Reading

Shocking Breaking News That You Won't Believe!!!!!!

If I were a programmer, I would write a program that disabled any opening of any link that used the words in this headline - together or separably. Once in a while, mostly on my phone, I click by accident and then RUSH to clear my cache. I don't want to be any part of any reward or payoff to the assholes who perpetrate.

There's my morning rant for you :)

Other than that, I don't got much.

The Mariner game starts at 9. The Phillies game starts closer to 11. It's now 8. But, there's no sun out. So I think I'll just hop into my suit and go swim before all the action.

Entry tags:

sunday

Full Moon. I tried to recreate the look of the moon that we saw last night driving back from Meadville. When it's like this with scattered clouds across the sky it always reminds me of watching a vast stage. The clouds change and move so fast. My new glasses seemed to add a bit of orange and a bit of blue to the glow that was around the moon.

The movie, Twinless, was really good. I'm glad we got to see it.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Lunar Eclipse

Total lunar eclipse of the full Corn Moon September 7, 2025

On September 7, 2025, a total lunar eclipse of the full Corn Moon will sweep across Antarctica, Australia, Asia, the western Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Europe, the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Africa. Total lunar eclipses can turn a deep shade of red and are often called a Blood Moon. How dark will the September 2025 total lunar eclipse be?

( Read more... )

Busy, Busy - Pics

The compost pile in the back of the garden is cooking away. It is officially in the HOT compost category. I grabbed a handful of it to inoculate a different pile and it was too hot to hold comfortably. So that pile is officially off limits for new material. That meant I needed to clean out the other side, the left hand side. The left side had several wheelbarrows full of failed compost sitting forlornly on the bricks. That pile had composted fast and hot and then just stopped and failed to finish the process. Nothing I did helped. By this time it was a heap of hydrophobic materials. I decided to move the pile out of the official composting area and try again. As I dug material out I watered, and watered and watered it, using the shovel to chop up chunks. It was slow going. Once I had a damp pile I got the PH meter out and took a reading. 6.0. Which isn't bad, but it is on the acidic side and it made me wonder if part of the problem was that the whole mess was too acidic to continue composting. The original pile had a lot of oak leaves in it, which are pretty acid. Step two was to add horse manure from the corrals (fresh material to attract microbes) and handfuls of wood ash from the fireplace to reduce the PH. Here is the pile as I was adding material. In the background Firefly has done an excellent job of creating a fire break around the garden. This winter I have to burn that little pile of branches...( Pics )

Entry tags:

saturday

I feel like the cloud has been lifted. I've been totally off metoprolol since Thursday morning and finally today was the first day I didn't have the bradycardia. I took a energetic walk down back with Rainy this morning, climbed the hill (which was so uncomfortable to climb before) and everything felt good. My heart rate went up with exertion like it's supposed to.

I got the stained glass mosaic done on 5 more mirrors this afternoon. I have 8 left to go. I could have stayed out in the shed and done more. I had the time. Except it's chilly and my hands were getting cold.

I told Dave that to celebrate my return to health we should go out to dinner and a movie. Dinner at Perkins in Meadville and then I want to see Twinless.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Crafts

The revolution will be hand-spun

Artisans have long pushed back against the logic of industrial capitalism. In the 19th century, the Arts and Crafts Movement emerged as a response to the alienation and disenchantment of mass production. Thinkers such as William Morris and John Ruskin believed that the beauty and joy of a product should not be sacrificed for efficiency and profit. Though the movement has been romanticised and limited by its class dynamics, it planted the seeds for a more human economy that valued the dignity of labour and the connection between maker, object, and environment. Today’s craft echoes that ethos but with a different kind of urgency among the backdrop of ecological breakdown, supply chain fragility, and a loneliness epidemic. Craft is not simply nostalgic and aesthetic, it is a degrowth practice. It offers a lived critique of a world and consumption habits driven by speed and scale. Craft models an alternative that is grounded in sufficiency, care, and embodied knowledge.

If you get frustrated with artificial intelligence, fast fashion, the carbon footprint of global shipping, etc. then handicrafts offer an effective means of protest. You don't have to make everything yourself, but everything that you do make strikes directly against the juggernaut of contemporary capitalism.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Birdfeeding

Today is mostly cloudy and mild.

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

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I watered the patio plants and the old picnic table plants.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I watered the irises, the telephone pole garden, and a few of the savanna plants.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I watered the new picnic table garden and the septic garden.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Birdfeeding

Tongue holes

Elbow Coffee was an hour of biting my tongue. But, except for one time, I did good. Joan told everyone that yesterday Seattle's air quality was the worst in the world. This is very much not true. The worst air quality listed for Seattle yesterday was Moderate. And I said so. Seattle has had the worst air in the world - in past years. Not, so far this year.

