i hate that the school/covid situation is framed as 'reopen schools.' schools ARE open. schools ARE meeting, daily. teachers are working their asses off to make online teaching work. schools. are. open.

the question is when can schools meet in person and start face to face learning.
when you frame it as 'face to face learning' or 'in person learning' it exposes what the REAL problem is. face to face/in person shit is NOT OK RIGHT NOW.
and with that we get the entire avalanche of real problems. some kids are NOT adjusting to online learning well. some kids need resources that online learning can't give. all human beings need to be around other human beings.
AND--it's not safe to be around other human beings in enclosed rooms right now. AND there's variants running rampant throughout our communities and those variants THRIVE in out of control rampant conditions. AND we're on our way to losing 500,000 people to this crap.
when you sit with the REAL problems on the table, you have to look at far different solutions than you do when you put 'schools aren't open' on the table. well, open them back up again, is NOT an answer. sorry, it's not.
the real problem on the table is *can we bring people into rooms for face to face learning in a safe way that protects against both infection AND new variants forming*.
and i don't think you can begin to answer that question without talking about a massive influx of money such that at LEAST 1. PPE is available, 2. vaccines are available 3. class size is limited 4. ventilation systems are fixed, ESP in aging schools. at LEAST.
This is NOT OK. this is NOT a plan.

https://t.co/qWD4q8czek
what is the safest way to transition from online learning to in person learning while in the middle of unchecked pandemic?
This is not ok. It's not. if you are pushing to get face to face learning back, then you BETTER be demanding PPE, smaller class size, fixing vents, and hiring more trained janitors too. (something that doesn't get talked about enough).

https://t.co/Vwke2CX6ik
and you better *REQUIRE MASKING FOR EVERYBODY*.

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@danielashby @AdamWJT @Greens4HS2 @TheGreenParty @GarethDennis @XRebellionUK @Hs2RebelRebel @HS2ltd I'll bite. Let's try to keep it factual. There's a reasonable basis to some aspects of this question, that it might be possible to agree on. Then there are other, more variable, elements which depend on external factors such as transport and energy policy. /1

@AdamWJT @Greens4HS2 @TheGreenParty @GarethDennis @XRebellionUK @Hs2RebelRebel @HS2ltd First up, we know reasonably well how much energy it takes to propel a high-speed train along the HS2 route. We can translate that into effective CO2 generated by making some assumptions about how green the electricity grid is. /2

@AdamWJT @Greens4HS2 @TheGreenParty @GarethDennis @XRebellionUK @Hs2RebelRebel @HS2ltd Secondly, we have a reasonable grasp of how much CO2 is going to be generated by building HS2 - there are standard methods of working this out, based on the amount of steel, concrete, earthmoving, machine-fuelling etc required. /3

@AdamWJT @Greens4HS2 @TheGreenParty @GarethDennis @XRebellionUK @Hs2RebelRebel @HS2ltd Thirdly, we can estimate how much CO2 is generated by cutting down trees, and how much is captured by planting new trees. We can also estimate how much CO2 is needed to keep the railway running and generated by maintaining the track /4

@AdamWJT @Greens4HS2 @TheGreenParty @GarethDennis @XRebellionUK @Hs2RebelRebel @HS2ltd We know how much CO2 is saved by moving goods by freight train on the lines freed up by moving the express trains on to HS2, rather than by truck. /5
This is a piece I've been thinking about for a long time. One of the most dominant policy ideas in Washington is that policy should, always and everywhere, move parents into paid labor. But what if that's wrong?

My reporting here convinced me that there's no large effect in either direction on labor force participation from child allowances. Canada has a bigger one than either Romney or Biden are considering, and more labor force participation among women.

But what if that wasn't true?

Forcing parents into low-wage, often exploitative, jobs by threatening them and their children with poverty may be counted as a success by some policymakers, but it’s a sign of a society that doesn’t value the most essential forms of labor.

The problem is in the very language we use. If I left my job as a New York Times columnist to care for my 2-year-old son, I’d be described as leaving the labor force. But as much as I adore him, there is no doubt I’d be working harder. I wouldn't have stopped working!

I tried to render conservative objections here fairly. I appreciate that @swinshi talked with me, and I'm sorry I couldn't include everything he said. I'll say I believe I used his strongest arguments, not more speculative ones, in the piece.

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The YouTube algorithm that I helped build in 2011 still recommends the flat earth theory by the *hundreds of millions*. This investigation by @RawStory shows some of the real-life consequences of this badly designed AI.


This spring at SxSW, @SusanWojcicki promised "Wikipedia snippets" on debated videos. But they didn't put them on flat earth videos, and instead @YouTube is promoting merchandising such as "NASA lies - Never Trust a Snake". 2/


A few example of flat earth videos that were promoted by YouTube #today:
https://t.co/TumQiX2tlj 3/

https://t.co/uAORIJ5BYX 4/

https://t.co/yOGZ0pLfHG 5/