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Watch Duty

From the Hollywood Reporter’s article, “How Watch Duty Became an Essential Resource for Angelenos During Wildfires”:

“I don’t want to sell this. To who? No one should own this. The fact that I have to do this with my team is not OK. Part of this is out of spite. I’m angry that I’m here having to do this, and the government hasn’t spent the money to do this themselves,” Mills says. “So, no, it’s not for sale. No, I’m not open to change all of a sudden, and I just don’t give a shit.”

There used to be a couple places you could reliably find good information on an unfolding natural disaster—namely Twitter and Facebook. But for reasons… [gestures broadly], this is no longer the case.

I had not heard about Watch Duty before this disaster, but if you live in the Western U.S.—and let’s face it, even in a neighborhood you think is safe from a wildfire event—this app should probably be on your phone.

Also, “I’m angry that I’m here having to do this, and the government hasn’t spent the money to do this themselves,” could probably sum up so much of modern life right now, sadly.

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Moon

In the vastness of empty space surrounding Earth, the Moon is our closest celestial neighbor. Its face, periodically filled with light and devoured by darkness, has an ever-changing, but dependable presence in our skies.

An incredibly-detailed and interactive microsite on our moon and its relationship with the earth.

Fun fact: the earth’s rotation is slowing down. On an infinite time scale that will be a problem for us, but for now, enjoy that each day is slightly longer—2 milliseconds per century—than it used to be.

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Native American Boarding Schools Took Children’s Culture, and Hundreds Died

The United States is only beginning to try to reconcile the abhorrent ways white settlers treated the children of indigenous people.

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Wealth shown to scale

If you counted to a million without taking breaks, it would take you more than 11 days. But to count to a billion would take you just under 32 years. And with breaks to sleep and eat? Almost a lifetime.