to "get the f*ck off the Supreme Court"2024-02-28T16:35:47.236000ZMark Frauenfelderhttps://boingboing.net/2024/02/19/john-oliver-offers-corrupt-clarence-thomas-a-luxury-rv-and-1-million-a-year-to-get-the-fck-off-the-supreme-court.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/john-oliver-offers-c/526:edb2c5">shared this story</a>
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<a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/19/john-oliver-offers-corrupt-clarence-thomas-a-luxury-rv-and-1-million-a-year-to-get-the-fck-off-the-supreme-court.html" rel="nofollow" title="John Oliver offers corrupt Clarence Thomas a luxury RV and $1 million a year to "get the f*ck off the Supreme Court""><img alt="John Oliver Offers Clarence Thomas $1M a Year to Quit" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" height="999" src="https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/clarence-thomas.jpg?fit=1500%2C999&ssl=1" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="1500" /></a><p>John Oliver, like a couple of hundred million Americans, wants wantonly corrupt <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/19/john-oliver-clarence-thomas-resign-1-million-offer">Clarence Thomas to "get the f*ck off the Supreme Court."</a> Thomas has been a sleazy embarrassment to the U.S. judicial system since 1991, when Anita Hill, a lawyer and law professor, accused him of repeated sexual harassment. — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/19/john-oliver-offers-corrupt-clarence-thomas-a-luxury-rv-and-1-million-a-year-to-get-the-fck-off-the-supreme-court.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/19/john-oliver-offers-corrupt-clarence-thomas-a-luxury-rv-and-1-million-a-year-to-get-the-fck-off-the-supreme-court.html">John Oliver offers corrupt Clarence Thomas a luxury RV and $1 million a year to "get the f*ck off the Supreme Court"</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p>Relaxing video of traditional Japanese woodblock artist at work2024-02-28T15:44:47.964000ZNatalie Dressedhttps://boingboing.net/2024/02/26/relaxing-video-of-traditional-japanese-woodblock-artist-at-work.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<p>I love watching masterful craftsmen at work and I've long been interested in woodblock prints and printmaking in general. Hasui Kawase might just be the master of printmaking and design. I've found that watching someone who knows exactly what they're doing at work to be extremely helpful (duh) in understanding the process and getting better at it myself. — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/26/relaxing-video-of-traditional-japanese-woodblock-artist-at-work.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/26/relaxing-video-of-traditional-japanese-woodblock-artist-at-work.html">Relaxing video of traditional Japanese woodblock artist at work</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p>2024-02-28T15:40:11.763000Zhttps://blog.loish.net/post/743042529196392448<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story//83774:9db6c0">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/83774.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> loish blog.</b>
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<div class="npf_row"><figure class="tmblr-full"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/bf805ec8042e0bcac08802d058442851/73efd985b2274566-af/s640x960/2f24b95d7bb02fe5db582783a0a359b8501c8582.png" /></figure></div><p><br /></p><p>I was in a phase of drawing marble statues, which eventually led to the creation of this painting. Don’t ask me what those blobs are. Pringles? Beans? Lava lamp wax? I have no idea 😤</p>West Virginia considers prosecuting librarians2024-02-21T21:38:55.375000ZJason Weisbergerhttps://boingboing.net/2024/02/21/west-virginia-considers-prosecuting-librarians.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/west-virginia-consid/526:97c945">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/526.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> Boing Boing.</b>
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<a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/21/west-virginia-considers-prosecuting-librarians.html" rel="nofollow" title="West Virginia considers prosecuting librarians"><img alt="" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" height="1000" src="https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/book-burning.jpeg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="1500" /></a><p>Ranked <a href="https://www.wboy.com/only-on-wboy-com/wboy-com-lists-and-rankings/west-virginia-is-the-least-educated-state-study-says/">50th out of 50 states for education</a>, West Virginia is considering a new law to allow for the prosecution of librarians. </p>
<p>A new bill in West Virginia will allow librarians, museum staff, or school employees to be imprisoned if a minor obtains materials deemed "obscene." — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/21/west-virginia-considers-prosecuting-librarians.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/21/west-virginia-considers-prosecuting-librarians.html">West Virginia considers prosecuting librarians</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p>this is correlation, not causation2024-02-18T04:12:14.380000ZWilhttps://wilwheaton.net/2024/02/this-is-correlation-not-causation/<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/this-is-correlation-/5090975:208cc3">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/5090975.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> WIL WHEATON dot NET.</b>
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<p>Just a couple of days ago, I told Anne that though I am always a little sad to wrap a season of Ready Room, because I genuinely love my job that much, I was glad to have the time and energy to do stuff together. It’s always so weird how we can live together, sleep in the same bed, see each other every single day, and still miss each other because we’re just so damn busy, and going in opposite directions most of the time. I was so happy that she had the idea to go out together, which is something we just haven’t done in a long time.</p>
<p>Before I continue, you need to know that Anne and I opted out of the Hallmark Holiday Industrial Complex well over a decade ago, around the same time we passed the No Gifts Just Cards, rule, with a late vote breaking my way to adopt my Also No Surprises amendment.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean we never express affection for each other like corvids dropping shinies on the porch. We give each other silly cards, flowers we picked in the garden, or some cute little thing we saw at the artist’s market that we thought the other would like, all the time. We just don’t need The Man to tell us how and when, you know? We Choo-choo-choose to give you one of THESE, pal!</p>
<p>So. About that. Uh…</p>
<p>Anne came home late in the afternoon on Wednesday, found me playing Donkey Kong out in my game room, and asked if I wanted to go get tacos.</p>
<p>“I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast that wasn’t some form of candy,” she said, “and I am starving.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’d love that, just as soon as I finish this game.” I secretly hoped she’d stay and watch, so I could totally impress her with how good I’m getting, but she was on her way back into the house before I finished the level.</p>
<p>I missed 5th place on the top five by 100 points, which honestly feels like I should win both showcase showdowns, if I’m being honest? But only resulted in the end of my game, a few minutes later, and no WIL entry on the board.</p>
<p>I went inside, where Anne produced <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C3WQkOPvhTO/">the sweetest painting</a> from behind her back. “I made you a present!”</p>
<p>She paints in a class every Wednesday, and she’d worked on it last week, and finished it Tuesday. It’s a tree with A+W carved into it in a little heart, and a few little red and pink heart-shaped leaves sprouting around the branches.</p>
<p>I reflexively clutched my heart so the joy bursting inside it did not splatter all over the room and ruin the painting.</p>
<p>“Dude! I love this! I love it so much!”</p>
