Tootfinder

1/2 Thanks to @… for this interesting article. It speaks to me. :)
I’ve been weather blogging @… since 2005. It is interesting how it has changed, and how I have changed.
My website used to be just data from the (expensive) station I bought when I moved back to Port Alberni. It was a hobby and a side project to practice web/coding skills I use at work. My focus was on creating useful data for people that was more local/relevant than the official EC station outside of the city.
Then I put up a webcam and learned how to make timelapses. This got the attention of local media… because pictures. :)
Then I added a blog and started to write about the weather almost daily. This was before Facebook. There was a popular local online forum where I would post things. The media would also follow my website and they started to call me when there was extreme weather (usually very hot or very wet/stormy).
Then Facebook started to get big and I made a page that eventually had a few thousand followers. I would blog often. Lots of traffic from Facebook… this was 2010 and on. I blogged about climate and weather pretty equally.
Like anyone in Port Alberni, I was/am obsessed with the Martin Mars and got wrapped up in that issue along with others which combined with the weather following probably gave me just enough exposure to have me elected as a councillor in 2014.
I continued through that 4 years, blogging often in addition to councillor duties and work, heavily on facebook, then it all went sideways on my own poor judgement (go ahead and google it, it’s ok :)) and I was not reelected, but Facebook by 2018 had also changed. Cambridge Analytica, etc.
….Continued…
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-weather-apps-data-wildfires-storms-preparation-obsession-social-media/

Just finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
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I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading

My point here is not to chide, but to note the system of incentives that keeps money flowing to authoritarians.
They’re winning by making less ethical decisions easy and responsible alternatives difficult if not impossible.
This isn’t just a consumer and social media problem; so much of mainstream journalism today is motivated by professional respectability
— which doesn’t necessarily mean lying, but taking the path of least resistance:
avoiding certain topics or la…

Happening right now in Gaza: Israel’s occupation force is expanding its ground offensive.
(Screenshot posted from private chat with permission.)
@…
#israel #genocide

Following the "Geo-Erlebnis-Tag" during the weekend, preceding the Geo4Göttingen conference, the Geo4Change | Earth, Life, Climate, Resources, Materials | main program will start with plenary sessions for registered conference participants today.
https://geo4goettingen2025.de/
The full pro…

Chiefs 0-2 for first time in Patrick Mahomes era after losing to Eagles in Super Bowl rematch https://www.nfl.com/news/chiefs-0-2-for-first-time-in-patrick-mahomes-era-after-losing-to-eagles-in-super-bowl-rematch

Thêo van Rysselberghe (1862-1926)
IN JULY, BEFORE NOON
1890
At the Radical Harmony exhibition, National Gallery, London. Which is great, btw.
#SilentSunday #Art

According to the following article "The D.C.-based think tank estimates the tariffs will bring in an estimated $1.3 trillion of net new revenue through the end of Trump’s current term "
OK let's run some numbers... And remember, the R party wants to cut households in with a one time $500 check. Remember that number $500.
US population is very roughly 300,000,000, about 3x10**8
$1.3 trillion is 1.3x10**12
So if the R's want to repay us for the tarif…

Trump is bringing in so much revenue from tariffs that it’s seriously reducing the $37 trillion national debt
It's the equivalent of a new payroll tax or a 17% cut in the size of the military, according to a top think tank.

Moody Urbanity - UP 🔝
情绪化城市 - 上面 🔝
📷 Nikon FE
🎞️ Ilford HP5 Plus 400, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

Following public outcry,
the U.S. Department of Education has restored funding for students who have both hearing and vision loss,
about a month after cutting it.
But rather than sending the money directly to the four programs that are part of a national network helping students who are deaf and blind, a condition known as deafblindness,
the department has instead rerouted the grants to a different organization
The Trump administration targeted the programs in …

Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Get Funding Back Despite Trump’s Anti-DEI Campaign
Following public outcry, the Department of Education has reversed its decision to cut funding for students who have both hearing and vision loss, opting instead to reroute grants to an organization that will provide funding to these students.