All my senior students are so excited about having voted for the first time today. They found a way to make their stickers stay on with gaffer tape.

I need your help and creativity.

You know how scratch off lottery tickets work? Did you know you can buy stickers that can turn anything into a “scratch off”? Well ever since I’ve discovered these stickers I’ve been desperate to find a way to use them in teaching grade school level CS. The idea of hidden keys, broken seals— I know there’s an angle here.

Am I just attracted to stickers? Yes. I have a few ideas but they aren’t good enough. I turn to the fedi to enable this sticker stuff.

There are so many urban exploitation films that play on the rough days of NYC. Taxi, The Warriors, Escape From New York... on and on... many of these are movies I like because I'm obsessed with what happened to this glamorous "World City" in those days. And it wasn't just NYC, growing up in Cleveland I remember asking my parents "why doesn't anyone live right down town where everything is?"

Then there is The Wiz... a KIDS MOVIE that tackles everything from negative self image, to urban decay.

Urban Planning Humor!
https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/113427385720293208

Afro Futurism!

Media Literacy!
https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/113427447455583801

Giant VU meters!

The Wiz has it all and these aren't even the *best* parts. Just the kind of obscure little touches I love. Can we talk about that surreal skyline over Coney Island?

The LITERAL "big apple"??

This movie is like nothing else ever made.

OK. I think I have made my case.

It's hard to overstate the impact and importance of "The Wiz"-- this musical and movie brought together a never seen before star studded cast, and touched millions of young people with a wholesome and celebratory version of Black Vaudeville: a tradition that goes back to the 1890s.

It didn't make a lot of sense to white audiences, but it wasn't really for them. You have to understand that as a little girl seeing a black woman as the main character in a movie for kids was ... well this was it.

@octothorpe @lisamelton

hmmm I didn't look at THAT way...

wait.

NO.

I do not need a glowing trilobite parasail kite. I do not need a glowing trilobite parasail kite.

Friendly reminder that "The Marshmallow Test" may be a better test of how much a child trusts the adult who is running the test than anything else. (And children can have good reasons for not trusting random people "in charge")

Many of the correlations with "success" might just be measuring class divides.

It's naive to think that wealthy people are better at the marshmallow test than the rest of us. The inaction of climate change and their glee at inflicting economic harm for short term gain proves otherwise.

Marshmallow Test:

Child who can't wait and eats both: poor impulse control
Child who waits: Better impulse control
Child who finds the whole bag under the table and stuffs them in their mouth, gets sick: future billionaire

When the economy crashes it's great if you are rich. You can buy companies and stock. You don't have to pay as much for labor because workers are desperate.

Granted this is a very short term thing. In the long run, it is perhaps not so good that the pie is no longer growing in size... even if you happen to get to eat more of it. (Or not eat, no one can eat *that* much. No one can wisely spend that much money.)

Climate change has some similar features.

@ironcladlou @schratze

When I was a bike messenger there was a guy who worked for the same dispatch who could make the "whooop" sound of a NYPD car asking a motorist to pull over with his mouth.

He did something very similar when he'd see motorists making illegal turns and it was VERY amusing.

I just texted a friend who I think of as someone who I don't need to tell to vote. But, they said "thank god, I don't know what to do about the ballot measures, I know you care about that stuff can you explain it?"

Another similar friend CLEARLY had forgotten.

Text 'em all "did you vote yet or are you going on election day?"

Your text is more cool and fun than the texts from the campaigns.

@schratze

I thought a song bird had a stereotypical "call" while corvids can make any noise they want and will mimic, and learn.

There is something diabolical and perceptive about the corvid mind. Songbirds are just confused by their drama and complexity.

I imagine the poor bluejays feel underestimated by their peers, since their colorful feathers and size make them seem like songbirds.

The fact that bluejays are corvids explains so much about the bird drama I saw at our bird feeder as a child.

The bluejays were so mean, and so busy, and they were the only birds who'd take on the crows. Everyone was aghast at their antics.

But they are little blue crows and that explains EVERYTHING.

Monstordon CANNOT be missed tomorrow at 8pm CT

The movie?

The classic wholesome story of giant ants who help people and are nice:

THEM!

#monsterdon

Whenever I talk about Epstein I like to remind people that young people, mostly young women, but also people of all genders are abused in this way by less famous and politically significant men. Even if you live in a small town it could be happening in your community.

Sometimes the police protect them, sometimes they are the police, sometimes they own the biggest business in town, or are "respected and loved" because they are a religious leader or head of a school.

Don't keep their secrets!

This morning my husband asked me "Won't most women vote for Kamala?"
"Yes."
"And there are more women than men, right?"
"Yes. And women are more likely to vote than men on top of that."
"So... why do we have this problem?"
For a second we were both stumped. We'd *forgotten* about the electoral college. (You can see why one might want to forget.)

If we can survive this election, what comes next is more important than ever. Many, Democrats will want to go back to doing what they were doing before this crisis of fascism came to a head. We cannot let this happen because even if Trump is imprisoned for his crimes the same thing will keep happening. At the root of all the problems are two major flaws:

1. Money in politics
2. The popular vote NOT being the foundation of congress or the presidency.

1/

It is strange to me how the story isn't "wow Black men care more about women's rights than white men, what is wrong with white men?" (Can you imagine the howling if this was every other story?)

And instead "wow Black men care less about women's rights than Black women (just like every damn color of man) what is wrong with Black men?"

It's interesting isn't it?

And by "interesting" I mean "predictable and annoying."