JMA-PSOS

Ugandan Coffee Growers Shrug Off Drought Thanks to Regenerative Agriculture

Among the rolling hills of Uganda’s Masaka region, robusta coffee plants are producing larger, tastier yields thanks to a pilot program utilizing regenerative agriculture to battle droughts or erratic rainfall.

A catch-all term for a variety of growing techniques as simple as mulching to as complex as cover cropping, regenerative agriculture is especially useful in the coffee belts where nutrient-poor tropical soils and heavy rainfall make erosion a real threat to productive crops.

Of course regenerative farming works. Nature knows how to compensate for common problems. Humans just need to quick fucking up those processes.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

I miss D. But he's camping at Goths on a Field this weekend and I am sitting next to a fan and I have a cold beer next to me.

I went along last year and we were camping on the hottest three days of the summer. I really missed fans and ice cubes.

Today is partly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/10/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a few sparrows and house finches plus a male cardinal.

EDIT 7/10/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/10/26 -- I watered the new picnic table garden. I picked two more yellow pear tomatoes. The first sunflower in the septic garden is blooming -- medium height, medium-small single flower, yellow petals.

EDIT 7/10/26 -- I watered seedlings in the savanna.

EDIT 7/10/26 -- I watered plants in the house yard.

EDIT 7/10/26 -- I watered plants on the patio.

EDIT 7/10/26 -- I cracked open 4 apricot pits and got 3 good seeds. I cracked two batches of black cherry pits and bagged them in damp sand to cold-stratify in the refrigerator.

I watered the telephone pole garden.

I've seen at least 3 bats swooping along the edge of the yard. :D Fireflies are coming out.

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

Current Mood: busy

gantry (GAN-tree) - n., a supporting frame for barrels resting on their sides; a bridge-like framework of steel bars on side supports that spans something, such as holding a) a traveling crane, b) train signals, c) highway signs; by extension, scaffolding, including especially a frame that encloses and services a rocket at its launch pad.

Thanks, WikiMedia!

Also per one British dictionary shelves behind a bar that displays bottles, and the display itself, which might be specifically a Britishism? The barrel frame is the original sense in English, as Middle English forms ganter / gauntre / gauntree, to give the chronological shift in spelling. [Sidebar 1: Evidence that sometimes the British -re ending has sometimes been misread as a pronounced -e.] This was from Old North French i.e. Picard dialect (probably via Anglo-Norman, but there's no direct evidence) gantier, wooden frame, from Latin, canthērius, trellis/frame, from the older sense of panniers for a pack animal, from the original sense of a pack ass or mule, from Ancient Greek kanthēlios, pack ass, from kanthēlia, panniers. [Sidebar 2: I think this is the first time I've seen a sense slide by two successive metaphoric extensions back to the original meaning.]

That went places I did not expect. But then, the definition went larger than I expected.

---L.

Noticed in the Nov 1976 Galaxy book review column, which I was looking at to see how reviewer Spider Robinson reviewed Telempath, also by Spider Robinson.

This is the con I knew of as Oktobercon.

I was not around for this.

I was told that Watsfic got a verbal contract from the Octoberfest people to defray part of the costs... and then when a verbal contract turned out to be worthless, had to go hat in hand to the Feds to get bailed out.

I was also told that the con did get a Canada Arts Council grant to cover costs of bringing a Nova Scotian GOH to Wloo. But it wasn't for Spider. He was still a landed immigrant, a US citizen. It was for his Canadian wife, Jeanne. She did not have an SF credit in 1976, but she was a dancer, thus eligible for the grant.

Only one thing stands between Dania and her operatic revenge: the inescapable prison in which she is currently immured.

For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga

conuly

Watch on YouTube

**************

( Read more... )

Today's theme is NCIS.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

An artificial cell with a full lifecycle has been created for the first time

SpudCell can feed, divide, and even outcompete its siblings. It's not truly alive, its creator tells us, but it could still transform the bioengineering world.

