herid @herid@qoto.org

From @gruber yesterday:

"Onward to Mastodon"

Amen.

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/02/02/twitter-killing-bots

https://t.me/liveukraine_media/5464 ⚡️🇺🇦Ukrainian decathlete Volodymyr Androshchuk will not be representing his country at the Paris Olympics because he was just killed by the russian armed forces. In other news, the IOC announces that russian athletes are welcome in Paris. #Ukraine #News #War #Russia #BoycottTheOlympics #EndTheOlympics #NoMunichGames2 #NaziOlympics2

We need public action to improve public health, now in the pandemic and permanently in our COVID-endemic future. These actions should include new rules for safe air in public spaces, continued support for vaccinations, and rules to require masking on transit. Perhaps our future will be brighter--a new longer-lasting vaccine may be developed--but betting on that hope is a bad bet. Protecting people and the economy from needless harm should be more vital than encouraging a false sense of security.

Vera Lynn - We'll Meet Again

https://youtu.be/8Nzy1cfnKh4

This is the song that inspired the reference to Vera in Pink Flyod's The Wall.

#SongOfTheDay
#FavoriteMusic 76/

“Instead of pouring more money into militarized forces that brutalize, terrorize, and even murder, we should fund libraries, after-school programs, good jobs, and other investments proven to keep us safe.”

https://theintercept.com/2023/01/31/tyre-nichols-memphis-police/

INSANE: Ron #DeSantis wants #Florida residents to carry firearms without a permit. In Jan alone, there’s been 49 mass shootings and more than 3,400 gun deaths, including 138 dead children.

If Ron DeSantis gets what he wants, expect more dead Americans.

In 2013, before giving some math lectures in Lanzhou, Lisa and I visited Dunhuang and the eastern fringes of the Taklamakan Desert. In preparation for this trip I spent some time reading about the area. I greatly enjoyed Hopkirk's Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. It's an old, romantic book. Here is a passage from it, and some pictures from my trip.

(1/n)

Linda Rondstadt - Blue Bayou

https://youtu.be/Q98s8GyPw64

#SongOfTheDay
#FavoriteMusic 75/

https://t.me/Kyivpost_official/6265 ⚡️🇺🇦"Russia is preparing for maximum escalation, gathering all possible forces, conducting exercises and training." - Oleksiy Danilov said in an interview with the Sky News channel. He believes that Putin may try to launch a large-scale attack from the north, south and east, as happened on February 24, 2022, timing it on the anniversary of the war. #Ukraine #News #War #Russia

Hong Kong had nearly a full year to vaccinate its elderly population before the Omicron outbreak began. By February 2022, only 23% of the elderly age 80+ were fully vaccinated. Result: the highest number of Covid deaths per capita in the world while vaccines were widely available