Katie Hodges-Kluck, PhD

It's wild that there appears to be more current concern for the Lost Library of Alexandria than for the British Library. The BL's crisis exemplifies the accelerating destruction--through apathy as much as by design--of human knowledge & learning. I'm not even being dramatic.

It is newsworthy that the president of the United States is increasingly verbally abusive of women reporters and he should be asked about it.

Not shocking to learn, but incredible range of prices discovered. Great research by all.

Our household lar has been dusted

Having worked in prevention my entire career—cancer, then vaccines, and then COVID19, I can say that while many people understand that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, for others, if it doesn’t happen immediately they aren’t able to follow cause and effect.

Vaccination coverage doesn’t collapse overnight.

Yes, we are definitely already seeing outbreaks, and yes we are already seeing substantial declines in vaccine coverage.

But the true horror awaits a few years from now, barring another pandemic of a novel pathogen.

One of the most disturbing things about the U.S. government getting themselves into the anti-vaccine game is that it is a time-release poison pill.

It will take a few years before the worst of the harm is visible to enough people that they will truly understand what has been done to them.

A cat sitting in a puzzle box lid, surrounded by completed puzzles, Legos, and a wooden train set

Snow day

As our case, Trump v. Slaughter, is before SCOTUS today, revisit Amit's explanation of what's at stake for Americans everywhere if the Court rules in Trump's favor:

Feeling alarmed isn’t hysteria, it’s civic literacy.

Every democracy that slid into authoritarianism reached this stage: when partisan leaders in SCOTUS, Congress, and the Cabinet stop acting as checks and start acting as shields for the regime.

We’re there.

The current SCOTUS majority is basically musing that maybe Anikan should kill all the younglings (EXCEPT THE FED, IT WOULD BE VERY BAD IF ANIKAN TRIED TO KILL THE FED).

Every day SCOTUS is in session is a day I think about how if it weren't for their entire corruption, we wouldn't be here in the first place.

It is really, really hard to get your head around the raw hubris of the majority. They really will be destabilizing the operating structure of the entire U.S. government. Why? Because they believe they have a better idea about how the past century should've been done.

Unions - as old as the written word.

And right now the Trump admin is killing fiber broadband investment and handing Elon Musk billions to provide the mediocre overpriced Starlink service people can already get, and which they'll still have to pay for.

Taxpayers will pay Musk for "capacity."

Frog and Toad, all bundled up, put the finishing touches on a snowman. Er. Snowfrog. From "Down the Hill" In *Frog and Toad All Year*

I am not live posting the whole argument here because I want to listen closely to Trump v. Slaughter. But the solicitor general for Trump just said the point here in killing the independence of agencies like the FTC is that executive branch officers must “fear and obey” the president. Wow. #SCOTUS

Not great that we have an executive and a judiciary in eager agreement that the legislature should be a vestigial organ with no real influence over what the government does and how it operates.

Trump releases racist blueprint for the world The Trump administration released its “ National Security Strategy ”� on Thursday night, but the document reads more like a manifesto advocating for white supremacy than a supposed national ...

Trump releases racist blueprint for the world www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...

And UVA just called it for the day—another snow day. How long until preschool also closes fully?

I sure would like to see the Virginia General Assembly legalize balcony solar in 2026. Let people buy a $100 solar panel at Costco, plug it into an outlet on their porch, and make electricity. Germany does it. Utah does it. Virginia can do it too.

This morning I looked at the the Cville weather forecast and tomorrow was chilly but dry. Now all of a sudden this evening we're under a winter weather advisory for 1-3 inches of snow Monday. Bah!

Is this what happens when we gut our weather advisory systems?

I got a new blanket so naturally Jadzia claimed it.

He is stealing our money, to be clear. This is theft of public resources.

What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers more than $15 an hour.”

What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”

Funny how that works.

Tens of thousands of dinosaur footprints and swim tracks found in South America Paleontologists have found tens of thousands of dinosaur tracks in South America, which offers evidence as to which species were traveling via an ancient coastline.

abcnews.go.com/Internationa...

Obsessed every month with the social justice kittens calendar

1,800-year-old 'piggy banks' full of Roman-era coins unearthed in French village An excavation in a small French village reveals three jars with thousands of Roman coins.

The best kind of piggy is one that hoards coins tbh 🪙 www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Nothing says racism, cruelty, hatred and weakness combined in one quite like the orange felon removing all free access to National Parks on federal holidays that honor black people whilst giving free access on his own birthday. He should’ve been sent to jail forever.

It's time for us to admit that food trucks are not equipped for events. They work well parked out on the street when people can walk by and order throughout the day, but they are not suited for big crowds. They don't have the capacity. We've been waiting 30 minutes in the cold for fries