<p>“It needs to dry for … probably several days,” she said, “but isn’t it cute?”</p>
<p>“It’s just the best. I love it when you paint!”</p>
<p>“Okay, let’s go. I’m starving.”</p>
<p>This is when Marlowe must have noticed we had not observed the Super Good Sit she’d been doing since we came into the room. She whimpered a little bit, and did a Big Stretch.</p>
<p>“Mars,” I began, as I reminded her that I already took her on a long W-A-L-K while Mom was out.</p>
<p><em>Dramatic, Big Sigh … and now we are doing a Super Good Down, and … the eyebrows are activated. </em></p>
<p>“Marlowe, I appreciate and respect the effort. But Mom is starving and we’ll be right back.”</p>
<p><em>One gentle tail thump, as sad as a dog who has never had a walk and will never get a walk again in her life. 10/10 Very Good Girl, no notes.</em> </p>
<p>We hit every light between home and the restaurant, because I was in the car. This is The Way.</p>
<p>We sat at what was our usual table before the pandemic. I don’t think I have to tell you how happy and grateful we are that it still is. We used to go out all the time, and we just … don’t, anymore. We’re not comfortable dining indoors, and more often than not it’s just easier to stay home and order or make one of the five or so simple things we got used to over the last few years.</p>
<p>After the chips and salsa arrived and we had accepted the implied challenge, Anne said, scandalously, “Dude. We are on a date, on Valentine’s Day.”</p>
<p>“No! Nonononono. No we are not! We are out to dinner together on a date, on a day that SOME PEOPLE happen to have dates on because THE MAN tells them to. It is awesome that we are on a date, but the timing is purely coincidence.”</p>
<p>I took a sip of my water.</p>
<p>Very casually: “Also, did you find the card I hid in your purse?”</p>
<p>BAM! SWITCHEROO!</p>
<p>“What?” She picked her purse up off the chair, next to her. “No?” She dug through it, until she found the card I had secretly tucked in there, apparently a little too well, the night before.</p>
<p>It’s a pretty great card. It could be construed as a card for the day which shall not be named, but it just as easily could be given on any other day of the year, to a person you love the way I love Mrs. Wheaton.</p>
<p>“This is correlation, not causation,” I said as she opened it. I’m not going to reveal the specifics; that’s up to her to share if she wants. But she laughed at it exactly the way I knew she would, because when you love someone for nearly 30 years, you just know these things.</p>
<p>“This is perfect. This is, objectively, the best card in the world,” she said, laughing the whole time.</p>
<p>I laughed with her. It felt so good to laugh together. It’s been a really long Winter. It’s been, like, seven years of Winter, and it’s nice to feel just a little bit of warmth in the air, the promise of Spring.</p>
<p>We shared flan, as is traditional, then went home and watched True Detective, before she went to sleep and I went out to my gameroom to play Baldur’s Gate (wild magic is so much fun).</p>
<p>So … yeah. Dinner and a movie, I guess, and the exchange of simple reminders of our love for each other, in this life we’ve built together. </p>
<p>BUT NOT BECAUSE THE MAN SAID WE HAD TO. Fuck that guy. This was for us.</p>Hundreds declare ‘we will not go silently’ as supporters of Gov. Reynolds’ HF 2389 complain trans people ‘need to go’; bill advances2024-02-16T21:52:06.148000ZPaul Brennanhttps://littlevillagemag.com/hf-2389-advances-trans-iowans-will-not-go-silently/<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/hundreds-declare-we-/2298654:137c28">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/2298654.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> Little Village.</b>
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<figure><img alt="" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/CapitolProtest-lgbtq-trans-anthonyscanga.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-216003" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/CapitolProtest-lgbtq-trans-anthonyscanga.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" width="780" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Supporters of LGBTQ rights rally at the Iowa Capitol on Monday, Feb. 12, during a public hearing on HF 2389, a bill that would change how laws and regulations are made in Iowa, permanently undermining the rights of transgender and nonbinary Iowans. — Anthony Scanga/Little Village</figcaption></figure>
<p>It’s funnel week at the Iowa Capitol, so by Friday a bill needs to be approved by a committee in either the House or Senate to be considered for passage this legislative session. It’s supposedly a fixed deadline, but it’s really just an observed custom, because there are existing exceptions for certain bills <em>—</em> such as those involving taxes <em>—</em> and leaders of the House and Senate have the power to revive dead bills after funnel week passes. </p>
<p>One bill that will definitely live through funnel week is <a href="https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=90&ba=HF2389">House File 2389</a>. Introduced by Gov. Kim Reynolds, the bill would change how state laws and regulations are made in ways that would undermine the rights of transgender people. </p>
<p>The governor introduced the bill, originally numbered as HSB 649, one day after a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee rejected another that would have <a href="https://littlevillagemag.com/one-anti-trans-bill-down-another-introduced-gov-reynolds/">stripped protection</a> against gender identity discrimination out of the Iowa Civil Rights Act. </p>
<p>Normally, a bill focused on changing how laws are made would be assigned to the Judiciary Committee or the State Government Committee, but HF 2389 was assigned to the Education Committee at the request of its chair Rep. Skyler Wheeler, a Republican from Hull. Wheeler, who says his approach to lawmaking begins with a literal interpretation of the Bible and who has been one of the strongest supporters of the anti-LGBTQ legislation passed in recent years, fast-tracked consideration of the bill.</p>
<p>In an unusual move, HF 2389 was passed by both a subcommittee of the Education Committee and the whole Education Committee on the same day. Those party-line votes approving the bill came only two working days after the governor introduced it. </p>
<p>HF 2389 creates new definitions in Iowa Code that would have to be used in all laws and regulations. It defines a female as “a person whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ‘ova’ and a ‘male’ as a person whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.”</p>
<p>“The term ‘woman’ or ‘girl’ refers to a female and the term ‘man’ or ‘boy’ refers to a male,” the section continues.</p>
<p>The bill classifies a person “born with a medically verifiable diagnosis of disorder or difference of sex development” as disabled and eligible for “legal protections and accommodations afforded under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and applicable state law.”</p>
<p>It would allow transgender people to be denied equal access to some facilities, declaring that the “term ‘equal’ does not mean ‘same’ or ‘identical. Separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.”</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-216001" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/CapitolProtest-lgbtq-trans-anthonyscanga-transwomen.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" width="780" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Supporters of LGBTQ rights rally at the Iowa Capitol on Monday, Feb. 12, during a public hearing on HF 2389. — Anthony Scanga/Little Village</figcaption></figure>
<p>HF 2389 also changes how “vital statistics” are collected for “complying with state antidiscrimination laws or… [for] state public health, crime, economic or other data.” Not only would state agencies be restricted to just using the definitions in the bill, so would every “city, county, township, or school district.” That would prevent cities, counties, school districts and the state from having accurate information about trans people and “erases nonbinary people from the law entirely,” the LGBTQ rights advocacy group One Iowa noted in a news release. </p>
