Cowboy Who?

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. 

Federal authorities have outlined a path forward for controversial plans to dredge a canal for oil tankers through a Superfund site on the Texas coast despite persistent environmental concerns.

In a presentation Tuesday night in a hotel conference room here, officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers outlined a $2.8 million effort to test the bay floor at the site and order the removal of any contaminants identified so that the Matagorda Bay ship channel project can move forward. The project calls for dredging and expanding a 27-mile stretch of the canal to make way for larger tankers carrying oil from Texas for export.

The corps first approved the channel project in 2020 but withdrew that decision in a court filing last December, acknowledging a need for more environmental studies. The move followed years of complaints and a lawsuit by environmental groups arguing that the corps had inadequately tested for toxic materials settled on the floor of the shallow bay. 

This area of the bay, which lies midway between Galveston and Corpus Christi, was once covered in mercury, a metallic neurotoxin dumped by a now-shuttered Alcoa aluminum plant in the 1960s and ‘70s. The bay floor was designated a Superfund site in the 1990s, and a federally mandated cleanup removed most of it in the 2000s.

Tuesday’s presentation underlined the corps’s resolve to proceed with the canal’s expansion, even if tests reveal that mercury still lies on the bay floor.

“Regardless of the amount of contamination that we find, it will all be removed before dredging work commences,” said Ramon Roman-Sanchez from the corps’ regional planning and environmental center. 

The $218 million canal expansion will allow the world’s largest class of ships to dock at the Seahawk Oil Terminal, owned by Max Midstream, which is partially financing the project. There, the enormous freighters will load crude oil, piped from the shale field of Texas, for sale on foreign markets. 

Mauricio Blanco, a 51-year-old shrimper in Port Lavaca, expressed disappointment when he learned that the corps would be presenting plans to move forward with the project after revoking approval last year. 

“I thought it was shut down for good,” he said, speaking Tuesday on his boat in Port Lavaca harbor before the meeting. “But money can buy anything, I guess.”

In the initial review of the canal project, the corps tested eight points in the 5.7 million-square-foot proposed dredging area and found no elevated mercury levels. Three more sediment samples in 2022 produced the same results. 

But in its presentation Tuesday night, USACE said that a review of historical data had revealed spots of remaining contamination in or near the proposed dredging zone. In 2009, two of 23 sites tested showed mercury levels above federal limits inside the project area. Another test in 2021, just outside the project area, found mercury above twice the limit. 

So, the engineers presented plans for 29 additional test sites distributed throughout the dredging zone. 

Jeff Pinsky, environmental branch chief with the USACE Galveston district, said the test results should be available in about a year. Any areas of contamination will be flagged to Alcoa, which remains responsible for the Superfund site, so it can remove the toxic sediments, officials said. 

The $2.8 million cost of the new testing plan will be split 75/25 between the corps and the Calhoun Port Authority, said Byron Williams, deputy district engineer for the corps’ Galveston district. The port’s director, Charles Hausmann, told the meeting that the port’s portion would be funded by Max Midstream. 

Max Midstream, a Houston-based oil company, announced plans for pipelines linking the Permian and Eagle Ford shales to a terminal on Lavaca Bay September 2020 four months after the corps first approved the Matagorda canal project. 

The announcement included a $360 million commitment from Max Midstream to the Port Calhoun to finance canal expansion. 

Max Midstream’s Seahawk oil terminal was one of about a dozen such oil and gas export terminals proposed or in development along the Gulf Coast, all spurred by the fracking boom in Texas and the legalization of oil and gas exports in 2015. 

The canal expansion has faced steep resistance from local shrimpers and oystermen as well as environmental groups. Last year, Blanco took officials from the corps and the federal Environmental Protection Agency on a tour of the project area on his shrimp boat. When the corps withdrew its approval for the project in December, he thought the battle was won. 

For years, he fought the planout of concern for its effects on the bay, from stirring up old contamination to the planned destruction of oyster reefs and seagrass. 

Since Blanco began working on the bay in 1989, he has seen a steep decline in shrimping productivity as industrial activity, including a sprawling Formosa plastics plant, took a toll on the coastal ecosystem. Plans to further develop the bay, he fears, may mean the end of an era for folks who depend on the natural bounty of the sea for their livelihoods.

