Latest Posts by mothymyths - Page 2
A Texas judge last month ordered Dr. Margaret Carpenter, who practices north of New York City, to pay the penalty for allegedly breaking that state’s law by prescribing abortion medication via telemedicine. The Texas attorney general’s office followed up last week by asking a New York court to enforce the default civil judgment, which is $113,000 with attorney and filing fees. The acting Ulster County clerk refused. “In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office. Since this decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation,” Acting Clerk Taylor Bruck said in a prepared statement.
This is what we're talking about. This is the resistance someone can do in their everyday job. Judgement gets passed down and you're just supposed to dot the i's and cross the t's? Don't. Just refuse.
Now, I know an acting county clerk isn't just anyone - this man had a very unique opportunity to do some very serious blockading in his everyday job - but that's kind of the point! Nobody's just anyone. You never know when you'll have an opportunity.
From the article:
Above the whirring of 300,000 cars each day on Los Angeles’s 101 freeway, an ambitious project is taking shape. The Wallis Annenberg wildlife crossing is the largest wildlife bridge in the world at 210ft long and 174ft wide, and this week it’s had help taking shape: soil. “This is the soul of the project,” says Beth Pratt, the regional executive director, California, at the National Wildlife Federation, who has worked on making the crossing become a reality over the last 13 years. She says she’s seen many milestones, like the 26m pounds of concrete poured to create the structure, but this one is special. “To be able to put my hand in that soil and toss it on and know that we’ll be putting milkweed plants that will flourish for monarch butterflies, or picturing the first mountain lion paw print on that soil,” she says, fills her with hope. “It is wonderful to watch this habitat take shape.” The plot is a native wildlife habitat that connects two parts of the Santa Monica mountain range, with the hopes of saving creatures – from the famous local mountain lions, down to frogs and insects – from being crushed by cars on one of the nation’s busiest roadways. With nearly an acre of local plants on either side and thick vegetated sound walls 12ft high to dampen light and noise for nocturnal animals as they slip across, it’s an unprecedented feat of engineering. Imagination, too. The project began in 2022 through a public-private partnership that brought together many organizations to cover the $92m in costs, according to Caltrans, the state transportation department. Research shows that wildlife crossings save money because it limits animal interactions with vehicles.
Whenever Trump tries to send a citizen to El Salvador, it will probably start with someone people on the retributive justice mindset will not want to be seen defending in any way. It will be a serial rapist, a child molester, a violent murderer, or something like that. At the very least it will be someone accused of something bad.
Regardless of who it is, it will make people uncomfortable to defend what is ultimately their own rights as well, in much the same way people don't like to publicly defend sufficiently outrageous criminals from things like the death penalty, prison rape, or vigilantism.
Since I’ve seen a lot of discussion about vandalizing Cybertrucks and Tesla plants to highlight Elon’s horrible everything including his increasing white supremacism, I cannot tell my fellow Gentiles enough to hold off on the swastikas. Yes I know that when you spray paint that on a Cybertruck what you’re saying is “your car is a Nazi car! You bought that from a Nazi!” but here’s the problem: you know who else likes to spray paint swastikas on stuff? Actual Nazis. And a random Jewish person won’t necessarily know the difference. So since there are infinite other ways to communicate that someone is a Nazi, you don’t need to include a swastika in there. If you’re legitimately anti-Nazi you care enough about Jews not to risk that.
Oh, and by the way, that Supreme Court ruling is where that Harry Potter money goes.
Maybe it's just me as a Filipino who has lived through a murderous dictatorship and oligarchies in a queerphobic country controlled by the rich who brutalize grassroots pro worker movements all under the military abuse of US imperialism but...
You just gotta keep showing up. Support each other. Don't just fight for yourself. The work is hard, but you just gotta keep doing it. You'll always see results, even if they're not always the ones you want, or as big as you want them to be.
All your work always matters. Even if it doesn't feel like it at first. It always matters.
"Researchers at the National Cancer Research Centre in Spain (CNIO) have discovered a mechanism that is triggered just minutes after acute liver damage occurs—and it could lead to treatments for those with severe liver problems.
The avenues for future treatments of liver damage include a diet enriched with the amino acid glutamate.
“Glutamate supplementation can promote liver regeneration and benefit patients in recovery following hepatectomy or awaiting a transplant,” wrote the authors in a paper published in ‘Nature’.
The liver is a vital organ, crucial to digestion, metabolism, and the elimination of toxins. It has a unique ability to regenerate, which allows it to replace liver cells damaged by the very toxins that these cells eliminate.
However, the liver stops regenerating in cases of diseases that involve chronic liver damage–such as cirrhosis—and such diseases are becoming increasingly prevalent, associated with poor dietary habits or alcohol consumption. So activating liver regeneration is key to treating the disease.
Learning to activate liver regeneration is therefore a priority today, to benefit patients with liver damage and also those who’ve had part of their liver cut out to remove a tumor.
