Eu escrevo sobre histórias reais – Pensamentos.me/VEM comigo!

Eu não escrevo Contos de Fadas. Acredito que a vida é muito mais interessante quando acontece pelo lado de fora. ” Eu escrevo sobre histórias reais que ajudam as pessoas a pensar “. Aliás, não só pensar, mas diante de situações que são importantes para elas, saber a diferença entre o que é visto com um certo grau de utopia e a realidade. O lúdico é importante, mas para um outro universo. O final ” justo” dentro do que se pode compreender como tal, será fruto da escolha de cada um. Não posso dizer que esse é um final do tipo que acontece nos cinemas, coisas como ” foram felizes para sempre “. Por isso, acrescentei a  palavra ” justo”. Se a pessoa diante da capacidade de pensar, souber fazer escolhas saudáveis, o final tem esse sabor de felicidade, que é o que importa na somatória da vida. No mundo real, sobressai a razão, com uma leve pitada de emoção.

 

Marii Freire. Eu escrevo sobre histórias reais

https://Pensamentos.me/VEM comigo!

Imagem: Autoral

Santarém, Pá 27 de junho de 2024

Source: Eu escrevo sobre histórias reais – Pensamentos.me/VEM comigo!

Concrete blocks made from sugarcane waste – Darcy Hitchcock

Concrete is used around the world as a building material but the cement in it is a major greenhouse gas emitter. Researchers have figured out how to build blocks using the waste product from sugarcane. It’s so easy, you can make the blocks by hand, so this would be an ideal building material for developing countries like India that grow sugarcane.

Source: Concrete blocks made from sugarcane waste – Darcy Hitchcock

Florida: School Board Bans Book about Banning Books! | Diane Ravitch’s blog

At what point does Florida go from the absurd to the ridiculous? Or has that point already been passed? A school board in Florida voted to ban a book called Ban This Book.

I wish someone would explain to school board members, to Moms Restricting Liberty, and to Governor Ron DeSantis that whenever a book is banned, that book gets national notoriety and a big sales bump. Authors are thinking, “Please ban my book,” it needs publicity, and yahoos oblige.

Scott Maxwell, columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, writes:

The headline that made its way around the world last week looked like a joke:

“Florida school board bans book about book bans”

The story couldn’t have been more meta. Or more Florida. I half-hoped it was satire, but having covered Florida’s increasingly ridiculous education priorities in recent years, knew it wasn’t.

The Tallahassee Democrat explained that the Indian River County School Board voted 3-to-2 to ban a book called “Ban This Book.”

The book is a lighthearted yet poignant tale about a 9-year-old girl named Amy Anne Ollinger who, upon learning that her school is trying to censor books, decides to fight back by cultivating her own secret library in her school locker. It’s part comedy and part thought-provoker. Some of the book focuses on how Amy Anne doesn’t always go about things the right way.

A promotional blurb for the book says: “Ban This Book is a love letter to the written word and its power to give kids a voice.” Publishers Weekly said it celebrates “kids’ power to effect change.”

To that end, I have a new proposal for Florida’s book-banners: Before pushing to censor any book, you have to first actually read it and then prove you understood it. In this case, “Ban This Book” was written for 8-to-12-year-olds. So you might need to put on your thinking cap.

The story in Indian River got even more ridiculous when it revealed that virtually all the censorship stemmed from one person — a Moms for (so-called) Liberty member who objected to books by everyone from Toni Morrison to Kurt Vonnegut.

“She also got ‘Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation’ pulled from a high school,” the story said. “And, in response to her objection to a children’s book that showed the bare behind of a goblin, the school district drew clothes over it.”

OK, let’s stop here. If you’re a grown adult whose crowning accomplishments are to censor a book about the Holocaust, ban a book on book-banning and draw cartoon underpants on a cartoon goblin, then to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy: You might be an idiot.

So this is my plea today to my fellow Floridians during an election year: Stop electing idiots. Specifically, stop electing them to school boards.

Source: Florida: School Board Bans Book about Banning Books! | Diane Ravitch’s blog

Editorial: Banning masks at protests is a bad idea – Los Angeles Times

American citizens who speak anonymously or hide their faces might want to avoid police surveillance, and they should be able to do that as long as they don’t threaten or inflict immediate harm on others or engage in other forms of law-breaking. As government and private companies track people’s movements through license-plate readers, traffic cameras, cellphone tracking and other technology, Americans who value their privacy and their rights need not simply give in. They need not give up masks, the lowest-tech means of resisting all the high-tech surveillance.