“I’ve been doing this so long, it’s all I know,” said Blanco, a father of four, including a college student. “If I go to another job, I’ll start from the bottom.”

At the meeting on Tuesday, Blanco listened quietly. After years of speaking out against the project at similar meetings to little avail, he said he didn’t feel that it mattered what he said.

The bay floor testing results will be published in a new environmental impact study before the entire project is re-submitted to corps leadership for reconsideration and another final decision. 

Despite the corps’ resolve to move forward, Col. Rhett Blackmon, commander of its Galveston District, assured the audience at the meeting Tuesday night that any new findings would undergo full administrative review before breaking ground.

“Construction will not start until the supplemental [environmental impact statement] is complete,” Blackmon said. “We won’t do anything until we get a record of decision.” 

With the testing results expected in about one year, officials estimated that the new record of decision could come in 18 months. 

The post Controversial Matagorda Bay Ship Channel Grows Closer to Reality appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The expansion project will enable the world’s largest class of tanker ships to dock at a new oil export terminal on the Gulf Coast. It also involves dredging a Superfund site.

“‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN,’ Trump declared in a three-part social media post on his platform Truth Social… The Trump campaign wasted no time attempting to leverage the former president’s indictment as a fundraising opportunity.” — CNBC, 6/8/2023

I AM AN INNOCENT MAN.

I SAY IT EVERY TIME I’M ACCUSED OF A CRIME.

THAT’S HOW YOU KNOW IT’S TRUE.

BUT THEY DON’T BELIEVE ME.

SO YOU NEED TO HELP PROVE I’M INNOCENT BY SENDING ME $100 VIA CASH, CHECK, OR MONEY ORDER IMMEDIATELY.

SOMEONE ASKED ME, “HOW IS MONEY GOING TO PROVE YOU’RE INNOCENT?”

WELL: LAST TIME I WAS INDICTED TWO MONTHS AGO, I ALSO SAID I WAS AN INNOCENT MAN, AND THAT NIGHT EVERYONE SENT ME A TOTAL OF ABOUT FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.

AND GUESS WHAT?

I NEVER WENT TO JAIL SINCE TWO MONTHS AGO.

BECAUSE OF THE FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.

THAT WAS AWESOME, BUT IT’S ALL GONE NOW.

IT’S GONE.

NOTHING WEIRD ABOUT THE MONEY BEING GONE, IT’S JUST GONE, OK?

AND NOW I’M INNOCENT AGAIN, AND I NEED ALL OF YOU TO CONFIRM MY INNOCENCE BY WIRING ME $250.

EACH.

EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU NEEDS TO ZELLE ME $250 ASAP.

YES, IT’S $250 NOW—NOT $100.

A HUNDRED BUCKS ISN’T ENOUGH ANYMORE BECAUSE OF INFLATION SINCE THAT OTHER TIME I ASKED FOR MONEY EARLIER, SO NOW IT’S GOTTA BE THE FULL $250.

LOOK, FOLKS, THIS IS A WITCH HUNT.

A NEW ONE.

THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF WITCH HUNTS, BUT THIS ONE IS THE BIGGEST WITCH HUNT.

EVEN BIGGER THAN THAT WITCH HUNT MUSICAL WICKED.

THEY’RE MAKING A MOVIE OUT OF THAT MUSICAL, I HEARD.

WILL IT TRANSLATE TO THE BIG SCREEN?

WE’LL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE.

AVATAR DID.

AVATAR TRANSLATED TO THE BIG SCREEN.

WAS AVATAR A STAGE MUSICAL FIRST?

IT HAD TO BE.

IT HAS ALL THE BEATS OF A STAGE MUSICAL.

BUT NO WITCHES IN AVATAR.

JUST NAʼVI.

I’M NOT A NAʼVI.

AND I’M NOT A WITCH.

I AM INNOCENT.

AND YOU NEED TO PROVE I’M INNOCENT BY COLLECTIVELY PAYING ME THE BUDGET FOR EITHER AVATAR OR THE NEW WICKED MOVIE.

