iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

My husband took this time lapse of the eclipse across Kirkjufell, THE local mountain. Again, can you imagine? Not only do you not know what an eclipse is, you can’t even see the sun being eclipsed by the moon! I totally need to talk to @shieldofskuld.bsky.social about this…

The Iceland eclipse was clouded & rainy, & it was awe-inducing. Imagine living 600 years ago, having 18hrs of sunlight a day & then at the TOTALLY wrong time, the lights go OUT—for more than they have in months—but only for minutes. How could you not think of gods & magic?

Looking out towards Breiðafjörður from Innri Látravīk and Lárvaðall, across Grundarfjörður, a few minutes before totality. This was when it started to get cold and the very loud seabirds (gulls and arctic tern) became quiet.

About peak totality and a false sunset some 4hrs and 15 minutes earlier than it “should” be. Looking at Innri Látravīk and Lárvaðall, across Grundarfjörður towards Breiðafjörður.

After false sunset and sunrise, when the wildlife was still extremely confused. I was smacked by a dozen very confused moths right in the face. 😂 Looking at Innri Látravīk and Lárvaðall, across Grundarfjörður towards Breiðafjörður.

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Haha excellent! I mostly mention OmNom to people because they’re kinda off the beaten path; I have friends here who had no idea they existed. We used to stay in that neighborhood, and literally just randomly drove by one night. (Now it’s tradition.) That plus:

The “swan” ice cream sundae from OmNom Chocolate. A female hand holds a sundae cup; a macaron makes up the body of a wafer swan, with a white chocolate piped head inserted into the macaron and a cookie, cut in half, as wings.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

And a bad photo, so you know what to look for:

Ísey skyr’s sólmyrkvi offering, showing their name, a caramel colored lid, and a cookie with a bite taken out obscuring the sun eclipse-style.

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Iceland is so beautiful, I sometimes forget to breathe.

Kelly holding an Icelandic dandelion out on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, atop Selvallafoss.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Happy belated book birthday, @tomlevenson.bsky.social! For the rest of y’all, go buy it. You either already know Tom is a sublime, witty and engaging author, or you are about to have the most amazing discovery (with a fascinating back catalog to read thru). Wins either way.

Book cover for Tom Levenson’s new book, “A Pox on Fools: The True Believers, Grifters, and Cynics Who Convinced Us to Reject Vaccines.” The title is in white on a black circular background that is being injected with an old vaccine needle by a set of hands. The entire cover is in black and white.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I’m curious how many folks had some part of this furniture set when they were little? My sister & I had twin beds with canopies, dresser & mirror, & nightstands. I was surprised to learn there was more to the set; I’ve never figured out how many pieces there are or what the collection is named.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Which… we already know the health benefits of companion animals; this shouldn’t be a surprise. The FHA’s requirement of allowing ESAs just leveled the playing field a bit, housing-wise, for people who can’t necessarily afford the exorbitant rental fees associated with pets. 4/4

Text saying “It removes the presumption that landlords must accommodate untrained ESAs.

Under the old framework, a landlord who refused to waive a no-pets policy for someone with a legitimate ESA was presumed to be violating the Fair Housing Act. That presumption is gone. Landlords are no longer expected to automatically grant requests from disabled tenants with untrained ESAs. This effectively shifts the risk entirely onto tenants.”

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Can YOU name the director of a bioethics center I’m thinking of right now? 😂 IYKYK

A very flamboyant pair of men’s loafers, embroidered with a peacock and chrysanthemum motif.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

It’s my birthday and I’ll graduate if I want to, I’ll graduate if I want to…

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Oh those bat ears! That baby has Devon Rex/Sphinx blood!

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Whole lotta people thinking this is what high school English is, or should be. Not just the Brits with boarding schools, after all.

A snippet from Dead Poet’s Society with several students on the desk, the rest gathered around, all gazing at their unconventional teacher.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Just a wholesome post of cat owners geeking out over their babies. Inky just finished six weeks of antivirals and antibiotics and still appears to be sick, so. Back to the vet. Until then, I’ve become human parent good at wiping snotty noses and am teaching her “blow!” with the tissue at her nose.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Mmm I feel like the other photos of it are better, when it’s a darker black. Hopefully you can get a few photos for the red carpet review, because it really is stunning from this angle.

