SLFerguson

@slferguson.bsky.social

1047 Followers 1009 Following

Always curious. Filmmaker/educator/writer/fresh water and mental health advocate/seer of systems/seeker of truth and crunchy salty snacks. Incorrigible slasher. Traitors are traiting. Clean water. Clean air, indoors and out. Music & beauty, always.

Screen shot of Wired magazine post dated 17 July 2026, which reads: Yesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by our work. That's why we're removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don't want you to read, making them free for everyone.
Image is labelled "www.mackinacbridge.org -07/15/2026 09:44" The view is supposed to be of the Mackinac Bridge, seen from the side, showing the taper end of the overdeck suspension cable. What the frame consists of is a pinkish-gray hue that fills the top left and right quadrants and the lower left quadrant. In the lower right, a portion of the traffic deck can vaguely be seen, shrouded in the same smoke that eclipses the rest of the frame. One vehicle with headlights on, also obscured, exits at the right edge of the frame.
Screen shot of Lindsey Graham tweet dated May 3, 2016. It reads: If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......[sic ellipses] and we will deserve it.
Screen shot of Xitter post from Ben Casnocha @bencasnocha, which says "Per docs released in the OAI/Musk case, the University of Michigan endowment invested $20 milliion in th first round of OpenAI. Best direct investment from an endowment of all time?" The text is accompanied by a screen shot that appear to be taken from a ledger of sorts, four columns across. In the first column is an entity, specifically "Regents of the University of Michigan / Universitey of Michigan, Investment Office / 101 North Main street, Suite 600 / Ann Arbor, MI 48104-5517 / E-mail: dfeder@umich.edu" The second, third, and fourth columns show dollar amounts. $20,000,000 $20,000,000 $2,000,000,000
Screen shot of the 503 error message I get when trying to load Bluesky's main feed. The text reads "Hmm, some kind of issue occurred when contacting the feed server. Please let the feed owner know about this issue."
Screenshot of Senator Lindsey Graham's evergreen tweet, posted on May 3, 2016. It reads: "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed...and we will deserve it."
View down a wooden ramp that runs alongside and leads to a riverbank. In the distance, a dam, which happens to be Henry Ford electro dam and powerhouse built to supply power to his Ypsilanti plant.
Screenshot of Bluesky post from Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social. It reads: Biven the huge early turnout in Hungary odds seem very high that Magyar will defeat Orban very decisively; the question in that case would be whether Orban goes with the Ukrainian electoral interference lie he has been preparing and whether foreign actors support him. TIMESTAMP 11:23AM Apr 12, 2026 Extra note: Snyder used proper inflection on the "a" of Orban.
First three paragraphs of an opinion piece by Ted Williams of WRITERS ON THE RANGE, published in The Yellowstonian. They read: This year, in what it calls a “study,” Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources is killing off mountain lions in an effort to increase mule deer herds. It has hired trappers from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, authorizing them to dispatch lions with any method, including banned traps and neck snares. The study, covering roughly 8.6 million acres in six management units, will run for at least three years with the goal of indiscriminately exterminating “as many (lions) as possible.” Buying into this ancient predator-prey superstition are the nonprofits Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Utah Wild Sheep Foundation. Each has contributed $150,000 to the cull.
Photo of small bird on a slender branch. The bird is predominantly white, with a long tail hanging down that is more than the length of its body. It's head is a dark blue, with a tufty crest of the same blue with some aqua interspersed. Its bill is light blue, and its perfect circle eyes have a thick band of light blue eyeliner. The white tail feathers have an under-balyage of the same dark blue that is on its head. The bird is an Indian flycatcher. A "western Indian flycatcher" did not come up in an internet search. Perhaps Thome Fole knows where to find it.
In this screen shot from Georgia Fort's livestream of agents (what do we call them?) outside her home, ready to arrest her, the camera looks down from a stairwell in a darkened home and out an uncurtained window. Outside the window, sharply contrasted against a background of white snow, a figure dressed top to bottom in black combat gear, including a balaclava that covers almost all of their face. Only their eyes and glasses/goggles can be seen. The figure leans, a motion that the live video confirms to be the agent leaning over to peer into the house.