That does actually meet my criteria for life, specifically because it can reproduce its genetic code and evolve. Also, that is the point where you should not be doing this experiment on a planet with a biosphere. You do those in space or a heavenly body without life on it. Just in case there is a containment breach or hazardous development, you don't want to risk anything dangerous getting loose.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Today we went up to Danville.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Scientists Have Found Climate-Resistant Coral Reefs Around the World Totaling the Size of Wisconsin

A sophisticated AI-powered examination of coral reef resistance extrapolated into the future found that there’re about 64,000 square miles of coral reefs on Earth that could still be resisting climate change by 2050.

The common theory states that CO2 emissions create a greenhouse effect which warms the seas which causes coral reefs to bleach or even die, yet there are environments—as GNN has frequently reported—where corals seem to be more resilient.

It would be nice if Earth didn't have to reinvent reefs again, and could keep this version.

Current Mood: busy

shadowkat

The sun went away around 10 am this morning, it's been gloomy ever since, with spots of rain and downpours. Although we admittedly need rain. And I'm guessing most of the Western US would like to borrow some of it.

[Ah, we get a sunset - a kind of orange glow sunset, but not bad all in all.]

I bought Blink - Lubricant for Contacts and Blink Lubricant for Cleaning Contacts - mainly because I got confused and couldn't figure out which to get. ( Read more... )

It has been cooler at least. So the A/C is working quite well. It doesn't work nearly as well when it is 100 degrees - then it's usually 78-80 degrees in my apartment. But at 80 degrees - it's 75-76 degrees inside.

**

I'm in between television shows now - or have a television show hang-over.
( Read more... )

**

Books, I'm doing better with. Enjoying Street of Five Moons by Elizabeth Peters - which is a comedic romantic gothic mystery. ( the audio book version )

[I got it fairly cheap - since it's an older book and not that popular.]

And The Thief (Queen's Thief Book 1) by Megan Whalen - ( Read more... )

Storygraph describes it as follows: The Thief (The Queen's Thief Series #1) by Megan Whalen Turner might appeal to readers who enjoy cleverly constructed mysteries and the intellectual satisfaction of unraveling a complex, layered deception.

I'd initially had issues getting into it - wasn't in the mood - but having picked it up again, it's rather gripping. There's a lot of mysterious aspects to it. I'd say it's a fantasy/mystery hybrid? I wouldn't put it in the YA genre, but others have. [That's the e-book.]

And still reading This Kingdom Will Not Kill ME in hardback, even though I finished the audio version.

***

Almost forgot - Bonnie Tyler died at 75. She's the singer who immortalized the little 1980s ditty... Total Eclipse of the Heart in 1983 and of course, the quintessential 1980s pop song Holding Out for a Hero - the theme song for Coverup, and in Flashdance.

***

Question a Day Meme - July

6. Today is the beginning of Great British Pea Week in the UK. Do you like eating peas? Have you ever grown them?

No. I don't like peas at all. ( Read more... )

7. It’s the seventh day of the seventh month, and in Japan, it’s the day of the Star Festival (Tanabata). For one day only, wishes, hopes, poetry and dreams are written onto streamers and tied to trees. What would you write on a streamer today?

I think "that everything goes well" - which it did for that day at least?

Re-read it - and thinking this is a broader theme thing? The US gets rid of its current administration, we get a new Supreme Court, the Republicans leave office, and things go back to normal. (I edited it and its still too long - I admittedly want too much.)

Or just World Peace?

8. Artemisia Gentileschi was born today in 1593. She was incredibly famous during her career, but largely forgotten until the 20th century. Have you ever seen any of her paintings?

I have no idea who she is. I had to look her up. Artemisia is the most celebrated female painter of the 17th century.

So probably? ( Read more... )

9. It’s World Misophonia Day. A person with this disorder has decreased tolerance for certain sounds as well as the stimuli that accompany those sounds (for example, loud chewing). Someone with the condition will experience feelings of distress, which may overwhelm them. Are there any sounds that you find irritating, even if you don’t suffer from this condition?

Yes, chalk on a chalk board, high pitched squeaking - like train wheels skidding on a rail, car alarms, barking, and high soprano or a high pitched voice. Also high pitched humming/whistling.

I had a friend who had it. She couldn't deal with movies being too loud, and had to wear ear plugs. She was constantly plugging her ears.

The little plastic wallet I keep my travel pass, railcard, etc in -- which was a freebie from Sparkle last year -- has disintegrated. Like, I was worried about actually losing my bus pass when I was out on Tuesday.

