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Assigning Formal Charges - Ex. 3

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Hey guys, I know there are a lot of really severe tragedies in the world right now and I in no way desire to push those aside, nor do I really want to load another thing onto people's plates, but anyone here in the US needs to be aware that on March 11, 2024, an agricultural company known as NEW Cooperative spilled 265,000 gallons (1500 tons) of liquid nitrogen fertilizer into the East Nishnabotna River. This is the ecological equivalent of dropping a nuclear weapon into the river. Over a 60 mile stretch downstream of the spill its been a near total ecological wipeout for the river. So far, an estimate of 850,000 fish have been killed from this spill, and that's to say nothing for the insects, amphibians, reptiles and birds that relied on or lived in this river. It is literally filled with animal corpses. This river flows into the Missouri River and the impacts will likely continue to spread far past this 60 mile stretch. And this disaster has barely made local tv in Iowa, let alone national tv, despite the fact that 60 miles of river ecosystem were just wiped out in a way that may be impossible to recover from. And what's the punishment for this heinous act of destruction through negligence, you might ask? As it stands, its looking like a 6k fine from the DNR to the company. Not 600k. Not 60k. 6000 dollars. The maximum fine that the DNR can charge in Iowa is 10k unless they decide to take it further in court. That's why these spills are so frequent in Iowa: it's literally cheaper to eat the fines than it is to bother properly storing fertilizer. I don't know exactly what the proper course of action is here, or who needs to be contacted to enact change--I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable than me will chime in with that information--but at the very least, every one of us should know. Every one of us should make sure we don't forget this. And every one of us should blacklist NEW Cooperative fertilizer unilaterally.

Sources:

In these cases, ensure that negative formal charges are situated on the most electronegative atoms and positive formal charges on the least electronegative atoms (for example, the nitrate ion in figure 5.12, where the more electronegative O atoms, rather than the N atom, have a negative formal charge). (...) However, as figure 5.12 shows, a lone pair from any of the three oxygen atoms can be moved to form this double bond.

"Chemistry" 2e - Blackman, A., Bottle, S., Schmid, S., Mocerino, M., Wille, U.

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"In cities across the country, people of color, many of them low income, live in neighborhoods criss-crossed by major thoroughfares and highways.

The housing there is often cheaper — it’s not considered particularly desirable to wake up amid traffic fumes and fall asleep to the rumble of vehicles over asphalt.

But the price of living there is steep: Exhaust from all those cars and trucks leads to higher rates of childhood asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary ailments. Many people die younger than they otherwise would have, and the medical costs and time lost to illness contributes to their poverty.

Imagine if none of those cars and trucks emitted any fumes at all, running instead on an electric charge. That would make a staggering difference in the trajectory, quality, and length of millions of lives, particularly those of young people growing up near freeways and other sources of air pollution, according to a study from the American Lung Association.

The study, released [February 28, 2024], found that a widespread transition to EVs could avoid nearly 3 million asthma attacks and hundreds of infant deaths, in addition to millions of lower and upper respiratory ailments...

Prior research by the American Lung Association found that 120 million people in the U.S. breathe unhealthy air daily, and 72 million live near a major trucking route — though, Barret added, there’s no safe threshold for air pollution. It affects everyone.

Bipartisan efforts to strengthen clean air standards have already made a difference across the country. In California, which, under the Clean Air Act, can set state rules stronger than national standards, 100 percent of new cars sold there must be zero emission by 2035.

[Note: The article doesn't explain this, but that is actually a much bigger deal than just California. Basically, due to historically extra terrible pollution, California is the only state that's allowed to allowed to set stronger emissions rules than the US government sets. However, one of the rules in the Clean Air Act is that any other state can choose to follow California's standards instead of the US government's. And California by itself is the world's fifth largest economy - ahead of all but four countries. California has a lot of buying power. So, between those two things, when California sets stricter standards for cars, the effects ripple outward massively, far beyond the state's borders.]

Truck manufacturers are, according to the state’s Air Resources Board, already exceeding anticipated zero-emissions truck sales, putting them two years ahead of schedule...