<p>The bill would also prevent trans Iowans from updating birth certificates as they currently can. It requires that any reissued birth certificate requested by a trans individual has “a designation of the sex of the person both at the time of birth and at the time of establishment of the new certificate of birth.”</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-215998" height="1170" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/4CapitolProtest-lgbtq-trans-anthonyscanga.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&ssl=1" width="780" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Supporters of LGBTQ rights rally at the Iowa Capitol on Monday, Feb. 12, during a public hearing on HF 2389. — Anthony Scanga/Little Village</figcaption></figure>
<p>The version of the bill the governor introduced would have required the driver’s license of a trans Iowa “the sex designation of the person both at the time of birth and at the time the application is made.” That provision was removed from the version the Education Committee passed. </p>
<p>After the committee approved the bill, ranking member Sharon Steckman, a Democratic representative from Mason City, asked Wheeler to schedule an additional public hearing on HF 2389. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu7lS6IN0LM">That hearing </a>was held at the State Capitol on Monday evening. </p>
<p>“No one should have to come to the capitol week after week after week to protest for their basic human rights,” Aime Wichtendahl told the committee. “And make no mistake, this bill is a repeal of civil rights. It’s a full-frontal assault on the civil rights act.”</p>
<p>Wichtendahl <a href="https://littlevillagemag.com/aime-wichtendahl-hiawatha-city-council/">made history in 2015</a> by becoming the first transgender Iowan elected to public office, when she won a seat on the Hiawatha City Council. Wichtendahl has been reelected twice to the council, In December announced she is <a href="http://littlevillagemag.com/aime-wichtendahl-is-running-for-the-iowa-house/">running for the Iowa House</a> in District 80 as a Democrat. </p>
<p>“In the 17 years since gender identity was added to the civil rights act, there has not been one instance of a trans person gaining access to women’s spaces, or men pretending to be trans, in order to harass and assault women,” Wichtendahl said on Monday.</p>
<p>“Queer and trans people have had enough. We are human beings, we are American citizens, we are Iowans. We do not deserve the abuse we’re getting from our government.”</p>
<p>Over a hundred people registered to speak at the hearing, most in opposition to the bill. Hundreds more supporters of trans rights showed up in the Capitol’s rotunda and in the hallway outside the meeting room to protest against the bill. </p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-215997" height="1170" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/5CapitolProtest-lgbtq-trans-anthonyscanga.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&ssl=1" width="780" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Supporters of LGBTQ rights rally at the Iowa Capitol on Monday, Feb. 12, during a public hearing on HF 2389, a bill that would change how laws and regulations are made in Iowa, permanently undermining the rights of transgender and nonbinary Iowans. — Anthony Scanga/Little Village</figcaption></figure>
<p>After the hearing was announced last week, Gov. Reynolds used her campaign email account to send a message to her supporters asking them to turn out to speak on behalf of the bill, and providing instructions on how to register. The message made a distinction between “Democrats and their allies” and “Iowans.”</p>
<p>“We know the Democrats and their supporters are going to show up – trying to say there is no real difference between men and women,” <a href="https://twitter.com/LauraRBelin/status/1756327588543295721" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">the email said</a>. “We need Iowans to come out to speak on this common sense issue.”</p>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">The <a href="https://twitter.com/KimReynoldsIA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KimReynoldsIA</a> campaign is recruiting Iowans to speak at Monday's public hearing in the Iowa House on <a href="https://twitter.com/IAGovernor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IAGovernor</a>'s latest anti-trans discriminatory bill.<br />Background on the proposal, which House Education Committee advanced with amendment last week: <a href="https://t.co/5AvlGP9wnY">https://t.co/5AvlGP9wnY</a> <a href="https://t.co/z0GxkjzzKW">pic.twitter.com/z0GxkjzzKW</a></p>— Bleeding Heartland (@LauraRBelin) <a href="https://twitter.com/LauraRBelin/status/1756327588543295721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<p>While Wichtendahl was correct that in the 17 years since gender identity was added to the Iowa Civil Rights Act there have been no incidents of the sort bill supporters say they are worried about, that didn’t matter any more than that fact that there were no complaints about transgender girls participating in school supports did when that bill was passed in 2022. </p>
<p>Supporters of HF 2389 said the matter was simple, with several suggesting the bill’s gender definitions have divine sanction. </p>
<p>“God created woman and man. Period,” Denise Bubek, the first person to address the committee, said. </p>
<p>Bubek is the deputy director of the Family Leader Church Ambassador Network. The Family Leader is Iowa’s largest rightwing evangelical political organization.</p>
<p>God came up several times, and Courtney Collier evoked both God and the devil in her testimony supporting HF 2389. </p>
<p>Collier has become a familiar face at the capitol over the last few years, testifying in favor such bills as last year’s school book ban and this year’s attempt to strip gender identity protection from Iowa Code. She said God created the definition of man and woman, and transgender people were suffering from confusion caused by a “nonsensical social engineering trend, which is orchestrated by the devil himself.”</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-216002" height="1170" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2CapitolProtest-lgbtq-trans-anthonyscanga.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&ssl=1" width="780" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Supporters of LGBTQ rights rally at the Iowa Capitol on Monday, Feb. 12, during a public hearing on HF 2389, a bill that would change how laws and regulations are made in Iowa, permanently undermining the rights of transgender and nonbinary Iowans. — Anthony Scanga/Little Village</figcaption></figure>
<p>A total of 24 people testified at the hearing on Monday, with Chair Wheeler having supporters and opponents of the bill alternate. Along with Bubek and Collier, the dozen pro-bill speakers included two leaders from local chapters of Moms for Liberty, although neither mention their connection to the group, and the chair of the Dallas County Republicans, who also didn’t mention her party leadership role. A professional anti-trans activist from Wisconsin also spoke in favor of the bill. She didn’t mention she doesn’t live in Iowa. </p>
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<p>Laura Becker, who has a YouTube channel called The Based Detransioner, told the committee about her regrets after having gender-affirming medical care, when she considered her a trans man. Becker says she realizes now that her doctors misdiagnosed her, and she identified as trans to escape the abusive treatment she received from her parents. Becker apparently believes her situation is the norm. </p>
<p>“In Iowa, we have the opportunity to prevent trauma like I went through,” she said. </p>
<p>“We” is an odd choice of pronouns, since Becker lives in Milwaukee. </p>
<p>Steve Deace, who used to host a popular rightwing talk radio show in Iowa before moving to an online platform, told the committee “there are no facts” to support opposition to the bill. Deace attracted national attention in 2020 by promoting COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories, and on Monday he worked a COVID reference into his testimony. </p>