But, otherwise, the whole time Jim (the other Jim) was describing his TV issues (Xfinity gave him a new box and he couldn't get the channel he wanted (it's a streaming channel and he does not have the TV connected to wifi), I kept my mouth shut. If he had asked, I would have explained but he didn't so zipped lips. An Ingrid can't get email because 'my system is Yahoo and Yahoo says I have too much.' Jim (same Jim) said usually messages like that include and offer to sell you a solution. To which Ingrid replied 'well of course they did but I'm not going to pay them an extra $2 a month!!' My trap? Shut. Completely.

I was winding yarn into balls so my head was down and I kept my face totally neutral.

We have a new puzzle in the elbow today. But I have a baseball game at 1 and one at 4 so not a whole lot of time!

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Artificial Intelligence

One of the ways that LLM-authored code improves productivity is by merely SAYING it does things. It's way faster than the whole time-consuming process of actually doing things.

This is exactly the kind of problem I expected to come out of AI-generated code. If all you reward is speed, then you'll get sloppy fake code like this. If you want to persist in trying to make AI create usable code, then you also have to reward it for accuracy and penalize it for lies and mistakes. The trouble is, AI is bad at juggling contradictory commands like "Do this as fast as possible to be accurate, but not so fast that it produces bad output." It becomes very prone to freezing.

Annnnnnd that's why human computer programmers are valuable.

Entry tags:

Swanage Folk Festival - part one

Basingclog Morris, Swanage Folk Festival 2025 4

Fabulous weather for the dancing today along the sea front at Swanage. Sunshine, and a brisk wind to set the rags and ribbons of the Morris dancers in motion.

( Part one )

TIL: the words broccoli and brocade come from the same root

I had absolutely no idea!

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

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

recurring posts

Philosophical Questions: Economy

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

What will the economy of wealthy countries look like in 50 to 100 years?

Like this.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Climate Change

Scientists made plastic that eats carbon

From waste to valuable resource: Chemists at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method to convert plastic waste into a climate solution for efficient and sustainable CO2 capture, thereby addressing not one, but two major global challenges.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Neighborly Request

I'm copying this from

dialecticdreamer:

Our online friend

chanter1944 needs help re-linking works from their old user name to the current one. (This affects the Schroedinger’s Heroes stories that they have written, specifically.) I have no idea how to do this, but there are plenty of people here who probably have a better clue about how to proceed. So I’m asking.

They have many stories which should not be lost in the black box of their former DW handle. Please contact

chanter1944 , who uses a screen reader which can slow down response time.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Wishing success to

chanter1944 , and the helpers who tackle this project!

I will add that this affects the Schrodinger's Heroes links for the Orange!verse on my website; I know I've got some folks here who can edit that, so hopefully someone will have time to help.

Current Mood: happy

Entry tags:

Today's Adventures

Today we went to the Broomcorn Festival in Arcola. This is a big harvest festival, well worth catching, and it runs the whole weekend if you want to check it out. The weather was beautiful, cloudy and mild, couldn't ask for better weather.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Friday Five

1. What was recently interrupted?

Gardening, because today we went to the Broomcorn Festival.

2. What could you use a break from?

The drought. Seriously, the weeds are dying. My sunchokes continue to give zero fucks though.

3. What would get you to continue that long-unfinished project?

Time. And since I have time currently, I am working on an unfinished poem.

4. When did you last attend something that had an intermission?

Gosh, it's been years, we used to attend theatre events.

5. What’s your favorite way to spend a lunch break?

Eating lunch.

Dimensional Lumber Tape Measure

https://xkcd.com/3138/

A person with two watches is never sure what time it is, especially if I got them one of the watches.

https://xkcd.com/3138/

Entry tags:

friday later

I was taking a walk to the creek this morning when I came across the black snake. Little Red and Muffy came up to investigate too. I'll bet anything that this is the same snake that is leaving its skin in my shed.

Sitting by the creek with Rainy on my lap. I wanted to get a selfie to show how dark my new glasses get in the sun. I'm glad they aren't real dark. This is good.

I took this photo before I left the mosaic shed for the night. 13 more to go that need stained glass glued onto them. I did 4 today. That stack in the back is the finished ones. I figure if I can do around 3 a day I'll have 5 more days of work before I leave for Florida on the 14th. I want to have the gluing part done before I go. I can do the grouting when I get back.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and mild.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/5/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/5/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/5/25 -- I watered the old picnic table, new picnic table, telephone pole garden, and a few of the savanna seedlings.

I picked 2 yellow pear tomatoes.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

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