Love in the time of genocide | Israel War on Gaza | Al Jazeera

For weeks in southern Gaza during a recent visit, I collected stories of women admitted to hospital, each of them there to recover from what they call “war wounds”. But it’s not a war, because only one side has an actual army. Only one side is a state with full military wares.

These victims were mothers, wives and babies, whose slight bodies were pierced, torn, broken and burned. Their deeper injuries aren’t visible, until they open up about their lives over the past five months.

#gaza


Human-caused climate change fuels hottest February on record, all-time high ocean warming | CBC News

Chart showing daily sea surface temperatures smashing previous records for nearly an entire year from April 2023 to March 2024.

For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world’s oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.

The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fuelled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren’t just the hottest for February, but eclipsed any month on record, soaring past August 2023’s mark and still rising at the end of the month.


Moving in the wrong direction on climate.

Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power - The Washington Post

Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.


20 albums that stuck

Lou Plummer: List 10 albums that have stayed with you over the years in some way.

A fun question but impossible. For example, R.E.M - well, I could just as easily list any of their first 10 albums: Life’s Rich Pageant, yes please. Reckoning. Uh huh. Document? Sure. But for the moment, I’ll choose Green.

But I could say the same for many of the others on the list. And no, I’m not stopping at 10.

Read More →


A perfect afternoon visiting the bees as they collected pollen from a flowering plum tree.

A honeybee collecting pollen from a white flower. in the background a branch of blurred flowers is on the right side of the image and a bright blue sky behind the bee and flower.
A honeybee is collecting pollen from white plum flowers.
A honeybee is collecting pollen from white plum flowers. A bright blue sky is visible in the background.

#nature #bees #spring #flowers


A variety of bees, flys and butterflies were busy pollinating the plum trees today - the western honey bees especially!

A closeup of two honeybees, one is flying above white flowers, the other is resting on a flower as it collects pollen
A honey bee gathering pollen from white flowers set against a blue sky
A macro image of a furry honeybee collecting pollen from white flowers

Famine in Gaza

Is there famine in Gaza? | Reuters

The United Nations said in February that more than a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were “estimated to be facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation.” It said without action widespread famine could be “almost inevitable.”

The IPC is due to release a new analysis of the situation in Gaza by mid-March.

…as U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said: “Once a famine is declared, it is too late for too many people.”

Read More →


Pro-Palestinian protesters block roads leading to Oscars

Love to see it:

Pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “Cease fire now” blocked roads leading to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, delaying the start of the Oscars. Some ceremony attendees in formalwear shoved past protesters.


A male relative today made a sexist, stupid comment, not for the first time.

My reply, not for the first time: Your sexism isn’t funny and it’s never acceptable. Stop.

I know that he won’t stop. I get the same from most of the other males in the family.

Patriarchy has deep roots.


See the USA in your Chevrolet!

www.youtube.com/watch


4 women in dark green uniforms standing on a rock peak with mountains in the background. The women each hold a lit torch with the fourth woman holding her torch up as it is being lit by another

YJA Star (Free Women’s Troops) Central Headquarters Command made a written statement on the occasion of March 8, International Working Women’s Day.

Our uninterrupted struggle for women's freedom, from Saras to Zîlans, from Bêrîtans to Doğa Viyans, created great gains for women and became the expression that a society whose women are free will also be free. In this sense, women transforming the areas they are in into positions of resistance means the end of the rapist masculine mentality. The way to do this is to organize strongly. Where a single woman remains unorganized, women will continue to be subjected to violence, rape, oppression and exploitation.


This is a crazy good deal if you want or need an alternative to Adobe apps. One time purchase, 30% off.

Affinity – Professional Creative Software

Affinity V2 Universal License

Get Version 2 of Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher on all operating systems, including iPad, for one low bundle price.

All apps. All platforms.No subscription.

Was USD$164.99 Now $114.99


Linked: Climate Emergency

This chart of ocean temperatures should really scare you

If you were to dip your toes into the middle of the North Atlantic — say, somewhere between South Carolina and Spain — the water would feel frigid. You definitely wouldn’t want to swim. It’s winter.

Yet that water would, in fact, be very warm, relatively speaking. Right now, the North Atlantic ocean is, on average, warmer than any other time on record, running about 2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the average temperature over the last three decades.

Read More →


An 11 minute clip that clearly explains the current crisis in Gaza, Biden and his loss of support among progressives

Uncommitted vote in Michigan ‘doing Biden a favor’ by sounding alarm on Gaza policy

“Uncommitted” earned 100,000 votes in the Michigan Democratic primary Tuesday, raising flags to the Biden administration that its policy on Gaza could lose him crucial swing state voters. SiriusXM’s Dean Obeidallah and Jewish Current’s Peter Beinart say the effort reflects a need for urgency in resolving the war in Gaza.


The always evolving iPad set-up (and speculations on the iPad's future)

It's March of 2024 and we're expecting new iPad and likely a new Magic Keyboard sometime this month. Given Apple rolled out 2 new MacBook Airs on Monday I'd guess iPad releases will be next Monday, the 11th. My main interest isn't the iPad itself but the Magic Keyboard. I'm doubtful that it will be backward compatible put I'm not ruling it out. My hope is that it's backward compatible to 2018 models and that it's something closer to the Brydge keyboard offering. Heavier than the current Magic Keyboard for iPad, with a base that includes a battery and ports. Basically leaning into the laptop form factor.

Read More →


America is built on settler colonialism, slavery and white supremacy. For decades we’ve supported Israel in its constant breaking of international laws and now, genocide.

If we refuse to end our complicity in genocide what are we? I see a pattern here.

But do go on about democracy.


The March 4 episode of The Majority Report features an excellent interview with Rashid Khalidi that begins at 23:30 and covers his work documenting the Palestinian resistance to Britain dating back to 1917:

…well before the establishment of the state of Israel, looking at the central role of the West – namely Britain and the US – in support and facilitating the violent establishment and maintenance of a Zionist apartheid state.


I see a lot of white middle class Democrats on social networks proclaiming that the only way to save democracy this year is to vote for Biden.

Have you ever protested in the street, how often and will you do so again if necessary?

Democracy is not just voting.


Thinking of to Aaron Bushnell and his self-immolation to protest genocide

Over the past week my mind went often to Aaron Bushnell and his self-immolation to protest genocide a week ago.

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now." - Aaron Bushnell, February 25, 2024

Pixel art style graphic that depicts a soldier standing in solute and facing forward. The soldier is engulfed in flames and the words Free Palestine are repeated in  bold, large graphical font from the top of the graphic to the bottom, each line: FREE PALESTINE.

Read More →


Via Mastodon: StillIRise1963

People who’ve had it so easy have no fucking idea what their inaction will bring to them.

Cynthia

People don’t know how easy they have it. Most Americans live better that probably at least 6 billion people on the planet. We have our issues and inequalities and various forms of classism, but very few of us spend our days getting water or wood or protecting ourselves from militias roaming the country. Few of us live in tiny apartments in shifts while we work in sweatshops. We’re spoiled. A lot of us