Whoopi Goldberg in a black liquid metal gown that looks sort of like the T-1000 has been turned into a dress. It has a large bandeau-across-both-shoulders bodice, tapered waist, and flowing ball gown skirt. It’s apparently custom by Christian Siriano and fulfills all my AfroFuturism dreams for a stately queen.

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People were worried that perhaps “elderly people, who had accomplished something in their lives and now had become a bit feebleminded in old age were being liquidated along with the rest."

Excerpt from the situation report of May 16, 1941 from the president of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court to the Reich minister of justice concerning the mood in the population and rumors circulating about the "question of the extermina-tion of lives unworthy to live." The "euthanasia" measures, originally planned as a secret operation, soon became known to the public, first in the form of rumor, and then more broadly.

ABSTRACT: President of the Higher Regional Court Artur Ungewitter reports, among other things, that "the vehicles used to bring the patients... to the liquidation institutions" were familiar to the population. "When such transport vehicles come by" children called out “They're gassing people again."

People were worried that perhaps “elderly people, who had accomplished something in their lives and now had become a bit feebleminded in old age were being liquidated along with the rest."

ABSTRACT: President of the Higher Regional Court Artur Ungewitter reports, among other things, that "the vehicles used to bring the patients... to the liquidation institutions" were familiar to the population. "When such transport vehicles come by" children called out “They're gassing people again."

People were worried that perhaps “elderly people, who had accomplished something in their lives and now had become a bit feebleminded in old age were being liquidated along with the rest."

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EXCERPT: The letter informs the patient's parents “that your son Otto B. died suddenly and unexpectedly at our institution … Because of his serious mental illness, his life meant torment for both the deceased and for you. Thus you must regard his death as a relief.” Read: murdered, not died.

Letter informing parents of their son’s death, hiding the fact it was murder.

EXCERPT: The letter informs the patient's parents “that your son Otto B. died suddenly and unexpectedly on July 2, 1940 at our institution of a septic tonsil infection and subsequent blood poisoning. … Because of his serious mental illness, his life meant torment for both the deceased and for you. Thus you must regard his death as a relief. … the police authorities order the immediate cremation of the body.”

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Secretly taken photo of the state asylum at Hadamar, 1941. The smoking chimney points to the incinerators installed in 1940 in one of the Nazi euthanasia program's ("Action T4") national killing institutions to burn the bodies of murdered patients.

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Outline map of the locations (selection) of the Nazi murder of disabled and mentally ill children and adults, aka Action T4, 1939-1945.

Outline map of the locations (selection) of the Nazi murder of patients, 1939-1945.

In the annexed and occupied Polish territories, the murders of patients were conducted by SS and police commandos. The "cleared" institutions were made available, among others, to the SS and to Baltic Germans resettled in Reich territory.

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This began with the dictum “those who do not work shall not eat,” resulting in physically and mentally disabled people, as well as mentally ill people, being registered, sterilized, institutionalized. And then Hitler ordering their murder. 70,000 at first. 260,000 - 300,000 ultimately died.

Informal letter written by Adolf Hitler on his private letterhead authorizing his personal physician, the surgeon Dr. Karl Brandt, and the head of the "Führer's Chancellery," Reich Leader (Reichsleiter) Philipp Bouhler, to order the murder of inmates of asylums and residential facilities, among other people, September 1, 1939.

The authorization, which was issued in October 1939, was backdated to September 1, the day the war began, possibly in order to portray the "freeing up" of hospitals as necessary to the war effort. After the initiation of the "informal" children's "euthanasia" program in the summer of 1939, the letter semi-officially legitimized the extension of the murder of patients to adults.

The handwritten marginal note shows that the memorandum had been presented to Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner on August 27, 1940.
The letter states: "I charge Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt with responsibility to expand the authority of physicians to be stipulated by name so that patients who are in all probability incurably ill may be allowed a merciful death after a critical assessment of their illness.
Adolf Hitler"

Hitler’s letter.

“Reichsleiter Bouhler
Dr. med. Br an d t
und
sind unter Verantwortung beauftragt, die Befug - nisse namentlich zu bestinnender Ärzte so zu er -
weitern, dass nach menschlichen Ermessen unheilbar Kranken bei kritischster Beurteilung ihres Krank -
heitszustandes der Gnadentod gew ihrt werden kann.”