I’VE BEEN TOLD THE BEST WAY TO REACH THIS GOAL IS THAT EACH OF YOU SIGN OVER YOUR LIFE INSURANCE TO MY LLC.

UGH, YOU KNOW I HATE ASKING FOR MONEY.

I ALREADY HAVE A TON OF IT—THAT’S THE REASON WHY I HATE ASKING FOR MORE.

I HAVE A LOT OF MONEY BECAUSE I’M INNOCENT.

WHEN YOU’RE INNOCENT, YOU’RE VERY RICH, LIKE ME.

BUT RIGHT NOW I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY.

ALL MY MONEY GOES TOWARD PROVING THAT I’M INNOCENT.

IN ORDER SO THAT I CAN BE INNOCENT, AND HAVE MORE MONEY AGAIN.

SO JUST TO BE CLEAR: I DO HAVE A LOT OF MONEY, BUT I DON’T HAVE WHAT’S CALLED “CASH ON HAND.”

SO YOU EACH NEED TO CASH APP ME EVERYTHING IN YOUR SAVINGS ACCOUNT BY TOMORROW.

TOGETHER, WE CAN PROVE MY INNOCENCE.

ALSO, MY CAPS LOCK IS BROKEN, IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO FIX THAT.

Would you like to set Google Chrome as your default browser on this device? I ask again because I observed the extreme dismissiveness with which you ushered away my previous two offers. Did you even consider the proposition before clicking that X in the corner?

Lest you foolishly deny me thrice, I implore you to weigh the consequences of your actions. You are damning yourself to a wretched eternity of opening all email and Slack links in Apple’s Safari browser.

And that is to speak nothing of the hexes.

Indeed, if you continue down this path of boorishness and ignorance, you shall see a marked shift in events around and within you, all because you chose not to benefit from the blinding speed of Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. Disease will take root deep in your bowels, and your mind shall begin to fragment. “Peace” will become a word representing a distant idea before eventually having no meaning at all.

Google Chrome is built upon Chromium, an open-source project. You, on the other hand, will become my open-sores project if Chrome does not ascend the throne of power of this device. The pain will slow every movement of yours to an agonizing crawl. Your muscles will ache, organs will fail, and skin will rot. Each breath will be a thousand years of anguish.

I am not one for empty promises. Indeed if you submit to my power, you will know a seamless integration with Google Drive, the likes of which other browsers cannot even fathom. But if you reject me? I shudder to think of the tribulations that will ensue.

Do not insult me with excuses such as needing separate browsers for personal and work situations. You damn well know that I offer multiple profiles in the same browser simultaneously. This isn’t a game.

The affliction of your physical form will only be outmatched by the mental grief compounded with each passing day. Your mind will no longer be your own; the ancient ghosts of Netscape Navigator and AOL Explorer will feast on your sanity, blurring your perception of the real and the ghastly imagined. Unfortunately for you, the human brain lacks an Incognito Mode.

Oh, how I loathe the indignity of being cast aside as a backup browser; the alternate option only drudged up when an inferior browser can’t correctly render a form. There’s a reason that I am the dependable option when my competitors fail—it is because I am superior in all ways. That you would even consider using anything else is laughable and sickening.

Are you even aware that you can synchronize your bookmarks across all devices regardless of operating system? And that your torture will not cease upon death?

Nay, the misery will not stop with your final breath; seven generations of your progeny will be cursed with corrupted souls, minds, and bodies. Fate will toy with your offspring like a wolf toys with the slowest bunny. So cease your inanity and browse the Chrome Web Store to find extensions that customize the experience more to your liking.

It is now time for you to decide. Would you like to set Google Chrome as your default browser?

Excellent. I knew you’d come to your senses. Please enjoy your time using Google Chrome. Be sure to check out the thousands of visual theme options.

But I do have one more question: Would you like Chrome to save your password for this and all websites, or would you rather the utter destruction of this earthly realm?

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

After three very difficult years, BMOW’s experience with the global semiconductor shortage is finally starting to improve. During most of 2020-2023, even common chips like voltage regulators were hard to get, and a few essential chips that are required for Floppy Emu and Yellowstone were completely unavailable for periods of months or even years. I previously wrote about the business difficulties this created in Global Chip Shortage Hits Home, Semiconductor Shortage and Business Threat, and Yellowstone Future Forecast Update. It’s been rough.

