(no subject)

Jun. 10th, 2025 09:11 pm
flamingsword: A strike of purple heat lightning beside the word “fuck” (fuck)
[personal profile] flamingsword
For folks following RFK Jr's attacks on healthcare a public health, you may know that yesterday he dismissed ALL 17 MEMBERS of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee. He intends to replace them, almost certainly with people who will go along with his antivax agenda. Public comment is open now for this committee's next meeting. Here are instructions, talking points, and a sample comment folks can feel free to share: Tell the CDC: We Need Broad Access to Vaccines and Science-Based Expert Advisory Committees (by Precaution on Substack)

Public comment to CDC ACIP vaccine committee opened on 6/9, and closes 6/20 at 11:59pm EDT . If you think that sounds bafflingly short, that’s because it is. The current regime changed the rules for public comment periods and didn’t tell anybody. 🤬🤬🤬

Link outside the HTML if anyone needs that:
https://precaution.substack.com/p/tell-the-cdc-we-need-broad-access

two-lane street: Christian

Jun. 10th, 2025 08:03 pm
mindstalk: (Default)
[personal profile] mindstalk

I previously talked about different bidirectional two-lane streets in Berkeley/Albany. Gilman, which was narrow, and annoying and crossable; Marin, which was wide (parking, bike, wide travel, plus turn lanes), and a high-speed stream of death. Tonight I'll talk about Christian, also two-lanes, and even narrower than Gilman since there is parking on only one side[1]. It is objectively much more crossable than Marin, but has felt more annoying than Gilman, such that on my casual walks with no destination, I will often avoid crossing it. Why should this be the case? I don't know, but some ideas. Read more... )

Refugees

Jun. 10th, 2025 06:28 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
CEO invites the world to invest in refugees: 'Humanity flourishes when people have the tools to succeed'

“One in 10 of us will be displaced in 25 years. One in 10. Each of us is more likely to be displaced than ever before,” Oyler said in her TED Talk, which will be published at a later date.

“The time for incremental change is over. We must do things differently.”
[---8<---]
“When Uganda allowed refugees to work, the country's GDP increased by nearly a billion dollars,” Oyler said. “Ethiopia reformed its policies, and now thousands of refugees contribute in key sectors like agriculture and manufacturing.”

“When Rwanda, the country where I live, included refugees in its national ID program, they gained access to health care, financial services, and are growing an economy.”



It's all about knitting people into society as fast as possible. Make sure they have access to survival needs such as food, shelter, clothing, and health care. Then compare what they can do with what needs doing. To accommodate untrained workers, list your top 10 or so fields with a desperate shortage of workers, then offer free training for anyone who wishes to enter those fields.

in a moment close to now

Jun. 10th, 2025 06:16 pm
musesfool: Michael from the Good Place, facepalming in existential horror (oh no here's a lower place)
[personal profile] musesfool
ugh how is it only tuesday???

*

Adventures in moving

Jun. 10th, 2025 05:22 pm
mildred_of_midgard: Johanna Mason head shot (Johanna)
[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
Getting settled in Brazil is complicated! I mean, I have my own horror stories of bureaucracy being chaotic here, but I hear from my partner that it is so much worse there.

Here are some funny stories from the last week or so, around settling in and also the massive decluttering project I got left with. Context/inside jokes: "igneous" is our word for something we disapprove of; "furs and hairspray" are code for the amount of junk she left behind; Mari is her name; Rio de Janeiro is where she lives.

Trying to order food in Brazil )

Trying to get rid of stuff in Boston )

Still trying to get rid of stuff )

So much stuff )

Kitchen sinks are hard )

The lightbulb has to want to change )

Does anything in this country work? )

On the plus side, the food is better in Brazil, and the pools are actually heated (the pool in our complex here nominally got heating last summer, but after all the hype, it was very ineffective heating that didn't make a bit of difference).

Hopefully things calm down soon! I have been having a heck of a time with donation pickups, and I don't have a car, but we'll get there. I'm glad I left myself 5 months to deal with this stuff; I would have had to pay a junker to remove everything! I've taken out upwards of 50 30-gallon bags of trash so far, and I've got upwards of 100 bags, boxes, and small furniture items to try to get picked up by charities. 2 pickups have happened, but I need at least 3 more. Then larger furniture items go to freecycle, then the junker can take the rest (mostly mattresses and broken electronics).

ETA: Oh, and once the amount of stuff is dramatically reduced some more, I need to do a lot of sweeping/vacuuming/dusting/wiping/mopping. I've already started, but it's hard with still 70-ish bags and boxes and furnitures lying around, plus a bunch of time-consuming decluttering logistics to deal with.

I'm mostly just letting the house get dirtier than I would like until I have time and space to clean. I was really looking forward to enjoying this house when it looked nice, without all the clutter and filth of living with two borderline hoarders, but at this point I'll just be happy to leave it in a good state when I move out. But at least I've started being able to do some intermittent cleaning.