Frame from Georgia Fort's livestream of persons at her door. The image is inside a darkened home, looking down over a flight of stairs and out an uncurtained window, where a person dressed top to bottom in black, including a cap and full face mask, is leaning over so they can peer into the house. Behind them, all is white snow, further throwing their figure into relief.
Black and white photograph, dynamic perspective with a pile of shoes filling the frame from front, where details like buckles and turned out leather are discernible, back to a long shed that stretches left to right from far distance to mid and has at least eight visible barn style doors. The structure is so large it stretches beyond the right frame. A soldier in male uniform, wool trench and hat, can be seen with their back to the camera in the distance, on the pile near the farthest doors. The pile of shoes is so immense it covers the ground from what appears to be 10' out from the structure to its walls, continues beyond both far/left and right/near edges of the frame, and rises like a hill against the structure's wall. The photo is taken from the United States Holocaust Museum's website. The museum has an account on Bluesky, but has no posts.
Image of Donald J Trump, face only, revealing quite a bit of heavy pancake makeup, with overlaid text quote: "I think we're just gonna kill people." And attribution that reads "DONALD TRUMP on whether he needs congressional oversight to commit acts of war."
Tweet put out by the NRA on X at 6:46PM on Sat 24 Jan 2026. The text reads, “For months, radical progressive politicians like Tim Walz have incited violence against law enforcement officers who are simply trying to do their jobs. Unsurprisingly, these calls to dangerously interject oneself into legitimate law-enforcement activities have ended in violence, tragically resulting in injuries and fatalities. As there is with any officer-involved shooting, there will be a robust and comprehensive investigation that takes place to determine if the use of force was justified. As we await these facts and gain a clearer understanding, we urge the political voices to lower the temperature to ensure their constituents and law enforcement officers stay safe.”
Photo of the book SOPHIE'S WORLD by Jostein Gaarder. This edition has a blueish vaguely watery dominated background, a yellow banner nearly exactly across the midline. The words SOPHIE'S WORLD: A Novel About the History of Philosophy are on the yellow banner. Above the banner a photorealistic image of a map globe with black and yellow moth wings, the globe but not the wings casting a shadow from a light source implied upper left. Below the yellow banner, three individual pink violets with long stems are arranged with two next to each other bending to the left, the third leaning right, with about two flower heads' width distance between it and the left two.
Image of Lindsey Graham tweet (it was Twitter then) dated May 3, 2016. It reads: If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed......and we will deserve it.
Close up of a dozen or more chicken sized eggs in a dazzling array of colors and folkloric designs. Background colors for the designs include black, red, white, blood red, pink, and purple. Designs are all fairly intricate, with some leaving more background color than others.
A population density map of Canada, with inset zooming in on southern Ontario, and a color key explaining density. Most of the provinces are majorly or entirely buff yellow (fewer than 1.3 persons per square mile), but the southern border across the United states has light or medium orange (5-30 persons per square mile) prevalent. Red zones (40-390 person psm) light up Edmonton AB and Calgary AB in the west...and are an archipelago of people from the southernmost tip of Ontario up a line that roughly follows Hwy 401 up through Kitchener and Toronto in the southern peninsula and on up into Ottawa, Montreal, and into Quebec City. The Atlantic coast gets a few more red zones in the Maritimes. Black spots (390 or more persons per square mile) litter the south and far south, from Toronto on down to Windsor, correlating to cities. Noting here that "Quebec" rhymes with "Alex Trebek." Noting also that Alex Trebek grew up in Sudbury, which anyone within broadcast range of the CBC and Hockey Night in Canada knows is a hockey town. Also noting, in what might seem to be a tangent but absolutely is not, that Alex Trebek's father emigrated to Canada from Ukraine.
Graphic, black background, with white text and needle-on-a-dashboard illustration. The illustration is white background, with a 180º left to right arch that has three zones: green LOW, yellow MEDIUM, and red HIGH. The needle is centered in the red zone. The text reads: "Over the last few days, there has been a significant uptick to boeth influenza A & B and RSV is also increasing. "As such, the Repiratory Virus Risk Level is being updated to High. Masking for patient care is strongly recommended. Please share the following information with your teams." (dashbord graphic appears here) Then two bullet points: "Masking for patient care is strongly recommended" and "Those with compromsed immune systems should mask to protect themselves. A final paragraph reads "This will help to avoid exposures if you happen to care for an undiagnosed patient that may not be in isolation precautions and will also prevent you from spreading" [image cuts off here].