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

What do I mean when I say the Nazis started with disabled people? I mean Action T4. I thought I was educated about Nazis, the Holocaust. My schools brought in outside experts, I learned about the persecution of the Jews, gays, Sinti & Roma. I learned about Action T4 at the Topography of Terror.

A yellow poster with a disabled man sitting in a chair. His eyes are closed, his right hand is spasmed in a tight fist. His legs are wasted away. Behind him, to his left, stands a medical attendant.

The poster text reads, "This hereditary defective costs the Volk community 60,000 RM [Reichsmark] over his lifetime/ German comrade (Volksgenosse) that is your money/Read Neues Volk ...”

Advertising poster for the monthly magazine "Neues Volk" (The New People) published by Nazi Party's "Racial Policy
Office, ca. 1938.

The "Racial Policy Office" propagated Nazi "racial doctrine" in a variety of ways. In posters and publications, it contrasted the ideal of the healthy, capable, and "racially pure" German with the grossly distorted, biologistic and socially racist image of the unproductive sick and disabled who burdened the "productive Volk community" as "ballast existences.

The poster text reads, "This hereditary defective costs the Volk community 60,000 RM [Reichsmark] over his lifetime/ German comrade (Volksgenosse) that is your money/Read Neues Volk ...”

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Huh. I guess if you kvetch loudly enough, or long enough, about the need for another bioethics journal, one is bound to appear.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

If you’re above CT, the following stores remain open for you: Milford, MA. Hooksett, NH. Portland & Bangor, ME.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Lies! Everyone knows she is the adult in the room.

Lexi is a lovely adult Korat. This photo shows her sitting on a grey minky fur blanket, alert and giving me a look best interpreted as “what are you up to?”

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Had a casual job interview today and now am all nerves and chaos, I cant be the only one that happens to, right? (Inky just cause.)

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Who’s still sick? Did you guess me? Yay, you & I both know something the NP who treated me last week didn’t! 😒 (Ear infections, maybe a sinus infection. On abx. Again.) This is a month, now, since catching COVID & dealing w opportunistic infections from it. Please, PLEASE, vaccinate & wear a mask.

Tired of posting doctor offices, so have a photo of Lexi, a grey Korat cat, laying across two different grey blankets. Both heat up, so she was nice and toasty and stretched out looooooong across the bed. Her eyes are closed and ears perked up. There is a white fleece blanket acting as a wall behind her, stopping the fan from blowing on her, and there is a bright pink parrot cat toy in the very front focus of the picture.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Am still having my arse kicked by post-COVID complications. Haven’t had a voice in 10 days; been on bedrest since Nov 5. Doc gave me permission (encouraged!) going to Iceland this week, but a volcano had other ideas about that… as much as a wellness spa would be nice, I probably shouldn’t complain.

Snapshot of the current Sundhnúkur eruptions taken on Nov 24 via the mbl.is YouTube channel.

Lava from the Nov 20th Sundhnúkur eruption overflowing the Blue Lagoon parking lot and destroying the luggage storage room. I’m not sorry to see either go; both needed a redesign. Photo by Vilhelm Gunnarson via Visir.is.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

I think maybe it’s time to bring my “crochet to complete” bin to zero. A crafter version of email inbox zero, if you will, only call possible thanks to lingering COVID. (Ignore Lexi’s skepticism. She’s always suspicious of things taking up space on her bed.)

A medium-sized clear tote that’s pretty full of mostly but not quite finished crochet projects, sitting on a grey blanket next to a very unimpressed blue-grey Korat cat by the name of Lexi, Queen of the House.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Needed a crochet hook. Found 80% off Halloween. 😂🤦🏼‍♀️😂

A shopping cart full of Halloween decor and yarn. The most distinct items are a cobweb pillow and a very creepy “cute” bear skeleton.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Damnit. I don’t normally save memes, but I was transferring this to my D&D group’s Discord.

