Nova has an interesting (and alarming) episode on melting permafrost in Siberia and Alaska that’s releasing methane–more warming–more melting and on it goes.

As the Arctic warms, methane that has been locked in permafrost for thousands of years escapes and can explode. Released methane that finds its way to the surface contributes to the greenhouse effect of climate change with even more heat retention capacity than carbon dioxide. Even igniting it doesn’t solve the problem, since that produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct.

It’s a tipping point, and it’s already tipped.

In Alaska they find a large lake bubbling with methane. On Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula, residents have reported large holes in the frozen tundra, including one more than

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The royal we doesn’t help his project.

To those who style themselves as progressive but hate me (generally because of @GoodLawProject's defence of trans rights) and so cheer the dishonest attacks of the right, I'd say, be careful what you wish for. Who else is going to do the work we do?

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 15, 2022

There’s a lot of What’s Wrong With Jolyon packed into that one. Making a public announcement of that kind. Starting with “style themselves progressive,” which is an insult. Much worse, that “but” – “You consider yourself progressive but you hate me, this must be underlined and explained.” I can consider myself progressive and find Jolyon Maugham vain and self-promoting and … Read the rest

Jolyon is blocking all the lawyers now.

Acknowledging that this may be taken as throwing down the gauntlet, I cannot imagine blocking another Member of Faculty. https://t.co/2ouPxSvrUN

— Roddy Dunlop KC (@RoddyQC) February 13, 2022

Oh dear.

I’ve never attacked Mr Maugham, in any way. I’ve never interacted with him. My sole crime seems to have been saying I couldn’t imagine blocking another Advocate.

If he ever wants to chat, he should pick up the phone. Till then: hugely, irredeemably disappointed. pic.twitter.com/TD8DNWIJZc

— Roddy Dunlop KC (@RoddyQC) February 16, 2022

https://twitter.com/jeremybrier/status/1493864251819233283

Plus it makes him look so good.… Read the rest

The wrong word was used in a magic ceremony so the magic ceremony is invalid. You might think this is a small matter that can easily be rectified by re-doing the ceremony using the correct word this time – but unfortunately, perhaps tragically, it wasn’t just the one, it was many. Many many many. And not valid means…eternal torture*. Oops.

A Catholic priest in Arizona has resigned after he was found to have performed baptisms incorrectly throughout his career, rendering the rite invalid for thousands of people.

Thousands of people doomed to eternal torture*! You’d think it would be dominating the news cycle.

The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix announced on its website that it determined after careful study that the

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Well…maybe, but then again maybe not.

When my son Connor first told me he was transgender and was not, in fact, the daughter I thought he was for the first 12 years of his life, I could have handled it a lot better.

It’s not that I kicked and screamed. I didn’t throw him out or call him vile names. I wasn’t even disappointed. It almost feels worse than all that: I didn’t believe him.

What if she’d said she was a llama, or a hummingbird, or Chomolungma? Would you now think you should have believed her?

A girl remains a girl even if she has picked up the novel cultural belief that her body is irrelevant to … Read the rest

Originally a Facebook post/Miscellany post by Bjarte Foshaug:

There is an expression in my mother tongue that translates as “Adam’s clothes” – or, alternatively, “Eve’s clothes” – and is commonly understood to denote the absence of any physical garments. This appears to be conclusive scientific* proof that the very first humans** were in fact trans-dressed and what they were wearing was widely accepted as a legitimate kind of clothing from the very beginning. The white, Western idea that wearing “clothes” – or being fully “dressed” – has anything to do with vulgar physical fabrics is a recent cultural invention and inextricably linked to cultural imperialism, Western hegemony and white supremacy, i.e. the stereotypical “dressed” person is not … Read the rest

Oh was it indeed.

slightly bemused that the Good law project can do a press release on the case today without mentioning its own case was wholly dismissed for two fundamental reasons. Is that not something people who donate money should be informed about?https://t.co/Q1sImulbfq

— Scott Wortley (@Scott_Wortley) February 15, 2022

Barrister Steven Barrett at the Spectator tells us the court ruled the Good Law Project doesn’t have standing.

…there was some confusion that the Good Law Project had ‘won’. It had not. Every claim brought by the GLP failed. The court I suspect did not want anyone to be so confused, so it stated that expressly in paragraph 126. There is very little ambiguity in the words ‘the

… Read the rest

More of the Pregnancy and Childbirth are for Everyone bullshit, this time from a charity that helps “birthing people.” The first thing you see on their website is

Support our work

Make a donation today to help us to provide pregnancy, birth and postnatal support for birthing people in Glasgow.  

The second thing you see, scrolling down, is

Who we help

We provide pregnancy, birth and postnatal support to birthing people facing barriers like poverty, isolation, or language.

On the about us page –

Amma Birth Companions is a registered Scottish charity that supports women and birthing people who are experiencing significant adversity on their journey to parenthood.

Wo, a mention of women at last! But birthing people are always … Read the rest

Andrew Windsor has settled the case.

Prince Andrew has settled a civil sexual assault case brought against him in the US by Virginia Giuffre, court documents show.

…

A statement in the letter to US judge Lewis A Kaplan said the duke would make a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”. It added that Prince Andrew had “never intended to malign Ms Giuffre’s character” and he recognised she had “suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks”.

The duke also pledged to “demonstrate his regret for his association” with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking,

… Read the rest

Chris Cillizza says the walls are closing in on Trump.

