Trans Rights Are Not a "Distraction"

Trans women and men have been using restrooms at the U.S. Capitol without notice for some unknown amount of time, but because the first trans representative has been elected to the House (and she's a Democrat, let's not forget), Republicans like Nancy Mace are making it an issue.

Today is Trans Day of Remembrance, which makes the introduction of this hateful bill all the worse. Mace's bathroom bill is not a marginal issue. As Ashley Cooper said on BlueSky today,

This Trans Day of Remembrance, the only message I have is: It's not enough to remember us, you need to support us while we're still here.

Abolitionist Mariame Kaba, who goes by the name Prisonculture on BlueSky, made the connection across past examples of discrimination:

I don't think the bathroom bans are "distractions." Sorry I really disagree with that framing. They are EXCLUSIONARY and INTENDED TO OPPRESS. Not distractions at all.

Were whites-only fountains "distractions?" Or were they explicitly a way to say that Black people had no right to free movement and were inherently second class? Come on. If some Black people said it was a distraction, that's an opinion. But STRUCTURALLY it was NOT a distraction.

Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social made a different parallel connection:

I am old enough to remember that when I was a kid/teen the moral panic was over *lesbians in the locker room* and it’s all the exact same fucking playbook

Other writers pointed out the obvious hypocrisy (not that such ever matters to Republicans) of saying you care about the "safety of women" while nominating people like Matt Gaetz to the cabinet (and others Trump has put forward):

Love to ban trans women from capitol restrooms in order to “protect women and girls” while suppressing a report about the incoming attorney general paying for the statutory rape of a minor while in congress and showing women’s nudes on the House floor
Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social

that the house GOP is covering up evidence of sexual predation by a former member and nominee to higher office while simultaneously smearing a trans woman as a potential predator without any evidence beyond base bigotry are two sides of the same coin
Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social

Shout out to folks who identify as Christians who are more enraged about which bathroom stall a member of Congress uses than the presence of adjudicated sexual predators in the highest reaches of our government. You definitely haven't lost the thread of Jesus' teachings.
Peter Flax @pflax1.bsky.social

They should take a straw poll of women working in the Capitol and ask if they feel safer around Sarah McBride or Matt Gaetz.
Molly Knight

Radley Balko took a more sarcastic tack on the topic:

BREAKING: House Speaker Mike Johnson announces that male Republicans neutered by Donald Trump may continue to use the men's bathrooms.

David Kaib offered this guiding principle:

Power comes from knitting together our different struggles. There is no power in ‘what polls best.’

 

Little Buddy

A week or so ago, I decided to get one of those electronic forehead-swipe thermometers. This morning, I noticed that when it's lying horizontal on a surface, it looks like a tightly wrapped mummy wearing a hat:

In case a face is helpful to get the idea across, here it is, modified:

Aw, little buddy. You look so snug.

Hats to Cheer You Up

While at the co-op today, I saw these hats on display. They made me smile:

 I especially like the purple grimace face and the red panda, though I didn't look through the ones that are hidden... so who knows what could be hidden underneath!

They're from Andes Gifts, fair trade and hand-made in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia. The company is a member of the Fair Trade Federation.

Advice from Bernice King

I've been avoiding Twitter almost completely for the past several days as BlueSky's number of users has been going up precipitously, and my feed gets longer and fuller.

I just checked back on Twitter and saw one thing I thought was worth sharing. It was second hand, a screen snapshot ascribed to one of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King's daughters, Dr. Bernice King (still there as Be A King on Twitter).

I've retyped it:

Never say his name

1. Don't use his name EVER (45 will do).
2. Remember this is a regime and he's not acting alone.
3. Do not argue with those who support him – it doesn't work.
4. Focus on his POLICIES, not his orangeness and his mental state.
5. Keep your messages positive; they want the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow.
6. No more hopeless/helpless talk.
7. Support artists and the arts.
8. Be careful not to spread fake news. Check it.
9. Take care of yourselves... and
10. Resist

When you post or talk about him, don't assign his actions to him, assign them to "The Republican Administration" or "The Republicans." This will have several effects: the Republican legislators will either have to take responsibility for their association with him or stand up for what some of them don't like. He will not get the focus of attention he craves.

The advice, it turns out, is from after Trump's 2016 election, and was published in Ebony. It's notable that I assumed it was current.

I think it still stands up. There's not enough awareness that the problem is not just one guy.

