pjthompson | Network

I reposted some of my longer 3 Sentence Ficathon fills on AO3.

An Immodest Proposal (Babylon 5)
State of Change (Babylon 5)
Hypotheticals (Gattaca)

And a new B5 fic, written a little while back because I had the idea, but not posted until now:

Reliquary (Babylon 5, post-canon, canon compliant, character deaths)

Reposted under the cut.

( Reliquary - Babylon 5 - 1500 wds )

silverusagi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: sleepy

sholio

This book is hard to tag - it's basically cosmic horror, or horror scifi. It is also one of the creepiest and trippiest things I've read in a long time and maybe ever.

I kinda vaguely knew about SCP as a collaborative wiki project from the 2000s, with user-submitted descriptions of imaginary (and frequently extradimensional) objects. This book is based on it. It's about a group of characters who work for the Antimemetics Division of the SCP Foundation, a department most people don't know about (because it's impossible to remember it for more than a few minutes after finding out about it) that handles "antimemes," which are the opposite of memes - if memes are catchy and transmissible, antimemes are intentionally unmemorable, to an extent where you need to use extraordinary measures, such as memory-enhancing drugs, just to recognize that they exist at all. It's information that functions as anti-information. And it turns out there are living creatures with antimemetic properties, as well as weapons that use it ...

( Lots and lots of spoilers )

settiai

I'm starting to think that I'm never going to get caught up with Critical Role. 🙃

This is why I have to stay up until 2-3am on Thursday nights, no matter how much I need sleep. If I miss an episode, it sets me back for months. Every time. I should know this by now, because it happens every time I skip an episode.

I'm currently three episodes behind, although it will be four episodes by tomorrow because there's no physical way possible for me to catch up before then since three episodes + three Cooldown is about eleven hours. I really need to find the time to catch up. It's just so hard since I can't do anything else while I'm watching, since it's not possible for me to multitask while watching something new-to-me. I have to pay attention and constantly read the subtitles, or I miss what's going on.

It's one thing to set aside four(ish) hours late on a Thrusday night when I'm already tired and don't have the spoons to do much of anything already. It's something else entirely to find four hours to set aside when I have so many other things that I need to get done.

Current Mood: tired

silverusagi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: accomplished

landofnowhere

A bunch of ground to cover today, as last week I focused on the Johanna Kinkel book, but I also read a bunch of other stuff. Also I am in the middle of not one but two SF novels with complex worldbuilding.

Elizabeth the Queen by Maxwell Anderson. Readaloud; this is a Broadway play from 1930 that just entered the public domain. Generally fun Elizabeth/Essex drama. Contains a Prince Hal/Falstaff play within a play, but it didn't feel the most effective use of metatheatre. Also it is silent on the Shakespeare authorship question -- I thought it might be a Baconian play because Francis Bacon appears and Shakespeare doesn't, but it doesn't drop any hints in that direction, nor does it mention Shakespeare's, though Burbage and Heminges are characters. Arguably this is realistic; people don't talk all the time about who wrote a play.

As You Like It, William Shakespeare. Readaloud. I've lost track of how many times I've read this aloud, but it is still a very good play. This time around I mainly noticed all the talk about how winter's not so bad really, which hits differently when you're in the northern US and in the middle of weeks of sub-freezing weather. But the Forest of Arden has olive and palm trees, so it's clearly a different climate.

Swept Away, Beth O'Leary. Jo Walton recommends going into this one entirely unspoiled; I didn't, but I enjoyed it anyway. This is one of the books I had in mind when titling the post; the woman is 31, the man 23, which is not something I've seen much of in the genre.

Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Slowly making my way through this; the plot is progressing as I'd expect it to and we are getting to see alien biology up close! Excited to see where it's going.

Chroniques du Pays des Mères, Élizabeth Vonarburg. Post-apocalyptic matriarchy with complex worldbuilding and good writing. Not only is it a meaty SF book, it's in French, so I may not be picking up everything that I could be. On the other hand I'm reading it at a set pace for an online book group, so I get to hear other people noticing things I'm not. There have been some exciting revelations and I'm restraining myself from reading ahead, but might reread to help figure out what's going on.

thewayne

Sigh. And it happened in my state of New Mexico.

Raw milk is something that Robert FUCKING Kennedy Junior Mint advocates for, claiming it's healthy. It is decidedly not. It's swarming with pathogens that can be quite deadly which is why the death rate went down after pasteurization became a dairy industry standard practice.

So all together now: Hey, Hey, RFK: how many kids have you killed today!

The medical examiner can't directly tie the infant's death to the raw milk consumption of the mother except noting there's not many other places the child could have contracted listeria from.

What's worse, I just read today that women are now training for pregnancy like they train for doing a triathlon. Including the consumption of raw milk. Thus I expect this is just the first such report that we'll be seeing like this.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/newborns-death-spurs-raw-milk-warning-in-new-mexico/

militarypenguin posting in

icons

See the rest here at

kommsussertod

merrileemakes posting in

common_nature

common_nature,

stonpicnicking_okapi shared their love of this comm as part of February Love Fest and inspired me to join. :)

I have been experiencing nature up close and personal thanks to some frogs. At the end of November, following a rain storm, my Partner and I could hear a frog in our tiny, ornamental garden pond/water feature. We're always so thrilled when this happens!

The next morning when I walked past the pond I saw a pile of bubbles and thought that was cool. The male frog has been making a bubble nest, like a betta fish, pining for a female to come join him (spoiler: I don't know much about frogs).

The next day I went to clean the pond (a bi-weekly feat during summer) and noticed that only only had the bubbles persisted, but some of them had developed little black dots. Oh my god, they're not bubbles they're eggs!
( Life, uh, finds a way )

thewayne

On Tuesday, after suffering a day of blowback, Adobe rescinds its kill order and announces the program is going into maintenance mode. The original email sent to registered and paying users apparently said "We're contacting you to let you know that Adobe will be discontinuing Adobe Animate on March 1, 2026. As an existing Animate user, you may continue to use Animate, but please note that technical support will no longer be available after March 1, 2027."

Animate was, more or less, the successor to the Flash development package which was killed ages ago in favor of HTML 5. And apparently much more used than Adobe thought.

Reactions to the Monday announcement: ... were swift and angry on social media. "Adobe discontinuing Animate out of the blue is nuts," writes artist and animator Julia Glassman on BlueSky. "Many television productions, games, and all sorts of animated media still rely (on) Animate/Flash pipelines. They're all supposed to just...pivot to entirely new software and pipelines?!"

Animator Christopher Linoleum brought up how many big-name shows utilize the program: "Adobe Animate remains an industry standard for TV animation. Star Trek: Lower Decks was made in Animate. Haunted Hotel was made in Animate. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was made in Animate. And because you can't buy a permanent license anymore, it'll just be gone."

YIKES! So a pretty important program to the entertainment industry! The original kill date was announced as March 1, 2027. But a bigger problem was that apparently either cloud storage is required or a major component of the program, and that would be shut down at the same time, so users would lose all their assets and data! Remember, folks - all the cloud means is that it's somebody else's server. The "Cloud" isn't anything mystical, it's just someone's server.

After getting bombarded with hate and flamed to cinders, Adobe "... now says that Animate will now be in maintenance mode going forward and that it has “no plans to discontinue or remove access” to the app. Animate will still receive “ongoing security and bug fixes” and will still be available for “both new and existing users,” but it won’t get new features."

There's one unmentioned problem. With no updates and it being in maintenance mode, it will eventually be bypassed by operating system changes. It may take 5-10 years or more, but it will happen. And it may become glitchy before it dies. Smart production houses are going to start looking for better alternatives now and start planning migrations and new work flows soon. Sadly, apparently Reddit threads say there's no real alternative for professional production. I'm not familiar with that field so I have no idea.

