A spiritually abusive environment is one where your soul revolts against insult, and you're taught that revulsion is a sin. That which should protect you, is turned against you.

On needing a stick:
The difference between us is a flick of the genome, a car pulling out on a rainy night, a fall. It is a heavy a night out, a pill you shouldn't have taken. It's a virus or bacteria, an assault, or just a few years. This is just the fragility you haven't encountered yet.

Meme: Alastair Sim as Scrooge looks out his window and says "You boy! Are the Straits of Hormuz open today?"

Well, nice to see at least one corrupt populist and stooge of Putin fall. I know one swallow doesn't make a spring, but...

I remain surprised how much the Artemis II mission has moved me, and how much their safe return is a relief. A spaceship called Integrity.

Love the the Artemis crew.

Four extraordinary humans: brilliant, disciplined, and deeply mission-driven.

What stands out even more than their intelligence is their character.

Kindness. Positivity. Humility. Empathy.

The future of space exploration shouldn’t just be bold, it should be human.
🚀✨👇

Just heard a Guided By Voices track, and all of a sudden it’s a warm summer morning in the 90s, my body is a working joy, the taste of coffee and cigarette smoke lingers on my tongue. And everything is promise.

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:

medusaglare › Artemis I| 7h @ Threads i thought i stopped caring about space. turns out I was just sick of SpaceX, not NASA. • 18.3K Q145 G807ł → 143

Speaking of Threads, this one got me in the feels.

Word.

Oh gosh, that's magic! It gives me hope.

I find it poignant that it is the crew of the Artemis II mission that chose to name their spacecraft 'Integrity'. What they are doing is one of the sparks of hope in a dark time.

Words matter. Even if they are rhetoric and hyperbole, they make things thinkable. They create permissibility and pull at the imagination. For a US president to toy with the language of genocide is an unspeakably awful and dangerous moment.

Screenshot of a social post by President Donald J. Trump that says: 'A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!'

A president speaking casually about the possible end of an entire civilization should concern Americans on every side of the aisle. This is dangerous rhetoric from a dangerous leader.

God save us from the vanity and cruel savagery of fading old men who mistake violence for a virtue.

NASA just dropped this image of Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch looking back at us. The first woman to ever see our planet in its entirety. I’m not crying you’re crying 🥹🔭🧪 📸: NASA

I made a little Instagram reel about this image because it’s just so frickin’ cool

Rats taught to drive tiny cars to lower their stress levels Researchers taught rats to drive tiny "ratmobiles" in exchange for food, which helped the rats relax.

Somewhere up in heaven, Richard Scarry is like “fuck yeah, told you so”: www.bbc.com/news/world-u...

The last time human beings left orbit (Apollo 17) I was 18 months old. This is kind of amazing.

My first poll card as a UK citizen has just arrived to vote in my first election as a UK citizen.

Well, The Pitt (finally in the UK) lives up to the hype. Shockingly humane (and we need that), thoughtful, compulsive. Worth it.

I keep my mind opened to the possibility that the popularity of The National amongst middle-aged men has a lot to do with the lead singer’s vocal range. We can sing along in our middle-aged angst, without strain or falsetto.

A big, nasty, ball of cat fur.

Spring comes, cats shed.

Resistance is a dish best served collaboratively

The Widowmaker. A small serrated sandwich knife.

I own several proper kitchen knives but this is the most ferocious knife I have ever known. I've only had it since Christmas and it has tasted my blood half a dozen times already. They call it the Victorinox sandwich knife but I call it the Widowmaker.

I am something of a human pincushion, and have been stuck for all sorts of reasons. I was however slightly unprepared for just how much an intramuscular B12 shot actually hurts.

I have used 80gsm a lot (they are really good notebooks, and take fountain pens well for 80gsm). The 120gsm was a bit of a luxury buy, but no regrets.

Is there a more sure sign of moral degradation than putting babies in cages?

The Wren - Refillable Writing Pen Write beautifully and sustainably with The Wren. Infinitely refillable, crafted to last a lifetime, and designed to reduce waste from disposable pens. Take flight & write!

Sometimes, and sometimes one of these beauties:

Hang on, isn't deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure a bit war-crimey? If you take out power networks you take out food production and distribution, hospitals, education, etc. Civilians, many of who want nothing to do with this regime, will die. The most vulnerable will die first.