Link Blog
UN Officials Describe “Absolutely Catastrophic” Conditions in Gaza – Mother Jones
A senior UNICEF official for Gaza, Hamish Young, issued a statement on Saturday warning that “families lack proper sanitation facilities, drinking water and shelter,” and that “people are making improvised toilets by digging holes in the ground around groups of tents” in Al-Mawasi, a so-called humanitarian zone about six miles northeast of Rafah where Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate. He added that virtually no fuel or humanitarian aid had entered the Gaza Strip in five days.
How Zionism became a synonym for violence and oppression | The Guardian
For decades, Joe Biden has proudly declared that he is a Zionist, and he has repeated that claim since Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel. But for the student anti-war protests gripping the US, the words “Zionist” and “Zionism” have become a watchword – pejorative and emblematic of the violent state policies driving the war on Gaza…
Student protesters say that their criticisms of Zionism are rooted in the state of Israel’s displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Canada continues to burn
Canada wildfire: Thousands evacuate in British Columbia, winds push smoke into Alberta | AP News
The blaze, which started Friday, almost doubled in size the following day, reaching about 17 square kilometers (4,200 acres). BC Wildfire Service maps showed the fire burning just a few kilometers (miles) west of Fort Nelson’s city limits.
In 2023, Canada witnessed a record number of wildfires that also caused choking smoke in parts of the U.S. and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate across British Columbia.
More than 800 faculty and staff at UCLA call for chancellor’s resignation | The Guardian
… following attacks by counter-protesters on pro-Palestinian student demonstrators and a violent police raid of the Gaza solidarity encampment on campus last week.
More than a hundred professors and other teaching staff gathered on Thursday to deliver a letter in support of their students engaged in pro-Palestinian activism, demanding Gene Block immediately step down as chancellor and an academic senate vote of no confidence in him.
Nature’s Oldest Mandolin: The Poetic Science of How Cicadas Sing – The Marginalian
“The use of music,” Richard Powers wrote, “is to remind us how short a time we have a body” — a truth nowhere more bittersweet than in the creature whose body is the oldest unchanged musical instrument on Earth: a tiny mandolin silent for most of its existence, then sonorous with a fleeting symphony of life before the final silence.
An important step forward for the Palestinians.
UNGA votes in favour of expanding Palestine’s rights | Al Jazeera Newsfeed - YouTube
With overwhelming support, Palestine has been granted expanded rights and privileges in its status at the UN. 143 nations voted in favour, with 9 against and 25 abstentions. Although upgraded, the new status does not allow Palestine to vote with the same rights as full member states.
Doc Rock on the May 7th episode of MacBreak Weekly is the first podcaster I’ve heard to clearly call-out the ridiculous iPad hot takes so common these days, especially in regard to the iPad Pro.
“It’s funny when a lot of the conversation around the pro or the not pro is always about productivity. The people don’t talk about what type of productivity you’re doing, right? If you’re doing everything in notion or Evernote or something of that nature, then again, maybe it doesn’t matter, right?
But if your productivity is based around SketchUp or they showed, not Blender, they showed ZBrush, some other things like that, those all count. Those all count and they do actually tax pretty hard. If you’re a logic person and you’re running pretty heavy logic action, which a lot, as an ex DJ, I would tell you, a lot of music people use iPads.
What happens, the general tech person in our circle and the general YouTuber, also my circle, they always talk about it like the way it matches them. People forget about Bechtel, who’s doing civil engineering and their iPads are running really high level tests. People forget about all the restaurants, which is why you want 128 gigabyte model, because all they do is use them for retail.
And they run one app and one app only. “People forget about education, healthcare, occupational therapies, all of the things that you use an iPad for other than you who just use it to watch Netflix. And I get that and knock yourself out player.
But like, don’t be like Apple doesn’t have the knowledge of who they’re selling to when they make these devices. And it cracked me up every time because people always have these weird hot takes. And one of the ones was, why put the M4 in this first?”
Exploring how others use and view the iPad
Buckle in, this is a longer post based on a couple of very interesting iPad-related conversations I’ve had recently. It begins with an email from Justin Harter, who is a graphic designer, teacher and writer. We had an enjoyable exchange largely focused on our workflows for image processing and file management on iPad. I had a look at his blog and knew immediately that I wanted to mention some of his recent iPad posts.
Right off he caught my attention with a post that expresses something I rarely see from fellow tech enthusiasts: A concern for the environment. Why is this so rare? I appreciate that he is writing about it and that his environmental ethics are a part of his decision making in regards to his consumption of technology.