The article that I saw yesterday announcing the original kill order:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/adobe-is-killing-a-popular-animation-and-game-development-program/1100-6537851/

Adobe backing away:
https://www.theverge.com/tech/873621/adobe-animate-maintenance-mode-reverse-course

Slashdot mocking the back-off:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/0730222/adobe-actually-wont-discontinue-animate

EDIT: I should have checked Ars Technica. Their article on all this was quite informative, telling me that Animate is actually the original Flash, but renamed! I was unaware of this, I've never been involved in creating things with Flash.

Some comments in the Ars article had a very cogent observation: there's no AI assistant in Animate, and it's probably based on a very old code base, so it would be hard to retrofit it. Which means Adobe can't realistically increase its current price of $23/month. If they can't make more money from the product, kill it. Occam's Razor that's a pretty good guess.

And yes, people are already thinking Adobe cannot be trusted and are rethinking their production pipelines.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/adobe-reverses-decision-to-discontinue-animate-after-a-lot-of-confusion-and-angst/

maju

It's a beautiful day today - almost up to freezing point, clear and sunny. And it's supposed to get just above freezing this afternoon. I went for a shortish walk this morning (after using the rebounder for 45 minutes) and the sun felt really good on my face, which was the only part of my body that wasn't covered. When I got back I shoveled some of the snow that's in front of my car, and I plan to do a bit more tomorrow and then a bit more on Friday, and that should take me up to the front of the car. I estimate I did a strip about 3 feet by ten feet today.

I didn't have the best night last night, although it was slightly better than the night before. It took me longer than usual to fall asleep last night, then I woke up about 4:15 am and took a while to fall back to sleep. I'd barely fallen asleep when the cat started to do what sounded like tap dancing right above my head (on the ground floor) just after 4:30 am, and I didn't get back to sleep before the alarm went off. I would prefer it if she would play in the basement, because I don't hear her then and I know she won't get on the bed with me and disturb me that way. She is definitely not a lap- or bed-cat. Last night I heard a repeated mysterious soft bumping noise somewhere above me around 8:30 pm, and this morning my daughter told me it was the cat playing with/killing a mouse.

Yesterday afternoon Aria asked me to crochet a tiny blanket for one of her stuffed toys, so I started on that last night. Then Violet asked me to make her a crocheted square; she chose one from a few pictures of granny squares I've saved on my computer, and I started work on that this morning. These should both be quick projects.

lydamorehouse

Image of a loon with a baby on its back with the words: We keep us safe (by Lyda Morehouse)

I think we can all safely agree that no AI was used in the creation of this image (or the one to follow.) This is 100% my own crappy art and sloppy lettering!

So, you all probably knew it was only a matter of time before I started making my own posters, right? I have no immediate use for these, but they will likely be on display at the mosque protection gathering on Friday. I just really wanted to make one that says the following:

Image: loon running on water in preparaton for take off, lasers shooting from its eyes, and the words: This Bird Fights Fascism (by Lyda Morehouse).

Having spent some time looking at photographs of loons in order to draw these, I have to say? Loons are really pretty, actually. Not only do their wings have these lovely black spots on the exterior part of the wing, but the underbelly of the wing really does have an almost bluish tinge to it. Like, the state flag colors kind of make more sense to me. I mean, I know that, officially, the blue is meant to represent all of our 10,000+ lakes, but like even the loon sort of reflects that color. It's neat.

Anyway, I had been intending to give you all a break from my monotonous chatter about the reisistance, but then I was seized by a desire to draw and here we are. I promise that tomorrow there will be cat pictures.

gwydion

* "Israeli strikes kill 26 in Gaza, health officials say:" https://archive.ph/uLhtp

* This is from a different attack. "Israeli strikes kill 18 in Gaza, patient crossings at Rafah halted, Palestinian officials say:" https://archive.ph/670vH

How to Help:
Revive Gaza's farmland: https://apnature.org/en/gaza
PCRF: https://www.pcrf.net/
HEAL Palestine: https://www.healpalestine.org/
The Sameer Project: https://linktr.ee/thesameerproject
Gaza Soup Kitchen: https://gazasoupkitchen.org/

******

* "US shoots down Iranian drone that 'aggressively' approached an aircraft carrier, military says:" https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/03/iran-drone-shot-down-00762438

******

* "Russia Hits Maternity Hospital In Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya, Kills 16 Miners In Dnipropetrovsk:" https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-drone-attack-peace-talks/33666126.html

******

* "Disappeared bodies, mass burials and ‘30,000 dead’: what is the truth of Iran’s death toll?:" https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead

* "Calls grow in Iran for independent inquiry into protest death toll:" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/01/calls-grow-in-iran-for-independent-inquiry-into-protest-death-toll

* "Iranian protesters share their stories of determination and dissent:" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/iranian-protesters-share-their-stories-of-determination-and-dissent

* "Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich:" https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/21/millionaires-billionaires-taxes-super-rich-mark-ruffalo-wef-davos

* "EU to Offer US Critical Minerals Partnership to Counter China:" https://archive.ph/XUInF

* There is nothing on paper, of course. "Trump says U.S. and India reached trade deal, will lower tariffs immediately:" https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/02/trump-india-trade-deal-tariffs.html

*** Immigration/I.C.E/Autocracy/Slow Motion Civil War/Violent Illegal Occupation of Blue Cities News (Sort likely a little rough)***

* "US judge halts Trump plan to end protections for 350,000 Haitians:" https://archive.ph/cft7f

* "Noem’s coarse tweet comes back to bite her in blistering ruling on protections for Haitians:" https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/noem-s-coarse-tweet-comes-back-to-bite-her-in-blistering-ruling-on-protections-for-haitians-2484987459821

* "US judge again blocks Trump ban on lawmakers' surprise visits to detention centers:" https://archive.ph/TEYMl

* "Shooting deaths climb in Trump's mass deportation effort:" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-look-at-shootings-by-federal-immigration-officers

* "Federal immigration agents keep shooting at drivers. We tracked 15 cases since July.:" https://www.ms.now/news/federal-agents-shoot-drivers-weaponized-vehicle

* "Maine’s Chief U.S. District Court judge orders ICE to release asylum seeker who was arrested without warrant :" https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/30/live-updates-advanced-ice-operations-could-be-over-in-maine-whats-next/

* "Five-year-old deported to Honduras despite being US citizen is latest child victim of Trump crackdown:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/27/five-year-old-girl-us-citizen-and-mother-deported-honduras

* "Prosecutors stunned as ICE lets suspect in $100m jewelry heist leave US:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/22/ice-jewelry-heist-suspect-self-deport

* "It’s Small. It’s Loud. It’s Taking Over the Country.:" https://slate.com/technology/2026/01/ice-chicago-minneapolis-whistles-watch-zine.html

* "After a death at an El Paso ICE facility was ruled a homicide, will prosecutors pursue a criminal case?:" https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/29/texas-el-paso-migrant-death-ice-custody-autopsy-prosecution/

* "2 measles infections confirmed at Texas facility where 5-year-old detained in Minnesota was held:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-measles-infections-confirmed-texas-facility-5-year-old-detained-minn-rcna256993

Remember they deny medical care, clean water, etc. to detainees as a matter of policy, and that this is the prison where they send legal immigrants and people with open asylum cases that have been following the rules and have done nothing wrong, particularly children.

