yourlibrarian, posts by tag: nature - LiveJournal

1) I have a fondness for ships where one character is the grumpypants and the other is the optimist. Also, you might want to rethink that classic question about fighting one big duck or many small ones after seeing what a duckpocalypse might look like. And Hop on Pop animal style.

2) Finished off Hawkeye, though I'll have to wait on the new Matrix as Mike wants to watch them together and needs to catch up on the series. I went into it Hawkeye with no particular expectations and ended up quite enjoying it. ( Collapse )

3) Finished posting my series of 2010 mourning dove nest and baby photos on Pillowfort, which you can find under this tag -- just scroll back to the first post.

4) Interested to read about all the companies creating electric planes, most going after passenger markets but some like Amazon developing them for cargo delivery. These are expected to go into production and use faster because they will not have to clear the sort of safety hurdles that apply to a passenger fleet.

However the idea of these electric planes is not only hopeful for reduction of carbon emissions but the possibility that they will be useful for shorter hop flights because they must stop to recharge anyway.

5) This stat leaped out at me while reading about environmental journalism: " While 100 corporations are responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions, some of them are still funding pseudoscience and climate change deniers. Scientists and journalists in the U.S. and Europe are now attacked for exposing the harm that predatory capitalism does — a situation not unlike how social leaders at the helm of environmental justice movements have been attacked for centuries for exposing the same thing. Now journalists in the global North are the ones being labeled “too engaged” and “biased.” "



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1) The heron that visits our lake has been back this past week. I was rather amused that, while on a walk on the lake's sidewalk, it kept flying away from me – but only by about 50 feet or so each time. So within minutes I'd be catching up again and it would fly forward again, still by the sidewalk.

I actually wondered if the heron was playing a game because it seemed a rather dumb thing to keep doing – and it did it 6 times! Finally it flew off to another part of the lake. Maybe had it been a crow it really would have been a game but I guess herons have something in common with mourning doves.

2) Another interesting study regarding online behavior, this one in regards to lying. The study wanted to see if the form of communication affected deception and the answer was yes but not much. It also noted "Deception rates might also differ across technology because people use some forms of technology for certain social relationships. For example, people might only email their professional colleagues, while video chat might be a better fit for more personal relationships."

The real difference was among people. "There’s a low rate of lying across the board. Most people are honest — a premise consistent with truth-default theory, which suggests most people report being honest most of the time and there are only a few prolific liars in a population." They also linked to this UK study which pointed out that studies have consistently shown that compulsive liars are few in number.

3) We have more congenital syphilis cases today in America than we ever had pediatric AIDS at the height of the AIDS epidemic. "It costs public health departments less than 25 cents a dose to buy penicillin, but for a private practice, it’s more than $1,000." However for any of that to help, you have to get people to agree to treatment and guess how well that works.

4) "Newspaper audiences in general are not a representative sample of Americans, according to Stroud’s study results. Of readers who took a survey on their commenting habits, roughly 62% were men, 91% were white, 78% had a bachelor’s degree or more and the average age was 65."

I was somewhat more surprised that a report on how labor issues are becoming a hot reporting topic admitted it was all about journalists themselves. "The shift was spurred, many journalists believe, by the growing labor movement inside American newsrooms, which has made reporters “more knowledgeable and sympathetic to labor issues."" You don't say.

5) I was interested in this post about group identity research given its relevance to fandom, but what stood out to me was the finding that diversifying your groups doesn't serve any advantage if the group itself doesn't see itself as working towards a common goal or buying into group philosophy: ( Collapse )



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1) NPR's 1A had an episode about Renaissance Fairs that enthusiasts might find enjoyable. Also, It's Been a Minute had a discussion about the media's role in climate change discussions which had a lot of blunt talk that I have failed to see in many other places.

Specifically, the guest said that having fewer children and "managed retreat" -- which is apparently another term for "permanently resettling climate refugees" and "not trying to hold back the ocean" -- were important aspects of the discussion. The former is critical, and the latter is inevitable. There are already people whose homes are disappearing, whether through collapse or natural disaster or creeping changes. The best way to preserve cultures and communities is to strategically plan to move them in their entirety rather than doing nothing until people have scattered bit by bit. ( Collapse )

2) Nabbed from lilysea, How Memphis Created the Nation’s Most Innovative Public Library

“If librarians can’t save the world, no one can,” says Christine Weinreich, executive director of the Memphis Library Foundation, which helps fund many of these initiatives. “They have no ego, they’re not looking for glory, they just want to change lives and transform communities, and we have an army of them working in Memphis every day.”

3) Related to a discussion from this past week about digital literacy skills and social media habits, news organizations are desperate to reach Gen Z and younger millennials with content. One change (which is not likely to stop at news) is to pre-install a lock screen app that provides news content.