Other states have begun to take action, too, often reaching across partisan lines to do so. Maryland, Colorado, New Mexico, and Rhode Island adopted zero-emissions standards as of the end of 2023.

The Biden administration is taking similar steps, though it has slowed its progress after automakers and United Auto Workers pressured the administration to relax some of its more stringent EV transition requirements.

While Barret finds efforts to support the electrification of passenger vehicles exciting, he said the greatest culprits are diesel trucks. “These are 5 to 10 percent of the vehicles on the road, but they’re generating the majority of smog-forming emissions of ozone and nitrogen,” Barret said...

Lately, there’s been significant progress on truck decarbonization. The Biden administration has made promises to ensure that 30 percent of all big rigs sold are electric by 2030...

Such measures, combined with an increase in public EV charging stations, vehicle tax credits, and other incentives, could change American highways, not to mention health, for good."

-via GoodGoodGood, February 28, 2024

The Best News of Last Week

⚡ - Charging Towards a More Electrifying Future

1. The Kissimmee River has been brought back to life—and wildlife is thriving

The Kissimmee River in Florida was straightened in the 1960s, causing a sharp decline in wildlife and ecological problems. But in the 1990s, a $1 billion restoration project was initiated to restore the river's natural state.

Today, nearly half of the river has been restored, wetlands have been reestablished and rehydrated, and wildlife has returned, including rare and threatened species. Already the biological impact of the project has become clear. As the wetlands have come back, so have the birds.

2. Plastic wrap made from seaweed withstands heat and is compostable

A cling film made from an invasive seaweed can withstand high temperatures yet is still easily compostable. The material could eventually become a sustainable choice for food packaging.

Scientists started with a brown seaweed called sargassum. Sargassum contains long, chain-like molecules similar to those that make up conventional plastic, which made it a good raw material. The researchers mixed it with some acids and salts to get a solution full of these molecules, then blended in chemicals that thickened it and made it more flexible and pliable.

3. An Eagle Who Adopted a Rock Becomes a Real Dad to Orphaned Eaglet

Murphy, a bald eagle that had been showing fatherly instincts, has been sharing an enclosure with an eaglet that survived a fall from a tree during a storm in Ste. Genevieve. Murphy, his rock gone by then, took his role as foster parent seriously. He soon began responding to the chick’s peeps, and protecting it.

And when, as a test, the keepers placed two plates of food in front of the birds — one containing food cut into pieces that the chick could eat by itself, and another with a whole fish that only Murphy could handle — the older bird tore up the fish and fed it to the eaglet.

4. World's largest battery maker announces major breakthrough in energy density

In one of the most significant battery breakthroughs in recent years, the world’s largest battery manufacturer CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg which it says will go into mass production this year.

“The launch of condensed batteries will usher in an era of universal electrification of sea, land and air transportation, open up more possibilities of the development of the industry, and promote the achieving of the global carbon neutrality goals at an earlier date,” the company said in a presentation at Auto Shanghai on Thursday.

This could be huge. Electric jets and cargo ships become very possible at this point.

5. Cat with '100% fatal' feline coronavirus saved by human Covid-19 medicine

A beloved household cat has made an “astonishing” recovery from a usually fatal illness, thanks to a drug made to treat Covid-19 in humans – and a quick-thinking vet.

Anya​, the 7-year-old birman cat, was suffering from feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a “100% fatal” viral infection caused by feline coronavirus. That was, until Auckland vet Dr Habin Choi​ intervened, giving Anya an antiviral used to treat Covid-19 called molnupiravir.

6. Kelp forests capture nearly 5 million tonnes of CO2 annually

Kelp forests provide an estimated value of $500 billion to the world and capture 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from seawater each year. Most of kelp’s economic benefits come from creating habitat for fish and by sequestering nitrogen and phosphorus.

7. Medical Marijuana Improved Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms in 87% of Patients

Medical cannabis (MC) has recently garnered interest as a potential treatment for neurologic diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD). 87% of patients were noted to exhibit an improvement in any PD symptom after starting medical cannabis. Symptoms with the highest incidence of improvement included cramping/dystonia, pain, spasticity, lack of appetite, dyskinesia, and tremor.