* "Canadian company says Virginia warehouse sale to ICE won't proceed:" https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/canadian-company-virginia-warehouse-sale-ice-proceed-129721245

* "ICE purchase of massive Surprise warehouse sparks concern, support among residents and lawmakers:" https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/ice-warehouse-in-surprise-arizona/75-642846db-d7bc-4de4-9fd7-1337ac53b283

* "Protesters push back on potential ICE detention warehouse in Hagerstown:" https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/protesters-push-back-against-plan-to-open-ice-warehouse-in-hagerstown/4045639/

* "Howard County Executive revokes permit for potential ICE detention center in Maryland:" https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/building-permit-revoked-for-ice-detention-center-in-elkridge/

* "Tacoma ICE facility would see steep fines for blocking inspections under WA bill://www.theolympian.com/news/politics-government/article314477992.html

* "Oklahoma City ICE detention center proposal halted after community opposition:" https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-city-ice-detention-center-halted-community-opposition/70194624

* "Chicago mayor orders police to investigate alleged illegal ICE activity in city:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/31/chicago-ice-brandon-johnson

* "Police Report Backs Activist’s Account in Clash With ICE Agent Near Chicago:" https://archive.ph/8oYim

* "How ICE raids changed a once bustling Chicago neighbourhood:" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cql4e439g4no

* "Hundreds of CPS students walk out of school to protest Trump’s deportation campaign:" https://chicago.suntimes.com/2026/02/02/hundreds-of-cps-students-walk-out-of-school-to-protest-trumps-deportation-campaign

* "Hundreds rally against ICE in New Braunfels, a Trump stronghold:" https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/ice-protest-new-braunfels-trump-21326116.php

* "Four arrested after anti-ICE protest in Salt Lake City:" https://kutv.com/news/local/four-arrested-after-anti-ice-protest-in-salt-lake-city

* "LAPD says more than 50 people detained during protests against ICE tactics:" https://archive.ph/Nu6MC

* "More than 1,000 rally in Portland against Trump, ICE:" https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/30/more-than-1000-rally-in-portland-against-trump-ice/

* "‘People are sick of it’: Thousands protest ICE in Concord as part of national movement:" https://www.concordmonitor.com/2026/01/31/ice-out-protests-concord-nh/

* I assume they can't see the irony. "House Freedom Caucus endorses Insurrection Act for Minnesota despite deaths:" https://www.courthousenews.com/house-freedom-caucus-endorses-insurrection-act-for-minnesota-despite-deaths/

* "Judge says Immigration and Customs Enforcement has violated 96 court orders this month in Minn.:" https://www.npr.org/2026/01/31/nx-s1-5693175/judge-says-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-has-violated-96-court-orders-this-month-in-minn

* "How Misogyny and White Nationalism Converge in ICE Enforcement:" https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/27/ice-recruitment-women-violence-lesbian-masculinity/

* "Return of the Silver Shirts: In ICE's invasion of Minneapolis, an echo of a dark past.:" https://www.liberalcurrents.com/return-of-the-silver-shirts/

* "Lawyers allege Dept. of Homeland Security is denying legal counsel to Minnesota detainees:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/lawyers-allege-dept-homeland-security-denying-legal-counsel/story?id=129335914

* "Judge rejects bid to end Trump administration’s immigration-enforcement surge in Minnesota:" https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/31/judge-rejects-bid-to-end-trump-administrations-immigration-enforcement-surge-in-minnesota-00758835

* "ICE attorney to judge: ‘This job sucks’:" https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/02/03/ice-attorney-to-judge-this-job-sucks

* "Maddow: Trump ‘wobbling’ as his agenda falls apart in the face of pressure:" https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-trump-wobbling-as-his-agenda-falls-apart-in-the-face-of-pressure-2484973635982

* "Northern Command Tells N.C., Alaska Troops to Stand Down on Possible Minnesota Deployment:" https://archive.ph/js8AQ

* "Every Homeland Security officer in Minneapolis is now being issued a body-worn camera, Noem says:" https://apnews.com/article/immigration-enforcement-minneapolis-secretary-noem-homeland-security-37af4947057e64efee5e43a8f2e018bb

* "Another wave of departures in Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office:" https://www.startribune.com/another-wave-of-departures-in-minnesotas-us-attorneys-office/601575569

* "Judge orders release of 5-year-old detained by immigration authorities in Minnesota:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/liam-conejo-ramos-five-year-old-boy-immigration-rcna256870

* "The Horrifying Truth Behind Liam Ramos’ Abduction:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/02/ice-news-liam-ramos-abduction-update.html

* "Two women, detained by ICE, say they helped agent having seizure:" https://www.startribune.com/detained-by-ice-two-women-became-first-responders-during-agents-seizure/601569667

* "Contracted ICE employee pleads guilty to sexual abuse of female detainee:" https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2026/01/20/ice-agent-pleads-guilty-to-sexual-assault-of-detainee-what-to-know/88257531007/

* "I’m Hiding From ICE. This Is My Story.:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/02/ice-minneapolis-trump-immigrant-hiding-abduction.html

* "‘Because I was Latino, that’s it’: ICE rams car in south Minneapolis while profiling driver:" https://sahanjournal.com/public-safety/ice-rams-latino-man-car-south-minneapolis-immigration/

* "Welcome to the American Winter:" https://archive.ph/YY4B6

* "Resistance to Trump 2.0 is getting more confrontational:" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/01/trump-resistance-protests

* "How much can a city take?:" https://www.theverge.com/policy/864195/minneapolis-ice-invasion-organizing-immigration

* "‘We’re fighting for the soul of the country’: how Minnesota residents came together to face ICE:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/01/minnesota-twin-cities-ice-protests

* "The Key to Minneapolis’s Successful ICE Resistance:" https://newrepublic.com/article/205404/minneapolis-mutual-aid-ice-resilience

* "This Cold Winter, Love Is a Superpower:" https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/this-cold-winter-love-is-a-superpower/

* "‘Backing down isn’t an option’: Minnesota ICE shootings mobilize Americans to join ICE observer groups:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/31/ice-observer-document-immigration-agents

* "Black Panthers are out protecting communities from ICE thugs:" https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2026/01/19/black-panthers-ice/

* "How an errand for a 12-year-old immigrant in Minneapolis became an underground operation:" https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5682120/12-year-old-immigrant-need-minneapolis-launched-underground-operation

* "Minnesota Elementary School Sends Urgent Message as ICE Sends Flyers Offering Food Support to Families:" https://meidasnews.com/news/minnesota-elementary-school-sends-urgent-message-as-ice-sends-flyers-offering-food-support-to-families

* "Disruption at a church is not the scandal. Injustice is.:" https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/disruption-church-not-scandal-injustice

* "Los Angeles mayor blasts DOJ’s Don Lemon prosecution after judge frees journalist without bail:" https://www.advocate.com/news/crime/don-lemon-karen-bass-doj

* "‘It’s attacking the public’s right to know’: Georgia Fort on the White House going after journalists:" https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow/watch/it-s-attacking-the-public-s-right-to-know-georgia-fort-on-the-white-house-going-after-journalists-2484972611823

* "Hayes, Soboroff and Wagner on ‘glimpse of what it’s like to live in a not free society’:"

( Embed: )

* "Who are Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez? CBP agents identified in Alex Pretti killing:" https://www.advocate.com/news/jesus-ochoa-raymundo-gutierrez-cbp

* "Renee Good was 'beautiful American,' 'unapologetically hopeful,' brothers tell Congress:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/renee-good-brothers-testify-congress

* Here are some ways to help Immigrants and the anti-ICE Protesters:

"MASTER LIST OF WAYS TO HELP IN MINNEAPOLIS:" https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/807223113540599808?source=share
"Here are Minnesota groups that need your help organizing against ICE and DHS operations:" https://www.advocate.com/news/minnesota-mutual-aid-groups-ice
Links to Help organize in advance of ICE Occupation: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/807226885129060352?source=share
"How To Help if You are Outside Minnesota:" https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/how-to-help-if-you-are-outside-minnesota/
"Support minnesotans defending their communities from ICE:" https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
"When the Feds Come to Your City: Standing Up to ICE :" https://crimethinc.com/2025/12/03/when-the-feds-come-to-your-city-standing-up-to-ice-a-guide-from-chicago-organizers
Immigrant Defenders: https://give.immdef.org/give/545119/#!/donation/checkout
The Bail Project: https://bailproject.org/
National Bail Fund Network: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directory
Amnesty International: protect asylum-seekers: https://donate.amnestyusa.org/page/113080/donate/1
The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights: https://www.theyoungcenter.org/
CHIRLA: https://www.chirla.org/
AL Otro Lado: https://alotrolado.networkforgood.com/projects/63833-al-otro-lado-fund
"Know Your Rights:" https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights
"Disappeared In America:" https://www.disappearedinamerica.us/

* "Trump says he wants proposed arch to be world's "biggest":" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-arch-dca-airport-flight-path/

* "Trump says Republicans should ‘nationalize’ elections:" https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/02/trump-nationalize-elections-2026-midterms-00760015

This is blatantly unconstitutional.

