Happy National Library Workers Day and especially thanks to them and anyone who helps sustain “third places” in communities.

Good morning, bluesky. What'd I miss? LOL

I took a bit of a break because this place felt very odd...let's try it again, eh?

I've got some new hearts to share, stay tuned.

💜

The world has moved on from COVID. The risk hasn’t. An epidemiologist explains what the evidence says about when the next pandemic might happen — and why the risk isn’t declining

"The world has moved on from COVID. The risk hasn’t." - By Professor Adrian Esterman

"An epidemiologist explains what the evidence says about when the next pandemic might happen — and why the risk isn’t declining"

#COVID19 #COVIDisNotOver #COVIDisAirborne

Study finds long COVID leaves a distinct immune signature in the blood Researchers identified a small panel of inflammatory and neurology-related blood proteins that may help distinguish long COVID from recovery or no prior infection, while also showing that booster vacc...

A new study found some distinct proteins at elevated levels in long COVID patients. www.news-medical.net/news/2026041...

#LongCOVID

Study links long COVID in kids to worse grades and attention problems A large NIH-funded RECOVER-Pediatrics study found that children and adolescents meeting the long COVID research threshold were more likely to have caregiver-reported worsening grades, attention difficulties, reduced enjoyment with friends, and greater IEP involvement than peers below the threshold. The findings suggest that pediatric long COVID may affect school and social functioning during key developmental years, although the cross-sectional design does not establish causation.

News Medical: Study links long COVID in kids to worse grades and attention problems

"They found that children with LC were significantly more likely to experience declining grades, attention difficulties, and reduced peer engagement..."

Read more: https://tinyurl.com/npnu8yn9

#LongCovid

GeoNet: Quake - 2026p298950GeoNet logoGeoNet logoEarth Sciences New Zealand logoNatural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake logoGeoNet logoEarth Sciences New Zealand logoEarth Sciences New Zealand logoNatural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake logoNatural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake logo The quake may have been felt in Mount Cook, Twizel, and surrounding localities.

QUAKE: Mag 4.0, Wed, Apr 22 2026, 02:41:05 AM, 20 km north-west of Twizel. Depth: 7 km #eqnz https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/2026p298950

Sexual misconduct by lawmakers is widespread — but often goes unreported New data from the nonprofit National Women’s Defense League, shared first with The 19th, comes on the heels of the resignations of two members of Congress.

Exclusive: new research from the National Women’s Defense League and shared first with The 19th, has tracked 30 allegations of workplace sexual misconduct against members of Congress made since 2006 — a number the report’s authors say is likely 3-4x higher in reality 19thnews.org/2026/04/sexu...

I was previously an energetic engaged extrovert, & I was living alone. So it was quite different to my and your imagined experience!

Whereas I truly loved it and it utterly transformed my lifelong suicidal tendencies. I never would have guessed or understood that beforehand.

We haven’t recovered as a society, and in fact we haven’t even really named it

but when I talk about the lack of distress tolerance for dealing with other humans fueling the AI push, “male loneliness epidemic”, etc.

I think COVID was a huge factor in making it this extreme

💪🏾🤗🤗

To think, if all the victims of the Black Death had just manned up and walked it off, there wouldn't have been a plague that nearly wiped out Western Europe. What a bunch of wusses.

Republicans are more upset about a sarcastic tweet from Democratic Senator Chris Murphy than they are about Donald Trump threatening war crimes against Iran again.

Layoffs at Them reduce diverse trans reporting as anti-trans bills rise Resources to cover U.S. queer and trans news are shrinking as the number of anti-trans bills outpaces last year.

National media outlets are withdrawing their investment in LGBTQ+ news and queer reporters at a time when trans rights are being increasingly targeted, @bokchoy-baobei.bsky.social reports. objectivejournalism.org/2026/04/equa...

And whale songs and garage music….

The thing with Gen X and music is that yes we had grunge but we also had rock and funk and hip hop and rap and pop and house and trance and lounge and reggae and soul and Gregorian chants ffs.

At this point, I’m back to selling you that bridge 🙄

Most of the money spent in Oz is loaded on to the general Defence budget, to make AUKUS look like it isn’t further blowing out its already huge costs (running anywhere between 25-50% over the $368B initially padded estimate).

On US & UK sources.

I'm coming from the pov that an english lit degree DID ruin reading for me for a while! But for different reasons than my hype allergy (I hated critical theory, it turned out.) I still feel like the hype can make a book feel less-than but...I'm also enjoying the adrenalin of it!

A mixed bag. Probs same for me with art but I didn’t want to go further enough to spend time and money.

Email membership@theonion.com and they'll fix you up ASAP.

How The Onion Won the Infowars Sale — and Shut Up Alex Jones for Good YouTube video by PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT

Watch the whole episode here:

Sorry to be overly sincere for a second, but here's why we decided to persevere through all of the bullshit and take over InfoWars.

There's just gotta be a line somewhere.

Thank you @pablo.show for letting me talk so openly about this.

wait are you saying that hundreds, or thousands, of sailors living in close quarters are some kind of contagion risk?

Every sailor or Marine who has ever done sea time knows intimately how stupid this is

I can’t recall when I was more upset by the death of someone I’d never met than of that of Giles Peaker.

Or a producer?!

Was very proud to watch Lani last night for her production of Pride and Prejudice at University of Canberra😁🥰

Oh wow! She’s an actor 💕

Who remembers the delightful Angelo’s dad’s posts about their wonderful garden from Twitter/X ?
The algorithm wasn’t showing me but I’m glad to be more up to date now!

@scttyryn.bsky.social
You mentioned rescue kitty. Meet Hunter. He walked up our front porch steps looking way too skinny. My wife and I agreed that if he came back for a week, we would take him to the vet. $250 later, we had a "free" cat. Neighbors loved him because he removed mice and chipmunks.