Two paragraphs from the Rolling Stone story linked in original postskeetmessageathingy. They read: Gifted with one of music’s most robust and dynamic voices, Malo was known as “El Maestro” among his bandmates and fans. His singing style, powerful and emotive, had the ability to both stun an audience into silence and spur them to their feet. And with world-class musicians behind him, including Malo’s co-founders in the group, bassist Robert Reynolds and drummer Paul Deakin, the Mavericks earned a reputation as the most eclectic and entertaining of performers. They could be a country band, a rock group, or a dance unit, depending on their tastes. “If you ask 10 different people what the Mavericks mean to them, you’re going to get 10 different answers,” Malo told Rolling Stone in 2015. “And then you’re going to hear our records and hear one song, and you’re going to think this band is like this. Then you’re going to hear the next song, and go, ‘Holy shit, this band is nothing like that song that I just heard.’”
A social media post from Mike Rogers, former Congressional Representative for Michigan's 8th district. There is text that reads "Michigan's Mamdanis – same radical agenda, different zip code," and a dark-colors-heavy photo-realistic illustration of (L-R) Mallory McMorrow, Hailey Stephens, and Abdul El-Sayed. McMorrow currently is the Democratic whip in the Michigan state senate, Stephens represents Michigan's 11th in the House of Representatives, and El-Sayed was Detroit's top health officer (the country's youngest at the time) and ran for governor in 2016 (losing to Gretchen Whitmer). All three are running for the Democratic Senate nominee in the race that will replace Gary Peters. In the middle of these three is Zohran Mamdani. Not of small note, Mike Rogers won his initial election by 111 votes...which, hey, details schmetails, except one should note Rogers did not complain about that margin at the time. He is now complaining about the results of the 2024 election he lost by a narrow margin to Elissa Slotkin, suggesting there were ballots in a van that were not counted.
Screen shot of four offerings from a Google search using the terms "Palantir surveillance company." For the record, "Palantir" was entered, "surveillance company" autofilled as additions to the string. The entries are: Red Canary ("Managed Detection and Response") Huntress ("Huntress 24/7 SOC") Verkada ("Verkada – Streamlined Investigations - Enterprise Video Security") Deep Sentinel ("Deep Sentinel" Real Time Crime Intervention) Each entry includes the logo for each as well as an URL.
Screen shot of two paragraphs in a black serif font on white background from the Mother Jones article, which read: New Hampshire therapist Amanda McGuire is infuriated that Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) voted to end the government shutdown without a deal to extend ACA tax credits: after all, McGuire created a video that Shaheen’s team posted on social media during the shutdown advocating for the importance of the ACA. McGuire feels betrayed. McGuire doesn’t qualify for ACA subsidies, though she expects to have to buy a marketplace plan next year as her disabilities, including multiple sclerosis, increasingly compel her to reduce her working hours. McGuire’s therapy practice focuses on patients with chronic illnesses and disabilities, and she’s even more afraid of what the future holds for them.
Blue blue blue. A square of cold wax oil, entirely dominated by blue, a non-uniform random gradient of blues somewhere in the azure lapis cerulean realm. Across the top a few and just below the middle one gently sinuous lines, the one across the middle and descending left black, two of the upper ones black with pale counter curves half the length of the dominant black one. Rising from the lower right corner, a snake-like figure, simple, a blend of contrasting colors with yellow defining the base and orange tracing the snout and a mottling of greens / blue greens / copper / blah blah blah filling the form between. Blue has ever and always been my favorite color, though if you ask me I will say "magenta," because blue is just always there, the ever always, and being put on the spot with a question demands a spotlight answer, and that answer is magenta. Burnt sienna lurks at the edges of the answer before it dissolves and my inner dialogue says "come on, man, there is no favorite color." I learned cold wax techniques in the same packed two year period I learned to bend and fuse metal with fire and also how to slump and slub and fuse glass. Five years previous, I had sacrificed re-entering filmmaking to tend to a family medical crisis, a situation I thought would be transient but which turned out to be a feature not a bug. A couple of other sharp plot twists, and I found myself back where I started, living inside water, on a pleasant peninsula knowing no one, having to chart new territory. Again. A year into the move, I let go of trying to figure out how to begin again with film, and figured out that gobbling new media was a great companion to survival. Funny thing about writing and art; both require knowing how to know when to keep adjusting, and when to stop. And accepting that "knowing" might simply be "choosing."