* "Panicked by bad news, Trump makes elections power grab and leaves staff sputtering with excuses:" https://www.ms.now/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/panicked-by-bad-news-trump-makes-elections-power-grab-and-leaves-staff-sputtering-with-excuses-2485182531993

None of this is fixed. It will need to clear the courts. It is essential to stay noisy. Protest, and also:

Please contact your Congress Critters about protecting free and fair elections for Trump's planned "Nationalization."

* "Fulton County, Georgia, to sue Trump administration over seizure of 2020 election records:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fulton-county-sue-trump-doj-fbi-seizure-2020-election-records-rcna257052

All the Election denial was repeatedly debunked. Trump had no evidence to present in law courts and repeated recounts proved he lost.

* This isn't her job and lurking about was very weird. "Intelligence director says Trump requested her presence at FBI search of Georgia election center:" https://apnews.com/article/fbi-georgia-gabbard-elections-2a04ffe6aa317ed5be98c1cd60388992

* "Trump spoke to some FBI agents who raided Atlanta election office, NYT reports:" https://archive.ph/iFCeF

* "Tulsi Gabbard running solo 2020 election inquiry separate from FBI investigation:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/03/tulsi-gabbard-2020-election-investigation-ed

* "‘Hellbent’: Trump is reassembling his 2020 coup crew amid 2026 midterm panic:" https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/hellbent-trump-is-reassembling-his-2020-coup-crew-amid-2026-midterm-panic-2485161027851

* If she's innocent, why the illegal cover up? She could easily just follow the law. "Attorney says Gabbard is holding up a complaint about her actions, which her office denies:" https://apnews.com/article/gabbard-dni-intelligence-complaint-classified-c697b07bfe27810e086c441e5d7997e1

* "Pete Hegseth Delights in Violence:" https://archive.ph/FawQC

* "Section 504 is under attack, AGAIN!!!:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FVMm8C0qDqw

Hang together or hang separately!!!

* "Texas v. Kennedy (formerly Texas v. Becerra): What it is and How You Can Help Stop the Attack on Section 504:" https://dredf.org/protect-504/

***ACTION ITEM*** I beg of you, if you live in Texas, Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, please contact your government officials and ask them to stop the lawsuit to end Section 504.

* There is also a second prong of this attack on the ADA via Trump Executive order: "Disability groups are standing united for trans rights. That hasn’t always been the case:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/disability-protections-transgender-trump

Everyone should also take this time to contact your Congress Critters about Trump's attacks on ADA based Trans protections and the autonomy of people with Disabilities.

* "Judge Revives Orsted NY Offshore Wind Project Halted by Trump:" https://archive.ph/LJC0D

* Please no!!! "Government by AI? Trump Administration Plans to Write Regulations Using Artificial Intelligence:" https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-artificial-intelligence-google-gemini-transportation-regulations

* ""Whitewashed" new panels to replace those about Black soldiers at Margraten war cemetery:" https://nltimes.nl/2026/01/27/whitewashed-new-panels-replace-black-soldiers-margraten-war-cemetery

* "National Park Service Removes Exhibit on People Enslaved by George Washington:" https://eji.org/news/national-park-service-removes-exhibit-on-people-enslaved-by-george-washington/

* "Trump to close Kennedy Center after takeover. Here’s everything we know:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/all-about-kennedy-center-closure

* "Trump says he's closing the Kennedy Center for renovations. We have questions:" https://www.npr.org/2026/02/02/nx-s1-5696489/kennedy-center-renovation-trump-questions

* "Trump says he won’t tear down the Kennedy Center arts venue but it needs to be closed for repairs:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-kennedy-center-repairs-close-july-marble-cb2f82bd7d2224b67caa013892574552

* "Trump escalates Harvard feud with $1B demand:" https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/03/trump-escalates-harvard-feud-with-1-billion-demand-00761683

* "Ed Martin out as leader of DOJ's 'weaponization' group, sources say:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/ed-martin-dojs-weaponization-czar-sources-say-rcna257093

**** Trump/Epstein/Maxwell, etc. CW: CSA ****

* "Government says it’s fixing redactions in Epstein-related files that may have had victim information:" https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-epstein-files-trump-036f169b672bcbe0a9b5516e109b6af0

* "Vivian Wilson seems to corroborate Epstein-Musk emails:" https://www.advocate.com/news/elon-musk-vivian-wilson-epstein

* "Facts haunt Trump as new Epstein files release shows lots to investigate:" https://www.ms.now/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/facts-haunt-trump-as-new-epstein-files-release-shows-lots-to-investigate-2485189187973

* "Clintons reach deal with House Republicans to testify, likely avoiding contempt charge:" https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/03/bill-clinton-contempt-epstein-congress-00762396

* "Senate Democrats reach deal to avert partial government shutdown:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/29/senate-democrats-deal-dhs-funding-bill

Senate Democrats held firm on DHS

They have split the DHS funding from the other funding bills.

They have two weeks to negotiate

It is very important to call them and thank them for standing up against I.C.E., and to keep fighting to curb the abuses.

Here is a model email if you would like one to look at:

* "Emailing my senators:" https://amaebi.dreamwidth.org/2758996.html

* "How Mike Johnson is scrambling to keep the shutdown short:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/02/02/congress/mike-johnson-save-act-spending-00760523

* "House votes to end partial government shutdown, setting up contentious talks on ICE:" https://www.npr.org/2026/02/03/g-s1-108506/house-vote-end-government-shutdown

It is time to lobby the House Hard. We need two Republican votes to put limits on I.C.E. .

* "Op-Ed: With KOSA, Elizabeth Warren is Betraying the Trans Youth She Claims to Protect:" https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/op-ed-with-kosa-elizabeth-warren

* Our until Midterms is to survive, to build grassroots resistance, to do all in our power to slow the republican Christo-fascist agenda, and to prepare for 2026 in case there is still Democracy.

