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What exactly is the "language" dropdown in creating comments/posts?
  • Yes, both the settings and post language selections are multiselect. But it feels like there's a chicken & egg problem here: until something is done to encourage users off the default (which I would guess many don't even know is an option), changing post language will severely limit its reach.

  • Quick question about usernames.
  • That I do not know for sure. But you can get the username by hovering over their display name.

  • Quick question about usernames.
  • Yes. If you set a display name, it displays without the "@". If you leave the display name blank, it displays the username with the "@".

  • Ethics Teams in Tech Are Stymied by Lack of Support
  • And just like DEI teams, ethics teams will be easy to cut back on if a company runs into economic trouble.

  • www.politico.com Supreme Court dismisses Louisiana’s appeal of ruling that found racial gerrymandering

    The high court’s action is a consequence of its recent decision affirming a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

    Supreme Court dismisses Louisiana’s appeal of ruling that found racial gerrymandering

    This is actually pretty significant - not just as Supreme Court "inside baseball" but because, coupled with the recent decision in Allen v. Milligan, it will likely result in several new Democratic members of the House of Representatives in the next election. With the House majority as tight as it is, this will be one of the key factors in who controls that chamber.

    [Image description: the front of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.]

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    What exactly is the "language" dropdown in creating comments/posts?
  • The dropdown lets you select the language of your target audience (or at least I find that the easiest way to think about it). If you select "English" then only people who select "English" in their settings will see that post.

    But because most people leave their settings at the default "Undetermined" those people won't see a post that's marked as "English".

    So for the moment, the best practice is to just ignore that dropdown and leave everything as "Undetermined".

    The warning banner looks to be duplicated from the Settings page, where it actually makes sense.

  • Moderation / Rules of "news" community?
  • Sure, no argument there. There's a choice to be made between "post the second story as a comment to the first one" and "post the second story a a separate topic". I'm in favor of the first approach to keep discussion in one spot, but it's not something I feel super-strongly about.

  • Moderation / Rules of "news" community?
  • Avoiding dupes is, I think, an important one. We've had multiple instances on Beehaw of the same story showing up more than once. If you try to post a duplicate link, Lemmy will let you know (by showing the previous copies to you as crossposts). It's harder to make sure you're not posting the second or third story from a different source on the same topic. Perhaps we can just encourage people to search before posting.

    I'd like the rules to at least ask people to add an image description in their original post. https://beehaw.org/post/686974 would be good to link to here.

    And given the nature of many posts in the news, I think it would be good for this community to remind people to be(e) nice in their discussions.

  • At High School Debates, Watch What You Say
  • My own high school debate days are decades in the past. From that perspective, though, the fact that you can easily look up the judges' biases, and so prepare for them, is a huge advance that we would never have even dreamed of. To me that seems like explicitly addressing biases in a useful way.

    I'd be interested in a more serious analysis that went through all 47,000+ paradigms and categorized biases so some non-anecdotal conclusions could be drawn. That would take a lot more time and money than picking out a few instances that the writer knows about.

    And yes, if an alternative ends up being liked better by debate coaches, people will go in that direction. It's entirely possible that debate competition will end up being as fragmented as national politics.

  • At High School Debates, Watch What You Say
  • The article here takes a bit stronger stance than "losing debates because of tweets":

    The NSDA has allowed hundreds of judges with explicit left-wing bias to infiltrate the organization. These judges proudly display their ideological leanings in statements—or “paradigms”—on a public database maintained by the NSDA called Tabroom, where they declare that debaters who argue in favor of capitalism, or Israel, or the police, will lose the rounds they’re judging.

    The article calls out five judges for being biased. The NSDA site shows 47,168 paradigms. So, while there may be an issue, there doesn't seem to be much proof here. It could equally well be that the author is cherry-picking instances that fit his ideology.

  • time.com The U.S. Government is Awarding $1.7 Billion to Buy Electric and Low-Emission Buses

    This will help transit agencies and state and local governments buy 1,700 U.S.-built buses; nearly half must be zero carbon emissions.

