Dear Commons Community,

American women experienced the agony and ecstasy of sports this weekend seeing the US soccer team eliminated in the World Cup while Simone Biles made an incredible comeback in gymnastics.

The US team was knocked out of the Women’s World Cup yesterday after losing a dramatic penalty shootout against Sweden. The two-time reigning champions were defeated in the round-of-16, marking the earliest exit ever for the US at the tournament. The American players were in utter heartbreak after US goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher thought she had saved Sweden’s final penalty kick, but video replays showed the ball had narrowly crept over the line. “We just lost the World Cup by a millimeter,” Naeher told Fox Sports after the team’s three-peat dream came to an end. It was also likely the last World Cup appearance for American legend Megan Rapinoe, who announced she would be retiring from the sport later this year. “I’ve loved playing for this team and playing for this country,” Rapinoe said after the match. “It’s been an honor.”

Simone Biles, on the other hand,  returned to the gymnastics stage for the first time since she appeared in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics on Saturday. She departed from competing following a decision made to “focus on her mental health,” a statement by USA Gymnastics said at the time. Biles began the Core Hydration Classic with a solid uneven bars routine, which earned her a score of 14. She then competed on beam, which she achieved a score of 14.800 for after one error made in landing her full-twisting flip. Her floor routine went perfectly afterward, earning her a score of 14.9.  Biles finished with a score of 15.4 for vault after she landed her Yurchenko double pike.  She finished with an overall score of 59.100 for a triumphant victory,

“Tears of joy as I make this comeback, surrounded by the love you’ve shown! thank you for believing in me,” Biles wrote as she posted a photo of herself punching the air with her fist at the championships in Illinois.  “Happy to be back out on the floor! This journey has been a roller coaster of emotions. Thank you for believing in me,” Biles added on Twitter.  On her Instagram Story, Biles also posted a photo of the sweet display she received on her flight after the U.S. Classics, which showed the interior of a jet decorated with huge silver balloons that read “CONGRATS,” as purple and white balloons covered the seats.

The US Women’s Soccer Team and Simone Biles have brought great pride to our country.  Congratulations to all!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

There is a possibility of a debate between California’s Gavin Newsom and Florida’s Ron DeSantis — two governors on the opposite ends of the political spectrum.    Both sides have expressed some interest but are stuck in laying out the format and venue for the debate.  As reported by NBC News.

Newsom’s team Saturday questioned DeSantis’ proposed rules for their debate on Fox News.

“Desantis’ counterproposal is littered with crutches to hide his insecurity and ineptitude — swapping opening statements with a hype video, cutting down the time he needs to be on stage, adding cheat notes and a cheering section,” Newsom’s staff  said. “Ron should be able to stand on his own two feet. It’s no wonder Trump is kicking his ass.”

DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, told Hannity on Wednesday that he would be willing to debate Newsom, a Democrat with whom he has frequently clashed over issues like guns, abortion, education and immigration.

“Absolutely. I’m game. Let’s get it done. Just tell me when and where. We’ll do it,” DeSantis said, agreeing to the debate idea that initially came about in June, when Hannity asked Newsom whether he’d debate DeSantis.

Newsom sent a formal debate offer letter to Hannity last month that included rules such as that the debate would be moderated by Hannity, be broadcast live and be 90 minutes in length and that both governors wouldn’t use notes. Newsom also proposed Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina as potential locations.

In a letter to Hannity dated Friday, DeSantis’ team offered its own rules, which diverged from some proposed by Newsom. Some of the differences:

• DeSantis suggested four dates from Sept. 19 to Nov. 8, while Newsom proposed two dates in November.
• DeSantis wanted a live audience with a 50-50 split, while Newsom said “no live audience.”
• DeSantis doesn’t want opening remarks, while Newsom would like both participants to get four minutes.
• DeSantis proposed that they each submit a 2-minute-long video that must be approved by Fox News before it is played at the top of the debate.

Hannity framed the event Wednesday as a “policy-based debate” between the heads of a red state and a blue state, but DeSantis has said the debate will be far more than that.

“This is the debate for the future of our country,” he told Hannity.

I think there would be great interest on the part of the viewing public for this debate!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Lecturers at some 140 universities have refused to mark exam papers and coursework, in an escalation of a simmering dispute over pay and working conditions. Thousands of students from Cambridge to Edinburgh are unable to graduate or face indefinite delays in receiving their final marks because of the latest labor dispute, which began in April and shows no sign of resolution.  As reported by the Associated Press  and the Times Higher Education.

It’s not clear exactly how many students are affected, but the University and College Union (UCU), which represents academics and lecturers, estimated that “easily tens of thousands” will not graduate this summer as disruptions look likely to drag on into the next academic year.