"Take action with Indivisible:" https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/

Trump 2.0 Indivisible Guide. https://indivisible.org/resource/guide

If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options for contacting your Congress Critters:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

And another: https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php

Snail Mail Campaigns: https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/3622760.html

"Congress. gov:" https://www.congress.gov/

White house (Possibly Dangerous): https://www.whitehouse.gov/

ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives

This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/

"The Public Comment Process (+ how to write effective public comments):" https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/781844516804149248?source=share

"Swing Left:" https://swingleft.org/

Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/

"Vote Smart:" https://justfacts.votesmart.org/

Protests: "50501 Events:" https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events

"ICE Raids Toolkit: Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests:" https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/

Contains a raid tip hotline amoung other things. "Know Your Rights
LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:" https://wearecasa.org/know-your-rights/

* "Texas loss delivers stark warning to Republicans in critical election year:" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk85kjk8lzo

* "Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty after judge nixes two federal counts:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/luigi-mangione-will-not-face-death-penalty-judge-nixes-two-federal-cou-rcna256715

* "Budapest mayor charged for supporting Pride march:" https://www.advocate.com/news/budapest-mayor-pride-indicted

* "In Putin’s Homophobic Russia, Watching Heated Rivalry Is an Act of Rebellion and Hope:" https://archive.ph/3as9s#selection-508.0-508.3

* "Half of U.S. trans teens live in a state that restricts their rights: study:" https://www.advocate.com/news/half-transgender-teens-restrictive-laws

* "Over 1,000 anti-LGBTQ+ attacks occurred in 2025: report:" https://www.advocate.com/news/anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-2025

* "LGBTQ+ Americans are going back in the closet under Donald Trump: report:" https://www.advocate.com/news/lgbtq-safety-coming-out-trump

* "As LGBTQ+ people go back into the closet under Trump, the Human Rights Campaign reveals plan to fight back:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/lgbtq-discrimination-fear-trump-hrc

* "Virginia school board adopts anti-transgender policy and blocks LGBTQ+ club:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/states/king-george-virginia-transphobic-schools

* "Los Angeles police won't stop man from throwing dog poop at LGBTQ+ youth center :" https://www.advocate.com/news/crime/lgbtq-youth-center-dog-poop

* "U of Arkansas withdraws offer to new law school dean because she supported trans athletes:" https://www.advocate.com/news/education/arkansas-nixes-pro-transgender-academic

* "Transgender Chicago Cubs employee accuses coworkers of assaulting her in lawsuit:" https://www.advocate.com/news/chiacgo-cubs-transgender-employee-lawsuit

* "Ex-Steelers employee alleges antigay, sexist discrimination in lawsuit:" https://www.advocate.com/news/people/gay-steelers-worker-sues-discrimination

* "Unexpected shutdown of Tucson Pride leaves Arizonans distraught:" https://www.advocate.com/news/tucson-pride-surprise-shutdown

* "Latina trans women are celebrating the quinceañeras they’ve always dreamed of:" https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/latina-trans-women-are-celebrating-the-quinceaneras-theyve-always-dreamed-of/

* "The mental health system is failing queer kids of color—and we're letting it happen:" https://www.advocate.com/opinion/bipoc-mental-health

* CW: Suicide "Conversion therapy's outcomes: shame, depression, suicidality, survivors say:" https://www.advocate.com/news/conversion-therapy-shame-depression-suicide

* "Can magic mushrooms help the gay meth crisis?:" https://www.advocate.com/opinion/meth-mushrooms-and-gay-men

* "What the World Got Wrong About Autistic People:" https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-different/202601/what-the-world-got-wrong-about-autistic-people

* Items below this point may be a little older.

* "The Flu Really Is That Bad:" https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/01/flu-season-bad/685573/?

* "Stanford scientists found a way to regrow cartilage and stop arthritis:" https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260120000333.htm

* "A new milestone in the cancer fight: 7 in 10 patients now survive five-plus years:" https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/cancer-survival-rate-five-years-7-in-10-patients-rcna253089?

* "Is It Dangerous to Let Kids Be Free?:" https://thewalrus.ca/is-it-dangerous-to-let-kids-be-free/

* "San Francisco sues nation's top food manufacturers over ultraprocessed foods:" https://www.npr.org/2025/12/03/g-s1-100212/san-francisco-sues-manufacturers-ultraprocessed-foods?

* "The Lies and Falsifications of Oliver Sacks:" https://kottke.org/25/12/the-lies-and-falsifications-of-oliver-sacks

* "What happens to forests when the planet warms up too fast:" https://www.earth.com/news/what-happens-to-forests-when-the-planet-warms-up-too-fast/

* "2 dead amid winter storm that brought record-setting snow and freezing temperatures to the South:" https://www.nbcnews.com/weather/winter-weather/north-carolina-winter-storm-fatalities-rcna256931

* "California LGBTQ+ communities face distinct challenges in recovery after 2025 Eaton Canyon fires: report:" https://www.advocate.com/lgbtq-community-eaton-canyon-fires

* "Deadly fire raises fears about safety elsewhere in Hong Kong’s high-rise skyline:" https://apnews.com/article/hong-wang-china-dissent-fire-construction-ff953aec2bc0201b0e3255805a241fc1?

* "Science journal retracts study on safety of Monsanto’s Roundup: ‘Serious ethical concerns’:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/05/monsanto-roundup-safety-study-retracted

* "Zillow Doesn’t Care If Climate Change Destroys Your New Home:" https://newrepublic.com/article/203982/zillow-climate-risk-home-house

* "Coffee-driven deforestation is making it harder to grow coffee, watchdog group says:" https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5582781/coffee-deforestation-brazil-forest

* "Running on Empty: Copper:" https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/running-on-empty-copper

* "The World Is Running Out of Sand—And Thieves Are Willing to Kill for It:" https://archive.ph/4CKLG

* "Scientists trace fertilizer microplastics from fields to beaches:" https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260118233551.htm

* "A City Cast in Concrete, Trapped Under Unbearable Heat:" https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-city-cast-in-concrete-trapped-under-unbearable-heat/

* "Ground Zero: Los Angeles and the Endgame of the Growth Ponzi Scheme:" https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025-10-27-ground-zero-los-angeles-and-the-endgame-of-the-growth-ponzi-scheme

* "Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn:" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/20/biodiversity-collapse-threatens-uk-security-intelligence-chiefs-warn?

* "‘The soul of the city’: can Kinshasa’s last remaining baobab tree be saved?:" https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/07/kinshasa-drc-last-baobab-tree-saved-megacity

* "The City That Refused to Stay Dying:" https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025-12-17-the-city-that-refused-to-stay-dying

* "New York’s Grand Central Terminal Helped Provide the Blueprint for American Cities. It Happened by Accident:" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-yorks-grand-central-terminal-helped-provide-blueprint-american-cities-happened-accident-180987640/

* "His Job Is to Make the Subway Accessible. His Own Life Fuels His Work.:" https://archive.ph/gE13t

* "The gift that keeps on giving: How solar panels on farms can help increase crop yields:" https://theconversation.com/the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-how-solar-panels-on-farms-can-help-increase-crop-yields-269264

* "Extra CO2 doesn't speed tree growth, researchers reveal why:" https://www.earth.com/news/extra-co2-doesnt-speed-tree-growth-researchers-reveal-why-pr25/

* "Scientists find hidden rainfall pattern that could reshape farming:" https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251211100633.htm

* "How Uruguay’s energy supply became 98% renewable:" https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2025/12/10/how-uruguays-energy-supply-became-98-renewable/

* "There's an Actual Reason You Can't Recycle Plastic:"

( Embed: )

* "Elon Musk's Grok AI floods X with sexualized photos of women and minors:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/grok-says-safeguard-lapses-led-images-minors-minimal-clothing-x-2026-01-02/

* "Grok Is Generating Sexual Content Far More Graphic Than What's on X:" https://www.wired.com/story/grok-is-generating-sexual-content-far-more-graphic-than-whats-on-x/

* "Elon Built a Child Porn Factory:"

( Embed: )

* "NYC Wegmans is storing biometric data on shoppers' eyes, voices and faces:" https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-wegmans-is-storing-biometric-data-on-shoppers-eyes-voices-and-faces

* "No, Grok hasn’t paywalled its deepfake image feature:" https://www.theverge.com/news/859309/grok-undressing-limit-access-gaslighting

* "Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards:" https://www.theverge.com/policy/859902/apple-google-run-by-cowards

* "Grok's AI CSAM Shitshow:" https://www.404media.co/groks-ai-csam-shitshow/

* "Elon Musk says UK wants to suppress free speech as X faces possible ban:" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/10/elon-musk-uk-free-speech-x-ban-grok-ai

