https://www.nature.com/articles/478029a

Interesting article on phosphorus, while everybody’s worried about oil, carbon, and all the technology-critical elements used to make smartphones.

«To meet our demands for energy, humankind has moved masses of carbon from deep underground into the atmosphere, wreaking havoc with the climate. To meet our demand for food, we have moved large amounts of nitrogen from the atmosphere to fields, rivers and forests, devastating ecosystems. To grow our crops we have interfered with Earth’s reserves of a third element — phosphorus — which receives much less press and for which we face the unique problem of having both too much and too little.»

So, normally, I think we have the finest military in the world, but, um…. https://twitter.com/daniellamyoung/status/1362766603629318148?s=20

https://twitter.com/19thnews/status/1362530188697853954?s=20

Aaand we’re off.

19thnews (@19thnews) Tweeted: 🧵 South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Thursday signed a bill into law that would ban nearly all abortions in the state. Abortion-rights advocates say the legislation is the first major abortion restriction passed out of a statehouse in 2021. https://t.co/iybOCSxDcw

https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/1362601965788749825?s=20

Thinking right/left fundraising competitions for crises like this would be neat, but the right would always lose because of clowns like the former mayor of Colorado City, TX.

Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) Tweeted: A little embarrassing for the Texas GOP that @AOC did more for hurting Texans in this crisis than Senator Cruz did.

Btw, there are a zillion ways to give. UMCOR is rock solid, and if you want to be nationalistic… https://advance.umcor.org/p-620-umcor-us-disaster-response-and-recovery.aspx. (They’ve probably got funds now that are already flowing, but they’ll need replenishing.) There are also probably Texas conferences of the UMC, and the Episcopalians are doing something, too. As are, probably, the Presbyterians, and, ya know… everybody else.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/us/politics/ted-cruz-storm-cancun.html

I like the “two parents” part.

«In his statements, Mr. Cruz noted that the private school his daughters attend in Houston was closed this week. But some other parents at the school were incensed when they heard about his international trip because of the pandemic and school policies that have discouraged such travel abroad.

Two parents provided a copy of the written school policy for students not to return to classrooms for seven days after international travel, or to take a coronavirus test three to five days after returning, which would keep the Cruz children out of school for the following week.»

Welp….

https://twitter.com/torriangray/status/1361782254565879810?s=20

“avoid fema and child support bailiffs” 😀

Jean-Michel Connard (@torriangray) Tweeted: he’s tried contacting his best friend in his little larping group, but he’s gone to ground. i sincerely hope that means he thinks this is the start of the great purge or whatever and he’s disappeared to the mountains to evade fema and child support bailiffs

https://heated.world/p/the-climate-is-drunk-again

«They merely represent the most obnoxious and obvious spokespeople for the Republican Party’s favorite big lie. It’s a lie that both citizens and journalists would do well to remember as members of the GOP express condolences for those affected by this week’s winter. The jet stream is drunk because they bought the booze.»

https://theappeal.org/politicalreport/george-gascon-leaves-californias-district-attorney-association/

Interesting. I didn’t realize state associations of prosecutors had such power.