<p>“There is as much basis in fact in what you’re being asked to oppose, as there would be for wearing a mask to stop an airborne contagion of a respiratory virus,” he said. “Which is to say none.”</p>
<p>Todd Ertzen, Deace’s online co-host, was even more strident in his testimony. Neither Deace nor Ertzen mentioned their show or their connection to each other, although it’s possible they felt they were famous enough that it was unnecessary.</p>
<p>“We send our kids to school, thinking they’re going to get an education,” Ertzen said. “They fertilize and water them [sic], with pornography, with pronouns, with social-emotional learning. And that’s how we get all this tolerance and diversity out there.”</p>
<p>Ertzen was referring to the protesters who were loudly chanting outside the committee room for most of the meeting. He equated protesting in support of transgender rights with “domestic terrorism,” and warned that an unspecified “they” are “promising you they’re going to come into your house and take your kids.”</p>
<p>Ertzen referenced one of the chants from the protesters, “We will not go silently.” </p>
<p>“Whether they go silently or not, we’re not the East Coast,” he said. “They need to go.”</p>
<p>Rep. Wheeler began the hearing by complaining about the chanting outside the room, and stopped the hearing several times until the noise of the protest diminished. He warned at the outset he would not add any time to the hearing to make up for the stoppages, saying that doing so would be giving in to “the heckler’s veto.”</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-215995" height="1170" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/6CapitolProtest-lgbtq-trans-anthonyscanga.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&ssl=1" width="780" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">“I’m the scary transgender person the media warned you about,” reads this LGBTQ rights supporter’s T-shirt. Monday, Feb. 12, 2024. — Anthony Scanga/Little Village</figcaption></figure>
<p>“Shameful we weren’t able to get through more,” Wheeler said at the end of the hearing.</p>
<p>Of course that was entirely his decision. He knew how many people signed up to speak, but decided to keep to a strict schedule he set. </p>
<p>In addition to Wichtendahl, the dozen speakers opposing the bill included two representatives from One Iowa, one from Iowa Safe Schools, a priest representing the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, as well as several transgender Iowans who described how this bill would make their lives and the lives of their friends and families worse.</p>
<p>“What dystopian novel are we in this time because I’m finding us slipping and going backward,” Alexandra Gray, a Black trans woman, asked the committee. “At one point in time, people of color — Black people — were declared 3/5ths of a person. I’d like to know what percentage of a person queer people are going to get so that I can base my life around it.” </p>
<p>Gray, a Des Moines resident, was wearing a pink triangle as she testified. </p>
<p>“I oppose this bill because it will destroy people…” she said. “This bill is literally playing with lives and understand that you all aren’t making laws for yourselves — you are making laws for the generations to come.”</p>
<p>Matthew McIver, who is the father of an LGBTQ child, reflected on how much Iowa has changed since he moved here 16 years ago. </p>
<p>“I am an Iowan by choice,” he told the committee. “I moved my pregnant wife here in 2008 to found an organization called the Des Moines Social Club. Months later <a href="https://littlevillagemag.com/remembering-varnum-v-brien-the-case-that-brought-marriage-equality-to-iowa/">the <em>Varnum</em> decision</a> came down, and One Iowa held its celebration at that club. It was a beautiful day.”</p>
<p>Bills like HF 2389 will make it hard for the state to attract and retain talented people, McIver said. </p>
<p>“I would not advise people I love to move to Iowa today.”</p>
<p>Attorney Breanna Young warned the committee that HF 2389’s language is, from a legal standpoint, “vague, confusing and it will lead to unintended consequences.”</p>
<p>It was a point One Iowa’s Keenan Crow also raised when he addressed the committee. </p>
<p>“This legislation is not written for Iowa,” Crow said. “It is national legislation poured into Iowa without any regard to existing Iowa law. And what that means is, as previous speakers have mentioned, we are looking at a nearly innumerable number of unintended consequences in our future.” </p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-215999" height="520" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/statepatrol-CapitolProtest-lgbtq-trans-anthonyscanga.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1" width="780" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Iowa State Patrol were stationed throughout the State Capitol Building on Feb. 12 as Iowans protested bills targeting LGBTQ rights. — Anthony Scanga/Little Village</figcaption></figure>
<p>The definitions in the bill “will override definitions in other statues that already exist,” Crow said. “The word ‘mother’ itself is mentioned 325 times in Iowa Code. Are you confident, have you gone through each of these statutes to ensure that you haven’t created any unintended consequences there?”</p>
<p>Committee members do not respond to questions from the public during the hearing, but the answer in this case is obviously no. Even if the bill hadn’t received fast-tracked approval from the committee, Wheeler doesn’t have the legal training needed for such a review. He works for a religious nonprofit that provides services to people with disabilities, and is the head baseball coach at Unity Christian High School in Orange City. </p>
<p>Max Mowitz, program director at One Iowa and a trans Iowan, spoke for many who opposed the bill, when he told the committee, “I’m here because I love this state. And I’m here because I want a better future for all Iowans.”</p>
<p>The hearing, which began at 5:01 p.m., adjourned at 6:01 p.m. </p><script id="twitter-wjs" type="text/javascript" async defer src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>The story behind Avatar’s bending designs still rules, nearly 20 years later2024-02-16T21:45:11.754000ZPete Volkhttps://www.polygon.com/24073790/avatar-last-airbender-atla-bending-fight-choreography-reference-photography-martial-artist-sifu-kisu<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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<b>
Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/the-story-behind-ava/6230296:a54dab">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/6230296.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> Polygon - All.</b>
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<img alt="Sifu Kisu strikes an aggressive fighting pose, as Zuko makes the same motion with fire coming out of his arms in ATLA side-by-side" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5OhPpO0JncD_ivjhNsG8YXD1bCE=/0x12:1437x820/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73143984/kisufirebendingfinal.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Image: Nickelodeon</figcaption>
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<p>An incredible touch of detail in a show full of them</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.polygon.com/24073790/avatar-last-airbender-atla-bending-fight-choreography-reference-photography-martial-artist-sifu-kisu">Continue reading…</a>
</p>A simple snowy landscape, trying to let the simple shapes be and not get carried away in the detail…2024-02-14T19:25:16.443000Zhttps://blog.loish.net/post/740867492952637440<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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<b>
Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/a-simple-snowy-lands/83774:da7551">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/83774.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> loish blog.</b>
