Informed – Page 38 – Confluence Daily

Reading Time: < 1 minute From our fear of women’s bodies to our sheepishness around the word “nipple,” our ideas about sex need an upgrade, say sex educators (and hilarious women) Tiffany Kagure Mugo and Siphumeze Khundayi. For a radical new take on sex positivity, the duo take the TED stage to suggest we look to Africa for erotic wisdom both ancient and modern, showing us how we can shake off problematic ideas about sex we’ve internalized and re-define pleasure on our own terms. (This talk contains mature content.)

Informed

August 2, 2018 Confluence

You Decide: Understanding Obstruction of Justice

Reading Time: 4 minutes Our forefathers framed the Constitution around one simple belief. A President would not be allowed to abuse his power. These people were trying to build something that wouldn’t devolve into tyrannical abuses of kings and queens. They had some experience there. They knew what they wanted to avoid. The power handed to a president is a sacred trust, and if abused should be revoked. If you want to know what the founders had in mind, read the Declaration of Independence, which formed the essential backdrop for the constitutional debates.

Informed

August 1, 2018 Confluence

Senate Rejects Additional Funding for Election Security Ignoring Intel Warnings

Reading Time: 2 minutes “The American people should be very worried about the commitment of this president and his Republican allies in Congress to securing our elections,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said. “This is a party that has worked with this administration to undermine and minimize the investigation surrounding Russian interference in our presidential election.”

House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) fired back by calling Democratic opposition a “shrewd political shenanigan that has no merit to it,” the Post reported.

Informed

August 1, 2018 Confluence

Fake Videos of Real People and How to Spot Them

Reading Time: < 1 minute Do you think you’re good at spotting fake videos, where famous people say things they’ve never said in real life? See how they’re made in this astonishing talk and tech demo. Computer scientist Supasorn Suwajanakorn shows how, as a grad student, he used AI and 3D modeling to create photorealistic fake videos of people synced to audio. Learn more about both the ethical implications and the creative possibilities of this tech — and the steps being taken to fight against its misuse.

Informed

July 30, 2018 Confluence

Learning to Bridge Human Differences Lesson 4: Lesson on Privilege

Reading Time: 8 minutes Two people decide to go cycling. They decide to cycle for the same distance but take different routes. One takes a route that is a bit bumpy but pretty much downhill. It is hot, but the path is a little shady. For this person, the path was challenging and was definitely a vigorous workout, but this person feels good for meeting the challenge of the workout. When the two people meet up, the other person says that the ride was awful for her. Her path was also bumpy but the road she took was at an incline the entire time. She was even more sunburnt than the first person because she had no sunscreen. At one point, a strong gust of wind blew her over and she hurt her foot. She ran out of water halfway through. When she hears about the first person’s route, she remarks that her own experience seemed so much more difficult. Yet it was the same distance, and both rode their bikes. This is what privilege looks like.

Informed

July 25, 2018 Confluence

What’s Wrong with Having a Good Relationship With Russia? – Confluence Daily

Reading Time: 4 minutes The company a person keeps will tell you a lot about that person. Same goes for countries. That concept is what diplomacy is built on. As a nation, you ally yourself with other countries that share your values and vision for the future.

In theory, there would be nothing wrong with having a stronger relationship with Russia. The problem with that theory is Vladimir Putin.

Informed

July 24, 2018 Confluence

Teacher Crisis: Vice News Makes 8 Minutes of Video Well Worth Watching

Reading Time: < 1 minute Teachers in Oklahoma have been doing more with less for over a decade now: state funding for schools has decreased over 25 percent in the last 10 years, the state ranks dead last in teacher pay, and almost a quarter of its school districts transitioned to a four-day school week to save money on things like electricity and janitor hours. Earlier this year, 30,000 teachers walked out of their classrooms in an effort to change on that.

Informed

July 20, 2018 Confluence

The Most Important Article You Can Read Right Now About Trump is from the New Yorker

Reading Time: 3 minutes Suppose we are currently making the same mistake we made at the outset of this drama — suppose the dark crevices of the Russia scandal run not just a little deeper but a lot deeper. If that’s true, we are in the midst of a scandal unprecedented in American history, a subversion of the integrity of the presidency. It would mean the Cold War that Americans had long considered won has dissolved into the bizarre spectacle of Reagan’s party’s abetting the hijacking of American government by a former KGB agent. It would mean that when Special Counsel Robert Mueller closes in on the president and his inner circle, possibly beginning this summer, Trump may not merely rail on Twitter but provoke a constitutional crisis.

And it would mean the Russia scandal began far earlier than conventionally understood and ended later — indeed, is still happening. As Trump arranges to meet face-to-face and privately with Vladimir Putin later this month, the collusion between the two men metastasizing from a dark accusation into an open alliance, it would be dangerous not to consider the possibility that the summit is less a negotiation between two heads of state than a meeting between a Russian-intelligence asset and his handler.

Informed

July 19, 2018 Confluence

Learning to Bridge Human Difference Lesson 3: Privilege

Reading Time: 6 minutes One thing I often tell folks in my workshop: Please do not apologize for your privilege. Now you know you have it, what do you do? You become uber-aware of it and begin to look for who is disadvantaged by your privilege. If you get a job and you know that the brown skin woman who applied for it was more qualified, get in there and ask why you were hired and not her. Stand up for your values and call folk out on their racism, on how they are biased and using their power to promote their biases. Let them get totally uncomfortable with all that don’t let them off the hook.

Informed

July 18, 2018 Confluence

Domestic Violence: How To Help Someone You Care About

Reading Time: 3 minutes Often, a victim of abuse believes she has been successful in hiding it from the world, and it can come as a shock to find out that someone knows. There are often feelings of shame and humiliation, anger and denial, all of which make reaching out or confronting them tricky. There may even be issues with substance abuse at work, in which case you will want help from a professional. If you suspect a loved one is being abused, sit down and talk with her alone. Ask if she needs help. In many cases, saying the words out loud can “wake up” the victim and allow her to realize that she doesn’t have to stay in her situation.