Tootfinder

Just finished "It's Lonely at the Center of the Earth" by Zoe Thorogood.
CW: Frank/graphic discussion of suicide and depression (not in this post but in the book).
It feels a bit wrong to simply give it my review here as I would another graphic memoir, because it's much more personal and less consensual than the usual. It feels less like Thorogood has invited us into her life than like she was forced to put her life on display in order to survive, and while I selfishly like to read into the book that she benefited in some way from the process, she's honest about how tenuous and sometimes false that claim can be. Knowing what I've learned from this book about Thorogood's life and demons, I don't want her to feel the mortification of being perceived by me, and so perhaps the best thing I could do is to simply unread the book and pull it back out of my memories.
I did not find Thorogood's life relatable, nor pitiable (although my instinct bends in that direction), but instead sacred and unknowable. I suspect that her writing and drawing has helped others in similar circumstances, but she leaves me with no illusion that this fact brings her any form of peace or joy. I wonder what she would feel reading "Lab Girl" or "The Deep Dark," but she has been honest enough to convey that such speculation on my part is a bit intrusive.
I guess the one other thing I have to say: Zoe Thorogood has through artistic perseverance developed an awe-inspiring mastery of the comic medium, from panel composition, through to page layout and writing. This book wields both Truth and Beauty.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Putin wants to fool you.
Russia isn’t winning.
Administration officials say that the “fall” of the eastern Ukrainian city of #Pokrovsk is a bellwether for what’s to come for Ukraine.
⭐️Yet, Pokrovsk, whose population was only around 60,000 even before the war, has yet to fall.
And in the entire year and a half that the Russians have spent trying to take this relatively small city,…

Russia isn’t winning. Putin wants to fool you.
Putin’s hope is that U.S. will somehow convince itself that Ukraine can’t succeed. Don’t fall for it.

I have long felt that liberal/progressive messaging often tended towards not merely hyperbole, but hyperbole that carried far more than the intended message.
Consider the phrase "Defund the police". That carries a clear message that implies near elimination of police based law enforcement. Few of us want that. Police are an important element of an ordered society.
But pretty much all of us see that police are doing too much and that it is better to restructure police…

Living in a capitalist society makes me simultaneously hate and understand some things.
Back when the Sunday shopping ban was set in Poland by one of the right-wing parties (with some exceptions for petty capitalists, of course), I was outraged. Why are they forcing their religious customs on me?! But nowadays, I do realize that in a capitalist society, where employment laws are full of loopholes and employers explicitly punish employees for taking a day off, an obligatory no-business day is the only way.
On top of that, after living next to a supermarket for a few years… this is literally the only way to have a quiet day, without cars driving, and car doors slamming all the time. And of course night time deliveries, because you obviously can't lose day's business over such things.
And what I hate even more are these multi-day holidays and long weekends, where suddenly all my routine falls apart, and I can't really enjoy holidays while the train timetable is randomly punctuated. But then, I do realize that obligatory multi-day holidays are the only way for many people to simultaneously have a day off and be able to meet their families and friends.
I'm not really compatible with the world I'm living in.
#AntiCapitalism #ActuallyAutistic

Somewhere between my original vision for web 1.0 and the rise of social media as part of web 2.0,
we took the wrong path.
We’re now at a new crossroads,
one where we must decide if AI will be used for the betterment or to the detriment of society.
How can we learn from the mistakes of the past?
First of all, we must ensure policymakers do not end up playing the same decade-long game of catchup they have done over social media.
The time to decide the go…

Rewatching the 1984 film version of 1984, as I haven't seen it since high school. They showed it to us in class in the 90s. Been a lot of years. John Hurt ftw
#film

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
George Orwell's novel of a totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.

Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki says the company has no intention of bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery, noting "right now, we don't want to do a big Hollywood M&A deal" (Rei Nakafuji/Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/media

Sony Group has no desire to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, CEO says
Sony Pictures Entertainment can succeed without pursuing scale alone: Totoki

Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close”
to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, though both leaders acknowledged that some of the thorniest details remain unresolved.

Trump said it will be clear “in a few weeks” whether negotiations to end the war will succeed.

Zelenskyy said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine has been reached.

Trump was sli…

A day after part of a missile fired by the United States hit their village, landing just meters from its only medical facility,
the people of Jabo in northwestern Nigeria are in a state of shock and confusion.
Suleiman Kagara, a resident of this quiet and predominantly Muslim farming community in Tambuwal district of Sokoto state, told CNN he heard a loud blast and saw flames as a projectile flew overhead at around 10 p.m. on Thursday.
Soon after, it came crashing down, expl…

Fear and confusion in Nigerian village hit in US strike, as locals say no history of ISIS in area
A day after part of a missile fired by the United States hit their village, landing just meters from its only medical facility, the villagers of Jabo in northwest Nigeria are in a state of shock and confusion.