Notices by Madeleine Morris (remittancegirl@mstdn.social)

My occasional reminder for my American friends that if you're fed up with your country's media, I recommend the BBC World Service, which is very different from the regular BBC national news.

Accessed online, or through the BBC Sounds app, the news is global, which reminds you that there's actually a whole world where shit goes on, and it is straight up reportage, no pundits at all on the actual news spots which happen every 30 minutes.

You can also follow @fulelo who works there!

@Originallyrose @fulelo

I live in Spain, and my tv comes in on my internet connection. I haven't ventured over to the English news channels they offer (BBC, CNN, Sky) in almost a month.

I used to have it on constantly. But I began to notice I wasn't actually being informed of anything.

@farah
The only time I ever felt unsafe in a bathroom was when a very conservative, Catholic girl beat the shit out of me in one - for being a Jew.

I'm with you. Honestly I'd feel safer with Sarah McBride in there! I expect she's got vast experience in dealing with bullies.

@cstross @spacehobo

Not just today. It's been that way for a long while now. But am I hallucinating or did they used to be slightly more subtle about it?

The stock market is a measure of absolutely nothing but the greed of its participants.

Period.

It doesn't care about democracy, or freedom, or life, or the planet, or even trade.

There’s a huge bed. So why do they both have to lie where my left leg should be? #cats #CatsOfMastodon

So, I've made a commitment to consciously noting the good things that happen on a day to day basis.

Today I was reminded of why I love living in Malaga. I don't know how it is in Madrid and Barcelona, but in Malaga, people are dedicatedly chatty.

I'm learning to accept that buying fish and veggies is just going to take an hour. I'm learning to treasure the interactions.

One morning in 2016 in Phnom Penh, I was out looking for breakfast, photographing the ladies doing Tai Chi on the river walk as the sun rose, and tweeting the pics. I realized I was at a strange distance, not immersed in the moment of the light and the humidity and the motion of these ladies movements, because I was too busy documenting it and relaying it all to twitter. What, I asked myself, was all this sharing doing?

This is a brilliant essay by @Daojoan Please read.

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-observer-effect-and-social-media-how-constant-observation-warps-us-all/

@mekkaokereke

"people that choose other social networks are just evil, lazy, shiftless people who love to lick VCs boots"

This kind of absolutism really makes me despair. People will go where they feel comfortable. That is just a fundamental reality. And demeaning them for doing so is tragically self-defeating for Mastodon.

Lots of people find this stuff intimidating, but we need to get over it. There is something extremely empowering about fixing stuff yourself. And it's ecologically responsible to fix instead of dispose.

In the past, it has also been extremely gendered. And this is bullshit. When I worked for a sound reinforcement company, I used to build mic cables all day, and I was, by far, the best solderer in the company.

Everyone should know how to solder. It's not hard and it can save you a ton of money because when your electrical appliances or electronic equipment stop working, it is often simply a loose connection because a solder point has come loose. #handy

https://hachyderm.io/@rationaldoge/113442601741099044

@randomgeek Yup. Me too.

@randomgeek I think the vaccine was pretty widely distributed by that time in North America, but it took longer to gain wide distribution in poorer countries. I grew up in Spain, where seeing people with the sequelae of polio and measles was staggeringly common.

When I was little, I had a friend named Maria del Pilar. She had caught polio and had to wear a full steel body brace to keep her spine upright so her lungs wouldn't collapse. She loved Gabriel Garcia Lorca. She was a probing and creative reader who taught me so much about Spanish literature.

She killed herself at the age of 23, unable to stand living with the pain of her destroyed skeletal system.

That's who I think of when people try to sanewash RFK Jr.

I am seized by a bottomless rage.

The 'paper of record' features an essay by physician Rachael Bedard on the ways in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr is not so bad. Because, hey, he doesn't approve of junk food.

Lady, Hitler was a fucking vegetarian.

So the fuck what?

p.s. I'm so damn glad I cancelled my subscription to the NYT.

@Dtl This sounds very intriguing.

I think it is very hard to 'see the wood from the trees'.

We're steeped in a very specific form of discourse. It's persona-focused. Trump did this. Vance said that. Gaetz is appointed... this. Rubio appointed that.

It's natural for us to react emotionally to specific, offensive individuals. I fear it is an effective distraction.

It's hard to see the structure. What is being constructed here?

@randahl hehehe. Good idea!

But the really good thing about Mastodon is that it doesn't need to attract more users to ensure its existence. And that is probably why it's quite comfortable to be here.

What is even the upside to getting more people to come to Mastodon?

Why is growth good?

This is only to say that.... I appreciate you guys. You make my life funnier, more passionate, more creative and informative.

We could do with some more diversity, for sure.

@slothrop Yes. I've pondered this quite a bit, and I agree. What makes social media life-enhancing, really?

It's connections.