----

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

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Also don’t forget to reblog

Aurora Borealis from southern Wisconsin, May 10, 2024. Photos by me!

The colors of the aurora are caused by the atoms in Earth's atmosphere getting excited by the sun's charged particles slamming into them. Green tends to be the most common, showing excited oxygen particles 60-150 miles in altitude. It's also the easiest for our human eyes to detect. Red occurs higher up, above 150 miles, and because there's less oxygen, it takes a stronger stream to show up. Purple is also uncommon, and comes from excited nitrogen atoms below 60 miles. The fact that this display was so colorful was due to its immense strength from the five(!) coronal mass ejections that were belched out in our direction on Friday. The sun might yet serve up some more action as it's still in the peak of its 11-year cycle.

We were so lucky to get to observe such a rare event but also holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit

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Wet Beast Wednesday: Adélie penguin

I previously covered the world's most famous penguin, the emperor. Today I'll be covering its less famous neighbor, the Adélie penguin. While being much smaller than the emperors, Adélie penguins are just as charismatic and highly ecologically important. They were named after the wife of the explorer who first described the species. Let's see if that was romantic or a mistake.

(Image: an Adélie penguin standing on a rock and facing the camera. It is a bird standing upright with flipper-like wings and webbed feet. The belly is white while the head and back are black. There are white rings around the eyes. End ID)

The Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) looks like a penguin. Like picture a generic penguin in your mind and it'll probably look like an Adélie. They are flightless birds that stand upright, a posture that seems to be unique to penguins. They have countershading, with a black back and white underbelly. The most distinctive feature of an Adélie penguin is the white ring around its eyes. As with other penguins, Adélie penguin wings have adapted into flippers that enable powerful and graceful swimming but renders them flightless. Adélies reach a height of 73 cm (29 in) and a weight between 3.8 and 8.2 kg (8.4 to 18.1 lbs). The primary difference between males and females is that males are significantly heavier than females of the same size. As with most penguin species, it can be difficult to tell males and females apart without examining them. Adélie penguin feces and nasal discharge has been noted to be high in salt, the result of living in a very saline environment. By ingesting salt and nitrogenous substances in the sea and excreting them on land, the penguins help hasten the movement of nutrients from sea to land. This makes the penguins highly important to the antarctic ecosystem.

(Image: an Adélie penguin seen from the side as it walks over snow in a very dapper pose. End ID)

Adélie penguins are are one of the two penguin species to inhabit Antarctica itself, the other being the emperor penguin. They also share the many antarctic islands with multiple other penguin species and are rarely found as far north and Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and South America. The penguins spend most of their time out on the pack ice, hunting for food to build up the layer of protective subcutaneous fat that helps keep them warm. Adélie penguins can be found hundreds if not thousands of kilometers from shore as long as there is access to the sea and ice flows to rest on. As the ice extends hundreds to thousands of kilometers in winter and retracts during the summer, the penguins will be on the move to retain access to the water. A penguin can migrate up to 13,000 km (8,100 mi) every year to retain access to both ocean and sea ice. They hunt and forage underwater, with a diet consisting primarily of krill, fish, squid, and jellyfish. Chemical analysis of shell fossils has revealed a change in diet from primarily fish based to primarily krill based around 200 years ago. It is believed that this change in diet was due to whaling diminishing the local baleen whale population, which was the primary krill predator. This resulted in a population boom of krill that the penguins took advantage of. It is very cool to me that you can tell what diet animals from thousands of years ago analyzing ancient eggshell remnants. Adélie penguins swim at around 8 km/h (5 mph) and can leap 30 meters out of the water to reach ice flows.

(Image: a group of Adélie penguins leaping off of ice and into the water. End ID)

Adélie penguins are noted to be very curious and fearless on land. They have no land predators and therefore have no predation response on land. Antarctic explorers have recorded that Adélie penguins would walk right up to charging and barking dogs without fear and quickly get eaten. They have been called boisterous by explorers and have been seen challenging much larger creatures to fights over space. During the filming of the BBC Earth documentary Spy in the Snow, the filmmakers caught footage of an Adélie penguin deliberatly protecting a group of emperor penguin chicks from a southern giant petrel who was hunting them. Despite the petrel's threat and the chicks being of a different species, the Adélie put itself between the predator and prey and repeatedly charged the petrel (which occasionally hunt adult Adélies) until it gave up and left. Adélies are not always as nice to each other. They will fight each other, especially during breeding season. Adélies are known to be reluctant to enter the water if they can't see another penguin swimming safely. They will gather in groups on the edge of the ice until one penguin gets pushed in. If that penguin doesn't get attacked by a predator, the rest will join.

