Sunday Sea Songs

A cuneiform tablet drawing of a fragment shaped like an irregular diamond with two lines of text enclosed in a red box to draw attention to it.

In this ancient Babylonian dialogue, one friend asks, "Why are you so gloomy about many things?"

Let's do some dead languages together for a sec. The word translated here as "be/become gloomy" (qatāru) can also mean "to billow with smoke".

How might we get from smokey to gloomy?

To help Europeans understand how big America is, here is a handy map

If I had a nickel for every time Franz Ferdinand was involved in the precursor events of a world war, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice

a black and white cartoon cat is sitting on a pillow on a bed . ALT: a black and white cartoon cat is sitting on a pillow on a bed .

YEAH

*grumble grumble grumble*

I've stopped downloading the damn things. I've been lucky that to find a desktop site for most stuff I need, but it's tricky for some things (and the desktop sites tend to be buggier I'm finding, but whatever)

A newspaper headline from over a century ago, reading: WOMEN ANARCHISTS HAVE BECOME THE TERROR OF WORLDS POLICE Their Daring Crimes Are Said to Have Out- stripped the Deeds of Brothers of the Red Search for the Woman is Becoming a Safe Rule in Crimes Proceeding From Anarchistic Violence—The Guardians of the World Nearly Always Finda Woman Implicated When a Ruler is Stricken Down—Emotional Women Lose Sense of Fear.

Happy International Women's Day. 🏴

Genuine democracy is built and sustained by the everyday public infrastructures that allow people to rely on one another: thriving public housing, childcare, schools and libraries, universal healthcare, unions, public media, real community safety, and public health as direct social care. Where these institutions wither, democratic imagination withers – and fascist fantasies thrive. Where they are valued and invested, democracy becomes a lived practice rather than an anxious memory.

www.theguardian.com/global/comme...

move slow and repair things

hold up who was gonna tell me that Prince Humperdinck was Jack Skellington

Donate to Ayúdennos a reunir a una familia separada., organized by Samantha Chito Hola, me llamo Samantha. Mi esposo Jonathan fue arrestado. Él está detenido … Samantha Chito needs your support for Ayúdennos a reunir a una familia separada.

I know people are tapped out, but for anyone who still can, this incredibly sweet family needs help urgently as they try to appeal the detention of their husband/dad. We set the GFM up in a rush, so the harrowing details aren't all in there, but I can assure you that the need is urgent and real.

Thank you Mark Ruffalo and Bikini Kill bikinikill.bandcamp.com/merch/limite...

Westminster Meeting House raided by Metropolitan Police again. Statement: “For Quakers, faith and action are inseparable. Peaceful protest, prayer and nonviolent action are integral parts of many Quakers' religious life. Whilst we take the planning of criminal acts very seriously, we believe that this incident is a deliberate targeting of committed young people who want to make our country a more equitable place. This raid is part of a systematic stifling of dissent. That this is the second time in a year that the police have raided our meeting house dramatically illuminates the broader trend in the UK of cracking down on those who disagree with the government. The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy. It's a key part of how people make their voices heard between elections.” – Oliver Robertson, Head of Witness and Worship Quakers in Britain, 5 March 2026

Yesterday evening, for the second time in a year, the Met Police raided Westminster Quaker Meeting House and arrested a number of young nonviolent activists.

STATEMENT: www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...

Dominic the grey cockatiel holding a toy sword in his beak

Dominic has decided to take matters into his own wings

He had grown up in a country run by politicians who sent the pilots to man the bombers to kill the babies to make the world safe for children to grow up in.

This is your periodic reminder that Master and Commander is a phenomenally good film.

Across the United States, landlords file an average of seven evictions *every minute.*

In some cities, for every one person who secures housing, an estimated four more are pushed into homelessness.

The numbers are staggering:

Rent is now unaffordable for a record *half* of U.S. renters.

Some 30 million jobs pay less than $15 an hour. The average wage needed to afford a one-bedroom apartment has climbed to $28.17 — nearly four times the federal minimum wage, which hasn't gone up in 16 years.

Years of reporting on this crisis have made one thing unmistakable: the precarity we live with—the anxiety, the instability, the degradation—is engineered.

*And what has been engineered can be undone.*

A red t-shirt that says "love miniatures hate fascism" with an illustration of red and black fists holding paint brushes styled after the historical Antifaschistische Aktion logo.

Everything is political and if you're involved in a hobby community it's a great place to start organizing

Fairy Tales, Papua New Guinea, an Idiosyncratic Approach A personal view on fairy tales, Papua New Guinea & the tales found there

Next week: join us for our next online talk: Viktor Wynd, 'Fairy Tales, Papua New Guinea, an Idiosyncratic Approach'. Tuesday 10 March, 19:00-20:30 GMT on Zoom. Tickets £6.00 (£4 for members with promo code) www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fairy-tale...

no time to think, no time to reconsider

no time to feel bad

not my fault, the computer made the decision right

The AI machine is making recommendations for what to target, which is actually much quicker in some ways than the speed of thought,” said Craig Jones, a senior lecturer in political geography at Newcastle University and an expert in kill chains. “So you’ve got scale and you’ve got speed, you’re [carrying out the] assassination-style strikes at the same time as you’re decapitating the regime’s ability to respond with all the aerial ballistic missiles. That might have taken days or weeks in historic wars. [Now] you’re doing everything at once.”

this is bad

they know this is *bad* right

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

A robot in the form of an axolotl, the neotenic mole salamander species, specifically one of the domestic breeds which tends to be very pale in colouration with contrasting eyes and a wide, upturned mouth resembling a human smile. In other words, the ones that look like smol robots. It has three frond-like gills on each side of its ovoid head, a longish body with a tail that has both an upper and lower ridged fin, and banded arms and legs ending in jointed claws. A couple of air bubbles are drifting above it as it floats.

462) Axolotlbot. A friendly aquatic robot pal, for people who want an axolotl but might not be able to keep one easily, or as company for existing axolotls. #SmallRobotsRemastered

In St. Paul, Minnesota, Hennepin County deputies brutally assaulted peaceful anti-ICE protesters.

According to our sources in Williamsport, the vehicles have arrived.

Everything ICE says is a lie.

"The Islamists oppose women getting an education," I mutter, as I aim my missile at the girls school

Seeing a lot of cynicism on the timeline. What if this is one of the good wars?

Oh fuck. Why did I check my phone when I woke up.

So thank your lucky stars you got protection. Walk the line and never mind the cost. don't wonder who them lawmen was protectin', when they nailed the savior to the cross.

www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/trumps-bor...