Climate Change

Jul. 13th, 2025 12:28 am
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Melting glaciers are awakening Earth's most dangerous volcanoes

As glaciers melt around the world, long-dormant volcanoes may be waking up beneath the ice. New research reveals that massive ice sheets have suppressed eruptions for thousands of years, building up underground pressure. But as that icy weight disappears, it may trigger a wave of explosive eruptions—especially in places like Antarctica. This unexpected volcanic threat not only poses regional risks but could also accelerate climate change in a dangerous feedback loop. The Earth’s hidden fire may be closer to the surface than we thought.


Somehow OH SHIT just doesn't seem like enough. O_O  I have noticed that the volcanoes seem more restless than they used to, and now wonder if this could be a contributing factor.

(no subject)

Jul. 13th, 2025 04:17 am

Today's Smoothie

Jul. 12th, 2025 10:49 pm
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Today we made a smoothie with:

1 cup almond milk
1 cup Brown Cow vanilla yogurt
3 tablespoons Bettergoods pistachio butter
a dash of cardamom

The result is off-white and on the thin side.  It tastes okay, but does not have much pistachio flavor at this stage.

The pistachio butter does have a strong pistachio flavor, but it is quite sweet; sugar is the second ingredient.  So we skipped the honey that we usually put into a nut butter smoothie.

Today In “Prices Aren’t Real”

Jul. 12th, 2025 08:25 pm
[syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

So, if I want to buy a 100 Grand candy bar (or an Almond Joy, or a Heath Bar, or whatever), and I go to the candy aisle in the local gas station, or the one in the IGA, the candy bar will cost about two bucks, give or take. But! If I go to the local dollar store to buy the same brand of candy, packaged as four to six “fun sized” individually wrapped bars, each of these packages are $1.25, or $5 if I buy five. The aggregate amount of candy by weight is pretty much the same as if I bought the full-sized candy bar, but because they are packaged differently, it costs half as much. Does this make sense? No! It does not! I mean yes, I understand that one is positioned as an impulse buy and one is not, I do understand the psychology of the supermarket. I get it, truly I do. But it still boggles my mind.

Likewise if I go to the store to buy a 12-pack of Coke Zero, it will be somewhere between $8 and $10, but if Krissy goes to Kroger on a particular day and shows them her Kroger card (or whatever) then she can get the “buy two, get three free” discount, which again means the actual cost of the 12-pack is 40% of what its usual cost is. It works similarly for lots of other things, including things that are not junk food or drink.

“Congratulations, Scalzi, you’ve discovered coupons,” I hear you say. Look, I’m not saying any of this is new. But it does seem to me the variance in pricing is more significant now than it was before. I’m not exactly what you would call a price-sensitive individual these days, but I still finally broke down and got myself a CVS card because the difference in cost between having that card, and not, was high enough that my brain rebelled against needlessly spending that much more.

(Yes, I’m aware that CVS, Kroger, et al are data farming what I purchase. As a practical matter, I don’t really care if CVS learns I’m buying Doritos; they were tracking the UPC when I went to check out anyway. And as a general matter I’m not purchasing anything in a supermarket or pharmacy that I want to hide from data crunching.)

I know this is a bit of an aimless rant, but I think what I’m really getting at is that the answer to the question “why are things so expensive right now” really is “because fuck you, that’s why.” That candy bar quite evidently doesn’t need to be $2; that 12-pack of soda doesn’t need to be $8, and there are a lot of people who can’t afford the clearly arbitrary high prices that things have, who have to pay them anyway. It’s annoying for me, but for someone else it might mean skipping a meal or two, or more, here and there. It doesn’t seem fair, and it doesn’t seem right.

— JS

Birdfeeding

Jul. 12th, 2025 03:27 pm
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Today is cloudy, mild, and wet.  It rained earlier.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/12/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

It started drizzling again.

EDIT 7/12/25 -- I potted up 2 apricot seeds.

I picked the first ripe cucumber.  :D






.
 

Tech neck is back plus

Jul. 12th, 2025 09:05 am
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[personal profile] susandennis
It might be sleep neck or sleep+tech neck but ouch! I was not as careful yesterday and today it's a problem. Plus we cut volleyball short since we didn't have enough people and then two of those had to leave early. So, today, I have to really watch it or I'll cripple myself.

I also have a zit just inside my nose and a sore spot on my thumb - right in a critical knitting spot. Oh woe is me.