Masks themselves have become political statements and come within free speech protections. Let’s not forget that very recently, wearing masks in public was not merely permitted, but encouraged and often mandated. Refusing to wear one might have theoretically subjected a person to arrest (although that rarely happened). A person’s masking decision during the COVID-19 pandemic expressed a belief about government policy, personal rights and respect for medical expertise. In some communities across the nation where mask mandates were resisted, stores posted signs advising shoppers that anyone who entered wearing a mask would be considered a thief, and would be treated as such — even if the law required masks in public.

How would law enforcement authorities distinguish between someone wearing a mask to evade identification and someone wanting not to catch COVID?

Source: Editorial: Banning masks at protests is a bad idea – Los Angeles Times

Songs I Like (45) | beetleypete

I might be the only person who actually prefers Janet Jackson to her more famous brother, Michael. But I can live with that.

In 1997, I bought her new album, ‘The Velvet Rope’. I couldn’t stop playing it, and one track in particular. It also made me realise how useful it was to have a CD player instead of a record player, as I could just key in the track number. I still love that album now, especially this song.

And she was quite gorgeous, which doesn’t hurt.

The lyrics are on the video.

Source: Songs I Like (45) | beetleypete

Do Mosquitos Really Color Code Their Victims? | From Behind the Pen

Image Credit: Colfra/Unsplash

Besides being notorious bloodsucking vampires, can someone please tell me exactly what good or service mosquitos serve? Do they have a little mosquito Red Cross Center where they deposit pints of blood they later use in transfusions for malnourished mosquitos needing blood?

They say that mosquitos play a substantial role in our ecosystem. Yeah, right. So, male mosquitoes transfer pollen from flower to flower, which fertilizes plants and allows them to reproduce. Can’t we just leave that pollination process to the bees? Mosquitos are also part of the food web for fish, birds, bats, frogs, and flies. Oh happy, happy, joy, joy! Can’t the birds, bats, frogs, and flies munch on something else like Doritos, Fritos, potato chips, trail mix, or a nice juicy worm?

But get this, female mosquitoes are the culprits who bite people and animals to get a blood meal. Most female mosquitoes cannot produce eggs without a blood meal. Well now, can you say infertility boys and girls? Male mosquitoes do not bite people and animals. Is that so? To me, a mosquito is a mosquito. I apologize to all of you Culicidae lovers out there, but these little flying insects aren’t my cup of tea, or coffee, or wine!

Image – Creator: HAYKIRDI | Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

It seems as though mosquitos are attracted to certain colors. Wait, so mosquitos are the vampire-biting fashion police prone to color-coding the shades of clothing their preferred victims wear? Are those Pantone colors by chance? And who do these mosquitos think they are? Louis Vuitton? Coco Chanel? Karl Lagerfeld? Gucci? Vera Wang? Oscar de la Renta? Jimmy Choo? Versace?

It seems like red, orange, cyan (blue-green), and black tend to attract mosquitos while colors like white, green, blue, and purple repel them. The real question is, what if I wear a color that attracts and one that repels at the same time? Hmmm. So then, I turned to the colors in my outdoor living space since I spend a lot of time on my deck. It is suggested that when selecting colors to avoid mosquitoes, consider white wood, metal, plastic, or wicker furniture over black or dark bronze iron. Guess who has black iron outdoor furniture?

The recommendations also suggest when selecting cushions, doormats, and decorative accents, look for items in blues, purples, greens, and white to lower the likelihood of mosquito problems. Well now, guess again who has bright tropical cushions on the front porch, bright red flower pots, and deep gold/ruby red/tan cushions on their deck?

No, I did not consult my mosquito handbook when selecting colors to wear outdoors and what colors to decorate my outdoor living space. Does this mean that I have to walk around with marigolds, citronella candles, and insect repellent every time I sit outside to enjoy the great open-air space I am privy to? UGH, what a nuisance!

Image Credit: Dave Granlund/Gaston Gazette

 

Source: Do Mosquitos Really Color Code Their Victims? | From Behind the Pen

Opinion: Trump’s claims about the economy in the debate will be lies – Los Angeles Times

The truth is, Trump inherited a growing economy from President Obama — much as he inherited his business from his dad — and he left a pandemic-sickened one to Biden. Also, growth on his watch didn’t come close to the average under Obama, or any of the previous seven U.S. presidents. Under Biden, the economy grew last year more than in any year of Trump’s term.

Source: Opinion: Trump’s claims about the economy in the debate will be lies – Los Angeles Times