Wibbly-Wobbly Ramblings

LARS HAGBERG/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The federal government does not believe that a police intervention is the solution to the anti-pipeline dispute that has crippled the country’s rail system, calling instead for more dialogue with Indigenous leaders and communities.

In an interview on Sunday, Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller pointed to failed police interventions in Oka, Que., in 1990 and Ipperwash, Ont., in 1995 – both of which turned deadly – to argue for continuing discussions with protesters, who are supporting those opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia.

“We have the experience of Oka 30 years ago where people went in with police and someone died. My question to Canadians, my questions to myself and to fellow politicians regardless of the party, is whether we do things the same old way and repeat the errors of the past, or do we take the time to do it right?” he said.

@allthecanadianpolitics

“A subminimum wage for people with disabilities is long overdue for extinction.”

Find where strikes are happening in your area:

If you live in the US you can go here and here’s the global page. - scroll down and there’s a map to find protests in your area or you can register one yourself if there’s none near you. 

Here’s a resource page with tips on how to organize a climate strike within your workplace, school, or community. 

There’s also going to be online, interactive training starting today until the strikes start on September 20th. The dates and times are listed here. 

Related articles: 

350 U.S. CLIMATE WALKOUT: MOBILIZING WORKERS AND UNIONS

YOUTH TO ADULTS — JOIN US IN THE CLIMATE FIGHT

MILLIONS GEAR UP FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKES IN SEPTEMBER

Next week! Check your area for strikes near you! 

Peru has pledged to end palm oil driven deforestation by 2021, this article from this week states. 

If Peru will carry out this commitment, it will be the second South American country (after Colombia) to make this pledge.

National Wildlife Federation, the largest private, non-profit conservation education and advocacy organization in the U.S is the reason this “momentous win” was made possible.  

The National Wildlife Federation and its local partner, Sociedad Peruana de Ecodesarrollo, worked alongside Peruvian palm oil Producers’ Association (JUNPALMA) and Peru’s government for two years before achieving this amazing result.

“This commitment is a momentous development for the people of Peru and the global effort to confront climate change. It underscores that we can feed the world without hurting biodiversity or clear-cutting tropical forests,” Kiryssa Kasprzyk, who led the National Wildlife Federation’s work, said in a statement.

“This commitment is a momentous development for the people of Peru and the global effort to confront climate change. It underscores that we can feed the world without hurting biodiversity or clear-cutting tropical forests.”

Really great Seanan interview, plus a lot of boom recs.

And contains probably the best advice:

What two pieces of advice would you give a young aspiring writer? Give yourself permission to write crap, and don’t listen to anyone who says they have the secret to becoming an overnight success. They don’t.

Hey Tumblr!  I need your help once again!  I’m in my final, capstone, class for my degree and once again I need primary research.

I’m analyzing and researching the accuracy of personality assessments taken as a part of the job application process.  I think we’ve all taken a few.  My theory is that most people can figure out the expected/desired answers to most of the questions and answer accordingly, even if the answer isn’t truthful.  

This is a current topic of interest for me as I’m currently looking for a new job.  I’m curious about the results because they apply to my current situation and also the field I’m applying for jobs in.  Hopefully, if I find myself in a human resources job, I can use this research to influence the hiring process.

That is a dream goal.

Really, I just want an A on this paper even if I never get to apply what I learn regarding this research.

Anyway, I need people to take my survey.  There are only two slightly identifying questions.  One asks for your gender and the other asks for your age range.  Otherwise, this survey is 100% anonymous and can not be traced to you.

I do ask, however, that you be 100% truthful or else don’t bother taking the survey at all.  I need accurate data.

Oh!  Before I forget!  The survey only takes about 5 minutes, if that.  There are 8 questions total and only two of them in the open answer format.  The rest are mostly yes/no.

Also, reblogs are super appreciated.  I’m trying to reach a large audience.

i’m calling it now - the AOC effect. a wave of young, women of color from otherized & marginalized communities are emerging to take their rightful place: trailblazing compassionate, game-changing elected officials.  tiffany cabán is the first to be personally inspired by AOC.

“…folks like her [alexandria-ocasio cortez], it moved me in a way to be like, i can do this.” -Democracy Now, June 19, 2019.

she is the first of many to come. i promise you.

congratulations, DA Cabán.

tiffany cabán is a 31 year old queer woman born and raised in Queens to a working class nuyorican (new york puerto rican) family. she is a public defender who was inspired to run after encouragement from friends who felt she would make a major impact on the criminal injustice system in one of the most diverse boroughs in the world. her platform:

-decriminalize sex work

-end cash bail, which punishes the poor only

-decriminalize petty crimes + low-level drug offenses

-end the failed war on drugs

-refuse to cooperate or empower ICE

& more policies to stop the racist disparities of policing + criminal justice.

cabán won by a margin of 1,090 votes on June 26, 2019. no one thought she would win against the queens establishment. she was endorsed by AOC. she is the first latina DA in queens & the youngest elected. she is backed by @DemSocialists and the @NYWFP & is now positioned to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for a jurisdiction with a greater population than 15 states and DC.