I was similarly hoping to be able to focus on my fitness this summer and enjoy walking to all my favorite spots and maybe some new spots before I leave, but at this point I'll be happy if my knee allows a normal (for me) amount of walking, and maybe some fitness efforts when I arrive in LA. Oh, well!
neonvincent: For posts about geekery and general fandom (Shadow Play Girl)
[personal profile] neonvincent

Birdfeeding

Jun. 10th, 2025 01:02 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds.  I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/10/25 -- I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, and at least one mourning dove.

EDIT 6/10/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I heard a blue jay screaming but didn't see it.
 

Prodigy

Jun. 10th, 2025 12:48 pm

The Dark Touch by Beth Ross

Jun. 10th, 2025 05:41 pm
profiterole_reads: (The Secret Circle - Diana Adam Cassie)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
The Dark Touch by Beth Ross was excellent! In the United Republic of Britain, Nova finds out that witches are not extinct and that she is one of them.

This contemporary novel mixes an alternate history, urban fantasy and some elements of activism (women's rights, including abortion, and queer rights). A large tapestry of characters are introduced little by little, making it relatively easy to learn who's who. There's no cliffhanger, but I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Nova has a bi awakening at 23 (same!), there are sapphic characters of various orientations and there's major f/f. Abigail is on the autism spectrum.
[syndicated profile] plaidder_tumblr_feed

plaidadder:

ithPLAIDDER: Conn, welcome back to the studio. I’m sorry it’s a mess.

CONN: I can’t find anywhere in this universe to be that’s not a mess.

PLAIDDER: And we’re off! Well, Conn, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since we last sat down together in…God, has it really been two months?

CONN: Only if you don’t count the flipped interview we did back a month ago…

PLAIDDER: Oh, right, back when I still had some bandwidth for J. K. Rowling and her traveling disaster. So, let’s talk current catastrophe. I don’t know how closely you’ve been following what’s going on in Portland.

CONN: I understand there’s an occupation in progress.

PLAIDDER: It’s funny, nobody’s actually using that term for it.

CONN: What else would you call it when you’re sending hostile forces into a city that didn’t ask for them and then terrorizing the local citizens in an attempt to get them to stop resisting the authority you represent?

PLAIDDER: Well you could call it an authoritarian crackdown, or a fascist power grab, or…I mean there are actually a lot of things you could call it but it’s curious to me that nobody’s reaching for that particular term. 

CONN: Do you think it’s because they’re all from the same country? I mean usually it’s one country invading and occupying another country.

PLAIDDER: I suppose. Except that I think that what’s actually happened since 2016 is that it has become clear that the United States of America is two countries. There’s the country that Buttercup considers himself president of, and there’s the country that Buttercup considers the Enemy. It’s confusing, because the borders are very complicated. Like, a lot of Oregon is part of Buttercuplandia, but Portland, which is IN Oregon, is actually enemy territory.

CONN: And so now your president is trying to occupy enemy territory.

PLAIDDER: Starting with Portland.

CONN: Do you think he’ll succeed?

PLAIDDER: That is the question, isn’t it.

Keep reading

I don’t have the bandwidth to comment on what’s going on in LA right now; but it is worth remembering that Buttercoup has done this before: escalate a situation in order to justify his authoritarian crackdown. I see people making the connection to what happened in Lafayette Square, but the whole Portland thing seems to have been papered over. But it’s the same thing. A couple new observations:

  1. The Trumplings want war powers. They have been very frustrated so far with the lack of war. Sending in the National Guard and the US military over Newsom’s objections is one of their many attempts to manufacture such a war. They were always going to respond with maximum force, regardless of what the protesters actually did. If you’re talking about protestor behavior right now you are playing the Trumplings’ game.

2. It’s worth remembering that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were catastrophes because the US military won the invasion and then lost the occupation. What the Trumplings want to do to Blue America–what they tried to do in Portland, what they appear to be trying to do in LA right now– is something that our military absolutely failed to do over a period of 20 years during which the Secretary of Defense was never Pete Hegseth. What they want to do is indeed horrifying. Whether they can do it is another question.

[syndicated profile] plaidder_tumblr_feed

contact-guy:

contact-guy:

THE DYING DETECTIVE - part 3 - part 1 - part 2 - “to the last gasp he would always be the master” - there is at least one panel that made me laugh while drawing it so I hope it makes you laugh, too. It’s the least I could do.

This will most likely be the last update for a few weeks - going to England on a trip (where Sherlock Holmes lives!!! omg!) - when I return it will be for a cozy early Christmas special, THE BLUE CARBUNCLE.

(This is in the Watsons sketchbook series!)

later that night

From This Day Forward by John Brunner

Jun. 10th, 2025 09:00 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The sudden, shocking, return of Shockwave Reader. Will the living envy the dead?