Photograph, outdoor, daylight. Faded asphalt pavement across the foreground with black spiderweb/veiny patches and one yellow center line dash. Midground, also a horizontal slice, is dully unremarkable not pale green grass rising up from the curb and away from the camera, with a hint of sidewalk tracing across the ridge. Beyond, dead center, flanked by trees leading back to it in near forced perspective, a large stone and frame house. Very large. Blow up the frame and realize it's a three story mansion, cream and green paint with a turrets and gables, sort of Victorian storybook in style. Geometric lines of cirrus clouds stretch like contrails, but aren't, each dramatically originating from points across the top of the frame but converging at the center of the house's roof. Of note personally is that Shelley Byron Hutchinson, the "H" portion of S&H Green Stamps, spelled his first name correctly. Which is funny, because my first name (also spelled correctly) was an homage to someone who did not spell it correctly. That someone being not Shelley the poet, but Shelly the Manne, west coast jazz drummer who had an "e" but in the surname, not the first. See, reading alt text has its entertainments.
Image of two paragraphs of text from the original post, an essay by X titled "Anatomy of a Fall: The Case of Indiana University (Guest Post)." The first paragraph reads: "More recently, in the wake of its innovative online-program, the Kelley Business School has risen among the best in the US as well. As recently as in 2019, university president Michael McRobbie led a highly successful fundraising campaign based in part on research showing that Indiana University contributes more than any business to the economic success of the state of Indiana. Under his leadership, the university also founded a School of Global and International Studies and a Media School as new windows into the humanities. It seemed well positioned to shape the next decades, in spite of the national trend of lower enrollments in the humanities." The second paragraph, highlighted in blue, reads: Fast-forward three years into the presidency of his successor Pamela Whitten: On April 16, 2024, the Bloomington Faculty Council held a full-faculty meeting where 93.1% of the voting faculty passed a motion of no confidence in Whitten, and 91.5% voted for no-confidence in Provost Rahul Shrivastav. These numbers are astounding and unparallelled."
Screen shot of the message that appears when trying to navigate to the Internet Archive webpage. Down the left margin are the logos for Internet Archive, IA Wayback Machine, Open Library, and Archive-IT. On the right, a message that reads: Temporarily Offline. Internet Archive services are temporarily offline. Please check our official accounts, including Twitter/X, Bluesky or Mastodon for the latest information. We apologize for the inconvenience. Am going to ignore the lack of Oxford comma and focus on watchfulness.
Screen shot of a 20 October 2025 post to Tom Cotton's FB campaign page. There is text, and an embedded video of a FOX NEWS interview of Cotton. The text reads: "I can tell you that almost every Chinese national who gets a visa to come here to go to a school or university is affiliated with the CCP in some way. They aren’t coming here to study The Federalist Papers. They’re coming here to spy on Arkansans and Americans — and there needs to be a crackdown." As for the person creating this post, clearly they are an unAmerican operative, given how they entered the date stamp for the post. Day / Month / Year. Only Commies and Euro trash write dates that way, amirite?
Screen shot of a page from the Zazzle website. The item available for $25.08 is titled "Russia Flag necktie." It is a match for the tie Hegseth is wearing to the meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump two days ago, as shown in the photo in the previous comment.
Screenshot of tweet posted 3:46PM on Oct 17, 2025 by Jake Broe @RealJakeBroe on Xitter. Text above a photo of Pete Hegseth; text reads "Pete Hegseth showed up to the White House meeting today with President Zelensky wearing a Russian tricolor flag tie. These people love Putin and Russia." Photo itself is a front view of Hegseth sitting at a table, visible waist up. He is wearing a lightly saturated medium blue suit jacket, white shirt, American flag pocket square visible in his left handkerchief pocket, his tie a diagonal tri-color pattern of white, dark blue, and red. As will be shown in a following comment, the tie can be found online marketed as a Russian flag tie. The blue in the tie is a different shade from the blue of the American flag...as is evident in the difference between the blues of the pocket square and the tie.
