Interesting "free to read" conversation in the NYT with Louise Perry on the fraught relationship between men and women. She is very pro-marriage, with which, as an elderly woman in a long term marriage, I concur. Our marriage has has all the usual challenges, but a long term partnership has value.

Joy, in the healthiest sense, is not the loud promise that everything will be fine. Joy can be as small as the smell of tea in a warm mug, as quiet as a raven’s wingbeat, as simple as a neighbor waving from across a snowy road. It does not erase pain. It sits beside it and says, “I am here too.”

One thing about AI is that its forced rise makes me ponder the entire digital revolution. I have lived through it, and the result has been loss of agency. Microsoft releases an update: I don't know what's in it or what effect it will have on my laptop, and I don't have a choice about it. Amazon...

Very factual information 💯💯💯🎯

Men are too emotional to be president.

Using generative AI for imagery is **directly harmful** to artists, graphic designers, photographers etc. This isn't a vague moral argument: this is just normal, standard theft, except at a completely new scale and social acceptability. We need to reverse that. www.instagram.com/reel/DY2L2-g...

This hand-painted #shearwater was sent to an #AdriftLab team member with a note about #kindness and #gratitude. A reminder that whatever your talent, it has the greatest impact when used for good. Who knows, your small gesture might just be the kindness that someone desperately needed 💙

I watched a documentary on foot binding last night. A thousand years of life-long torture for little girls because men had a foot fetish. It just points up how willing men are to hurt women, and how women will go along with it. When your life is tortured, you torture. I guess.

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www.ms.now/opinion/step... Farewell to Colbert — and an era of comedy For many, the axing of Colbert’s show is a grim tale of how media conglomerates and authoritarian leaders have joined forces to erode freedom of speech.

There are things you can't quit. I can't quit being white. I can't even pretend a la Buffy St. Marie. I can't quit the US: too old, too broke, and my ancestral home is Britain, which is as fucked up as we are. One thing I don't want to quit is my philoxenia. You're different! Let's have lunch!

Brutality against women is so obvious now. The Epstein files, Dominique Pelicot, Andrew Tate and his disciples. The June Cleaver lifestyle was a myth, and even in the sixties it was a bad myth that few women could manage without dexedrine and valium. How do we proceed here?

Somebody please explain to me what is the reasoning behind having a robot monk. Are they expecting it to reach enlightenment? It's like thinking your alarm clock can meditate for you when you hit the snooze button.

It's true that my very favorite internet folks are the bug and spider people. The plant people are great, but they're more fractious. "That's not really native" "You're harvesting ramps wrong." The bug folks be like "Look at this tiny wasp next to my huge giant finger tip, how cool is that!"

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Oceanographers from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa discovered the answer to how species diversity can be so vast and sustained in a seemingly homogeneous environment like the open ocean. 🌊

A University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa study shows that Waikīkī faces increasing sewage flood risks from sea-level rise through storm-drain backflow and groundwater emergence. The findings call for updated flood strategies focused on contamination, not just surface damage and economic loss.

Did you know Black Beats existed? My Aunt Cookie was one, playing bongos and carving abstract sculptures. Also Alene Lee, who Kerouac kissed and told about in The Subterraneans. My take is in The Day and Night Books of Mardou Fox: rosariumpublishing.com/novels/novel...

Spring time in New England, and I just let a paper wasp queen out of the house. She fell into some water, which just seemed like too much bad luck, so I fished her out and began negotiations. "Ok, when you get things rolling, you tell your daughters, NO STINGING! She drank a water drop and left.

I sort of wonder if Hegseth's staff set him up with his bible verse or if he just asked AI. Probably the latter.

I am much more of a pinko hippie than David Brooks will ever be, but I admire this article very much. And BTW, the answer to the post religion spiritual loneliness is Pantheism. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Not much caught my eye in the NYT headlines today on my march to the Wordle except "this chickpea salad is better than potato salad." No, it's not. I love chickpeas, especially in curry, but chickpea salad is just not, compared to *my* potato salad.

I know this is weird and obscure, but I accidently did a bad thing to a raccoon family and it's been bothering me for days. There's a shed in my rather jungley backyard I haven't looked in for a few years. I opened the door, and a raccoon hustled out the eave, then poked its (her?) head back in.

When we finally internalize climate change, when we finally take it seriously enough, it's going to be excruciating. That's why people who understand science have been pleading with everybody for decades. "If we don't do it now it's going to be so much harder." We didn't. It will be.

