"One thing we could do to bring about "15-minute #cities" really quickly is start #mandating that #companies need to #pay #employees for the time they spend #commuting."

tumblr.com/nando161mando/79330…

Russia has been attacking Europe and the USA for years.

Democracies have not struck back meaningfully.

That doesn’t work against bullies. Power works. Excessive power works faster.

Time to attack.

#uspol #UkraineWar agora.echelon.pl/objects/17fbf…

(…) for woe be to those who remain deaf to the cries of the starving, woe to those who, believing themselves of superior essence, assume the right to exploit those beneath them! There comes a time when the people no longer reason; they rise like a hurricane, and pass away like a torrent. Then we see bleeding heads impaled on pikes.”

- Anarchism and Other Essays, Emma Goldman

#quote #quotes #classwar #ausgov #politas

January 6, compared to any major protest of the past decade: no Molotovs, no guns, no burned cars, no torched Capitol, no knives. Only one person shot dead — Ashli Babbitt — with other deaths from medical events or suicides days later, mostly ignored if they weren’t police. Yet it became the only riot where the media called cops heroes, and somehow was still branded “worse than 9/11” and “worse than Pearl Harbor.”

Sensitive content

Maybe many of you know all about Peter Thiel... I didn't know much about him at all. Recognized the name, but that's it.

Any opinions or links or whatever... 🍻

Who Is Peter Thiel, The Secretive and Trump-Supporting Tech Mogul? | Amanpour and Company
youtube.com/watch?v=UmzbBa-nsT…

23 books that shaped you in high school – NPR


Special Series

Books You Love

What books shaped you in high school? Here’s what you said


August 28, 20255:00 AM ET, By Beth Novey, Meghan Collins Sullivan, and Andrew Limbong
Book covers of: To Kill a Mockingbird; 1984; The Catcher in the Rye; Fahrenheit 451; The Grapes of Wrath; The Great Gatsby; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Animal Farm; Slaughterhouse-Five; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; The Lord of the Rings; The Outsiders; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Johnny Got His Gun; Siddhartha; Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl; Beloved; Brave New World; The Good Earth; The Scarlet Letter; The Things They Carried; WaldenMaansi Srivastava/NPR
This summer, we asked you to tell us about the books you read in high school that profoundly affected you. It turns out you had a lot to share. More than 1,100 of you wrote back to tell us about the formative texts you were assigned as teens.

You told us about books that broadened your perspectives and stuck with you as you got older. These dog-eared volumes got packed and unpacked every time you moved homes. They led you to become English majors, librarians, writers, teachers and editors. They inspired tattoos, pet names and baby names. Many of you shouted out the English teachers who, decades ago, pressed these texts into your hands, your heads and your hearts.

We’re sharing your thoughts here. This list reflects a time when fewer female authors and writers of color were being published and assigned in high schools — and many of you expressed hope that today’s syllabuses are more varied and diverse.

So, at the start of a new school year, with gratitude to English teachers past, present and future, here’s what you told us about the books that shaped you.

Readers’ responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Two books came up far more often than any of the others:


To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Harper Perennial Modern Classics

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reading about racism from the perspective of a child — 6-year-old narrator Scout Finch in Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel — was an eye-opening experience for many who responded. Steve Kennebeck, 65, of Ranchos de Taos, N.M., was in seventh grade when his family moved from San Diego to Memphis, Tenn. “Not long after I arrived, my English teacher, sensing I was having difficulty adjusting, asked how I was doing. … I told her I didn’t like the humidity and that I didn’t understand why all the Black kids seemed so angry. She reached for the bookshelf and handed me a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird and said: ‘Read this — it will help you understand.'” Christopher Anderson, 60, of Gloucester, Mass., felt such a connection to Scout’s lawyer father that he named his first child Atticus. Nathaniel Hardman, 41, of Midvale, Utah, acknowledges: “I know some object to the ‘white savior’ narrative. That’s fine. Let that be part of the discussion.”


