Author: ali redford

I love dogs and people. I want living creatures to thrive. I love to cook, and share the food, but ya gotta get in line in front of the dog.

“10 distractions, in case you need them for some reason”

In case you’re searching for things to take your mind off the immediate horrors of the real world for, you know, some reason, here are ten:

‌3D Workers Island is a horror story told in the form of late-nineties screenshots from forums, websites, and a mysterious screensaver.

‌Practical Betterments is a collection of very small one-off actions that improve your life continuously. Examples include putting a spoon in every container that needs a spoon or cutting your toothbrush in half. Gently unhinged.

‌Someone remixed a cover of Raffi’s Bananaphone with Ms. Rachel and it’s kind of a bop?

‌David Gilliver creates amazing light paintings — one of his latest was just shortlisted in the British Photography Awards. This article says he uses a lightsaber while dressed all in black; the pinnacle of Sith expression.

‌Witches on roller skates! Sure, Halloween’s over. But witches on roller skates!

‌That time Sir Terry Pratchett modded Oblivion is “the untold story of how Discworld author Terry Pratchett became an unexpected contributor to the world of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,” even as his Alzheimer’s progressed. The video is based on this older article.

‌After having a stroke at 25, Eilish Briscoe created a typeface to show the process of learning to write again — and has created a series of typographic exhibitions centered around the idea that “expression is a luxury”.

‌Halfbakery is “a communal database of original, fictitious inventions, edited by its users”. For example, the beardaclava, which is “a carefully woven balaclava that hangs as a thick and luxurious seamless extension to your existing beard, perfectly matching its colour and hair quality”.

‌Godchecker is here for you if you need to check a god. “Our legendary mythology encyclopedia now includes nearly four thousand weird and wonderful Gods, Supreme Beings, Demons, Spirits and Fabulous Beasts from all over the world.” Comprehensive.

‌Wigmaker is a game about making wigs. And it’s open source!

https://werd.io/2024/10-distractions-in-case-you-need-them-for-some-reason

 · Ben Werdmuller

I’m writing about the intersection of the internet, media, and society. Sign up to my newsletter to receive every post and a weekly digest of the most important stories from around the web.

Another One

Free Range by Bill Whitehead for November 05, 2024

Free Range Comic Strip for November 05, 2024

https://www.gocomics.com/freerange/2024/11/05

I make it a point to look at only comics over breakfast on BP check days. Calvin always gives a good one, always. Most of the toons I read are funny and non-topical. It is unfortunate that I can’t help but see the one featured comment under the comics; I can report that even on GoComics, the entire world is watching the US today with bated breath.

So, I can’t get my diastolic under 70. I like 66-69. (I’d like a little lower, but I’m not 17 anymore!) Anyway, that’s the Election Day morning report from the Redford manse. I prescribe the best chocolate everyone can get, enjoyed in small bites allowed to melt before swallowing. Plenty of clear, non-carbonated fluids, too. It really, truly helps. Let’s all enjoy the day where we are-it’s exactly where we’re supposed to be.

Tuesday Calvin Fix

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 05, 2024

Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip for November 05, 2024

https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2024/11/05

Here’s Some Fun-

Hear Edgar Allan Poe’s Horror Stories Read by Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, James Earl Jones, William S. Burroughs & Others

Nailed It, Indeed-

https://octoberfarm.blogspot.com/2024/11/blog-post_14.html

Peace & Justice History for 11/5:

November 5, 1872
Susan B. Anthony and a few other women in Rochester, New York, voted in the presidential election, all of them for the first time.
Susan B. Anthony
She wrote later that day to her fellow suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “If only now—all the women would work to this end of enforcing the existing constitution—supremacy of national law over state law—what strides we might make . . . .”
Anthony’s vote went to U. S. Grant and other Republicans, based on that party’s promise to consider the legitimacy of women’s suffrage.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Read Susan B. Anthony’s speech On Women’s Right to Vote 
November 5, 1949
The Peace Pledge Union in Great Britain set up the Non-Violence Commission to study nonviolent resistance and how the ideas of Gandhi could be used to reach the Union’s goals of getting U.S. troops out of Britain and to end production of nuclear weapons there.
November 5, 1969
Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale, a founder of the Black Panther Party, was sentenced to four years in prison on sixteen counts of contempt of court during the federal Chicago Eight trial in Chicago; he was charged for his insistent claims to the right to choose his own lawyer, or to represent himself. After the Chicago Eight verdict, the contempt charges were withdrawn.
November 5, 1982
36 were arrested in a demonstration at Honeywell, Minnesota’s largest defense contractor. The “Honeywell Project,” a local campaign against the arms maker, dogged the company for over three decades, at times with success. It continues today, targeting Alliant Technologies, the arms-making branch of Honeywell that was spun off in the 1990s.
Protests at Alliant continue today.
Alliant is the manufacturer for the Pentagon of artillery shells made with depleted uranium (DU or U-238, a by-product of uranium enrichment) which have been used extensively in Iraq and Kosovo. The Defense Department denies any health effects from use of DU (though army manuals warn soldiers of its toxicity), and contests accusations of DU’s role in Gulf War Syndrome.
More about the Honeywell project from War Resisters’ international 
November 5, 1987
Govan Mbeki, an early leader of the African National Congress, was released from South Africa’s Robben Island prison after serving twenty-four years (for treason).
He served his sentence alongside Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and many others who fought apartheid.
Govan Mbeki
His son, Thabo Mbeki, was elected in 1998 (and force to resign in 2008) to succeed Mandela, who was the first president elected following a new constitution which granted the right to vote to the entire non-white population, comprising 85% of the country’s population.

Read more about Govan Mbeki 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november5

Videos kill the Stress

I hope we each and all make this a fine Tuesday!

Monday Poetry for Justice

“The light in me is the light in thee!” Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator (Now Out, but first Go Vote)

It’s gonna be okay. by Jenny Lawson (thebloggess)

Keep shining, friend. Read on Substack

This is a stressful week for a lot of us and that’s probably why this came out of me when I turned off the world and stopped to draw…

Normally I alway write words on every drawing but I don’t have them for this doodle yet. What I do have though is the knowledge that even though the future is a place we can never see clearly, so many of you hold a light up in the world…so many of you are a light in this world. We may not be able to see what comes ahead but I know that no matter what, I’m here with you…around a flickering candle that will continue to shine. And I know that when my candle goes out you’ll lend me your flame…and vice versa. That’s how hope grows. That’s how kindness spreads.

Thank you for shining in a world that sometimes appears dark. It may seem such a small ember, but it glows like a lighthouse in the world, reminding us that we are so very far from being alone.

I super crazy love you,

~ Jenny

(snip)

SBTB’s “Cover Awe”

Beautiful art and non-snarky commentary. If the Support Free Content banner is up (I use AdBlock plus, but I turn it off on many sites, including SBTB,) just tell it you’ll fix it next time. It should only pop up if your ad blocker is on. This is worth it, and the ads, well, after I turned my blocker off, I still didn’t get ads. These covers are fabulous.)

Cover Awe: Immaculate Vibes