My attempts to look online purchase a new version have taught me:

this PVC trifold style I used to get given at train stations for free with tickets in it (or at pride) is
a) impossible to find
and
b) necessary for me, bifold will not hold all my stuff
and
the two styles of travel pass holder are
a) for old people (floral, offering personalization)
or
b) gifts for dads (again personalization, also football teams and things like cars or motorcycles)

I guess it makes sense, with most people who have these passes being old. But sheesh, here I thought I might be able to get something at least as okay as my rainbow Network Rail ticket wallet, with three clear windows for cards. And it turns out I can't even have three clear windows!

Today is partly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen any activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/9/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/9/26 -- We went up to Champaign-Urbana today. There were so many flocks of geese and nearly-adult goslings! :D Some of them were mixed ages, like one much younger gosling among older ones. I think the rough breeding season made some families merge. We also saw a murder of crows in one parking lot. I cawed at them and they all turned their heads to stare at me. At twilight, I think I saw a nightjar flying overhead, or more precisely, I heard the "peent, peent" call they make and looked up and spotted a bird.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

astrakhan (AS-truh-kuhn, AS-truh-kan) - n., a closely-curled black or grey fleece of very young karakul lambs from Astrakhan, Russia; a cloth, usually wool and/or mohair, with a curled pile resembling this.

The fleece is also called karakul, sometimes more often called that, but the made imitation isn't ever. (Hats made from the fleece are also called karakul.) Astrakhan is in the upper Volga delta, which is still a good 100km/60mi from the Caspian Sea, and the sheep is bred throughout Central Asia because of its drought and famine hardiness -- for some reason, the fleece specifically from Astrakhan became known in western Europe, specifically in France, and we got the name from French (in the 1760s).

---L.

Down these mean streets a raccoon must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Comment on Just One Thing (8 July 2026) in

awesomeers.

* Commented on Check-In Post - July 8th 2026 in

get_knitted.

* Commented on "Speak Up Saturday" in

tv_talk.

* Posted "Agriculture" in

first_nations_freaks.

Current Mood: busy

This evening, D said he planned to go to Go Outdoors to get some mylar blankets to put over his tent this weekend, when he'll be camping in 30°C heat (that's 86°F), to reflect some of the sunlight from his tent this weekend and he asked me if I wanted to go with him. I did -- to the point of doing this instead of going to the gym tonight -- because I wanted some stuff: better shorts than my ratty gym ones that are too hot for summer, walking sandals (very useful for managing my foot eczema which gets worse when my feet are sweaty...) and maybe a new water bottle because my trusty Sistema one broke last week.

In the car on the way over I was feeling so overwhelmed I couldn't focus my eyes or pay attention to sounds. I managed to tell D this and he was very nice about it, reminding me that it wasn't surprising because so much has been happening: with the house, with V being poorly (the acute levels of nerve pain are receding, but of course dealing with it and the hospital trip and everything has sent them into an energy crash), D being poorly, work, etc.etc.

I found everything I wanted -- I had to get the "women's" version of the sandals I wanted (which just means "blue instead of gray" as far as I can tell! not even any pink trim!) because the "men's" section had every size between 6 and 11 except for mine. And by the time we left, I was feeling a lot better. It's funny because I don't actually like shopping and it was tiring, very hard on my eyes. But maybe it was worth it just to get some random stuff, just to go and do a task that has a tangible beginning, middle and end.

Another cheering thing is that we got takeaway tonight, mostly just because we were either out of spoons or needed to spend them elsewhere. But it was nice to have Turkish food, and a cold beer on a warm sunny evening.

When they were watering plants this evening, V even saw a frog in the garden, the first time they have since the early years of them having this house. They were so excited they yelled and we both came outside -- too late to see the frog, which zoomed away, but it was still lovely to stand there, everything smelled so good in the evening coolness.

“IMPOSSIBLE!” No Work Food Gardens Based on Wild Edible Ecosystems

About 20 years ago, after I first started studying Permaculture, I went to work for a very sustainable Permaculture-oriented CSA farm. One day, after working all morning painfully tending, pruning, and weeding a patch of cane berries, I went for a bike ride along my favorite trail. Black raspberries were in season, so I went home, grabbed 3 3 gallon buckets and filled them up with raspberries.