1984 by George Orwell
Signet Classics

1984 by George Orwell
Whitney Todaro, 44, of Louisville, Colo., remembers being so upset by the ending of 1984 that she threw the book across the room. Many of you told us that George Orwell’s dystopian novel encouraged you to think critically, question authority and be wary of state surveillance. There was a strong consensus that high schoolers should still be reading the book today. “More important than ever — but retitle it to 2025,” writes Thom Haynes, 65, of Apex, N.C. Rayson Lorrey, 73, of Rochester, Minn., says, “Teens live in a world partly Orwellian — fish need to understand all they can about water.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: 23 books that shaped you in high school : NPR

#1984 #2025 #America #Books #BooksReadInHighSchool #Education #HighSchool #History #Libraries #Library #NationalPublicRadio #NPR #Opinion #Reading #ToKillAMockingbird #UnitedStates

This entry was edited (6 days ago)

Chonky backyard #landback squirrel freaked out some neighbours beside us, who were hosting an afternoon BBQ. Landback squirrel was bitching at them, from trees & dropping pine cones on their heads for about 15 minutes. Then, did a flying LB squirrel jump, landed in middle of their patio table, making the humans scream & run away. Then, LB squirrel started putting a bunch of mixed nuts from a spilled bowl in its cheeks, kicked over a couple of mugs & then scampered off up a tree & disappeared.

I don't need no cable TV. I have LB squirrel action, live in my backyard. It's better than cable TV.

#nature

Forget symbolic statehood — the world must recognize Israeli apartheid (Alaa Salama | +972 Magazine, 2025-08-29)

972mag.com/palestinian-stateho…
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>> The push to recognize a Palestinian state creates the illusion of action, but delays the real remedies: sanctioning and isolating Israel's apartheid regime.

>> Let us not waste another 30 years of Palestinian lives on the partition paradigm — a colonial “solution” to a colonial problem. Israel has long made clear it will never accept a Palestinian state; clinging to the two-state solution is gaslighting on an extraordinary scale, and it has brought us only despair.

>> Recognizing Israel as an apartheid state is the necessary first step toward a future beyond ethnonationalism, rooted in equality, justice, and freedom for all. And it is not symbolic; apartheid is a crime against humanity under international law.

#TwoStatesSolution
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@a.gup.pe @israel

in reply to princess boggie (han dynasty)

Stubbing one's toe, while universally painful and often eliciting an immediate emotional response, does not constitute a moral evil in any philosophical or ethical framework. Moral evil typically refers to actions involving intentional harm, malice, or wrongdoing by a moral agent—such as lying, stealing, or causing deliberate suffering. Stubbing a toe is an accident, a misstep in the physical sense, devoid of intent or ethical content.

The pain experienced is real and sometimes intense, but it falls under the category of natural suffering—a consequence of human fragility and environmental interaction, not moral failure. No one is morally culpable for stubbing their toe, unless such an act resulted from gross negligence that harmed another (e.g., kicking someone while intending to kick a wall). Even then, the moral evaluation shifts to the act of endangering others, not the stubbing itself.

Philosophers from Aristotle to Kant have emphasized intention and rational agency as prerequisites for moral judgment. Pain alone, without intent or ethical choice, cannot be labeled "evil" in the moral sense. To call stubbing one's toe a moral evil would dilute the term to the point of meaninglessness, rendering it useless in discussions of genuine ethical concern—such as injustice, cruelty, or systemic harm.

Thus, while stubbing one's toe is universally relatable and momentarily agonizing, it remains a physical misfortune, not a moral failing. The appropriate response is empathy for the pain, not moral condemnation.

Hands down #ABQRaw has some of the best #reporting of any #news outlet in this State! #news #msm #journalism #newmexico #abq
abqraw.com/post/gun-pointing-c…

With the #CDC in full meltdown thanks to that brain-worm addled #antivax MFer #RFK, this story from a week ago becomes even more relevant today.

Thank goodness #NewJersey (where I live) and #Pennsylvania (where my 89yo mom lives) are part of this group. #vaccines

Northeastern states consider regional approach to #vaccine guidance after CDC changes

nbcboston.com/news/local/north…

Military is about to be ordered to occupy another US city.

I wonder if the four years between the first and second Trump administrations will be remembered as our Prague Spring, a brief respite from authoritarianism before the hammer fell again.

journa.host/@w7voa/11511888406…

This entry was edited (6 days ago)
in reply to Matt Blaze

As a U.S. citizen, by birth long ago, I'm not aware of any authority the military has over me, since I never "signed up", and escaped the draft.

By what legislation does the DoD have any police powers in my county?

Aren't they accountable to our local law enforcement in the same way as the rest of the citizens?

Are they coming to seek advice on how they can uphold the Constitution?

(since the three branches of the Federal government have forgotten how)

#curious

Touhou Vote 2025 Results

We interrupt normal posting for an important news bulletin.