Screen shot of a graphic from the National Academies of Science Engineering Medicine article titled "A Long COVID Definition: A Chronic, Systemic Disease State with Profound Consequences (2024)" The text reads: Important Features of LC: LC can follow asymptomatic, mild, or severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. Previous infections may have been recognized or unrecognized. LC can be continuous from the time of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection or can be delayed in onset for weeks or months following what had appeared to be full recovery from acute infection. LC can affect children and adults, regardless of health, disability, or socioeconomic status, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or geographic location. LC can exacerbate pre-existing health conditions or present as new conditions. LC can range from mild to severe. It can resolve over a period of months or can persist for months or years. LC can be diagnosed on clinical grounds. No biomarker currently available demonstrates conclusively the presence of LC. LC can impair individuals’ ability to work, attend school, take care of family, and care for themselves. It can have a profound emotional and physical impact on patients and their families and caregivers. https://doi.org/10.17226/27768.
Image courtesy Alamy depicts six humans descending a short outdoor staircase. Two of them, men in full suits with vests and watchchains visible wearing various styles of hat, are carrying a large wicker basket between them. Five of the subjects are similarly dressed men; the sixth is a woman, hair pulled back at nape of her neck, wearing a pale dress or coat with a low, hip-slung sash belt.
Screenshot from the opening of the BMJ article found at link. Four paragraphs, which read: One explanation offered by public health leaders has been “immunity debt”2—the idea that precautions taken in the covid pandemic suppressed routine exposures to circulating pathogens, leaving people more vulnerable to them when restrictions were lifted. The theory landed in the public consciousness at the right moment. A simple idea that sounded like science, it soothed a public seeking answers just as the world was returning to a semblance of normality. And it served a policy function, allowing governments to focus on economic recovery. But its explanatory power has faded as the number of non-covid infections has kept rising each year. A 2024 analysis by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention3 found that invasive group A strep infections saw their most dramatic year-on-year increase from 2021 to 2022, well after most precautions had been lifted in the US. Rates have been abnormally high since then, raising questions about what might be behind the trend. A growing number of scientists believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may instead be subtly altering our immune systems. If correct, their hypothesis will change how we understand everything from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to shingles to sepsis.
Screen shot of map titled "Share of electricity production from coal, 2024." The map as experienced at Our World In Date (from whom this is taken) offers a time lapse from 1985 thru 2024. The image is static, showing the percentages per country on a world map. The vast majority of countries shown are indicated to derive less than 10% from coal, an even bigger majority less than 20%. Botswana, South Africa, Kosovo, and Mongolia derive more than 70% of their electricity from coal.
Screenshot of post from Matthew @dthings.bsky.social. The reason I am attaching it as a comment to the post about what information should be in the headlines informing the public that Donald J. Trump has "authorized" military to go to Portland to help combat "domestic terrorists" is apparent upon reading. The text reads: # of paragraphs for news orgs to mention there's no discernable need to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon The Guardian: 1st paragraph BBC: 4th paragraph AP: 5th paragraph Time: 6th paragraph Politico: 8th paragraph NPR: 9th paragraph CNN: 10th paragraph NBC: 12th paragraph Fox News: never mentions
Screen shot of post from Tom Cotton blue check but not government official Facebook page. A single sentence, in white typeface on a black background. It reads: Climate hysteria is a Marxist scam.
Tweet on X from Kaitlan Collins (WH correspondent, CNN) which reads: The president on Air Force One: "when you have a network and you have ebening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that's all they do – if you go back I guess they haven't had a conservative one in years, or something – when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They're license. They're not allowed to do that."
