“the rest of the world is simply moving on without the U.S.”

“Terrible day? At least you're not trapped on Tylos (a super-hot planet that we now know is whipped by winds of vaporised metal) or caught in a black hole feeding frenzy (like the one that belched the brightest star-munching flare recorded). Thank your lucky stars you're on boring, beautiful Earth!”

“Moving away from a transparent, independent scientific review and toward more values-driven language raises concerns about credibility and trust. That matters because the DGA shapes nutrition policy, education, and Americans’ understanding of healthy eating.”

“…each small act of goodness, love and non-violent resistance helps dilute the toxins that are dumped daily into the common well.”

America’s Best Idea

One does what one can.

“But the world doesn’t stop just because something horrible happens—even in death, life continues all around us. We still have to go to work, feed our families, pay rent, and make plans.”

Find a way to get centered and focus on self care to meet the challenges of these times.

Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, wrote, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” For American self-government to endure, Americans need both good leaders and good citizens. They are mutually reinforcing.

Time for a lavender revolution While lavender is globally prized for its fragrance, its agricultural residue has been an underutilized byproduct. It is being successfully converted into hard carbon (HC) for use as a high-performance battery anode. interestingengineering.com/energy/laven...

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” King replied from a Birmingham jail. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

we are all Renee Good

“Search engines present multiple results, which triggers our evaluative instincts. We know we need to assess options. AI presents a single, confident-sounding response that feels like it came from expertise. We’re less likely to question it even though we absolutely should.”

Think about what you are reading, but also about where it is coming from. Supporting new innovative writers and independent publishers is as important as writing those checks for the tax deduction. Do both. Support voices and essential services. Advance change with your book buying habit.

Take a breath, pause and think about your destination.

Sometimes a new book actually captures a current issue just right.

“How it works is each of us doing one small good thing, every day.”

Librarians are wonderful. “Use AI to explore. Use libraries to verify. Use your brain to evaluate.”

The story of 2026?

“This gap, between the world as it is and how we’re told to see it, comes down to a choice about what we do with our attention.”

Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler

“Is there any room for weirdness in this conformist world?”

I can always count on Krista to frame a way of being in the world so that I can move on. “Be kind, for everyone is fighting a great battle.” See what happens if you take this as a life practice through the ordinary encounters of your days. How do you internalize the news differently?

“So let me make a plea for fuzzier writing. Let me praise the metaphors and sublime indirection of the great poetic minds. Let us seek out that open-ended ambiguity which invites us inside the text—allowing each of us to test our own interpretive skills. “

Good summary of an important study.

Not sure much has changed since experiment in 1860… “Just as worrying was the way that drivers often ignored the stop signal”

Saving heritage, expanding cultural literacy… Libraries do it all.

Gonna die with a smile if it kills me —Jon Gailmor

This is a particularly important conversation to have in the nonprofit sector generally and the arts specifically. How do we fund what is good? Is there funding that is not tainted? How do we navigate a path forward transparently and without creating stories to make us feel good?

“It seems trivial or silly to be saying this, but it would make a huge difference if we reframed the focus of medicine as a system of caring for whole persons rather than as a system for treating diseases.”

“Integrity was not just one of our values, but was the key to everything. Clients hired us on a basis of trust, and so our ethical standards were the foundation for the firm’s very existence.”

Wise thoughts for today and a link to those past still relevant. allpoetry.com/poem/1262246...

I worked for a number of years coaching young people and designing specific pathways to meaningful careers. This is the best synopsis of advice I have seen for the current moment.

German foodbanks turn to feeding US troops who cannot get paid during shutdown. www.dw.com/en/us-troops...

F E A R… “There is Fuck Everything and Run, and conversely, Face Everything and Rise. But my favorite of all is Frantic Effort to Appear Relaxed.”

“Censorship in the US comes via economic anxiety.”

Small but powerful acts of resistance and support for Canada and libraries.

A joyful note

"The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class—it is the cause of humankind."

“the Department of Agriculture says it cannot spend its $6 billion in reserves to address the $8 billion needed for SNAP in November, the administration easily found $20 billion to prop up right-wing Trump ally Javier Milei in Argentina. What are we doing here?”

“Go stand in that small circle of light, baby.”

Meet violence with nonviolence (and humor).

I visited the company in Stockholm recently after they had completed a successful trial as part of the public transit system. The ride is really smooth and fast with almost no wake. A real game changer in the future of water based zero emissions transit.

A society grounded in fiction, rather than reality, cannot function.