The uncertainties have been particularly worrying for international students, who face additional complications and costs to remain in the U.K. Those hoping to stay in the country to look for work can only apply for a graduate visa after they get their degree.

The University and College Union blames college administratons  for “throwing students under the bus.” It argues that universities have enough surplus income to raise staff wages by 10%, but are refusing to offer staff anything on pay increases.

“The pay of my colleagues has decreased in real terms, it has been cut by around 20 to 25% over the last 10 or so years. And though there have been very, very incremental increases, these have been well below the rate of inflation,” said Tanzil Chowdhury, a senior law lecturer at Queen Mary University.

He added that the majority of academic staff in the U.K. are overworked and have long endured insecure contracts, “working month to month or year to year.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Times Higher Education, formerly The Times Higher Education Supplement, is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2023 include 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.

The ranking is based on 13 calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

This year’s ranking analyzed over 121 million citations across more than 15.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 40,000 scholars globally. Overall, more than 680,000 data points from more than 2,500 institutions that submitted data, were collected.

Here are the top ten for 2023.

Nice to see seven of these ten colleges are in the United States.

Tony

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Dear Commons Community,

Maureen Dowd in her column this morning entitled, “Coup-Coup-Ca-Choo, Trump-Style” provides a warning about Donald Trump and his willingness to wreak havoc on our democracy.  Here is an excerpt:

“The man who tried to overthrow the government he was running was held Thursday by the government he tried to overthrow, a few blocks from where the attempted overthrow took place and a stone’s throw from the White House he yearns to return to, to protect himself from the government he tried to overthrow.

Donald Trump is in the dock for trying to cheat America out of a fair election and body-snatch the true electors. But the arrest of Trump does not arrest the coup.

The fact is, we’re mid-coup, not post-coup. The former president is still in the midst of his diabolical “Who will rid me of this meddlesome democracy?” plot, hoping his dark knights will gallop off to get the job done.

Trump is tied with President Biden in a New York Times/Siena College poll, and if he gets back in the Oval Office, there will be an Oppenheimer-size narcissistic explosion, as he once more worms out of consequences and defiles democracy. His father disdained losers and Trump would rather ruin the country than admit he lost…

Her conclusion:

While Trump goes for the long con, or the long coup — rap sheet be damned, it’s said that he worries this will hurt his legacy. He shouldn’t. His legacy is safe, as the most democracy-destroying, soul-crushing, self-obsessed amadán ever to occupy the Oval Office . Amadán, that’s Gaelic for a man who grows more foolish every day.

More foolish and more dangerous!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Justice Department yesterday asked a federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Washington to step in after he released a post online that promised revenge on anyone who goes after him.  As reported by various media.

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a protective order in the case a day after Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss and block the peaceful transition of power. The order — which is different from a so-called “gag order” — would limit what sensitive information Trump and his legal team could share publicly about the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

Such protective orders are common in criminal cases, but prosecutors said it’s “particularly important in this case” because Trump has issued “public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys and others associated with legal matters pending against him.”

They pointed specifically to a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform from earlier Friday in which Trump wrote, in all capital letters, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you.”

Prosecutors said that if Trump were to begin posting about details from grand jury transcripts or other information handed over by the Justice Department, it could have have a “harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty to four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Trump is a pathetic bully who uses social media and other venues to threaten and to intimidate.  In person, he is a coward as was evident during the January 6th insurrection.  He incited the crowd to storm the Capitol and disappeared to the safety of the White House.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Chaos ensued when thousands packed Manhattan’s Union Square for a live streamer’s hyped giveaway that got out of hand yesterday afternoon.  People were climbing on vehicles, hurling chairs and throwing punches (see video below).  As reported by the Associated Press.

Aerial TV news footage showed a surging, tightly packed crowd running through the streets, scaling structures in the park and snarling traffic. Shouting teenagers swung objects at car windows, threw paint cans and set off fire extinguishers. Some people climbed on a moving vehicle, falling off as it sped away. Others pounded on or climbed atop city buses.

By 5:30 p.m., police officers in growing numbers had regained control of much of the area, but small skirmishes were still breaking out, with young people knocking over barricades and throwing bottles and even a flowerpot at officers. Police were seen wrestling people to the ground and chasing them down the street.

Police planned to charged the streamer, Kai Cenat, with multiple counts of inciting a riot, unlawful assembly and possibly other crimes, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said in the evening. Officers arrested 65 people, including 30 juveniles.

A number of people were injured, including at least four people taken away in ambulances, Maddrey said, adding that he saw other people leaving the area with bloodied heads.