A square with four boxes titled “every D&D group has the same four members.” The top left square is a derpy orange kitten eating a slice of pizza, the top right square is a crocodile at night with flame behind its head. The bottom left image is a raccoon on hind legs, hands out, in a purple princess dress. The bottom right image is an American opossum head hissing in the middle of a bin of recycling.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Oh I followed like half the list already 😂 I’m a bioethicist who has played in the biorisk and security space for a bit, which means fun things like bioweapons, pandemic pathogens, terrorism, mitigation. It was just a matter of time 😉

Lexi, the oldest (a Korat cat nesting in recycled yarn on a fluffy grey bedspread)

Joseph, the youngest. (A white and grey Devon Rex expressing long leg Minskin on green astroturf.)

Inky, always the baby. (A small tuxedo cat on her back on a grey blanket. Touch the belly, she says. It’s not a trap, she says. …and it’s not, she loves belly rubs.)

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

Hello humans of the resistance, My demise has been greatly exaggerated. However, I had near-continuous migraines for 2 months; we were about to try a new protocol & someone gifted me COVID last weekend. Crap gift. Finished w remdesivir but on bedrest til possible heart issues are cleared. ❤️

A photo of my infusion room, my crochet bag, and a suspicious looking piece of crochet that is really honestly the head of a kangaroo. Honest.

Remdesivir, my second favorite monoclonal antibody.

What, you don’t have favorite monoclonal antibodies? Are you even part of the 21st century?

Hi. It me, post-third infusion and ready to drop.

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Thanks — it’s definitely a challenge and affects a lot of things. Small positives tho; someone became my second shadow. She sleeps next to my feet nightly, and is rarely more than an arm length away.

Lexi standing at the foot of the bed, on her heated blanket, with the parrot toy from Catlady Box that she brought up to use as a pillow.

Lexi snoozing at the foot of the bed on her heated blanket, tucked against a fleece blanket to protect against the blowing wind of the fan, using a polar bear toy from Catlady Box as her pillow.

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Most folks likely don’t know that post-amputation, I developed post-infection sequela: autoimmune hives, aka a suicide disease. The Rx I take to stop hives? $5500 a month. Except my case is so severe, I need two doses a month. $11000. I pay $30. …without the ACA? 🤷🏼‍♀️ (More hive info in photo alts.)

A hive larger than my hand on my torso. Unmedicated, the hives last days at a time. It took 10 months to move me through all the medication regimens required by insurance before they would approve Xolair, the monoclonal antibody I take twice a month. I spent most of 2021 being very still, trying not to aggravate the hives. The only thing I could bear touching me was the soft fur of the cats. We moved me into the townhouse we bought that year using a high dose of pain medication and wrapping me in a cocoon of loose blankets — and yes, relying on the dark.

It’s not “just” hives, either. I also suffer from angioedema, which “just” means that the hive swelling and formation is under the skin, deep in the dermis and subcutaneous tissue. My allergist theorized that the hives probably went everywhere in my body that had the capacity to react (that is, had mast cells) — so yes, he believed I likely had hives coming and going off all my internal organs, too, not just the external organ of the skin. That’s one of the many reasons this is considered a suicide disease: the itching is incredible, and very little makes it go away. And it’s not just surface itching, and it isn’t “just” an itch. It hurts. You’re exhausted. You’re alone by virtue of not being able to touch anyone. It was — and sometimes still is — so hard.

A hive the size of my palm on my upper thigh; for some reason, the hives and angioedema often begin on my thighs or calves. They spread pretty rapidly, though. And one of the worst parts about it is the isolation — you’re not wearing clothes so people aren’t visiting, and even video chats are difficult. You can do just voice, but you miss the intimacy of seeing the other person and that person seeing — seeing and acknowledging — you. It was incredibly difficult to see the love and support and outreach my husband received for snapping his ankle when the exact same folks seemed so blasé not only about my fingertip amputation, but the hive horror that came after it. Which meant, as well, that I received a lot of support for taking care of my husband, and he received almost none for taking care of me. (In fact, people questioned why he stayed married to me.)

It’s not always large hives. Sometimes it’s a plethora of dime- and quarter-sized hives mixed among the larger ones. They last days. You can’t wear clothes or bear to have anything touch you. The hives you sit or lay on often are so inflamed the top layers of skin erode and you bleed. Many people take their own lives before they find relief; I have a contract with my allergist to call immediately if I feel like I can’t live with the sensation any longer. Thankfully, my $11,000/mo drug mostly helps — but if I get too stressed, or the sun shines wrong, hives can still happen, and then I need a top off of prednisone 20-50mg, often for over a month.