(Image: a group of Adélie penguins being examined by a scientists sitting on the ground in a red coat and black pants. The group includes adults and chicks. The penguins show no fear of the scientist and some appear to be examining them. End ID)

Mating season lasts between October and February. During mating season, the penguins gather in rocky areas with no ice covering. The males gather piles of pebbles which will become nests. Males will try to steal pebbles from each other, which can led to fights. Once his pile is complete, the male will stand on top of it and begin a display involving pointing his beak up, vibrating his chest, and flapping his wings. A female who is wooed by his display will approach and bow, which he will then reciprocate. The male then shapes the nest into a pit and lets the female lay down in it. The male stands on the female's back to mate and they will rub beaks together while doing so. Adélie penguins are serially monogamous. They will form mated pairs during mating season, but will usually not pair off with the same penguin next season. On the other hand, Adélie penguins have been suggested to engage in prostitution. Males have been known to mate with females they are not paired off with, after which the female will take some of the stones from his nest. The reasons for this behavior is not clear and calling it prostitution may be applying human ideas to non-analogous animal behavior. Females may be examining males as potential backup mates should hers die. The male allowing the female to take some stones may also be an advantageous trait as if she does lay his eggs, having better stones will give them a better chance of surviving with him not there. Adélie penguins are notorious for their aggressive sexual behavior. Males will attempt to forcibly mate with females (possibly as a result of mistaking her bending over as a mating bow) and males without partners will attempt to mate with such things as chicks, dead penguins, and the ground. During mating season, males accumulate the hormone corticosterone in their systems. This hormone increases aggressiveness and sexual activity in birds and is likely why males who can't attract a mate will attempt to mate with anything they can.

(Image: two Adélie penguins mating. The male is standing on top of the (presumably) female, who is lying stomach-down on the ground. The male's head is bend down and the female's head is bent up so their beaks touch. End ID)

After mating, the female will lay two eggs, the second a few days after the first. If one egg is lost soon after being laid, a third may me produced to replace it. The second egg is usually smaller then the first so they will still hatch around the same time. The father and mother share share incubation duties. One parent will sit on the eggs to warm them while the other parent returns to the sea to feed. The incubating parent will not leave the nest during this time. They do not eat while incubating and will projectile defecate to keep feces away from the nest. Shifts change every 7-10 days, allowing both parents to eat while keeping the eggs incubated. When both parents are at the nest, they will perform a mutual display involving waving their heads while calling out and bowing to each other. The eggs hatch after 32 to 34 days and the chicks will remain with their parents for another 22 or so days. During this time, the parents will take shifts guarding the chick and returning to the ocean to feed. The chicks are fed regurgitated, partially-digested food. Mothers who have lost their chicks have been known to try to steal chicks from other parents. After the 22 days, the parents abandon their chicks and return to sea. The chicks gather together in groups called crèches for mutual protection from predators. They must subsist on fat stores for another 30 to 40 days before developing their adult plumage and setting out to sea.

(Image: a group of Adélie penguins with a focus on a parent and a chick. The chicks are smaller than the parent and are covered in gray, fluffy down. End ID)

