DeSantis is such a destructive - yet petty! - shit. So GRU stands for Gainesville Regional Utilities, which has been overseen by the city commission until recently:

The Florida Senate gave approval to House Bill 1645 Thursday with little debate and no amendments. The legislation − sponsored by Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, and dubbed the "GRU Takeover bill" − now heads to the governor's desk for a final signature.

The bill creates a five-member authority board appointed by DeSantis to make all GRU-related decisions, stripping away the Gainesville City Commission's century-long control of the municipal utility.

Then he cleaned house:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed five people to the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority board Thursday afternoon following the resignation of all five former members.

And then this article is a bit confusing, but let's see if I can snip the right parts:

Many are shocked after a shift on a decision to terminate general manager, Tony Cunningham.

During the meeting on June 10, Chairman Ed Bielarski motioned to terminate Cunningham but Craig Carter and others on the board argued against this motion. In this meeting, they voted 3-2 not to terminate Cunningham.

At the June 12 meeting, Carter motioned to terminate Cunningham, have Bielarski resign from the board and put him as interim general manager, in Cunningham's position. Bierlarski says they will put Eric Lawson in as chair.

Bielarski says although he is ecstatic, he still feels for Cunningham.

So Bielarski orchestrates the ousting of Cunningham, and resigns from the board to take over GRU, along with the cooperation of whoever else is on that side.

What does Bielarski bring to the table?

Gainesville city commissioner Bryan Eastman says "It's a shame to see our city lose one of the best professionals I've ever worked with. Tony Cunningham took over after a period of chaos at GRU. After the previous General Manager, Ed Bielarski, was fired for mismanagement, including being in charge over four consecutive debt downgrades and a 60% electric base rate increase during his time, Tony Cunningham cleaned up the mess and showed results."

Carter says although this was a hard decision for him, both Cunningham and the board can now move forward.

By assuming the interim CEO position, Bielarski is resuming leadership of GRU. He was the previous general manager but was fired by Gainesville city commissioners in January of 2022.

Oh. Wow.

The only thing I have in the queue is this article about Sandy Hook survivors graduating high school.

For me, Sandy Hook was a turning point of my understanding about whether there would ever be enough momentum on the side of public outrage to move the needle on gun control - it turns out, there wouldn't. Crucially, this was back in 2012, and Trump's Republican party hadn't yet begun to take over the judicial system.

IDK, how's your summer going?

I came across this bit about how crime rates are down. Crime rates rising was the biggest fucking story on the planet a few years ago, so surely we'll get equally bombarded with this good news, right?

Also, Hunter Biden. This about sums it up.

Mossy Character writes: FAO

production of aquatic animal products has reached a global record of 185 million tons in 2022. This is over four percent more than 2020 [...] aquaculture now accounts for 51% of that production. For the first time ever, aquaculture has overtaken capture fisheries as a main producer of aquatic foods and products. This is a great result because it means that we can continue to increase the production of aquatic foods without increasing the impact on the marine environment, as less than 40 percent of aquaculture is produced in marine waters.
[...]
in the 1960s, we were consuming each one of us on average about nine kilograms of aquatic animal foods per year. In 2022 this figure is 20.7kg. So, it's more than doubled in these few decades, even though the world's population has been growing at the same time from 3 to almost 8 billion people.
[...]
The projection is that by [2032], the sector will grow by about 10% in production. This growth will allow the consumption rate to increase to 21.3 kg per person per year, compared to 20.7 kg in 2022. This would be a significant achievement given that it would be achieved as population continues to grow globally.

Some 40 years ago, as much as 40 per cent of wild-caught fish was used for animal feed but this was now down to less than 20 per cent, [FAO director] said. In the past, around 3kg to 4kg of fish meal was required to produce 1kg of a farmed fish such as salmon, he added. But different feed formulations meant this was now down to 1kg of fish meal to produce 1.2kg. On average across all fed aquaculture species, 1kg of fishmeal produced 4kg of fish, and for prawns, shrimps and salmon around 90 per cent of feed was vegetable-based, Barange said. This evolution had allowed aquaculture "to grow without using more fish from the ocean".

Heebie's take: I know when I get nihilistic about the environment, I get chided here for not seeing the nuances, but it's still my automatic stance. However, it means this feels doubly bright to read.

Minivet writes: I'm in a new team of managers at work that has a weekly huddle where part of the agenda template is always an inspirational quote. They tend to be fairly stultifying and often spurious as well: here's a typical example .

I used to be big into quotes, with a long list that I used for blog post titles, Google Chat statuses, etc. But those were more wry, not far from Twitter avant la lettre - "According to the ancient Gregorians, the year will end in 10 days, and that's kind of freaking me out."

The one time I've been agenda-wrangler, I did some Rabelais: "Time gnaws and diminishes all things, but it increases and adds to our good deeds: anytime we have extended a generous hand to a rational human being, that goodness keeps growing and glowing in the man's heart, forever remembered, constantly contemplated." That may have been too highbrow.

Are there quotes that could appeal to both me and the kinds of people who like inspirational quotes? Or at least not leave you with treacly message? (These are nice people, to be clear. There's just something of a cultural gap.)

Heebie's take: I feel like I have a bunch of these, it's just hard to spontaneously generate them before the thread gets going. The few that come to mind that I actually say are:
- Comparisons are the thief of joy. (Maybe not inspirational.)
- The best you can do is the best you can do. (Big Bird, via my aunt.)
- You've got to lick it, before we kick it. (wait what.)

Also the link above is interesting/funny: it's a Q&A where someone wrote in to ask if the given quote was legit.

In 1980 the first edition of "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by the world-class gymnast Dan Millman was released. The book was a fictionalized memoir that explored the physical and mental challenges Millman faced in his early life and the spiritual growth he experienced. The main catalyst of his spiritual journey was an attendant at an all-night gas station who became his mentor in 1966. Millman gave this enlightened counselor the nickname "Socrates", and the quotation above was spoken by the modern fictionalized character and not the ancient Socrates.

Heh.