“this started with four women around a table saying ‘we are going to change the system’.”

WOW!!

The endangered southern resident killer whales which are normally spotted in the Salish Sea near Vancouver throughout June, haven’t been seen by researchers or whale watchers in the area and the absence is considered highly unusual for this time of year.

“We believe that is because there currently aren’t enough chinook salmon returning to the river area. So they have to be somewhere else to get food,” said Joan Lopez, a marine naturalist with Vancouver Whale Watch, a tourism outfit.

On one of the final days in June, tourists with binoculars and cameras watched as a group of 14 transient killer whales swam off the coast of Vancouver. These orcas are a different type of killer whale and eat seals — unlike the southern residents, whose diet only consists of fish.

The southern residents’ range extends from southeast Alaska to central California, but during the summer months they feed and live in the Salish Sea.

While seals are plentiful in the coastal waters of B.C. and Washington, chinook salmon — the southern residents’ main prey during the months of May to August — are not.

“These whales are not getting enough to eat at any time in the year,” said Deborah Giles, the director of science and research at Wild Orca, a U.S. based non-profit.

Sara Jacobsen, 19, grew up eating family dinners beneath a stunning Native American robe.            

Not that she gave it much thought. Until, that is, her senior year of high school, when she saw a picture of a strikingly similar robe in an art history class.

The teacher told the class about how the robe was used in spiritual ceremonies, Sara Jacobsen said. “I started to wonder why we have it in our house when we’re not Native American.”

She said she asked her dad a few questions about this robe. Her dad, Bruce Jacobsen, called that an understatement.

“I felt like I was on the wrong side of a protest rally, with terms like ‘cultural appropriation’ and ‘sacred ceremonial robes’ and ‘completely inappropriate,’ and terms like that,” he said.

“I got defensive at first, of course,” he said. “I was like, ‘C’mon, Sara! This is more of the political stuff you all say these days.’”

But Sara didn’t back down. “I feel like in our country there are so many things that white people have taken that are not theirs, and I didn’t want to continue that pattern in our family,” she said.

The robe had been a centerpiece in the Jacobsen home. Bruce Jacobsen bought it from a gallery in Pioneer Square in 1986, when he first moved to Seattle. He had wanted to find a piece of Native art to express his appreciation of the region.

       The Chilkat robe that hung over the Jacobsen dining room table for years.   Credit Courtesy of the Jacobsens      

“I just thought it was so beautiful, and it was like nothing I had seen before,” Jacobsen said.

The robe was a Chilkat robe, or blanket, as it’s also known. They are woven by the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples of Alaska and British Columbia and are traditionally made from mountain goat wool. The tribal or clan origin of this particular 6-foot-long piece was unclear, but it dated back to around 1900 and was beautifully preserved down to its long fringe.

“It’s a completely symmetric pattern of geometric shapes, and also shapes that come from the culture,” like birds, Jacobsen said. “And then it’s just perfectly made — you can see no seams in it at all.”

Jacobsen hung the robe on his dining room wall.

After more needling from Sara, Jacobsen decided to investigate her claims. He emailed experts at the Burke Museum, which has a huge collection of Native American art and artifacts.

“I got this eloquent email back that said, ‘We’re not gonna tell you what to go do,’ but then they confirmed what Sara said: It was an important ceremonial piece, that it was usually owned by an entire clan, that it would be passed down generation to generation, and that it had a ton of cultural significance to them.“  

Jacobsen says he was a bit disappointed to learn that his daughter was right about his beloved Chilkat robe. But he and his wife Gretchen now no longer thought of the robe as theirs. Bruce Jacobsen asked the curators at the Burke Museum for suggestions of institutions that would do the Chilkat robe justice. They told him about the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau.

When Jacobsen emailed, SHI Executive Director Rosita Worl couldn’t believe the offer. “I was stunned. I was shocked. I was in awe. And I was so grateful to the Jacobsen family.”

Worl said the robe has a huge monetary value. But that’s not why it’s precious to local tribes.

“It’s what we call ‘atoow’: a sacred clan object,” she said. “Our beliefs are that it is imbued with the spirit of not only the craft itself, but also of our ancestors. We use [Chilkat robes] in our ceremonies when we are paying respect to our elders. And also it unites us as a people.”

Since the Jacobsens returned the robe to the institute, Worl said, master weavers have been examining it and marveling at the handiwork. Chilkat robes can take a year to make – and hardly anyone still weaves them.

“Our master artist, Delores Churchill, said it was absolutely a spectacular robe. The circles were absolutely perfect. So it does have that importance to us that it could also be used by our younger weavers to study the art form itself.”

Worl said private collectors hardly ever return anything to her organization. The federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act requires museums and other institutions that receive federal funding to repatriate significant cultural relics to Native tribes. But no such law exists for private collectors.

