@sundogplanets Once for a family event, my bf's family rented a big farmhouse so that there was room for everyone.

When we arrived, it'd gotten dark. One person was standing outside looking at the clear sky. "There's Orion," he said.

I looked up. But I'm partially sighted, legally blind. I'm used to seeing a few bright spots at most.

This time, I could see Orion. And the Little Dipper. I started crying.

I didn't want to stop looking and go in.

Turns out this place was near a Dark Sky Area.

@nev We listen and we don't judge.

dear UK please please please let the bin face dude win 🙏

archaeo.social is seeking two volunteers to help liven up our little corner of the fediverse! Specifically, we're looking for a community moderator to help draw out more active positive engagement among our members, and someone to support with more technical sysadmin-type work.

Both roles will help to improve the platform and expand our capacity to provide community-hosted social and research infrastructure. Please reply or DM me and/or @joeroe if you're interested. #MetaArchaeoSocial

Here’s hoping Monday doesn’t get you all twisted up.

#MonDog #corgi #DogsOfMastodon

@Elizafox Improvements in medicine in recent decades have been staggering. I wish they were covered more.

@Elizafox

Cancer treatments are getting better. Slowly but surely. (Other areas of medicine may be improving too but circumstances pushed me to learn oncology as a layperson and I still keep up with it.)

@Elizafox maternal mortality is down, especially in the places that were hit the worst by colonization and historically had it worst. so is child mortality.
as a result, people's average lifespan has increased, but actually, this improvement is not just limited to children: people are also growing older and healthier. the age-adjusted rate of many diseases is going down, even so called "old age" diseases such as cancer.

Everyone thinks everything has gotten worse

Here’s some things that actually haven’t:

• Weather forecasting: it’s better than ever
• Solar: cheaper than natural gas
• Coal: essentially dying from not being cheaper than natgas or solar
• Timekeeping: now accurate over galactic timescales
• Flash storage: surpassing spinning rust
• Public transit ridership in the US: Amtrak is posting the best numbers ever
• Union membership in the US: rising
• Murder rates: falling in the US and worldwide on average, believe it or not
• CFC’s: essentially abolished and gone, the biggest environmental win of our lifetimes
• Acid rain: increasingly a nearly-solved issue
• Electrical access: still rising worldwide
• Internet access: most people are now connected everywhere
• China is leading the way in green tech and actively working to get off fossil fuels
• You can charge an EV from 0 to 80% in 15 minutes with the newest chargers and tech, and it’s still getting faster

And so much more. Lots of quiet wins that people never hear about because all they do is doomscroll.

biggest shocks of moving to Europe:
1. European garlic turns green when you cook it
2. everything else

Vivaldi browser used to block YouTube ads but not recently. I'm getting these really long ads (like, 3 mins or so) you are forced to watch before you can watch the video you want to see, even when you're watching them on the website & not the app?

Does anyone know how to stop these using the Vivaldi browser?

#Vivaldi

@sundogplanets another thought experiment should be, how can people who are blind have an “overview effect" experience? A real question, since all of the “overview effect” experiences I've read about are visual.

Update: Y'all, where I live is becoming less and less safe by the day. The campaign in my Chuffed is meant to help me move and make it for a time

This is urgent, I really need to get to a safe place.

Please do all you can! stalled at $6043/$7000 came in so far

#mutualaid #Chuffed #helpfolkslive #mutualaidrequest #housingcrisis #disability #Writer #Writing

https://chuffed.org/project/blessks

Catgirls at Deutsche Nationalbibliothek? More likely than you might think

If you find a leaf, don’t let it go.
#catsofmastodon

Hi there. For those who need it, I designed this "No smart glasses allowed" icon, free to use, no attribution required, as public domain. The zip file contains the icon in multiple pixel and vector formats (png, jpg, eps, svg and PDF), both colour and b&w. If anyone needs it on any other format, feel free to ask.
#smartglasses #metaglasses #graphicdesign #privacy #privacymatters

https://mega.nz/file/JJZmxZhb#KS2yGRFO7f3wfM_Sp2R4mpjjZ2VOvEEo2mzpAMqgzHc

> mail from steam
> oh is the frame finally out
> it's a data leak

:|

The word the was never pronounced or spelled "ye" in Old or Middle English. The confusion, seen in the common stock phrase " ye olde ", derives from the use of the character thorn (þ), which in Middle English represented the sound now represented in Modern English by "th". This evolved as early printing presses replaced the word the with "yͤ", a "y" character with a superscript "e". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions_about_arts_and_culture#English_language