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<div class="npf_row"><figure class="tmblr-full"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/bbe6bcc83be396c224c680a75ddacfc3/767c4afacd324b1d-10/s640x960/81bf5d7f0e3c5d99bae35518cfc1bcca7bd8b047.png" /></figure></div><p>A simple snowy landscape, trying to let the simple shapes be and not get carried away in the detail like I usually do!</p>President Biden's wit is quick enough to rip on Peter Doocy2024-02-14T17:55:15.765000ZJason Weisbergerhttps://boingboing.net/2024/02/09/president-bidens-is-wit-quick-enough-to-rip-on-peter-doocy.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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<b>
Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/president-bidens-wit/526:93ea37">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/526.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> Boing Boing.</b>
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<a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/09/president-bidens-is-wit-quick-enough-to-rip-on-peter-doocy.html" rel="nofollow" title="President Biden's wit is quick enough to rip on Peter Doocy"><img alt="" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" height="1125" src="https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/shutterstock_1516064813.jpg?fit=1500%2C1125&ssl=1" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="1500" /></a><p><a href="https://boingboing.net/tag/joe-biden">President Biden</a> gave Peter Doocy a first-hand demonstration of his quick wit and willingness to poke at a pest.</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">BREAKING: President Biden just DESTROYED FOX "News" White House reporter Peter Doocy with a PERFECT response!</p>
<p> <a href="https://t.co/VkC0wgC0CX">pic.twitter.com/VkC0wgC0CX</a></p>
<p>— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) <a href="https://twitter.com/OccupyDemocrats/status/1755771759037411354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>When asked about his memory by slimebag Peter Doocy, President Biden remarked that his memory is so bad he let Peter Doocy speak. — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/09/president-bidens-is-wit-quick-enough-to-rip-on-peter-doocy.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/09/president-bidens-is-wit-quick-enough-to-rip-on-peter-doocy.html">President Biden's wit is quick enough to rip on Peter Doocy</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p><script id="twitter-wjs" type="text/javascript" async defer src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Stepping Inside Art in VR, and the Workflow Behind It2024-02-13T17:51:46.222000ZDonald Papphttps://hackaday.com/2024/02/13/stepping-inside-art-in-vr-and-the-workflow-behind-it/<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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<b>
Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/stepping-inside-art-/1493574:d304ff">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/1493574.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> Hackaday.</b>
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<div><img alt="" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" height="285" src="https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Art-Plunge-Anim-Optimized.gif?w=507" style="margin: 0 auto; margin-bottom: 15px;" width="507" /></div><p>The process of creating something is always chock-full of things to learn, so it’s always a treat when someone takes the time and effort to share it. [Teadrinker] recently published <a href="https://teadrink.substack.com/p/bringing-art-into-vr" target="_blank">the technique and workflow behind bringing art into VR</a>, which explains exactly how they created a virtual reality art gallery that allows one to step inside paintings, called <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/570900/Art_Plunge/" target="_blank">Art Plunge</a> (free on Steam.)</p>
<figure class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_663466" style="width: 250px;"><a href="https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Art-Plunge-Process-0-29-screenshot.png" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="wp-image-663466 size-thumbnail" height="250" src="https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Art-Plunge-Process-0-29-screenshot.png?w=250" width="250" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-663466">Extending a painting’s content to fill in the environment is best done by using other works by the same artist.</figcaption></figure>
<p>It walks through not just how to obtain high-resolution images of paintings, but also discusses how to address things like adjusting the dynamic range and color grading to better match the intended VR experience. There is little that is objectively correct in technical terms when it comes to the aesthetic presentation details like brightness and lighting, so guidance on what does and doesn’t work well and how to tailor to the VR experience is useful information.</p>
<p>One thing that is also intriguing is the attention paid to creating a sense of awe for viewers. The quality, the presentation, and even choosing sounds are all important for creating something that not only creates a sense of awe, but does so in a way that preserves and cultivates a relationship between the art and the viewer that strives to stay true to the original. Giving a viewer a sense of presence, after all, can be more than just presenting stereoscopic 3D images or <a href="https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/light-fields-missing-ingredient-for-immersive-3d-video-gets-improved/">fancy lightfields</a>.</p>
<p>You can get a brief overview of the process in a video below, but if you have the time, we really do recommend reading the whole breakdown.</p>
<p><span id="more-663464"></span></p>
<p><iframe height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ZDoqI3ePjc?feature=oembed" title="Art Plunge Process" width="800"></iframe></p>America Tires Of Big Telecom’s Shit, Driving Boom In Community-Owned Broadband Networks2024-02-09T18:51:14.830000ZKarl Bodehttps://www.techdirt.com/2024/02/08/america-tires-of-big-telecoms-shit-driving-boom-in-community-owned-broadband-networks/<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/america-tires-of-big/1190:5f5885">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/1190.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> Techdirt.</b>
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<p>For decades, frustrated towns and cities all over the country have responded to telecom market failure by building their own fiber broadband networks. Data routinely shows that not only do these networks provide <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/07/21/study-community-broadband-drives-competition-lowering-costs/">faster, better, and cheaper service</a>, the networks are generally more accountable to the public — because they’re directly owned and staffed by locals with a vested interest in the community.</p>
<p>Despite relentless industry lobbyist efforts to paint these networks as some kind of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/05/22/new-study-tries-fails-to-claim-community-broadband-is-inevitable-boondoggle/">socialist boondoggle hellscape</a>, such community ISPs continue to see massive, bipartisan popularity. Case in point: The Institute For Local Self Reliance, which tracks community networks, <a href="https://communitynets.org/content/new-municipal-broadband-networks-skyrocket-post-pandemic-america-alternative-private">says they saw a dramatic uptick in such networks</a> after COVID lockdowns highlighted the importance of affordable access.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://communitynets.org/content/community-network-map">database</a> of such networks tracked by the organization (disclosure: I’ve worked with the nonprofit researching municipal broadband projects), there are now 450 municipal broadband networks in the U.S. Since January 1, 2021, at least 47 new networks have come online, with dozens in the planning or pre-construction phases. And this may be an undercount given the FCC’s failure to track them all. </p>
<p>There are now more than 400 communities all over the country served by such networks, which can take a variety of forms, whether it’s a local cooperative, a city-owned broadband utility, an extension of the existing city-owned electrical utility, or a direct municipal build. Closer to a thousand if you include local public-private partnerships. </p>
