In the Seattle airport, every restroom I found was an all-gender restroom.
So I thought I'd share what it looks like, because exposure reduces fear.
This is an all-gender restroom. Pretty normal - except there were no queues like there always are for women's restrooms. I washed my hands next to a male pilot. A mom and her kid were on the other side. Pretty ordinary. Not scary.
Each stall is a private room. There are no doors on either end that close off the coridor between toilet rooms and the row of sinks.
Parents can accompany children of any gender at any age, which feels safer for everyone and actually does a lot to protect kids.
(I've also been in restrooms like this in Scandinavia.)
I found it about as scary as standing in line for coffee next to a man.
This may be the most boring Substack post ever. Which is ... Kind of the point.
I hope that in sharing what has been so vilified as scary I can dispel some of the fear that’s been whipped up. When women and SA survivors are told we are in danger before we even have a chance to assess a situation for ourselves, needless harm is done in exchange for political ideology.
Let’s keep calm and carry on ...
(Tell me: are there gendered or neutral washrooms where you live?)
- Dr Deborah Vinall
Read on Substack
“Sonder — noun.
The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own - populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness - an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”
- John Koenig, The Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows.
(https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/the-horror-of-mr-souths-brown-paper)
- Mike Sowden
Read on SubstackI love this ad! No wonder the establishment is shitting bricks 🧱 💩
- I Fucking Love Australia
Read on SubstackThere’s something strangely beautiful about the Fibonacci sequence. 🌀✨
It starts incredibly simply:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34…
Each new number is created by adding the two numbers before it.
That’s it.
But from this tiny rule, something fascinating begins to emerge. As the sequence continues, the relationship between neighboring numbers gets closer and closer to the famous Golden Ratio — around 1.618. And this is where things get really interesting. 👀
Fibonacci-like patterns show up in the way sunflower seeds are arranged, in pinecones, flower petals, branching plants, and other natural growth patterns. 🌻🌿
Why?
Because nature often has to solve a simple problem: how do you grow, arrange, or pack things efficiently without wasting space? And surprisingly, patterns related to Fibonacci numbers can emerge from those simple growth rules. The sequence itself has been studied for centuries, yet it still feels almost magical:
Start with two tiny numbers. Follow one simple rule. Keep going. And suddenly you uncover a pattern connected to geometry, mathematics, growth, and structures found throughout nature. Maybe that’s what makes Fibonacci so fascinating. Complexity doesn’t always need a complicated beginning.
Sometimes, all it needs is one simple rule repeated over and over again. 🌀
We share interesting science content. Feel free to join us for more. Aaaaaand if you like what I am trying to achieve (to show that science is super dope), please consider upgrade the tier, yearly sub is for less than a Friday party night.
- Science Is Fun
Read on SubstackThere have been thousands of generations of humans, and you are alive to witness the first photo of a Sunset on another World.
This is a real photo of the sunset on Mars.
- Curiosity
Read on Substack - KGB Report by Kevin G. Barkes
Read on SubstackSpeaking of star-gazing, this is usually what happens in our neck of the woods too
Such beauty in our world
Some comments about the environment:
I believe Al Gore was the greatest president America never had, and he was the world's best chance to avoid the coming environmental catastrophes. We've been playing catch-up ever since.
He still knows what he's talking about.
Ignoring the science won’t stop the consequences. 🌎
#SheShed
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— Andrea Devon (@andreadevon.sheshed.rocks) August 15, 2026 at 6:12 PM
I’m an environmentalist!
I have been an environmentalist since the very first World day was created and I have followed all of the science about climate change since I became aware of it in the 1970s. I’m also a student of history and politics. And I have now reached the end of my rope with the so-called environmentalists in Canada. Apparently, they are completely and totally unaware that Canada could go absolutely completely green, take every oil and gas burning vehicle off the road, stop all pollution from all of our industries and climate change in Canada would keep getting worse.
Why you might ask?
Because the United States creates 18 to 19 million metric tons of greenhouse gas every single day of the year! That adds up to over 7 BILLION metric tons every year, and that is INCREASING thanks to trump!
Canada and Mexico combined produce 1.04 billion tons per year.
See the problem?
And while these folks obviously are truly concerned they ALL fail to understand why Carney has backed off some environmental protections.
Canada is under a threat that has not happened since the 1800’s. Once again the USA is attacking our country, and trying to destroy us economically, politically and most likely making plans to hurt us militarily, if they can.
But too many of these folks do not understand that if we can build a self sustaining economy and increase the wealth of our country, in the short term, we will be better able to fend off any attempts by the US to annex us or destroy our democracy.
Doing so requires us to sell more of what we as a country hold.