"The next innovation in news distribution and consumption is not likely to come from Facebook, Google or even Apple. Pay close attention instead to the mobile network operators, handset manufacturers, and the companies they partner with in an attempt to “hack” the app ecosystem"

4) Speaking of revenue models, many may have heard of the 80/20 rule, which holds true in some very varied examples. But when it comes to online donations and interaction, it seems to be more like the 2/50 rule. I noticed it again in an article about donations to The Guardian: "it was delivering more than 50% of the revenue from less than 2% of the total monthly audience"

I would be willing to bet there are a lot of places online (including DW) where the active people may be 20% of those with accounts but the ones financially supporting it are just 2%. And in some places it's not even that. Even though OTW does very well with fundraising these days, I don't think there have ever been more than 10,000 donors for a single drive period (generally much less) –- even though at least 10 million people are using it every month.

5) I include this article here less because of the story, although I have to agree with the statement that it's "one of the most American stories I have ever read." No, rather it's because I wish I could see posts like this everywhere, pointing out how the news media is complicit with absolutely everything that is wrong in our society. (I'd say societies because I doubt it's much better anywhere else, but I'll leave it to others to say that). And it's because of how they do their jobs. But what's also remarkable is that the most bizarre issue to anyone living elsewhere -- the fact that a homeowner should be so heavily armed -- goes completely unremarked. Because it is, after all, Texas.



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1) When you get just what you want, or maybe something you didn't know you needed plus pets with disabilities in their Halloween costumes!

2) Mike told me the NHL is dumping its own app and merging with ESPN+ for games. I need to look into whether or not that's the usual ESPN+ subscription or something else. But if so we'd probably be better off doing the bundle with Hulu Live, which is the same cost as what we're paying right now for DStream+HBO Max.

3) I thought I'd already crossposted this here, but if so I didn't find a record of it. However discussion on PF has circled around to it again so I thought I'd post this here as well

I've long understood why a site like LJ and its clones is difficult to learn to use (and why it can also seem silent). I had a definite learning curve when first following people on that site and then getting my own account (which was delayed because at the time one needed an invite). Given its structure, Pillowfort has many of the same "problems."

I found Tumblr baffling when I first tried to use it because so much of what I expected to be able to do with it is simply not possible. Plus a lot of it doesn't work like it should even with the features it has (tag searching and tag feeds, for example).

But I was struck by a post I saw earlier today that talked about how many of the latest generation find Tumblr confusing and empty because they are accustomed to have content shoved at them from the moment they create an account on more recent popular social media sites. Someone responding suggested that Reddit (an ancient site by today's standards) is much easier because it, too, quickly offers you content. ( Collapse )

4) Not that anyone here probably cares about this, but a chronological series of Duran Duran album reviews I wrote got added to AO3 last year. It was incomplete and I have finally finished it, spurred on by last week's new album release.

5) People might be more interested in seeing the story of Bert and Bertha, the mourning doves who nested on our door wreath back in 2010. I've now finished those posts on Pillowfort so just scroll down to the first post to see the pics in order.



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1) Chances are there are not many people currently following this account who were around back when I posted about Edwina (which was 2009-2012). We had a number of bird nests among our plant pots on the balcony but one day we got a pretty big one –- a mallard.

At first we wondered if the duck would abandon her nest because we had to go on the balcony regularly, even if only to take care of the plants. But those reading my post advised that as long as you left the duck alone they'd stay put. So we did, and I was sometimes entertained by seeing her looking at Mike as he'd be out there gardening and watering for hours.

She would stay on the nest almost all the time except for twice a day when she presumably left to eat, once near dusk. We got in the habit of asking one another if she was in the pot or not, and this led to her name. To me, the funniest moment of the movie All of Me was when Steve Martin's character is trying to clarify that he wanted Lily Tomlin's spirit to be taken out of him and put back in a box. The guru kept repeating "Edwina, back in box." So we called her Edwina.

Pillowfort is having financial trouble. Their schedule for premium features was thrown off by their time offline earlier this year, and then also by several deliberate troll attacks. Staff reacted very well to this but it has no doubt cost them a great deal of time to develop new features and hit the banhammer daily.

So I don't know how much longer the site will stay open. Personally I'm hoping it will be a long time indeed but successful online platforms are the exception to the rule.

Even though I'm only 2/3 of the way through her story, if anyone here wants to follow it (or revisit it) you can find it through her tag. Just go back to the first page so you can do so in order.

2) silverusagi posted some thoughts about characterization in romance that I can relate to. I thought I'd bring my comment here.( Collapse )

3) A signal boost to recthething's weekly recs. It's always fun to see what turns up (saw a stunning Loki fanart piece there last week). And speaking of Loki fanworks, I think this is the sort of bisexual pride statement that many people wish the Loki series had done more of.