<p>In rural North Dakota, local cooperatives have driven the kind of <a href="https://communitynets.org/reports/edit-report-how-local-providers-built-nations-best-internet-access-rural-north-dakota">affordable fiber access</a> many city residents in more populous states still haven’t seen. In Vermont, numerous municipalities have fused to <a href="https://ilsr.org/cuds-lead-affordable-fiber-revolution-in-vermont/">create Communications Utility Districts</a> to deploy affordable fiber to long neglected rural markets. In Tennessee, the city-owned utility in Chattanooga has created one of the most popular ISPs in the nation providing speeds upwards of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/08/31/chattanoogas-city-owned-isp-pushes-25-gbps-broadband/">25 gigabits per second to local residents</a>. </p>
<p>They all represent local, grass roots’ responses to local market failure caused by often-mindless consolidation, stifled competition, and feckless federal policymakers unwilling to address (or <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/09/20/as-net-neutrality-debate-reheats-remember-the-real-problem-is-telecom-monopoly-power/">often even acknowledge</a>) the problem of unchecked monopoly power. ILSR’s Chris Mitchell put it this way:</p>
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<p><em>“The monopoly cable and telephone companies frequently claim that there are no problems with broadband in the U.S., even as millions of students cannot access the Internet from their homes, whether in rural or urban areas. These cities remind us of the work that has to be done to make sure everyone can take advantage of modern technologies.”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>During peak pandemic lockdowns, a viral photo made the rounds featuring <a href="https://people.com/human-interest/calif-students-internet-hotspot-taco-bells-wifi/">poor kids forced to huddle in the dirt outside of Taco Bell</a>, just to attend class. As somebody who has covered U.S. broadband policy for decades, I watched as that photo did more to move the needle on U.S. telecom policy and broadband affordability than any activism campaign or press release crafted in the last quarter century.</p>
<p>Many of these municipalities have been greatly buoyed by billions in both COVID relief money (The American Rescue Plan Act) and infrastructure funding (The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). As a result, countless communities are now deploying cutting edge, affordable, gigabit-capable fiber networks for the first time to customers long trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide.</p>
<p>It’s a movement that could have been pre-empted at any time by the likes of Comcast and AT&T if they’d been willing to expand service, improve speeds, and compete on price. Instead, such companies quickly got to work trying to pass <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/03/30/colorado-eyes-killing-state-law-prohibiting-community-broadband-networks/">anti-democratic state laws</a> banning such networks, spreading disinformation <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/07/12/charters-running-a-fake-consumer-group-in-maine-thats-killing-community-broadband-with-the-help-of-a-democratic-advisor/">via fake consumer groups</a>, or <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/1/8530403/chattanooga-comcast-fcc-high-speed-internet-gigabit">flinging lawsuits</a> at towns and cities across America.</p>
<p>Even during the peak of the pandemic, when such networks were busy showcasing their benefit to affordable access for telecommuting and home education, the telecom lobby convinced House Republicans to try and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/02/19/new-bill-tries-to-ban-community-broadband-during-pandemic/">ban such networks nationwide</a>. It didn’t work, again, because nearly everybody in America dislikes Comcast, and these locally owned alternatives have significant, bipartisan support. </p>
<p>Our collective disdain for the local cable and broadband monopoly is one of the few things that bridges America’s ugly (and intentionally well cultivated) partisan divide. And this kind of local activism is going to be increasingly important as corporate efforts at the Supreme Court to unravel what’s left of federal corporate oversight <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/supreme-court-appears-poised-to-overrule-chevron-deference-in-judicial-power-grab/#:~:text=Under%20Chevron%20deference%2C%20courts%20have,and%20technical%20areas%20of%20regulation.">gain steam</a> in the months and years to come.</p>
<p>None of this is to say community broadband is a magic panacea. Such efforts require competent leadership, a good plan, plenty of money, and public support. But it is a very cool example — 100 years after a similar backlash played out with rural electrification — of locals banding together to combat regional monopolies (and the corruption that protects them) to dramatically improve their quality of life.</p>Mittens is the most relaxed cat I've seen2024-02-09T18:44:15.653000ZJennifer Sandlinhttps://boingboing.net/2024/02/09/mittens-is-the-most-relaxed-cat-ive-seen.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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<b>
Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/mittens-is-the-most-/526:c10caf">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/526.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> Boing Boing.</b>
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<a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/09/mittens-is-the-most-relaxed-cat-ive-seen.html" rel="nofollow" title="Mittens is the most relaxed cat I've seen"><img alt="" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" height="1114" src="https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-08-at-9.08.21-PM.png?fit=1382%2C1114&ssl=1" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="1382" /></a><p>I don't think I have ever in my life seen a more relaxed cat than Mittens, who was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/668881464321714/permalink/1078864579990065/">posted</a> yesterday by Michelle Riley in a public Facebook group I'm in called "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/668881464321714">Aldi Hall of Shame Community</a>." The video shows how much her cat seems to enjoy the fake sheepskin rug she bought for him at Aldi. — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/09/mittens-is-the-most-relaxed-cat-ive-seen.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/09/mittens-is-the-most-relaxed-cat-ive-seen.html">Mittens is the most relaxed cat I've seen</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p>Daily Telescope: The Cygnus Wall lights up the night sky2024-02-08T22:04:15.336000ZEric Bergerhttps://arstechnica.com/?p=1996170<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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<b>
Manzabar
<a href="https://manzabar.newsblur.com/story/daily-telescope-the-/6563232:62c428">shared this story</a>
from <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/icons.newsblur.com/6563232.png" style="vertical-align: middle;width:16px;height:16px;"> Ars Technica - All content.</b>
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<img alt="The Cygnus Wall." src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/mel-martin-800x506.jpg" />
<p class="caption" style="font-size: 0.8em;"><a class="enlarge-link" href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/mel-martin.jpg">Enlarge</a> <span class="sep">/</span> The Cygnus Wall. (credit: Mel Martin)</p> </figure>
<p><em>Welcome to the <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tag/daily-telescope/">Daily Telescope</a>. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.</em></p>
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<p>Good morning. It's January 16, and today we're traveling 2,600 light-years outward into space to the Cygnus Wall.</p>