“People were suffering out here,” Maddrey said. Some motorists were trapped as people climbed on top of their cars. Maddrey said several police vehicles were damaged, including his.

On his Instagram feed, Cenat had promoted a giveaway at 4 p.m. in the park. People started lining up as early as 1:30 p.m. By 3 p.m., the crowd had swelled and was getting unruly. Some young people leaving the park said they had come expecting to get a computer for livestreaming or a new PlayStation.

Skylark Jones, 19, and a friend came to see Cenat and try to get something from his giveaway. When they arrived the scene was already packed. Bottles were being thrown. There was a commotion even before Cenat appeared, they said.

“It was a movie,” Jones said. Police “came with riot shields, charging at people.”

Cenat, 21, is a video creator with 6.5 million followers on the platform Twitch, where he regularly livestreams. He also boasts 4 million subscribers on YouTube.

His 299 YouTube videos have amassed more than 276 million views among them. In December he was crowned streamer of the year at the 12th annual Streamy Awards. Messages sent to his publicist, management company and an email address for business inquiries were not immediately returned.

Livestreaming on Twitch from a vehicle as the event gathered steam, Cenat displayed gift cards he planned to give away. Noting the crowd and police presence, he urged, “Everybody who’s out there, make sure y’all safe. … We’re not gonna do nothin’ until it’s safe.”

Eventually he and an entourage got out of the vehicle and hustled through a crowd, crossed a street and went into the park, where Cenat was surrounded by a cheering, shoving mob.

Maddrey said Cenat at some point in the afternoon was removed “for his safety” and police were in contact with him. Videos posted on social media and taken from news helicopters showed Cenat being lifted over a fence and out of the crowd and then placed in a police vehicle.

The police chief also said a city bus filled with people who were arrested came under attack, and more police had to be sent to protect it. Numerous people were seen in hand restraints, sitting on the sidewalks, and multiple young men were taken away in handcuffs.

“We have encountered things like this before but never to this level of dangerousness,” Maddrey said. Three officers were hurt, including a sergeant who broke a hand. A teenager was injured by exploding fireworks, he said.

Disgraceful. The police should throw the book at Cenat and the  rioters.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

A strange, dangerous game of targeting and ramming into small sailing and fishing boats is spreading through a population of orcas off Spain’s coast.

Scientists say at least 20 Iberian orcas have now learned the behavior by copying their elders.

It is believed that one or two orcas started interacting with and damaging small sailing vessels in 2020 (see video below).

Scientists told the BBC the animals appear to be “playing” with the boats rather than acting aggressively.

“It’s only a game. It isn’t revenge [against boats], it’s just a game and that’s it,” said Dr. Renaud de Stephanis, a scientist based on the south coast of Spain.

Dr. de Stephanis is president of Conservation, Information and Research on Cetaceans (CIRCE), a marine conservation organisation. He said the orcas, also known as killer whales, appeared to be playing a “game” focused on the boats’ rudders – part of the moveable steering apparatus that sits in the water.

He and his colleagues have now pinned satellite tracking tags to the fins of two of the fewer than 60 animals in this population, which is critically endangered.

The Spanish government is using maps of their movements to help inform sailors about how to avoid these marine mammals, which hunt for tuna along the coast of Portugal and Spain, and through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar.

French sailor Lou Lombardi had his own encounter with the orcas near Gibraltar in July. He and the rest of the crew watched as five of the animals nudged and spun his boat around for 80 minutes – hitting the rudder until it split apart.

Talking to us in the shipyard in Barbate in Spain, as he and his colleagues prepared to put their repaired boat back into the water, he said the encounter appeared playful rather than aggressive.

“There’s foam inside the rudder that went into the water, he explained, “and the orcas were pushing it around with it on their noses – like a toy.

“I had the feeling they were training each other,” he told us. “There were two calves, and the adult would do it, then watch while the calf did it – like they were transmitting something.”

Orcas are known to be highly social mammals. Other subspecies of killer whale have been recorded playing with floating seaweed, toying with fishing gear and one population in the Pacific even went through an apparent phase of carrying dead salmon around on their heads.

Using boat rudders as playthings is novel behavior and it is currently confined to this small, endangered Iberian population, but the young animals do appear to be copying adult orcas.

By examining footage and images, captured by sailors, scientists have identified some of the animals involved.

Monica Gonzalez is a marine biologist with the organisation Orca Iberica, which is logging and mapping the orca encounters reported by sailing vessels. She explained: “The adults are very targeted – they’re focused on the rudder – just the rudder.

“But the juveniles seem to approach, move away, explore the whole boat – it’s a very different kind of behavior.”

These large, intelligent and now troublesome marine mammals are causing confusion and division in both the sailing and the scientific community along this stretch of the Atlantic coast.

