We've got an odd one to share tonight - the first explicit trailer for Big Baby, a meta slasher movie that will have you questioning what's reality and what's a fictional nightmare. https://www.geeknative.com/239169/watch-the-trailer-for-cher-produced-meta-slasher-big-baby/
Finished reading 'Politics Without Politicians' which discusses some practical real experiences with citizen assemblies and sortition based governance. I wasn't familiar with the French and Irish efforts to use citizen assemblies to craft laws and it was wonderful seeing the collective action process in more detail!
Slightly longer review at https://stackofgoats.studio/blog/review-politics-without-politicians/
Petting animals = Good
Getting enough sleep = “unpossible”
(Reuters) - Largest U.S. power grid operator PJM said on Friday it was under a federal alert to cut electricity consumption across its territory as it battled generator outages, massive overloading on its transmission lines and a surge in air conditioning use from prolonged sweltering heat.
PJM said it told utilities to reduce electricity to customers who are under contract to reduce consumption during emergencies. PJM serves 67 million people in the Mid-Atlantic, South and Washington, D.C., area.
What we thought was one distraught bumble bee was in fact an entire enormous colony of bumble bees making a nest/hive out of Gus' fur under the deck, so we won't be staining it until the end of summer in solidarity with our buzzing brethren. Go forth and be fluffy little ones. We can work on the front stairs instead.
So the person who’s phone i set up the other day, has 11 brothers and sisters. She also had six kids of her own.
Just an interesting note that you don’t see hardly at all anymore.
📰WILDLIFE WEDNESDAY NEWS
Sheep‑powered Mowing Brings Back Endangered Butterfly
🌱 Oregon: A vineyard avoided fuel‑heavy mowing by delegating vegetation management to experts: sheep. Turned out that the change also restored native prairie structure.
🦋 The grazing (and, let's face it, pooping) rebuilt habitat for the Fender’s blue, an endangered butterfly once thought extinct, by boosting critical native plant populations.
🔬 This is an example of how low‑input rural land management can regenerate pollinator networks, soil function, and whole‑ecosystem resilience. Small farms and wineries are increasingly creating measurable biodiversity gains in this way.
🔗 More
https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/oregon-winery-fenders-blue-butterfly-conservation/
#WildlifeWednesday 🧵
#Agroecology #Biodiversity #Pollinators #Agriculture #RegenerativeAgriculture #Environment #Conservation #Oregon
"Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree" may need to be revised.
Just amazing science here. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/07/01/science/spudcells-synthetic-cell.html
Archipelago Mode in Bonfire!
Yes, it's exactly what you think it is (quoting)
The headline feature is Archipelago mode. The usual way to federate is "open": you connect with the entire fediverse by default and block bad actors as they show up, a never-ending game of whack-a-mole since anyone can spin up a new account or server. Archipelago mode flips this around: you can choose to federate only with a hand-picked allow-list of trusted people, groups and servers, and keep everything else out by default.
Trusted communities can in turn agree to federate with each other, forming an "archipelago" of like-minded "islands" with common rules and safety expectations. It's a great fit for tight-knit communities who only want to connect with their friends and allies, and for groups who federate together by choice (neighbourhoods, towns, assemblies, cooperatives, movements, or not-for-profit organisations) and want to stay connected to one another without necessarily being open to the wider internet. (Credit for the concept goes to Oliphant and Nora Tindall.)
https://bonfirenetworks.org/posts/bonfire-social-1-0-5-archipelago/
Did you know?
"When North American cities signed on in 2018 to host the 2026 World Cup, part of the agreement with FIFA was that transportation to matches would be free for fans."
We know that didn't happen.
But:
"FIFA essentially forced American cities, even car-centric ones, to run month-long experiments in public transit."
This is a fascinating tale.
https://www.dezeen.com/2026/06/30/world-cup-transit-opinion-deb-chachra/
Hasn't had much coverage, but David Potter, founder and CEO of Psion, died yesterday. One of the patron saints of alt.fan.pratchett in its early years.
Researchers conclude that:
“After billions of doses, we now have an extraordinary amount of scientific evidence...This review affirms that mRNA vaccines are a safe and highly effective platform."
https://news.ubc.ca/2026/06/mrna-vaccines-are-safe-effective-and-full-of-promise/
BBC: Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face
It’s a law of book physics (that’s totally a thing) that when the book club has selected a book I’m lukewarm about, New Scientist will review a book (or in this case, several) I’m now dying to read but am forced to set aside until I’m done with the lukewarm one. Which isn’t torturous at all.
The first two of these look especially amazing, but they all look great.
The first two:
The End of Everything by M. John Harrison
The Traveler by Joseph Eckert
Every two cups of coffee that I drink extends your life by one day.
I don't know who on this website recommeded this video or how long it's been in my tabs, but on a whim I just watched instead of closing the tab and wow, so worth! Whoever was circulating it, maybe you'll remember - thank you!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omct...
My First Time Hearing Weezer. ...
A #bookstore in #Asheville, #NorthCarolina, "has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit... alleging that the #SouthCarolina Department of Corrections violated the rights of state prisoners by not allowing them to receive mailed books that were not from one of six large, for-profit distributors."
Unlike most of the bookstores that we post stories about, @firestorm is on Mastodon. Yay! (We wish we could convince others to join the Fediverse!)
https://www.aol.com/articles/asheville-bookstore-sues-sc-corrections-090528000.html
Do you know anyone in Toronto?
I have a friend who is dealing with some very difficult medical issues right now. She is on the waiting list for in-home care, and in the meantime really needs some very basic food prep help
If you know anybody who might be able to donate an hour of their time, or if you have connections with community in Toronto, please let me know and I will put folks in touch
Update: She is near old town
Another update: She has a friend visiting for a couple of days who is helping. She may not be very communicative while she is regaining some strength, and coping with the heat, but she has help right now, and some excellent people have offered to step in after. We can use more!
A signal group has been set up, to coordinate support after the friend goes home. DM me if you want the link
Thank you so much!
If you have not seen this video from #kitboga, I beg you not to eat or drink while watching it. It nearly killed half my family at the dinner table. We were laughing so hard we were crying and occasionally spitting out bits of food.
He calls a scam number where an AI bot answers. Then he proceeds to jailbreak it with some pretty tame stuff. It goes right off the rails and quickly gets funny. If you have kids, it’s safe. They will probably wet their pants laughing at the bot.