<p>Although this sounds like some kind of intergalactic barrier, the Cygnus Wall's nomenclature has a more mundane origin—it looks like a wall and is located in the Cygnus constellation. It is the brightest region of the so-called North American Nebula, which in some photographs looks like the outline of North America.</p></div><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1996170#p3">Read 4 remaining paragraphs</a> | <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1996170&comments=1">Comments</a></p>Daily Telescope: In which the space station proves it truly is international2024-02-08T22:01:34.928000ZEric Bergerhttps://arstechnica.com/?p=1996568<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<img alt="The International Space Station flies high." src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG-4477-1-800x880.jpg" />
<p class="caption" style="font-size: 0.8em;"><a class="enlarge-link" href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG-4477-1.jpg">Enlarge</a> <span class="sep">/</span> The International Space Station flies high. (credit: Kent Christian)</p> </figure>
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<p>Good morning. It's January 18, and today, we're looking at the brightest object made by humans in the night sky.</p>
<p>I am speaking, of course, of the International Space Station—a facility that has now been flying in orbit for a quarter of a century thanks to the care of NASA, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, and the Japanese and Canadian space agencies. Anyone who lives in the mid-latitudes or tropics on Earth <a href="https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/">can see the station</a> from time to time.</p>
<p>I live in Houston, so the station is near and dear to my heart. Many of the astronauts who fly to the ISS train here, and most of them live here. One of my neighbors was one of the earliest station residents. Many hundreds, if not thousands, of people who live close to me work hard to keep the station soaring high and safe. Astronauts are up there doing basic research, understanding how microgravity ravages the human body, advancing commercial space, and much more.</p></div><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1996568#p3">Read 5 remaining paragraphs</a> | <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1996568&comments=1">Comments</a></p>Daily Telescope: A stunning image of a star cluster in a nearby galaxy2024-02-08T21:57:57.435000ZEric Bergerhttps://arstechnica.com/?p=1998840<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<img alt="This image features an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud." src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/potm2401a-800x941.jpg" />
<p class="caption" style="font-size: 0.8em;"><a class="enlarge-link" href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/potm2401a.jpg">Enlarge</a> <span class="sep">/</span> This image features an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. (credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, O. Nayak, M. Meixner)</p> </figure>
<p><em>Welcome to the <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tag/daily-telescope/">Daily Telescope</a>. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.</em></p>
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<p>Good morning. It's January 25, and today's image is nothing short of amazing and inspirational.</p>
<p>Courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope, this image features a nebula, N79, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby small galaxy. (Can we call galaxies small?) This is a massive, super-active star-forming region that spans more than 1,600 light-years. So what's with that bright spot in the middle of the image? It's a bright young star.</p></div><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1998840#p3">Read 4 remaining paragraphs</a> | <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1998840&comments=1">Comments</a></p>NASA launches a billion-dollar Earth science mission Trump tried to cancel2024-02-08T21:54:52.099000ZStephen Clarkhttps://arstechnica.com/?p=2001904<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<p class="caption" style="font-size: 0.8em;"><a class="enlarge-link" href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GSFC_20230508_PACE_017027_2000w.jpg">Enlarge</a> <span class="sep">/</span> NASA's PACE spacecraft last year at Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland. (credit: <a class="caption-link" href="https://pace.oceansciences.org/gallery.htm?id=image" rel="nofollow">NASA</a>)</p> </figure>
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<p>NASA's latest mission dedicated to observing Earth's oceans and atmosphere from space rocketed into orbit from Florida early Thursday on a SpaceX launch vehicle.</p>
<p>This mission will study phytoplankton, microscopic plants fundamental to the marine food chain, and tiny particles called aerosols that play a key role in cloud formation. These two constituents in the ocean and the atmosphere are important to scientists' understanding of climate change. The mission's acronym, PACE, stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem.</p>
<p>Nestled in the nose cone of a Falcon 9 rocket, the PACE satellite took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 1:33 am EST (06:33 UTC) Thursday after a two-day delay caused by poor weather.</p></div><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2001904#p3">Read 26 remaining paragraphs</a> | <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2001904&comments=1">Comments</a></p>Daily Telescope: A stunning new image of Io reveals a volcanic plume2024-02-08T21:44:47.022000ZEric Bergerhttps://arstechnica.com/?p=2001203<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<p class="caption" style="font-size: 0.8em;"><a class="enlarge-link" href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/io-flyby.jpg">Enlarge</a> <span class="sep">/</span> Behold: Io (credit: Björn Jónsson)</p> </figure>
<p><em>Welcome to the <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tag/daily-telescope/">Daily Telescope</a>. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.</em></p>
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<p>Good morning. It's February 6, and today's image reveals the Jovian moon Io in a revelatory new light.</p>
<p>Over the weekend the operators of NASA's Juno spacecraft released a new batch of images showcasing a February 3 flyby of Io, the volcanically active moon orbiting Jupiter. Io, if you didn't know, is the most volcanically active world known to humans.</p></div><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2001203#p3">Read 5 remaining paragraphs</a> | <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2001203&comments=1">Comments</a></p>A bill protecting ‘teachers of faith’ from having to respect students’ or parents’ preferred pronouns advances as LGBTQ rights advocates rally2024-02-08T21:40:31.018000ZPaul Brennanhttps://littlevillagemag.com/bill-targeting-trans-student-pronouns-advances/<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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Manzabar
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<figure><img alt="" class="attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image" height="684" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/proudtransparents-icpride-sign.jpg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>
<figure class="wp-block-image alignnone size-full wp-image-212872"><img alt="" class="wp-image-215255" height="521" src="https://i0.wp.com/littlevillagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/proudtransparents-icpride-sign.jpg?resize=780%2C521&ssl=1" width="780" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Parents of LGBTQ youth and members of the Cedar Rapids PFLAG chapter march in the 2023 Iowa City Pride Parade. — Emma McClatchey/Little Village</figcaption></figure>
<p>“They are trying to wear us down,” Courtney Reyes of <a href="https://oneiowaaction.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">One Iowa Action</a> said about the raft of anti-LGBTQ legislation Republicans have introduced this year in the Iowa Legislature. “We’re not going anywhere.”</p>