Oil, gas, minerals, are all extremely important in the worlds market place, and while oil and gas may be on a down hill slide some oil and gas will ALWAYS be a necessity for various needs around the world.
Take the medical field, petroleum and mineral oils are FOUNDATIONAL to modern medicine as the chemical building blocks for pharmaceuticals, essential ingredients in topical treatments and raw material for sterile devices. Should we stop producing oil and watch our medical fields start to fall apart? Are you ready to do without aspirin or acetaminophen? How about losing special oil based liquids that act as contrast agents during medical imaging procedures to highlight specific organs or blood vessels? Ready to die from a heart attack because there are no longer heart valves made with oil, or having to wait another decades for someone to create artificial limbs that aren’t made from petroleum?
See the problem?
Sure we can all start driving EV’s and stop burning oil and polluting but that won’t stop climate change in Canada.
We as a country should be doing our damndest to remove our economy, our freedom and a our democracy from any influence from the USA, and at the moment that requires us to produce more oil and other commodities for OTHER markets and other countries who will value us as trading partners not treat us as subservient nonentities only there for THEIR connivence!
Both the Carney’s are environmentalists but both are also realists, and understand sometimes you have to stop doing something, because it currently isn’t helping, do something else for a while and then come back to the first thing when you know It will WORK.
It took us 130 years after the first warnings of greenhouse gases to get to the point we currently are with climate change.
Carney has been in office for 17 MONTHS, and look how much he has already accomplished. Could we please give him at least till his second anniversary, before we start with the pitchforks and torches?
- Alexis 🇨🇦
Read on Substack
Funny posts
Steven Cheung or Donald J Trump?
Your decision.
- JBO
Read on SubstackHey, I mis-pronounce words all the time too - I think this is why Jeopardy was invented, so Ken can educate me on how words are pronounced
One of the amusing hallmarks of my small town public school education is that I write words I don’t know how to correctly pronounce.
- Sherman Alexie
Read on Substack - KGB Report by Kevin G. Barkes
Read on SubstackLes Paul and Paul with Paul's Les Paul.
- KGB Report by Kevin G. Barkes
Read on Substack
People sure do hate all the surveillance cameras now
A magazine just for those sleepless nights:
Poor little insecure men. Boo fucking hoo.🙄
- The Mouthy Renegade Writer
Read on Substack
Getting Old(er)
Ok i didn’t realize aging would happen to me, personally
- Ginny Hogan
Read on SubstackAre you one of them?
- Andrew Heard
Read on SubstackAnd the thing is, anyone under 70 will likely have no idea who
Jerry Mathers is.
Jerry Mathers is 78 today.
- KGB Report by Kevin G. Barkes
Read on SubstackHammer and a sidewalk is all ya needed 😉
- Dawn Renee (Tyslan) aka Drene'
Read on Substack#booksky #books #Kindleunlimited #thriller #suspense #romance #novels #geopolitical #mythological #darkromance #women #contemporary #fiction #fantasy #crime #amazon #sifi #readingcommunity #writingcommunity #author #readers #indie
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— Author Krishna Prasanth Guttikonda (@krishna-author.bsky.social) August 10, 2026 at 6:52 AM
Carney Hat Trick - posts about our prime minister
Carney's Mic Drop moments
TrumpWatch - posts about the world's most anticipated event
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— Rob Reiner Fan (@rob-reiner-fan.bsky.social) August 15, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Animal Crackers
Actually, these kayakers were lucky - it looked to me like those moose were close to taking them out
A fluffy bear floating through the water in search of fish. Bears can float due to their thick layers of fat, which is less dense than water. Brown bears accumulate extra body fat during fall, allowing them to float while "snorkeling" for salmon.
Original post
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— Massimo (mirror) (@rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social) August 12, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Bambi and Thumper, the adult years 💕
TT: @medy_evans
Port Angeles, Washington
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— Luca (@lucagalletti.bsky.social) August 10, 2026 at 6:48 AM
- The August Journal
Read on SubstackExpand your thinking of relationships.
- Andrew Heard
Read on SubstackUn
Deux
Trois
Cat:
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— scha·den·freu·de (@blisterpearl.bsky.social) August 15, 2026 at 6:08 PM
The 5-second rule does not apply when you have a 2-second dog.
- The Mouthy Renegade Writer
Read on Substack
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— Sarah Andersen (@sarahseeandersen.bsky.social) August 15, 2026 at 9:36 AM
I just watched my dog chase his tail for five minutes.
I thought to myself dogs are easily entertained.