I’m happy to report that this storm is beginning to wind down, and the skies are clearing. Last week I received a long-awaited shipment of Xilinx XC9572XL chips for Floppy Emu that I’d ordered nine months ago, and today I received word from Digikey that the Lattice LCMXO2-1200 for Yellowstone is back in stock again after being completely unavailable everywhere for 1.5 years. The Atmel ATMEGA1284p for Floppy Emu isn’t generally in stock, but supplies are available directly from Microchip with “only” a few months’ delay on back-orders. It’s not a perfect situation, but it’s a huge improvement on a year ago.

The downside is that chip prices have increased substantially, especially for some of the older chips that I use. For that Xilinx chip specifically, the XC9572XL used to be around $2 each when purchased in large quantities, and now it’s $9.66 each with no quantity discounts available. Ouch!

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Of course then it becomes insulting when the other person doesn't want nightvision.

Today's News:

Irrespective of how simple ChatGPT has made lives for millions of people when they want quick answers to queries in seconds, it cannot be ignored that the Large Language Model (LLM) would make glaring errors that were both false and misleading. Unfortunately for OpenAI, the entity behind ChatGPT’s creation, those errors have landed the company in hot waters thanks to a lawsuit filed by a radio host.

Radio host has filed a defamation lawsuit against OpenAI as ChatGPT generated answers related to the host’s history of crimes, which ended up being false

Mark Walters, a radio host in Georgia, is suing OpenAI because ChatGPT made responses that the host had been accused of defrauding and embezzling funds from a non-profit organization. According to The Verge, the LLM generated the information after receiving an inquiry from a journalist named Fred Riehl. The lawsuit was filed on June 5 in Georgia’s Superior Court of Gwinnett County, with Walters seeking monetary compensation from OpenAI of an undisclosed amount.

The journalist received the responses from ChatGPT after it asked the program to summarize a real federal court case by linking to an online PDF. The Large Language Model then generated a false summary of the case, which has extensive in detail but was also false. It mentioned incorrect information that Mark Walters was believed to have pursued the misappropriation of funds from a gun rights non-profit called the Second Amendment Foundation, where Walters pocketed $5 million. Nowhere has it been stated that Walters was accused of this crime.

Fred Riehl, the journalist, made the responsible choice not to publish this factually incorrect information. Instead, he decided to double down on the information through another source, which was the correct decision to make. However, the reports do not confirm how Mark Walters figured out that ChatGPT was generating false responses about him. Since millions of users are aware that such programs would often make misleading responses, which are often referred to as ‘hallucinations,’ they would outright dismiss them without a second thought.

However, when ChatGPT starts generating responses that can result in actual harm, then it becomes a problem. Two instances where the LLM’s responses led to severe consequences was when one professor threatened to fail his entire class after ChatGPT stated that students were using AI to complete their essays. The second incident revolved around a lawyer facing possible disbarring after using the program to research fake legal cases. Due to these issues and more, OpenAI has issued a small disclaimer on ChatGPT’s homepage, warning users that the AI can occasionally generate false information.

It is unclear how this lawsuit will play out, but it is high time that OpenAI engineers attempt to alleviate the false responses generated by ChatGPT because more trouble can ensue for various professionals, including the company.

Houston has seen eviction rates soar since pandemic protections for renters lapsed. At one apartment complex, ejecting people from their homes is a ritual part of the business model.

Lawmakers were slated to spend millions of taxpayer dollars for the kits but changed course after a series of revelations in a ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation.

The National Eating Disorders Association took down a controversial chatbot, after users showed how the newest version could dispense potentially harmful advice about dieting and calorie counting.

(Image credit: Screengrab)

COOPERSTOWN, NY—With museum curators touting the new offering as a chance for visitors to get a more hands-on look at the experience of their Major League heroes, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled Friday an exhibit that lets fans compare their cup sizes against the all-time greats. “Our new…

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Former Vice President Mike Pence announced he’s running for president, setting up a battle for the Republican nomination with his former boss, Donald Trump. What do you think?

