kbal

The snow today is perfect for making an igloo.

The local grocery store does delivery! This improves my life somewhat. They take orders by email, which are relayed to a man employed by the store to pick the orders and drive the van. No shitty big-data rent-seeking middlemen involved. It's pretty good.

I've learned that the reason why the brand of honey I've been buying is so good is that it's unfiltered and unpasteurized. It gives me a vague sense of unease as I wonder if there's some good reason why so many producers of the stuff do filter and pasteurize it even though it tastes this much better when you don't.

I mentioned, whimsically, that it was a personal failing of mine that I hadn't persisted for a single day being constantly aware of every breath, inhaling and exhaling. She reacted with horror at the idea of doing such a thing, imagining it possible only if every breath was difficult and painful. I easily dismissed her reaction as a misunderstanding, but perhaps I shouldn't have. Simple awareness can incite many feelings.

Week 8 of my campaign of diet and exercise: I think my body is building up a tolerance to wheat bran.

I stopped the whistling tea kettle from doing it's whistle this morning, to avoid disturbing the deer that were hanging around on the other side of the kitchen window. Showing such deference to wildlife makes me feel like I'm being slightly stupid, but it seemed like the polite thing to do.

It appears that sometime in the past few days, posts from people I've followed have stopped showing up in the feed. The latest from pluralistic @ mamot.fr for instance is not there right now. He's not blocked me, I can see it if I go to his profile. All that shows up is stuff posted to hashtags that I follow.

I guess it's a new bug?

Isn't this body meant to be suffused with ancient biological wisdom or something? I know losing weight is hard, but come on, just because I didn't ride a bicycle since seven days ago does not mean we don't need those leg muscles any more. There's plenty of fat left. Look, it's that flabby bit right there. Use that up first.

I've added flax seeds to my diet, maybe that will help.

The TL/DR is this: The allegation that David Pugliese is a Russian asset has floated around Ottawa for about a decade — often with various degrees of evidence behind it. It was in recent years that these documents, which appear to be real and which were furnished by Kyiv, were sent to Canadian intelligence agencies and were seriously investigated. While Pugliese has proved himself to be a willing customer for Russian disinformation, and while I believe he hasn’t appropriately disclosed his relationship with the Russian embassy, the idea that he is a paid agent of the Russian government is probably false.

But recent Kremlin influence operations have blurred the lines between asset and useful idiot. They invite us to, as I said repeatedly during my statement at committee, get serious.

If I had a way to capture the feeling of looking at the sky, I would put it here.

Things they should teach in primary school: 1. Never give your phone number to a web site.

@WEATHERISHAPPENING@weatherishappening.network @ZLabe@fediscience.org Contrasting approaches to weather risk communications on the fedi