We do what we must,
Because we can
For the good of all of us
For the people who are
Still alive
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One of the stranger things about training brand new nurses is explaining how to min max small talk. It feels very weird to coach people on how to chat.
if I make and post an insanely detailed powerpoint on the twenty different equations I run mentally during casual conversation to make it flow better, everyone has to say that it's sexy and cool and not weird at all
remember, everyone promised to be cool! also disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer assume I said all the things you'd say to be like "i know human interaction is complicated, i know some of what i listed here would be very annoying to some people," and all that
Botanic Gardens Have Little Room To Grow
https://ift.tt/Po10xFO
Botanic gardens may seem like nice places for picnics, but they have a function as vital repositories of living plant species. Thirty per cent of living land plant species can be found in a botanic garden somewhere and these collections help support education, scientific research, and conservation. But even under ideal conditions plants grow, reproduce and die, so collections need constant maintenance. When plants are grown outside their natural habitat they can be extremely resource intensive. With a lot of the planet’s plant life yet to be discovered, and with a lot of it endangered, how much more capacity do botanic gardens have? Brockington and colleagues analysed a century of data from botanical gardens worldwide. They have found that they may well be working at capacity.
Cambridge University Botanic Garden curator Prof Sam Brockington, told the Guardian: “Botanic gardens are full. We’re running out of space and resources. The rate at which plants are being listed as threatened is increasing much more rapidly than the rate at which we’re managing to respond. The risk of extinction is accelerating and our response is too slow.”
Scientists from across the globe analysed data from 50 botanical gardens across 19 countries and 5 continents. They found collections expanded rapidly between 1975-1992, reaching a peak in 2008 and have been declining since 2015. Surprisingly, their plant diversity plateaued in 1990, well before total plant numbers reached their maximum. The limited lifespan of plants in these collections – typically just 15 years – creates an ongoing challenge for maintaining this diversity over time.
One obstacle to conservation is, ironically, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). “Immediately following CBD coming into force we see a marked decrease in wild collections, culminating in a 44% reduction in the acquisition of wild-origin specimens.” Brockington and colleagues say in their report.
Brockington, said in a press release: “The impact of the Convention on Biological Diversity is a remarkable demonstration of the power and value of international agreements. But it seems to be preventing individual botanic gardens from working with many globally threatened plant species that we could help save from extinction.”
The findings imply that tackling the loss of biodiversity has not been prioritised across the world’s botanic gardens as a collective – a fact the researchers say must be urgently addressed.
Brockington concluded: “A concerted, collaborative effort across the world’s botanic gardens is now needed to conserve a genetically diverse range of plants, and to make them available for research and future reintroduction into the wild.”
Brockington, S.F., Cano, Á., Powell, J. et al. 2024. Insights from a century of data reveal global trends in ex situ living plant collections. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02633-z
Cross-posted to Bluesky & Mastodon.
Cover image: Canva.
The post Botanic Gardens Have Little Room To Grow appeared first on Botany One.
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January 29, 2025 at 09:00AM
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Americans "will pay an awful price” now that the White House is pausing federal grants and loans.
This is a huge fucking problem.
These grants account for more than 10% of the GDP. 3 trillion – wiped out.
From the article:
The funding freeze by the Republican administration could affect trillions of dollars and cause widespread disruption in health care research, education programs and other initiatives. Even grants that have been awarded but not spent are supposed to be halted.
“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” said a memo from Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.
(Use of that language, that entire segment, "Marxist equity ... policies" is disgusting. If you think you're wary of propaganda and you do not see the enormous red flags in that statement, I do not know how to help you. If you're not beyond it, maybe pick up a history book — the 1930s are particularly pertinent.)
The average person may not understand just how far-reaching this is, how many programs and services are covered by grants, that regular people rely on all across the US and globally.
Not to mention how many people just had their livelihood demolished.
Researchers, for example, spend months and years writing grant proposals, their work and income relies on these cycles. So even if this is "temporary", a lot of people are going to struggle.
This is not just a few people in lab coats somewhere, working on something you don't care about. Government-funded research is released to the public, since we paid for it, and is very typically about things the public will want to know:
Is this product safe or deadly?
Is this medication actually a "wonder drug" or does it harm you in the long term?