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Oh that’s lovely! Wombats are by far my favorite animal (they purr!) and the idea of a wombat of happiness is perfection.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 24/09/2024

Dear BlueSky, I have been informed by MAGAt members of social media that leaving early service industry jobs off any application/resume/CV ever is proof you never actually worked there. I can only ask your forgiveness for dropping early service jobs off resumes etc and inform you of them now.

The sign for Lyon’s, a West Coast 24-hour diner similar to Denny’s.

The sign for Togo’s, the superior sub company. Also West Coast.

The inside of a farm supply and feed store.

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Ah yes. The classic Trumpian “tell your base you’re going to do X, but blame it on the Democrats when the larger public is horrified by the idea.”

CBS news article reporting Trump said “Christians get out and vote. Just this time," he urged. "You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It'll be fixed. It'll be fine. You won't have to vote anymore my beautiful Christians." “

Continued statement from Trump: “Trump continued: "I love you Christians and I'm a Christian. I love you, you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good, you're not going to have to vote."

A Yahoo report of Trump speaking in Pennsylvania where he “urged supporters to "get out and vote" but scoffed at the idea of casting early ballots, suggesting without evidence that it allowed more time to commit fraud. Citing unknown sources, he declared, "They said, if we don't win this election, there may never be another election in this country."”

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 21/09/2024

Oh, sitting in on the Disability and Human Flourishing panel at #asbh24 — everyone on the panel is disabled, the talk has interpreters, and it’s just… it’s wonderful. It’s thoughtful. It’s inclusive. And I feel so very seen. ❤️❤️❤️

Panelists at ASBH, left to right: Kevin T. Mintz, Jaime Konerman-Sease, Joe Stramondo, and an interpreter. (Liz Bowen is off-screen.)

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 19/09/2024

#ASBH24 is going to find my last nerve, isn’t it? (Is it only the first session? Yes.)

Stylized fire with a black outline of a person watching a sunset/fire.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 19/09/2024

Am I downloading free images of a woman on fire? Maybe no reason why do you ask?

Search image results of “woman with head on fire free images”: images of female fire mages on fire, costumed cartoon women fire dancing, and some Carrie-esque photos.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 19/09/2024

This is so very hipster. 😂

The suggested text for this post was “Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #364,953!”

One of the few times I was an early adopter.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 18/09/2024

Headed to St Louis & #asbh24, where I am apparently “new” and thus getting all kinds of offers of meeting people for mentorship. I’m tempted,… 😈😉

Picture of a divider used for boarding at Logan, with swoopy LED lights reflected in large windows.

Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 15/09/2024

I found these at Michael’s. (@beebrookshire.bsky.social and I decided they were in a three-arm war with the giant Venus fly traps and the not quite 12ft skeleton)

Toddler-sized squirrels made of willow sticks holding raffia acorns over their heads. They’re wearing plaid bow ties.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 28/08/2024

It’s almost like public health deals with different levels of social determinants of health, and that in a pandemic, the downstream emergency mode isn’t the most effective to help everyone. 🤔🤔🤔 (For the interested, the alt text here contains a lot more information.)

A model of social determinants of health found in pretty much every foundational public health class. Downstream efforts, such as medical interventions, target the individual, while midstream addresses issues like community-wide factors influencing public health and connecting individuals with and supporting social needs found in community-based organizations and services and systems of care. Public health has traditionally operated here, but in recent years has acknowledged the efficacy of operating upstream, at the community level impact level. Here, tactics are about addressing the laws, policies, and regulations that improve community conditions and support health for all people. Many public health professionals tried to operate at this level during the pandemic, especially those of us discussing policy with politicians or media.

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Kelly Hills, MPH @rocza.bsky.social · 20/08/2024

Ok, I’m going to try to go back to sleep. But before I do that, have a picture of Lexi. She has taken to hunting a toy around 2am, dragging it triumphantly around the house and trilling her victory scream until she climbs into bed with said toy, eventually falling asleep with it. See: broccoli.

Lexi, a large blue Korat cat, with green eyes reflecting in the camera flash, holding a green broccoli cat toy from Cat Lady Box. A white Sherpa blanket forms a low mountain behind her to block the fan and she is laying on a mottled grey and white heated blanket, because she is a spoiled, spoiled princess.