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Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Brazil: missionaries ‘turning tribes against coronavirus vaccine’ | Brazil | The Guardian

Tribal leaders blame Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, and some of his avid supporters in the evangelical community for stoking scepticism about coronavirus vaccines, despite a national death toll that lags behind only the United States.

“Religious fundamentalists and evangelical missionaries are preaching against the vaccine,” said Dinamam Tuxá, a leader of APIB, Brazil’s largest indigenous organisation.

The Association of Brazilian Anthropologists denounced unspecified religious groups in a statement on Tuesday for spreading false conspiracy theories to “sabotage” the vaccination of indigenous people.

Source: Brazil: missionaries ‘turning tribes against coronavirus vaccine’ | Brazil | The Guardian

Former top aides say Attorney General Ken Paxton received assistance with home remodel, job for alleged girlfriend in return for helping political donor

Attorney General Ken Paxton during the 2014 Red State Gathering in Fort Worth.

Attorney General Ken Paxton during the 2014 Red State Gathering in Fort Worth.

Credit: Cooper Neill for The Texas Tribune

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Late last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fired multiple senior aides who accused him of accepting a bribe. A court filing obtained by The Texas Tribune reveals for the first time what four of those aides believe Paxton received in exchange for helping a donor with his business affairs.

An updated version of a lawsuit filed by the four whistleblowers claims that Austin real estate developer Nate Paul helped Paxton remodel his house and gave a job to a woman with whom Paxton allegedly had an affair.

In return, the aides allege, Paxton used his office to help Paul’s business interests, investigate Paul’s adversaries and help settle a lawsuit. The claims in the filing provide even more details about what the former aides believe Paxton’s motivations were in what they describe as a “bizarre, obsessive use of power.”

“Some of Paxton’s actions directing the [Office of the Attorney General] to benefit Paul were criminal without regard to motive,” the amended petition reads. “Others were so egregious and so contrary to appropriate use of his office, that they could only have been prompted by illicit motives such as a desire to repay debts, pay hush money, or reciprocate favors extended by Paul.”

Four of the aides sued Paxton in November after being fired. James Brickman, David Maxwell, J. Mark Penley and Ryan Vassar, who filed the lawsuit, claim the firings were retaliation for reporting Paxton’s behavior to federal and state law enforcement agencies. They told those authorities that they believed Paxton was abusing his power to help Paul, his friend and political donor who gave $25,000 to Paxton’s 2018 reelection campaign.

The allegations have reportedly sparked an FBI investigation.

Paxton has previously dismissed the plaintiffs as “rogue employees” wielding “false allegations.”

“Any accusations that the Attorney General acted contrary to the law are completely false and they will be proven false in court,” Ian Prior, a political spokesperson for Paxton, told the Tribune on Thursday.

The latest filing is vague on many details. It says that Paxton purchased a home worth around $1 million in the Tarrytown neighborhood of Austin in 2018. In 2020, the filing says, the house underwent renovations, “although permitting records in Travis County could not be located.”

“In mid-2020, some of the Plaintiffs received information suggesting that Nate Paul, either personally or through [a] construction company he owns and controls, was involved in the project,” the lawsuit states.

The filing doesn’t describe the nature of Paul’s alleged involvement or how they received the information.

The whistleblowers for the first time also allege that Paxton may have helped Paul because the developer gave a job to a woman with whom he had an extramarital relationship. The lawsuit notes that the woman had no previous experience in the construction industry, “much less managing construction projects.” The woman, who the Tribune is not naming because she is not a public figure, did not return a call for comment.

Last year, Paul revealed during a deposition in a separate lawsuit that he employed a woman at his company at Paxton’s recommendation. Paul said at the time that employing the woman was not a favor to Paxton. The Tribune and other media outlets have previously reported that Paxton told some of his top aides he was having an affair with the same woman; the aides claimed Paxton told them of the relationship in 2018.

The recent filing alleges that the woman is a former staffer of a Texas state senator. Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, was elected in 2018, but the woman did not work in her office. Angela Paxton’s office declined comment for this story.

“What is known paints a picture of personal, reputational, and financial ties to Mr. Paul that almost certainly explain why Paxton, acting in the scope of his official duties, abused his office and brought the power, resources, and personnel of OAG to bear in outlandish ways to personally benefit Mr. Paul and to benefit Paxton himself,” the lawyers write.

In January, the attorney general’s office argued the courts should dismiss the whistleblower lawsuit. The former aides issued a forceful rebuke this week. Paxton had argued that he is “not a public employee” and therefore cannot be sued under the Texas Whistleblower Act, which aims to protect government workers from retaliation when they report superiors for breaking the law.

“Not content with merely breaking the law, now OAG argues this court should rewrite the law and hold that Ken Paxton is above it,” attorneys for the whistleblowers wrote.

The whistleblowers have previously claimed that the attorney general’s most egregious abuse of power occurred when he hired a Houston defense attorney, Brandon Cammack, to review complaints Paul made alleging that he was mistreated by federal and state law enforcement officials when his home and business was raided by the FBI in 2019. While the aides tasked with investigating the issue found “no credible evidence” that Paul’s rights were violated, Paxton joined Paul and his attorney and pushed back, they say in court filings. Top aides said hiring Cammack to investigate Paul’s claims was unusual and improper, the filings state.

