Chebucto Regional Softball Club

@lienrag

Think about the scale.

@davep

OK. But, why not just say it was a freak flood. Heck, I suspect that climate change is making these things happen more often, but I couldn't say "this was caused directly by climate change"

It seems like less effort to just decide that it was a freak tragedy.

I suppose the next part might be the problem? Because regardless to "prevent it from happening again" it means investing in science, building warning systems and trusting the government. hm.

An act of terrorism that most people mistake for a natural disaster doesn't make the terrorists seem powerful or further their cause. And who exactly would they be anyway?

Why target that region? Why not target someplace with more people or a military or political target?

I know it's a mistake to expect coherence, but people latch on to myths because they explain the world in ways that are comforting and predictable.

How does this even fit in?

The conspiracy theory is that "someone" seeded clouds to cause a flood in Texas. Most responses focus on how cloud seeding isn't powerful enough to do something like this, the absurdity of the gap between the existing technology and what the conspiracy theorists think.

But can we back up and ask another question: Why?

Why do the conspiracy theorists think that someone would do something like this? What is the motivation?

What if there is no opposing team in some circumstances? What if the challenge is to adapt and thrive in synchronicity with the natural world?

What if disasters aren't like "being the losing team" but rather a critical and dearly won moment of learning.

There is a re-occurring fable about the "paradox" of ant evolution. I've come to see it as a fable because when you look at the primary sources... there isn't confusion about how eusociality is possible, just excitement and curiosity about exposing the development of more complex systems.

Only if you have a very narrow view of evolution ... as a series of matches with winners and losers could it be a paradox.

As the Governor of Texas launched into a tortured and poorly thought out football metaphor to express his indignation at the criticism and questions he was encountering about his response to the recent horrific floods I rolled my eyes.

Football and most sports are games where only one team or person can win.

The metaphors we choose matter.

Not just in terms of the respect and gravity a good metaphor may lend, but also the solutions and stance it may suggest.

@david_chisnall

It's fine. There is more to SI than most people know. It's just that compared to the rest of the city it's not as dynamic... but if SI was it's own town people would gush about it like it was Austin or something.

@juergen_hubert @_elena

I love it!

@jaykuo

Serious question: how do people in Trump base, the people who like him feel about this? Do they just ... agree that this is our business and it's worth putting our markets in peril for this guy they don't even know from a country I suspect they never think about?

It's transparent to *me* why Trump would do this but it is very extravagant, and how does anyone see protecting a corrupt foreign leader as "America First" or whatever?

Do they just not pay attention?
Do they like this?

@animalculum

That illustration by Henry S. Sharpe is remarkable. I'm totally floored by how it is both deeply alien and yet natural. I always love to learn about a new artist. Anyone know if he's come over to matodon yet?

(www.instagram.com)

That it. I'm putting a 35 percent tariff on Staten Island. I'm fed up with their fungames.

@paleofuture.bsky.social

Was there another trade spike?

@weirdestate

...

If it takes a bunker like this to survive in Glade Park, CO? This isn't a disaster one can wait out in a bunker.

@RogerBW @beadsland

Yes you have to write "Earth" every time. It's for perspective.

@RogerBW @beadsland

If anyone asked me how addresses should be written it go a little like this:

Earth, USA, Some City, 12345
1234 Some Street, Apartment Six
Floor Five, Department of Things
Person Name

But... noooooo

@elysegrasso

I used to do mass mailings and would get back any bad addresses. Never got one back over a comma or a comment about that, though they did say they liked it better when everything was in all caps. Our director didn't like this, so we compromised by doing the names with capitalization, the rest of the address in all caps.

Our post guy liked me since I wrote a program to put on the zip+4

(LOL correction +4)

@elysegrasso

I forgot to move the comma.

@elysegrasso

How do they know if
"123 First Concourse 6" is

"123 First Concourse, 6" or "123 First, Concourse 6" ?

(I'm certain your are correct, I just see problems in merging fields without a popular separator character. Never-mind that some street names have commas in them which are stripped out too because of some limited character set I suspect. )

@jopabinia.bsky.social

Curious if the aphids had any ants tending them?