Screen shot of DOJ report titled "WHAT NIJ RESEARCH TELLS US ABOUT DOMESTIC TERRORISM," with graphic on the left and text on the right. The graphic is a dark blue background with brighter and lighter generic "person" head&shoulders inside circles, with lines drawn between various persons in a network suggesting representation. The text reads as follows: "Militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism. Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives.1 In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.2 A recent threat assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that domestic violent extremists are an acute threat and highlighted a probability that COVID-19 pandemic- related stressors, long-standing ideological grievances related to immigration, and narratives surrounding electoral fraud will continue to serve as a justification for violent actions.3" The footnotes indicated are: 1. Celinet Duran, “Far-Left Versus Far-Right Fatal Violence: An Empirical Assessment of the Prevalence of Ideologically Motivated Homicides in the United States,” Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society 22 no. 2 (2021): 33-49, https://ccjls.scholasticahq.com/ article/26973-far-left-versus-far-right-fatal-violence-an- empirical-assessment-of-the-prevalence-of-ideologically- motivated-homicides-in-the-united-states; Joshua D. Freilich et al.,“Introducing the United States Extremist Crime Database (ECDB),” Terrorism and Political Violence 26 no. 2 (2014): 372-384, https://doi.org/10.1080/09 546553.2012.713229; and William Parkin, Joshua D. Freilich, and Steven Chermak, “Did Far-Right Extremist Violence Re…
Screenshot of a paragraph from the Beschloss article "It's Villians All the Time" linked in first post. The text reads: "I hope you also recognize that a man such as this is only in power because of a broken political system in which feckless Republicans have turned their backs on the Constitution and the rule of law; a corrupted Supreme Court supermajority has abused its power to abandon our democratic project and strengthen rule by oligarchy; over 77 million voters were convinced that a convicted felon, rapist and bigot who mimicked the hateful, demonizing language and ideas of Adolf Hitler would be a preferred path for America’s future; and over 89 million others cared so little about America’s fate that they failed to fulfill their most fundamental civic duty and vote."
Screen shot. Text reads: (Headline) Certifying deaths due to post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (Body) In the acute phase, clinical manifestations and complications of COVID-19 of varying degrees have been documented, including death. However, patients who recover from the acute phase of the infection can still suffer long-term effects (8). Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), commonly referred to as "long COVID," refers to the long-term symptoms, signs, and complications experienced by some patients who have recovered from the acute phase of COVID-19 (8-10). Emerging evidence suggests that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, can have lasting effects on nearly every organ and organ system of the body weeks, months, and potentially years after infection (11,12). Documented serious post-COVID-19 conditions include cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, renal, endocrine, hematological, and gastrointestinal complications (8), as well as death (13).
At the link in this post, one finds an article from Politico Playbook titled "Dems Aim to Close the 'attention gap'." The article is basically a transcript of today's podcast; this image is a screenshot from that article, which summarizes Donald J Trump's posts to Truth Social last night. The selected portion shown reads: TRUMP’S CONUNDRUM: Last night, the president posted on Truth Social more than two dozen times. He posted phony mugshots of former President Barack Obama and an AI-generated video of the former president being arrested in the Oval Office before donning an orange jumpsuit in prison. He posted about the Washington Commanders, demanding they change their name back to the Redskins and suggesting that he could blow up the RFK Stadium deal if they don’t (useful reality check on that from The 51st’s Martin Austermuhle). He posted a three-minute, captionless video with clips of a bikini-clad woman picking up and tossing a snake; a man somersaulting around a dowel down a stairway; a red Lamborghini careening beneath a truck, Clark Griswold style; a man jumping a fence and coming face to face with a speeding train; a woman break dancing; an optical illusion of a conference room; a billiards trick; a man hacking away at some rock formation; a dirtbiker stunting on a trail; a jet ski; a man ascending an obstacle course with a ladder; a man jump-roping; a man pulling a block from a still-standing massive Jenga tower; a man tossing trash into a dumpster from his balcony; a man doing a flip; a person carrying a heavy object on their shoulders; a man juggling a dropped package of paper towels; and a man doing a skateboard trick. One might reasonably wonder: What is the point of all of this?
