Kevin Lossner

The siblings of the house duckling. They are much stronger.

Vance says it is "totally reasonable and acceptable" for people to not want to live next door to people who speak a different language than they do

A male Indian Runner Duck who lost a leg in an accident with loose fence material. He lives in his own area adjacent to the garden flock, but he interacts through the fence and mixes with the group under supervision (to prevent bullying).

I'm immensely grateful to have a partner who believes in rescues and the right to a dignified life for every creature. One such is a one-legged Indian Runner Duck who has his own safe place that still enables social interaction with the rest of the mixed flock.

YouTube video by KSL Esgrima Epée training match, AEBA 2025-10-28

A training match between club members. I am finding such recordings useful to study the tactics of some individuals.

youtu.be/IEhg9UH12pw

#esgrima #fencing

The latest training equipment acquired by my fencing club in Badajoz. I prefer this to versions I've seen with pipe, a sword, and bungee cords on a pillar.

Who says you can't take a bath at the breakfast table?

Madeline Miller's "Circe" is a masterful work, and the audiobook reading of it does full justice to the writer's art. This afternoon I revisited the death of Odysseus and the reception of Penelope and her son on the island.

Then you have nonsense like Renato's posts on LinkedIn criticizing the lower adoption rates of GenAI bullshit by women. I just figure they're smarter on average and less likely to fall for nonsense by abusers, having enough experience with such things already.

Like Ms. Thompson, I find myself screaming "Fuck off!" at the AI intrusions in phone and computer apps. Only a worthless wankbot would find value in AI writing assistance. Nor do my searches benefit from any GenAI involvement. It's garbage, and a waste of time.

#fuckGenAI

A Muscovy duckling being raised in the house in a temperature-controlled brooder. Still too weak to survive with its four siblings outside.

The house duckling is making progress, but its development and muscular stability is far behind the four who hatched unaided, so this little one will grow up in the house and probably go on holiday trips with us.

The mistress of all she surveys: my wire-haired vizsla bitch Harmat!

Making a batch of cracked green ripe olives. A jar with a slightly concave bottom works best to break the fruit prior to fermentation in water.

After the olives are all cracked, I put them in a large plastic bottle, rinse several times until the water is almost clear, then fill with water and put the cap on loosely so gas from the fermentation can escape. After daily water changes for about a week to ten days, the olives are put in brine and vinegar with herbs, and a few days later are ready to eat. Kept in the fridge, they are still rather good after two years.

Made an afternoon excursion to the olive groves with Harmat, who visited with the rabbits while I gathered green ripe olives for the first batch of cured olives this year.

Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750 | Exhibition | National Museum of Women in the Arts

nmwa.org/exhibitions/... wonderful exhibit- go if you are in town. Women highly esteemed in their lifetime cut out of the art canon so have been invisible for centuries. Who gets included in the telling of our history and culture is critical

Hebrew calligraphy in dark green stretches in lines across the image. Negative space makes room for a simple representation of an inflatable frog costume with a blue bandana. That shape consists of the English translation of the Hebrew, in a lighter green, and in much smaller text. -- Famously, the Egyptian tyrant causes Egypt to be overrun with frogs because he refuses to free the Hebrew people, but there are additional details that make this a fun one to ponder. For one, the Hebrew says "the frog came up" - ONE frog - even though the rest of the time it says "frogs." So there are a few explanations rabbis have come up with to explain this. One is that a single frog multiplied to create swarms. A more creative explanation is that there was a singular giant frog who traveled and brought destruction. Jewish social media was sharing videos of the Portland Frog protester with the caption, "One Big Frog! One Big Frog!" Of course the frog protesters did multiply, and many were seen in crowds all over the world on "No Kings" Day. This calligraphic work takes the verses addressing the frog plague and combines them to form a simple rendering of the Portland Frog protester. The frog figure itself is made up of the English translations of the Hebrew around it. At the bottom left my signature is in the shape of a lily pad.

"Tzefardea Tzedek" (Frog of Righteousness)

As soon as the Portland Frog became a meme, Jewish social media blew up with jokes about the 2nd Passover plague - tzefarde'a (frogs) - and the Rabbinical commentary around it. I knew I had to make a calligraphy piece encompassing all of it. (more in alt.)

As my stone deaf Civil War vet great-great grandfather could learn Spanish starting at 80, I'm not inclined to pay much attention to age for language learning.

Whatever nonsense Trump and the Reagan Library are claiming about the Canadian anti-tariff ad using selective excerpts from Ronald Reagan's 1987 radio address, the full address is every bit as bad or worse for Trump's stupid tariff argument.

www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/spe...

I feel the same way about marketing calls from my mobile phone service provider. After telling the company dozens of times "don't call me; I'll contact you if I want anything", the frequent attempts to upsell me are infuriating. In (barely understood) Brazilian Portuguese even more so.

Notice of public hours for a library in Portugal

I am offended by library availability only during ordinary business hours of a working week. No weekends, no evenings. Are we to assume that people with a typical work schedule don't need libraries?

They celebrate punching down. Gleeful when people in desperate circumstances get deported.

We can support border security and the law without getting off on the misery of others.

Say what you will about Twitter but at least...no, actually there is nothing redeeming. 😀

Today, Mike Johnson will keep the House adjourned for the 81st day out of the last 93.

12 days of work in over 3 months.

With full pay and benefits.

The senate has been working, so this is not about the shutdown.

It is about avoiding a vote to release the Epstein files.

Same reaction here. Jokes about decency are a reminder of how much it is missing in some places.

Understood. He's surely filling his diaper with joy at the thought.

I love Libby and use it with three libraries in Southern California, though I moved away from there in 1992.

Giving Up Is Unforgivable Audiobook on Libro.fm A political manifesto for our present moment—part history lesson, part call to save the Republic"Brilliant, galvanizing, and inspirational. A road map to help us find our way out of the darkness." —Ma...

I use the library. This is a good alternative to audible, it looks like.

libro.fm/audiobooks/9...

Joyce narrated the audio version herself. For several years now, she has been on my short list of experts to help me understand the legal issues in US politics today.

The Ukrainian constitution forbids elections in wartime. The suspension is an act of the parliament, not President Zelensky.

Check out our latest Open Access titles!

Download your copy now on our website: buff.ly/UCOKeOi

#OAweek

I face the same question at the breakfast table from my companheira, who lived through Portugal's Carnation Revolution as a young, leftist medical student. That largely bloodless overthrow of the Portuguese dictatorship required military action.

The Real Target of Trump’s War on Drug Boats The Administration has blown up seven vessels in the Caribbean in recent weeks, but the President has been pushing for more dramatic military action in Latin America since his first term.

Valuable reporting here. I think the key thing is the use of Venezuela to accustom American armed forces to lawless murder. The goal then is to get them to do the same thing inside the US.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

A small Muscovy duckling, one day old, the last of five in a nest who was too weak to hatch unaided.

A love of small creatures, spiders, geckos, snakes and insects certainly does it for me, as well as reflexive action backed by 40+ years of medical experience to save animals in distress. Like this duckling who would have died in the egg yesterday without her intervention.