    The U.S. Government is Awarding $1.7 Billion to Buy Electric and Low-Emission Buses

    Note: U.S.-built buses at that.

    [Image description: A Lion electric school bus is seen on display in Austin, Texas, Feb. 22, 2023.]

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    Trump takes aim at EV industry during speech to Michigan Republicans
  • With Michigan being a pretty competitive state, and the unions being largely Democrat, I assume this is his pitch to try to pry some of those union voters away by scaring them about their jobs.

    And yeah, decimate. "I do not think this word means what you think it means."

  • Streptocarpus ionanthus - "African violet" (adolescent/mature size)
  • I'm jealous. Mostly what I've managed to do with African violets is kill them. Probably overwatering, so perhaps I'll try again after our move next year - right now I'm trying to cut down on the number of pots we'll need to move!

  • Furbies returning to store shelves next month
  • Clearly someone needs to figure out how to get an old Furby to interact with a new Furby.

    (Of course, someone has already done ChatGPT + Furby)

  • thehill.com Trump takes aim at EV industry during speech to Michigan Republicans

    Former President Trump railed against the electric vehicle industry during a speech to Michigan Republicans on Sunday, warning them that the state’s auto industry is at risk under President B…

    Trump takes aim at EV industry during speech to Michigan Republicans

    A sad reminder that the MAGA wing of the Republican party continues to be against most anything that can actually help turn around climate change.

    [Image description: former President Trump]

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    thehill.com Furbies returning to store shelves next month

    Hasbro announced that the fluffy and chatty animatronic children’s toy will return to stores next month.

    Furbies returning to store shelves next month

    Not quite your traditional gaming, but with 600 responses to user actions at least as complex as some interactive computer games I've played.

    [Image description: two new Furbies]

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    The Biden Administration Introduced a New Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, and So Far, It Looks Promising
  • Yes, and? I'm a moderator in a different community. That's different from being on the admin team (admins have many powers mods do not) and I'm not a moderator here which gives me no special options compared to any other user.

  • www.scientificamerican.com 5 Takeaways from the Montana Climate Trial as We Await a Historic Ruling

    Young Montanans put their state on trial for its contributions to climate change. Here are five takeaways from the proceedings as we await the judge’s ruling

    5 Takeaways from the Montana Climate Trial as We Await a Historic Ruling

    [Image description: Lead claimant Rikki Held, 22, confers with members of Our Children's Trust legal team before the start of the nation's first youth climate change trial at Montana's First Judicial District Court on June 12, 2023 in Helena, Montana]

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    Any chance of some local bots for things like summaries etc.
  • Beehaw's community mods and admins have discussed this particular use case, and so far we haven't seen anything that we'd be comfortable having on Beehaw. The summary bots have (so far) too many problems with posting misleading summaries to make them a good addition to thoughtful conversation.

  • making your own medicines
  • Their web site is down, but their Github account is currently still available, with 3D printing files and software for their microlab.

  • Is Dr. Bronner’s the Last Corporation With a Soul?
  • There are lots of B Corps out there these days, which I would say have at least some soul, but Dr. Bronner's is definitely something in its own class. I was surprised to discover Dr. Bronner's chocolate bars at the natural foods store the other day - honestly nothing special as far as taste goes, but the labels do have some of that classic vibe.

  • askBeehaw (not-so-serious edition): what's the dumbest thing you did as a teenager?
  • So many, many choices.

    I think my all-time dumbest came when I was about 22, so it doesn't fit here. In my teens...probably driving drunk at speeds up to 100mph on the mountain roads up above Pasadena with the headlights off at night.

  • Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize population
  • You appear to be unable or unwilling to distinguish between "preventing births" and "voluntarily choosing not to have children."

    Not sure why you're quite so interested in escalating the rhetoric here (forced sterilization? in a thread that started with individual action to save honeybees? really?) but in view of the first rule of Beehaw ("Be(e) nice") I'm not interested in joining you.

  • www.sciencenews.org 1.6-billion-year-old steroid fossils hint at a lost world of microbial life

    Molecular fossils suggest the existence of a lost world of primitive eukaryotes that dominated aquatic ecosystems from at least 1.6 billion to 0.8 billion years ago.