Then it dawned on me: I’d just watched my dog chase his tail for five minutes. 😂
- Brad Davenport
Read on SubstackThis is Bodie. He has stumbled upon a truly magical item. It has given him power he’s never known. 13/10 (IG: charlieandbodie)
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— WeRateDogs (@weratedogs.com) August 11, 2026 at 10:54 AM
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7 comments:
Another good roundup.
I do take isssue with the often-repeated cliches in the silly post from Alexis. "We have to sell our bitumen cause someone will buy it" and the old trope about f-fuels as manufacturing feedstock/you could live without them.
I actully sort of agree with the second point .... so why not aim for carbon-neutral manufacting processes and not 'waste' this valuble resouce by crudely burning it.
you could'nt live without them
ahhh ... my kingdom for an edit button
A couple of points re Alexis's rant:
Sensible people are not suggesting we stop producing petroleum products. They're suggesting we stop burning them. If we can make valuable products out of coal, then produce coal.
Canada does represent only a small amount of total global emissions, but countries don’t emit. People and organizations do. Canadians do, and per capita we, along with the Australians and the Americans, are the worst emitters among the people of the advanced nations, far worse than the Brits, the Germans, the Japanese or anyone else.
Each one of us is responsible for twice as many emissions as the average Chinese. Twice! The Chinese have no oil and gas to speak of so they are forced to rely heavily on coal, yet they still account for only half the emissions we do.
Everyone seems to have an excuse to justify not meeting their environmental commitments. If this persists, then no one ever will do what is necessary, and the job won’t get done. The world will go on heating, catastrophes will increase in number and intensity, and civilization will come down around our ears.
Someone has to take responsibility. Someone has to lead, and we Canadians are obligated to be leaders. Why us? For two reasons. First, because we have contributed far more than our share of the garbage in the atmosphere. Second, because we have profited far more than our share from the rewards of creating the problem. We owe.
If I said we are also obliged to lead simply because we are good people, would I be naïve? In any case, it’s time for Canadians to own up and do the right thing.
Very thoughtful comments - I learn so much from everyone who comments here.
Thank you Bill for better articulating my point.
If Canadians relatively 'small' contribution to climate change, doesn't matter why do 'they' need us in NATO?
Why bother with WW1 and WW2?
I agree with the points made by Bill and Northern PoV. On top of that, though, I think the basic assumption behind that post might have been true 30 years ago, but is now false: The idea that a tough geopolitical spot means Canada must double down on fossil fuel exports because that is, in the short to medium term, ECONOMICALLY SUPERIOR for Canada.
Selling fossil fuels from EXISTING oil wells or tar-sands-steaming facilities or whatever, through existing pipelines, does pay better than not doing it, and will continue to for, I dunno, around 5-10 years. Investments in NEW fossil fuel production and transport are expensive commitments of capital and resources which will pay off, if they do, only after a considerable time. Pipelines take like 10 years to build and 30 years of operation to pay off if they are reliably fairly full at a toll that is sufficient for all that time.
Guess what's not going to happen for any new oil OR natural gas pipeline built starting today? Yes, that's right, anything resembling 30 years of operation at capacity. Probably not ANY years. Specifically, new oil pipelines from Alberta will be good for "the industry" (read: foreign-owned oil companies) in ONE way: With more competition between the pipelines, the companies would be able to force the different pipeline operators to compete on price, lowering tolls that the companies have to pay. Two of those pipeline operators would be publicly owned, so the point of building a new pipeline is for the public to eat the cost of building it and then eat the cost of lowered tolls on the EXISTING white elephant as well as too-low tolls on the new one, while the oil companies laugh a bit harder on the way to their American bank for the few years before the energy transition drops the traffic in those pipelines to almost nothing.
And of course this is an opportunity cost. If the country is spending billions so US-owned oil companies can send more profits south, the country is NOT spending those billions on transition to the new electric economy which is cheaper and more productive.
If Carney wanted to do a long term investment in petroleum that would do Canada any good, the thing to do would be start a Crown corporation that would make a refinery in Alberta and a petrochemical plant in Alberta for it to feed, so we could make plastics and asphalt out of the bitumen instead of burning it, and export finished or semi-finished goods instead of cheap unprocessed goo through pipelines.
But even that would probably not be as good as building solar power and batteries and EVs and heat pumps and backing new electric ways of generating industrial heat and so on. That's where things are going whether petroleum-exporter Canada wants it to be the case or not, and we are going to be left behind with the Americans using the economy of the past while everyone else is in the future, if we don't get our bloody act together and soon. Pretending that expensive long term projects to back a power source that doesn't HAVE a long term, is good for the country, is just based on oil company propaganda--it's stupid.
On a completely separate issue, yes I know what is meant by "pencil". :)
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