"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?" "Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

*swastikar owners

What if the old modem noise was the screams of our future selves traveling back in time to warn us?

This morning at Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HQ in DC as mandatory return to office began, this video played on loop for ~5 mins on screens throughout the building, per agency source.

Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs.

My staff and I are closely tracking the potential measles exposure in San Antonio that originated with a visitor from West Texas.

If you visited any of the locations listed below, please watch out for symptoms (including fever or unexplained rash) and contact a doctor right away if they occur.

ALT The image features features the Eyjafjallajökull volcano during the 2nd eruption phase, starting on 2010 April 14. Pictured here, lightning bolts illuminate ash pouring out of the volcano. In fact, an ash-loaded eruption plume rose to more than 8 km, deflected to the east by westerly winds.

🔭🧪
This spectacular photo by Sigurður Stefnisson features the Eyjafjallajökull volcano during the 2nd eruption phase, starting on 2010 April 14, as part of a series of volcanic events that occurred in Iceland, between March and June 2010.

Image source➡️ apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap19051...

'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook In 2022, one of Peter Thiel's favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO”

"In 2022, one of Peter Thiel's favorite thinkers envisioned a second Trump Administration in which the federal government would be run by a “CEO” who was not Trump and laid out a playbook for how it might work. Elon Musk is following it."

www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-...

A hawk, perched upon an outdoor railing.

My wife likes to feed song birds, so she got started putting seeds out on the back porch. This attracted the pigeons and squirrels too, so she had to up the amount of seeds, eventually by a LOT. Literal pounds of the stuff, daily, sometimes twice. Enough for […]

[Original post on mastodon.online]

S 🌱 L V I Λ (@sylv_a@mastodon.social) Attached: 3 images By popular demand, a single post to boost global switch day across multiple platforms on February 1st 2025.
 For those who can no longer get behind Musk or Meta's new policies and...

Images courtesy of @sylv_a@mastodon.social

mastodon.social/@sylv_a/1138...

February 1st 2025: Global Switch Day. Switch from Xitter to Mastodon.

February 1st 2025: Global Switch Day. Switch from TikTok to Loops.video.

February 1st 2025: Global Switch Day. Switch from YouTube to PeerTube.

February 1st 2025: Global Switch Day. Switch from Reddit to Lemmy.

February 1st 2025: Global Switch Day. Switch from Facebook to frendica.

February 1st 2025: Global Switch Day. Switch from Instagram to Pixelfed.

February 1st 2025: Global Switch Day. Switch from WhatsApp to Signal.

you saw what you saw YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie

yeah you saw what you saw youtube.com/shorts/EGqyq...

Don't know who said it first but it bears repeating—if you really don't think what Musk repeatedly did was a Nazi salute, please record yourself doing that exact thing and post it across all social media, and make sure your employer sees it.

Oh...is that awkward gesture too much now? Interesting.

I'm coming to the frightening conclusion that utter ideological disregard for the Constitution and desensitization to corruption are both so widespread in the American political class at this point that a lot of Democrats genuinely do not see what everyone's so freaked out about right now.

The NYT isn't holding anyone accountable.

This.

Elon Musk and the right’s war on Wikipedia The world's richest man has joined a growing chorus of right-wing voices attacking Wikipedia as part of an intensifying campaign against free and open access information.

www.citationneeded.news/elon-musk-an...

THREAD: In 2023, I received an envelope with no return address. Inside was a flash drive containing tens of 1000s of secret files.

It came from a vigilante with a tumultuous past, who'd conducted a years-long undercover operation. He didn’t tell the FBI or his family. He only told me.

Don't Let the Enemies of Truth Ruin Wikipedia Elon Musk and other reactionary liars hate the "last good website" because it won't go along with their distortions

"Elon Musk and other reactionary liars hate the 'last good website' because it won't go along with their distortions."

www.arcdigital.media/p/dont-let-t...

Affirmative Action Repeal & Rising White Supremacy The latest Harvard data is a daunting reminder that racist policies are not only systemic in our higher education systems—they're getting worse

Harvard Law Black enrollment dropped 52% since SCOTUS banned affirmative action in 2023. Meanwhile, Legacy Admissions—in which 75% of white students admitted are not academically qualified—stays in tact.

We are witnessing a historic rise in white supremacy policy
www.qasimrashid.com/p/affirmativ...

This was not what I was thinking.

A year in sunsets, from April 2023 to March 2024, track along the western horizon in these stacked panoramic views. The well-planed sequence is constructed of images recorded near the 21st day of the indicated month from the same location overlooking Cairo, Egypt. But for any location on planet Earth the yearly extreme northern (picture right) and southern limits of the setting Sun mark the solstice days. The word solstice is from Latin for "Sun" and "stand still". On the solstice date the seasonal drift of the Sun's daily path through the sky appears to pause and reverse direction in its annual celestial journey. Of course the Sun reaches a stand still on today's date. The 21 December 2024 solstice at 09:21 UTC is the moment of the Sun's southernmost declination, the start of astronomical winter in the north and summer in the south.

🔭 A Year in Sunsets

Image Credit & Copyright: Wael Omar

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap24122...

How does Wikipedia protect readers’ privacy? | A WIKI MINUTE YouTube video by Wikimedia Foundation

Do you ever wonder how Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, protects your personal information so you can read, share, and edit it privately and safely?

Take #AWikiMinute to learn more.

Closeup of several boughs with vibrant red leaves.

It's (still) Fall y'all!

Uncovered Health insurers reject millions of claims for treatment every year in America. Corporate insiders, recordings and internal emails expose the system and its harm.

"Deny, deny, deny. That's how you hit your numbers."

Read @propublica.org's seminal series on how insurance giants like United and Cigna systematically, cruelly—and very, very profitably—deny health coverage every day, at the expense of patients' lives.

America’s Violent Health System An unknown assailant killed the UnitedHealth CEO in broad daylight—and the majority of people watching laughed. Why?

I'm getting criticized for my article about healthcare in America from people on the right & the left for—wait for it—being too sympathetic to the killed CEO. A UnitedHealth employee even emailed me only to tell me he despised the CEO. People are enraged & fed up. www.qasimrashid.com/p/americas-v...

Also today in my former "hometown" newspaper, for which I used to write a column as a cultural correspondent:

I think it would be a good idea