The Supreme Court will hear a case with a lot of 'buts' & 'ifs' over the meaning of 'and' (apnews.com)
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s hard to imagine a less contentious or more innocent word than “and.”...
Arriving Now: Fast Passenger Trains From Miami to Orlando (www.nytimes.com)
Brightline will make the trip in three and a half hours, with round-trip tickets starting at $158.
China’s quest for human genetic data spurs fears of a DNA arms race (www.adn.com)
China offered multiple countries help with COVID-19 testing during the pandemic. The payoff for Beijing included access to the DNA of millions of people.
6x Tougher Than Kevlar: Spider Silk Is Spun by Genetically Modified Silkworms for the First Time (scitechdaily.com)
Scientists in China have developed a method to produce spider silk from genetically modified silkworms, offering a strong, sustainable alternative to synthetic fibers with applications in various industries. Researchers have synthesized spider silk from genetically modified silkworms, producing f
Open letter asking to reinstate a censored book chapter and problematizing the fact that commercial publishers are in a position to directly censor academic publications (www.buala.org)
To whom it may concern.
Kbin not saving the account, asks me to relog in after little time (kbin.social)
Hi, I've kind of stopped using kbin, the reason being that every time I go on this website, it asks me to relog in, even though I've selected remember me last time that I did log in....
WGA and Studio CEOs Near Deal Finish Line, Working On Fine Print (deadline.com)
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Is About to Bring Asteroid Pieces Back to Earth (www.wired.com)
The OSIRIS-REx probe is carrying rock samples from the asteroid Bennu, millions of miles away. If it works, it will be only the third such retrieval in history.
9/11 defendant ruled unfit for trial after CIA abuse left him psychotic, panel finds (globalnews.ca)
Ramzi bin al-Shibh is accused of organizing one cell of the hijackers who commandeered 4 commercial airplanes to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
The U.S. federal government is headed into a shutdown. What does it mean, who’s hit and what’s next? (www.cnbc.com)
A shutdown happens when the U.S. Congress fails to pass some type of funding legislation that is signed into law by the president.
Medical ethics organization lodges complaint over monkey deaths in Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip trials as company is looking for human volunteers to test its implants (english.elpais.com)
Neuralink was founded in 2017 and began animal experiments 12 months later. Last year, a Reuters investigation indicated that the company had slaughtered around 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs, and monkeys, which suffered from serious disorders before dying. But it wasn’t until September 10 that Musk...
Ancient Humans Created Super-Fertile “Dark Earth” (www.popularmechanics.com)
Researchers now hope to use the environmental engineering success to combat climate change.
How anti-abortion laws shape trans healthcare bans in the U.S. [Opinion] (www.opendemocracy.net)
The right paved the way for once-unthinkable bans by first pursuing goals that were more palatable to the public, using bathroom bills and school sports bans to normalise hateful anti-trans rhetoric in the American public sphere. This tactic has been effective....
‘A hidden universe of suffering’: the Palestinian children sent to jail [Long read] (www.theguardian.com)
A UN report found that 700,000 Palestinians had been arrested since the occupation began, equal to roughly 40% of all the men and boys in the territories. The damage wasn’t only to the affected families, each of them grieving lost years and lost childhoods. It was to the entire society, to every mother, father and grandparent,...
UAE oil company executives working with Cop28 team, leak reveals (www.theguardian.com)
Two PR professionals from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) are identified as providing “additional support” to the team running the summit, according to a Cop28 communications strategy document obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and the Guardian. The two Adnoc communications executives - Philip...
Where do you fall politically?
I’m hoping this doesn’t start a fight, I’m just curious what the political orientation is of this community. I grew up in a liberal (in the American sense) family, and I identify now as a socialist, though a lot of the liberalism I grew up in has stuck with me, like interest in LGBTQ and women’s rights, environmentalism,...
Alabama seeks to execute prisoner using nitrogen gas asphyxiation (www.reuters.com)
Sept 22 (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Alabama is weighing whether to allow the state to become the first to execute a prisoner with a novel method: asphyxiation using nitrogen gas....
US Senator Menendez charged with bribery, steps down from Senate committee role (www.reuters.com)
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged powerful Senator Bob Menendez and his wife with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, which could complicate Democrats' efforts to keep their slim majority in the U.S. Senate in next year's elections....
Some providers are dropping gender-affirming care for kids even in cases where it's legal (apnews.com)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — As Republican-led states have rushed to ban gender-affirming for minors, some families with transgender children found a bit of solace: At least they lived in states that would allow those already receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapy to continue.
Latest WGA-AMTPT negotiations report from Variety (variety.com)
Many WGA veterans urged caution at getting hopes too high for what may come out of the AMPTP negotiating room later today, after a third day of talks between labor and management that involved four CEOs....
Mastodon makes a major move amid Musk’s multiple messes (www.theregister.com)
Federated social network adds n00b-friendly features to the 'Fediverse'
Large fossil spider found in Australia (phys.org)
Nested comments all showing on one single nested level below each top-level comment (kbin.social)
These past couple of days comments on kbin.social have only had a single level of nesting, making it really had to follow the flow of comments and replies. This happens consistently and universally.
US mother sentenced to two years in prison for giving daughter abortion pills (www.theguardian.com)
Court documents in the case revealed that Facebook’s parent company Meta supplied police with the private Facebook messages that Celeste and Jessica Burgess had sent one another.