George Budd @Gbudd@qoto.org

I found this taped to the door of the geography department at GWU today and it brought me so much joy. A guide to figuring out when a map was made based on features. Zoom in. It’s amazing.

The pressure for introverts to act as extraverts is real.

We aren't broken.

We don't need conversation.
We don't need to get out and do.
We don't need to go to a party or concert.
We don't need to make more friends.

We need to retreat inward to recover so we can do a very select, chosen few of those things.

I promise we are okay if you let us do that.

How did Russian cosmonauts know where they were? The Globus INK (1967) showed the position of their Soyuz spacecraft on a rotating globe. It is an analog computer built from tiny gears. I reverse-engineered the wiring (which inconveniently had been cut) and we powered it up. 🧵

#bookstodon #books

A gentle reminder that book nooks exist, and are awesome. #Bookwyrm #bookclub #booknooks #bookcollector #bookcollecting

I spend a lot of time talking about how dismayed I am at how many of my fellow #veterans have fallen for the #propaganda of the enemies of the #Constitution we swore to defend. No doubt I'll continue to whine. This guy is doing something about it.

We need more of this. Lots, lots more.

Our #oath has no expiration date.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/nazi-hunter-fascism-antifa-veteran-1234672732/

Cultivate.
Your.
Friendships.

really work at them, because they can save your life, quite literally

I'm getting smarter.

I ordered a box of large dog chew toys to keep Benson Dubois from gnawing on my furniture and his bed.

They arrived this morning and LO! He is gnawing on them.

Also, I need a better stronger vacuum. Any recommendations, #DogsOfMastodon ?

#BensonUpdate

Most of what you know about the Black Panthers, is a lie. It is intentional disinformation, created and circulated by the FBI, with the assistance and complicity of newspapers and local police. This disinfo was spread as part of the FBI's counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO).

This is not some unfounded conspiracy, this is documented and now admitted by the FBI.

The Black Panthers were the good guys, and the FBI were the cartoonishly evil Bond villain bad guys. Seriously.

Sons of Bibliography

Apropos everything, I’m reminded of this from Douglas Adams:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this — which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never — the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.

James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time
#literature #blackwriters #blackliterature

I am white, and was raised in small mostly white communities when I was young, but moved to a larger city as a young teenager. Like a lot of white kids, I didn't understand how much of a thing casual everyday racism was, until I met my future best friend Cameron. I'd never been pulled over by the cops before, and now suddenly I was getting pulled over frequently, for no reason at all, the only difference was now there was a black man in the car. I remember the first time getting pulled over, and the cop asking for all of our ID's with no explanation at all, Cam saw me about to mouth off, and the look of terror on his face made me shut up immediately. Later, he told me when it happened again to just comply, don't ask questions, don't get angry. I had never had to view cops with fear before, in my mind, you only needed to be afraid if you were a criminal, but Cam was afraid, just for existing as black. If people try to tell you that black people are dramatizing their struggle, they are lying!