"I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting," writes a woman now in hiding from the federal government for witnessing a state-sanctioned street execution

Here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.

"Ultimately, the project secured funding from the South African Medical Research Council and the Gates Foundation. It's about a twentieth of the original USAID grant and none of it is from the U.S. government."

My assimilation into Cape Town society is nearly complete: my car now has a CAA reg and today I bought a wearable duvet (knee length K-Way puffer jacket)

Can confirm this effect holds even for this 1/8th Irish person, 2 generations distant from the last ancestor born in Ireland ✊🏻

Steers BBQ sauce FTW

Highland pony at dusk for #scape Friday. #photography #EastCoastkin

Them: So I'm taking ivermectin... Me: well you won't have scabies, I guess (Biologist working in infectious disease area)

Bat-eared fox Cape cobra Secretary bird Blue crane Rhino

👀... Except that the cat has dealt with all carelessly placed bits of ceramic

High School biology teacher brought a pig's head in for us to dissect

this, all day right now (unmute, it’s a bop)

Being bullied at work so I'm eating pizza about it 🍕

Bully your comms person into creating a LinkedIn page, sending them off to a place that *checks notes* advertises jobs... #Genius

Without fair regulation, most Cape Town residents will edge ever further away from a home in the city, argue the authors. Read groundup.org.za/article/cape... by Gabbi le Roux, Adam Narain and Jonty Cogger

Think I'm gonna have samoosas for lunch with a delicious side order of "the worst people you know are enraged and scared". Yum.

Currently sporting a black eye courtesy of a hock to my temple this weekend, and pleased to report that this post came via my Following feed

So often you see some dingy, overpriced, dirty-looking house advertised to rent, with "SORRY NO PETS" firmly stipulated in the details. Get a grip. My pets have got a lot of self-respect and wouldn't want to live in your shit house.

I don't get up to investigate strange noises. They're all coming from my body.

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

🧵 Question: "If chimps are so much like us, why are they endangered while humans dominate the globe?" Goodall: "Well, in some ways we're not successful at all. We're destroying our home. That's not a bit successful." — #JaneGoodall, 3 Apr. 1934 - 1 Oct. 2025 #ForeverInspiring #LegacyOfHope 🧪

[Context: South Africa] I live near Groote Schuur hospital (major tertiary centre) and I've never before or since seen so many life flight helicopters land there.

I lost it at “FUCKING KYLE!” #caturday

Me: Hey I got you a new scratching post so you can stop destroying the couch (My cat chuckling with one paw on my shoulder): "oh heavens no. nonononono, haha. nooo."

The main difference between extroverts and introverts has yet to be determined because the extroverts won't shut the fuck up

Spring flowers in the Swartland Granitic Renosterveld remnant on the farm. Would've taken more pics but Fat Pony was having hysterics and belying her age (34!) again 🐎

i know things look bad right now but parafilm exists.

“I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" Death thought about it. “CATS,” he said eventually. “CATS ARE NICE.” -Terry Pratchett, Sourcery #caturday

Yes, it was carefully hidden in the New England Journal of Medicine. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1... ) 1/2

[cat training class] INSTRUCTOR: open your textbooks to chapter 3 and then slowly push the book off the desk

ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.

One of the problems is that civilians hear “grant“ and think it’s a “fill out a form and get money” process, not a “harrowing Hunger Games competition against the brightest minds in the country” process.

I didn’t know until now that in the original Rosie the Riveter painting, she is crushing a copy of Mein Kampf under her foot. Happy feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, remembering all the women who crush the serpents of Satan under their heel.

Ironically, since getting a PhD is about proving that you can create new knowledge, it is literally impossible for the plagiarism bot to achieve the one thing that defines a PhD holder.

ChatGPT doesn’t seem to suffer from imposter syndrome. Those that should never seem to.

So apparently ChatGPT now says it boasts "PhD-level expert in your pocket" So...our pockets are now full of crippling self-doubt and years of terrified perfectionism disguised by toxic overconfidence on topics it knows nothing about? Um. Thanks. I've, er, already got one.

It's "help an undergraduate research project time"! Siân is researching how well Scottish people and Scots speakers are understood. Listen to some audio clips and see how well you fare. Took me less than 10mins and it was very fun! forms.gle/wUJBQquieSt2... #OldWeirdScotland

One of the best things about being in an international server is that if I mention that I live in Bear Country (CO), the Australians all howl about how we need to shut up about Aussie wildlife, because THEIR large carnivores mostly stay in the water, NOT INVITE THEMSELVES INTO THE KITCHEN. (🧵1/?)

Corollary: 20+ years of docs going "hmmm, your CRP is elevated but it's probably because of <latest problem>". Turns out my CRP is *always* elevated because of the autoimmune condition 😬

just been camping for the first time in my life and i have some valuable camping advice: take everything with you. Everything in your house. Take your whole house with you and live in it. Live inside your house, at home. Stay at home, living in your house with everything in your house.

My hot take: we as a society don’t challenge people enough on facts and it’s metastasized. Political tension in the family? You’ll be told, “Oh, don’t let “politics” get in the way of relationships - avoid it!” Sorry, no. Politics is personal. Speak up. Do it with humility, but insist on facts.

I swear none of them are real cats

Israel destroyed a Palestinian seed bank today. This is such a specific kind of evil, targeting literal hope for the future. Attempting to further alienate Palestinians from their home and land. So much destroyed just for the sake of destroying. It's awful.

Monday motivation: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

Themistius: “Dogs keep watch over human beings, not to ensure that they do not lose their property, but rather that they do not get robbed of their integrity.” Visited the Museum of Dogs at 95 Keerom Street in Cape Town's CBD. It's wonderful!