       Bruce and Gretchen Jacobsen hold the Chilkat robe they donated to the Sealaska Heritage Institute as Joe Zuboff, Deisheetaan, sings and drums and Brian Katzeek (behind robe) dances during the robe’s homecoming ceremony Saturday, August 26, 2017.   Credit NOBU KOCH / SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE      

Worl says the institute is lobbying Congress to improve the chances of getting more artifacts repatriated. “We are working on a better tax credit system that would benefit collectors so that they could be compensated,” she said.

Worl hopes stories like this will encourage people to look differently at the Native art and artifacts they possess.

The Sealaska Heritage Institute welcomed home the Chilkat robe in a two-hour ceremony over the weekend. Bruce and Gretchen Jacobsen traveled to Juneau to celebrate the robe’s homecoming.

Really glad that this is treated as hard hitting news, no really, I am

This is why spaces like Tumblr are so vital in changing the narrative. We cannot back down from the truth.

Detective pikachu’s plot contains some pretty bad ableism.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Getting hit by boats can make a sea turtle float. While the animal is still alive, it can’t dive, leaving it in constant danger. Now, Gabriela Queiroz Miranda, 18, has invented a device to help an injured turtle dive again. She’s designed a weighted turtle vest.

Gabriela is a senior at Minnetonka High School in Minnetonka, Minn. But she first encountered injured sea turtles while living in Miami, Fla. Back then, she visited the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Fla., where she learned about “bubble butt syndrome.”

It sounds funny. It’s not. The impact of being hit by boats can drive air inside a turtle’s shell. If the air gets trapped near the back of the turtle, its rear end floats. Once this happens, “There’s no way to get the air out,” Gabriela says. “It’s permanent.”

A floating turtle is not a good turtle. They can’t dive away from dangers (such as more boats). It also can make it difficult for a turtle to feed. “Most end up dying [from the condition],” the teen explains.

Affected turtles that get rescued can never be released back into the wild. To allow them to dive, rescue workers glue weights to the sea turtle’s shell. That weighs the animal down so it can swim normally. But it’s only a temporary fix. The turtle’s shell is made of plates called scutes. These are made of keratin, the same protein that makes up your hair and fingernails. Sea turtles shed old scutes and grow new ones. And every time they do, the weights that are attached to them fall off leaving their butt to float again.

The memory of injured sea turtles stayed with Gabriela after she moved to Minnesota. In a research class at her school, she decided to combine her concern for these turtles with her love of engineering.

Gabriela set out to design a weighted vest that would attach securely to a sea turtle, yet still allow it to move easily and shed its scutes. “I wanted to make it simple enough that any researcher at an aquarium would replicate it for their individual needs,” she says. It would have two key features. First, she wouldn’t cover the entire top of the shell (so there would be space for scute shedding). Second, she’d keep an open back so as the water flows through the vest, the scutes can come out, always leaving the weight on top.

To design her vest, Gabriela worked with Voldetort, a pet mud turtle in her classroom. She carefully used a scanner to create a 3-D model of the animal. “He is a squirmish turtle,” she notes. So the teen checked her numbers with a tape measure and her smartphone. Then she put these measurements into a computer program to design a weight belt.

Explainer: What is 3-D printing?

The teen used a 3-D printer to make a very thin model (with no weights) to test its fit on the turtle. Gabriela then clipped the first prototype to the sides of Voldetort’s shell. The belt had a pouch on the top to hold weights to make the turtle’s butt sink.

It worked. But Gabriela wasn’t satisfied.

Voldetort

The turtle’s name is Voldetort.

Aquatic turtles regulate the air inside their bodies very carefully as this plays an important role in their buoyancy (or lack theroff).

For example, if a freshwater turtle has gas or impaction often their butt will float in the air and prevent them from submerging, or if they have fluid in one lung from a respiratory infection they will tilt to the side while swimming.

I’d never heard of this kind of thing impacting sea turtles before, but it makes perfect sense.

This is so. cool. I really love that she focused her design on being something aquariums could modify for specific animals, since every bubble butt case is unique in terms of how much air is trapped and where it is.

Next up is modifying the dimensions for sea turtle proportions, and then sending prototypes to the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In case you need to know.

I am sure being covered in milkshake will change their minds and not just enable them to claim victimhood against the unreasonable.

Assholes are gonna claim victimhood no matter what. That’s what they do. They’re not here for good faith debate.

But making them admit they don’t want to go in public because of this, making them complain to McDonalds about milkshake sales, and generally undercutting them by showing the absurd fragility of who they are? That fucks with the image they want to project, and the ability to protect strength is key to what they do, so this sort of thing makes it less likely to be able to recruit people into their bullshit.

99.9% of the time, people aren’t going to be persuaded and convince to abandon authoritarianism. One of the central conceits of it is that even trying to sway your opponent with facts or rhetoric is a sign of weakness. And if you have to debate someone about whether or not other human beings deserve to be treated like human beings, you’re already giving this bigoted bullshit more respect than it deserves.

So you ridicule them instead. Show the absolute lies behind their claims of strength, destroy the overly macho facade they put up. You laugh at them, and let everyone see how absurd they are.

It’s what that deserve.