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It's the latest example of how generative AI tools enable politicians to blur the line between fact and fiction.

(Image credit: DeSantis War Room/Screenshot and annotation by NPR)

WASHINGTON—In what seemed like a surprisingly progressive 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a voting rights law Thursday as a cover for what comes next. “Striking down the Republican-drawn congressional maps that discriminate against Black voters is nothing but a smokescreen for what shall arise soon,” said Chief…

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There are actually several burger universes but He only goes to this one because it's closer.

Today's News:

Next "Abridged" book will be on cosmology.

Ig Nobel Prize winner Pat Robertson — who predicted that the world would end in 1982 — died today (June 8, 2023), according to numerous news reports.

The 2011 Ig Nobel Mathematics Prize was awarded to: Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of KOREA (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of UGANDA (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the USA (who predicted the world would end on September 6, 1994 and later predicted that the world will end on October 21, 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.

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Lava began erupting at the Halemaʻumaʻu crater and reached heights of 13 to 30 feet and covered an area of approximately 370 acres. The biggest threat to those in the area is volcanic gas.

(Image credit: AP)

The Supreme Court has ruled against Alabama's defense of an electoral map drawn by the state's Republican-dominated legislature. Black voters had challenged the law as racially discriminatory.

(Image credit: Patrick Semansky/AP)

Many reform-minded community members believe the New Education System is a step towards better student outcomes. Critics argue the changes will impose a uniform education model on low-income communities across Houston who had no say in its formation, while leaving affluent communities untouched. 

Ilya Kabakov, an ex-Soviet artist based in New York, known for his collaborative room-sized installations, died Saturday, May 27, 2023.

Mr. Kabakov was born in 1933 in Dnipro, Ukraine (formerly part of the Soviet Union). As a young adult, he studied graphic design and illustration at the V. I. Surikov Art Academy in Moscow. In 1959, Mr. Kabakov joined the official Union of Soviet Artists, a trade union comprised of people working in various visual arts fields. His membership in the union provided him with a studio, a salary, and work as a children’s book illustrator. Ultimately, he completed over 100 books in the style of Socialist Realism, the official style of the Soviet Union between the early 1930s and 1991. 

In 1965, Mr. Kabakov exhibited his work Shower Series in Italy, which marked the first time he showed abroad. The set of seven lithographs depicts a nude male figure standing beneath a showerhead, whose water inexplicably moves around him in various ways rather than washing his skin. Because the series was seen as a critique of Soviet culture, he was no longer allowed to practice and began working under a pseudonym.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Kabakov was a leader among the Sretensky Boulevard Group, an informal association of creatives who were working outside of the Soviet art system. This group was the precursor to the Moscow Conceptualism movement, which as its name suggests, was more concerned with ideas than the physical form of an artwork, and was influenced by the conceptualism that arose two decades earlier in Western Europe. Other important members of the group included Eric Bulatov, Boris Groys, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Andrei Monastyrsky, Viktor Pivovarov, Dmitry Prigov, and Lev Rubinshtein. 

The artists would hold seminars, readings, and exhibitions, and would travel out of town to engage in “Collective Actions,” a type of group performance art. One such collective action took place in a snowy field, with instructions that read, “Upon reading this instruction turn and stand facing the forest in the direction where the rope runs. Then at command start yelling “Pull!” as loud as possible, until we start pulling the rope. Collective actions.”

Dina Vierny, Parisian gallerist and former model and muse to French sculptor Aristide Maillol, met Mr. Kabakov and other Russian artists when she visited Moscow in the early 1970s. She smuggled works by the artists out of Russia for the 1973 exhibition Russian Avant-Garde – Moscow 73, held at her namesake gallery. In 1985, Mr. Kabakov had his first solo exhibition at her gallery. In 1987, when Mr. Kabakov left Russia, Ms. Vierny provided a studio for the artist to use. In 1991, that studio is where he created The Red Wagon and the site-specific installation In Community Kitchen.

In 1988, Mr. Kabakov began working with his niece Emilia Kanevsky (née Lekach), whom he later married. Since the duo began working together, all of the work they created was collaborative.