That was when it hit me. NOBODY was working tending these, except for perhaps the deer and birds fertilizing them. Meanwhile, my own hands were covered with scratches from my morning work.

This is an example of humanity's earliest agriculture: encouraging plants we find useful in places where we go, and occasionally ripping out ones we don't want there. Wild plants can mostly take care of themselves. You don't have to fuss over them like delicate domestic fruits and vegetables.

My approach to laissez-faire permaculture is similar. I plant new things that seem promising. I try to help them establish. They live or die. The ones that live, I expect to take care of themselves. Some of what I grow is really good at that. \o/

Current Mood: busy

discombobulating.

scaffolding guys re-appeared, wanted me to move cars I cannot move
can't find my work phone, which made e.g. making breakfast for me and the cat more stressful, I like being able to hear if I'm suddenly needed at work
also my train tickets for London tomorrow are on the phone
oh wait no they're not because this time I couldn't find the option for that on the inaccessible website so I have to go to the station to collect them from an inaccessible machine
I forgot I have a work-adjacent thing this evening, which means I can't go to circuits, which means I haven't been to the gym in like two weeks, no wonder my brain is all fucked up (well this and a million other reasons...)
also my counselor and I have rearranged on each other about five times now, I had to cancel last week because of a last-minute work trip but rearranged to tomorrow, like a dingdong, because I have a longstanding trip to London tomorrow!!

But the most discombobulating thing is the main thing on my work calendar for the day: an interview for a slight promotion at work. My current manager and someone else I work closely with get to ask me about why I would be good at a job a little better than the job I have now. I've never really done anything like this before and I understand it but it just feels so weird.

And then there was a faff over whether I (and R on my team, who also once again had gone for the promotion) had to do the written task since our manager had forgotten that he shouldn't be using the same one as the abortive attempt to run these interviews a year ago, because we'd already taken part in that. I did remember how exhausting that had been, to work very hard for an hour on this task and then go right back to my regular work which is of course pretty similar. So I was happy to skip it even though I figured that wouldn't be the recommendation once he'd talked to HR.

But the real issue is that just, like a minute, before my interview, V came up to me, very angry and upset. The scaffolders, who'd finished and left by that point, had destroyed many plants in the garden. I'd noticed they had been thoughtless about where they'd stored some of the poles, flattening part of a little wooden border force that surrounds one of the beds.

I hated to turn my back on them and join a Teams call, feels so pointless when someone you care about is suffering, but it was too late to even really say "hey can I have a minute." As it was I got a message from my manager -- who was running this interview -- at one minute past; I was already in the process of joining when he sent it. In the space between him asking me the first question and me trying to answer it, I could hear V sobbing -- and stomping up the stairs, presumably because their laptop is there and they quite rightly wanted to complain. I felt like I was ignoring them and was heartsore.

Which probably didn't help my interview but honestly, whatever. If I get it, cool and if I don't, fine. I don't think I'll know until the beginning of next week, though I guess it may be by the end of this week.

And just after this, the plans that the long-suffering events team had just finalized for the event taking me to London the next day were suddenly turned on their head, so I had a meeting about that where someone tried to tell them the new plan was bad for policy when I had just been thinking it was good!

Then I had this focus group after work, from a very slow-moving but interesting-sounding process of making NHS Talking Therapies more accessible for visually impaired people. I'd been despairing about it clashing with circuits, but I'd determined that if I left a bit early, and D kindly offered to give me a lift, I could make it. No circuits or lift club last week, and I haven't made it to the gym myself in...months? I was really feeling it. By which I don't mean I was de-conditioned (though I was), I mean mentally I felt like one of those coyotes someone has mistaken for a dog and tried to "rescue" by putting it in a cage.