    1.6-billion-year-old steroid fossils hint at a lost world of microbial life

    Wild. I for one would not have guessed that we could detect even moderately complex organic molecules from 1.6 billion years ago.

    [Image description: Geochemist Jochen Brocks and colleagues report they discovered the earliest molecular footprints of eukaryotes, dating back 1.6 billion years, in this Barney Creek rock formation in northern Australia.]

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    Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize population
  • Telling one person that they can help out by not having kids is rather different from, as the dictionary says

    the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group

    Even suggesting to a whole group of people not to have kids is not the same as killing them.

    So no, it's not a logical conclusion. It's illogical rhetoric. But you do you, I guess.

  • What's going to happen to all of these SUVs?
  • Here in the middle of America, it's not SUVs - it's full-size pickup trucks. Just as much of an ecological and safety disaster though.

  • www.propublica.org Behind the Scenes of Justice Alito’s Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Pre-buttal

    The Journal editorial page accused ProPublica of misleading readers in a story that hadn’t yet been published.

    Behind the Scenes of Justice Alito’s Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Pre-buttal

    ProPublica strikes back.

    [Image description: Justice Alito with a salmon, Wall Street Journal editorial page, connected by circles, lines, and arrows.]

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    Snapshots of the End of Travel: On Trying to Enter a Personal No-Fly Zone

    A longish essay, but it does a great job of capturing the conflicted feelings that I share about giving up air travel.

    [Image description: a jet plane in a forest of evergreen trees]

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    hiking @lemmy.ml ffmike @beehaw.org
    Hiking Mogan Ridge West Trail

    cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/748817

    > I spent most of the morning at Mogan Ridge West, putting in about 12 miles in all. Basically, I hiked the outer loop, though I did bushwhack about a mile and a half for variety. > > We're definitely into summer hiking weather here, with high humidity, spider webs, gnats, and ticks. This trail also hasn't seen much use lately, so it's overgrown in grass in many areas. About half of it is gravel road, so you can combine unpleasant walking surface with increased ticks and chiggers. > > Still, it was a pleasant walk in the woods and decent exercise. I met one other hiker about halfway and we swapped notes on which local trails were worth revisiting. Fortunately we were hiking in opposite directions so we didn't have to have the awkward conversation about whether to hike together. > > More pictures on imgur. > > [Image description: trail marker post with area map and arrows pointing in many different directions]

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    Hiking Mogan Ridge West Trail

    I spent most of the morning at Mogan Ridge West, putting in about 12 miles in all. Basically, I hiked the outer loop, though I did bushwhack about a mile and a half for variety.

    We're definitely into summer hiking weather here, with high humidity, spider webs, gnats, and ticks. This trail also hasn't seen much use lately, so it's overgrown in grass in many areas. About half of it is gravel road, so you can combine unpleasant walking surface with increased ticks and chiggers.

    Still, it was a pleasant walk in the woods and decent exercise. I met one other hiker about halfway and we swapped notes on which local trails were worth revisiting. Fortunately we were hiking in opposite directions so we didn't have to have the awkward conversation about whether to hike together.

    More pictures on imgur.

    [Image description: trail marker post with area map and arrows pointing in many different directions]

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    www.theguardian.com Billionaire-funded group driving effort to erode democracy in key US states

    Foundation for Government Accountability, backed by Richard Uihlein, exerting influence in Ohio, Missouri, South Dakota and Arkansas

    Billionaire-funded group driving effort to erode democracy in key US states

    Once again the conservative republicans seem to be better than anyone else at finding ways to "win" at politics.

    [Image description: a row of "OhIo Voted" stickers over a blank ballot.]

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    www.politico.com New Jersey sues three school districts over transgender notification policy

    “‘Outing’ these students against their will poses serious mental health risks," says the lawsuit.