Many members of the cleaning and maintenance staff here are Spanish speaking. Some have some English but most all use phone translators when the going gets rough. Timber Ridge is, after, apparently a large number of requests, is offering a short course in conversational Spanish. They've lined up a local Spanish teacher (like, very local - lives in the neighborhood) and they have put out a flyer to see how many are actually interested. I'm waffling. My main reason for not doing it is that I'm lazy but also the classes will be at 4 in the afternoon twice a week. My brain quits working after 3. Sometimes 2. Plus, I am horrible at languages. I had years of French in school and I can barely tell you where the pen of my aunt is. I know if I sign up, I'll hate it on the day I have to go.

But I do love that Timber Ridge is offering it.

Time to get dressed for Elbow Coffee.

20250711_184856-COLLAGE

Philosophical Questions: Poverty

Jul. 12th, 2025 02:36 am
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People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Is poverty in society inevitable?

Read more... )

Extinct Birds

Jul. 11th, 2025 11:31 pm
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'The Lord of the Rings' director Peter Jackson is on a mission to revive the world’s tallest bird, 600 years after it went extinct

Inspired by their debut project, Jackson is now working with Colossal to bring the ancient moa back to life through subfossil sourcing and genetic engineering.

On July 8, Jackson and his partner donated $15 million to the project
.


The moa is an excellent choice for de-extinction, as it died out relatively recently and due to human misbehavior.

Read more... )

Today's Adventures

Jul. 11th, 2025 09:34 pm
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Today we went to the Marshall Farmer's Market. It's an evening market from 6-8 PM, followed by a band concert, which is way better than a morning one.

Read more... )
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Take Us North is down to the last day or so of its campaign. If you want to participate, now is the time.

$50,976 pledged of $30,000 goal
509 backers
26 hours to go
[syndicated profile] askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

Laurie and Wallace

This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand.

Here are the rules for the weekend posts.

Book recommendation of the week: Park Avenue, by Renee Ahdieh. An ambitious young lawyer is asked to take on a case against a monstrously rich family’s patriarch, who seems to be hiding money from his kids and terminally ill wife. (Amazon, Bookshop)

* I earn a commission if you use those links.

The post weekend open thread – July 12-13, 2025 appeared first on Ask a Manager.

Art

Jul. 11th, 2025 03:35 pm
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This art workshop made a "landscape" out of loose parts for the artists to use as inspiration.  Every art room should have a generous collection of objects to mix and match like this.

my formerly empty freezer

Jul. 11th, 2025 01:17 pm
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[personal profile] susandennis
As I written about here about a million times, the food scheme at the cult involves my getting an allowance of $600 on the 10th of every month. It does not roll over. So I have to eat $600 worth a month or lose it.

This is designed to be more or less one meal a day. Breakfast is $15 Lunch is $16 and Dinner ranges from $16 to $28. Once in a blue moon I have one of their lunches and one of their dinners (like today, probably) but more often, I skip entirely. This is mostly because their portions are generous and I have so many leftovers.

I have, in past months, trended towards skipping early on and then madly trying to cash in later. But, now I have a new plan. I'm going to strike when the iron is hot. Next week's menus do not look enticing. This week's teriyaki is still great so today I placed 6 orders. I ate one and put 5 in the freezer.

So now I have $502 and 26* days to eat it. So my spreadsheet says I have to eat more than $19 every day. See the problem!? It's so not easy living in the lap of luxury. *They serve brunch on Sunday but I never eat it.

The dinner buffet looks good tonight so that will help.

Also I went to Safeway and got ice cream and some other frozen stuff. So now my freezer is packed to the gills. Which is perfectly fine.

Birdfeeding

Jul. 11th, 2025 02:53 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and sweltering.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a house wren.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/11/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel.

EDIT 7/11/25 -- Yesterday I collected 5 little pink crabapples while out and about. These are almost marble size, much more useful than the pea-sized ones. So I potted up those today to see if they'll sprout.

Bonus Fishbowl

Jul. 11th, 2025 12:38 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
There will be a bonus fishbowl on Tuesday, July 15. The theme will be "anything goes." If you want a continuation of an earlier piece, or something totally new, that doesn't fit the usual themes, then now's your chance. Brainstorm in advance and jot down ideas for later. You can also request any favorite series, character, setting, etc.

Note that our internet connection has been bad for well over a month. Sometimes it's down completely, other times things like Dreamwidth and searches won't run. So I'm losing a lot of work time and may only have access for half a day or less. Given this limitation, there's a higher chance of actually getting things written for prompts that use characters, settings, etc. that are already established.

Follow Friday 7-11-25

Jul. 11th, 2025 12:29 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] followfriday
Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

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