Helen Scales and the Wild Seas

Yesterday I caught part of an MPR conversation with Helen Scales, author of the book, What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World's Ocean. Scales is a marine biologist, a writer and a storytelling ambassador for the Save Our Seas Foundation.

The blurb for the show says,

When faced with the realities of climate change, marine biologists must hold two competing thoughts simultaneously: The seas are warming, the fish are waning, the corals are bleaching. But that doesn’t mean the global ocean is doomed. After all, this is the planet’s largest ecosystem. It knows how to adapt.

The question is really: Will we enable it or hinder it?

The part of the discussion I heard first (around 15–20 minutes) focused on the part of the ocean called the mesophotic or middle light realm, which lies between 30/40 meters deep and 150 meters deep. Scales explained that because it's too deep for people using traditional scuba gear, but not so deep that it's interesting to the explorers with very expensive equipment for super-deep levels, it has been mostly overlooked. In some areas, it's less fished than the shallower areas, so exploration in recent years is finding that coral reefs at these depths are much healthier than the ones we all hear about.

Some species from the surface live there, but others only live in the mesophotic. So divers have been discovering coral reefs in much better condition than the ones near the surface, and many unknown species of fish and other life. At the Great Barrier Reef, for instance, twice as much reef has been found as was previously known. "Knock your fins off."

After that, around the 21:30 minute mark, they turned to talking about the terrible effect of long-line ocean fishing, and its effect particularly on shark species, which are one of Scales's specialties. I learned that these large industrial fishing vessels send out lines that average 28 miles, and then there are baited side lines off the main line. (Some lines are twice as long!) The intended catch is tuna and swordfish, but sharks are taken as well, and even if they are returned to the water, they are injured in the process. They need to be swimming to breathe, so while caught and up on deck they decline precipitously.

One observer on an Atlantic long-line ship saw that up to 54 white-tipped sharks were pulled in on each line — essentially each day. There are thousands of ships working at a time.

Multiple species of shark are now endangered. This is the part of the ocean where humans are generally not nearby: it's their part of the world, not ours. "Humans are putting themselves into the world of the sharks," she says. A third of these species of sharks and one of their close cousin genera are threatened with extinction now, and it's because of fishing: not habitat loss or plastics or something else.

A zero-quota on Atlantic white-tipped sharks has been imposed, so they cannot be legally fished, but the damage from catching and returning still exists from the way long-line fishing is done. Efficiency and lowest cost have trumped everything else. We wouldn't do this on land today, she says. (It's like the buffalo killing of the 19th century, I think to myself.)

The interviewer then says, it's all about entitlement. Scales agrees, but also says that we know how to get food sustainably — it's just not what we're doing now.

A recommended hour of radio.

Vaccines: A Fight We Shouldn't Have to Fight

I've been reflecting on vaccines a lot lately. 

At first, I was thinking I grew up in a golden age of public health, and in a relative sense, I did — mostly after the polio vaccine (kindergarten sugar cubes...I think, then later, that scarring shot in the arm). Rubella shots. Later for tetanus.

But I did have the measles before all that, and I think that was after the vaccine was available in my state. My mother was afraid my little sister, about 2, was going to die. At least one of my older sisters also had mumps, though I think we youngers avoided catching it. And of course, all of us had chicken pox. 

One of my grad school friends, and her younger sister, were hospitalized and nearly died at early school-age from post-chicken-pox complications.

I had HPV for decades. It complicated my health care for a long time and officially cleared up on its own only five or 10 years ago. Until 2009, I did not get flu shots (and I never had the flu... self-reinforcing). H1N1 that year pushed me toward action. And then there has been our series of covid vaccines. And the shingles vaccine — I'm grateful for that, even though the second shot reaction was not fun for a day and a half or so. Better than having shingles by far!

Daughter Number Three-Point-One is just old enough to have caught chicken pox before the vaccine was released, but she has been able to benefit from every other vaccine that came out before and after that point. I made sure she had every HPV vaccine shot in the regimen also, and I'm now extra happy she did. 

A post of mine from 2009 has some still-good information on vaccine risks (which are infinitesimal) vs. the odds of dying of the targeted disease or other causes of death in young people. 

This image from Edward Tufte, the OG of information graphics, has been making the rounds at BlueSky:

(Click to enlarge for readability.)

As has this image for some reason:

I saw it from George Takei, who said, "Who made this? Ahahaha."