    New Jersey sues three school districts over transgender notification policy

    [Image description: "Protect Trans Rights" and "Too cute to be binary" protest signs]

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    variety.com How Netflix Created Billboards That Drip Sweat to Promote Chris Hemsworth’s ‘Extraction 2’

    Chris Hemsworth dangles from skyscrapers, dodges a fiery helicopter and survives several bludgeons to the head as former black ops mercenary Tyler Rake in Netflix’s blockbuster sequel “…

    How Netflix Created Billboards That Drip Sweat to Promote Chris Hemsworth’s ‘Extraction 2’

    Personally, I don't really want to interact with the sweat of a giant Chris Hemsworth on a ground-level billboard, but perhaps I am just out of touch with the culture.

    [Image description: Chris Hemsworth looking studly with a gun and a crashed small plane in the background]

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    thehill.com Supreme Court says states can’t overrule Biden on whom to deport

    Texas and Louisiana do not have authority to challenge the Biden administration’s guidelines for when to deport migrants from the country, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, handing a win to Preside…

    Supreme Court says states can’t overrule Biden on whom to deport

    Another bullshit legal theory from Texas goes down in flames. Justice Alito dissented because of course he did.

    [Image description: Migrants wait in line adjacent to the border fence under the watch of the Texas National Guard to enter into El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, May 10, 2023.]

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    www.statnews.com New research underscores benefits of gender-affirming hormones, rebutting anti-trans claims

    “It's very motivating to me to actually provide the evidence to show the benefits of hormones that I see every single day,” said clinician Brendan Nolan.

    New research underscores benefits of gender-affirming hormones, rebutting anti-trans claims

    Actual evidence from actual scientists.

    [Image description: A patient holds bottles of medications for hormone replacement therapy as part of her gender-affirming care.]

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    www.opb.org Multnomah County sues fossil fuel companies for nearly $52 billion over heat dome

    Multnomah County is seeking nearly $52 billion in damages and future costs for climate adaptation in a lawsuit that filed Thursday against more than a dozen fossil fuel companies to hold them accountable for the unprecedented heat dome event in 2021.

    Multnomah County sues fossil fuel companies for nearly $52 billion over heat dome

    I suspect this lawsuit doesn't have much chance of winning. But:

    • the attorneys are apparently taking it on contingency, so no cost to taxpayers
    • the more lawsuits against big oil, the better the chance that one will eventually win
    • just rolling over for the people destroying the planet doesn't seem like a winning strategy either

    [Image description: Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson speaks at a press conference June 22, 2023, announcing the county's lawsuit against fossil fuel companies in Portland, Oregon.]

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    CSA Haul

    I am fortunate enough to live mere blocks from a local CSA farm (they hung on to a few acres of farmland when their family sold most of the area for a housing development) and we're getting into good harvest season. Today's haul: radishes, carrots, turnips, basil, cherry tomatoes, kale, edible flowers, onions, lettuce, oyster & lion's mane mushrooms. Veggies for dinner tonight! (and yes, if you can find me, you're invited).

    If you have a CSA in your area, I urge you to check out the cost of membership. If you can afford it, it's usually a win both for small farmers and for the quality of your diet.

    [Image description: plastic bags full of vegetables on a kitchen counter]

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    www.adl.org Year in Review: Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate & Extremism Incidents, 2022 – 2023

    This new annual report from ADL & GLAAD documents extremist and non-extremist incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ hate in the United States.

    Year in Review: Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate & Extremism Incidents, 2022 – 2023

    Sobering reading from GLAAD & ADL.

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    time.com Beekeepers Working Harder Than Ever As Nearly Half of U.S. Honeybee Colonies Died Last Year

    2022 saw the second highest honeybee death rate on record—but with a lot of hard work, beekeepers kept populations "relatively stable."

    Beekeepers Working Harder Than Ever As Nearly Half of U.S. Honeybee Colonies Died Last Year

    Well at least:

    “The situation is not really getting worse, but it’s also not really getting better,” Steinhauer said. “It is not a bee apocalypse.”

    [Image description: honeybee on honeycomb in a hive]

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    Local bunny

    Because we can all use a bunny today.

    [Image description: Small brown bunny hiding in some bush maple foliage]

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    ffmike ffmike @beehaw.org

    These days, just a retired guy who likes to hike.

    Posts 34
    Comments 152