Tootfinder

Common Hibiscus, American Trumpet Vine, and Dicots. #Bloomscrolling

Ask yourself: How many water bottles thrown at cops are worth keeping one innocent American* teen out of inhumane #ICE detention?
For anyone criticizing the #LA protests or suggesting they should stop for any reason, let's be clear about the stakes. Read this article (or my summary):
https://abcnews.go.com/US/massachusetts-teen-detained-ice-family-video-ice/story?id=122511685
This 18-year-old was snatched without a warrant, because he was in his dad's car and allegedly (possibly a lie or mistake) his dad drove recklessly. He's been in the US since he was 5, originally on a student visa that's since expired. He is an innocent American, by any reasonable definition of those two words*. Thankfully, he's since been released on bail, but he may yet be held indefinitely in ICE detention (in inhumane conditions that have been repeatedly documented) and/or separated from his family & friends and shipped off to Brazil where he last lived when he was 5 (ICE does not care whether he speaks Portuguese, has any family there, etc), all potentially without due process (though he seems to be getting that in this case). Even if this doesn't happen to Marcelo due to the media attention & protests, it is certainly happening to other innocent Americans throughout the country who aren't as lucky to have people standing up for them.
Here's Marcelo speaking about detention conditions and those he was detained with:
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZpZMUb9aEys?si=bpK-022CU7Acb5RY
Do you know how many kids like Marcelo were detained in LA yesterday? Probably zero, because of the protests, including their confrontational tactics. The most "violence" I've seen (from the protestors) is throwing a water bottle at a line of heavily-armored riot police. So the protests are working to protect the community. If you're suggesting a change in tactics, consider whether your suggested tactics (like pre-scheduled non-confrontational protests that have been happening for weeks) will protect the Marcelos of LA.
*Whether he's innocent or American should not in fact matter, but sadly it might to some reading this. If that's you, you've still got some growing up to do.

'Shoot a couple, the rest will go home': Far-right groups are sharing scary messages ahead of 'No Kings' protests (Rhian Lubin/The Independent)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-protests-no-kings-far-right-b2769812.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/250613/p146#a250613p146

Die US-amerikanische Sängerin und Songwriterin Linda Ronstadt wird 79 Jahre
https://www.hamburg-zwei.de/musik/musikmeldungen/Linda-Ronstadt-wird-79-Die-Frau-die-Genregrenzen-auflöste-id1418063.html

Linda Ronstadt wird 79: Die Frau, die Genregrenzen auflöste
Am 15. Juli 2025 feiert Linda Ronstadt, eine der vielseitigsten Stimmen der Musikgeschichte, ihren 79. Geburtstag. Mit ihrer außergewöhnlichen Karriere – von Country-Rock über Pop bis hin zur Oper – bleibt sie ein Paradebeispiel für musikalische Freiheit und künstlerische Integrität.

🦸 Mexico’s ‘lucha libre’ makes the leap into American entertainment: Cultural appropriation or an opportunity for growth?
https://english.elpais.com/sports/2025-05-19/mexicos-…

Mexico’s ‘lucha libre’ makes the leap into American entertainment: Cultural appropriation or an opportunity for growth?
The purchase of AAA by the US wrestling giant WWE has sparked curiosity, suspicion and even fantasies among fans who dream of fights between top American and Mexican stars

Stay frosty: "Accounts associated with extremist groups are sharing detailed information about protest organizers, including names and where they work"
‘Shoot a couple, the rest will go home’: Far-right groups are sharing scary messages ahead of ‘No Kings’ protests | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-protests-no-kings-far-right-b2769812.html

Climate messages focusing solely on personal behaviors, tend to make their recipients less likely to commit to collective actions like voting or demonstrating.
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-common-climate-messaging-backfires.html

