Tootfinder

NFL to review, potentially fine Puka Nacua's recent criticism of officials

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/puka-nacua-comments-nfl-rams-wr-referee-fine/

‘No water, no life’: Iraq’s Tigris River in danger of disappearing https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/16/no-water-no-life-iraqs-tigris-river-in-danger-of-disappearing

Repair Café: Registration Open for Hastings Community Centre on February 14th
Made possible by the incredible generosity of our community and foundation supporters, we’re thrilled to invite you to the first Repair Café of the year! SPEC and our fantastic volunteers can’t wait to welcome you back and help repair an item you love.
When: Saturday, February 14th, 9:30am-1:30pm
Where: Hastings Community Centre, 3096 East Hastings St, Vancouver
Learn more about Repair Cafés …

Repair Café - SPEC
SPEC brings together repair volunteers and community members at Repair Cafés in Metro Vancouver to fix household items and divert waste.

This is a really good question from @…. The first thing I keep telling everyone in other cities who wonders how they can help, what they can do:
Get organized NOW. Meet your neighbors NOW. Get your neighbors set up with secure messaging NOW. Form multiple hyper-local neighborhood social groups NOW. Organize a block picnic or community craft night or repair workshop or whatever NOW. Get contact info for the human beings who physically show up for neighborhood events NOW.
Form all those local connections ASAP, so that they’re there when you need them. The hardest lines of communication to establish will be the ones with the people closest to you. If you get local lines open in advance, you’ll be in a far, far better place.
https://infosec.exchange/@mathaetaes/115731104851949153

As one might expect El Cheato appointed judges rule in favor of trump far more often than do judges appointed by prior presidents.
But the amount of that imbalance is beyond astounding.
From the NY Times:
"Trump’s ‘Superstar’ Appellate Judges Have Voted 133 to 12 in His Favor"
Which causes me to repeat my suggestions, from year 2020, about how we can remove power from those judges by using a technique well practiced elsewhere - redefining jobs and "rubb…

"Oil residues can travel over 5,000 miles on ocean debris, study finds"
#FossilFuels #Oceans #Pollution

Oil residues can travel over 5,000 miles on ocean debris, study finds
When oily plastic and glass, as well as rubber, washed onto Florida beaches in 2020, a community group shared the mystery online, attracting scientists' attention. Working together, they linked the black residue-coated debris to a 2019 oil slick along Brazil's coastline. Using ocean current models and chemical analysis, the team explains in Environmental Science & Technology how some of the oily material managed to travel over 5,200 miles (8,500 kilometers) by clinging to debris.

I learned about Repair Cafe by the news its funding is discontinued. But more cities need to support this type of events. In a world of planned obsolescence, the environmental bill is being paid by communal waste collection services. A targeted analysis of which repairs could be most cost-effective for waste management could help justify funding of such initiatives with volunteer-based repairs.

Repair Café - SPEC
SPEC brings together repair volunteers and community members at Repair Cafés in Metro Vancouver to fix household items and divert waste.

"The Joy Index would measure national progress. Community satisfaction, creative engagement, and laughter frequency would embed tenderness in the infrastructure."
—from the piece by Na’I’Cesses McKether ’25 M.A.R., "Care and Repair in the New Eco-nomy," in the new issue of Reflections

First Repair SPEC Café of 2026 on February 14th
Thanks to intense fundraising efforts, grants, and immense community support, we’ve been able to secure funding for 2026. We believe that it is the City’s responsibility to fund programs like Repair Cafés that align with their sustainability goals and that fundraising alone will not sustain the demand for Repair Cafés that exists.
📍Hastings Community Centre
📅 Saturday, February 14th
🕤 9:30am–1:30pm
Registration comin…

New mapping reveals hidden mining boom in Laos that threatens the Mekong https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-mapping-reveals-hidden-mining-boom-in-laos-that-threatens-the-mekong/

New mapping reveals hidden mining boom in Laos that threatens the Mekong
BANGKOK — A new satellite analysis from U.S. think tank the Stimson Center has identified 517 suspected mines along rivers in Laos, including major tributaries of the Mekong, Southeast Asia’s longest river, heightening concerns about contamination of waterways that sustain local communities. Stimson has not ground-truthed the mine sites identified through satellite imagery, but Mongabay spoke […]