It’s going to be a question of momentum: will those on the left of the party keep pushing back against corporate interests and organising at a grassroots level. I sincerely hope that the momentum grows, but the power of the money being used against them is a pretty terrible beast. It’s definitely an interesting crossroads at the very least.

Sources:

nasfic.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/aatences/pratet_table_mvibn.hmi/

nasfic.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/facttheet/index.html

In a lot of jurisdictions it’s also not illegal to be under the influence of a narcotic unless there are other factors involved - driving a car, being a public nuisance, or otherwise engaging in criminal behaviour. If you’re high in your own home not bothering anyone (and you’ve already taken all the drugs you have so you’re not otherwise in possession of any) you’re not committing a crime. That would apply in this case.

I could not agree more. I’ve been having conversations with people about this since late last year and predicted that the bubble would burst some time in 2026 but I’m thinking I may be off and it could be early 2027 now. This accounting nonsense makes up a very significant portion of the US stock market, so the bubble bursting is gonna have some pretty big flow-on effects as well. I’d recommend anyone with any form of investment look into what they have and plan for a significant market event.

I’m not sure how to do it in a way that can’t be abused, sadly. My instinct is that maybe domestic violence (DV) crimes should be public knowledge - i.e. offenders, offences and sentences (but not victim information) should be on a publicly searchable database - but I’m not sure what unintended consequences there might be to this. My gut tells me that women reporting DV might experience more backlash from violent partners because reporting the DV puts the offender on a ‘list’, and that maybe it could encourage some abusers to vexatiously make false accusations to try to get someone on the list, but I don’t know how likely either of those would be. There’s not a simple solution, but we need to keep searching for the difficult solution because the status quo leads to way too many women dying at the hands of current or former partners.

We (Australia) need to withhold all forms of support from Israel until a thorough investigation takes place. If we stopped funding UNRWA because of allegations from Israel (that have turned out to be specious at best) that UNRWA staff were involved in October 7, then we can stop funding the Israeli government over this. I welcome the relatively strong words from Albo here, but he should have stated that Australia is demanding a ceasefire, not just renewing calls for one. Another war crime has been committed, and we can’t keep using flowery language around this.

It’s often advantageous to prevent catastrophe before it occurs rather than clean up the mess once it happens.

So it looks like the frogs mentioned in this meme are microhylids, and for some further info:

Crocraft & Hambler (1989) noted that the frog seemed to benefit from living in proximity to the spider by eating the small invertebrates that were attracted to prey remains left by the spider. The frog presumably also benefits by receiving protection: small frogs like this are preyed on by snakes and large arthropods, yet on this occasion we have a frog that receives a sort of ‘protection’ from a large, formidable spider bodyguard. Hunt (1980) suggested that the spider might gain benefit from the presence of the frog: microhylids specialise on eating ants, and ants are one of the major predators of spider eggs. By eating ants, the microhylids might help protect the spider’s eggs.

This is also super cute behaviour:

Young spiders have sometimes been observed to grab the frogs, examine them with their mouthparts, and then release them unharmed.

Apparently the spiders’ protectiveness can also be pretty overt:

Karunarathna & Amarasinghe (2009) reported how several Poecilotheria were seen attacking individuals of Hemidactylus depressus (a gecko) after the latter tried eating the eggs of the frogs the spiders were sharing their tree holes with.

And some ideas on why this might be an example of mutualistic behaviour rather than commensalism:

…the spider seems to benefit in that the frogs eat the ants that might ordinarily attack the spider’s eggs. Due to their small size, ants are presumably difficult for the spiders to deal with, and they might be effectively helpless against them.

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/tetrapod-zoology/tiny-frogs-and-giant-spiders-best-of-friends/

Fuck. I’m sad. I’m sorry to be Australian right now.

This is just disgusting behaviour. No one should ever be calling for genocide, regardless of any circumstances. Also, why are all Jewish people being conflated with the Israeli government? Jews outside Israel have no power over its government, and even Israelis had to go through some five hung elections to get Netanyahu back in power, indicating that he clearly has less than 50% of the country’s support.

Now if they had been shouting “fuck Bibi” or “end the occupation” or “no more genocide against Palestine” I’d be right there with them. These idiots have no fucking clue how to garner support, so all they’re doing is giving Israel more moral high-ground. Goddamn Nazis need to learn some physical consequences.

It’s easy to have sympathy for Palestine; it’s very difficult to have sympathy for Hamas.

Anyone cheering on Hamas is promoting crimes against humanity which is objectively abhorrent. Anyone who cares for the Palestinian people caught up in the conflict just has functioning empathy.

Cat owner and avid environmentalist here: totally agree. I’ve always kept my cats inside for the obvious environmental reasons, but ask any vet and they’ll tell you that indoor cats lead much longer, healthier lives.

We need to start treating dogs and cats the same way - if there’s a cat around without it’s owner and it’s not leashed, it goes to the pound. $250 fee to retrieve your cat to pay for boarding and also donate to the pound that receives them. If people had to pay $250 and drive all the way to the pound to pick up their cat every time they let them out, I can tell you that outdoor cat owners will go one of two ways: they’ll either stop owning cats (big win) or they’ll keep them inside (also big win).