Some scientists have suggested that one female orca started “attacking” boats as revenge, because she had been injured by a vessel.

Nuria Riera, an artist who lives in Tarifa on the southern Spanish coast, and who volunteers with the conservation and whale-watching organisation Firmm, says the language that has been used to describe the orcas’ behaviour is simply unfair.

“Scientists don’t even know why they are doing this,” she said. “And yet I’m reading reports about orcas attacking – it’s such aggressive language.

“We have to remember that the sea is their home – we’re the intruders,” she said.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The College Board announced yesterday that Florida school districts should no longer offer Advanced Placement Psychology, one of the most popular A.P. courses, the latest skirmish in its battle with the state’s Department of Education over how to teach race, gender and sexual orientation.

The College Board, the nonprofit that oversees advanced placement courses and the SAT, revoked its support for A.P. Psychology in Florida, saying it would not abide by the state’s demand to remove a longstanding section on gender and sexual orientation.

Florida superintendents were advised yesterday by the state to nix their Advanced Placement Psychology classes unless they exclude any topics related to gender or sexuality, according to The College Board, which oversees the AP program.

Such a shift would mean the courses couldn’t be called Advanced Placement, however, or used by students to earn college credit, the College Board said. And the organization is advising Florida districts not to offer the class until the state reverses its decision, saying any AP Psychology course taught in Florida will violate either state law or college requirements.  As reported by The New York Times and USA Today.

“We are sad to have learned that today the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law,” the College Board said. “The state has said districts are free to teach AP Psychology only if it excludes any mention of these essential topics.”

In June, the College Board said it would not alter the popular AP Psychology class after the state asked the organization to review all AP courses to see if they “need modification to ensure compliance” with a Florida law and state Board of Education rule targeting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Florida’s school superintendents learned of the state education department’s decision in a conference call yesterday morning. The news means school districts may have to quickly rejigger many students’ schedules just days before the start of a new school year. This fall, about 30,000 students were enrolled to take the course statewide, the College Board said.

“We have heard from teachers across Florida who are heartbroken that they are being forced to drop AP and instead teach alternatives that have been deemed legal because the courses exclude these topics,” said the nonprofit, which also administers the SAT.

The state education agency in a statement blamed the last-minute change on the College Board’s refusal to comply with Florida law, saying the organization was forcing school districts to prevent students from taking the class.

“The Department didn’t ‘ban’ the course,” Deputy Director of Communications Cassie Palelis wrote. The class is still listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory for the 2023-2024 year.

“We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly,” she said. “The other advanced course providers (including the International Baccalaureate program) had no issue providing the college credit psychology course.”

In the state capital of Tallahassee, a spokesperson for Leon County Schools said the district planned to offer the class at all six of its high schools this fall, and as of Thursday, 381 students were set to take the course.

More than 28,000 Florida students at 562 schools in Florida took AP Psychology last school year, the College Board said. Noah Summerlin, a rising senior at Leon High School, was one of them.

“High school students, by and large, are capable of higher thought and rational decision-making,” he added. “By excluding the fields of

Gender and sexual orientation have been a part of the AP Psychology curriculum for the past 30 years, according to The College Board.

The portion of AP Psychology in question is unit 6.7, which discusses gender and sexuality and includes the definitions of gender, sexuality, gender roles and stereotypes and their socialization factors.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) , the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights group, blasted the state’s decision, calling the move a “disturbing” attempt to rewrite history.

“College Board’s AP Psychology curriculum is science-driven and endorsed by both educators and experts,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said. “Educational systems that reject the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people from their psychology courses are failing in their commitment to students.”

The American Psychological Association also expressed disappointment, calling the loss of course in Florida an “enormous disservice” to students.

“Requiring what is effectively censored educational material does an enormous disservice to students across Florida, who will receive an incomplete picture of the psychological research into human development,” APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., said. “An Advanced Placement course that ignores the decades of science studying sexual orientation and gender identity would deprive students of knowledge they will need to succeed in their studies, in high school and beyond.”

College Board’s AP African American Studies class, alleging it violated state law because of topics such as Black Lives Matter, Black feminism and reparations.

Florida’s “Stop WOKE Act” restricts how race is discussed in schools, colleges and workplaces and prohibits any teaching that could make students feel they bear personal responsibility for historic wrongs because of their race, color, sex or national origin.

The AP class still has not been approved to be taught in Florida.

Ban the books, ban subject matter, ban free thought!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Last night, I made sure to catch a glimpse of the first full moon of August, also know as the sturgeon moon. The moon rise was quite a show.  I took these two photos from my deck, but they don’t fully capture the beauty of the event.

Tony