James H McLaren @JamesHMcLaren@qoto.org

Ancient octopus pots from Minoan Crete. Made about 3,500 years ago. The artists who painted these pots were inspired by #nature and loved what they saw! Look at those faces! 🐙 👀 ❤️

#archaeology

The media in Canada is Right-wing to Far Right. It upholds and defends the neoliberal status quo and asserts it as the centre. But the centre is actually right-wing. Neoliberalism is right-wing. It's right of both Keynesianism and Social Democracy which are both still capitalism. Left only to Lassez-faire capitalism/classical liberalism and fascism.

Here's an incomplete list of some Canadian news sources that actually provide left-wing perspectives.

#CdnPoli #CdnMedia #OnPoli #Ableg #BCPoli

Paying out of pocket for healthcare could bankrupt you after a single unexpected event.

Don’t slip on ice. Don’t get into a car crash. Don’t have a heart attack or stroke. Don’t get cancer. Don’t get a kidney stone. Don’t get pneumonia. Don’t get appendicitis.

#ableg #abhealth

Bringing back the guy who ignited a deadly insurrection, tried to assassinate the VP & the Speaker, caused mass injury and several deaths, and nearly destroyed our democracy.

What a great way to assure advertisers of Twitter’s stability and reliability.😐

Some of our cats recorded with a thermal camera.

I waited and waited until the unknown woman was in the right spot; I needed her as scale for you to see the size of the chevron folds.
Carboniferous rocks folded during the Variscan orogeny, in Millook Haven, #Cornwall
Been there three times, always in awe.
#FridayFold #Geology #photography #nature

“Then the spaceman took over the bird site so we all started tooting at the elephant place.”

“Oh…ok grandpa. Let’s get you back to bed.”

My cousin is like a sister to me, we grew up together. She is petite and frail. She has been ultra-careful to wear her mask and limit exposure. But because others have been careless and uncaring she is now infected. I hope she survives. She is vaxxed to the max so she has a good chance. I will never forgive those who could have protected her but didn’t. Family. Friends. Church attendees. She’s a better person than all of them.

What’s considered trashy if you’re poor, but classy if you’re rich? I’ll go first: getting money from the government.

An extravaganza is just having more vaganza than you need

Did you see The Expanse on Amazon Prime or did you read the books by James S A Corey? I can't help but think about Holden as I watch Twitter implode, and just how absolutely right the character was.

The refrain in the series is: two (or more) powers are in conflict, it's about to get existential and winner-take-all. Then ol' Jimmy Holden wanders in and forces them to stop fighting. He doesn't ask them to play nice, he forces them into a stable equilibrium.

His main drive as a character is that anyone who thinks they have all the answers is both wrong and a tyrant in the making (or already made). And I just hear that over and over with Musk. How he has the answers, then we see that his answers are simplistic and bound to fail when confronted with a complex reality.

Like Holden, I believe the only way is to empower stakeholders at various levels. It's the only way to ensure your plan will fit a complex reality. Unfortunately, it means everyone's great idea is revealed as garbage and it's emotionally and egoistically very difficult

This Twitter fiasco is a reminder of who is *actually* critical to the survival of our economy & society.

Twitter worked before the billionaire got here. Now that workers are gone, Twitter is collapsing. Workers made Twitter work—a billionaire broke it.

Workers > Billionaires

A farewell letter from an outgoing AHS board member. Danielle Smith is gonna kill us😥

I didn't take this photo but I was with my husband when he did. It was breathtaking up on Stenbury Down on the Isle of Wight, watching the mist roll in at sunset. The sheep were surprised to see us and for once the weather did what we'd hoped it would do! #SheepofMastodon

Milky Way over the beach. #milkyway #milkyway_chasers #milkyway_photography #milkyway_nightscapes #beach #night #stars #ocean #nature #water #sand #longexposure #slowshutter #astrophotography #okinawa #japan #okinawa_photo_community #nikond7200 #tokina1116

What are the chances Premier Smith puts a relatively qualified person in the CMOH role (I'd generally say Hinshaw was qualified), vs. some absolutely insane person without any qualifications or relevant experience? #ableg #abpoli

“In children and in young, healthy people, there is absolutely no mechanism by which your immunity weakens on its own,” Furness said.

“In other words, you don’t have to keep getting sick in order to be healthy. It makes no sense at all in any way, shape or form — when we encounter a pathogen and we form an immune response to it, that is a lifelong memory, no question.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/9272293/immunity-debt-covid-19-misinformation/

The thing about Twitter is that it really lacks a lot of the features you'd expect from a true Mastodon replacement.

For example, there's no way to edit your toots (which they, confusingly call "tweets"—let's face it, it's a bit of a silly name that's difficult to take seriously).

"Tweets" can't be covered by a content warning. There's no way to let the poster know you like their tweet without also sharing it, and no bookmark feature.

There's no way to set up your own instance, and you're basically stuck on a single instance of Twitter. That means there's no community moderators you can reach out to to quickly resolve issues. Also, you can't de-federate instances with a lot of problematic content.

It also doesn't Integrate with other fediverse platforms, and I couldn't find the option to turn the ads off.

Really, Twitter has made a good start, but it will need to add a lot of additional features before it gets to the point where it becomes a true Mastodon replacement for most users.

#twitter #mastodon #twittermigration

Two eastern painted turtles reflected in the calm waters of Hopewell Lake. Spotted today on a hike with the kiddos, might be the last warm day for a while in these parts...
#turtle #reflection #hiking #reptile #wildlife #photography