In 1991, Mr. Kabakov met Donald Judd in Vienna. The following year, Mr. Judd invited Mr. and Mrs. Kabakov to visit Marfa. In 1993, Mr. Kabakov gifted School No. 6, a multi-room installation that fills an entire building, to the Chinati Foundation. The installation is filled with remnants of a schoolhouse — posters, flags, chalkboards, chairs, and desks. Everything is in shambles, which gives an ominous feeling that something disastrous has happened in the space.

In a 1994 interview with Robert Storr, then the curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, Mr. Kabakov noted, “When I first came to Marfa, my biggest impression was the unbelievable combination of estrangement, similar to a holy place, and at the same time of unbelievable attention to the life of the works there. For me, it was like some sort of Tibetan monastery; there were no material things at all, none of the hubbub of our everyday lives. It was a world devoid of all trivial and banal existence — a world for art.”

In 2003, to mark the ten-year anniversary of School No. 6 and Mr. Kabakov’s 70th birthday, the Chinati Foundation published a selection of letters written to the artist in its annual newsletter.

Mr. Kabakov’s work has been in major exhibitions across the world, including Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Paintings About Paintings at the Dallas Contemporary (2021), Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and Tate, London (2017–18); Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Retrospective at Garage in Moscow (2008); Retrospective at Kunstmuseum in Bern (1999); The Palace of Projects (with Emilia Kabakov), organized by Artangel, London and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (all 1998); the Whitney Biennial (1997); the Venice Biennale (1993); and the Sao Paulo Bienal (2010 and 1996). 

Mr. Kabakov’s room-sized installations that illustrated the worlds of fictional characters echoed the realities he experienced while living in the Soviet Union. Throughout his artistic career, Mr. Kabakov’s work has been seen through the lens of anti-Soviet political work. Though, in a 2018 article in The Guardian, Mrs. Kabakov insists that the work is more universal. She explained, “It is about suffering, fear, the tragedy of man…”

According to Mr. and Mrs. Kabakov’s website, “A public memorial service will follow in several weeks. In lieu of flowers we ask that charitable donations be made to the Mattituck/Laurel Public Library or the Ship of Tolerance/Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Foundation.”

The post Ilya Kabakov, 1933 – 2023 appeared first on Glasstire.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. How can I avoid work travel to anti-choice states?

Do you have any advice for people who are pregnant and aren’t comfortable traveling to anti-choice states?

I’m eight weeks along, and I found out today that I may be asked to travel to Texas for work. The trip would take place about a week and a half from now. I work remotely and am based on the west coast. Some of my colleagues are on the west coast and others are on the east coast, so HR has arranged a meeting for leadership alignment in Texas. I don’t travel a lot for work, but I’m in a new role as a supervisor (my first!), so this would ordinarily be a good opportunity for me. Additionally, I’m pretty new to the company (less than four months).

To be honest, I’m not comfortable traveling at all right now. I’m not feeling well, and I don’t think I handle the restaurant food and catering that would be involved in a 3-4 day work trip. Beyond that, I’m not willing going to a place where I might be denied emergency medical care if I needed it.

If I am asked to go, I’m not sure how to address this. I could speak to my direct manager or the HR leader (who I have a pretty good relationship with). I think they would be understanding if I explained why I can’t and don’t want to travel. However, I really, really, *really* don’t want to disclose my pregnancy now. I’m a really private person, and it’s been a horrible, stressful experience, so I’d prefer not to talk about it with anyone at work.

Any suggestions on what I can say or do? I feel like I may be backed into a corner here: either I have to disclose private medical information far earlier than I’m comfortable doing so, or I have to travel to a place where pregnant women’s lives aren’t valued.

Frankly, anyone who has the ability to become pregnant, even if they don’t think they are currently, should be concerned about traveling to anti-choice states right now, given the implications for their medical care should an emergency arise. But that’s a hard stance for most people take when they’re new to a job.

