more than 1,000 russians were arrested in protests in 44 cities over the last six hours. some well-known activists were preemptively arrested as they left their house; others were arrested as soon as they unfurled placards. by the looks of it, there were large protests in st. petersburg. over 100 local government officials signed a letter opposing war, and over 170 journalists and intellectual figures signed a similar letter. this is a promising sign, but it’s feeble. as war drags on, protests will grow.
russian civil society is battered and demoralized; its most prominent figures have either been murdered or jailed. i predict that russia will become “totalitarianized” in the coming weeks, with full control over the internet and social media. it isn’t clear how extensive this will be, or how quickly it will happen. already, moscow’s largest theater announced that anyone disrupting the performances to say anything about the war will be arrested for treason. this has severe ramifications for what the postwar occupation of ukraine will look like
1,700 detained in russia, the likely accurate number is north of 2,000. i repeat that what happens in russia domestically is crucial for understanding what will happen next
Bruh it’s not that hard to let go of Harry Potter why does it have such a gorilla grip on some of u people. “It’s a cultural phenomenon” okay? it’ll never be SpongeBob.
Oh god this resonates so much. I don't know how to communicate the emotions I felt being one of like 3 women in a class while all 20-30 guys around me made rape jokes and laughed and told me to lighten up when I complained, or talked about "what type of Asian is your favourite" like we were breeds of dog or cuts of meat, or hear the guy beside me say "who cares?" when the prof announced that the first woman had just won the fields medal, or even just the blatant staring when I walked into class like I was some kind of foreign object.
[ID: A tweet by dyke to watch out for, @dyke3watchout5, which reads: "It's always "how do we get more women into math" and never "how do we get more misogynists out of math". /end ID]
I once spent a summer working on research project in a chemistry lab at Harvard, and you know the biggest thing that stood out to me? The building I was working in had exactly 1/3 as many bathrooms for women as for men. It had clearly been built with no bathrooms for women at all, and had only reluctantly converted some of the men's bathrooms to be for women after the fact. There was a seminar about "advancing women in STEM" on campus basically every week, and I fucking guarantee that not a single one of them did as much to advance women in STEM as my group's PI, who declared about two days into the program that all women in the building should "feel free to use the men's restrooms if they're closer or less occupied, and men who are uncomfortable about that should consider how their female colleagues feel just existing in a building like this one". Women aren't mysterious creatures who need to be lured into the sciences with treats and special programs; they're human beings, and the main things keeping them out of STEM fields are those fields utterly refusing to treat them as such.
One thing I enjoy about tumblr is that every now and then someone will be like "I had a dream where this was the next big meme" and tumblr is just collectively like yeah we can make that happen
I'll let you in on a secret. I have a doctorate in education, but the field’s basically just a 100 years old. We don’t really know what we’re doing. Our scholarly understanding of how learning happens is like astronomy 2000 years ago.
Most classroom practice is astrology.
Before the late 19th century, no human society had ever attempted to formally educate the entire populace. It was either aristocracy, meritocracy, or a blend. And always male.
We’re still smack-dab in the middle of the largest experiment on children ever done.
Most teachers perpetuate the “banking” model (Freire) used on them by their teachers, who likewise inherited it from theirs, etc.
Thus the elite “Lyceum” style of instruction continues even though it’s ineffectual with most kids.
What’s worse, the key strategies we’ve discovered, driven by cognitive science & child psychology, are quite regularly dismissed by pencil-pushing, test-driven administrators. Much like Trump ignores science, the majority of principals & superintendents I’ve known flout research.
Some definitions:
Banking model --> kids are like piggy banks: empty till you fill them with knowledge that you're the expert in.
Lyceum --> originally Aristotle's school, where the sons of land-owning citizens learned through lectures and research.
Things we (scholars) DO know:
-Homework doesn't really help, especially younger kids.
-Students don't learn a thing from testing. Most teachers don't either (it's supposed to help them tweak instruction, but that rarely happens).
-Spending too much time on weak subjects HURTS.
Do you want kids to learn? Here's something we've discovered: kids learn things that matter to them, either because the knowledge and skills are "cool," or because .... they give the kids tools to liberate themselves and their communities.
Maintaining the status quo? Nope.
Kids are acutely aware of injustice and by nature rebellious against the systems of authority that keep autonomy away from them.