One of the earliest texts on Adélie penguin behavior came from the journal of the explorer George Murray Levick in 1911-12. He described the sexual behavior of the penguins but the result was considered too explicit and immoral to be publiched with the rest of the expedition's notes. As a result, Levick's noted were not discovered and published until 2012. One of the things in the notes that resulted in them being denied publication was the description of homosexual behavior. That's right, this is a surprise pride post. Despite what many conservatives would like you to believe, homosexual behavior is very common in the animal kingdom. Penguins are seemingly especially known for this behavior. While initial reports suggested that Adélies would accidentally mate with other males as a result of mistaken identity, this have been proven to not be the case every time. Male Adélies have been seen taking turns copulating with each other, which means they definitely realize the other is male. Similar behavior has been seen in other penguins. Famously, a male/male pair of chinstrap penguins (a close relative of the Adélies) named Roy and Silo in New York City's Central Park Zoo successfully fostered an egg and hatched a female chick named Tango, who also went on to bond with another female penguin. Multiple other species have also been know to form same-sex bonds in captivity (wild behavior being harder to study) with many even building nests and using round stones in place of eggs. Same-sex pairs have been known to bond with each other year after year when other penguins will chose different mates each year. Multiple zoos will let same-sex penguin pairs to foster eggs.

(Image: two penguins standing among a pile of pebbles. End ID)

Levick's notes on homosexual behavior in the Adélie penguins described them as deviant and disgusting. I bring this up because it leads me to a point I want to discuss. It is very important to not judge animals by human moral standards. Study of homosexual behavior in animals has been distorted and repressed by generations of scientists operating under an Abrahamic religious worldview where homosexuality is considered a crime against nature. In that worldview, it would not be possible for animals to be homosexual because now could nature commit a crime against nature? Thus, the use of rationalizations, deceptions, and cover-ups by scientists operating under that worldview. When the facts conflicted with their beliefs, they chose their beliefs. This is not the only time this has happened. Back in the early days of paleontology, famous paleontologists such as Sir Richard Owen discovered that theropod dinosaurs had similar traits to birds and that dinosaurs were not the slow, lumbering, lizard-like animals they were initially assumed to be, but highly developed, powerful animals. This conflicted with their pre-conceived religious beliefs in Biblical creationism where all species were created as they were and did not evolve and that modern species must be the better versions of past species as God wouldn't replace something powerful like a triceratops with something less powerful like a cow. These early paleontologists covered up and denied evidence that went against their beliefs and in doing so, set back the fields of paleontology and evolution in ways we are still trying to fully recover from. Failure to separate our moral standards from animal behavior is important to studying animals for the same reasons that those early paleontologists failing to separate the evidence from their religious beliefs was. I have heard popular animal Youtubers insult animals like Adélie penguins and dolphins in exactly the same way Levic did because of their behavior when mating. Those kinds of attitudes are thing we need to get over when studying nature. Nature is under no obligation to conform to the many and varied moral standards of humans and we need to recognize that. This doesn't just apply to people who disapprove of animal behavior. You will notice that I never called any of the penguins "gay" or anything similar in the above passage. That was deliberate and it's not because "I'm a homophobe trying to to deny that gayness exists in nature" or anything like that. That would be a pretty fucking hypocritical thing for me, a trans lesbian, to believe. I don't think it's fair or intellectually honest ascribe human descriptions of behavior and psychology to nonhuman animals. We have very different psychological makeups from penguins and the definitions we use simply may not apply to them. Similarly, penguin mental constructs or concepts wouldn't apply to us, at least not in the same way. Nobody can read a penguin's mind and nobody can Animorph into a penguin to experience its psychology first hand. If Roy and Silo were able to talk, would they identify themselves as gay? Would the modern, western idea of gay even make sense to a penguin? I have no idea and neither does anyone else. And I think applying labels for human concepts like being gay that may or may not apply to an animal risks introducing bias to our understanding that can produce mistakes and misunderstanding about that animal's behavior. This is true whether you think being gay is good (like me and hopefully everyone reading this) or bad (like Levick did).

Oops, what's this doing here? (Image: an old-fashioned soapbox. End ID)

Adélie penguins are classified as Least Concern by the IUCN. This does not mean they are not facing challenges. The loss of sea ice due to global warming has reduced the available habitat and has seen population drops. Chick survival rates have also been decreasing. In addition, as of 2024, a mass die-off of over 500 birds was discovered and is being attributed to H5N1 bird flue spread from South America. This strain has also been found in local skuas, which could act as vectors to spread to to other species and populations. This situation is currently under investigations and we currently can't predict where it will lead.