I don't have any special feeling about Easter. I was raised vaguely Christian, and do not believe in any kind of anthropomorphic divinity. I do believe in family get-togethers, and am remembering fondly the many times The Dowd Crowd gathered at the Ramanauskas house in Brockton. Miss you, Ray.💔

So the Unfettered States has decided to raise the upper limit of service to 42, and not disqualify for marijuana. I have three thoughts: 1) ha ha ha ha ha 2) the draft may be next 3) I really, really want to see the army made up of 42 year old stoners.

Browsing the NYT headlines on the way to Wordle: "New Yorkers have you found your microscene?" Video playing shows men doing something resembling calisthenics? Must be AI. Women apparently don't get a "microscene"

Some right wing asshole has written an essay "The tragedy of living in Massachusetts". What about the tragedy of living in Mississippi, you second rate gorgon. We have the best education, above average health care (I know, criminally low bar) and gun control that works. So stick it, autocrat.

Behavioral science tells us we need to make more sustainable and low-carbon choices more affordable, convenient, and desirable. And that’s on policymakers not individuals. Yes individuals should do what we can. But we need to push for those systemic solutions to really change consumption patterns.

Some thoughts on my NYT headline scan as I head to wordle: "different goals lead US and Israel down diverging paths" (the US has no goals and Israel is a ravening monster) "Wired's new editor doesn't care if the tech bros are mad" (right on)"middle class suburbanites who sell blood plasma to get by"

The thing about the AI bros is that they have the zeal of the religious, but they already believe in the omnipotence of the god they're trying to create.

I watched a few minutes of America's Culinary Cup on YT. Yet another cooking contest focused on "cut throat competition". I hate it. I love the Baking Show precisely because it's not produced like combat. The US has got its head so far up the "compete like a war criminal" rectum.

NYT has an article on Cosby's ongoing legal issues. I still feel broken hearted by his actions. A good looking rich and famous man does not have to drug women to get laid. And he was so beloved. Tragic, in the fatal flaw way.

Sign from the Boston women's march: "I like my government like I like my coffee--not in my vagina." Giggle.

Is it naive to think that a publicly funded pharmaceutical company, with guaranteed medicare and medicaid business, could be sustainable?

The algorithms, for all their faults, are an undeniable source of amusement. I browse the NYT headlines on the way to Wordle and the ads it's showing me today are: a $3500 "vision pro" rotary something "one pass full wrap in a spin." and a 60W object that looks like a grill? Who am I?

John Hammond has gone. I met him once, decades ago when I was hanging out in the East Village with my boyfriend doing karate shows in cabarets. I was surprised that he had a difficult stutter--but not when he sang.

gawdammit Texas. Sure, pick the religious white guy.

I am not religious, and I truly despise the republican brand of fake christianity, but there are people that take kindness and service to others seriously. The van driver who brings my husband home from his day program speaks of "grace", which would ordinarily put me off, but I know he means it.

I wonder if part of the scheme is to loose the president to do his worst to the nation so JD looks better by comparison. You wouldn't think people would fall for it but *sigh*

The reports of Epstein deliberately working to minimize women's roles in science and tech is one more reason to get more women in government. Men for years have been saying women are too emotional. Lust is an emotion. Anger is an emotion. Powerful men can not be trusted. VOTE FOR THE WOMEN

Oh good, another reason to despise Dershowitz besides being a Nasty sympathizer and a vile pierogi litigator. It's almost worth hanging out at the Chilmark General Store to see if he gets into a fracas again. "Why are you all so mean to me?"

If establishment democrats are worried about AOC running for president they should ditch Schumer. Support her for his Senate seat. She may not go for it, and good for her either way, but hey, we won't have to listen to sanctimonious Schumer bleat about Israel having a right to commit atrocities.

I've been re-reading the Nero Wolfe books written by Rex Stout. In 75 years of reading daily, AG and NW are two of my very favorite characters. I don't think modern media could displace the way I imagine them, but Raymond Burr might have made a good Wolfe. Archie is tougher, more complex in ways.

#ResistanceUnited #ProudBlue #ONEV1 #DV1 Ah, yes, please💙 These two ladies may have some thoughts on their exes' behavior. They sure can be a positive influence with their wealth, a platform, and a social conscience.

So olympic ski jumpers have reportedly been injecting acid into their penises to enlarge them slightly and give them more air time. I would like somebody to explain to me the intersection of penis size and air time. I mean, it doesn't have wings.

Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, JD Vance, Mike Johnson...just starting my Newremberg trials list.