The research has discovered in animal models this previously unknown mechanism of liver regeneration. It is a process that is triggered very quickly, just a few minutes after acute liver damage occurs, with the amino acid glutamate playing a key role.
“Our results describe a fundamental and universal mechanism that allows the liver to regenerate after acute damage,” explained Nabil Djouder, head of the CNIO Growth Factors, Nutrients and Cancer Group and senior author of the study.
A “complex and ingenious” perspective on liver regeneration
Liver regeneration was known to occur through the proliferation of liver cells, known as hepatocytes. However, the molecular mechanisms involved were not fully understood. This current discovery is very novel, as it describes communication between two different organs, the liver and bone marrow, involving the immune system, according to a CINO news release.
The results show that liver and bone marrow are interconnected by glutamate. After acute liver damage, liver cells, called hepatocytes, produce glutamate and send it into the bloodstream; through the blood, glutamate reaches the bone marrow, inside the bones, where it activates monocytes, a type of immune system cell. Monocytes then travel to the liver and along the way become macrophages – also immune cells. The presence of glutamate reprograms the metabolism of macrophages, and these consequently begin to secrete a growth factor that leads to an increase in hepatocyte production.
In other words, a rapid chain of events allows glutamate to trigger liver regeneration in just minutes, through changes in the macrophage metabolism. It is, says Djouder, “a new, complex and ingenious perspective on how the liver stimulates its own regeneration.”
The research also clarifies a previously unanswered question: how the various areas of the liver are coordinated during regeneration. In the liver, there are different types of hepatocytes, organized in different areas; the hepatocytes in each area perform specific metabolic functions. The study reveals that hepatocytes producing a protein known as glutamine synthetase, which regulates glutamate levels, play a key role in regeneration.
According to the CNIO group, when glutamine synthetase is inhibited, there is more glutamate in circulation, which accelerates liver regeneration. This is what happens when the liver suffers acute damage: glutamine synthase activity decreases, blood glutamate increases, and from there, the connection with the bone marrow is established, reprogramming macrophages and stimulating hepatocyte proliferation.
Possible therapeutic applications
The experiments have been carried out in mice, but the results have been tested with bioinformatics tools, using databases of mouse and human hepatocytes.
According to Djouder, “dietary glutamate supplementation may simply be recommended in the future after liver extirpation, and also to reduce liver damage caused by cirrhosis.”
The first author of the paper, CNIO researcher María del Mar Rigual also wants future research to explore using glutamate supplements in humans who have undergone liver resection for tumor removal."
-via Good News Network, March 30, 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/08/clean-energy-powered-40-of-global-electricity-in-2024-report-finds
Class 1 recall on Tostitos. (Class 1 means they can kill you if consumed.)
my last polaroid of 2020
We never really talked about it but The Ugly Ducking that grew up to be a beautiful swan was still probably pretty fugly from a duck’s perspective
it’s so important for your health to regularly interact with people at least a decade older than you who aren’t family, especially as a young person.
When my 45 year old teammate gives me advice on mental health and I know she understands because she’s had a tough adult life.
When my 32 year old friend tells me his life started improving for the first time the year she turned 30.
When the 60 year old man at the soup kitchen gives me permission to grieve by telling me I’m ‘just a baby’ with only gentleness in his voice.
It’s so much easier to abandon and break out from the cultural idealisation of youth when you surround yourself with wonderful people in all stages of their lives.
"At the start of the 21st century, it was predicted that continuing carbon emissions would warm the planet by about 4 degrees C by the year 2100. This would be catastrophic [...], but preventing this future seemed impossible. Almost every human activity produced carbon dioxide, mostly because our energy was overwhelmingly supplied by burning fossil fuels [...] to generate electricity, produce heat, and move ourselves around. But the Earth was we knew it was at stake, so people all around the world got to work. This video is about what they did and what a difference they've made."
This was published in February 2025 and I highly recommend giving it a watch. Just since the start of the century, global climate mobilization has already brought the estimated warming from an 4 degrees C to 2.7 degrees, and if countries stick to their current legally binding pledges and targets that will likely go down to 2.1 degrees. Each tenth of a degree means a significant, tangible increase in the ecosystem health and human well being that humanity will experience in the future.
Yes, we need to continue to do this and more, but that is an insane amount of worldwide progress from something that was considered a fringe, "tree-hugger" issue not all that long ago. The public opinion around climate change and the action that is being taken today would've sounded beyond impossible only a decade or two ago and the momentum behind climate action has and continues to build exponentially.
We are making progress. If anyone tells you "no one cares and we aren't doing anything to stop it" they are either lying or misinformed.
The Secret of NIMH, 1982
this blog hates donald trump
Look how many people hate him. I’m pretty damn happy about that 😁😁😁😁😁😁
Doing my part to promote this masterpiece of looniness!
Go see The Day the Earth Blew Up in theaters if you are able to.