The whistleblowers said matters came to a head when Cammack obtained more than three dozen subpoenas they believed targeted Paul’s enemies.

But the whistleblowers said they felt pressure even before Commack was hired. In fall 2019, they were encouraged to help Paul’s attorneys obtain information through open records requests submitted to other agencies, related to the raid on his home and office. Paxton also took “a deep personal interest” in a lawsuit between Paul’s firm and an Austin charity, directing the office to intervene after it had said it would not get involved.

According to the filing, Paxton also directed top aides to issue a legal opinion that would help Paul’s business interests. Days after the opinion was issued, it was used by Paul’s attorneys to push off the foreclosure sales of several of his properties.

Weeks after the whistleblowers reported Paxton for his behavior, two of the plaintiffs were placed on leave before being terminated. The other two plaintiffs were also eventually fired as well.

The four plaintiffs are seeking reinstatement and compensation for lost wages and future loss of earnings. They also are seeking damages for emotional pain and suffering. If they win, the taxpayers will cover most of the litigation costs.

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Watch Two Korean Master Potters at Work

After the salt harvesting video I posted this afternoon, I got on a mini-roll watching videos from Eater’s Handmade series — specifically two Korean pottery videos. In the first video, master craftsman Yu Myeong Sik from the Kwangjuyo Group demonstrates how to make incredibly beautiful and delicate handmade bowls:

While in this one, Heo Jin Kyu shows how he makes huge pots used for fermenting kimchi called onggi:

As you might expect from the finished products, there are striking differences in their respective processes, but the level of craftsmanship and respect for traditional materials & practices are very similar.

Tags: art   Heo Jin Kyu   how to   video   Yu Myeong Sik

Upstate NY Proud Boy Member May Face Terrorism Charge In U.S. Capitol Riot

Dominic Pezzola of Rochester was also highlighted in video evidence of the Capitol riots at the impeachment trial hearings for former President Donald Trump. A photo of Dominic Pezzola allegedly using a riot shield to smash windows during the breach of the U.S. Capitol, as released in court documents.

A photo of Dominic Pezzola allegedly using a riot shield to smash windows during the breach of the U.S. Capitol, as released in court documents.

Dominic Pezzola of Rochester was also highlighted in video evidence of the Capitol riots at the impeachment trial hearings for former President Donald Trump. [ more › ]

Vaccine side effects are actually a good thing

Why you might feel sick after getting a Covid-19 vaccine.

Every vaccine comes with the chance of side effects. But with these new Covid-19 vaccines, the chances are much higher. Most people will feel pain at the injection site or fatigued. The vaccines come with more side effects than we’re used to, which can be scary. But scientists argue this is actually a good thing.

When we get, for example, the common cold, we may feel fatigued and get a fever or get the chills. But it’s not the virus that’s creating those symptoms — your immune system is making you feel that way as it fights off the virus.

And while vaccines are harmless — you won’t catch Covid-19 from the Covid-19 vaccine — they do train your immune system to fight off the virus. So you have the chance of feeling some of those same “sick” feelings as your immune system kicks in response to the vaccine.

Watch the video above to learn more about how your immune system works and why you may actually be happy to feel a bit “meh” after getting your shot.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube. Subscribe for more.

Opinion | Warming and Warnings From the High Himalayas – The New York Times

Like the Arctic and Antarctic poles, the Himalayas are warming much faster than other parts of the world, at a rate estimated to be up to three times the global average. Warming has been rapid over the past century. Though temperatures have varied depending on location, they have averaged 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit higher since 2000 compared with the 25-year period preceding it. The Himalayas thus offer a natural experiment: They are showing the havoc that can occur if we continue business as usual with greenhouse gas emissions.

Severe warming in parts of this towering mountain range, which stretches for 1,500 miles across Asia, from Pakistan to Bhutan, is demonstrating, for example, how climate change can drastically disrupt a region’s water cycle. Glaciers have lost mass and retreated significantly. Even moderate projections predict that the region’s massive ice flows will decline by approximately 60 percent by the end of this century, with a large number of glaciers disappearing outright.

Making Pancakes with Acorn Flour

Foundation Operation X for Languages, Cultures and Perspectives

Written by Dyami Millarson

My father and I picked acorns in Leeuwarden this autumn just like last year when we picked acorns for the very first time, turned them into acorn flour for the first time as well and made acorn cookies using the acorn flour that we had produced ourselves. It was a delightful experience last year, there is really nothing more satisfying than producing your own food. So we picked acorns this year as well to turn them into acorn flour. However, unlike last year, we decided to use our acorn flour this year for making pancakes. We observed many Dutch people were making pancakes this year that has been defined by various responses to the pandemic.

We mixed the acorn flour with normal flour just like we did in 2019 for making cookies. We experimented with the proportions and found the right approximate proportions after a few…

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