4) An article about how teens don't know the basics about computers has gotten a lot of attention. I find myself unsurprised. There is also a huge assumption that young people are good at searching for things because they grew up with what earlier generations would consider advanced technology. As any librarian would point out, this has been proven untrue. ( Collapse )

5) Speaking of being vulnerable to things, FBI Sat On Ransomware Decryption Key For Weeks As Victims Lost Millions Of Dollars. Despite their excuses "Emsisoft, however, was able to act quickly. It extracted the key from what the FBI provided Kaseya, created a new decryptor and tested it — all within 10 minutes, according to Fabian Wosar, Emsisoft chief technology officer. The process was speedy because the firm was familiar with REvil’s ransomware. “If we had to go from scratch,” Wosar said, “it would have taken about four hours.” The FBI took three weeks to turn over the key to the first of many victims. During that time, it apparently failed to accomplish what Emisisoft developed in 10 minutes, as well as failing to catch any of the perpetrators."



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1) Our Disney+ subscription ends in less than 2 weeks and everything I really wanted to see has been seen. We're currently watching a Secrets of Whales series done by James Cameron which is excellent stuff, and have been watching scattered other shows in its National Geographic section.

We also started watching Professor T on PBS, but missed the first episode which is now no longer available. A while back we watched two episodes of what I'm assuming is the Belgian series though I could have sworn it was German, and there is also a German series so perhaps I'm not mistaken. But PBS didn't show it (or the French version) so probably not. But I didn't find it that enjoyable so we didn't keep up with it (and perhaps it got paywalled anyway). And now apparently there is also an English series from this year so I guess he's making his way around the EU. But I am finding it more enjoyable -- maybe they're leaning into the humor of it. ( Collapse )

2) Speaking of LeVar Burton, how much does it suck that his Jeopardy week is being pre-empted or not shown in many locations due to Olympic coverage?

3) American reporters consider reducing the damage they do. Particularly infuriating was the self-congratulatory reply of why journalists reveal so much personal information about people accused of crimes:

"When the Dutch editor learned how many deeply personal details American reporters routinely publish about those arrested, she gasped at what she saw as cruel and unethical. “Why would you do that to someone?” she asked." ( Collapse )

4) This is why misinformation spreads so much -- because of a lack of footnotes or links or because no one reads them. I was struck by a stat used early in this article about a boom in individual investing and the desperation it reveals. The article claims "2020 in which more than 10 million Americans opened new brokerage accounts." That seemed like a lot alright, so I checked the link. In that report the number is displayed on the first page. The source? "JMP Securities, email correspondence, March 15, 2021." ( Collapse )

That report did use one phrase I think does actually describe the overall 2020 experience: "These trends have been gathering speed for some time, but only recently has their impact become so apparent."

5) Recently took a walk at a nearby sunflower maze, and shared those pics at common_nature




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1) A dog who knows how to play with infants, and a papa cat who is less than helpful when checking on an exhausted mom. Plus, a momma dog and her subwoofers and games with your cat.

2) First, this Winter Falcon fanart was very funny so reason enough to link it here, but it highlights something Mike has pointed out, which is that everyone on TV is a good artist.

3) This news from the UK about its postal service is outrageous. While less awful, I completely agree with this discussion about unpaid work services. ( Collapse )

4) Thanks in part to thunderstorms and this week's Internet outage, I went through the LEGO Movie videogame fairly quickly. Part of the reason was that it was just a simpler game. ( Collapse )

5) Although I made several posts to common_nature in the past few months, Pillowfort being back is going to make that easier, so I should be making more of these.



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1) Given that I was having my second vaccination on Monday, I decided to take Tuesday off since I didn't know what I would be dealing with. Turns out it was a good choice, not because I was feeling that bad, but because the weather turned on Monday. On Tuesday it was snowing pretty much all day. So it was a perfect day to spend in bed. ( Collapse )

2) As a result of spending the day resting, I ended up watching all of Defending Jacob on Apple TV. While the first episode certainly sucked me in, I just got more irritated with it as it went on. ( Collapse )

3) As it happens we saw another Apple show over the weekend, David Attenborough's The Year the Earth Changed. Only an hour, it is a quick watch but a very interesting one as it reveals all the ways in which human absence or decline in activity means a major benefit for wildlife. Of particular interest is the upswing for endangered species in raising more young to adulthood –- whether cheetahs, penguins, turtles or whales. Definitely recommend.

4) I feel very torn about takeout. Frankly, I'd be perfectly happy to keep doing it and only go into a restaurant a few times a year. I just find it so much more convenient and prefer the experience of eating at home than eating out. Usually when we went out we brought along containers to take food home anyway –- but that's the rub. ALL. THE. CONTAINERS. ( Collapse )

5) Speaking of reasonable prices, it's remarkable to see the scale of costs involved in producing meals. We heard about a service, designed for seniors but pretty open to anyone right now given it's all now remote. It used to be a monthly lunch and musical entertainment. It still is, except now you can pick up the meals and then go listen to a broadcast on Facebook (assuming, of course, you use Facebook. Why this can't just be openly done on YouTube, I've no idea.)

