Barb Shubinski

It's such a huge relief! I mean, we did reelect Senator Tammy Baldwin last fall, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised!

How big is space? Our galaxy in perspective...

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

With these cuts to the Federal budget, who is going to rake the forest floor in the 19 million acres of California forests that are Federal lands?

The sheep pen, moonlight

The sheep pen, moonlight https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-francois-millet/the-sheep-pen-moonlight-1873

Charity

Charity https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-francois-millet/charity-1859

If you think the sun is big based on our last post: here it is in comparison with other well-known stars in the Milky Way!

"The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home."

- Carl Sagan

Pandemics do not begin with official announcements.

They start with quiet deletions, missing reports, and assurances that there is "no cause for concern."

Pay attention.

The part of George Orwell’s 1984 that everyone forgets is how the music and publishing industries have been replaced by a machine that spits out songs and bad novels “without any human intervention.” The goal is to keep you from ever having to think.

a lot of folks get angry if you tell them a fact they haven't heard or introduce them to a book they haven't read, but I think the happiest people are the ones who are just mad to know things, who hoard knowledge like gold, who read because they can't help it.

my favorite people are the ones who are drunk on learning, who check more books from the library than they have time to read, who stay up all night on wiki rabbit trails, who need to know everything about stardust or the sea or Icelandic sagas and just. never. stop.

Many of the White House candidates for high level positions in the Federal government come across as badly qualified for the jobs they are seeking.

If they all happened to be Black, I wonder if they’d instead be rejected as incompetent DEI hires?

'Each of us is a tiny being, permitted to ride on the outermost skin of one of the smaller planets for a few dozen trips around the local star'

- Carl Sagan

I will die on the hill of: fictional characters can be essential sources of inspiration, support, & modeling for complex trauma survivors who grew up surrounded by toxic family, peers, & culture.

Even traveling at the speed of light it would take 2 million years to reach our galactic neighbour, Andromeda..

(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Trauma survivors NEED to take our nervous system's insistence on not feeling trapped seriously.

If we don't leave ourselves an "escape hatch" in situations, our nervous system will create that "escape hatch" for us-- often w/ self-sabotage or suicidal ideation.

A view of Earth from the surface of Mars...

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMLI)

I think people who are focusing on Trump not facing jailtime or fines or some other real punishment are missing it. Judge Merchan, Alvin Bragg and a New York jury have accomplished the seemingly impossible: they forced Donald Trump for the first time in his life to face consequences. And stigma.

The Scene That Reveals the Beauty of Classic Hollywood Cinema Hollywood history. Back then, writes 1939: The Year in Movies author Tom Flannery, the so-called 'Big Eight' major American studios 'had a combined 590 actors, 114 directors and 340 writers under cont...

The Scene That Reveals the Beauty of Classic Hollywood Cinema

⚠️🚨 Ex-CDC Director: “There WILL Be a Bird Flu Pandemic”

Dr. Redfield warns bird flu could dwarf COVID, saying it's a matter of "when," not "if."

Dr. Redfield warns bird flu's 25-50% mortality rate could trigger an inevitable pandemic once it spreads human-to-human.

Size comparison: Earth versus Saturn

Is this what you expected?

(Credit: Tristan3D/HDR Universal-Sci)

Is there REALLY that much going on in space. It is full of empty rocks. Have you ever stared into the heart of a hoverboard it contains the endless unknown.

Remember today that your playlists, your books, your comics, your movies, your poems, your historical figures, your fictional characters-- these are all trauma recovery tools that are as real & important as anything a trauma "expert" has to say. Use 'em. Use the hell out of 'em.

Interesting fact: Our sun is so enormous that it holds over 99% of the total mass of the entire solar system...

It is about 333,000 times the mass of Earth!

Utterly mind-blowing: This is what 100 Million Stars look like!

Take a journey through the most detailed view of the Andromeda Galaxy ever captured as we zoom out from its core.

(Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B. F. Williams, L. C. Johnson, the PHAT team, R. Gendler / Video by Universal-Sci)

How light pollution affects the dark night skies...

(Credit: ESO/P. Horálek, M. Wallner)

Remember: the bullies' & abusers' voices that populate our emotional & behavioral "autopilot" want us to stay small & scared & stuck. If they want or don't want us to do a thing, it's a pretty good bet that the exact opposite of what they're urging is the actual path to freedom.

People are always sending us pictures of celebrities/politicians/athletes saying things like “PUT THEM NEXT TO THE DEFINITION OF HYPOCRISY," or something, and it’s like... have you ever seen a dictionary? That doesn’t happen.

Send us a picture of an acorn or like, a mbira.

⚠️ BREAKING:

U.S. 🇺🇸 Reports 2.828 million New COVID-19 Infections in One Week

Currently, 1 in 118 Americans is Infected with COVID-19

COVID-19 transmission is currently higher than it was during 47.6% of the pandemic