The decision by Mazars further isolates Trump as he faces a series of legal problems. Consider that in addition to James’ investigation, Trump faces the following:

1) The new Manhattan district attorney told CNN in December that he plans to focus on the high-profile probe into Trump’s business practices and may expand the investigative team. As CNN’s Kara Scannell reported at the time: “The investigation, which has been underway for several years, appears to be coming to a head with prosecutors focusing on the accuracy of the Trump Organization’s financial statements when seeking financing, people familiar with the matter have told CNN.”

2) E. Jean Carroll is pursuing

… Read the rest

Very normal.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said former President Donald Trump’s statement in which he suggested executing Hillary Clinton campaign aides was “right on target” on Sunday.

Jordan, a staunch Trump ally, was reacting to the 45th president’s Saturday statement on a new court filing by the special counsel John Durham, reported by Fox News.

The filing said that former aides to Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign paid a tech company to access servers belonging to Trump Tower and afterward the Trump White House in an effort to find links to Russia.

Trump’s dealings with Russia are a private matter. That’s why he talked to Putin alone, that’s why he seized the translator’s notes after one of … Read the rest

Speaking of women skating in bathing suits while men skate in long trousers and long-sleeved shirts – adidas “believes women’s breasts deserve to be stared at support. Yes support, really, that’s what we meant, we just misspoke.”

https://twitter.com/adidas/status/1491411609180327942

And adidas definitely advertises men’s running shorts with walls of photos of penises, right?

https://twitter.com/adidas/status/1491421542169079814

Riiiiiiiiiiiight that’s what they’re doing.

This advert is up on a massive billboard, on a main road in London, in a heavy drinking area, under a small bridge. I found the tweet (above) because a friend just walked past it and messaged a group of us "The billboard is huge. I'm shaking. It's so fucked up." pic.twitter.com/CKuXjOSADT

— Lily Maynard (@LilyLilyMaynard) February 14, 2022

… Read the rest

There’s some kind of pattern here…I can’t quite figure out what it is…… Read the rest

Oops.

The accounting firm Mazars has fired the Trump Organization as a client after saying that a decade’s worth of statements of ex-President Donald Trump’s financial condition “should no longer be relied upon,” the New York Attorney General’s office revealed in a court filing Monday.

Which being interpreted means he’s been lying about his financial condition for the past ten years at least.

Mazars, which for years prepared Trump’s income tax returns and financial statements used to obtain loans for his company, told the Trump Organization’s top lawyer Alan Garten that it would no longer represent the company due to the lack of reliability of the financial statements in a letter last Wednesday.

Must be Obama’s fault. Or something.… Read the rest

Wait what? The Guardian has a category called Living in a woman’s body? How is that possible? Isn’t it totally…………………..transphobic?

At any rate, the current entry is Living in a woman’s body: hospitality workers have always suffered abuse. In the pandemic, it got worse. It’s written by Saru Jayaraman, whose lived experience may have left her somewhat less impressed by Gender Mythology than your average Owen and Jolyon and Adrian.

After working as a bartender in Washington DC for many years, Ifeoma Ezumaki’s body reached its limit during the pandemic. For Ezumaki and millions of other restaurant employees, working during the pandemic – often, in the US, for a “sub-minimum” wage – became a source of immeasurable suffering.

… Read the rest

Vote it down.

Motion published in #gpconf final agenda would have members suspended for signing @WDI_UK declaration. Problems in general with passing such a motion:

1. Signatory may reasonably disagree with highly negative interpretation being put upon declaration to which they being held.

— Shahrar Ali (@ShahrarAli) February 13, 2022

10. Why not start to maintain blacklist of other declarations & their signatories deemed morally beyond pale?

This motion is authoritarian, chillingly so.

Members please do not leave because of it. Vote it down convincingly instead.

— Shahrar Ali (@ShahrarAli) February 13, 2022

… Read the rest

WDI asks Green Party to uphold members’ rights to freedom of thought and expression.

11 February 2022

Women’s Declaration International has been made aware that Ani Stafford-Townsend, co-chair of Green Party Women in England and Wales, has sent a ‘late motion’ to the Green Party Conference. This motion proposes to expel all Green Party members who have signed the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights. This has come in the same week that WDI signatory Emma Bateman, democratically elected co-chair of the women’s committee was suspended from the Green Party, and Dr Shahrar Ali, spokesperson on policing and domestic violence who holds ‘gender critical’ views, was removed from his position.

Leftish politics energetically dynamiting the bridge it’s standing on.… Read the rest

Back in December 2018 I did a post about Julia Beck, who was pushed out of Baltimore LGBTQ Commission’s Law and Policy Committee at the instigation of a trans-identified man. This man:

Ava Pipitone, a male trans activist who dates women and identifies as a “female,” “lesbian,” and “transbutch.”

Well guess what.

A male who identified as a lesbian and had the sole lesbian representative removed from Baltimore’s LGBTQ Commission while pushing lesbophobic sentiment in 2018 has quietly detransitioned.

Kodah Pipitone, once known as Ava, was instrumental in having lesbian advocate Julia Beck kicked off the commission and shunned as a “TERF”, then sponsored an event in which he advertised that “exclusionary” lesbians would be “hung

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I don’t know the source of the poster but it’s excellent.

https://twitter.com/mc_simmy/status/1492774844659818497… Read the rest

I didn’t know six-year-olds could be terfs.

Officials at a primary school warned the parents of a six-year-old that he would be deemed “transphobic” if he expressed confusion when a pupil he knew as a boy was wearing a dress.

In all fairness, it would be nice if boys could wear dresses if they want to, without confusing other boys. But maybe that’s a silly thing to say – there are always going to be social rules children have to learn, and children are always going to be confused or annoyed by other children who break the social rules. There can’t be zero social rules, so there have to be some social rules, so children have to learn them.… Read the rest