Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org

Turns out the existence of an "alpha" wolf is a myth.

It was based on old/bad experiments, conducted when unrelated wolves were thrown together in captivity.

In actual wild wolves, packs are just families. There's no dominant alpha battling for the top spot -- and in the rare cases there is, it's an alpha *female* wolf.

Insert obvious implications for the use of this term in human societies.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-alpha-wolf-idea-a-myth/

There is only the present*

It has taken 50+ years for me to get to this point of awakening

All you have of the past is a memory, some words, a video/audio recording. But, these are not the past, they are symbols and pointers

All you have of the future is an approximation of what might happen based on that unreliable past 'memory'

Live in the present moment

*do not take my word for it, find out yourself if you want to

The new “historical” American Girl Doll was just released and I realized I pretty much had most of the clothes in my closet already, so please forgive me for this terrifying side-by-side.

The circle of life

car not found

My almost 13 year old daughter had a good idea. We’ve been talking about doing a podcast together - mostly for us to have.

Her idea was reviewing books that are being taken out of school libraries - discussing the content, reviewing the actual literature but also the reasons it was banned and our thoughts there as well.

This is something I think that we will do, soon.

#BookBanning #Books #Podcasts

Junior year high school history summed up for a US presidential candidate.
---
RT @batess
Articles of Confederation: 1781-1789
Constitutional Convention: 1787
Constitution adopted: 1788
Washington Administration: 1789-1797

Also, the Continental Army was plenty stoppable. Like, incredibly stoppable. Big thank you, France.

HT @RPG_volley https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1627270007427153920
https://twitter.com/batess/status/1627270007427153920

Can we retire the expression:
“Avoid it like the plague”?

Humans don’t do that.

Where I live, "hacker" is slang for lumberjack.

The most elite hackers don't even bother to chop wood.

They just go for root access.

@ethanz How is this NOT a violation of HIPPA laws? And what's to stop him from demanding medical records on Jewish students ... or any others he chooses?

@ethanz here’s a particularly sick twist: in a country that doesn’t give a damn about the health and welfare of its people, as demonstrated by any kind of baseline accessible comprehensive health care for all and a “health care industry” that is certainly the latter and not the former, any arm of the government demanding to see one’s health records Is most likely doing so for nefarious purposes.

Put another way: fuck all the way off.

@paul I love that the justification is “SMS based 2FA is susceptible to abuse so we’re reserving it for our paying customers”.

It’s Schadenfriday, so what better way to celebrate than to explore how Fox News could lose a defamation case and have to fork out a billion and a half bucks. What execs and hosts were saying privately, and how that hurts their case, in today’s piece! https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/did-fox-news-act-with-actual-malice?sd=pf

Thought for #today, but it seems better suited to most social media, I think. Happy #Friday!

I'm pretty sure Mastodon is the first social network I've been on that didn't immediately ask me to betray all of the people in my address book.

The boss has been pestering me to attend a leadership conference so I, completely jokingly, said, "A true leader would never sit in a audience being told what to do" and now half this office is in existential crisis 😄🤷‍♀️

*shrugs*

The New York Times is neither misinformed, nor tone deaf; the simple truth is that in the high church of capitalism, the people funding the political shift to fascism, also own the media.

It's not an accident, nor is it about "shifting moods" in the populace; the rich guys who own everything like fascism - and that includes the guys who own the New York Times and outlets like CNN.

"How did it happen in Weimar Germany?"

Rather a lot like this from what I can tell...

I really want to see Fox execs’ texts about vaccines.

It’s not too strong to say that Fox’s coverage killed tens of thousands of people who skipped the vaccines. I know at least one.
I want to see Murdoch and Tucker Carlson’s vaccine texts. The Senate should form a commission and subpoena them.

https://c.im/@cnnbrk/109877664538822277

You should listen to Rep. Maxwell Frost when he says Ron DeSantis is a more dangerous threat to our nation than Trump. From my interview of Rep Frost who is yelling from the rooftops about DeSantis embrace of FASCISM! https://deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/you-should-listen-to-rep-maxwell