Man, when we (2 Brits) lived in Sydney a couple of years ago, we unwittingly went camping during a mass cicada hatching. The cicada grubs were coming out of the ground and crawling up everything (tent, chairs, us!) to hatch.

We were 2 hopeless pommies fairly new to the Aussie bush and didn’t know what on earth was going on. Utterly freaked. Coupled with all the other crazy wildlife we encountered (stick insects the size of your forearm, lizard things the size of me!) and it’s amazing we didn’t pack up and leave. And also, I mean, the fact that half of Aussie animals can legitimately kill you.

But we stuck it out and had an awesome time. Cicadas were pretty amazing in the end - left fantastic exoskeletons (a bit like Geiger’s alien) and were deafening.

Completely anecdotal, but looking back I believe I had very mild “long covid” after my first bout - slight brain fog, slight fatigue, etc - but nothing unmanageable. (Also, I couldn’t be sure they were Covid related - I am, after all, getting older!)

However, after I recovered from my second bout of covid, these lingering symptoms completely cleared up. Like my body had a lightbulb moment “oh this is how I reset”.

So this article really makes sense, and hopefully it’s a step to a cure for all those people still suffering.

Man I wish we hadn’t all fallen for the “don’t be evil” motto all those years ago.

This move from Google is utter, utter bullshit.

Dear God!

Interesting how little mention there is of lemmy/kibn/the fediverse in these articles about Reddit’s demise.

Always fully open! More airflow, less stuffiness. Having said that, we don’t share a home with anyone else.

The best thing about breaking up with someone is that you’ll get to fall in love again.

Obviously don’t rush that or seek it out, but it will happen at some point.

I always think that breaking up from a decently long relationship is like losing a part of yourself - take your time and make yourself whole before trying to fill that void with the “easy fix” of starting a relationship with someone else.

How do you do that? It just takes time. Do things you love doing. Spend time with people who bring joy to your life. Embrace life! Say yes to new experiences. Be brave.

And then - probably when you least expect it - you’ll meet someone who makes you realise that breaking up was the best thing that could have happened to you.

Why not subscribe to them all? Content will still appear on your home feed …

There were a bunch of subreddits I was subbed to on Reddit that were effectively the same thing, even if they had different names.

Interesting. I noticed an uptick in pro-Reddit comments that just didn’t feel “real” around the time of the blackout.

Most Reddit users are fairly irreverent so it felt really odd to see comments “toeing the company line” so obviously. At the time I just assumed they were Reddit bots/astroturfing, but tbh I didn’t really expect any better from Reddit at that point. One of the many reasons I’m here now!

Interesting to see my assumptions were correct!

I’m old enough to have witnessed the early beginnings of the Internet in the 90s - and what’s happening now with the fediverse feels like coming back to its roots.

We may well find that the implosion of Twitter and Reddit - within 6 months of each other - is the beginning of the end for “big tech”. It’s unlikely that it will go away entirely but I do feel a seismic shift happening. I seriously hope that it’s not a false dawn.