Is this pollution going to affect us long-term?
Etc.
Seriously, if you wanted any of those things to get better — you wanted lower rates of cancer and other deadly and disabling disease? You worry about trusting public health guidelines because you're concerned about bias and vested interests in research? You want "small government" that doesn't interfere with people's bodies based on a small group's religious dogma, with zero basis in factual, verifiable reality?
Then you should have voted to keep this administration out of government.
Because their idea — which is outlined in Project 2025, and they are following it closely — is that research will be required to rely 50% on private funding.
Guess what private funding introduces a ton more of: private interests, private bias. The interests of stakeholders who do not give a shit if you are being killed by their product, as long as line goes up in the short run.
But even beyond scientific researchers — and those who rely on that work, e.g. journalists, science communicators, public health advocates, scientific artists —
grants fund others like: teachers, police, farmers, women's and homeless shelters, native orgs, medical workers, and on the list goes.
All pending "review" by a thoroughly unqualified gang of convicted criminals and cronies.
OP-ED: Diversity expert Amira Barger explains how the country can still create a future where everyone thrives, regardless of who is in power.
... neighbors, colleagues, classmates, friends — even family — chose a monster. They did so knowingly. They did so on purpose. They did so, AGAIN.
...
No candidate is perfect, and grievances like gas and grocery prices are real. Yet, focusing solely on individual issues, on personal gains, numbs us to the larger picture, leading many to vote against their own interests. These choices are often not about policy but about a desire for perceived security, social standing, or influence — aligning with power structures that ultimately harm them and those they claim to love.
...
Solidarity is not rejecting harm because you don’t want it to happen to you someday; solidarity is rejecting harm because you believe it shouldn’t happen to any of us, ever. Embracing this ethos is a radical commitment to empathy, interdependence, and hope for all.
...
“People who voted for Trump did so primarily for reasons they felt were beneficial to themselves, while those who voted for Harris did so for reasons that may never impact them personally but would benefit those around them.”
Our disagreement is not merely political, but a fundamental divide on what it means to live in a society.
By Kayla Chadwick, Contributor, Jun 26, 2017
I can’t debate someone into caring about what happens to their fellow human beings. The fact that such detached cruelty is so normalized in a certain party’s political discourse is at once infuriating and terrifying.
The “I’ve got mine, so screw you,” attitude has been oozing from the American right wing for decades, but this gleeful exuberance in pushing legislation that will immediately hurt the most vulnerable among us is chilling.
"Down there - he said - are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any inequity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathsomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don't say no."
We’ve all heard family members mutter the way too common phrase, “let’s keep politics out of it,” despite the non-negotiable fact that life is political. Politics influence every aspect of living a safe and healthy life. From affordable housing to healthcare and food sovereignty, the folks we elect to power make decisions that affect our futures and the futures of the children in our lives.
This quote from writer Robert Jones, Jr. speaks to the importance of thinking about collective well-being when we turn in our ballots, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
We can support the children in our lives as they make sense of what it means to function as a democracy, and how we, as individual members of a community, can use our voices and votes to amplify what’s true and equitable for all people.
Talking with Young Kids About Elections, Democracy and Justice for All | Early Childhood | PBS SoCal
"...recently measured how often virus is exhaled by people with the flu. He found that about 80% exhaled some influenza, the virus that causes flu. Most of the virus was found in the tiny airborne aerosols. People didn’t have to cough or sneeze to expel these viruses into the air. The flu virus was detectable in the air after normal breathing and talking."
Do N95 masks protect against viruses smaller than 300 nm (.3 microns)?
Also yes, because masks do NOT work like a sieve:
N95s employ electrostatic filtering to keep viruses stuck to the mask rather than passing through.
Brownian motion (particles moving through fluids / air randomly) also helps them get stuck to the surface.
And this is why you don't want to be touching the front of your mask, nor storing it improperly. For example, if you take it off and put it in your pocket, and then your hand later goes in that same pocket, then wipes your nose...
See also:
For the time being it should be relatively easy to avoid other modes of transmission since we have protective measures for public health — like pasteurization. But certain individuals who entertain "alternative facts" directly state that they want to dismantle such protections in favor of Appeal to Nature fallacy (e.g. "raw milk is best"), and they are currently being picked to lead government agencies.
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