Ancient Life

Jun. 25th, 2025 10:00 pm
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How Earth's First, Unkillable Animals Saved the World
Sponges have survived every catastrophe and every mass extinction event that nature has thrown at them. And by being the little, filter-feeding, water-cleaning creatures that they are, sponges may have saved the world.

How Volcanoes Froze the Earth (Twice)
Over 600 million years ago, sheets of ice coated our planet on both land and sea. How did this happen? And most importantly for us, why did the planet eventually thaw again? The evidence for Snowball Earth is written on every continent today.





That's reassuring given the poor life choices of Homo sapiens today.

Ceramics

Jun. 25th, 2025 06:12 pm
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I spotted this video about harvesting, shaping, and firing wild clay. I did that back in high school at Ancient Lifeways Camp. It was a lot of fun to dig and clean the clay, then make things. Our theme was Sumeria, so we made oil lamps (harder than you'd think) and cuneiform quotes. I also made a ceramic goddess figurine. We used a pit fire, which helps keep the temperature more stable. If you have a source of natural clay, this kind of project is well worth trying.

Artificial Intelligence

Jun. 25th, 2025 06:10 pm
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Latest new exhibits in the LLM-Generated Garbage hall of shame

Featuring Santa Claus and reindeer.

Warning: Do not read with mouth full!

Books

Jun. 25th, 2025 01:21 pm
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A Rainbow of Queer Books for Pride 2025: Indigo

HAPPY PRIDE 2025! For Pride this year, we’re changing up our usual rec lists. Instead of doing books with specific identities or themes, we’re focused this time on cover color! Throughout the month of June, we’ll be doing 8 rec lists, each with covers inspired by one of the colors of the original Gilbert Baker Pride Flag. We drew a little additional inspiration from the meaning behind the color and why it was included in the original LGBTQIA+ flag (in this case, indigo = serenity), but we prioritized color over meaning. The contributors to this list are: Shadaras, polls, Shannon, Linnea Peterson, Nina Waters, and Tris Lawrence.

Crafts

Jun. 25th, 2025 01:07 pm
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Off Center Ceramics will be at art festivals in Oregon.  If that's your locale, watch for the stoneware painted with wildlife.  :D 

Exoplanets

Jun. 25th, 2025 01:00 pm
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Mojave lichen defies death rays—could life thrive on distant exoplanets?

Lichen from the Mojave Desert can survive, and replicate, under levels of extreme solar radiation found on Earth-like planets in other solar systems.
Lichen from the Mojave Desert has stunned scientists by surviving months of lethal UVC radiation, suggesting life could exist on distant planets orbiting volatile stars. The secret? A microscopic “sunscreen” layer that protects their vital cells—even though Earth’s atmosphere already filters out such rays
.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Jun. 25th, 2025 12:57 pm
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Today is partly sunny and sweltering.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/25/25 -- It's raining, quite vigorously. :D So I won't need to water plants later.

EDIT 6/25/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/25/25 -- After it quit raining, I did some more work around the patio. I can still hear thunder around, so it may rain again.

EDIT 6/25/25 -- I sowed the Shithouse Marigold seeds from the Litha ritual in a trough pot and a few other pots around the new picnic table garden. I also did some weeding in the septic garden.

Fireflies are starting to come out. I've heard cicadas singing.

EDIT 6/25/25 -- I went back out to watch the fireflies.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Good News

Jun. 25th, 2025 12:19 am
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Good news includes all the things which make us happy or otherwise feel good. It can be personal or public. We never know when something wonderful will happen, and when it does, most people want to share it with someone. It's disappointing when nobody is there to appreciate it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our joys and pat each other on the back.

What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?

Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, July 1

Jun. 24th, 2025 09:06 pm
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This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Weaponized Incompetence and Malicious Compliance." I'll be soliciting ideas for activists, rebels, traitors, exes, abuse survivors, refugees, runaway youth, slaves or other captives, slavers, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, bosses, employees, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, other people who get into untenable situations, protesting, dragging your feet, breaking things, causing problems because you were told to, planning, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like someone left the gate open, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, slave ships, slave quarters, abusive homes, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, residential school-concentration camps, homeless shelters, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the intolerable happens, unhappy relationships, crappy jobs, educational abuse, responsibility without authority is abuse, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Weaponized incompetence has two modes:
* One is shirking a fair share of work by pretending to be bad at it: for instance, copper-digging men who try to con women into doing all the emotional labor. (Take care to distinguish this from people who don't know how to do things because they were never taught, or people who are genuinely bad at a category of thing.)
* The other is a form of activism, and indeed, one of the leading forms of resistance in slavery: doing work slowly, sloppily, breaking tools, playing dumb, etc. It's exactly how black people got a reputation for being stupid and lazy, because their ancestors were unwilling to be exploited and fought back in subtle ways.

Malicious compliance is following an order to the letter, expecting that to cause problems. It is a form of protest most often used when pointing out a flaw or proposing a better solution would be ignored or even punished.


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, touching on slavery and rebellion.

Not Quite Kansas includes demons, who are masters of malicious compliance.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government. Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.

Peculiar Obligations mixes Quakers and pirates, among other things. It's another setting where people strive against slavery.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. The supervillains are the most likely to practice weaponized incompetence and malicious compliance.


Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Burnout

Jun. 24th, 2025 03:53 pm
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You Might Not Recover from Burnout. Ever.

Hea has been unemployed for a little over two years, and she can’t see that ending anytime soon. Her burnout has been catastrophic — and so far, bottomless.

“I went on short-term disability at first, for my mental health, but after that ran out I used up all of my sick days. Then I applied for a longer medical leave, which shockingly, I got for a little while,” she explains. “I was luckier than most people, who don’t get any paid time off. But then they mysteriously eliminated my position. I’ve been floundering ever since.”


Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Jun. 24th, 2025 01:28 pm
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Today is partly sunny and sweltering.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/24/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/24/25 -- I watered the seedlings in the savanna and the telephone pole garden.

The honeybees have their air conditioning on, roaring away as they flap their wings to cool the hive.  The first fireflies are coming out.

EDIT 6/24/25 -- I watered the new picnic table plants, the septic garden, and the old picnic table plants.

There are sooo many fireflies out tonight.  The grass is sparkling.  :D  Cicadas are singing.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Feathering the Nest

Jun. 24th, 2025 12:57 am
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[personal profile] dialecticdreamer is hosting Feathering the Nest, which always has a theme of fluff and comfort.   Leave prompts, get ficlets!

Communication

Jun. 23rd, 2025 05:11 pm
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Americans share their hopes for the country on 'wish walls' nationwide. The responses are surprisingly unifying

On July 4, 2026, the United States of America will celebrate its 250th birthday. To prepare for the big celebration, museums across the country are inviting the public to answer the question: “What’s your wish for America’s future?”

In a project designed by 26-year-old artist Katie Costa and developed by Made By Us, a nonprofit that promotes civic engagement among Gen-Z, thousands are responding
.

Read more... )

Solutions

Jun. 23rd, 2025 05:09 pm
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New cheese packaging decomposes in 300 days, not 1,000 years: 'The solution was in the cheese itself'

As an alternative to single-use plastic wrapping, Ogilvy Colombia and Nestlé Central America have created “Self-Packing Cheese.”

The new biodegradable film is designed to decompose within 300 days of disposal — in stark contrast to the estimated 1,000 years it takes for standard plastic to break down.

And it’s entirely made from cheese waste and whey
.


Now that's brilliant!  Admittedly, we tend to buy block cheese or shredded cheese rather than slices, but lots of people prefer slices.

Monday Update 6-23-25

Jun. 23rd, 2025 02:21 pm
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These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Photos: Barnyard Picture
Birdfeeding
Book Bans
Philosophical Questions: Harm
Today's Adventures
Books
Birdfeeding
Photos: Charleston Food Forest
Photos: Coles County Community Garden
Recipe: "Pretzel Bread Savory Bread Pudding with Ham"
Birdfeeding
Heat
Photos: Charleston Library Butterfly Gardens
Follow Friday 6-20-25: Highlander
Today's Adventures
Recipe: "Chicken Stir-Fry with Mushrooms and Swiss Chard"
Birdfeeding
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Cuddle Party

"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 36 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 141 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 91 comments.


[community profile] summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the calendar here and the current theme is "Theme for June 16th throuth 30th: Forced 69."


"In the Heart of the Hidden Garden" belongs to the Antimatter and Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It needs $66 to be fully funded. Lawrence shows Stan the Iron Courtyard garden.


The weather has been sweltering here and is predicted to remain so for the rest of the week. The weekend currently predicts rain, though. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, several mourning doves, a male cardinal, a catbird, a skunk, a fox squirrel, and at least 1 probably 2 bats. Zucchini has flower buds. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, red coreopsis, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, astilbe, daylilies, snowball bush, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory. The first 'Chocolate Sprinkles' tomato ripened. Blackberries and tomatoes have fruit showing color. Wild strawberries, mulberries, and black raspberries are ripe.

Birdfeeding

Jun. 23rd, 2025 02:17 pm
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Today is partly sunny and sweltering.

I fed the birds, including a refill of the thistle feeder.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/23/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden.

I've seen a gray catbird.

EDIT 6/23/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

Fireflies are coming out.  I've heard the first cicada singing.

EDIT 6/23/25 -- I watered the new picnic table plants and the septic garden.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Audience Becomes Choir

Jun. 23rd, 2025 12:37 am
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This performance from AGT snagged my attention, in which the contestant turns the audience into a choir.

1) Some people with Bardic gift can share theirs with other people; it's rare but I've known people who could do it.  That's likely part of this.

2) Some people have a gift for conveying abstract ideas visually, which is rare enough, but doing it intuitively like that is really rare and impressive.  Musical scores are precise but take a lot of training to read, especially sight-read without practice.  Creating a visual representation of a song in three voices (high, middle, low) with indications of pitch and duration -- which works well as demonstrated -- is epic.

Business world: "Dammit, I wish we had someone that good with visuals to do whiteboard notes for our meetings."

Music world: "We saw her first."

Photos: Barnyard Picture

Jun. 22nd, 2025 11:54 pm
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Hanging this picture of a barnyard was one of my goals for the year. \o/ It took us a lot of fuss and bother, but we got it up there eventually!

Read more... )
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Thanks to a donation from [personal profile] lone_cat, there are 24 new verses of "In the Heart of the Hidden Garden." Lawrence shows Stan the Iron Courtyard.
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