(Image: an Adélie chick nuzzling its parent's belly. End ID)

So just in the last couple of days:

Greg Abbot and multiple states encouraged civil war because Biden apparently told them letting those three immigrant kids drown wasn't very nice of them. [x]

Alabama failed to execute a man by lethal injection and instead used a new, untested method of forcing him to inhale nitrogen gas. [x]

Multiple companies laid off an estimated total of 5,900+ employees. [x]

Texas also reported and estimate of 26,000 forced, rape-related pregnancies in just the last year, due to the overturn of Roe V Wade. [x]

Trump sided with Texas, attempting to incite insurrection (again) with no calls made to have him arrested (Again.) [x]

Kentucky began trying to pass a bill making it legal to kill homeless people sleeping on private property. [x]

Israel also began renewing calls for nuclear strikes against Gaza. [x]

A pastor in Ohio was charged with 18 felonies for allowing homeless people to shelter in his church. You know, like Jesus told them to. [x]

AKA Republicans are now working overtime since Henry Pissinger finally died.

Have you ever looked up at the night sky to find a view like this? Aurora, also known as the Northern or Southern Lights, are most often seen in high-latitude regions around the Arctic and Antarctic. These spectacular displays are caused by collisions between charged particles from solar wind and oxygen and nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere. As the oxygen and nitrogen molecules revert to their normal state, they release photons, or small bursts of energy in the form of light—which is what we see on the ground below. The color of these hypnotizing displays is determined by what’s colliding: oxygen produces yellows and greens, while nitrogen is responsible for reds, violets, and blues. Photo 1: Beverly & Pack, CC BY 2.0, flickr (Northern Lights) Photo 2: Ben, CC BY-ND 2.0, flickr (Southern Lights) Photo 3: Jukka Hernetkoski, CC BY-NC 2.0, flickr (Northern Lights) Photo 4: Trey Ratcliff, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, flickr (Southern Lights) #world #amazingplanet #space #northernlights #southernlights https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm2S-murGoy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

2023 April 17

ELVES Lightning over Italy Image Credit & Copyright: Valter Binotto

Explanation: What's that red ring in the sky? Lightning. The most commonly seen type of lightning involves flashes of bright white light between clouds. Over the past 50 years, though, other types of upper-atmospheric lightning have been confirmed, including red sprites and blue jets. Less well known and harder to photograph is a different type of upper atmospheric lightning known as ELVES. ELVES are thought to be created when an electromagnetic pulse shoots upward from charged clouds and impacts the ionosphere, causing nitrogen molecules to glow. The red ELVES ring pictured had a radius of about 350 km and was captured in late March about 100 kilometers above Ancona, Italy. Years of experience and ultra-fast photography were used to capture this ELVES -- which lasted only about 0.001 second.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230417.html

things i learned this year on wikipedia: you can microwave metal actually

there is an ancient (ANCIENT) microwave in my work breakroom. you could fit an entire turkey in there. there's no turntable, if your food ends up uneven that's on you. And, most mysterious of all: it has a metal rack in the center of the microwave.

(example image from wikipedia)

after spending 4 years at this place avoiding the Big Microwave and its Probable Death Rack i finally went on wikipedia and made a discovery. I had been lied to my entire life. You can put metal in the microwave.

It's the shape that gets you, not just the material. It's just that you can only put things without points in the microwave, which rules out almost all metal items you were potentially thinking of microwaving. Unless you have a metal orb at home. that might be okay. Quothe wikipedia:

Contrary to popular assumptions, metal objects can be safely used in a microwave oven, but with some restrictions.[77][78] Any metal or conductive object placed into the microwave oven acts as an antenna to some degree, resulting in an electric current. This causes the object to act as a heating element. This effect varies with the object's shape and composition, and is sometimes utilized for cooking. Any object containing pointed metal can create an electric arc (sparks) when microwaved. This includes cutlery, crumpled aluminium foil (though some foil used in microwave ovens is safe, see below), twist-ties containing metal wire, the metal wire carry-handles in oyster pails, or almost any metal formed into a poorly conductive foil or thin wire, or into a pointed shape.[79] Forks are a good example: the tines of the fork respond to the electric field by producing high concentrations of electric charge at the tips. This has the effect of exceeding the dielectric breakdown of air, about 3 megavolts per meter (3×106 V/m). The air forms a conductive plasma, which is visible as a spark. The plasma and the tines may then form a conductive loop, which may be a more effective antenna, resulting in a longer lived spark. When dielectric breakdown occurs in air, some ozone and nitrogen oxides are formed, both of which are unhealthy in large quantities.

