I bet many of you would have amazing Ent names, though, not gonna lie.

Treebeard, Quickbeam, Beechbone, Fangorn, Wandlimb...

If you had to announce yourself at an Entmoot (meeting of the Ents) what name would you use?

I think I'd be Twighard. It's like "tryhard", but woodier.

I feel like I coughed up half a lung (in my mask) on my trip to the store, but look at this rad plant I snapped on my way back. Now *that's* a fighter.

Did you know that more species have separately evolved into tree forms than have converged into crab forms? I'm not saying that humanity's final form is going to be a tree, too, but dang. We should be so lucky!

Look at that drive to survive!

#Nature

I love that talk of huge tracts of land so reliably bring people out of the woodwork here. Never change, mi gente. We're a debauched and degraded species, but at least this form of it is honest work, and does precious little harm. 👌😊

I have the maturity of an 11-year-old today, because this made me giggle.

I am not to be trusted with serious news or missile launch codes until I feel better. 🙃

Time to mask up and head out to the nearest tienda for more ibuprofen and soup. Going to try to keep my mind out of the gutter along the way, but no promises.

I have moved from the bed of delirious fever dreams to the sofa of burning-faced semi-consciousness. The laptop is in sight. I am a sorry sight for my ancestors, who hunted great prey from desert grasses, while I contemplate how I'm going to sneak up on my computer, sit upright, and try to get a few work tasks in... sometime soon.

One of these is me. The other is this cold, which has decided that "sudden walloping" is the best strategy for cage dominance.

And I mean, can't argue with its results!

I will try to be upright again in a few hours.

(Send octagon girls?)

Also: I love that this was the first "news" story to show up in my feeds after I posted this.

Please take it with a grain of salt (I will look into the science with more grounded expert sources later ), but it's always funny to have a new contender for "things that might wipe us out next".

"Lurking aboard the ISS like some antagonist in a John Carpenter flick, the space microbe flourished in deeply embedded, and largely unadulterated, systems for uninterrupted growth."
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/sci-fi-horror-bug-discovered.html

🤨 I haven't been "peopling" enough to have contracted something from a person, but maybe walking in the rain yesterday empowered a latent viral element already in my system. Either way, yesterday's headache is now a full-on sore throat and fever, so apologies to the heat-wave folks in North America, but my place is off limits while I recover. Cancel your flights!

I have a killer headache, but the timing is great - going off to teach for a few hours, so no more screen time today. (Fingers crossed that the magic of modern medicine kicks in en route to class!)

Tomorrow's newsletter is almost ready, too, so after it goes out bright and early, I'll be taking another all-day hiatus from the interwebs for editing work. Pure focus for this next part!

Off for the night!

Be good to yourselves, and remember - what happens in the heat, stays in the heat. 😬🤞

You folks sweltering in the heat today are welcome to join me in the thunderstorm that just rolled in here in Medellín. I mean, if you can't make it, fair, but the offer still stands. 💙

(And please watch your health and your pets' health either way. Shade, hydration with electrolytes, & low expectations for the completion of work tasks all around, p&t.)

All right.

Happy happy joy joy*!

*Editing time. We loves it.

TTFN, CoSo!

THERE we go!

Today for Tough Times Tuesday, we think about nickel markets and why it’s misleading to treat energy economy woes as a battle between nations.

While the US tries to trick corporations into investing with more national loyalty, is it possible we’re missing the bigger problem with this whole rush to reshape the world around yet another extraction-based economy?

(Answer: Yes!)

#Economics #International #China #GreenEnergy #ClimateCrisis

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/the-weird-nationalist-misdirect-of

🤨 Substack seems to have frozen in the middle of sending my newsletter. Like, *right* in the middle of sending the post.

Hello annoying little first-world problem. You're cramping my ability to turn my attention cleanly to my next work task, but I shan't let you get to me!

Whataboutism is one of the laziest forms of rhetorical manipulation - and it's certainly been having a field day as of late! - but whataboutism paired with false history repeated often enough that it replaces the truth is a whole other level of disingenuous engagement with political discourse.

If you're not striving to engage with the ethics of a situation directly, to set the standards you want to see from a robust democratic society going forward, whom are you *really* serving in your speech?