Mehdi Hasan on the Majority Report last week on the media presentation of the student protests as violent:
They get attacked by pro-Israel counter protesters on Sunday and Wednesday night. Jewish professors like David Myers, distinguished history professor at UCLA, Dov Waxman, chair of Israel studies at UCLA, are coming out and saying it’s the counter-protesters, it’s people shouting stuff in Hebrew, right, attacking us viciously.
That happens and the New York Times is “well, we’re not sure who did it”, CNN are like “well, both sides attacked each other.” Are you joking? It’s on camera.
World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target | The Guardian
Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed.
Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit would be met.
Many of the scientists envisage a “semi-dystopian” future, with famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck.
Numerous experts said they had been left feeling hopeless, infuriated and scared by the failure of governments to act despite the clear scientific evidence provided.
“I think we are headed for major societal disruption within the next five years,” said Gretta Pecl, at the University of Tasmania. “ Authorities will be overwhelmed by extreme event after extreme event, food production will be disrupted. I could not feel greater despair over the future.”
Not surprising. We continue to move in the wrong direction.
Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere | The Guardian
The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet.
The global average concentration of carbon dioxide in March this year was 4.7 parts per million (or ppm) higher than it it was in March last year, which is a record-breaking increase in CO2 levels over a 12-month period.
Student Journalists Face Storm of Campus Protest Disinformation | WIRED
As campus protests reached new peaks last week, student newspapers like the Columbia Spectator at Columbia University were not only tasked with covering their peers but also the false and alarming narratives being spun up about and around them…
“I think the way that people saw the protest was completely different from how we observed it on campus. It wasn’t as rowdy as had been depicted. It was actually quite peaceful,” says Katrina Ventura, a student at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.
The US is propping up gas while the world moves to renewable energy - The Verge
“The decline of power sector emissions is now inevitable. 2023 was likely the pivot point – a major turning point in the history of energy. But the pace … depends on how fast the renewables revolution continues.”
It’s a transition that could be happening much faster if not for the US, which is already the world’s biggest gas producer, using record amounts of gas last year. Without the US, Ember finds, electricity generation from gas would have fallen globally in 2023.
Why is Jason Snell so confused about the iPad use case?
In the latest Upgrade Jason Snell’s just a broken record repeating his own nonsense at this point. His big storyline is the M4 iPad Pro is too expensive, too powerful for iPadOS. He wants to know what its use case is, who is it for?
But, now, wait, wait, wait. Wait. Thirteen months ago, Jason, along with every other podcaster/pundit, was asking the same question about the M2 iPad Pro. And, at that time, the big question, the demand being made over and over was: “Apple, where are your Pro apps for iPad? Where is Final Cut Pro? Where is Logic Pro? Where is Xcode?
Hey tech guy, just because some devices aren’t built around your needs doesn’t mean they are not useful to others: Jordyn Zimmerman a young, nonspeaking autistic woman uses the iPad to speak to those around her. It’s proven to be an invaluable part of her daily life and an essential tool through her education and now as an advocate for disability rights.
Jamie Wax sat down with Zimmerman in her first broadcast television interview to discuss the struggles she faced growing up, the way that a communication app on an iPad changed her life and her ability to connect with others.
A few thoughts on Apple's
While most are focused on the new iPad hardware I’ll start with what I consider the more important bits.
The importance of first and third party creative apps for professionals was highlighted by Apple and I think it’s worth a special call out as a counterpoint to the common narrative of the iPad is “Sure, the hardware is powerful but what can I do with it? It’s only good for consumption not creating.” An unfortunate story that won’t go away regardless of the many examples of real world uses by professionals creating a broad range of content.
Romney Admits Push to Ban TikTok Is Aimed at Censoring News Out of Gaza | Common Dreams
A discussion between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sen. Mitt Romney over the weekend included what one critic called an “incredible mask-off moment,” with the two officials speaking openly about the U.S. government’s long-term attempts to provide public relations work for Israel in defense of its policies in the occupied Palestinian territories—and its push to ban TikTok in order to shut down Americans' access to unfiltered news about the Israeli assault on Gaza.
The wealthy 10% of the over-developed nations are wondering where they’ll fly to for their next vacation.
Brazil battles nature as ‘largest ever’ floods submerge whole cities - YouTube
At least 83 people are dead after days of heavy rain in southern Brazil and more than a hundred are missing.
Another 122 thousand people have been displaced by floods, which have destroyed roads and bridges in several cities, triggered landslides and caused a dam to partially collapse.
Khürt Williams over at Island in the Net has a wonderful and ongoing series of bird photography posts. He doesn’t just stop at sharing a photo with the name of the bird. Each post is well written description of the bird as it exists in the ecosystem. Well done Khürt!