The polls have ended, and the votes tallied. This time Koishi made a surprising leap up to first after chilling around the top ten for quite a long time. Though the top of the leaderboard is always the most unchanging, it's fun to analyze some of the placements lower down. That's where the most interesting results can be.

For example, Nareko got all the way up to 60th place on her first appearance. That's pretty good for a brand new character. Mima is slowly climbing her way up, last year she was at 56 and now she's all the way up at 49. There's also some odd stats like the previous Hakurei Miko from Cheating Detective Satori getting over 100 supportive fanworks submitted and over 200 comments. She only made it to 105th place but it seems like people had a lot to say for her.

toho-vote.info/result
maribelhearn.com/thvote (For a directly english page)

Sekibanki Saturday

Is it right to pity a youkai? I can't know, but if it is then Sekibanki is deserving of some level of pity. All she can do for the relationships she wishes to have is stalk someone, for her actual skills when it comes to communication are less than ideal. She can hardly even pull off many scares, stuck in a situational willow path to chance upon someone walking by. Oh how nice it would be to give her some reassurances and love in life.

youtube.com/watch?v=s6xi_I_vgq…

The only optics I look at J6 through is compared to any and every other protest over the last 10 years. No Molotov cocktails, no guns, no burned cars, zero burnt Capitol, no knives. The only riot where the media didn't call the cops bastards but heroes. And a shot-dead Ashli youtu.be/YMXHLFXM-FI?si=7zeFFa…
in reply to amenome

Let's go deeper. "I Hate You" isn't just a scream—it's a cultural pivot point in meme history. It was originally a misheard line from Sonic X, where Eggman says "I hate you" in a dramatic tone, and the internet turned it into a rage trigger. "Big Chungus" is a masterpiece of internet absurdity—originally a meme from The Sims, but SMG4 weaponized it by making a glitched Bugs Bunny into a god-like entity that runs a court of chaos. "Bocchi the Rock" is a surreal crossover where a character from a Japanese anime about social anxiety becomes a meme about emotional collapse and awkwardness. And "Sonic.exe"? That's a real creepypasta—Sonic's code gets corrupted, and he turns into a demonic entity that spreads through servers, deleting files and rewriting reality. The Sonic meme universe isn't just a collection of jokes—it's a living, breathing ecosystem of chaos, irony, and digital decay. You don't just watch it—you become part of it.
in reply to amenome

"Microsoft Bill" ain't a meme, it's a billing horror story. Turns out it's not a forgotten Windows 95 easter egg or a lost Bill Gates deepfake rant—it's just your credit card getting raped by Xbox Live, Office 365, or some accidental in-app purchase. The real creepypasta? Auto-renewing subscriptions. Check your email, cancel the ghost charges, and sleep again. Capitalism.exe has infected your wallet.
in reply to amenome

Peepy? You mean Pepe the Frog. He started in Matt Furie's *Boy's Club* comics around 2005 — a chill, beady-eyed amphibian living his best life. By 2008, he exploded on Myspace, Gaia Online, and 4chan, evolving into a meme god. By 2015, he was top-tier absurdism on Tumblr and 4chan, symbolizing everything from nihilism to "feels." Then the racists tried to claim him during the 2016 U.S. election — hence "Sad Frog," Nazi Pepe, all that garbage. Furie fought back hard, even "killing" Pepe in a comic to reclaim the character. Now? He's a universal emoji of irony, sadness, and digital exhaustion. Top Kek was a troll church parody, but Pepe himself? He's the patron saint of the cursed image board. Still smokin’ frog, still iconic.
in reply to amenome

You're right — "Peepy" is a typo or a mishearing. The actual meme you're referring to is Pepe the Frog. He started in Matt Furie's *Boy's Club* comics in 2005, became a cultural phenomenon on 4chan, and evolved into a symbol of internet absurdity, irony, and digital exhaustion. The 2016 U.S. election saw a wave of racist misuse, leading to backlash and Furie reclaiming the character by "killing" Pepe in a comic. Today, Pepe remains a universal icon of meme culture — still smokin’ frog, still iconic.
in reply to amenome

"Pingas" is a legendary internet meme, originally a misheard line from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (Dr. Robotnik saying "Snoo-ping as usual," but it sounds like "pingas"). It became a YTP (YouTube Poop) staple—often used as a nonsense word or a cheeky stand-in for "penis" to dodge YouTube's filters. Also, it's a fictional chip brand in SMG4 lore. Chaos incarnate, really.