I do think its in everyone's best interests to get curious about where your food comes from, and agitate for more localised, short-chain food production where u can. The massive complex exploitative imperial system that provides most of our material needs is trembling and weakening. Prices have been kept low due to fossil fuels, which are running out, and exploitation, which is on the rise. We are moving ever deeper into a world of poverty, starvation, and something my dear friend tori once called "mega slavery". Getting involved with more resilient & ethical alternatives will be increasingly important as our system crumbles & whatever's coming next struggles to be born.
Being a calm, gentle, non-reactive person is really hard work, which is probably why many people are none of these things. Personally I think it’s worth it but sometimes one does want to just roll around on the floor wailing at the top of one’s lungs
People in my notes who think I’m repressed or dissociating: you will feel better when you learn emotions are not a binary of Not Feeling It vs Being Overwhelmed By It
Hey my dance teacher helped spearhead the response to this from CLRG, they worked with the aclu of Florida and Equality Florida who she said were extremely helpful in creating their statement (basically that these laws being cited only apply to public sports like schools and Irish dance nationals is a closed competition that you have to qualify for (so fuck off)), consider donating to them!
also the girl at the center of the storm ultimately decided not to attend nationals because she is a literal child (under 18 for sure) and her family just decided it was too stressful but I do know that at least one other trans dancer competed as well as a nonbinary competitor in the adult men’s competition whose costume was all rainbow themed. Normally we don’t say yay CLRG bc of their varying sex and bribery scandals but in this case, yay CLRG!
Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday in response to rising pressure from student-led protests.
‘Cockroach Movement’ Forces Out India’s Education Minister
"Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday amid mounting pressure from the “Cockroach Movement,” which demanded major government reforms—starting with his departure. Student activists accused Pradhan of failing to safeguard a competitive medical school exam, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), after authorities concluded that its contents had been leaked online. ...
Without accepting fault, [Education Minister Pradhan] explained that he had agreed to step down in order to prevent “anti-national forces” from exploiting the upheaval.
Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the CJP, celebrated the resignation with fellow protesters in New Delhi on Saturday.
“It's a victory for the people of India,” Dipke said to the crowd. He later posted an image of India’s Constitution on social media, with the caption: “Thank you.” ...
On the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian President Droupadi Murmu appointed Pralhad Joshi—who already oversees the ministries of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, along with New and Renewable Energy—to oversee the Ministry of Education “in addition to his existing portfolio,” which is a typical arrangement in India following a Cabinet vacancy and does not preclude a later permanent appointment...
CJP Spokesperson Saurav Das said in an interview with local media ANI following the president’s announcement that the party members will be meeting the new education minister “very soon.” ...
What Comes Next for the CJP?
The CJP established its list of demands on May 16. In addition to calling for Pradhan’s resignation, the CJP asked for compensation of 10 million rupees ($104,000) for each student who died by suicide following the leak.
They also sought greater legislative oversight of the educational system, gender equity in government roles, a fully independent media, and certain reforms to the electoral and political system—such as creating a 20-year ban on politicians switching parties before seeking election.
Adding to those mandates, the CJP last week asked that the central government drop any potential charges against protesters, after claiming that several had been “illegally detained” by police.
Following Pradhan’s resignation, representatives from the CJP met with officials from the Indian government to discuss the rest of the party’s demands. In a press conference following the meeting, Das said on Saturday that the negotiations had been successful.
"All our demands have been accepted,” he said, without elaboration. “We request the protesters to withdraw immediately and return home peacefully."
The CJP added during the press conference on Saturday that representatives from the movement would meet with officials again in four weeks to work on broader reforms. Its spokesperson told local media that the fight for a transparent educational system is far from over.
He said that members of the CJP conveyed to officials that if the issues are not addressed, the protesters will reconvene “and demand accountability.”
-via TIME, July 25, 2026. Non-paywall version here via MSN, July 25, 2026
it's so crazy too bc i'll be like "this phrase/practice is being touted as ancient knowledge with a secret unbroken lineage, but it was quite literally made up in the 20th century. like we can trace it back to its very inception in like 1961." and someone will be like "that can't be true because my grandmother taught it to me." and i'm like yes your grandmother was 20 in 1961.
It is easy to forget just how central military violence has been and remains to business as usual. More than 5 per cent of annual CO2 emissions stem from the militaries around the world. We often talk about flying and how bad it is for the climate, and it is bad, but civil aviation accounts for about 3 per cent of the total. And the 5 per cent that comes from militaries precede actual war: these are peacetime emissions, made in the process of maintaining the logistical apparatuses and fighting capacities of armies before they go to war. When they do go into battle, the fuel is set on fire and the bombs rain down in bursts of concentrated additional emissions. The US, of course, is at the centre of all this. The emissions from the occupation army during the war on Gaza might be counted as just another category of American emissions. The US outweighs every other country; indeed, as Neta C. Crawford notes, 'the US military is the single largest institutional fossil fuel user in the world and thus the world's single largest greenhouse gas emitter In her book The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War, she brilliantly charts the development of what she calls 'the deep cycle' The militaries of first the UK and then the US found coal, followed by oil, to be indispensable for waging war: for manufacturing weapons, transporting soldiers into the battlefield, providing mobility once engaged, bringing firepower to bear on the enemy. By basing its operations on fossil fuels, the US military contributed to their spread throughout the economy; and when both the military and economy were thoroughly dependent on them, the protection of this essential commodity itself became an imperative of war. No part of the world has been so deeply formed and scarred by this cycle as the Middle East. Although Palestine is at its centre, the devastation clearly extends to other countries too: think only of Iraq and Yemen.
— The Destruction of Palestine is The Destruction of the Earth, Andreas Malm
Context for anyone who is wondering: Lamine Yamal's parents won an UNICEF raffle for a charity photoshoot in which Barça players posed with kids, and 5 month old Lamine happened to get 20yo Messi. Which is like. Literally insane
Years before the covid pandemic began, author Naomi Kritzer wrote the charming, emotionally genuine short story "So Much Cooking," which was a pandemic log through the eyes of a cooking blog. The premise is that the author is a home cooking blogger raising her kids, and then a pandemic hits--and bit by bit she's feeding not only her own, but her sister's kids, some neighbors' kids, and so on, in a situation of pandemic lockdown and food shortages.
It's very good, and was prescient for a lot of the early days of the covid pandemic. I found myself returning to it often in the first couple of years because of how steadfast it was in its hopefulness.
Last year she wrote a novelette, "The Year Without Sunshine," which attacks a similar problem in a similar way; instead of pandemic, this one is about the aftereffects of a distant nuke or a massive volcano explosion (it doesn't say), which has churned a great deal of dust into the air, causing massive damage to society and agriculture. The story covers one neighborhood, pulling together to keep each other alive--not through violence, but through lawn potatoes and message pinboards and bicycle-powered oxygen concentrators.
I recommend both stories. They're uplifting in a way that a lot of what I see lately isn't. They're a bit of a panacea for constant fearmongering about intracommunity violence and grinding hatefulness. We can be good to each other, if we try.
[ID: the Sue Sylvester "I am going to create an [x] that is so [y]" meme edited to say "I am going to write an platonic friendship that is so intimate" End ID]
