Rose Rudd @roseannerudd@social.cleverlibre.org

"The wife of a jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. #Navalny urges he be given medical treatment.

Yulia Navalny said that her ailing husband, Aleksei Navalny, was being held in a small cell with a sicker person to infect him, and was not allowed to lie down throughout the day despite having a fever.

Her plea came a day after more than 200 Russian doctors, in a rare public display of dissent, sent a petition to #Putin imploring him to “stop abusing” Navalny"

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/world/europe/navalny-medical-treatment-russia.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

"I think people are saying this will be mild. It’s not mild. Do the math: With 400 or 500 deaths a day, that’s getting up to 150,000 to 200,000 a year, which is four- or five-times higher than the worst flu season. That’s not good. Even without 2,000 to 3,000 deaths a day, we’re still seeing a lot of hospitalizations, a lot of long COVID... There will be generations dealing with long COVID. The impact on young adults and young people will be profound." https://www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/renew-houston/health/article/Peter-Hotez-COVID-XBB15-variant-vaccine-booster-17707273.php #COVID19

Imagine if we relied on “personal responsibility” instead of the law to combat other public health issues like drunk driving. No rules--just “you do you”. If you're comfortable driving drunk and wish to take the risk, go ahead and do it--why worry yourself with harming anyone else?

Wait, that doesn't work? Then why do maskless conferences, flights, and events work at a time when we know #COVID19 risks are rising. Don't take personal responsibility; take public responsibility. #WearAMask

Ice Eggs beach. Thousands of balls of ice cover a beach in Finland due to a phenomenon that occurs when ice is rolled over by water and wind. 💙

Pitching a 10 part horror series to Netflix “when toddlers go quiet”

I was showing the three-year-old a map in a book this evening and asked him where we lived. He looked around for a second and then asked, "Where's the blue dot?"

Speed.. 😂

At a wildlife rehab facility I met two crows that said, "caw" in a human accent. They said it like a human reading the word "caw" aloud. The tech shook her head and said, "they're making fun of us. People say 'caw' to them all day, so they've started impersonating us." I <3 crows

Presenting the Champlain Ice Scarf: #climate #knitting. The white rows are years when Lake Champlain (#vermont) froze over. The blue rows are years when it did not. Data are from 1800 through 2021. Guess which end is 1820.

I've tried not to bring too much baggage with me from COVID Twitter but this NYTimes story is appalling. Not only do they paint those still wearing masks as holdouts, but they somehow couldn't find someone who wears anything in between a handmade cloth mask and an elastomeric P100, giving the impression that the remaining mask wearers are either wearing ineffectual protection or wearing a level of protection that most people were unwilling to adopt even pre-vaccination.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/26/us/covid-masks-risk.html

Big Journalism is still largely unwilling to call things what they are. Today's example is the Washington Post's use of "vaccine hesitancy" to describe a movement that is based on rejecting science and evidence in favor of dangerous and, increasingly, politically motivated lies.

The people who reject vaccines are attacking their communities. They spread disease and death. We should recognize this, and say it out loud.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/12/26/vaccine-hesitancy-measles-chickenpox-polio-flu/

How I wrote my first novel while going blind – and kept it a secret - Blindness has its daily hurdles, but it has also given me insight into a metaphysical oddity of the human experience“It gets better!” “One day at a time!” “Don’t forget your dreams!”It’s my experience that people with disabilities are expertly attuned to the practice of fielding empowering affirmations from support groups,... #theguardian

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/dec/27/first-novel-writing-blindness

No, go ahead make yourself comfortable

On how many Mastodon hosts do you have an account? (Please boost for wide sampling, thanks)

On this day I’m thinking about Ukrainians struggling without electricity, trying to stay warm, fearful of Russian violence and hoping to stay alive amid a war that is so unnecessary. May the coming year bring an end to the madness.

Now that all three kids are home for the holidays, the silverware is disappearing at an unsustainable rate. What do they do with it? Sell it for drugs? All I want is a spoon. It’s my house. Why can’t I have one spoon in my own house?

@politicsusa46

I always get teary eyes when discussing or watching anything about Ukraine.

So brave, so inspiring to witness their spirit in the face of this most unjustified and foul war.

@SpockResists Personally, I’m happy here & I feel like we can make a difference & get messages across. I won’t be around to see the #BirdSite fall, I know it will & therefore I will work on something new. I love the idea that we’re not being fed something because of an algorithm, but rather, it is based on what we boost, like, & who we follow.
News, government, and businesses need to build their own servers and come here.