<p>Reyes, the executive director of the nonprofit that advocates on behalf of LGBTQ Iowans, was speaking at <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2024/02/05/iowa-bill-house-file-2139-no-punishment-for-incorrect-prnouns-names-in-schools/72483972007/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">a rally</a> in the Iowa State Capitol on Monday. The rally was part of LGBTQ Day on Hill, and Reyes and One Iowa Action Director of Policy and Advocacy Keenan Crow were joined at the rally by Democratic leaders from the Iowa House and Senate.</p>
<p>“What the hell are they doing?” House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst asked when she spoke at the rally. “This state’s future only exists when all of you, and all of us, thrive and work together toward making the state more welcoming.”</p>
<p>Reyes noted that the current legislative session, which only started on Jan. 8, has already been “a roller coaster.”</p>
<p>“After that huge win,” she said, referring to a House subcommittee rejecting a bill to strip protection against gender identity discrimination from the Iowa Civil Rights Act last Wednesday, “<a href="https://littlevillagemag.com/one-anti-trans-bill-down-another-introduced-gov-reynolds/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">another piece of harmful legislation</a> was introduced by the governor of our state. We call it the trans erasure bill. It’s harmful and just pure evil.”</p>
<p>The rally was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=805346888286867&set=a.645630717591819" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">originally scheduled</a> to begin at noon, but started late because of a subcommittee hearing on yet another bill aimed at the rights of transgender and nonbinary Iowans.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ba=HF2139" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">HF 2139</a> would prohibit public school districts and charter schools “from taking disciplinary action against employees, contractors, or students for the use of legal names” instead the name requested by a person or by a student’s parents, “or for the failure to use personal pronouns” that are appropriate. This would apply even in cases where parents have submitted a signed form stating what name to call a child and what pronouns to use, in accordance with <a href="https://littlevillagemag.com/iowa-education-bills-guide-2023-24/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">a bill</a> signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds last year.</p>
<p>HF 2139 was introduced by Rep. Henry Stone, a Republican from Forest City. Stone was also the chair of the subcommittee that conducted the hearing on the bill on Monday.</p>
<p>Ryan Benn, director of policy for the Family Leader, Iowa’s largest rightwing evangelical political organization, said the bill was necessary to protect “teachers of faith” in public schools.</p>
<p>“We need more teachers, not less,” <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/02/05/opponents-say-bill-violates-parents-right-to-change-childs-name-pronouns/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Benn told</a> the three-person subcommittee during the hearing. “And when there’s teachers of faith that they believe there’s two genders, male and female, and believe you can’t identify something that you’re not and just, you know, simple, common sense beliefs like that … they want to be able to not violate their conscience when dealing with their class and doing their job.”</p>
<p>Benn said a teacher’s personal religious beliefs were more important than a student’s right to be called by their name or a parent’s right to ensure their child’s wishes are respected by a public employee.</p>
<p>Pam Gronau, who spoke in favor of HF 2139, told the subcommittee about an unnamed nonbinary teacher at an unnamed school in an unnamed district who she said required an unnamed student to write a letter of apology after the student addressed the teacher as “Mrs.”</p>
<p>Gronau, who described herself as a concerned parent when testifying, is the legislation chair of the Polk County chapter of <a href="https://portal.momsforliberty.org/chapters/polk-county-ia/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Moms for Liberty</a>.</p>
<p>When Melissa Peterson of the Iowa State Education Association, a union representing teachers, addressed the subcommittee she pointed that there is no record of any such situation as the one Gronau described occurring, or other complaints about teachers or students being reprimanded over names or pronouns.</p>
<p>The teachers union has <a href="https://www.legis.iowa.gov/lobbyist/reports/declarations?ga=90&ba=HF2139" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">registered in opposition</a> to the bill, as have Rural School Advocates of Iowa, School Administrators of Iowa, the Urban Education Network of Iowa, the Iowa Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Iowa Behavioral Health Association and the Iowa Psychological Association, among other groups.</p>
<p>“The bedrock issue is, why would you want to allow this when a parent has clearly communicated to the district this is the name I want you to use, the pronouns I want you to use?” One Iowa’s Keenan Crow asked the subcommittee.</p>
<p>Crow said the bill wasn’t needed to protect a teacher or other school employee who make a one-time mistake, but would instead protect people who use names or pronouns in efforts to harass others.</p>
<p>“What we’re talking about here is intentional, continued ongoing, incorrect usage of a name or a pronoun that can be incredibly damaging to a student,” Crow explained.</p>
<p>Barry Stevens, a 13-year-old student, emphasized the importance of showing respect for students and their parents <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/lgbtq-iowans-rally-again-at-capitol-lament-ongoing-bouts-with-republican-bills/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">when addressing</a> the subcommittee. Stevens, who uses they/them pronouns, said their parents had already signed and submitted the form required by last year’s law to ensure they are correctly addressed in school.</p>
<p>“Now you’re saying that doesn’t matter, teachers can now just choose to ignore that.”</p>
<p>“If teachers can’t handle basic dignity for all, then they have no business teaching in public schools,” Stevens said. “Say ‘no’ to this bill and go pick on someone your own size.”</p>
<p>The subcommittee passed HF 2139 on a 2-1 vote. Stone and his fellow Republican, Rep. Bill Gustoff of Des Moines, voted for it. The lone Democrat on the subcommittee, Rep. Monica Kuth of Davenport, a retired teacher, voted against it.</p>
<p>The bill now goes to the House Education Committee for consideration.</p>Cat shelter will neuter your ex in effigy for Valentine's Day2024-02-07T20:09:02.427000ZGrant St. Clairhttps://boingboing.net/2024/02/04/cat-shelter-will-neuter-your-ex-in-effigy-for-valentines-day.html<table style="border: 1px solid #E0E0E0; margin: 0; padding: 0; background-color: #F0F0F0" valign="top" align="left" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
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<a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/04/cat-shelter-will-neuter-your-ex-in-effigy-for-valentines-day.html" rel="nofollow" title="Cat shelter will neuter your ex in effigy for Valentine's Day"><img alt="" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" height="844" src="https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cats.jpeg?fit=1500%2C844&ssl=1" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="1500" /></a><p>Are you alone on Valentine's Day with nothing but your spite? You're not the only one. Luckily, New Jersey-based pet shelter <a href="https://www.instagram.com/homewardboundnj/?hl=en" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Homeward Bound Adoption</a> has you covered. As part of a special promotion, Homeward Bound will name a feral cat after your ex and spay or neuter them, all for the relatively low price of $50. — <a class="read-more" href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/04/cat-shelter-will-neuter-your-ex-in-effigy-for-valentines-day.html">Read the rest </a></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://boingboing.net/2024/02/04/cat-shelter-will-neuter-your-ex-in-effigy-for-valentines-day.html">Cat shelter will neuter your ex in effigy for Valentine's Day</a> appeared first on <a href="https://boingboing.net">Boing Boing</a>.</p>