* "Roblox’s AI-Powered Age Verification Is a Complete Mess:" https://www.wired.com/story/robloxs-ai-powered-age-verification-is-a-complete-mess/

* "Wikipedia inks AI deals with Microsoft, Meta and Perplexity as it marks 25th birthday:" https://apnews.com/article/wikipedia-internet-jimmy-wales-50e796d70152d79a2e0708846f84f6d7

* "Microsoft is reportedly turning Edge into a Copilot-styled app, and no, you can't turn it off:" https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-reportedly-turning-edge-browser-copilot-app/

* "Google won’t stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AI:" https://www.theverge.com/tech/865168/google-says-ai-news-headlines-are-feature-not-experiment

* "Librarians Are Tired of Being Accused of Hiding Secret Books That Were Made Up by AI:" https://gizmodo.com/librarians-arent-hiding-secret-books-from-you-that-only-ai-knows-about-2000698176

* "A.I. Was Supposed to “Revolutionize” Work. In Many Offices, It’s Only Creating Chaos.:" https://slate.com/life/2026/01/work-artificial-intelligence-ai-office-chaos.html

* "Researchers poison stolen data to make AI systems return wrong results:" https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/06/ai_data_pollution_defense/

* "AI and the Corporate Capture of Knowledge:" https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/01/ai-and-the-corporate-capture-of-knowledge.html

* "HarperCollins Will Use AI to Translate Harlequin Romance Novels:" https://www.404media.co/harpercollins-will-use-ai-to-translate-harlequin-romance-novels/

* "Why does AI suck at making clocks?:" https://www.popsci.com/technology/ai-making-clocks/

* "Microsoft is closing its employee library and cutting back on subscriptions:" https://www.theverge.com/tech/862531/microsoft-library-closure-transition-changes-notepad

* "The behavioral cost of personalized pricing:" https://digitalseams.com/blog/the-behavioral-cost-of-personalized-pricing

* "Microsoft Windows Media Player stops serving up CD album info:" https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/09/microsoft_windows_media_player_forgets/

* "FCC revises Verizon phone unlocking rules after significant fraud issues:" https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/fcc-revises-verizon-phone-unlocking-rules-after-significant-fraud-issues-2026-01-12/

It's a way to stop people using older phones.

* "Github Banned a Ton of Adult Game Developers and Won’t Explain Why:" https://www.404media.co/github-ban-suspension-adult-modding-games-illusion/

* "How WhatsApp Took Over the Global Conversation:" https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/19/how-whatsapp-took-over-the-global-conversation?

* "Dating: The Past, Present, & Future:"

( Embed: )

* CW: Sexual Assault. "Dating Apps Are Worse Than You Think. Here's Why.:"

( Embed: )

* "PS5 ROM Keys Leaked: Sony’s Unpatchable Security Nightmare (2026):" https://thecybersecguru.com/news/ps5-rom-keys-leaked/

* "Can Law Enforcement Access Google Search Data Without a Warrant? Pennsylvania Says Yes:" https://natlawreview.com/article/can-law-enforcement-access-google-search-data-without-warrant-pennsylvania-says-yes

* "on NFTs and the art market:" https://totient.dreamwidth.org/199685.html

* "RAM is so expensive, Samsung won’t even sell it to Samsung:" https://www.pcworld.com/article/2998935/ram-is-so-expensive-samsung-wont-even-sell-it-to-samsung.html

* "After nearly 30 years, Crucial will stop selling RAM to consumers:" https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/after-nearly-30-years-crucial-will-stop-selling-ram-to-consumers/

* "The Politics Of Superintelligence:" https://www.noemamag.com/the-politics-of-superintelligence/

* "Failures of “AI” Promise: Critical Thinking, Misinformation, Prosociality, & Trust:" https://afutureworththinkingabout.com/?p=6422

* "Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show:" https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/

* "I don't trust Chrome anymore — here's what pushed me over the edge:" https://www.makeuseof.com/dont-trust-chrome-anymore-heres-what-pushed-me-over-the-edge/?

* "Barnum's Law of CEOs:" https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2025/12/barnums-law-of-ceos.html

* "The Last Video Rental Store Is Your Public Library:" https://www.404media.co/the-last-video-rental-store-is-your-public-library/

* "How Taiwan Made Cashless Payments Cute:" https://www.wired.com/story/icash-taiwan-payments-keychains-how-it-works/

* "A New Anonymous Phone Carrier Lets You Sign Up With Nothing but a Zip Code:" https://www.wired.com/story/new-anonymous-phone-carrier-sign-up-with-nothing-but-a-zip-code/

* "China floods the world with gasoline cars it can't sell at home:" https://www.reuters.com/investigations/china-floods-world-with-gasoline-cars-it-cant-sell-home-2025-12-02/

* "Built to spill: The life of a crash test dummy:" https://www.npr.org/2025/12/16/nx-s1-5556934/crash-test-dummy-manufacturing

* "‘Lasagna Battery’: Why You Shouldn’t Bake Your Pasta Dish In a Steel Pan:" https://www.today.com/food/trends/lasagna-battery-rcna249704

* "This new imaging technology breaks the rules of optics:" https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260110211214.htm

* "The magnetic secret inside steel finally explained:" https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260125083427.htm

* "Marine robotics firm will resume deep-sea search for MH370 plane that vanished a decade ago:" https://apnews.com/article/malaysia-missing-plane-mh370-search-eb0e65b20bf6766dfa1394c58fc6ccbf?

* "New map reveals hidden landscape under Antarctica's ice sheet:" https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/new-map-reveals-hidden-landscape-under-antarcticas-ice-sheet-2026-01-16/

* "Scientists stunned by a massive hydrothermal field off Greece:" https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251228020000.htm

* "'We can handle any kind of difficult situation': Crew-11 astronauts say 1st medical evacuation from ISS had a silver lining:" https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/we-can-handle-any-kind-of-difficult-situation-crew-11-astronauts-say-1st-medical-evacuation-from-iss-had-a-silver-lining

* When feminists feared the 'lavender menace' of lesbians — and how those lesbians fought back:" https://www.advocate.com/history/when-feminists-feared-lesbians

* "Heather Ann Thompson - “Fear and Fury” & How the Bernie Goetz Story Echoes Today | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "On the lamb: 50 sheep break away from flock and storm German supermarket:" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/08/runaway-sheep-storm-german-supermarket

* "Monkey business: Multiple primates on the loose in St. Louis park:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/monkeys-on-loose-st-louis-park-rcna253330

* "Over 100 human skulls found at home of Pennsylvania man accused of desecrating cemeteries:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pennsylvania-man-accused-desecrating-cemeteries-found-100-human-skulls-rcna253123

* "Gatlinburg candy shop owners seek bear-proofing solutions after repeat break-ins:" https://www.wvlt.tv/2026/01/15/gatlinburg-candy-shop-owners-seek-bear-proofing-solutions-after-repeat-break-ins/

* "Japan Has a New Cat Stationmaster: Meet Yontama:" https://www.tokyoweekender.com/japan-life/news-and-opinion/new-cat-stationmaster-announced/

* I ended up involuntarily day shifted part of this past week and still am as of Sunday. I did not do a bunch of phone bureaucracy, I ought to have, but it is A Lot on top of everything else. Unexpectedly, Forage box contained low preparation protein for me Friday. They haven't done this in literally years. It was a full sized field roast wrapped in pastry, which is not ideal, as Feild Roast is very heavy and also really doesn't keep well, as the pastry, while delicious when it's soaked up gravy and has bits of the stuffing fruit on it, hardens and goes stale fast. So it's low effort food, but also you have to eat a lot of it before it starts to get nasty. More than you really want to eat generally.

This had the advantage though of leaving me enough energy after physio to do some sorting in preparation of the big job that is the next phase of putting the tall desk things back, do comprehensive litter changes on Saturday, and combined with randomly day shifted allowed me to do some shifting and weeding in the garden, because in our weird little valley micro-climate, the weeds never really stop.

