Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

OK THIS IS EXCITING! I've collected some of my favorite photos--both top hits & ones y'all havent seen before--into a 2023 calendar designed to bring delight and mystery to your new year! Each month features:
* an edge-to-edge print oaf a gorgeous arachnid photo
* facts & stories about these wonderfully weird animals
* a bonus photo or illustration within the calendar itself!
Available now: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1354900811/2023-photo-calendar-a-year-with
\(°OO°)/ I hope y'all enjoy!

I do like it here on Mastodon, but the huge influx of people from Twitter means there are far fewer image descriptions than from even a couple of weeks ago. I’d love to tell every one of them about this, but quite frankly there are so many I don’t have the patience. I’d dearly love it if apps could block posts unless an image description was added to every photo, but I suppose that’s too much to hope for. I’m feeling really excluded from so many conversations. It’s getting as bad as Twitter.

My name is Fernando Salvaterra, I'm a freelance map maker and illustrator from Brazil.

It’s still #nativeamericanheritagemonth, so on this day of giving gratitude, I am expressing mine and gently nudging you to check out the latest episode of the #ologies #Podcast which features me talking about #soilscience #enviromentaljustice and #Indigenouswaysofknowing. Perfect for those road trips back home!

Twitter was never a healthy "public square" for most of us. Let's not rewrite history while eulogizing the hellsite.
Twitter was a frightening battleground where we managed barely to claw out an uneasy existence amidst the worst violent neo-Nazi extremists who constantly published our home addresses, threatened our kids' lives, and sent hordes of racist trolls into our mentions.
The same principles that allowed us to survive uneasily on Twitter will be required here in the #fediverse. Community defense, thoughtful pressure on moderation policies, and eternal vigilance.
There are no safe spaces but those we make safe through constant effort. We keep us safe.

A profile in the British press on my life and my life’s work. I hope you’ll do me the honor of reading it. At the end, there’s info on how to catch me live on a London stage in “Allegiance” starting in January. https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/star-treks-george-takei-cruelly-28590776

Call me old-fashioned but when it comes to COVID-19, I'd still prefer not to f*ck around and find out.

Some folks insist that wearing a mask in crowds and inside public spaces is an overreaction— this despite a preponderance of evidence showing microvascular damage from even mild COVID infections.

I'll keep wearing my mask, thank you very much.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2033369

#IdąPsięta, our dogs, want to turn left. The road straight ahead is much longer and they know it.

That one tree with dried leaves is probably not well as apoptosis didn't kick in on time. We''ll see how it survives the winter.

$44B is actually a small price to pay to destroy the platform used to organize labor unions at Starbucks, Amazon, and other companies with a combined market cap over a TRILLION dollars. The timing is definitely not an accident.

I have a children's book coming out in Oct 2023. It's co-authored & illustrated by my husband, @TealCartoons, and is all about medicine's battles with history's deadliest diseases. We'll be doing the cover reveal soon. We can't wait to terrorize your kids with medical history! #HistoryWritersDay22

I absolutely love visiting Malleshwaram #flower and vegetable #market during the wee hours (especially on the day of a festival). The stock is fresh and the crowds are minimal.

The way in which #technology has taken over and changed our lives, with groceries delivered with a click of your fingertip, we see fewer and fewer shops in these markets as the years go by. A few of my favourite things about this place are the incessant bargaining, the Kannada banter and the lovely smell of flowers that carries itself through the market. The old world charm of this place is something else and I hope we never lose such places.

Place: Bangalore, India.

#mastindia @mastodonindians #india #bangalore #photography #city #urban #urbanphotography #malleshwaram #streetphotography

@ypc_bunsen What policy of free speech are you talking about? Our ToC is here, it doesnt say anything about free speech.

https://qoto.org/about/more

We have very specific rules, and that includes this part of our ToC:

> ... hate-based speech such as sexist, racist, or homophobic speech will not be tolerated, be kind to each other.
>
> QOTO aims to provide a community where our users do not fear being punished for their personal opinions. We do not allow people to disseminate ideologies that are abusive or violent towards others. Demonstrating support for or defending ideologies known to be violent or hateful is a bannable offense. This includes, but is not limited to: racial supremacy, anti-LGBTQ or anti-cis-gender/anti-straight, pro-genocide, child abuse or child pornography, etc. While we recognize questions and conversation regarding these topics are essential for a STEM community, in general, doing so in bad faith will result in immediate expulsion.

The profits of ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and Shell have skyrocketed by 169% so far this year to $125 billion.

While you were paying through the nose at the gas pump, Big Oil companies were using the cover of inflation to line their pockets.

It's time for a windfall profits tax.

Future Americans will look back on this as the era when billionaires ruled U.S. elections. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/billionaires-provided-15-percent-funding-midterms

Would you send money to support a company engaged in years of world-wide bribery and corruption, that was just fined over a billion dollars for this?

I did! You probably do too - via your bank or pension.
My pension fund (#USS) has £161m in Glencore and supported them all this time.
The highly-paid execs running USS saw no red flags!
Glencore is a huge trading and mining company, including #fossilfuels. Most pension funds and many banks support them.
#climate
#climateemergency
#divest

“A whole way of life has disappeared for my people and culturally modified trees are part of demonstrating that we have been here for thousands of years, using different resources in our forests.”
- hiwus Calvin Craigan, Hereditary Chief, shíshálh Nation

Story from The Narwhal: https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-logging-culturally-modified-trees/

#archaeology #logging #BritishColumbia #FirstNations

@georgetakei so glad to see you here. And I’ve been meaning to tell you that hearing you talk about your childhood helped embolden me to write about my father’s painful childhood in Jim Crow Mississippi.

Your reminder that Amazon warehouse workers suffer serious injuries at twice the rate of competitors.

This worker safety crisis is at its very worst during the holidays.

Don't let the Black Friday deals cloud your thinking.

You know, the thing that gets my attention concerning how safety concerns have become a sticking point as more and more people join the fedi is how white people are defiantly defending what is rather than envisioning what could be.

The refusal to see outside of what they see is best is one of the most defining characteristics of white people in the fedi and one of the main obstacles to progress, as we are clearly seeing the need for an improved fedi experience across the board.

This is a microcosm of what Martin Luther King Jr. said about how the white moderate is the greatest obstacle to progress because they continuously side with order over justice.

Any thinking person can see we need better adaptable experiences in the fedi and platforms that better serve the safety concerns of the people.

The way I see white people bitterly fighting to keep a status quo that no one agreed on is the main driver of conflict as the fediverse grows, underscoring yet again the challenge of this space is not technology.

It's culture. And whiteness, as Du Bois identified years ago, is committed to fighting to assert itself in yet another new space.