Most remarkable, you could get a full meal for $7. You can barely get a fast food meal of junk for $7, much less chicken, potatoes, asparagus, a side salad with cheese and fruit, a roll and dessert for $7. It was not the best meal I ever ate but it was fine. Perhaps most interesting is that they are only producing around 100 meals for each occasion. Makes one realize how cheaply a ghost kitchen could produce food on a daily basis given that it would have cost me about $4 retail in ingredients to produce the same meal.



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1) I was feeling discouraged because as soon as I knew I qualified for a vaccine, I started looking for it locally. Then after only a few weeks of moving past non-essential/over 65, it was announced last week that the vaccine would be open to everyone 16 and over in another month. Since appointments kept vanishing, the idea that one will be even harder to get when everyone piles in seemed very likely.

But! I finally was able to secure one today and am scheduled for Monday. I sure hope that works out because the website was supposed to email me with instructions and none have arrived. Given that it's less than 48 hours to the appointment, I hope it arrives by tomorrow.

2) The wind and rain was so strong here on Wednesday night that neither Mike nor I slept well. Even though I had my air purifier set to the highest setting it didn't drown it out. In the morning there was also the added bonus of our neighbor moving out, so lots of stuff banging around and down the stairs. ( Collapse )

Lastly, although this was a few weeks ago, I liked the elements of it.



3) Apparently having bought my new TV/Computer Monitor a few months ago gave me a three month free trial of Apple+. This is both convenient and not, as at month's end I was planning to switch over to Disney+. I still may as I gather that Apple+ does not have much original content so 3 months is probably more than enough to see everything I want to see. I have to sign up by the end of March so I can't postpone it to a later date such as summer which would allow for more viewing time.

4) In my continuing effort to find us some different things to eat I have tried out a local caterer that is now doing full meal orders M-Sat with a different entrée item each day. A few weeks back we tried an artichoke and spinach stuffed chicken breast with rice and poached asparagus. (They also include different side salads and desserts). This past week we had beef stroganoff with green beans, a salad and chocolate mousse. The green beans were unfortunate. ( Collapse )

5) Allen vs Farrow concluded strongly. One of the tragic things about the case is that the defense Allen used – even though it didn't work for him – is being used daily throughout the U.S., the Parental Alienation theory that suggests a woman's vindictiveness against her spouse is what causes charges of sexual abuse. The documentary presented statistics compiled from academic research that showed in most cases where the defense is used, the abuser ends up with either custody of the child or with unsupervised visitation where, unsurprisingly, more abuse occurs.

So the legacy of a case where he got away with his actions is that many more kids around the country ended up having their abuse continue and their mothers lost custody. ( Collapse )



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1)

The above photo is unfortunately the only one from when Mike witnessed a goose slapdown last weekend. While out for a walk he noticed a group of 5 geese across the street. Two were fighting viciously while 3 stood around. Then the geese flew across the street to his side, so low that they were nearly hit by a car. ( Collapse )

2) Speaking of pandemic effects, I mentioned in my last post that people are starting to live rather than perform their lives, and I think this discussion about mealtimes and food consumption is definitely part of it. ( Collapse )

3) Relatedly, sports fandom may not be that fannish but more a matter of communal habit. ""When individuals say 'I wasn't aware that I could get by without sport,' that's basically them saying, 'I thought it might be a bigger deal than it was.' we aren't very good at guessing the power of our emotions in the future," "

I heard a segment on It's Been a Minute that discussed how viewing numbers have been down across the board. As the guest said, disputing the idea that player protests and politics was behind it, he noted that the Kentucky Derby numbers were down too "And I don't think any of the horses were taking a knee." ( Collapse )

4) To all those Republicans complaining about the cost of the Covid relief package, "Trump Appointee Who Wanted To Turn Voice Of America Into Breitbart Spent Millions Of Taxpayer Dollars" investigating the VOA staff by doing a no-bid contract with a Republican law firm so that he could find legal reasons to fire people.

5) As I now qualify locally for a vaccine I have begun monitoring appointment possibilities. The vaccinefinder.org site indicated that local Walgreens had a supply so I tried to sign up. Unfortunately I couldn't log in even though I apparently had an account already set up, the site was continually giving me an error. As I wasn't sure if there was actually an issue with the site, I tried changing the password. I got a password change link sent to me but that didn't work either. Apparently the whole site was malfunctioning thanks to demand. There was an option to call in for an appointment but that didn't work either because my phone was not recognized. ( Collapse )



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