Tootfinder

So I grew up next to #Chernobyl and this is, well, TERRIFYING.
A story for y’all: I’m from a city called Zhytomyr, 2 hours west of Kyiv in the North of #Ukraine. We were downwind of the Chernobyl #nuclear power plant when the 1986 disaster happened.
I wasn’t born for another 12 years, but my childhood was filled with stories and the aftermath of it all. Things like:
- My grandmother worked as a head doctor in a hospital and rehabilitation facility exclusively for children of Chernobyl victims to treat the extremely high prevalence of Tuberculosis and other severe health complications. (To specify: these were SECOND GENERATION of exposure).
- A lot of the kids in that facility were orphans, because their parents died young from health problems.
- My uncle’s wife was born in Pripyat. She was 1 year old when the disaster happened. Her parents were told to evacuate while given no information about what happened. They had to pack up their things and rush out to an unfamiliar city with their baby, never to see the rest of their belongings, apartment, or hometown again.
- When I was a kid, it became so common to see weirdly mutated animals and insects that even 2-3 year olds would make jokes about “Chernobyl mosquitos” and I wouldn’t even flinch seeing occasional giant bugs, dark frogs, weird-looking dogs.
- We’d frequently hear of nearby farms having issues with their animals being born too mutated to survive or random outbreaks from contaminated water / food. Crops would randomly fail. People would get poisoned on a regular basis. This all got less common as I grew up.
- My mother still remembers being a little girl, 10 years old, and looking outside from their balcony at the clouds blowing over from Chernobyl that day. People were told to not go outside and to shut all the windows, but not given an explanation as to why. My mother swears that the rain looked different. They weren’t able to go and buy more food for the kitchen for multiple days.
Anyway - nuclear safety isn’t a joke. I don’t understand how this level of carelessness can happen after Chernobyl and Fukushima.

https://www.404media.co/power-companies-are-using-ai-to-build-nuclear-power-plants/

Just finished "Far Sector" written by N. K. Jemisin and illustrated by Jamal Campbell. I don't normally go for Marvel/DC comics stuff and this was a good reminder why. Jemisin's authorship was the draw for me here, as well as some curiosity about what I might be missing out on by avoiding the classic comics lineage. I won't go into too much detail about particulars, but suffice to say it ends up feeling to me line a very neoliberal story dressed up in a veneer of radicalism, which is not what I'd expected of Jemisin. Particularly in light of current events, the "good cops" aspects of the storyline ring truly hollow. There's still a lot of neat parts, but I guess I also wound up disappointed by the sci-fi aspects in a lot off ways. I truly think Jemisin is capable of better than this, based on her other (excellent) work.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Feeling helpless? Don’t. All of this resistance makes a real and concrete difference. Honestly, the fact that this huge chunk of local residents is giving a visible, sustained “HELL NO” all the time is basically the •only• thing holding them back at this point — but it •is• making a difference.
If there were a sense of blanket permission, a sense that nobody is watching and nobody cares, a sense that there will never be consequences…we’d be in a whole different circle of hell right now.

Big thanks to the Fediverse Friends who wished me well or even just commiserated at the pain I've been going through.
I am feeling a lot better today, but I don't want to forget that pain, because I need to be mindful of the pain people are in every day. It's a struggle, it's a battle, and I wish we could all live pain-free lives.

"We don’t really think about our future – we remember it",
said Dr Hal Hershfield, who studies how humans think about time and how that influences our emotions and behaviors.
When we daydream or envision ourselves at a later point, we essentially create a memory.
We then use these memories to construct our ideas about the future.
This process is called “episodic future thinking”;
it supports our decision-making, emotional regulation and ability to p…

When people say they need hope about climate change, what are they really asking for?
New piece breaks down why hope collapses so easily and what stronger feelings can replace it.
Not prediction. Participation.
Read it here: [link]
https://www.b…

How to Stay Hopeful About Climate Change: A Scientific Look at the Brain’s Hope Circuit
A science-backed exploration of why hope collapses during the climate crisis. Learn the neuroscience behind fragile hope, the psychology of despair, and the durable alternatives—like agency, imagination, and possibility—that truly sustain long-term climate engagement.

Went on LinkedIn (was checking my profile to trim it down some more) and saw an ICE ad, so I did the only proper thing;
(I did check the comments real quick and they were 🔥 - huge ratio of anti-ICE comments. On. LinkedIn.)

We're all at home and doing fine, thanks for asking. (If you don't know what this is in reference to, don't worry.)
https://theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-regularly-happens/

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
WINDER, GA—In the hours following a violent rampage in Georgia in which a lone attacker killed at least four individuals and injured nine others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Wednesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was […]

Watching Cleaner and I'm like, damn. This is a hell of a dramatic workday for a window cleaner
#2025Films #2025Movies

Cleaner (2025)
When a group of radical activists take over an energy company's annual gala, seizing 300 hostages, an ex-soldier turned window cleaner suspended 50 storeys up on the outside of the building must save those trapped inside, including her older brother.

Ever notice how you're watching your own life from a slight distance?
Not depressed. Not burned out. Just... slightly absent.
When overwhelm lasts longer than we can process it, we adapt by feeling less. We function but don't fully inhabit our days.
The long dissociation kept us safe when feeling everything wasn't possible.
But survival was never the same thing as being alive.
What would it mean to gently come back?

The Long Dissociation and the Cost of Nonchalance: Why We Feel Numb, Detached, and Distant
An essay on how prolonged overwhelm teaches us to care less—and how we gently relearn presence, desire, and participation in our own lives.