Linda

We watched The Beekeeper on Saturday night which also has Peeta Mellark in it. That guy is everywhere*. Looking forward to learning just how bad Future man is. It certainly *sounds* terrible! \o/

*Two places, and the Hunger Games movies. Close enough.

I think a lot of Not Online people haven’t really grasped how often and how shamelessly these fuckers just straight-up lie, lie, lie. People like my parents who are Trump-hating dems but still believe authorities just can’t bald-faced lie like this. They can and do.

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

“Grocery stores throw out far more food than is shoplifted. Why don't shoplifters just take the food from the dumpster then. Because they have cameras on the dumpsters and security will be sent out when they see them on the monitors.” ~ mastodon.social/@AlSweigart/...

Grapes of Wrath 1939:

A multi-day freakout about Mamdani's chances apparently happened because Millennials were waiting to vote until they could get the special Halloween-themed "I voted" stickers

every science news article is like "chinese researchers invent cure for hurting your back getting out of bed" and every science policy news article is like "uncomfortable bed lobby successfully lobbies trump admin with $500 bribe"

Australians voted for stronger climate action, not weaker environment laws.

Australia Institute research shows that Australia is currently expanding gas and coal, with 94 new fossil fuel projects under development.

Sign our petition calling on Minister Watt to stop new gas and coal!

#auspol

Mandatory Installation of Solar Panels in Public Parking Lots to Apply Retroactively to Existing Facilities Starting at the end of November this year, public parking lots with more than 80 spaces will be required to install solar power generation facilities. ...

Meanwhile, in South Korea: "Starting at the end of November, public parking lots with more than 80 spaces will be required to install solar power generation facilities. This obligation applies not only to newly constructed parking lots but also to existing ones."

cm.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2...

ATO is paying private debt collector $42m to pursue taxpayers, including welfare recipients The tax office’s increased reliance on Recoveriescorp has coincided with a spike in complaints to the watchdog

ATO is paying private debt collector $42m to pursue taxpayers, including welfare recipients

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Japan's "Mundane Halloween" costume contest is back!

Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary.

Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest!

#MundaneHalloween

Left - a tshirt with a full torso-length photo of a close up on a record player needle Right - the customer taking a selfie wearing the shirt.... and what seemed like an innocuous metal peg coming out of the turn table in the left image now appears to be a foot long steel erection :D

HAHAHAHA I guess it is hard to imagine how clothes look on you without trying them on:)

Take it easy. Take a train.

A close up image of snow pea plants climbing up a plant frame, using tendrils wrapped around garden wire. There are two large snow peas shown and a number of snow pea flowers in the background. Behind can be seen glimpses of my messy vegetable garden in pots.

Less than two weeks ago I took photos of the first snow pea flowers from my new seedlings. Now I have a half-dozen snow peas that need to be eaten before they get too big and tough, and dozens more flowers and tiny snow peas. I love growing snow peas. ❄️🌱

such an array of guest dogs lately!

“When cabinet decided to spend $360 billion on some nuclear submarines that people didn’t know we needed, cabinet decided to do it without a brief from Treasury, and the then-Labor Opposition agreed within 24 hours”

“We can never allow ourselves to believe that change is not possible.” #auspol

A bunch of people from the forestry industry replying to or quoting this post along the lines of, 'Don't believe your own senses, plantations of alien trees are actually great.'

My response?

"It's hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

How a radical experiment to bring a forest into a preschool transformed children’s health In Finland, kindergartens are exposing children to more mud, wild plants and moss - and finding changes to their health that show how crucial biodiversity is to wellbeing

Brilliant projects, with demonstrable results.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Reintroducing a six-year limit on debt recovery was a key recommendation of the Robodebt Royal Commission. My amendment today would do just that #auspol #politas

I keep thinking about him saying “tiger, elephant, giraffe“. That’s not what those animals are. I would say very alarming.

David Pope in Canberra Times

Tweet from Vivian @suchnerve "also worth noting that i refuse to date nonmaskers, even if they swear they’d mask for me, because i simply don’t believe external motivation is sustainable. it’s not good enough to do something for me; you have to do it for yourself, because that means you’ll do it unsupervised." She is QT'ing a tweet from @thejinjoguy "(nodding) hmmm i should emulate these behaviors because i find vivian suchnerve charming and nice and wish to gain her approval"

💯 Masking is a good litmus test for many things you'd want in a partner

-science literacy
-intelligence
-empathy
-community minded
-values health > conformity
-weirdly super cool

Crockett: You have a president who consistently is obsessing over two women of color that are members of the house, I don't know what black woman hurt him in his past, honey, but it is really taking him through it.

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

YouTube video by Tube Cody Defying Gravity | Synchronized Roller Coasters (Wicked)

This Rollercoaster Tycoon video is an actual work of emotionally-gripping mad genius

"Madam, how dare you judge me on the content of my character, rather than the colour of my blonde dye job?!"

Also, the second woman's laugh is so, so good.

Stanley spent quite some time snuggled up on my elbow this morning, lol. He was staying warm and also realigning his spine. Cats are the best. 🧡 Hope she helps you feel better.

A translucent green and white orchid which is shaped rather like the silhouette of a bird

Pterostylis barbata - Bird Orchid

One of Western Australia's more unusual looking orchids. The orchid's labellum is triggered by visiting pollinators trapping them inside the orchid's hood and forcing them to escape past the orchid's pollinia
#orchids #ozflora #wildoz #nativeplants #inaturalist

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Intersex Awareness Day! 2025 Image of heart filled with Australian native flora.

To our intersex community, allies, family and friends, we wish you all a happy and healthy Intersex Awareness Day 2025!

Threatened native animals at risk as rat bait review delayed again Rat bait poison has been found in threatened northern quoll populations as an overdue report into their use by the federal pesticides regulator is again delayed.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

A tiny, fluffy Masked Lapwing chick is shown in a full-frontal, close-up photograph, standing on short, green grass. The chick is covered in soft down, with a black and tan spiky, tufted crown on its head. Its face, chest, and belly are predominantly white down, while the sides of its body are mottled with black and brown. It is looking straight ahead with a small beak and appears to be just a few days or weeks old. The chick's relatively long, spindly, dark-coloured legs and large feet are prominent. The background is a soft blur of pale green and brown, with a hint of dark blue or shadow in the upper right.

Little squishy baby Masked Lapwing. 🐥🐣🪶

I just posted an adult Lapwing before if you want to know what this chick will look like. 🎭🏊‍♂️🪽

#birds #birdphotography #birding #birdwatching #birdwatchers #nature #naturephotography #wildlifephotography #wildlife #Canon #R5 #Australia #BirdOfTheDay #Spring

Headline in The Australian: Labor’s green law reforms critical to Trump deal

Well isn’t that just lovely - a shit deal on the environment to ensure the Orange Haemorrhoid is happy