Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask

I write about #cleanenergy for my day job, everything else on evenings and weekends. Semicolon lover; will fight for the Oxford comma.

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

The Real Generation X: The Flower Children on Flower Child https://t.co/wtytExSPfN

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

@PaulSkallas I replaced a woman like that at a job I had. It really was sad. She was smart and so good at the job, but she thought everyone was gossiping about her and eventually left really unhinged voice messages for some of my co-workers.

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

@ML_Magic808 @PaulSkallas It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in people with paranoid schizophrenia.

[Laura Matsue @lauramatsue]

No one is more annoyed by the AI revolution than people who can actually write a sentence. Basically, having any ability to write now is suspect - you will get accused of being AI at some point. It feels like you are being accused of being a witch, of holding a type of rare magic that only the machines are now allowed to have.

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

@aliciaandrz We all look our age — and that’s just fine! https://t.co/AaA4EU4dlq

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

@aliciaandrz @beccajiggens The sixties are even better!

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

@Favwontmiss I don’t know if it’s normal, but I think many of us have it. At least, I do and so do many people I’ve talked to.

[Katy (not a girl) 🧡🤍🩷🐞 @hey_its_katy]

“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night, and it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for.” – Dan Savage

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

Because I’ve been absorbed with stuff going on with my mom (IYKYK; see also https://t.co/59WxPs2lBt), I’ve gotten behind on Flower Child. To give my fried brain a break, Sparky and Fiona kindly agreed to write a guest post this week.

Check it out! https://t.co/b3zbj7QKJ1

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

@emilykmay That’s wonderful, how sweet!

[Christopher Cadelago @ccadelago]

Every single person I’ve talked to who has seen quality private polling on the California governor’s race has told me the margin between Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer is closer than the public polling shows.

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

AI: It’s the best of technology, it’s the worst of technology.

No one really knows what AI will mean for our society — and for humanity — which makes a novel the perfect vehicle to explore these questions.

More in this week's Flower Child:
https://t.co/4y3LSXsbvp

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

Definitely an issue. How do we fix this?

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

I do not understand this economy where nursing homes are so expensive they bankrupt grandparents, yet aides rely on food banks. Daycare can take up a parent’s entire paycheck, yet providers still cannot earn a livable wage and end up needing a second job.

[Big Brain Business @BigBrainBizness]

Brené Brown, researcher and author, on the contradiction she keeps hearing in rooms full of tech billionaires:

Her work puts her in rooms where the founders and CEOs of major tech platforms talk openly about how they think.

What @BreneBrown hears there unsettles her:

"So I hear someone say, 'Hey, you know, tech billionaire, what should my kids study? I'm worried for my kids… they should study coding, physics,' and then five minutes later, as if that answer didn't happen, someone will say, 'What do you attribute your success to?' I mean deeply when you think about it, and the same person will say, 'My deep reading of philosophy and the stoics.'"

The contradiction is what stops her: the same people crediting philosophy and the liberal arts for their own success are telling other parents their kids should focus on coding and physics.

That gap leads her to a bigger, more uncomfortable question:

"I start to extrapolate from there and wonder if there is a thinking class that's emerging where they're like, 'We're going to read philosophy and we're going to read the liberal arts and we're going to study history, and the rest of you just keep scrolling. Don't worry about the big words. We'll handle all the big words for you.'"

She points to Steve Jobs as an early signal of the same pattern:

"It's like when they asked Steve Jobs, 'Boy, your kids must love the iPad.' Steve Jobs said, 'My kids don't have an iPad.' And then his biographer who spent time with his family said he wasn't kidding. There's no technology. At dinner, they're talking about art and history."

The takeaway is simple but uncomfortable.

The people building these platforms are protecting their own kids from them, and giving them books, ideas, and real conversation instead.

So why are the rest of us being sold something different?

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

Beavers are climate warriors!

[Yashar Ali 🐘 @yashar]

London Underground station flooding has reportedly been reduced by around 90% thanks to a group of engineers: beavers.

After conservationists reintroduced a family of beavers into a nearby city park, the animals built dams and restored wetlands that now absorb and slow floodwater naturally.

Authorities had planned major man-made flood infrastructure, but the beavers effectively created their own system — while also boosting biodiversity and restoring the ecosystem around them.

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

Last week, I shared the first part of a two-part essay in which I attempted to describe an experience that’s notoriously hard to describe. This week, I detail how I learned an important lesson from this experience.

https://t.co/HV6DOr5DGO

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

@inglouriouscap https://t.co/gevEyLJKLW

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

This is so validating to a non-morning-person like me.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

YouTubers be like “wake up at 4am and run, that’s alpha!” No, it’s not. Look at apex predators; they’re all lazy. Bears hibernate, lions sleep all day. You know who wakes up at 4am and runs? Squirrels.

[Rosana Francescato (she/her) vaxxed & wearing mask @FlowerChildRF]

This week, I’ve attempted to describe an experience that’s notoriously hard to describe. I hope I’ve been able to convey at least some of it.

What am I talking about? See this week's Flower Child:
https://t.co/xsvR6VeMhX