Screen shot of a Letter to the Editor published July 9, 2025 in the New England Journal of Medicine. It reads: TO THE EDITOR: In their Sounding Board article (June 26 issue),1 Prasad and Makary ignore the fact that the risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection extend beyond acute outcomes such as hospitalization and death. Long Covid can affect anyone, regardless of disease severity and coexisting conditions; according to the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics, an estimated 1.6 to 1.8% of all U.S. persons 40 to 59 years of age show substantial activity limitations due to the manifestations of long Covid.2 Furthermore, in the months after infection, SARS-CoV-2 infections have been shown to increase predisposition for cardiovascular disease, regardless of prior health status (a finding that extends even to previously healthy children and adolescents3), and have been shown to induce cognitive decline even in young, healthy persons with no coexisting conditions.4 In addition, vaccination can lessen the risk of acute infection and can possibly attenuate the risk of developing long Covid.5 Thus, the policy proposed by Prasad and Makary violates the right of individual persons to protect themselves from an infection with considerable mid- and long-term sequelae. Georgios Pappas, M.D. Institute of Continuing Medical Education of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
Screenshot of the Wikipedia article on GAVI. There is text highlighted in blue, which reads: Gavi supports the immunization of almost half the world's children. Gavi has helped immunize over 760 million children, preventing over 13 million deaths worldwide, helping increase diphtheria vaccine coverage in supported countries from 59% in 2000 to 81% in 2019, contributing to reducing child mortality by half. The entirety of what can be seen reads: AVI, officially Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance[1] (previously the GAVI Alliance, and before that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization)[2] is a public–private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization in poor countries.[3] In 2016, Gavi channeled more than half of total donor assistance for health, and most donor assistance for immunization, by monetary measure.[4] Gavi supports the immunization of almost half the world's children. Gavi has helped immunize over 760 million children, preventing over 13 million deaths worldwide, helping increase diphtheria vaccine coverage in supported countries from 59% in 2000 to 81% in 2019, contributing to reducing child mortality by half. It also seeks to improve the economics of vaccines, negotiating bulk prices, supporting price discrimination, and reducing the commercial risks that manufacturers face when selling vaccines to the poor and developing vaccines.[4][5] It also provides funding to strengthen health systems and train health workers across the developing world,[4] though the effectiveness of its health-system-strengthening programs is disputed.[6]
Graphic lifted from first item in shared thread. Title is "Excess mortality: Deaths from all causes compared to average over previous years, by age, United States" Subhed reads "The percentage difference between the reported number of weekly or monthly deaths in 2020-2024 – broken down by age group – and the average number of deaths in the same period over the years 2015-2019." There are six separate graphs, Ages 0-14, Ages 15-64, Ages 65-74, Ages 74-84, Ages 85+, and All ages. Every graph but 0-14 shows significant spikes in excess mortality starting in 2020. Data is credited to Our World in Data.
Screen shot of text from the Verge article "US removes ‘safety’ from AI Safety Institute" Highlighted text reads: The move is part of a larger Trump administration effort to accelerate the expansion of American AI companies. On his first day in office Trump rescinded a Biden executive order that ordered new safety standards for large AI systems and a report evaluating the potential risks for US consumers and the labor market.
Dog, mostly black with a tan muzzle and tan accents above the inner eyes. Snout square-ish but pointed, tongue lightly dangling, it's position and sparkly attentive eyes suggesting a good mood. Slight grin, too, which of course is debatable but the dog's human companion understands this to be happy. Persons somewhat familiar with dog breeds will not be surprised to hear this fine canine was a mix of german shepherd, husky, rottweiler, and mystery sauce.
Screen shot of the second and beginning of the third paragraph of an essay from THE YALE GLOBAL HEALTH REVIEW, written by Violet Affleck. The conclusion of the second paragraph is highlighted in pale blue, and reads "But our bewildered response to crises like the LA fires tell us we may still be accustomed to addressing the climate crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic: as a question of how fast we can back around to pretending like the problem is gone."
Tweet and replies. Original post from Rep. Dan Bishop @RepDanBishop reads "Members of Congress and the Mayor of Newark committed an insurrection at a federal detention facility in New Jersey today. Worse than 9/11." Posted 5:22pm, May 9, 2025 323.1K views There is then a reply from Gunther Eagleman™ (yes, trademark) and blue check @GuntherEagleman, who says "17-22 years each. No due process. Precedent was set." Dan Biship then replies "Hunt them down."