I have reduced the time I spend following politics to an extreme degree and I feel much better. I have more time for my own projects and I feel like the ways that I’m engaging in political actions, however small, are just as well informed.

So much news is just six guys who keep repeating “It could be A or B or even Q. Who knows. Stay tuned.” over and over. You think they will do an analysis and give you a prediction but they are so bad at doing that. Huge waste of time.

10/10 do recommend

Hi Mastodon! I’m Sheril 👋

I am a scientist working in the U.S. Senate on policies related to energy, environment, ocean, ag & tech!

I also host Serving Up Science on PBS & wrote a couple of books.

My PhD is in community sustainability & I’m broadly interested in how we make decisions about science. #introduction

When I was a kid in the 70s people use to worry a lot about quicksand and spontaneous human combustion

seriously, this stuff came up media and, like, *everyday conversations*

what the hell was up with that?

the quicksand stuff -- it came up in movies a lot -- was, as I've read, kind of a sublimated colonialist thing; the terror of far-off savage lands, etc

but: spontaneous human combustion?

"To give some idea of what banning #fluoride might look like, Calgary, Canada, banned fluoride in 2011. In the eight years afterward, the need for intravenous antibiotic therapy for children to avoid death from #infection skyrocketed 700 percent at the Alberta Children’s Hospital."

Aside: This is because bacteria in untreated, infected #cavities can sometimes spread to other body parts, including the bloodstream, and lead to #sepsis.

https://newrepublic.com/post/188095/donald-trump-robert-f-kennedy-jr-plan-health-fda
#rfkjr #trump #dental #publichealth