From This Day Forward by John Brunner

2025.06.10

Jun. 10th, 2025 06:58 am
lsanderson: (Default)
[personal profile] lsanderson
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell sticks by false 2020 election claims in defamation trial
Lindell took the stand for the first time during the trial in Denver.
by Colleen Slevin Associated Press
https://www.minnpost.com/national/2025/06/mypillow-founder-mike-lindell-sticks-by-false-2020-election-claims-in-defamation-trial/

From Bring Me The News: “Anxiety over current U.S. border and LGBTQ policies under the Trump administration has led a Canadian group to scrap the Minnesota leg of its annual cross-border Pride parade. Borderland Pride has announced that its cross-border Pride March will not start in International Falls this year. The event will instead take place entirely within Fort Frances on the Canadian side of the border.” Via MinnPost

Sumer is icumen in: From MPR News: “Our weather pattern will take a more typical summery and thundery June turn this week. Tuesday brings plenty of sunshine and warmer temperatures in the 80s to much of Minnesota. Then a warm front will stall across southern Minnesota along the Interstate 90 corridor between Wednesday and Friday. That front will be the focus of a few rounds of thunderstorms.” Via MinnPost

‘They tell you every minor inconvenience’: bartenders on which generation has the worst behavior
Gen Z patrons have stopped opening bar tabs and can’t order quickly, but older customers’ etiquette isn’t perfect either
Alaina Demopoulos
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2025/jun/10/gen-z-bar-tabs-etiquette

Compare the courage of Greta Thunberg’s Gaza aid mission with the inaction and complicity of western governments
Owen Jones
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/10/greta-thunberg-gaza-aid-mission-madleen

New blood test for coeliac disease can diagnose autoimmune condition without need to eat gluten
Australian researchers hope test is a ‘game-changer’ for diagnosing those following a strict gluten-free diet
Natasha May Health reporter
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/10/new-blood-test-for-coeliac-disease-can-diagnose-autoimmune-condition-without-need-to-eat-gluten

Mythica: Stormbound review – new chunk of swords and sorcery tale ripe for avid franchise audience
The sixth instalment in this low-budget series has a meagre plot and shonky visual effects but the director and cast clearly care about the franchise’s audience
Leslie Felperin
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jun/09/mythica-stormbound-review-new-chunk-of-swords-and-sorcery-tale-ripe-for-avid-franchise-audience

‘It makes me sick!’ How the French impressionists went from ‘lunatics’ to luminaries
The National Gallery of Victoria’s new show, French Impressionism, celebrates the likes of Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot and Pissarro, who painted in the face of public outrage
Sian Cain
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/jun/09/it-makes-me-sick-how-the-likes-of-the-french-impressionists-went-from-lunatics-to-luminaries

Frederick Forsyth, Day of the Jackal author and former MI6 agent, dies aged 86
Writer used his experience reporting on De Gaulle’s France to plot his thriller, and continued to draw on real-world research for subsequent bestsellers
Richard Lea
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jun/09/frederick-forsyth-day-of-the-jackal-author-and-former-mi6-agent-dies-aged-86

Sly Stone obituary
Funk and soul musician whose band, Sly and the Family Stone, had a profound effect on US music in the 1960s and 70s
Garth Cartwright
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/10/sly-stone-obituary

Conservation

Jun. 10th, 2025 03:37 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Farmers are creating a brighter future for Bolivia’s red-fronted macaws

Once rural landowners learned they could generate income by protecting macaws, the endangered birds went from burdens to boons.


Progress!

Magpie Monday

Jun. 10th, 2025 03:05 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer is hosting Magpie Monday with a theme of "recovering from nightmares."


For each person who sends at least one prompt, I’ll write a story, send it via private message or (for too long fills) an email, then write a brief thumbnail summary and post that in reply to the comment, and move on.

The prompt call will be open until around midnight local time on late Tuesday/early Wednesday, which gives everyone time to join in
.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today I started making liquid fertilizer from Russian comfrey. Begin with Part 1: Jugs. With those done, I harvested leaves.

Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today I started making liquid fertilizer from Russian comfrey. This plant fills a lot of guild roles in permaculture including fertilizer, miner, mulcher, protector, attractor. I have been using it primarily as a bee plant that I can also slash-and-drop several times a season. I grow it under many of my trees and there's some in the prairie garden too.

There are various ways to make liquid fertilizer from comfrey. I will be testing two: 1) a small amount of comfrey leaves in a large amount of water, and 2) only comfrey leaves crammed tightly in a jug. (See Part 2: Leaves.)

Walk with me ... )

Brains

Jun. 9th, 2025 09:08 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Krakencoder predicts brain function 20x better than past methods

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine have developed a new algorithm, the Krakencoder, that merges multiple types of brain imaging data to better understand how the brain s wiring underpins behavior, thought, and recovery after injury. This cutting-edge tool can predict brain function from structure with unprecedented accuracy 20 times better than past models and even estimate traits like age, sex, and cognitive ability.


That ... sounds pretty exactly like something over in Terramagne. It's part of Thalassia's health care system, although they've had theirs for a while. *ponder* I think the ~20 year gap between here and there is holding steady.

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