Did you know that a cactus can be a source of water in an emergency?
If you encounter someone who won't share their water, repeatedly hit them with a cactus until they give it to you.
Follow me for more desert survival tips!
reshared this
Scott reshared this.
My clients say I’m good at capturing their pets’ unique facial features.
Oils on canvas, 2026
reshared this
Scott reshared this.
In case you've ever wonder what it looks like when you convert an old shopping mall into office space
Scott reshared this.
I completely forgot that I'm an artist. Commissions are open! Feel free to contact me. I take on any project and can create any painting for you, from pet portraits and interior art to complex projects. Worldwide shipping from Ukraine!
Also you can check my Etsy store (link in bio).
Hooman: how do cats drink in space? Don't you need gravity to hold the water down on their tongue as they lap?
Returned catstronaut:
Sensitive content
like this
Scott and Amanda McFall like this.
reshared this
Scott reshared this.
Right now in the US, per the WastewaterSCAN dashboard, COVID is 33% lower than it's been at any point in years. It's down 80% from the peak of our modest winter surge in January.
Perhaps most importantly, #COVID19 levels are 70% lower than this same week in 2025 and 2026.
COVID will surge again this summer. Risks are higher in the West and South than in the rest of the US. But, if trends continue, this summer's surge could be our lowest since 2021.
1/2
One caveat: WastewaterSCAN's data is not as complete as the CDC's NWSS (which will be updated again this Friday.)
What could cause us to reverse the good trends and cause us to see higher surges?
1) Low vax rate (As of February 22, 2026, the last data available, just 17.5% of US adults got the 2025/25 vaccine.)
2) COVID evolution (but so far, no new variants are raising any concern.) One exception: The new variant in the US seems like it hits kids harder than adults.
2/2
I just wish there were at least periodic testing experiments to recalibrate case rates to wastewater levels. Is the lag still the same? The output per case? Output per variant?
As is, it feels like the only USA warning system is hospital personnel anecdotally telling family and friends to stop going to concerts around each crest.
Scott reshared this.
And that's why you should move to a place with legalized weed.
(This is clearly Picard trying to get Wesley off his ship.)
Scott reshared this.
I know nothing
Scott likes this.
reshared this
Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) and Scott reshared this.
Good, good, let the #caturday posts flow through your feed
Scott reshared this.
I’m probably going to make some enemies by saying this, but I think it's very important to say...
The problem with the name for Ruth's Chris Steakhouse isn't with Ruth, it's with Chris.
Sensitive content
Okay, now I'm actually impressed with Ruth. "Ruth Fertel was a divorced single mother who needed money to send her teenage sons to college. Ignoring the advice of her banker, lawyer, and friends, Ruth purchased the restaurant in 1965." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth%27s…
And the original restaurant was Chris' .
its clever MaaM
Mindfuck as a marketing
A nice place.
An annoying name.
I'm too much of a peasant, I guess.
Wife and I went to Ruth's Chris one time; we got a gift certificate. It still cost a fortune out of pocket, for what was at best mediocre food and feeling absolutely like a fish out of water.
Turning lemons into lemonade.
I wrote about a recent pattern submission to a knitting publication that ultimately was turned down.
The upside? I get to self-publish, retain the rights, and see my pattern out in the wild now, as opposed to next year.
And it comes with a 25% off purchase code TREBLED25, good until the end of the month.
You don't need to pirate if you want to own your media and self-host Jellyfin #homelab
Here's my guide: jeffgeerling.com/blog/2022/how…
It's been more than a decade since I wrote Ripping Movies from Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and DVD, Getting them onto Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, etc..Jeff Geerling
Another lovely, albeit slightly chilly, day for a walk to the library. Not only do I get to enjoy the vibrant beauty of the neighborhood, but now I also get to find out how The Nice House By The Lake ends!
Speaking of books, is anyone else on #bookwyrm?
Amanda McFall likes this.
Scott reshared this.
With the weird weather we've had this year, I suspect these might be the last new flowers to appear in our yard for the season.
