Me: I’m going to post more SRF for a while!
Also me: doesn’t post at all
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For whatever reason, my kids are in a “play in the back yard” mood again. The weather isn’t especially good for it. We had warmer days the other week. Yet it’s been this week, with the random spurts of hail, where they want to be outside a lot. I love when they play outside, honestly. I have so many warm associations with working in my office with the windows thrown open so I can hear them giggling and shouting.
We’ve been in this house a decade now. The house we lived in when Little Sunshine was born. Moonlight has gone from three to thirteen here. I’ve enjoyed a lot of springtime play with my kids giggling and shouting outside my open windows.
A decade is the longest I’ve lived anywhere. Even the house where I did most of my growing up, I was there for something like nine years. Sometimes it’s strange because it makes the whole decade feel brief. But it’s also a kind of stability I don’t take for granted. It’s a big house in a nice neighborhood (too “nice” if you ask me), and we could be “stuck” somewhere vastly less pleasant.
For a decade, I’ve wandered the trails, acquainted myself with neighborhood dogs, and ignored how much my house needs repainting. I’ve gone through so many phases here. The whole pandemic.
A lifetime, really.
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In Canada, a kindly fellow tried to take care of abandoned cats during the pandemic. (The Guardian) He ended up with over 300. Although he had to ask a charity for help, the cats were all apparently very well cared for, in great health, and super friendly. Hopefully they can find homes for everyone. This emphasizes the importance of fixing cats, which can breed like…uh, rabbits? He probably couldn’t afford it, but that’s why we let charities handle it. They can get lower-cost assistance and donors.
Anyway, the guy meant well, and he asked for help — so he won’t be facing any legal action.
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X-Men 97 got a massive number of views in its first week of release. Disney says this is their biggest new animated show ever. (Variety)
I hadn’t intended to watch X-Men 97. I’m pretty over it with all things Disney. But I heard some tantalizing spoilers about the show — it seems to be following some of Claremont’s 80s soap opera-styled X-Men stories — so I gave it a shot. I loved it. I’m looking forward to more. I guess I’m not done with Disney, but the poorly written crap.
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In ongoing AI creep news, Google is going to return AI-generated results to people who didn’t opt in. (Engadget) Given the accuracy of AI (spoilers: AI LLMs aren’t designed to be accurate and aren’t capable of evaluating accuracy), this is a continuing disaster on information across the internet. I already switched to Duck Duck Go completely just so I can actually find meaningful things.
SAG-AFTRA ratified a three-year contract limiting the use of AI voices in animated television, though. (Variety)
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Something like 2.7 million folks in the UK are too sick for work or pursuing education. (The Guardian) Covid is a mass-disabling event, and we usually don’t talk about it that way. We need to.
It comes as Rishi Sunak comes under growing pressure from within Conservative ranks to “get a grip on worklessness” after a dramatic increase in economic inactivity over the past four years to more than 9 million people.
People with long-term sickness do not contribute to the official unemployment rate, which has fallen to 3.9% among those aged 16 years and over – equivalent to 1.4 million people – among the lowest levels since the mid-1970s.
However, economic inactivity has increased from 20.5% of all working-age adults to 21.8% – equivalent to 700,000 people – with little sign of slowing as the impact of the Covid pandemic on the jobs market recedes.
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The United States didn’t veto a ceasefire resolution at the UN. (AJE) Since we’re allies with Israel, who don’t want a ceasefire, this is noteworthy. Netanyahu abruptly cancelled a visit with Biden when he learned the USA planned to abstain. (WaPo)
But Hamas didn’t go for the ceasefire either; they insist on Israeli troops withdrawing. (Reuters)
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Here’s another article about a church trying to help the homeless and the government saying “absofuckinglutely not.” (NPR)
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Did someone say all-woman secret society? (Smithsonian)
Howe’s mindset on feminism was clear: “We intend simply to be ourselves,” she once said, “not just our little female selves, but our whole big human selves.”
Many of the women in Heterodoxy moved in corresponding circles and maintained similar beliefs. They were “veterans of social reform efforts,” writes Scutts in Hotbed, and they belonged to “leagues, associations, societies and organizations of all stripes.” A large number were public figures—influential lawyers, journalists, playwrights or physicians, some of whom were the only women in their fields—and often had their names in the papers for the work they were performing. Many members were also involved in a wide variety of women’s rights issues, from promoting the use of birth control to advocating for immigrant mothers.
Heterodoxy met every other Saturday to discuss such issues and see how members might collaborate and cultivate networks of reform.
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Lawyers, Guns, & Money talk about the rule of law and how it could be worse in America. It could be better too. Some perspective is interesting, though.
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Colbert apologized for joking about Kate, Will, and Rose. (Variety) It’s been eye-rolling to see how discourse has switched to saying these were all attacks against Kate herself, and how much people are going along with it. Although there was an intensification of speculation in the period before the announcement from all sorts of directions, the initial point was that Kate’s disappearance was alarming with the royal family’s history of mistreating women. I mean, if we assume that all the stuff they’re saying now is 100% true, the Firm still threw Kate (you know, the mum with cancer) under the bus for a PR disaster that massively damaged credibility. They had so many options to not do any of that. And now focusing on how everyone is being so mean to Kate, they’re using her illness to distract from the bad behavior of the firm. So it’s business as usual, I guess.
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Poor Flaco. The cost of his freedom from a zoo was getting poisoned by New York City’s rats and pigeons. RIP. (The Guardian)
