...

• How the Internet Invented Bread Clip Science - I was surprised when the YouTube algorithm threw this at me because it's such a weird niche thing but I've heard of this before! I came across the website for HORG (Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group) on dogfish99, one of the sites I follow. Someone jokingly decided to create a taxonomy structure for bread clips (you know, the plastic doohickeys that close your bags of bread) and, well, it became a thing! There was even a legitimate case study published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) that has a table showing different orders of occlupanidae. If you think you've found a breadclip not in HORG's database, there is information on how to submit your finding to them.


• Are Cats Actually Liquid? - A French physicist studied the fluid dynamics of cats (and won an Ig Nobel Prize for his efforts).


• Octopuses are now punching fish in the face - I think octopuses are so cool. One particular species engages in cooperative hunting with different fish species. But if the fish try to catch prey without working with the group to hunt and flush them out, then the octopus will punish the fish by punching it. This is almost as cool as blanket octopuses ripping the tentacles off Portugese Man-o-War jellyfish and using the tentacles as weapons! Octopuses are so metal.

So last Monday I attended a Zoom class on "A Beginner's Guide to Street Art." The topics were wheatpasting and stickering - what kind of supplies you need, how to do it, how not to get caught. The instructor's motivation for holding this class is that there's important science information that needs to get out there and traditional conduits (like the US government entities that are currently being dismantled) can't be counted on. She said, "Truth doesn't have a marketing budget, so spreading those messages is up to us."

The class was really great! There were about 450 attendees from all over the world and from all walks of life. There were artists who just wanted to get their art seen, people who wanted to get out science-related messages, people who didn't have a background in either science or art but were interested. Great instructions and information plus after the Zoom ended she stayed online to answer questions.

I would love to post politically related stickers everywhere. I have stuff to say but I'm not sure what I want to say (a good sticker should only have a few words because you're only going to have people's passing attention) or where I'd stick things. She's from Philadelphia, which has a vibrant street art scene. I live in an area where we have city-sanctioned street art (statues and murals) but not so much art in the wild. Or maybe I'm just not going to the right parts of the city.

Any way, this was a supercool thing and if it sounds interesting to you, she's holding another session! It's free and the information is here.

I try to keep my blog fairly light but a few weeks ago my weekly blog post had several political links. If you haven't seen it, check it out because I think they are worthwhile. The links are a mix of actions to take, ways to keep informed and also ways to keep yourself sane and not spiral with all that's going on. I thought that was going to be a one off but I keep finding things I want to share.

• Resist List on Bluesky posts examples of ways people are protesting. There seems to be an impression, especially overseas, that Americans aren't doing anything about what's going on but we are! We're not at the level of the French as far as protesting. The movements are fairly small, sometimes only one person, and scattered throughout the country. But so many people and groups are taking actions that aren't being widely reported.


• Not just people but even some government agencies are putting up a fight.


• The Sugarbush Ski Resort's snow reporter used her daily snow report to send out a message of resistance.


• The dean of Georgetown Law pushed back against the government's anti-DEI crusade.


• There is a sense that Democrats are just rolling over and, well, I think that's a generally true assessment of many of the establishment Dems. But Reps Jamie Raskin (MD) and Melanie Stansbury (NM) held a Town Hall with members of the Women Forward organization and one of the attendees recapped what was discussed in the call. (Sorry, it's a Substack link and I am very anti-Substack but sometimes there's good stuff on there.)


• No Small Act - this group's mission is to create systemic change through coordinated local action. This was started by one woman who wanted to make a change. Lots of good resource links and also a bingo card of small action items you can do daily. The idea is small changes make a ripple and lead to greater change.


• things your mom should've told you - The creator is an ex-pat living in Spain and it seems like until about a month ago her video topics had to deal with living in Spain, things that were different between the US and Spain, typical kind of ex-pat stuff. But then she started posting videos relating more to current events in this country and her last 2 videos especially, No one's going to save the US and Don't Eat the Rich, Starve Them were fantastic. She gives a great breakdown of the situation and gives you action items.

I want to share what I think is a beautiful thing that proves even small actions make a difference. Someone in the r/50501 subreddit posted that she was sending postcards to random government employees to show appreciation. She uses Google maps to find a government office address and sends a card to "Any Agent/Employee." A week or two later, someone posted in a daily discussion on r/fednews that they were a government employee and had received a random postcard in the mail thanking them for their service and giving them a pep talk. This person said it was such a mood lifter! They now plan on sending out their own mail to pay forward this kind act. I don't know where that postcard came from - it might have been that person I read about or maybe someone else is doing the same thing. Who knows? But this is a beautiful example of what a small act on your part can mean to someone else and how it can create larger ripples that will affect even more people.

(And I did contact the postcard writer to share this with her!)

Listening

Some podcasts I've listened to this week:

• Click Here - Meet the 'Kyles' — North Korea's Secret IT Warriors


• Click Here - Mic Drop: Aidan Raney's secret mission


• Hyperfixed -Jack and the Missouri Color Cabal


• ArchaeoEd - The Inca Capital City of Cuzco

Reading

I finished Forever Amber earlier this week and I stand by what I said last week - it was quite the romp! Amber never changed, she always acted like a flighty teen who was her own worst enemy. But also? She was unapologetically herself. This was a great read and I'm so glad I took a chance on it!

Next up was a book from my Libby/Overdrive wishlist - The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. Oh my - this book was delightful! It's about lost objects, lost loves, objects finding their owners and people finding their loves. I think its category would be magical realism (there is a ghost) and mystery but possibly also romance. There are 2 timelines and I liked how they met up at the end. This is a sweet and gentle book.

Watching

Recipes for Love and Murder's second season has started playing on the Acorn channel. I love this show so much! Maria Purvis is an advice columnist in a small South African town and her solutions to people's love problems involve a recipe of some sort. Oh, also, there are murders to solve.

Well, this was kind of a long post this week. Congratulations for making it to the end! Til next week!