wispfox

Beavers restore lands damaged by wildfire, human abuses, or other causes.

This is especially useful with climate change causing more drought. I recommend recruiting all available keystone species to resist the decline. Good examples for Turtle Island / North America include beavers, buffalo, goldenrod, milkweed, oak trees, prairie dogs, redwood trees, salmon, sea otters, and wolves. While not everyone has the resources to house any of those personally, you can still support organizations that aim to promote them.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

New study finds apes feel more optimistic after hearing laughter, indicates 'evolution of positive emotions'

Laughter — closely tied to language and a sense of humor — has long been thought to be uniquely human.
But in a new study out of Indiana University, researchers have discovered that bonobos, the closest living relative to human beings, along with chimpanzees, tend to be more optimistic after hearing similar vocalizations during play with their fellow apes.

I imagine that the people who mistake laughter for uniquely human have never had a cat look right at them, shove something of a shelf, and then laugh. Animals I have observed laughing include cats, dogs, horses, goats, and multiple species of birds.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Gender
Early Humans
Moment of Silence: Acelightning
New Crowdfunding Project: Land of Eem
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Staying Afloat
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Morals
Bingo
Poetry Fishbowl Report for June 3, 2025
Birdfeeding
Native American
Follow Friday 6-27-25: Hiking
Hobbies: Stage Magic
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Goblincore
Ancient Life
Ceramics
Artificial Intelligence
Books
Exoplanets
Birdfeeding
Good News

"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 40 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 144 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 93 comments.

sunshine_revival is setting up to activate July 1. See the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Spread the word!

summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are Tetris 69 and Body Worship 69.

"In the Heart of the Hidden Garden" belongs to the Antimatter and Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It only needs $40 to be fully funded. Lawrence leads Stan to Criss Library.

The weather was sweltering recently but has cooled off slightly. It's been raining a good deal and drizzled again this evening. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of mourning doves, a male cardinal, a fox squirrel, and at least 1 probably 2 bats. 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, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, daylilies, snowball bush, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, narrow-leaf mountain mint, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, wild bergamot, chicory, Queen Anne's lace. Cucumbers, tomatillo, and pepper have green fruit. The first 'Chocolate Sprinkles' tomato ripened and some other tomatoes are showing color. Wild strawberries, mulberries, peas, and blackberries are ripe. Black raspberries are winding down.

Current Mood: busy

dialecticdreamer

Information Interactions
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1361
[Wednesday, 2 August, 2017, 4 p.m]]

:: Mercedes Hospital becomes the hidden epicenter of a seismic shift in the local culture, especially the truce between various “hats” and “capes”. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

Yet another rap on the door brought a heavier, expectant feel with the crisp taps. Robert glanced at Maurwen, waiting for her nod. “Come in,” he offered.

An officer stepped in, offering a brisk smile to Maurwen. “The Captain suggested that I speak to the new witness, Miss. Unless you want to finish that story about the trip to whale watch?”

Maurwen shook her head, then turned to LaQuinta. “This is Eka Beja Hidayaputra. Yeah, that was a mouthful for me. He’s a good guy, and he’ll take things slow if you need to.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: amused

ysabetwordsmith

sunshine_revival has posted a Friending Meme. The calendar of activities is here and the fest will open on July 1. Use the master post to navigate the event.

Current Mood: excited

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny, humid, and hot. It drizzled yesterday evening.

I haven't fed the birds yet, but I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches. They've put a good dent in the thistle seed again.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I fed the birds.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I refreshed the mosquito dunks.

I refilled the hopper feeder and thistle feeder.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries. They're coming in nicely. :D

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I picked a handful of herbs to make a skillet scramble for supper.

I've got a few peas ripe in the new picnic table garden -- enough for a stir-fry maybe.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I sowed 3 pots with mulberries.

Now it's starting to drizzle again, so I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

lb_lee

Because we live like we will have to move or go couch-surfing at a moment’s notice, we have gotten pretty ruthless about our physical possessions. Nothing destroys sentimentality like having to lug it on your back over and over! So many of our childhood beloved books have been weeded; we got what we needed from them and thus liberated them unto new adventures.

There is one exception: an omnibus of the first three Callahan’s books, by Spider Robinson.( so here’s to you, Mr. Robinson, loonies love you more than you will know! )

Current Mood: nostalgic

leiacat

I've long been interested in checking out a burner event someday, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to invest into camping equipment without knowing that camping was a thing I could actually tolerate. So when a friend couple - who enable so many of my adventures that they deserve a designation, and hereby shall be listed as Satyr-and-Spouse - suggested that we join them to camp together using their gear and their expertise, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

( Men of great worth resorted to this forest )

siliconshaman

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Current Mood: exhausted

ysabetwordsmith

We made it to the end of June! \o/ If you have completed some of your medium-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We've also entered summer. If you're doing seasonal goals, hopefully you have finished the spring one(s), and started on the summer batch.

This year I'm trying something new, continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them. The main drawback is that this update becomes more of a chore each month.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 4
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 10
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 17
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 24
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In February 28
New Year's Resolutions Check In March 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In April 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In May 31

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

ysabetwordsmith

Sex swap in seconds: The fish that takes charge and changes gender

Remove the top male spotty fish and, within minutes, the next-in-line female morphs into the tank s new tyrant charging and nipping rivals while her body quietly begins a weeks-long transition to male.