World Bank: Stop Funding Factory Farming

International development banks are funding disastrous factory farming -- poisoning our planet and leaving corporations in charge of our food. Nitrogen pollution from U.S. mega-farms has already created gigantic 'dead zones' in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's happening in Europe too. Now development banks are investing hundreds of millions into the industry to build more factory farms around the world.  But a new global campaign to end funding of industrial animal agriculture is ramping up, and helped persuade the Inter-American Development Bank to drop a $200 million beef industry loan. Now it's time to target the World Bank -- the biggest and most influential development bank of them all. Bankers and finance ministers are meeting April 17-19, and can set the bank onto the right path if we make them: Tell the World Bank: stop funding industrial animal agriculture Once we gather 100,000 signatures with our partners, we'll present them to the World Bank President at the annual spring meeting in Washington DC. It's a rare opportunity for us all to be heard.While many of us try to reduce our meat consumption for climate reasons and animal welfare, our governments indirectly fund the global expansion of monstrous factory farms. According to research by World Animal Protection, leading development banks, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, IDB Invest, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group), invested $4.6B in the sector between 2010 and 2021. But we're not starting from zero: World Bank shareholders voted in October 2023 to update the Bank's mission statement to explicitly include a commitment to addressing climate change, stating it will work “to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet.”  Now it's time to push the Bank further -- to make the World Bank's actions match its words.

Absolutely love the 17776 au. Its such an interesting concept and im exited too see where it goes. Easily my favorite wn fic

🥺 your favourite? 🥺🥺 here's a little snippet of the next chapter just for you 🥰

...

Are you still there?

I’m sorry, it takes 11 days to charge enough for a message. I’m still here. I promise.

She sends this, what, after another week? A handful of days cupped in her palm like pebbles, like the baby teeth they wrestled from her mouth with too-big fingers and tossed into the wastepaper bin.

This Ava, who sits in a void the size of herself, has never seen a sunrise. She hasn’t yet invented stars, through there is one close enough and important enough that she’ll have to, soon.

per aspera ad astra

She’s weak, and small. A dim light too shy to shine but there, present as a cold shape in space, turning with her great metal wings casting no shadows. Not anywhere.

The light touches her, but not like that, not like a girl’s mouth and the hot wet progress of her tongue, down in the crease between thigh and oh god. fuck.

The light loves her maybe as much as that, as fervently but not as badly, lumens blushing over the white-tipped primaries, the mixed metaphor metacarpals of her body which is winged only in the sense that it soars.

They build satellites like this, in the afterimage of birds with wings that drink the light down the way you take a girl in your mouth. Ava’s not the same as them because so many are still cupped around Earth in a too-tight grip. Nothing is the same as it was.

would you recognise home, Ava? if it walked up to you and kissed you?

Ava’s old. She’s got that NASA decrepitude to her – built to be beautiful by accident, like the Apollo Lunar Module with her odd legs, her aluminium body drinking down dust. Bulky in her clothes, her tanks of aerozine 50 fuel, nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer, water, oxygen, helium… her pretty skirt of a descent engine.

They don’t tell children this, but they left this part behind on the moon.

Somewhere, out in the void that surrounds her, that is her, Ava senses a heat signature. With sticky fingers she reaches out and tries to touch it.

Stares at the light spilling out of them or through them. She is not the light but she is a light. Her fingers shock her almost half-awake.

These are real, at least. She puts them in her mouth and they taste like copper wires and nitrogen tetroxide, which tastes of equilibrium, of hypergolicity, of moon dust.

They taste like a prom date left behind on the moon, and whatever happened to her.

(nothing, if being lost can bear that description)(it cannot)

They feel like a girl’s fingers and Ava knows this because she has always been an open-mouthed thing. Call her hungry, call her awed, call her a slut.

Either way, you’ll know her by name.