:o3

Grogu too was hopeful. He wanted to rush forward to greet his new friends but he knew they would turn tail and run. It had happened before.

“Go ahead and toss out the grain,” his father instructed.

He did so, most of it falling at his feet.

The birds scrambled closer but darted back. Two steps forward, one step back. A few dared to peck before hastily retreating.

“Eh?”

“We might need to move back a little. They don’t know if they can trust us yet.” He set the example and Grogu followed.

The safety margin was enough. The birds clambered over and around each other in a mad dash to reach the food. Every speck of grain was gone in seconds. A few spent the time to search for more. The rest stood without purpose. The twins were between the flock and their unexpected benefactors.

Grogu looked up over his shoulder, reaching out his open palm.

“That’s all I have right now.”

His ears drooped.

“But we can come back tomorrow with more. If you feed them regularly, they’ll learn to eat right out of your hand. Is that a responsibility you’re willing to take on?”

He perked up and nodded vigorously.

All the yellow wet floor signs always remind me of strange animals because they stand on four legs. Like what if they gather around leaking roofs and pipes to drink like a pack of animals seeking an oasis in the desert

I know I owe you a bunch of stories, and I’ve got them all lined up to tell, including Kouku and Girlgirl and Leika. I just finished with the hardest patients I’ve ever had. One was literally shredding, so needed two different stuffed animals of my own to act as models, and the other pair had fabric that was disintegrating in a way that made it sticky, so every time the needle went in and came out, I needed to clean it off! They were stuffing inside, and the top layer of their fabric was coming apart, but the backing of their fabric was sticky. It was new. :-/

But, today I am going to share the story of a turtle named Turtle, and for a rare special treat, you get to see part of the patient’s family. I don’t usually show families for privacy reasons, but, well, this is Turtle’s warm blooded being, Murphy:

They’d been together for six years, since Murphy was a puppy. Here’s their baby picture:

As you can see, Murphy has grown and Turtle has, well been worn a bit. Here are a couple of his diagnosis photos:

We agreed that Turtle needed transplants for his balding, and wounds sewn up. Usually, I don’t clean patients belonging to animals, as scent is so important, but in this case, the humans decided a spa was in order too. So Turtle flew down to the Bay Area and started his treatment with a spa:

You can already see him getting cleaner!

Once dry and restuffed, he got a heart with a bit of original stuffing:

And then the humans chose a fabric for his transplants from two options:

Soon his surgery was done and he was ready to head back north:

Normally I’d stop here, with a quote from the humans “He looks great!” But that’s not the end of the story. You see, once Turtle got home, Murphy sent some photos to make everyone smile:

Happy as a puppy that they’re together once more!

************

Just going around saying "Shark!" to each other.

"Shark, what can I get you?

They're a long way from home...

@the-grey-tribe @mitigatedchaos @argumate @isaacsapphire

And that monetization is usually from ads

But if internet ads are becoming less effective, if advertisers think their clients are getting less of a return on the money they give to the websites, then they will withdraw that money

And websites will need to find other ways to monetize, or shut down

Either through paid subscription, cutting off access to previously public goods

or through monetization of user data

Or the ad strategies need to get less straightforward and more combined with the content you consume (as we see with sponsorships)

In the world where everyone was using ad blockers, instead of just a shockingly small minority, the standard internet ad monetization strategy would collapse, and maybe these other strategies would be adopted on a wider scale, degrading the web as a service

Someone needs to pay for it

Of course, maybe the web could be treated as a public utility? We were almost going to do that in the 90s before Clinton butchered the telecoms act and all the rest of that. But that could be expensive and would mean more tax dollars being diverted to yet another thing

Anyway apparently Mr. Eclipse made 5000 years' worth of solar eclipse graphics, which you can find the simpler versions of here

Just Dance 2023 Edition includes Britney Spears’ song Toxic, clearly referencing the music video, and featuring a character called “Agent D”. This game also retroactively confirmed that the nurse in Just Dance 2’s version of Toxic is also Agent D.

Just Dance 2’s version of Toxic also appears in the Japanese-exclusive Just Dance Wii, wherein Super Mario appears in Just Mario by Ubisoft Meets Nintendo.

(From left to right: Agent D in Just Dance 2023 Edition, the nurse retroactively confirmed to be Agent D in Just Dance 2, Super Mario in Just Dance Wii)

As we all know, Super Mario has a Ryu Number of 1 via Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Therefore, if you accept the assumption that Agent D is Britney Spears’ character from the Toxic music video, that character (but not Britney Spears the real-life person) has a Ryu Number of 2.