Then home to do a Tesco order for the next day, shower, pack my stuff for the morning, and get to bed for my early alarm the next day.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3269/

Although it was a setback for physics, I'm glad the particle naming rights issue led to the cancelation of Pizza Hut's Superconducting Super Collider in the early 90s, so the Double Stuffed Extra Cheese Topping Quark ended up just being named 'top quark.'

https://xkcd.com/3269/

redfiona99

(The Austrian Grand Prix scrutineering post, and the British Grand Prix summary and scrutineering post are coming, I just thought this was a bit more urgent)

Okay, last's round's predictions were not as good as they could have been. I got Brazil vs Norway right, and was right to suspect England vs Mexico would be close, got France, Argentina and Morocco's results correct, but was way out on Belgium vs United States and got Switzerland vs Colombia wrong (although I said it would be close). I was right that Spain being pulled out of the centre of the diagram by all their Barcelona players made it hard to predict their result from the diagram.

Also, I didn't predict how close Egypt got to beating Argentina.

What do the quarterfinal diagrams look like?

The unlabelled diagram looks like this:

( Under the cut )

Labelled it looks like this:

( Under the cut )

France are the national team closest to the centre, with Paris Saint-Germain the club team closest.

The club teams with the most representatives left in are Atlético Madrid, Barcelona and Arsenal with 10.

The average number of degrees of contact each circle has is 1.364.

The number of communities is still one per team, so 8.

The unlabelled community view looks like this:

( Under the cut )

Labelled, it looks like this:

( Under the cut )

What about my predictions?

It's much harder at this point, with the teams other than France pretty much equidistant from the centre, and no "gravitational" clump.

France vs Morocco - Diagram says France

Spain vs Belgium - Diagram says Belgium, although I think that's because Spain are still pulled out of the centre by all those Barcelona players. On the other hand, anything can happen in knock out football.

Norway vs England - Norway just (that sound you can hear is L cursing me)

Argentina vs Switzerland - Diagram says Switzerland. I think that's the Atlético Madrid players pulling Argentina out. Also [Legal team have redacted a paragraph-long rant about exactly how many World Cups the referees are going to give this Argentina team.] Switzerland could do it ... (I feel I need to add a conflict of interest statement, I drew Switzerland in a sweepstake at work.)

"Plural Checklist" by leathersys on tumblr -- copied on DW by

synecdoches

I recently found an interesting survey on Tumblr by leathersys, called the Plural Checklist. They made this as a quiz for people who think they may be plural/multiple, but don't have classic amnesiac barriers, since a lot of quizzes and diagnostic tests are geared toward the most obvious dissociative symptoms. I like the questions, but I strongly dislike Google and don't want to send this info to a stranger, so I'm going to copy the questions here and consider my answers. Most of the questions were very insightful-- some shockingly so-- and only one or two of them made me feel like an out of touch old man.

Current Mood: busy

Today's word is "doff." Many folks will know it from "doff a hat" meaning to tip or take off. However, it's also used widely in fibercrafting to mean removing fiber from a tool.

Current Mood: busy

Pop Culture Squad has a post about current Batman threads. In one of those, Oliver Queen / Green Arrow explains to Bruce Wayne / Batman what is wrong with the tech industry nowadays:

Ollie has a turn as the crusading liberal ex-millionaire, as he has a few opportunities to let us all know what he really thinks of Generative AI companies founded by tech bros. There’s one point where Ollie fills Batman in on it all. "They’re another generative AI company. Scraping personal data. Stealing art and stories and knowledge. Polluting and poisoning. Using masses of energy and water. Taking what the world actually needs to produce what nobody wants."

It's that last line I want people to remember and use to describe what is wrong with generative AI: "Taking what the world actually needs to produce what nobody wants." That's it in a nutshell.

Current Mood: busy

Today is partly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/8/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/8/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/8/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/8/26 -- We started breaking up the parts of the birdgift tree that had fallen into the south lot. There's about twice as much mow path past it now. We dumped 2 wheelbarrows of sticks into the firepit in the ritual meadow.

EDIT 7/8/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/8/26 -- I cracked open 2 apricot pits and got 2 big perfect seeds. I cracked open two batches of cherry pits and got several good seeds. I think the advice to let seeds air-dry for a few days is bad. One day at most. They shrivel up pretty fast.

I walked around for a bit. I saw 2 bats flying quite low in the house yard, and more flying high over the road and other places. I'm not sure if they're the same bats or not. I don't know how many I actually have.

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

Current Mood: busy

elote (eh-LOH-tay) - n., corn/maize harvested before maturity; a Central American street food consisting of grilled or boiled young corn on the cob served on a stick and seasoned with a creamy sauce (such as mayonnaise, sour cream, or crema) and garnished with toppings (such as lime juice, cotija cheese, and chili powder).

