Commenter: "Your writing betrays a much more ordered mind - capable of extracting and retaining a massive amount of detail on a lot of different subjects."

My mind: 🙃

I have to laugh sometimes at news media web design.

The current front page of The Guardian, for instance, is filled with a whole whack of stories about human greed, indifference to suffering, and outright cruelty... and then there's one hanger-on in the bottom right corner, which 100% doesn't belong but was put there to try to "offset" the bleakness of the rest. 🙃

#NiceTry #MediaLiteracy

Always wrap your 🐓s, especially if they show up unannounced on your feed! #FloodTheFirehose

I feel as though a lot of folks here might resonate with this one, especially but not limited to our* Buddhists.

#Poetry

*Not that anyone *owns* a Buddhist. Kind of antithetical to the theory and practice.

You guys. 💛

#MediaLiteracy #SocialMedia #Canada

"Since Meta blocked links to news in Canada last August ... right-wing meme producer Jeff Ballingall says he has seen a surge in clicks for his Canada Proud Facebook page.

'Our numbers are growing and we're reaching more and more people every day,' said Ballingall, who publishes up to 10 posts a day and has some 540,000 followers.

'Media is just going to get more tribal and more niche,' he added. 'This is just igniting it further.'"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/meta-block-news-1.7174031

One more nice note, @BipolarArtist, from the other fellow I reviewed today. :) I posted the video in my SFF forums. Fingers crossed that others see it, too!

#War

Still no official word on the 10-year-old Bedouin girl hit in the head by shrapnel in the desert (last official notice, on national EMS pages & related news, was that she'd been taken to hospital).

Regional action is ongoing because there are still potential aerial devices in play (despite no further contributions from Iranian territory), but this notice in the Times of Israel is a good sign of things winding down.

War threats whip us into a frenzy. Take good care of your hearts tonight.

🤦 Tonight in "Sometimes I Am Not The Sharpest Knife in the Drawer":

I've been looking up possible causes for a painful skin symptom for the last hour.

I'd gone *deep* into Dr. Google, hashing out possible immune diseases and musing over next steps...

Before it occurred to me that I'd been out in the direct sun for 30 minutes today without sunscreen, and I looked in the mirror.

Is the burning on my cheeks a sign of disease?

Nah. Just my own stupidity leading to a sunburn. 🙃

#NotMyBestWork

#War

A strikingly intelligent maneuver today.

Iran needed to show *some* formal response for the hit on its consulate in Damascus. But this delayed, heavily telegraphed, and ultimately moderate military display establishes it as the cooler head *even if* its action today emboldens other actors to act with greater force.

This isn't a game of chicken; this is military powers trying not to be the one to make *the* tipping point move.

May we all rest a little easier in our armchairs, for now.

#War

This is an Israeli op-ed on having lost what could have been an opportunity for real change, thanks to Netanyahu.

The grief work & shame that many in the US had to cope with in the '00s, amid relentless Jingoism that springboarded from one "mission accomplished" to the next, is ongoing today in Israel.

Do you remember how state lies then made Western military and civilians alike complicit in ignominious history?

That's what we need to heal from now--*together*.

https://archive.ph/6hAz2

I don't know what kind of spud you all are, and I wouldn't dare to hazard a guess at what other taters you all eye (if you all eye other taters at all!).

But whether you like a good roasting, are just down to mash, or are looking for someone to stew with for a long while...

It's been a bushel of fun to share this strange little shelf with the whole cool lot of you--you utter #potatoes, you.

Keep your skins up, and carry on. 🥔💛

3.5 hours for book readin' before evening classes. Time to focus!

#Colombia has pension problems, too, but the causes are so different:

Right now, only 2 out of 10 seniors are receiving an allowance at all.

According to the head of a pension oversight group, the crux of the problem is that 58% of the working population earns less than minimum wage.

Worse yet: 80% of the 20% with pension plans make between 1 and 2 times min wage, and are only in pension programs for 9.1 years when they need 30 years for a full payout.

Piecemeal private solutions don't work.

Hot diggity dog, a new paid subscriber! 🎉

I'm always a bit shocked when people who don't know me personally (or see how ridiculous I am on social media) support the work.

Call it imposter syndrome or what-have-you, but any time *the work itself* seems to earn high praise from an internet stranger, I'm left wondering what alt-universe I just slid into.

(At this rate, if another multiverse portal does open up, I might not hop through!)

Some days it do be like that. 🙃

Oh #Colombia. 🙃 I picked up a paper I didn't have time to read this weekend, and found two striking articles about ongoing struggle in this country (seven terrorist attacks from an ex-FARC outfit called EMC in 66 hours, and a 1,000% increase in people confined to their rural homes in my department from regional conflict, along with upticks in individual and mass displacement)... but I also found a great recipe for sancocho! And said hello to a merry moo cow! So it all balances out. 😊

This silly boy tried to nibble on my fingers this morning. I hope your day has started with good vibes, too. #Nature

The only kind of dicks I like to see on my timeline. 👍

#YMMV

Killer headache from this morning's protest is finally receding.

The traffic is still backed up something fierce, so I suspect it's added to pollution and heat factors, but at least I can read my screen again! More soon.