Long; central Massachusetts colonial history
Today on a whim I visited a site in Massachusetts marked as "Huguenot Fort Ruins" on OpenStreetMaps. I drove out with my 4-year-old through increasingly rural central Massachusetts forests & fields to end up on a narrow street near the top of a hill beside a small field. The neighboring houses had huge lawns, some with tractors.
Appropriately for this day and this moment in history, the history of the site turns out to be a microcosm of America. Across the field beyond a cross-shaped stone memorial stood an info board with a few diagrams and some text. The text of the main sign (including typos/misspellings) read:
"""
Town Is Formed
Early in the 1680's, interest began to generate to develop a town in the area west of Natick in the south central part of the Commonwealth that would be suitable for a settlement. A Mr. Hugh Campbell, a Scotch merchant of Boston petitioned the court for land for a colony. At about the same time, Joseph Dudley and William Stoughton also were desirous of obtaining land for a settlement. A claim was made for all lands west of the Blackstone River to the southern land of Massachusetts to a point northerly of the Springfield Road then running southwesterly until it joined the southern line of Massachusetts.
Associated with Dudley and Stoughton was Robert Thompson of London, England, Dr. Daniel Cox and John Blackwell, both of London and Thomas Freak of Hannington, Wiltshire, as proprietors. A stipulation in the acquisition of this land being that within four years thirty families and an orthodox minister settle in the area. An extension of this stipulation was granted at the end of the four years when no group large enough seemed to be willing to take up the opportunity.
In 1686, Robert Thompson met Gabriel Bernor and learned that he was seeking an area where his countrymen, who had fled their native France because of the Edict of Nantes, were desirous of a place to live. Their main concern was to settle in a place that would allow them freedom of worship. New Oxford, as it was the so-named, at that time included the larger part of Charlton, one-fourth of Auburn, one-fifth of Dudley and several square miles of the northeast portion of Southbridge as well as the easterly ares now known as Webster.
Joseph Dudley's assessment that the area was capable of a good settlement probably was based on the idea of the meadows already established along with the plains, ponds, brooks and rivers. Meadows were a necessity as they provided hay for animal feed and other uses by the settlers. The French River tributary books and streams provided a good source for fishing and hunting. There were open areas on the plains as customarily in November of each year, the Indians burnt over areas to keep them free of underwood and brush. It appeared then that this area was ready for settling.
The first seventy-five years of the settling of the Town of Oxford originally known as Manchaug, embraced three different cultures. The Indians were known to be here about 1656 when the Missionary, John Eliott and his partner Daniel Gookin visited in the praying towns. Thirty years later, in 1686, the Huguenots walked here from Boston under the guidance of their leader Isaac Bertrand DuTuffeau. The Huguenot's that arrived were not peasants, but were acknowledged to be the best Agriculturist, Wine Growers, Merchant's, and Manufacter's in France. There were 30 families consisting of 52 people. At the time of their first departure (10 years), due to Indian insurrection, there were 80 people in the group, and near their Meetinghouse/Church was a Cemetery that held 20 bodies. In 1699, 8 to 10 familie's made a second attempt to re-settle, failing after only four years, with the village being completely abandoned in 1704.
The English colonist made their way here in 1713 and established what has become a permanent settlement.
"""
All that was left of the fort was a crumbling stone wall that would have been the base of a higher wooden wall according to a picture of a model (I didn't think to get a shot of that myself). Only trees and brush remain where the multi-story main wooden building was.
This story has so many echoes in the present:
- The rich colonialists from Boston & London agree to settle the land, buying/taking land "rights" from the colonial British court that claimed jurisdiction without actually having control of the land. Whether the sponsors ever actually visited the land themselves I don't know. They surely profited somehow, whether from selling on the land rights later or collecting taxes/rent or whatever, by they needed poor laborers to actually do the work of developing the land (& driving out the original inhabitants, who had no say in the machinations of the Boston court).
- The land deal was on condition that there capital-holders who stood to profit would find settlers to actually do the work of colonizing. The British crown wanted more territory to be controlled in practice not just in theory, but they weren't going to be the ones to do the hard work.
- The capital-holders actually failed to find enough poor suckers to do their dirty work for 4 years, until the Huguenots, fleeing religious persecution in France, were desperate enough to accept their terms.
- Of course, the land was only so ripe for settlement because of careful tending over centuries by the natives who were eventually driven off, and whose land management practices are abandoned today. Given the mention of praying towns (& dates), this was after King Phillip's war, which resulted in at least some forced resettlement of native tribes around the area, but the descendants of those "Indians" mentioned in this sign are still around. For example, this is the site of one local band of Nipmuck, whose namesake lake is about 5 miles south of the fort site: #LandBack.

A harrowing exploration tale in 2 photos

Why Trump’s push for
‘gold-standard science’
has researchers alarmed
A new term keeps popping up in messages from Trump administration scientific agencies
— a pledge to restore “gold-standard science.”

Many scientists say the opposite is happening.

The administration’s
“MAHA Report,”
intended to diagnose the root cause of poor health in American children,
was written by Cabinet officials and political appointees,
most of whom lack…

Why Trump’s push for ‘gold-standard science’ has researchers alarmed
Many scientists fear the Trump administration’s new standard means putting political appointees in charge, which could undercut independent research.