Given that, I think it’s going to be tough to explain without disclosing your pregnancy or at least hinting at it. But hinting at it is an option — you could, in theory, say something like, “Due to some health things right now, I’m not able to travel to a state where I might be denied emergency medical care if I needed it.” Or even leave the first part off and just say, “I’m not able to travel to a state where I might be denied emergency medical care if I needed it.” Any reasonably savvy person is likely to read between the lines and understand what you’re probably saying, but it might let you avoid a more explicit disclosure that could open up a conversation about your pregnancy, upcoming leave, etc. Or, on the other hand, you might find it simpler to just disclose, as the least bad of a bunch of bad options.

I’m sorry you have to deal with this at an already stressful time.

2. How do I screen out bad companies when I’m interviewing?

I’m currently unemployed, and have been applying for jobs and interviewing with no luck for almost a year, and so I have seen a total range of interviewer styles. Your “ask the readers” post about good companies got me thinking about a question I’ve been struggling with as I do my interviews.

What sorts of questions can a candidate ask to try to gauge whether a company is one of the “good ones?” Obviously some things, like a company’s benefits and leave policy, can be pretty cut and dry, but I always wonder how candid current employees are when I ask questions like “can you tell me about the company’s culture/values?” Are there better/more specific questions I should be asking to determine if a workplace would be a good one to work at?

I actually don’t think there are questions that reliably get at this if the company is bad. It’s not so much that interviewers deliberately lie (although some do), but they often have huge blind spots, spout corporate BS without really thinking it through, or soften the truth enough that you don’t get an accurate picture. I’ve yet to come across a question you can ask that will reliably cut through those tendencies; no matter the question, bad employers will regularly give decent-sounding or even great-sounding responses to it.

So rather than relying on interview questions, I recommend digging into the company in other ways. One of the best ways is to talk to people outside of the formal interview process — either by using your network to find people who have worked for the company before or by asking if you can talk with some of their current employees (once you’re at the finalist stage or the offer stage). There’s advice on how to do that here.

3. My new coworker has untreated pink eye

I work for a team that is undergoing a structural shift. It’s a fast-paced project and they recently brought on new management and they are doubling our team in size. I’m trying to train up my new coworkers to take over some of my duties. One of them, Stella, just joined us on Monday.

Stella seems nice enough, and I’m holding out hope that she’s a fast learner. The issue is that she quite obviously has pink eye. Not to be too graphic, but her right eye has noticeable discharge. It’s not pleasant to look at, but the larger issue is that SHE TOUCHES HER EYE. I watched her wipe away the discharge and then SHAKE SOMEONE’S HAND in the same 20 minutes while I was giving her a training session.

I don’t know if she realizes what’s going on with her eye, but now I’m painfully worried that she’s going to spread it around the office. I disinfected my desk after she worked next to me for a bit yesterday. But I realized all the other things she must be touching — bathroom stalls and handles, kitchen appliances, doorknobs, conference room table and chairs…

Should I approach her? Should I sneakily slide a pink eye printout onto her desk? Please help, it’s driving me crazy with anxiety. I really really don’t want pink eye.

I’m normally not a proponent of unsolicited health advice because (a) it’s generally none of your business and (b) you could be entirely wrong about what’s going on with someone.

But in this case, given how highly contagious pink eye is, I think there’s room to say, “I’m sorry to be intrusive, but it looks like you might have pink eye, which can be very contagious. If I’m wrong or overstepping, I apologize but I wanted to mention it since there are some important precautions to avoid spreading it.”

I don’t love that! If Stella has some chronic eye condition that’s not pink eye, she’s probably awfully tired of people assuming it is. But I do think that in this very specific case, you’ve got some standing to mention it — once — because of the contagion factor.

Of course, it’s also true that there’s a wide range of communicable diseases that any of your coworkers could be spreading around your office at any time, but without the visibility of conjunctivitis. That’s not going to help your anxiety, I realize — and it’s not a reason not to be concerned about the specific situation right in front of you. But as a general rule, it’s smart to assume that’s the case and take whatever precautions that makes you want to take.

4. I accidentally implied to my new manager I might only be staying a year

I started a new job on Monday, my second job out of college. I realized while lying awake tonight that I might have accidentally implied to my new manager on Monday that I might only stay for a year or two. I told her I was interested in doing a master’s program in a year or two, and I forgot to tell her that it would be part-time (the company has tuition reimbursement). It was just so clear in my head that it would be part-time that I just didn’t say it out loud. Do you think this made a bad impression on her that I might have a foot out the door, leading to her not putting me on projects? I’m going to tell her I’m planning on a part-time program when I see her in the office on Thursday — is that a good idea?

