Notices by Jeri Dansky (jeridansky@sfba.social), page 2

@amytabb @nomdeb is a huge fan of the pet insurance she got through Trupanion, so she might have thoughts to share.

@skinnylatte has also mentioned that Trupanion, while expensive, paid for itself with her older pets.

From @Daojoan:

“Experience teaches us that empires don't recognize their fall until it's irreversible; by the time America finally peers beyond its borders, it will find a world that has moved on without it.”

https://www.theindex.media/the-new-world-order-is-here-and-america-isnt-part-of-it/

#uspol #Japan #China #Korea

#FollowFriday Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets

She’s a professor of astronomy who’s written about the problems with the proliferation of Starlink satellites and about the SpaceX space junk that fell down on her neighbor’s farm in Saskatchewan — but also about her goats. (Baby goats coming in early April!) I appreciate both her space-related posts and her farm-related posts!

https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/114070997892994929

https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/114118621286486425

https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/113959809791277398

#astronomy

Something a bit different for #ThickTrunkTuesday, spotted while driving around town today.

#today

@StaceyCornelius Here, have a parrot.
#birds #BirdsOfMastodon

Interesting article detailing all the ways the Cybertruck runs afoul of British safety standards.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlyon/2025/02/20/tesla-cybertruck-banned-in-the-uk-due-to-safety-issues/

h/t @tdwllms1 @inthehands
#Tesla #Cybertruck #UK

it's nice to see reporting that doesn't mince words.

"Google’s featured snippet is pulling in an Amazon AI summary of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi manifesto Mein Kampf that calls it “a true work of art” in the latest AI-related fuckup affecting top search results."

https://www.404media.co/google-amazon-ai-search-mein-kampf-reviews/

Having ditched my subscriptions to NYT (long ago), WaPo and the LA Times, I'm glad to be a paid subscriber to the journalism from places like @404mediaco.

#journalism #AI #Google #search

Happy #ThickTrunkTuesday!

CT scan this morning went without incident. They needed to get my heart rate down, a normal pre-scan thing — so it's a good thing I didn't look at the news this morning!

Next challenge, assuming scan results are good: finding someone to drive me to/from my 7:30 am appointment for cataract surgery on Monday. Surgery center won't accept taxi/Uber/Lyft; I need a responsible adult who can also stay with me a few hours post-surgery. The friend who was going to do this has a personal emergency and had to back out. Would gladly pay a decent amount for a driver!

#today #medical

One of the little things that made me wince: At the end of a story about a man who voted for Trump and has now lost his federal agency job:

"Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to remove identifying information for the person’s safety."

https://wtop.com/virginia/2025/02/this-civil-servant-and-veteran-voted-for-trump-now-hes-out-of-a-job/

h/t @ai6yr
#uspol #veterans

@studiochris I love seeing your pigeon photos. I don't think I ever paid much attention to pigeons until you started posting about them.

Every time I see folks in the US recommend calling the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline I wonder if they know how problematic that can be, leading to non-consensual interventions. Always troubling, and more so right now.

Trans Lifeline explains the problem with 988 Report:
https://translifeline.org/safe-hotlines/the-problem-with-988-report/

Lists of other options which avoid such issues, often called “warm lines”:
https://translifeline.org/resources/community-based-crisis-support/
and
https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/crisis, via @jblue
and
https://rentry.co/f2qpsebi, via @sal

#trans #LGBTQ

From the 2010s: Remember the Flint water crisis and Little Miss Flint, dealing with drinking water contaminated with lead?
https://meetthemotivators.com/project/little-miss-flint/?

And the Biden administration issuing rules to require all the country’s lead pipes to be replaced over the next 13 years? But now those rules may be repealed.

From https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/03/republicans-lead-exposure-rules:

The Trump administration is “saying let them drink lead”, said Erik Olson, senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund.

“It’s a bad look to support lead poisoning children,” Olson added. “Not the best foot forward for the new Congress.”

h/t @sindarina
#water #uspol

I was worried about RFK Jr and vaccines. I didn't realize I should also be worried about RFK Jr and the SSRIs used to treat depression and other medical conditions. He's got plans for "wellness farms."

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/kennedy-rfk-antidepressants-ssri-school-shootings/

h/t @Moriel
#uspol #depression #healthcare

Since The Associated Press, in contrast to Google and Apple,. continues to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico, I just made a donation as a thank you gesture.

https://apnews.com/donate

#journalism #GulfOfMexico #Google #Apple #maps

I usually don’t comment on breaking news, but this one hit really hard. The Senate just confirmed RFK Jr.

There really are no limits on how atrocious this government is willing to be. It’s scary and sickening to see the country being destroyed; so many lives are going to be lost or made much worse, both in the US and around the world.

It’s a good thing I have Tennessee; my mantra continues to be “my cat needs me.”
#uspol

A late entry for #ToeBeanTuesday as Tennessee finally provided me with a great toe bean display.
#CatsOfMastodon

Two reflections on how the press should be covering the Trump administration — and isn’t. Both of these were on Substack newsletters, so I won’t be linking,

From @froomkin: “The first essential step is to fully and intentionally go into crisis mode. That means constant, round-the-clock, top-of-the-homepage coverage until the crisis is resolved.”

From Oliver Darcy, quoted by Dan: “Think about how it covers natural disasters and terror attacks. ... It’s time to break out those six-column front page headlines and interrupt regular programming with special broadcast news reports.”

h/t @inthehands #journalism #uspol

“In response to President Donald Trump’s continued musing about the U.S. acquiring Greenland from Denmark, Danish citizens have launched their own effort to purchase America’s most economically prosperous state.

“An online petition seeking the ‘Denmarkification’ of California has seemingly garnered nearly 200,000 signatures, with a pitch to Danish citizens that purchasing the Golden State would provide them with more sunshine, dominance in the tech industry, limitless avocado toast and easy access to Disneyland.”

https://ktla.com/news/california/thousands-of-danes-sign-petition-to-buy-california-from-u-s/

h/t @lizzard
#Denmark #California

While this list was designed to help people wanting to move off US-based services, it's also helpful for those of us just trying to get off Google. One of the very few Google services I still used was Google translate, and now I have an alternative.

(I thought DeepL looked good, but there are four other choices and I'm open to other suggestions.)

I'm not doing any heavy translation work; I just sometimes want to translate something I see online, purely for my own curiosity.

https://european-alternatives.eu/alternatives-to

h/t @RaffKarva
#Google #translation