FROM this week’s news ON: society generally, the climate crisis, environmental issues, and nuclear threats/issues [Note: Content Warning - may be links to distressing reports on this topic. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

Frrom this week’s news on society generally, the climate crisis, environmental issues, and nuclear threats/issues:

• “I'm a Tenured College Professor. I'm Quitting. Here's Why.”   https://www.okdoomer.io/im-a-professor-heres-why-im-walking-away-from-my-tenure/   I agree with the essence of this commentary on serious problems in society in the USA and, in my case, Australia   

• “Nobody Wants to Work?”   https://youtu.be/9X3YSVrck8Y?si=IogHWHRPPr-klJL9   An utterly BRILLIANT rebuttal of the rubbish notion of people not wanting to work - and an excellent perspective on what is important or not, and work conditions/rights   

 

• “‘A major shakeup’: the Optus outage has been investigated. What’s going to change now?”   https://theconversation.com/a-major-shakeup-the-optus-outage-has-been-investigated-whats-going-to-change-now-229000   12 - 18 months to implement what appears to consumer relations type window dressing ...   meanwhile,   “The Breach of a Face Recognition Firm Reveals a Hidden Danger of Biometrics”   https://www.wired.com/story/outabox-facial-recognition-breach/   “Outabox, an Australian firm that scanned faces for bars and clubs, suffered a breach that shows the problems with giving companies your biometric data.”   
  

• “Australia will trial ‘age assurance’ tech to bar children from online porn. What is it and will it work?”   https://theconversation.com/australia-will-trial-age-assurance-tech-to-bar-children-from-online-porn-what-is-it-and-will-it-work-229184   This also examines the very real problems - including privacy risks, but also the need to attempt to do something  
  

 

• in a rebuttal of yet more conservative ideological amathia,   “No threat to farm land: just 1,200 square kilometres can fulfil Australia’s solar and wind energy needs”   https://theconversation.com/no-threat-to-farm-land-just-1-200-square-kilometres-can-fulfil-australias-solar-and-wind-energy-needs-223183    

• “Electric vehicles will start to cut emissions and improve air quality in our cities – but only once they’re common”   https://theconversation.com/electric-vehicles-will-start-to-cut-emissions-and-improve-air-quality-in-our-cities-but-only-once-theyre-common-227364   
  

• “Bird flu virus has been spreading in US cows for months, RNA reveals”   https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01256-5   

• “Mind-bending maths could stop quantum hackers, but few understand it”   https://theconversation.com/mind-bending-maths-could-stop-quantum-hackers-but-few-understand-it-228191   “... imagine the locks that secure our electronic data suddenly stopped working.   This is not a science fiction scenario. It may well become a reality when sufficiently powerful quantum computers come online”   

• “‘Witches’ are still killed all over the world. Pardoning past victims could end the practice”   https://theconversation.com/witches-are-still-killed-all-over-the-world-pardoning-past-victims-could-end-the-practice-228613  
  

My links for activism post may aid any activism you may decide to do on any/all of these. If you do, don’t get too fixated on specific instances of problems - important though they may well be: take a moment to also consider the broader issues these incidents and groups of incidents may suggest/reveal.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/