Angela Crow

Neither Netflix nor the Paramount/Trump/Saudi Arabia group should own Warner Bros. Both deals are absurd - terrible for consumers and democracy.

This is a story about corruption - Trump using government power to screw consumers and gain control of the media. A red alert moment.

I’ve cited this in two reports, written in conversation with it and recommend it to you for further reading.

Why should we pay attention to red states?

Everybody in this country just lost access to student loan forgiveness because of the state of Missouri.

You don’t need a coup when you can bribe red state AGs.

This is so brazenly another attempt to force women out of the workforce.

In The category of…knowingly endangering children.

Brand new research shows U.S. health insurance premiums climbed 3x faster than worker earnings since 1999. And premiums are set to jump again in the new year. buff.ly/y4hKrZZ

Join us for our December slow chat! This will be an informal #literacies touchpoint before the start of the holidays. Let's continue the conversation!

Join us this upcoming week for our first mid-month #literacies Slow Chat on Balance, Rest, and Joy.

bsky.app/profile/beeq...

MacKenzie Scott: *donates $50M every 10 hours°

Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir: "I want to see people hang"

CDC advisers vote to overturn decades-long policy on hepatitis B vaccine for infants In a controversial move, the vaccine advisory group reversed a recommendations for universal immunizing of newborns intended to protect them from a virus that attacks the liver.

Eugenicist death merchants. And of course the pro-forced-birth folks aren't saying a peep about these monsters who kill actual children.

Pantone’s 2026 Color of the Year Is ‘Cloud Dancer’

White. Yeah, this tracks.

Pantone’s 2026 Color of the Year Is ‘Cloud Dancer’ www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/s...

They’ve gone from some sort of brown (mocha!!) for last year’s choice to white? really?

FDA claims on COVID-19 vaccine safety are unsupported by reliable data – and could severely hinder vaccine access The agency’s plan to change the well-established process for safety testing vaccines is not realistic.

The FDA moves to overhaul how vaccines are tested, based on unproven claims that COVID shots caused child deaths. A pediatric cardiologist who studies vaccines says there’s no evidence for this, and it could make it harder for people to get safe, reliable vaccines
buff.ly/398oOd5

🩺 #VaccinesWork

Also mark your calendar for the third reading circle as @nobugsnous.bsky.social, @vymanivannan.bsky.social, & Travis Margoni will facilitate a workshop on applying these conversations to the teaching of writing.

Happening on Monday, Jan 12, 4–5 PM ET! my.ncte.org/event-inform...

The next CCCC Reading Circle on Land, Labor, Water & Writing: The Costs of Gen AI in the Writing Classroom is happening in 1 week!

Join @hannahhopkins.bsky.social & @donniejsackey.bsky.social for a discussion of @dustinedwards.bsky.social's Enduring Digital Damage on Wed Dec 10, 4–5 PM ET.

I had to do this yesterday as well. Bizarre energy.

The folks at @defendpublichealth.bsky.social bring you this week’s Whopper of the Week. It’s the 21st century but RFK Jr wants to take us back to the 19th. Yes. Really. Forget Pasteur. Forget Koch. Forget germ theory. We’re back to miasma and terrain theory. The dude is bonkers.

Pete Hegseth needs to resign or be fired. Now. He’s a walking, talking national security embarrassment.

The disastrous and illegal Venezuela strikes - and his refusal to accept responsibility - should be the last straw.

A battery storage facility burned for two days in January, depositing an estimated 25 metric tons of toxic metals across nearby wetlands in Monterey Bay, California. Officials said air quality was safe, but they missed the toxic metal fallout raining down on wetlands. buff.ly/9RgyuCz

My god…they just took 50 million from the general budget for vouchers going to private religious schools.

Now, another 100 million?

We had started a dog walking group to help when a friend had knee surgery 3 years before the shutdown, a group that kept going after the knee concern, and during the shutdown, people just joined us. We regularly had 15 people walking at safe distances, or masked. We ranged in age from 7 to 80.

After more than a decade of living in a neighborhood where 70% had bought their houses in the 60s when I moved in, I WISH I had started a study on aging in place, including images of the interior and exterior of these homes. I go to the estate sales and see what’s in store for the next home buyer.

Everybody loves energy efficiency, you'd think.
But utilities are rewarded more for building stuff for new energy demand.
Builders don't like spending the 5% more in construction to build a very efficient new home.
So there's a lot more work to do - and a lot more bills to be filed.

Writing builds resilience by changing your brain, helping you face everyday challenges Resilience is often presented as feats of bravery and endurance. But everyday practices like journaling, drafting a text or even writing a to-do list are manifestations of a capacity to adapt.

Writing doesn't just help you process your thoughts.

Neuroscientists have found it physically changes your brain in ways that build resilience and help you handle everyday stress and challenges.

buff.ly/8PdXnTT

Learning With AI Falls Short Compared to Old-Fashioned Web Search In virtually all the ways that matter, getting summarized information from AI models was less educational than doing the work of search.

Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq

Today we woke up to our public health allies telling the public that they can't trust CDC anymore More than a little demoralizing Because it's complicated The actual scientists at CDC - the ones you should trust - are not in control of public-facing webpages The conspiracy theorists are running the messaging And yet, most of us scientists... are still doing good science It's just not making it out We're still supporting local health departments We're still running our disease surveillance systems We're still on call for emergencies 24/7 Despite intense staffing shortages from multiple waves of RIFs And chronically being under-resourced Those of us left are still working hard to keep everything going We are proud of our mission And we persist, goddammit Yet We can also say... read the CDC webpages with skepticism Don't treat them as the gold standard. Corroborate the information with other trusted, independent sources. Many are still fine, but even we don't know when the political appointees are going to change their content And this is a painful thing for us to say So we just ask that, if you read or say "Don't trust the CDC!" You remember that we're here still trying to serve the nation, throw sand in the gears, and weather the storm

Hard day today
Here's what we think about trusting CDC

Germany to classify date rape drugs as weapons to ensure justice for survivors Classification plan will create basis for ‘significantly stricter’ prosecutions, says interior minister Germany plans to treat the use of date rape drugs like the use of weapons in prosecutions as part of measures to ensure justice for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. “We classify date rape drugs, which are increasingly used as a widespread tool in crimes, as weapons. This creates the basis for significantly stricter prosecutions,” Alexander Dobrindt, the interior minister, said on Friday. “We are committed to clear consequences and consistent enforcement. Women should feel safe and be able to move freely everywhere.” Continue reading...

Germany to classify date rape drugs as weapons to ensure justice for survivors

It’s not as intimidating as an average grocery store in Germany where the cashier openly assesses your bagging speed. I pretend not to know German then.