No idea what these are, but I see a lot of you posting crocus photos so I'm going to guess that's what these are.
Scott reshared this.
This is a weird time of year for me. My Nextcloud Memories are filled with pre-2020 vacation photos, scattered over many locations and many more years. Now it's mostly quiet photos of sunrises from my kitchen window.
Sometimes I struggle with that urge to drop everything, buy a plane ticket, and head somewhere new, but then I think back to the many years that the only view I had from my little condo was of the massive brick wall of the building next door, and I become grateful of how much beauty I can finally enjoy from the comfort of home.
Scott reshared this.
Discover no name® weekly essentials. Great products without paying top dollar. Yep. It’s that easy. Because everyday basics shouldn’t break the budget.www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca
I was in the supermarket trying to reach some cheesecakes that were really high up and I couldn't make it. Some kind scandinavian lifted me onto his shoulders so I could reach then we went down the isle getting the top shelf cakes we needed.
I asked him his name but he said he didn't know
And that was when I realised I was riding through desserts on a norse with no name
Maybe the horse doesn’t *have* a name — it would be presumptuous to force one on it.
(And even if it did have a name, we probably couldn’t pronounce it correctly.)
I seem to remember you naming your horse "Your Name"
The heat seems to be affecting your memory. Because while you are in the desert, you can't remember "Your Name"
This is just to say
I have named
the horse
that was in
the desert
and which
you were probably
riding
for nine days
forgive me
there were plants
and birds and rocks
and things
This horse is a message, and part of a system of messages
Not naming this horse was important to us. We considered it to feel good to get out of the rain
This sea is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed birds and rocks and things are commemorated here.
What is here is a desert with its life underground. This message is a warning about humans giving no love.
The horse is no longer present in your time, as it was released in ours.
The danger is to the name, but there ain't no one for to give you no pain
I wish my GP visits were this cool
(silly but it made me smile this morning)
Sneaking into the room where your cat is sleeping and putting treats near her?
I have never been bitten once doing this.
me: meow
my spouse: meow
our girlfriend: mrow
her joyfriend: mew
, not because you lonely 
!
@alice
Also birds!
What? I make a certain noise when I am out and walking close to birds, and they seem to understand that I am not a threat to them. They still move aside but a lot less if I don't do that.
Yes, it might all be in my head. And yet I chose to believe.
it may be a joke, but it is definitely not a joke.
All those “me and my AI” people (mostly guys, let’s be honest) should have gotten a pet ages ago.
Oxytocin and serotonin, not dopamine and cortisol, my friends.
Which reminds me: back to my fam and cats!
Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) reshared this.
"Texting a stranger is better for reducing loneliness than an AI chatbot, study finds"
From CTV News: ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/t…
"The study found that only those who texted with a fellow human reported feeling less lonely at the end of the experiment.
'We thought that interacting with AI might be as helpful as texting with a random fellow first-year student,' said the study’s author, psychology PhD candidate Ruo-Ning Li, in a media release.
'But to our surprise, only the human-to-human texting reduced loneliness over time. The chatbot, even though we designed it to be the ideal supportive friend, didn’t shift loneliness.'"
In a time where more people are reporting feeling lonely and some are turning to AI chatbots for companionship, a new study suggests that texting a real person, even a stranger, leads to better results.Kaija Jussinoja (CTVNews)
@jaeder Well... yeah, so far, so good, so obvious. In hindsight, and it's a good counterpoint to have when AI pushers talk BS about how good the AI "friend" is in reducing loneliness.
Breaking news: it ain't, and there's a scientific study that shows it. Always good to have that.
On the other hand: climate change, vaccinations, all sorts of things have scientific proof. Those who want AI for everything also deny the efficiency of vaccines and the existence of climate change
@drchaos I mean. It's tricky. I don't think it solves loneliness. But I have seen plenty of testimonies of people on forums talking about feeling seen for the first time, usually by using the AI for learning how to play without judgment, especially autistic folks who haven't been met with people willing to engage with them at their level but instead throwing judgment and critique. It's hard to know if that classifies as a solution for loneliness, but it's also not something I want to dismiss.