Thoughts on Trucks

If you wanted a small pickup truck 20 or 25 years ago, you had several choices: the Ford Ranger, the Chevy S10, and several from Japanese car companies whose particular models I don't remember. There may have been others. 

Now there are none in the U.S. There are humongous trucks, gigantic trucks, and "small" trucks that are the size of the large trucks of 25 years ago. A few of those are EVs... score!

My favorite example of this the recent models of the Ford Ranger, compared to the compact Ford Rangers that were made here in Saint Paul, or even the somewhat compact Ford Mavericks (which are available as EVs). I've been watching for a chance to get a photo of a Maverick next to an old-model Ranger, but have not had that opportunity. 

Today while stopped at a red light in my car I was following a Maverick and realized the top of its back bed was taller than the top of my car.

So I thought it was time to write about this, despite not having a side-by-side photo from the street.

Here's a photo of the 2024 Maverick (left) and Ranger (right):

Here's a 2000 Ranger, found from a used car site:

It's hard to get a sense of how that white, 2000 truck compares to the size of those two 2024 trucks, though. So here are some of the relevant specs:

2024 models
Only available as Supercrew (four seats, with a shorter bed)

Maverick
69" high (roof)
Front end is higher than the 2000 Ranger (that dimension is not listed in the past or present)
Base weight 3,600 pounds (this is the internal combustion model)

Ranger
74" (roof)
Front end is even higher than Maverick or the 2000 Ranger (that dimension is not listed in the past or present)
Base weight 4,200 pounds

2000 Ranger - standard cab (front seat only)
65" high (roof)
Front end is lowest (that dimension is not listed in the past or present)
Base weight 3,100 pounds

Heavier vehicles are more dangerous to everyone outside the vehicle, and the increase in danger is not an arithmetic progression. Taller vehicles, especially in the front end (which is also designed as a blunt object in new trucks), are more dangerous to everyone outside the vehicle. 

The car industry says larger trucks are what people want, and I'm sure that's true for some people, but a range of options seems like a fair ask, and it used to exist across the industry. The higher profit margin on larger trucks has accompanied the creeping corporate greed of recent decades.

Personally, if I ever ditch my now-hated EV and get another one*, it will be for a small EV truck. At this moment I like the Telo Mini Truck 1, which is not available in the U.S. at this point, though they have a link for reservations.

It's 66" tall and the driver doesn't have a huge front-end blocking their view. Their general copy says it has "Toyota Tacoma capability, Tesla-like range and efficiency, in the footprint of a MINI Cooper." It's length is less than a Prius.

I couldn't find a base weight for the Telo. It's possible they don't have one yet, since it's not in production. It's likely to be heavier than it looks, and probably heavier than even the larger 2024 Ranger, given that it's battery-powered.

What about that lack of a protruding front-end? Isn't that a safety risk to the Telo's occupants? According to Motortrend, the design has 18" of mechanical crumple zone. Plus lots of collision-preventing sensors. And I would say... maybe if a driver feels a bit more exposed (even if they are just as safe in reality) maybe they will drive a bit more cautiously and be less likely to have a crash.

__

*The other possibilities in that "if" are a choice between not getting rid of the embodied carbon of an existing vehicle (therefore keeping what I have) and getting rid of it without replacing it with a personal EV at all. 

I do long for access to a small pickup truck. But there we have car (and truck) sharing here. We'll see. 

Fungi Photos

I just discovered the BlueSky account of lukelukeluke, who describes his purpose this way:

I’m not here to post my THOUGHTS. I’m not here to share IDEAS. I’m here to post PICTURES OF MUSHROOMS and BE AN IDIOT

Here are a few of their recent mushroom pictures:

Each one has the same accompanying text: "Here are some nice mushrooms."

A Lost Uncle

My mother was born in 1932, and she had twin brothers who were born about two years later. While the youngest boys were still infants, their next-older brother, who was in kindergarten, came home from school with whooping cough (pertussis).

The kindergartner missed half a year of school and had to repeat the grade, but one of the twins died. 

This was right around the time the pertussis vaccine were just starting field trials in Michigan, nowhere near my grandparents' home in upstate New York. According to the linked History channel article, in the early 1930s, "6,000 kids in the United States were dying from whooping cough...each year—more than from diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis or polio."

Whooping cough is no joke, and to this day infants still rely on others to be vaccinated because they can't be fully vaccinated themselves before 12 months.

