Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Not helping:
• The way things are going in likely Trump appointments, that dentist who shot Cecil the lion will probably be hired to run the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. But there are other choices.
• We’re halfway through Native American Heritage Month. Have you or any kids you know read any of the 30 books on the list of the First Nations Development Institute? In October, ahead of this month’s celebration, First Nations launched the national #NativeReads campaign by featuring five selected children's books by American Indian authors. The campaign includes a discussion guide for each book, plus a list of “Ten Ways to Make a Difference” by promoting or sharing the books. On Nov. 1, First Nations supplemented that original list with an additional 25 “must read” books for children and young people. You can access the entire list here..
• According to the Merriam-Webster Twitter account, “fascism” was the most looked-up word in the week after the election. Others words that got a lot of attention: misogyny, xenophobia, racism, bigot, socialism, resurgence. On Monday, Merriam-Webster’s word of the day was “hoke,” from hokum. On Tuesday, it is “quid pro quo.” Are they trying to tell us something?
• Twitter finally takes steps to deal with trolls. But are they enough?
Today, after months of criticism from users, activist groups, and former employees, Twitter is rolling out new product and policy updates in an attempt to combat the harassment, hate speech, and trolling that has plagued the platform for a decade.
On the product end, Twitter has augmented its mute feature to allow users to filter specific phrases, keywords, and hashtags, similar to what’s found on Instagram, which added a keyword filter this September. The feature was widely believed to be close to completion late last month after Twitter temporarily rolled out a test of the mute filter to select users.
• Tom Freeman offers the most succinct, yet in-depth analysis of Trump victory so far. Lewis Black is probably jealous.
• Nicolas Sarkozy proposes a carbon-tax on U.S. goods if Trump pulls nation out of Paris climate agreement. Sarkozy, who was president of France from 2007-2012, told the French television channel TF1 that he would “demand that Europe put in place a carbon tax … of 1 to 3 percent for all products coming from the United States, if the United States doesn’t apply environmental rules that we are imposing on our companies.”
• Government-owned Swedish company to build low-priced off-shore Danish wind farm:
Sweden's Vattenfall set a world record for the lowest price ever paid for offshore wind power. The state-owned energy company bid EUR 49.9 (or $54) per megawatt-hour to develop the Danish Kriegers Flak, a 600-megawatt offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea, about 15 kilometers off the Danish island Møn. Kriegers Flak. For comparison, the average cost of offshore wind is around $126 per megawatt-hour.
As a pioneer in wind power, having installed its first turbines in the mid-1970s, Denmark's latest renewable energy project puts the country on track to meet its 2020 goal of getting 50 percent of its power from renewables. The nation plans to ditch fossil fuels entirely by 2050.
• Twitter bot experiment—telling people not to be racist can work—but only if it comes from someone influential and white.
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin ponders the future of Obamacare. Fakebook, and what a huge problem it is. Armando sounds a new watchword: emoluments. Host David Waldman reminds you that Trump World & the so-called “alt-right” are just penis cults.
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