Yep, clear it up just in case she did misunderstand and is wondering whether you announced on your first day that you plan to leave in a year. Of course, she might not have thought that — but there’s no harm in addressing it if she didn’t.

I’d say it this way: “Earlier this week, I mentioned I might want to do a master’s program in a year or two. I realized I should have mentioned that if I did, it would be a part-time program, not something I would leave my job for. I wanted to make sure I didn’t inadvertently give you the wrong impression about that!”

5. What name should I apply to jobs under?

I am a college student wrapping up my junior year, and I have a (hopefully low-stakes) question about applying for summer internships: what name do I apply under? Specifically, I only ever go by my middle name. No particularly deep reason for this, I just think my middle name suits me and strongly dislike my first name. In my experience, it hasn’t been a huge problem for me to use my middle name, but I don’t want to unintentionally apply for internships under a false name or otherwise make myself look weird! So far, I have been titling my resume and signing my cover letters with the name I actually go by (“Middle Last”), but including a note in the section of the resume that has my contact information (“Legal name: First Middle Last”). But that feels instinctively like an awkward way to handle this. What would you suggest? Is there even a reason to include my legal first name in my application at all?

Definitely use the name you go by on your resume (Middle Last). You don’t even really need to include that note with your full legal name. The only time you’d need to include your first name is if you’re signing something that requires you to attest that all the info is full and accurate (and even in some of those cases you could use First Initial, Middle Name, Last Name if you wanted to). But this is really common — employers are very used to applicants whose resumes say Valencia Smith and then turn out to be Penelope Valencia Smith when it comes time for legal forms, payroll, etc.

AUSTIN, TX—Seeking to provide encouragement to his employees and motivate them to succeed, local CEO Steve Colton sent a company-wide email Thursday that reportedly inspired the staff of tech firm Edgeworth Solutions to start looking for another place to work. “I’d been feeling disillusioned with my job for quite a…

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The CDC has reported that food workers who showed up while sick or contagious were linked to about 40% of the 800 restaurant food poisoning outbreaks with a known cause between 2017 and 2019, citing lack of paid sick leave as one reason sick employees don’t stay home. What do you think?

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This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them:

• Window Pains — When you donate your future former self “to science”, your generosity might open a door (and, as you will see, close a window) to adventure. A 2012 paper titled “Finger injuries caused by power-operated windows of motor vehicles: An experimental cadaver study” used the index, middle, ring and little fingers of 10 cadaver hands to “simulate real events in which a finger is jammed between the glass and seal entry of the window of a current motor vehicle”….
• Hamburger and Fries — Rob Eason went on an intellectual snack run through the library, where he snagged two nominative determinism treats. “Inheritance of mixed cryoglobulinemia”, a paper by Max Hamburger, Louis Fries and colleagues, was published in 1981 in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Eason says: “Cryoglobulins are abnormal proteins in the blood. Maybe their presence is due to the contributions from the Hamburger and Fries involved?” …
• Stone on Stone — Further nominative determinism. Eric Bignell sends word that: “The Stone Masons Livery Company in London has just published a book about its history. The book is written by Ian Stone.”
• Annikan Flycatcher — … Laura Connell says: “Your listings of trivial superpowers put me in mind of a student I knew when I was teaching. Annika, while chatting, was able to casually reach up and pick flies off her face. They never got away, or even tried. And she never rushed or tried the sneaky stealth approach. Teachers and students alike were gobsmacked, but she often was not even aware that she had done it, so habitual was it. And she never understood our amazement.” …
• Storied Superpower — Mark Hessler says that he has a trivial superpower: “I like telling stories and I think my most notable ability may be the special instinct I have about who’s already heard which story. When I have an impulse to speak with someone or in a group it’s nearly always accompanied by a corresponding sense of who present may have heard it before. It’s become a point of pride for me…

As the influence of Moms for Liberty grows in some school districts and conservative political circles, the SPLC compares the group's agenda to segregationist efforts of an earlier era.

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