Not only are the inside daffodils fairly advanced, but I food a bunch of crocuses gamely hoping for Spring outside. The taller ones I knew were happening, but I found some surprise ones in the back that I'm assuming were subsisting in drips from the spearmint planter and were growing around another small pot sitting on top of theirs. I have moved them.

I need to shift a few heavier containers, which I wasn't up to, and I need to weed the far tomato pot on a day when it isn't actively raining and I hadn't exhausted my ability to bend over and my pain resistance weeding other pots.

I had a likely very bad idea for reorganizing out there, in light of the removal of that giant bush that was blocking a lot of light, but if the idea worked it would be really clever. I need to think on it further though, as it would be a major undertaking requiring help.

* I ended up going back out before dark and moving the heavy things. The heavy things were clearly heavier than I should have been lifting and to get the last one in place I had to twist a little, inevitably injuring myself. I feel like I've been through a mangle as this was all to much for the artificial shoulder as well.

I new Monday was going to be strenuous and the pain would leave me short on sleep, so I gave myself a day off from physio. I may hjave to give myselfd Tuesday off because it feels like I've been through a mangle.

I couldn't get back to sleep for pain after about six hours, so Livia and I read almost half an ILL, before I dragged myself out to try to make food for us and do lungs.

The plan was to leave oneish for downtown taxes, with a stop at the pharmacy on the way. Library was either before or after, then pick up tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese on the way home. Doors opened at 1:45. I got there around 1:30 after pharmacy, but with no library because traffic. There was already a line. There were also massive rain slick cement steps. They used to let disabled people park in the upstairs disabled parking, but they refuse to open those doors now for taxes and I've no idea how someone in a wheelchair gets in.

A nice man gave me his seat so I didn't have to sit on the soaked stairs. They'd all watch my painful wobbly ascent with various degrees of alarm. I asked if he was sure and he was. All the standing about in the downstairs hall before they let us start signing in was incredibly painful and pretty much did me in, so I truly was grateful for the porch chair.

There is an elevator down, at least, the lady who'd been behind me when we arrived was kind enough to let me have my place in line back when we gathered in the Hall for interminable orientation.

I was fifth in line signing in, which, with my usual half hourish session would add up to one and a half to two hours under normal conditions. They had six preparers there. I had a shortish library book and my usual short story magazines for back up, because I have zero faith in normal conditions.

My lack of faith was correct. The computer had been mostly down the previous day they were open, which meant everyone on a packed day waited four hours for nothing, so they were given special slips to let them cut line. Many of them had everything but the computer bits completed, which made them faster than average, but there were A lot of them turning up in the first two hours. Also, it turned out two of the preparers were trainees. Literally one couple without slips got in on the first batch. No one else without a slip was seen until 4:30PM. The trainees went solo around 4PM They close at six. Most of the people waiting gave up and went home. A lot of them wewre furious, but I got why all this was no one's fault and I've never seen the point of getting angry at people trying to make the best of a bad situation.

I waited. I had stuff to read, I did not want to come back and do it again tomorrow from scratch. I also knew they knew how simple my paperwork was and I could do math. I figured they'd likely squeeze me in if I was patient.

I was next in line by five between people getting taken in to be worked on and people giving up. I was in a scootch before 5:15 with two people behind me. It ended up taking 40 minutes as it took extra long to get the double check as the person doing that was helping a trainee and it took ages. The other people did get squeezed in, including the nice lady who let me back in line even though the elevator was slow. The preparer took me through the labrinth to the wheelchair ramp exit once I made her understand that yes, I could take the elevator up, but then I'd have to walk down two flights of rain slick cement steps and please was there a ground floor way out?

It was pitch black out there and all in shadow, and the black macadam was uneven. There was a weird wobble in my crutch handle, but I was so busy not falling on ground I basically couldn't see in the rain on the very long hobble up and around to the lower parking lot, that I didn't stop to examine it and I was so focused on just trying to get to the library and not crying from the pain, that I forgot to examine it in the car. This was a mistake.

Two steps from my car at the library, the handle gave way. The metal piece was just gone, likely lost during the long hobble in the dark. No point in going back to look as I now didn't have a viable crutch and would be searching mostly unlighted shadowy places and if it was lost in the labrith, I'd be locked out. Sigh. I had a dangerous time dealing with the small stairs up and down to and from the library drop box. (They were kicking everyone out when I arrived). I now have to go back to pick up a book. I don't want to do it, but also I now need groceries I couldn't get because of the whole crutch came apart thing. I could theoretically search the parking lot, if I came early enough. If I hit the right window they might even let me inside, but I also have a zoom meeting thing I have to do Tuesday at five and I'm not convinced I remember how to do zoom.

I feel terrible. Really, this is what the emergancy pain meds are for, but I low key hallucinate on tramadol now and next time I need surgury it will really be hell as I likely won't even get a week of pain relief. Each pill I take now brings me one step closer to can't have anything but celebrex and tylanol after surgury.

Why must everything be this hard?

* I had trouble getting back to sleep, so ended up reading for a couple hours until I could manage it, then crashed HARD. As a result, I couldn't both do physio and get out to do the stuff I was supposed to do Tuesday before the zoom meeting thing at five. It was still a close shave as it turned out I hadn't added zoom to the laptop after the old one died, plus I kept Finding Problems around the apartment.

Still, I made it to my seat with tea in time. I defended Halloween decorations when I got my turn. Them: "Our intention isn't to ban Halloween." Me: "That's not what the wording says. Halloween is not a federal national holiday." " They are passing the new rules anyway, but they promised to amend for me and someone else with a very valid suggestion. They are probably going to allow people to to dry clothes out side for one day, but there will be more debate. Plus there was a bunch of alarming stuff about elevators and fire system and talk of bringing back the fucking gates.

I really am going to need to run next time there is an opening, aren't I. *facepalm*

On a related note, I suppose I need to learn how to do emojis in zoom as it's pretty much required.

They have decided to restart Squirrel on Physio for the mangled rotator cuffs for two months to see if they can avoid surgery. (Different physio, as they don't want to worsen the tearing). It sounds like squirrel's pay may be sorted out, but we'll know for sure if it comes by week's end.

* CW: CSA "DOJ Protects Trump From Epstein Accountability as MAGA Attacks "Sanctuary Cities" | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* CW: CSA "Trump Is All Over The Epstein Files | DOJ Exposes Epstein Victims | Trump Admin Won't Investigate:"

( Embed: )

* "DNA for Dollars: Did 23andMe’s Bankruptcy Sell Your Genetics?:"

( Embed: )

* "ICE Meeting Cold Open - SNL:"

( Embed: )

* "Winter Olympics Promo - SNL:"

( Embed: )

* "The Viking Raid - SNL:"

( Embed: )

* "Trump Is All Over The Epstein Files:"

( Embed: )

*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* "When the Feds Come to Your City: Standing Up to ICE :" https://crimethinc.com/2025/12/03/when-the-feds-come-to-your-city-standing-up-to-ice-a-guide-from-chicago-organizers

* "MASTER LIST OF WAYS TO HELP IN MINNEAPOLIS:" https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/807223113540599808?source=share

* "Here are Minnesota groups that need your help organizing against ICE and DHS operations:" https://www.advocate.com/news/minnesota-mutual-aid-groups-ice

* Links to Help organize in advance of ICE Occupation: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/807226885129060352?source=share

* "Swing Left:" https://swingleft.org/

* Contains link to trans girl sales pages. "Trans Girl Scouts On Cookie List Sell 71,000 Boxes Of Cookies And Growing:" https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/trans-girl-scouts-on-cookie-list

( More )

sabotabby

Just finished: Nothing.