Sex and gender are more fluid than most humans realize. Transition is a natural and normal process.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Buried for 23,000 years: These footprints are rewriting American history

Footprints found in the ancient lakebeds of White Sands may prove that humans lived in North America 23,000 years ago — much earlier than previously believed. A new study using radiocarbon-dated mud bolsters earlier findings, making it the third line of evidence pointing to this revised timeline.

I've been to White Sands. Interesting place, but bizarre. The air is blistering hot, but sand stays cool. Its albedo is too high to absorb much heat.

Current Mood: busy

dialecticdreamer

Regrouping
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 148
[Wednesday, 2 August, 2017, 3 p.m]]

:: Mercedes Hospital becomes the hidden epicenter of a seismic shift in the local culture, especially the truce between various “hats” and “capes”. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

Maurwen pushed away from the detritus of at least three meals, letting the fancy ergonomic chair exactly like all the others tucked around the large oval conference table roll her toward the expensively curtained floor to ceiling windows that seemed to glow with the afternoon sunlight, as if the energy had been trapped in the special glass instead of passing through it.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: moody

sorcyress

I finished all my packing for Pinewoods _surprisingly_ early --I was done a bit before 2:30pm, which was surprisingly charming. It meant that mom and Robin and I could go out to Boda Borg for the afternoon! We did a lovely four hour run, in which we got three stamps (Quiz Show: Quotes, Star Trails, and the weather one) and morally got a fourth (the last room of Area 51 is _much_ harder with three than with five, and even when we temporarily joined with another group, we still couldn't quite get it, but we know the _idea_). It was jolly!

I'm somewhat unsettled by being fully packed, and reassuring myself with the fact that I still have a bunch of MC/teacher prep work I can/should do, and a fair chunk of printing that needs to happen (after the prep work). I did find my _critically_ important Rowan¹ notebook, which has my ESCape teaching notes for every year starting when I got my full certificate in 2019. It was extremely lost, and I probably spent a total of 20-30 minutes trying to find it, sigh.

I am excited and pleased to leave for ESCape tomorrow. I'll be in the camp in the woods until the 12th or 13th of July or so, so probably not a lot of posting, and definitely continuing my horrid streak of not reading very well. I really ought to figure out a way to work reading dreamwidth into my day-to-day life at times other than part of Standard Morning Routine, because all this traveling and adventure nonsense means my standard routine hasn't been.

I've definitely mentioned somewhere here that I'm teaching at ESCape, right? I am _psyched_ for that. Really strongly looking forward to it, and kinda wicked excited that I will then be going to Scottish sessions and having very few responsibilities so I can just kinda kick back and actually relax for a tickyboo. Maybe I will even wind up working at camp a skootch, who knows!

Anyways, today has been pretty good, even if I've been Very Tired (it is possible I was up _stupid_ late last night in order to do most of my packing, but it's okay, I've had a lot of days in a row of getting eight or nine hours of sleep. I've got backup sleep! Which is very very good to go into Pinewoods with.)

I hope you are well and happy and having good adventures. I hope that we can have a better world than the one that is actually happening. I wish I had anything more useful to say than that.

~Sor

MOOP!

1: Rowan is the mascot of the RSCDS youth branch. They are a sheep and they use they pronouns and they are extremely important to me. I have cosplayed them! Carefully, since specifically they are a Scottish Blackface Sheep.

ysabetwordsmith

acelightning /

acelightning2 has passed away. She has been a supporter of the Poetry Fishbowl for years and offered up some insightful prompts.

Current Mood: pensive

ysabetwordsmith

Land of Eem: Beginners RPG for Kids + Underlands Expansion
Dungeoneer Adventures Beginners RPG—an easy, fun, family game—plus The Underlands Sandbox, a brand new setting for Land of Eem.

$150,187 pledged of $75,000 goal
1,234 backers
19 days to go

Land of Eem: Dungeoneer Adventures is an easy-to-learn, easy-to-play, and easy-to-run tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) box set for kids. Players take on the roles of students attending Dungeoneer Academy, a school where kids train to become full-fledged adventurers and explorers in the fantastical Land of Eem.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

wcg

Weasel Stomping Day!!???

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy, muggy, and hot -- but considerably less hot than the past week. Today it's 81°F which is hot but "be careful not to overdo yardening" not "stay indoors until it cools off" hot.

I fed the birds. I refilled the thistle feeder. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a pair of mourning doves.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/29/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/29/25 -- I walked around the yard. I picked a few mulberries but there aren't a lot left. I picked a few black raspberries. That season is almost over too. :( The blackberries are starting to ripen, though, so I can start on those.

Wild bergamot, black-eyed Susans, narrow-leaf mountain mint, and purple echinacea are blooming. Yellow coneflower and cup plants have flower buds. Most of the Asiatic lilies have already bloomed, but some are still going -- I have several varieties.

EDIT 6/29/25 -- I was going to pick blackberries, but it started raining. :/

Current Mood: busy

gingicat

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ysabetwordsmith

We went out a couple of times today.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: happy

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wispfox

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November 2024

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Page generated Jul. 1st, 2025 03:57 am

Reading

Conservation

Primates

Monday Update 6-30-25

Information Interactions(part 1 of 1, complete)

Sunshine Revival

Birdfeeding

A Toast to Spider Robinson

Report: Summerisle Burn

I'm melting, I'm melting...

New Year's Resolutions Check In

Gender

Early Humans

Regrouping (part 1 of 1, complete)

Ready for camp!

Moment of Silence: Acelightning

New Crowdfunding Project: Land of Eem

Are you ready for...

Birdfeeding

another Callahanian gone...

Today's Adventures

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November 2024

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