Greetings...

Huginn and Muninn also say hello!

Apparently the words "thought" and "thank" have a common language root - to thank someone is to express a favorable thought toward them. I'm not sure how that's of relevance to anything in particular, I just thought I'd throw it out there...

Thanks for reading my thoughts!

The dove from above!

I don’t have a chimney cowl on my chimney, so a few times a year a pigeon falls down it, today was one of those days! Fortunately, I have an open fire with a fireguard, so when I hear one clatter down the chimney I firstly go grab my pigeon managment device, AKA broom, then I open the living room patio doors. Once those preparations have been made I move into my “shooing” position on the opposite side of the fireplace, then make friendly noises at them. I then “open” the fireguard as if it
were a door, inviting the pigeon into the room on the correct trajectory for a
swift exit via the patio doors.

Today went smoothly, which was good. Sometimes it goes totally tits‑up — and the bird goes on a frenzied shitting‑spree, bouncing off the walls and ceiling, leaving mushed, ashy pigeon outlines everywhere like a cartoon character!

I’ve considered a cowl, but fitting one is expensive, and I figure the occasional pigeon saves me having to clean the chimney. It also got me thinking about how a thing with wings can manage to fall down a chimney in the first place — so I thought I’d find out: why, pigeon, why are you so fucking stupid?

But apparently they’re not stupid - they’re curious and bold, but have poor depth perception in dark spaces. I also discovered that pigeons can recognize individual human faces - so I'm glad I was polite to it, I wouldn't want them to leave a bad review on Tripadvisor. They can pass versions of the mirror test, suggesting self‑recognition, a useful skill. They can distinguish patterns, shapes, categories, letters of the alphabet, and even learn words! They have even been trained to distinguish paintings by different artists, and their numerical skills can be surprisingly strong, sometimes compared with primates in experiments, though I would hesitate to employ one as an accountant. They’re also quite good at cleaning my chimney, and waking me up at 5am with their incessant cooing — so yeah, pigeons:
kind of annoying, but also kind of cool.

◒ The upside-down moon ◓

When looking at the moon, you are not just looking “up"
because what counts as “up” depends on where you are standing...

♅ Philip K Dick was a time traveller ♅

This picture was taken in 1953.

That does not look like a person from 1953.

Do androids dream of travelling back in time to become speculative fiction authors?

♅ Trollitician ♅

A concise descriptive package that perfectly sums up our current political landscape

♚ God save the Quee...ing! ♚

There is some kind of weird techno/monarchic coup going on in America, it is concerning, and is likely to spread. However I live in the UK, and we already have a monarchy - and they've been in place for centuries! Britain has always been a strange "democracy" - we have no constitution, just a complex system of laws, statutes and treatise held in place by centuries of tradition. I don't like what they stand for, but in this strange new age they may provide a bulwark of stability that other countries lack. I find it deeply ironic that I'm now almost glad that we have this bizarre bureaucratic system of Kings, Lords, Right Honourable this's, and privy that's! It obviously benefits the elite primarily, but better the devil you know...

♅ Alberto Brandolini ♅

The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.

♅ Goddledegook ♅

If there is no God, then why does the palm of a man fit perfectly
around the throat of a goose?

Thoughts and prayers to anyone who's had his shadow pass over their feet

Your teeth are whiter than sheep freshly washed;
they match perfectly, not one is missing!

You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

♟ "Man Up" ♟

There's a crisis with men and boys in my country, it is systemic - in UK schools only 1 in 4 teachers are men, and 1 in 7 at primary schools - this needs a solution, and rapidly, to counter the taint of modern day "influencers".

I think schools need to have a lesson every week allocated to boys which is hosted by a positive male role model - not a teacher - just a dude who's not an asshole and has something interesting to impart, whatever, as long as it's positive.

When I was at primary school we had a guy called Ray Coles come in and do football, not a teacher, just a sporty guy who had an innate knack for wrangling boys - he was a good guy and everyone loved him. There's no way Ray would've had the academic chops to become a teacher, and there's no such thing as a degree in 'Being Ray' - so if becoming a teacher is the only route to having an impact on boys inside schools then I think we're screwed as a society, because instead of Ray, it'll be Andrew Tate, or some similar piece of shit who will end up impacting them!

Teaching just isn't as appealing to men, especially primary teaching, and I don't think any recruitment drives or other tactics will change this - we live in a society where a man who wants to work closely with young kids is viewed suspiciously, and that puts guys off going into teaching (thanks catholic priests!). But like I've said, we don't necessarily need more male teachers, we need men like Ray on the roster to offset the imbalance in teaching - and not slapped into some kind of subordinate 'teaching assistant' role either! They should be men of character, with a certain amount of autonomy to make them less tied to the standard authoritarian school doctrine
that many young males abhor.

Solving the crisis in men will help everyone - it's easy to say 'fuck men, it's all their fault, why help any of them!' to this I say: focus on the cause not the symptoms - a well adjusted man will not batter his wife and kids, or abuse minorities, or abuse his privilege. This should be seen as a preventative measure, a positive influence on society, not a capitulation to the manosphere. Many boys just want to be boys, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that.