Thanks, WikiMedia! Though it'd be a better shot if the stick wasn't blurred out

Also called Mexican street corn, though it's eaten this way throughout Central America with much regional variation in seasoning. Not to be confused with esquites, which is kernels of corn with the same dressings, served in a cup. We got the name from Mexican Spanish, where its primary meaning is the first one above (the street food is also called that, but because of the young cob not the preparation), in turn from Nahuatl ēlōtl, young/fresh ear of corn/maize. (Esquites fwiw is also from Nahuatl, from īzquitl, toasted corn kernels.)

Admin note: posting might be spotty over the next week due to external obligations (aka: adulting, ugh).

---L.

conuly

This has to have been an EARLY scifi novel. 80s- to early 00s at the latest.

********************

( Read more... )

Whether they owe money, their souls, or their futures, these characters are in desperate straits...

Five SFF Works About Trying to Escape Massive Debt

Can two adorable Gen Z homicidal sociopaths learn to adult together?

Baby Assassins (Baby Assassins, volume 1) by Yugo Sakamoto

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?

Current Mood: busy

This is today's freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from

gs_silva. It also fills the "Ambiguous Situation" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Hazbin Hotel Fest. This poem belongs to the series Schrodinger's Heroes.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

... is repeating itself. This post compares Washington, D.C. with occupied Berlin from the perspective of someone who's seen both.

Never forget.

Current Mood: busy

The current Skeleton Crew ruleboo plus a Legion of adventures.

Bundle of Holding: Vast Grimm

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Don't add to the casualty list in an emergency." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I picked this theme for today from the selected list of themes, because of the violent storms that swept through central Illinois in late June. Here's my post about Tornado Alley moving from the Great Plains through the Midwest to the Southeast.

Among my previous poems that mention tornadoes or other violent storms are "A Tornado of Thought," "Windswept," "Know What You Stand For," "Better to Meet Danger," "In Growth, Reform, and Change," and "Nature's Great Masterpiece," and "The Pequot War."

Established settings in Tornado Alley: Omaha Reservation and Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska (Polychrome Heroics), Stillwater, Oklahoma (Polychrome Heroics), Waxahachie, Texas (Schrodinger's Heroes), River City and Ava and Bluehill, Missouri (Polychrome Heroics), Onion City and Urbanburg, Illinois (Polychrome Heroics), Easy City, Louisiana (Polychrome Heroics), Ninovan, Tennessee (Daughters of the Apocalypse), Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center
for Elephant Conservation in Florida (Daughters of the Apocalypse).

I'll be soliciting ideas for first responders, troubleshooters, activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, refugees, runaway youth, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, police, soldiers, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, failure analysts, ethicists, other people who get into dire situations, running into a fire while others are running out of it, rescuing people, protesting, rebelling, planning, panicking, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like you stole something, adventuring, divorcing, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, 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, war zones, disaster areas, wastelands, trails, sailing ships, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, prisons, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where disasters happen, cataclysms, natural disasters, climate change, the end of the world, S-risks and X-risks, unhappy relationships, PACE your planning, protest rallies, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, supplements that turn out to be mutagenic, 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.

Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Hazbin Hotel Fest Bingo Card 6-1-26

Winterfest in July Bingo Card 7-1-26

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has some serious challenges between the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, in hopes of preventing genocide.

A Conflagration of Dragons features the Six Races struggling to survive as the dragons take over more and more territory.

Crystal Wood is about how the mass death of trees can wreck civilization.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

Not Quite Kansas deals with demons, magic, and other mayhem.

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 Evil. Addiction always has the potential for disaster.

Path of the Paladins includes some really awful situations due to divine politics and mortal foolishness.

Peculiar Obligations deals with Quakers, pirates, and organized crime.

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. Among the more relevant threads are Berettaflies, the Big One, Dr. Infanta, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Shiv, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that can destroy things, up to and including whole dimensions.

The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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Current Mood: creative

conuly

She's fine, no worries - well, not fine fine, she's at the hospital, but it's nothing to worry about.