Private Jets

As billionaires and multi-millionaires become more and more separated from the rest of us, their travel by private jet has increased, along with its carbon footprint. 

A new study (described and linked in this AP article) found that the world's 26,000 jets' emissions increased 46% between 2019 and 2023. 

For perspective, one private jet emits as much carbon in two hours as an average person does in a year. 

Not surprisingly, the U.S. leads in the share of private jets: more than 68%. 

Saint Paul has a small airport just across the Mississippi River from its downtown. Its primary purpose is accommodating private jets. If we were serious about climate change, it would be shut down and used for a future-oriented purpose.

Bernie Cooper

We're one year shy of the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the big iron ore ship that sank in Lake Superior "when the gales of November came early" in 1975. I don't know if people in the rest of the country notice the occasion as much as people here in Minnesota (and probably Wisconsin) do, but once again this year, there were many mentions of it (and the Gordon Lightfoot song about it) today on BlueSky, and in the past, on Twitter.

Original blueprint of Hull No. 301 "Edmund Fitzgerald," Great Lakes Engineering Works, River Rouge, Michigan, May 5 1958. Donated by the US Army Corps of Engineers via University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. Posted to BlueSky by Vince Netz.

Another writer, Dana DeMaster, posted a long thread about an aspect of the story I hadn't heard before. She wrote about Bernie Cooper, captain of the ship Arthur M Anderson, who she called "the hero we need."

The Anderson and Fitzgerald had left two different ports in Minnesota that day, each loaded full with iron ore:

Both captains knew a storm was brewing. Superior is unpredictable at any time so they decided to stick together and hug the northern shore to avoid the worst weather. They remained in contact throughout the night. The next day the Fitz radioed to report they had a bad list, were taking on water, and their radar was out. There were hurricane force winds and 25 foot waves.

The Anderson agreed to be the Fitz's radar. He was their radar for more than 12 hours. This was especially important because they were approaching Caribou Island and its shoals.

At 3:30 pm that afternoon, [the Fitzgerald] radioed Captain Cooper and said: “Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I’m checking down. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish?”

Both boats were headed to the shelter of Whitefish Bay. The last radio contact between the ships was at 7:10 pm. The seas were so high the Anderson was having trouble seeing the Fitz on the radar. Cooper later reported waves of 30-40 feet that were completely going over the Anderson.

The last exchange was “By the way, Fitzgerald, how are you making out with your problems?”“We are holding our own.”

At 7:22 pm the Anderson tried to reach the Fitz and received no response. They started calling the Soo Coast Guard and other ships to see if it was the Anderson's radio that was out, but they were able to communicate with others. The Fitz was no longer on the radar.

Captain Cooper continued to head to Whitefish, arriving about 9 pm, radioing the Coast Guard the entire time. The Coast Guard was understaffed and equipped and was already looking for another boat. Many other boats were sheltering in the bay, including "salties" - ocean-going vessels.

After that, DeMaster includes the transcript of Cooper's radio transmission with the Coast Guard, asking them or the salties to search for the Fitzgerald. Cooper was told, "you’re probably one of the only vessels right now that can get to the scene."

Despite the dire conditions, Cooper replies to the Coast Guard, “I’ll give it a try, but that’s all I can do.”

The Anderson went back and found only debris from the Fitzgerald.

DeMaster ends with this:

Bernie Cooper is the hero we all need! Everyone was doing their best - the salties, the Coast Guard - in terrible conditions. But Cooper was the radar - the stability and constant friend. And then, knowing all is likely lost, knowing the conditions, knowing the danger... Knowing others could do it. Not wanting to do it - he does it.

“I’ll give it a try, but that’s all I can do.”

How amazing. I will try, but that is all I can do. Seriously, his sigh on the recording gives all his feelings. Then he says "turnabout" to his tired crew.

How can we all be a bit more like Captain Bernie Cooper? Just a normal guy who is, against impossible odds, going to try?

Cooper retired in 1993 after 53 years on Superior. He died that same year.

The Arthur M Anderson is still an active ore boat. I saw it last year when I was in Sault Ste Marie.

The Fitzgerald wreck is now a memorial to the 29 crew and can't be disturbed. 

Reading Instead of Writing

I'm still not coping very well, big surprise. To top it off, it's trying to rain and I'm home alone for the weekend. 

All I want to do is read the 800-page escapist novel someone loaned me. The book is winning.

See you tomorrow.