If you're perpetuating those systems, teachers, you've already freaking lost.
They won't be learning much from you. Except what not to become. Sure, you can wear them down. That's what happened to most of you, isn't it? You saw the hideous flaw in the world and wanted to heal it. But year after numbing year, they made you learn their dogma by rote.
And now many of you are breaking the souls of children, too.
For what?
It's all smoke and mirrors. All the carefully crafted objectives, units and exams.
WE. DON'T. KNOW. HOW. PEOPLE. LEARN.
We barely understand the physical mechanisms behind MEMORY. But we DO know kids aren't empty piggy banks. They are BRIMMING with thought.
The last and most disgusting reality? The thing I hear in classroom after freaking classroom?
Education is all about capitalism.
"You need to learn these skills to get a good job." To be a good laborer. To help the wealthy generate more wealth, while you get scraps.
THAT is why modern education is a failure.
Its basic premise is monstrous.
"Why should I learn to read, Dr. Bowles?"
Because reading is magical. It makes life worth living. And being able to read, you can decode the strategies of your oppressors & stop them w/ their own words.
So, this hasn't crossed my dash yet. (Not blaming anyone, there is soooo much going on in the world and I'd also missed it in the noise).
There is currently a strike at Frito-Lay. in Topeka. These workers are striking because:
They were being forced to work 84 hour weeks. The company's best offer so far is a 60 hour cap. This is shit we fought for a century ago, people.
Their generous offer also includes a whole 4 percent wage increase...over the next 2 years. I'm not sure what COL is in Topeka, but... Well, it's better than the entire 77 cents they've apparently gotten in the last decade.
There's also a report that a worker literally collapsed and dropped dead on the line and the foreman's response was to make them move the body out of the way and put in a replacement. (However, this is unconfirmed and, of course, the company denies it).
There have been multiple OSHA violations at this plant over the last few years, including a forklift accident that's under investigation.
They've now been striking since July 5 but, of course, it only hit the national media yesterday.
Because Frito-Lay is refusing to budge. They are attempting to make the excuse that union leadership agreed to the 60 hour work week and crappy pay cut...when union leadership only agreed to put it to a vote.
And this means that we need to put the thumbscrews on them. Remember, this is about 19th century style working conditions.
So, I'm calling on my followers to boycott Frito Lay's until the strike is involved.
Frito-Lay owns:
Lay's
Doritos (Sorry. I really am. I KNOW there's no good alternative to Doritos, although Zapp's are good if you can find them).
Fritos
Tostitos
Cheetos
Ruffles
Sun Chips
Baken-ets
Chester's
Cracker Jack
Islen plantain chips
Funyuns
Grandma's (the cookies)
Matador Meat Snacks
Maui style potato chips
Miss Vickie's
Munchies
Munchos
Rolled Gold
Sabritones
Santitas
Simply
Smartfood
Stacys
The Walking Taco
NatuChips
PopCorners (this one wasn't on their website, but was bought by Pepsi's in 2019 with the intent of adding it. So best avoided just in case).
Yes, this really is more than half of the snack aisle. Suggested alternatives:
Kettle Brand Chips
Zapp's (If you can find them. My supermarket had them once and not since, so I'm guessing the culinary cowards in this neighborhood were afraid of "Voodoo" flavored chips).
Pringles
On the Border for salsa.
Wise Cheez Doodles
Bugles
Utz
Store own brand alternatives, if your store has ones that are any good.
Cheez-its
Check before you buy and let's tell these people they don't get to treat workers like that.
So hey FYI there’s a local fundraiser here in Topeka to help striking workerss, if y’all’d like to donate. 785 is a Topeka-area culture/arts/lifestyle magazine and they’re working with the local union president to distribute the funds. They met their original goal already, to have enough to cover utility bills for the month, but any extra is still getting distributed as strike relief so please consider donating if you can <3
i always thought of a king sized bed as being a bit bigger than a queen, but now that i have one, i can tell you that a king sized bed is an absurdity. i can sprawl out, and my husband can sprawl out, and the cat can sprawl out, and none of us are touching. i reach out in the night, and find only pillows and plush walruses. i reach further and eventually find his elbow. he rolls over the comforters to try and find me. “i have crossed oceans of bed to be with you,” he says. there is a vast expanse of bed untouched, unmapped, unexplored. the cat is still trying to sleep on my face.
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