Taking the bus back from the hospital always gets me thinking about Hurricane Sandy. They named a corner after those two boys. They'd be in high school now, or even entering college. It's easy to judge their mother - and don't get me wrong, I do judge her, because she made every possible mistake from before the storm even hit, starting with not evacuating - but people do dumb stuff all the time and it usually works out just fine. People don't usually die because they did something stupid, they don't usually lose their kids over it.

It's been rainy too. It's really just a maudlin way to start a week.

But I still think, every time I take that bus from the hospital, that those kids should've gotten to grow up, and instead they didn't even get to go trick-or-treating that year.

The moral of this post, inasmuch as there even is one, is that if your area is under an evacuation order, or ought to be, fucking evacuate. Or if you've decided to shelter in place, shelter in place. Don't try to evacuate after the storm is already upon you. That's how it all goes wrong.

Today is cloudy and warm. We got a little rain yesterday.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a gray catbird splashing in the big red birdbath.

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

Sparrows and house finches are eating from the hopper feeder.

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I also walked around the yard a bit. Cosmos are blooming in the east-west strip of the prairie garden. Sunflowers are up in several places but not blooming yet. There are some zinnias too. :D

EDIT 7/7/26 -- I cracked 6 apricot pits and got 4 usable seeds, which I bagged in damp sand to cold-stratify in the refrigerator.

Fireflies are out. Cicadas are singing. I saw 2 bats swooping over the house yard.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

dudgeon (DUHJ-uhn) - n., (arch. except in the set phrase "in high dudgeon") a state of anger, resentment, or indignation; (obs.) a type of wood used to make the hilt of daggers, (obs.) a dagger hilt made with this, (arch.) a dagger with such a hilt.

These are actually two words that happen to share the same spelling, with separate origins -- both of which are entirely obscure. Well, we know the wood name is from Anglo-Norman, but where that language got it, we have no idea, aside from noting the possible French cognate douve, stave. As for the snit, proposed origins include Welsh dygen, malice, the obsolete English dudgen, trash/something worthless (which since its origin is unknown wouldn't exactly help), and Italian aduggiare, to overshadow -- but none of these have any evidence whatsoever, not even indirect. This deficiency puts me in low dudgeon.

---L.

The Company will surely triumph over the Union upstarts, just as soon as R&D solves a few minor, pilot-killing, bugs in their cutting-edge systems.

Hellburner (Devil to the Belt, volume 2) by C J Cherryh

100 STRING ACOUSTIC GUITAR SOLO

Such amazing sound. <3

Current Mood: busy

Jolene (H.P. Lovecraft Version) - Michael Kelly - (Dolly Parton filk)

A truly splendid filk song. :D

Current Mood: busy

Wildflower meadow returned without planting a single seed

A patch of farmland left to its own devices for over a decade has quietly transformed into a thriving wildflower meadow. It didn’t take expensive seed mixes or heavy machinery. Recovery required only patience, a yearly hay cut, and letting nature do what it does. The find could reshape how governments approach one of conservation’s biggest and most expensive challenges.

This is worth trying anywhere that has at least some seedbank left (that is, the topsoil hasn't been killed or hauled away) and where you have a large amount of land to cover (which can make other options cost-prohibitive). In places that used to be scrub or forest or something other than grassland, it needs mowing at least once a year. Otherwise succession will take over and turn it back into whatever it was. Ideally, mow late enough that nesting creatures have finished and decamped, but early enough to permit regrowth before fall, so there will be winter cover for wildlife and erosion protection for the soil.

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Current Mood: busy

conuly

but at least it's cooled down!

(I always picture all this rain after a heat wave like somebody reaching up and literally wringing out the damp air.)

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Honeybee queens protect themselves from pesticides, but their colonies pay the price

Early on, the workers did their job well. In the first day they stripped out about 95% of the pesticide from the food before it reached the comb.
[---8<---]
But the filter began to slip. By day 10 the workers were removing only 86% of the poison, and it started to build up in the food stored in the cells. The bees’ bodies told the same story. Over 10 days, workers took on 55 times more pesticide than the queen did.

That delay will make pesticide problems difficult to detect and solve. Outside of a study like this, by the time you notice something wrong, it already has a lot of inertia baked in.

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Current Mood: busy