(also pre-order the blu-ray while you're at it)
it'd be really cool if everyone put their money where their mouths are and went and saw the new fully 2d animated looney tunes movie that's in theaters RIGHT NOW instead of continuing to scream about the snow white and lilo and stitch remakes
"In an unprecedented transformation of China’s arid landscapes, large-scale solar installations are turning barren deserts into unexpected havens of biodiversity, according to groundbreaking research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study reveals that solar farms are not only generating clean energy but also catalyzing remarkable ecological restoration in some of the country’s most inhospitable regions.
The research, examining 40 photovoltaic (PV) plants across northern China’s deserts, found that vegetation cover increased by up to 74% in areas with solar installations, even in locations using only natural restoration measures. This unexpected environmental dividend comes as China cements its position as the global leader in solar energy, having added 106 gigawatts of new installations in 2022 alone.
“Artificial ecological measures in the PV plants can reduce environmental damage and promote the condition of fragile desert ecosystems,” says Dr. Benli Liu, lead researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “This yields both ecological and economic benefits.”
The economic implications are substantial. “We’re witnessing a paradigm shift in how we view desert solar installations,” says Professor Zhang Wei, environmental economist at Beijing Normal University. “Our cost-benefit analysis shows that while initial ecological construction costs average $1.5 million per square kilometer, the long-term environmental benefits outweigh these investments by a factor of six within just a decade.” ...
“Soil organic carbon content increased by 37.2% in areas under solar panels, and nitrogen levels rose by 24.8%,” reports Dr. Sarah Chen, soil scientist involved in the project. “These improvements are crucial indicators of ecosystem health and sustainability.”
...Climate data from the study sites reveals significant microclimate modifications:
Average wind speeds reduced by 41.3% under panel arrays
Soil moisture retention increased by 32.7%
Ground surface temperature fluctuations decreased by 85%
Dust storm frequency reduced by 52% in solar farm areas...
The scale of China’s desert solar initiative is staggering. As of 2023, the country has installed over 350 gigawatts of solar capacity, with 30% located in desert regions. These installations cover approximately 6,000 square kilometers of desert terrain, an area larger than Delaware.
“The most surprising finding,” notes Dr. Wang Liu of the Desert Research Institute, “is the exponential increase in insect and bird species. We’ve documented a 312% increase in arthropod diversity and identified 27 new bird species nesting within the solar farms between 2020 and 2023.”
Dr. Yimeng Wang, the study’s lead author, emphasizes the broader implications: “This study provides evidence for evaluating the ecological benefit and planning of large-scale PV farms in deserts.”
The solar installations’ positive impact stems from several factors. The panels act as windbreaks, reducing erosion and creating microhabitats with lower evaporation rates. Perhaps most surprisingly, the routine maintenance of these facilities plays a crucial role in the ecosystem’s revival.
“The periodic cleaning of solar panels, occurring 7-8 times annually, creates consistent water drip lines beneath the panels,” explains Wang. “This inadvertent irrigation system promotes vegetation growth and the development of biological soil crusts, essential for soil stability.” ...
Recent economic analysis reveals broader benefits:
Job creation: 4.7 local jobs per megawatt of installed capacity
Tourism potential: 12 desert solar sites now offer educational tours
Agricultural integration: 23% of sites successfully pilot desert agriculture beneath panels
Carbon reduction: 1.2 million tons CO2 equivalent avoided per gigawatt annually
Dr. Maya Patel, visiting researcher from the International Renewable Energy Agency, emphasizes the global implications: “China’s desert solar model could be replicated in similar environments worldwide. The Sahara alone could theoretically host enough solar capacity to meet global electricity demand four times over while potentially greening up to 20% of the desert.”
The Chinese government has responded by implementing policies promoting “solar energy + sand control” and “solar energy + ecological restoration” initiatives. These efforts have shown promising results, with over 92% of PV plants constructed since 2017 incorporating at least one ecological construction mode.
Studies at facilities like the Qinghai Gonghe Photovoltaic Park demonstrate that areas under solar panels score significantly better in environmental assessments compared to surrounding regions, indicating positive effects on local microclimates.
As the world grapples with dual climate and biodiversity crises, China’s desert solar experiment offers a compelling model for sustainable development. The findings suggest that renewable energy infrastructure, when thoughtfully implemented, can serve as a catalyst for environmental regeneration, potentially transforming the world’s deserts from barren wastelands into productive, life-supporting ecosystems.
“This is no longer just about energy production,” concludes Dr. Liu. “We’re witnessing the birth of a new approach to ecosystem rehabilitation that could transform how we think about desert landscapes globally. The next decade will be crucial as we scale these solutions to meet both our climate and biodiversity goals.”"
-via Green Fingers, January 13, 2025
Appreciation post for all the beginner artists who work hard despite the AI looming over us. You are fabulous. You are precious. Keep up the hard work, you are needed.
my eye is twitching
Write it shitty, write it scared, write it without a clue but don't you be so spineless and have an AI write fanfic for you.