Putting this here so I won’t forget it. Maybe of use to others too…
Putting this here so I won’t forget it. Maybe of use to others too…
Posted at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I just received the email below from the Crisis Text Line policy review committee. I stand by my opinions in those tweets that are based on the facts that I’ve gathered from the public messaging and that sent to the crisis counselor volunteers. I’m not surprised by their actions here, just disappointed. It shows that the organization is still feeling and acting defensive rather than coming from a place of true contrition and a desire to change for the better.
I’m grateful for what I learned from them and the experiences I had volunteering with them. I’m also grateful they showed me their true colors so that I don’t waste any more time giving to and organization that is fundamentally at odds with my values.
On Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 11:18, Crisis Counselor Policy Review Committee <ccprc@crisistextline.org> wrote:
Hi, Dave. I am reaching out today with an important message from the Crisis Counselor Policy Review Committee of Crisis Text Line. Our committee consists of senior leaders in the organization. We are tasked with reviewing severe violations of our Code of Conduct and related policies. We're contacting you regarding some of your public activity which came to our attention.
I. Background
The safety and integrity of our community are extremely important to us. In relevant part, to further those goals, our Code of Conduct states that: “We are a diverse Community made up of individuals of different backgrounds. Anything, including harassment of any kind, that harms one of us, hurts all of us....” and “We will treat all members of the Community with respect.”In short, Crisis Counselors are responsible for maintaining a respectful and inclusive atmosphere in our community.II. Facts
On September 8, 2020 at 7:48 PM, you tweeted:
- “If you want to talk about suicide, I recommend you go to the experts at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline @800273TALK and skip @CrisisTextLine who's corporate culture is rooted in racism. #NotMyCrisisTextLine.”
- On September 8, 2020 at 12:56 PM, you tweeted: “Anyone who wants to talk through their trauma, DM me. I am a trained crisis counselor and I'd be more than happy using my skills to help assuage the damage inflicted upon anyone from the toxicity at... @CrisisTextLine. #DSWalkout #NotMyCrisisTextLine.”
- On September 4, 2020 at 8:18 AM, you tweeted: “OMG, they hypocrisy… Get your own house in order first if you want to have any credibility whatsoever. What substantial change have you made other than scapegoating your founder and ex-CEO? So many opportunities to do the right thing here wasted. #NotMyCrisisTextLine.”
III. Findings
Following a thorough investigation, we have determined you have violated our Code of Conduct as follows:
- Engaging in Disrespectful Behavior with Community Members. Engaging in disrespectful conduct toward members of our community is a violation of our Code of Conduct. Maintaining a safe, inclusive, and respectful atmosphere in our community is critical for our volunteers, and for the integrity of our service as a whole. While we understand that volunteers may have differing views regarding the org or its decision making processes, we offer numerous outlets for volunteers to air those grievances constructively within the organization -- such as through the Talk to Us function on our platform, emailing your Coach, emailing info@, or emailing ccprc@ for alleged misconduct. Here though, where a volunteer instead simply publicly denigrates the organization on social media and indicates that they no longer want to be a part of it, we have a responsibility to act.
IV. Conclusion
The policies discussed above are grounded in protecting the safety and integrity of our CC community and the organization. We take those policies seriously, and have determined that in light of these violations, we must dismiss you from our Crisis Counselor community.We hope that you are able to find another volunteer opportunity that suits your interests, and we thank you for your contributions to Crisis Text Line. We wish you the best.
Posted at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Here are the tactics I use when voting for down-ballot offices that I’m not as familiar with:
Posted at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
We know that fire is an integral part of forest ecosystems. We know that our previous policy of “complete fire suppression” is a recipe for disaster. And yet parks still screwed up and was at least indirectly responsible for the blaze that eliminated most of the structures in the park. And one of the park’s environmental scientists saw it coming:
Nine months before Big Basin Redwood State Park suffered its worst fire in recorded history, one of the park’s environmental scientists gave a podcast interview revealing that a prescribed burn had not taken place within the park in three years… “Given the right conditions, we’re poised to have catastrophic wildfires all over California,” says [Portia] Halbert, who works for the Santa Cruz District of the California State Park System.
And it looks like bureaucracy was to blame. The government doesn’t have the fortitude to publicly stand up and say that being overly cautious regarding moisture, wind, and air quality has its own risks, the consequences we are seeing right now.
The fact that prescribed burns have not taken place in Big Basin for years is a surprise even to people who work for the park and partner organizations.
“We haven’t done a large burn in Big Basin in the last three years because the weather hasn’t lined up,” Halbert says in the podcast. She brings up other bottlenecks to prescribed burns including permitting issues, staffing, and a short — or nonexistent — window for favorable weather conditions.
Big Basin burns can only happen in the fall. The fuel, composed of vegetation and plant material that burns easily, can’t be too wet or too dry. There must be some rain, but not too much. Winds must be blowing away from populated areas. If the winter rains come, the opportunity is gone.
Strict guidelines established by the Clean Air Act and enforced by air-quality districts can also prevent burns. “It’s a great thing to protect public health, but it makes it challenging for us to actually implement prescribed fires,” Halbert says.
For these reasons and more, prescribed burns have been underutilized not only in Big Basin but throughout California, according to a recent Stanford study published in Nature.
Posted at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I was expecting a call from someone in this region so when I picked up I thought it might be from them. It turned out to be scammers claiming there was a problem with my social security number. When he asked me to verify my SSN, I said I don’t feel comfortable giving that information out over the phone. He insisted I needed to in order for him to help me fix the problem. I said, this feels like a scam to me. I’m not giving you my SSN. Please fix the problem without it. And he said “fuck you” and hung up.
Posted at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
A month ago I nearly quit Facebook altogether. But on further consideration, I realized that there was still value in it for keeping in touch with some friends and acquaintances in my life. So I focused my efforts on optimizing my experience for that, and that alone.
This means unfollowing nearly every non-friend organization, artist, musician, influencer, and brand I had mindlessly “liked” over the years. Here’s the page where you can do the same:
Next, I cleaned out left most groups I had joined, either turning off notifications, or leaving the group altogether. You can do both of these things in the ••• menu at the far right side of the header when viewing a group.
I also became be more selective with who I allow in my feed. I unfollowed (but remained friends) for many folks in the long tail of my friends list (available in the ••• menu in the upper-right of one of their posts), or even unfriended a few where I felt like—even if we had had a closer connection at one point—we don't have what I would consider a friendship at this moment.
Finally, I started making ample use of the “Hide post” option. Even for people I like, sometimes they get a bit… spammy with their postings. I have a family member whom I love dearly, but they post way too many links to political stories with no additional comment or manipulative memes (“I bet this won’t get one like or share” 🙄) and I just won’t tolerate those in my feed anymore.
And when you do all that, you know what happens? It’s no longer possible to doom scroll your news feed. When you are only viewing posts from a small group of people you actually like, you can legitimately get to the end. And that is a good feeling. 😊
[Cross-posted to IT4NP]
Posted at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
California needs to shrink its agricultural footprint to match the scale of its water resources, which means other regions of the US should ramp up their own fruit and vegetable production to make up the difference. In the corn belt, US federal farm policy should stop paying farmers to overproduce corn and soybeans, and instead push them to diversify their plantings and keep their land covered all winter – practices known to maintain high levels of production while also preserving soil, decreasing water pollution and slashing the need for pesticides and fertilizers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/26/us-farming-agriculture-food-supply-danger
Posted at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Go to the PurpleAir.com map and be sure to change the dropdown in the lower left panel from None to LRAPA.
For more details on why, read this.
Posted at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)