I am personally using a set of LLM projects to help navigate recovery work (incl.12-step program) myself but do so alongside online meetings with real people etc. I feel "seen" in genuine shares and conversations with real people where I share real shit about myself. I don't feel "seen" by those chats but I feel that I can immerse myself in imaginative scenarios that lessen the burden I put on myself for A, B and C. Moving away from shame and start inquiring to my own beliefs about things, I usually hand a project a few professionamyselks and update the custom instructions as we move along.
So I guess my point is. I don't think it can "solve loneliness" but I do think it can be used for genuine personal growth and introspection. I just wanted to clarify my position and not misrepresent myself.
As a matter of fact social workers long figure this out.
That’s why I initiative like the German Silbernetz (Silver net) exist - with Daily Telefon hotline for Lonely People to Call
I met a lot of friends on the internet when social media wasn't as prominent as today.
Those online friends I met in forums turned into irl friends after some years. Others disappeared because life got in the way. Some more felt weird after a while.
Texting can be as deep as any other form of communication. How can you compare it with a bot that is programmed to lie?
We are doomed if the bubble doesn't burst. We are trapped in a weird Black Mirror episode for the nth time.
"Texting a stranger is better for reducing loneliness than an AI chatbot..."
Gods....🙄
Any "stranger" could well BE a chatbot today--and probably a better trained one than they used in this study. And the human on the other end might well never realize it. And, yes. STILL BAD.
The cure for loneliness? Other flesh and blood people! There is literally no mentally healthy substitute -online- for real life associations *in real life*. You're a human, not a bot w/ probs..
One of the disappointing things I guess I learned as a result of the pandemic is that healthcare workers are not uniformly as smart or cautious as I expected. According to a new survey, #COVID19 vaccination rate among HCWs is up this year, but still shockingly less than 50%. Just 40.2% were vaccinated in 2024-2025, despite the fact studies show HCWs are more at risk of Long COVID. The rates were:
Doctors 46.7%
Pharmacists 41.3%
NPs 32.4%
Nurses 26.8%
medpagetoday.com/infectiousdis…
Nurses in particular do not seem to be fans of the COVID-19 vaccineTerrence Rudd (MedpageToday)
The number of nurses who ended up being some brand of anti-vax was pretty alarming to me.
Definitely called into question this underlying assumption I had that nurses are well educated / smart. Even many doctors... May be smart or well educated in a sense, but for many it is more limited in scope than I previously thought. Maybe a way to say it is they are much more narrowly educated than I had assumed.
A bunat? A cun.....er, no, not that one.
Scott likes this.
reshared this
Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) and Scott reshared this.
Scott reshared this.
“Follow me”, said the cat.
“I will show you the best bag of new crop rice.”
I've got my best people keeping an eye on the birds outside
Amanda McFall likes this.
Scott reshared this.
Scott reshared this.
The flow of #COVID19 research studies seems to be thinning.
Part of this may be natural--six years into the pandemic, we know more than we did in 2020. The bigger issue is political. In early 2025, the CDC and NIH, under new admin directives, cut funding for COVID research, terminating dozens of COVID and LC research grants.
There are profound questions left about reinfections, Long COVID, and and other risks. Limiting our learning is dumb (but this admin specializes in dumb, IMO.)
Scott reshared this.
Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) reshared this.
Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) reshared this.
at your service 🌟 
Sensitive content
!
"the quick brown serval jumps over the cute domestic cat jumps over the quick brown serval jumps over the cute domestic cat jumps over the quick brown serval jumps over the cute domestic cat jumps over..."
- The Mandelbrot Pet
Scott likes this.
reshared this
Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch) and Scott reshared this.
Cat 🐈🥗 (D.Burch)
in reply to cR0w • • •J4ck
in reply to cR0w • • •cR0w
in reply to J4ck • • •J4ck
in reply to J4ck • • •