Seems important — maybe:
"U.S. watches as Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia(🤔😳 ???) and Africa’s BRICS powers rally in India to bypass sanctions and break the US dollar’s hold over global finance"
https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/us-watches-as-russia-china-iran-saudi-arabia-and-africas-brics-powers-rally-in-india/86s2c7g
h/t @blogdiva @lisamelton
https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/117261652491171981
#geopolitics #Russia #China #Iran #SaudiArabia #Brazil #India #SouthAfrica #BRICS #trade #AIslop

Children of 9/11 to finally get a major health study —
"Reibman and Dr. Leigh Wilson, the current medical director of the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center, both acknowledged that children in war zones today may face some of the same long-term consequences as the children of 9/11."
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/09/11/world/9-11-children-health-study/
#Sept11 #PublicHealth #children #Manhattan #LowerManhattan #epidemiology

"... for the first time in more than half a century, [the U.S.] has lost its long-term status as a liberal democracy. The country is now going through a rapid process of... “autocratisation”.
'For Orbán... it took about four years, for.... Serbia... eight years, and for Erdoğan... and Modi...about 10 years to accomplish the suppression of democratic institutions that Trump has achieved in... one year,' ..."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2026/mar/17/trump-is-aiming-for-dictatorship-thats-the-verdict-of-the-worlds-most-credible-democracy-watchdog
Report (PDF): https://www.v-dem.net/documents/75/V-Dem_Institute_Democracy_Report_2026_lowres.pdf
h/t @wood5y @Wen
#Democracy

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas:
"Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure... In fact, people still want to join our club and not just fellow Europeans... We are, you know, pushing humanity forward, trying to defend human rights and all this, which is actually bringing also prosperity for people. So that's why it's very hard for me to believe these accusations."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/europeans-reject-u-s-claims-after-rubios-address-in-munich
#EU #geopolitics #immigration #migration #Rubio #Canada

Not Liam Conejo Ramos but Lincoln Fox —
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-news/bad-bunny-liam-ramos-2026-super-bowl-halftime-show-1236500143/

https://ftw.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/pop-culture/2026/02/08/bad-bunny-halftime-show-liam-ramos-lincoln-ramos/88583515007/
#BadBunny #SuperBowl #SuperBowlLX

The unresolved question is whether that was Liam Conejo Ramos to whom Bad Bunny gave the Grammy during his performance. Lots of people think so.
#BadBunny #SuperBowl #SuperBowlLX

"The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love..." That was a real wedding, BTW.
https://variety.com/2026/music/news/bad-bunny-super-bowl-lady-gaga-real-wedding-ceremony-1236656381/

https://ftw.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/pop-culture/2026/02/08/bad-bunny-halftime-show-real-wedding/88582935007/
#BadBunny #SuperBowl #SuperBowlLX

“We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans... The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love … So please we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them. We love our people. We love our family and there’s a way to do it with love.”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2026-02-08/how-did-those-bad-bunny-themed-anti-ice-towels-get-into-super-bowl
#BadBunny #SuperBowl #SuperBowlLX

"Yi Zuo Yi Wang – which translates as In & Out – in downtown Beijing serves dishes from China’s south-eastern Yunnan province [including hallucinogenic mushrooms.]"

Would be a popular side at a burger joint I know. Perfect for SoCal traffic. Add in a few Waymos for good measure... 😰😱
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/ea05242746f25bbf

No auroras seen, but a cold, clear night for a dog walk. Orion is hiding in the tree, and Castor and Pollux are at the top of the photo. Sirius (appropriate) is near the lower left and Jupiter is below the Gemini twins almost in a line with the dog star.
#photography #photo #foto #fotografie #fotografia #nature #winter

Article on the Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis caused by the largest solar radiation storm in 20+ years
https://www.dw.com/en/northern-lights-aurora-usa-canada-germany-europe/a-75573074
#aurora #AuroraBorealis #SolarStorm

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said he is worried the crisis over Greenland will "suck out all the oxygen” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, sidelining Russia’s war in Ukraine.
...
Another development European leaders are working to avert is any linkage between the issues of Greenland and Ukraine, he said.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/01/20/world/greenland-davos-stubb/
#geopolitics #Ukraine #Greenland #WEF #Davos

Not sure how I missed this — actually I do: every day there is simply too much awfulness as a result of this administration's racism, criminality and grift. Anyway, no big deal — just that same administration demanding that the University of Pennsylvania turn over the name and contact information for every Jew associated with the institution. That's chilling. What could go wrong... [Seriously, this should be a much bigger story, IMO.]
https://www.thedp.com/article/2025/11/penn-petition-criticizing-eeoc-antisemitism-lawsuit

I think more Americans need to understand that Nazi Germany was more than brownshirts (sturmabteilung). It was ordinary Germans, civil and enlightened Germans and those "just following orders" and doing their jobs. History is complicated.

- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/deceiving-the-public

- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ministry-of-propaganda-and-public-enlightenment

- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-role-of-civil-servants

- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-the-nazis-defense-of-just-following-orders-plays-out-in-the-mind

- https://blogs.dickinson.edu/quallsk/2014/09/05/understanding-baumans-civilized-nazis-theory-in-the-context-of-modernity/

I don't usually do this, but asking:

Please #donate if you can.

Please #repost, too. It's for a good cause — supports programs, services and meals for seniors in a time of uncertainty and vulnerability. #Ageism is another form of #discrimination. #Seniors face loneliness and isolation; food and housing insecurity; mental and physical vulnerability.

Doing my little bit to try to make the world a better place and show that #running fixes a lot!

Donation link: https://newhorizonsseniorcenter.networkforgood.com/projects/176192-support-new-horizons

Thanks!

Japan mourns death of professional baseball legend Shigeo Nagashima
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250603/p2g/00m/0na/018000c
#Japan #baseball #ShigeoNagashima

Does not mention the current administration even once. 🤔
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-end-of-the-universe-may-not-be-as-far-off-as-once-thought
h/t @ScienceScholar
https://mastodon.social/@ScienceScholar/114510005778002625
#cosmology

Spring pink — plumage from northern magnolia and flowering cherry trees.

#photography #photo #foto #fotografie #fotografia #running #nature #spring #trees #bloomscrolling

"Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president"...
Greenland...
Canada...
trump Gaza...
Ukraine started it...
Only going to be a dictator on Day One...

He's joking, of course. 🙃
https://apnews.com/article/trump-third-term-constitution-22nd-amendment-efba31be02ee96b0ef68b17fe89b7578#

Federally funded research fuels American innovation — and much of the US economy. For decades, scientists around the world have wanted to study in the US and collaborate with American scientists to produce more of that research. No institution funds more basic or applied scientific research than the US Government.

Now that scientific leadership is being dismantled — by the US.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1112274/the-foundations-of-americas-prosperity-are-being-dismantled/
h/t @patrickcmiller
https://infosec.exchange/@patrickcmiller/114058325087204051
#science #economy #economics #USpol #USpolitics