Currently reading: Changelog by Rich Larson. Whenever I mention Rich Larson to normies, they go, "Who?" Whenever he comes up among writers, the discussion invariably includes the adjective "underrated," which is a bit weird for someone who's kindasorta won an Emmy. It's absolutely true, though. He's prolific af and everything I've read by him so far is an absolute banger.

Changelog is a short story anthology. It's all cyberpunk, a lot of it set in the same cyberpunk future, spanning from Niger to Nuuk, wildly inventive and beautifully written. There are obvious Black Mirror and Love, Death + Robots (the Emmy was for an episode of that adapted from one of his stories) but the cyberpunk aspect of it is mostly backgrounded to focus on character.

It's hard to pick a favourite because there's not a single weak link here, but the standouts so far are "Animals Like Me," which is about a young gig worker recruited to do motion capture work for increasingly disturbing AI-generated children's animation, "Quandary Aminu vs The Butterfly Man," which is about a low-level gangster targeted by a genetically modified assassin that only lives for about a day and a half but is otherwise nearly unstoppable, and "Tripping Through Time," which is the most hopeful story I have read in forever (positive; I don't normally like hopeful stories).

thewayne

It all depends on the quality of the chips. The problem is obvious when you think of it. Memory is stored in transistors as an electrical charge in NAND flash cells, and even though they're called non-volatile (unchanging), slowly that electrical charge will drain, and with it, your data.

From the article: "...the cheapest SSDs, say those with QLC NAND, can safely store data for about a year of being completely unpowered. More expensive TLC NAND can retain data for up to 3 years, while MLC and SLC NAND are good for 5 years and 10 years of unpowered storage, respectively.

The problem is that most consumer SSDs use only TLC or QLC NAND, so users who leave their SSDs unpowered for over a year are risking the integrity of their data. The reliability of QLC NAND has improved over the years, so you should probably consider 2–3 years of unpowered usage as the guardrails. Without power, the voltage stored in the NAND cells can be lost, either resulting in missing data or completely useless drives." (I'm not sure if there's an easy way to see what kind of NAND chips are being used by your drives short of third-party utilities)

The nefarious aspect of this problem is that it may not be apparent. You might mount up a disused drive and everything appears fine, then you try to load a document or photo or whatever, and find it's irredeemably corrupted. It rotted in the middle and there's little that can be done. Other forms of rot might hit the directory itself and will be quite obvious when you look at the disk in Explorer or the equivalent. Some types of damage can be recovered, some cannot be.

This problem doesn't just apply to solid state drives: they use the same tech as thumb drives and camera memory cards of all types. The bit about the drive becoming completely useless is interesting, but the article doesn't clarify the subject. I suspect they're talking about rot hitting the config area of the drive which could make it unusable.

The article also talks about the 3-2-1 Backup Rule. Simply put, it's 3 copies of data on at least 2 different storage media, with 1 copy stored off-site. If you have a locker or desk at work, or a safe deposit box, these can be ideal places to store a backup. A storage locker can also work if it isn't exposed to extremes of weather. If you don't have absolute control of where your backup is stored, then you might want to look into encrypting it.

Conventional hard drives are not failure-proof, but they will theoretically last longer and don't normally have rot problems like this. They can have problems with stiction, where the read/write heads don't retract properly and actually stick to the platter. That doesn't happen much anymore, they're pretty good at reserving enough energy so if they're powered off abruptly they'll still retract to their park zone.

https://www.xda-developers.com/your-unpowered-ssd-is-slowly-losing-your-data/

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/25/1511242/unpowered-ssds-in-your-drawer-are-slowly-losing-data

settiai

I've been slowly making my way through some of the new vids from this year's Festivids and, oh, do I miss vidding. A song that I used in a vid myself years ago came up on a Spotify playlist earlier, and I could still pretty much see the entire vid playing in my head as I was listening to it.

Part of me really wants to try to get back into it, but I know that I don't have the spoons for it. Not right now. I'd basically be starting from scratch when it comes to the various programs needed to properly vid, and even if I were to somehow get the spoons together to go to the trouble of getting everything I'd need? I'd still have to find the time for it. I barely have time to write fanfiction sometimes, and I can fit it in at work or on the bus - neither of which would be an option with vidding.

But, oh, that doesn't make me miss it any less.

Current Mood: sad

thisbluespirit

In the midst of writing five ways Sir Robert and Catherine could have got together post-canon for

yuletide, the inevitable result was also thinking about what if they were just married already. And I hadn't yet actually written them for

100ships or TWB for

100fandoms, so I scribbled this down somewhere in between or after the assignment, and here it is.

when all the leaves are gold (1497 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Robert Morton (Winslow Boy), Catherine Winslow
Additional Tags: Community: 100ships, Community: 100fandoms, Community: allbingo, Post-Canon, Edwardian Period, Marriage, Suffragettes, World War I, (outbreak of), Vignette, Happily married Sir Robert and Catherine, Established Relationship, 1910s
Summary: Catherine and Sir Robert, making a marriage work.

(

edwardianspinsteraunt, the second section centres around the imminent announcement of WWI and fears in that regard, but only discussions of it, and the first section is entirely war-free anyway, so you are definitely safe there.)

silverusagi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: good

maju

Thanks to the various people who commented on my post about my poor neglected car suggesting that I just turn it on and let it run for ten minutes or so, and particularly to

pondhopper who talked about moving the car and back forth in the driveway so that the tyres don't get out of shape, which had never occurred to me, this afternoon I went out to give the car some attention. First I cleared the driver's side door so I could open it and turn on the car, and lo and behold, it started right up with the first turn of the key, much to my surprise since it's been about a month since the last time I turned it on and drove somewhere. Then while it was running I cleared out enough snow from in front of each wheel to allow me to drive the car forward a few inches, enough so that the weight was resting on a different part of the tyres. I'm hoping that the tyres, like the battery, are still in good health.

Because it's been so cold ever since the snowstorm, the snow is still light and fluffy and it wasn't too hard to clear the small spaces in front of the wheels. However, there is still a fairly long space (more than a car length probably and wider than my car) of uncleared snow in front of the car and I didn't feel like tackling that. However, now I don't care so much about that since I don't feel any pressure to take my car out of the driveway right now.

Yesterday evening Violet suggested that she and I find a new show to watch, since Game of Wool is long finished, so we were browsing Netflix and came across a movie called "Best in Show", a satirical mockumentary about, guess what, dog shows. It sounded promising so we started watching it, but it turned out to have more sexual content* than I was comfortable letting Violet watch, so I suggested we try "Fisk" instead and although we only watched a few minutes of that before she was called upstairs to go to bed, she laughed out loud more than once so I think she will enjoy it. (And I'll enjoy watching it for about the third time with her.)

*Not actual sex but talk about sexual positions. A couple is talking to their therapist about their dog being traumatised and not speaking to them after seeing them having sex.

Profile

pjthompson

My Website

Navigation

December 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Feb. 5th, 2026 11:02 am

Other Echoes

Network

Recent fic (mostly Babylon 5) on AO3

Reading

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (SCP Foundation)

Critical Role

Finished for real

wednesday books has older women romancing younger men

Infant dies of listeria after mother consumes raw milk during pregnancy

202 Hazbin Hotel - episode 2x02 ("Storyteller") icons, batch 1

From little things big things grow

Adobe announces it's killing off the Animate software program Monday

(no subject)

Laser Loons of my own Design

1/31/26 - 2/4/26 Yet More Action Items Below

Interesting Links for 04-02-2026

Reading Wednesday

Unpowered SSD drive? It may start losing data in 1-3 years.

Vidding

Fic: when all the leaves are gold (The Winslow Boy)

Murderbot fic rec

(no subject)

Profile

Navigation

December 2025

Expand Cut Tags