Monday, May 25th, 2026 12:23 am
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "Aim a Little Above It"
Poem: "Your Emotional Abilities"
Politics
Poem: "A Proper Community Is a Commonwealth"
Early Humans
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Affordable Housing
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Honor
Gardening
Wildlife
Follow Friday 5-22-26: Active Communities on Dreamwidth Spring 2026 J-Z
Birdfeeding
Crafts
Science
Fossils
Vocabulary: Marla
Community Thursdays
Birdfeeding
Friending Meme
Poem: "Let’s Go on This Journey Together"
Conservation
Poem: "Where There Is No Respect for Life"
Today's Adventures
Read "Small Planet"
Birdfeeding
Cuddle Party

Poem: "Walnut Park" has 46 comments. Early Humans has 22 comments. Philosophical Questions: Pregnancy has 84 comments. Safety has 84 comments.


Last week's half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics went well. All sponsored poems have been posted.


"Let's Go on This Journey Together" belongs to Polychrome Heroics. It needs $151 to be complete. Linus struggles to deal with a broken arm.

"No Faster or Firmer Friendships" has 50 new verses. It belongs to Polychrome Heroics and needs $35 to be complete. Josué reads a funny poem to Maria-Vera.


The weather has been variable here. We got some rain a few days ago. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male and a female cardinal separately, a starling, and a fox squirrel. I saw a ruby-throated hummingbird in the forest garden. Currently blooming: pansies, violas, sweet alyssum, marigolds, honeysuckle, snapdragons, lantana, million bells, blue lobelia, petunias, portulaca, nemesia, wild chives, columbine, mock orange, Washington hawthorn, blackberries, firecracker plant, privet, pineapple sage. One yucca is sending up a flower stalk. Green fruit: raspberries, blackberries. Ripe fruit: peas, mulberries.
Monday, May 25th, 2026 12:20 am
Scientists uncover a hidden layer of inheritance beyond DNA

Most of what the team saw lined up with Mendel. About 93% of the methylation patterns followed his classic rules in some form. The remaining 7% did not.

That came out to roughly 522 sites where the tags broke from the script.

In addition, 54 of those sites showed something stranger: methylation tags in offspring that were nowhere to be found in either parent.



There are numerous ways that information can be encoded in the body, and expressed as needed.
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Sunday, May 24th, 2026 10:16 pm
This poem is spillover from the February 1, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from [personal profile] mama_kestrel, [personal profile] see_also_friend, and [personal profile] kelkyag. It also fills the "Forgive" square in my 2-1-22 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

Read more... )
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 10:31 pm
Julie suggested that we could watch a movie for my birthday since we had watched one for hers. This seemed like a fine idea, but yesterday got away from us, so we planned this for tonight.

The problem is that a great many of the movies that I might want to watch were not available on streaming or would cost an annoying amount to rent. (Not that much, just annoying.) But I bought the Indiana Jones box set a while back on DVD, so we could watch "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

At least, we could watch it if the disk was in the case. It was not. Nor did it turn up on cursory searches of places where it should have been. I am annoyed.

Gretchen suggested "1776" and the copy that we had of that was available -- which is good, because we would have had to subscribe to Starz to get it otherwise. The kids liked it a lot.

And, of course, so did Gretchen and I.
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 11:34 pm
For the record, I've discovered that cooking hot dogs in the air fryer on 385°F for five minutes (turning them over halfway through) makes them turn out absolutely delicious.

I normally either boil them or cook them on my George Foreman grill, but I decided to experiment this weekend. It took a bit of trial and error, but the temperature and time that I mentioned above turned out to be the winner. I mainly only eat them in the summer, but it's good to know that I've found a quick and easy way of cooking the considering they're one of those foods that's filling but cheap.

Also? I dipped potato chips in melted chocolate, which was an A+ idea that I should definitely make again sometime.
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 09:15 pm
I know I set my alarm last night, and I don't remember turning it off this morning, but I must have because when I got out of bed, it was almost 9:30. I didn't panic because I prepared for this with canned coffee in the fridge and protein bars in the cupboard. I didn't panic when I got pretty well soaked by the rain, either, since I knew I'd be coming back to my place to strip off the wet clothes and do laundry.

Similarly, I've got sauteed zucchini in the fridge for upcoming breakfasts, and I'll soon put some beans on to soak to cook tomorrow. It's a bit of a domino effect and a commitment to a given outcome, and it's more of the same planning and anticipating. I don't know how much I'll be able to get done this week on assorted projects and tasks, but I'll be ready to get rid of excuses.
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 07:41 pm
Silk can be transformed into a super-material stronger than bone

Now, researchers have found a way to turn silk into something much stronger than fabric.

In fact, the new material can compete with some advanced industrial composites and even comes close to Kevlar in toughness.

It can also survive ballistic impacts better than carbon fiber reinforced plastics. That puts silk in a very different category than scarves and dresses
.
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Sunday, May 24th, 2026 05:10 pm
This poem is spillover from the December 3, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from [personal profile] goatgodschild and [personal profile] wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "Flannel" square in my 11-1-24 card for the Sleepytime Bear Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Rutledge thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "Your Own Blissful Path" so read that first or this won't make as much sense.

Read more... )
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 06:36 pm
Frequently when we reschedule something because of a bad weather forecast, the weather turns out to not be that bad after all, but this weekend, it was the smart move. It seems to have finally stopped raining for bit after it rained heavily for most of yesterday and all of today. It's been a real chilly and kind of gray spring, tbh, those few days of high 80s/low 90s notwithstanding.

Anyway, I've taken the chance to try out some recipes - yesterday, I made chicken meatballs with garlic butter orzo, which is good and I have some leftover, but I would say that the meatballs are sort of unnecessary? And the garlic butter needs a little more seasoning imo - some rosemary and oregano and basil would not go amiss - but the orzo in garlic butter is good stuff.

I also made Ina Garten's shortbread, though I kept the teaspoon of almond extract from the pecan shortbread and covered them with chocolate sprinkles - I made the dough yesterday and then baked them off this morning. 20 minutes was probably a minute or 2 too long in the oven, but they still taste good.

I also baked a loaf of bread, on which I might make French bread pizza tomorrow. We'll see. I might also bake some kind of lemon cake, since I have a bunch of lemons, but maybe not. Again, I'll see how I feel. But for dinner tonight, I made these ricotta and breadcrumb balls. Which again, I seasoned to my own taste rather than following the instructions. They're pretty good if you like ricotta.

I think that's one of the most important things you can do when you learn to cook - learn to make things taste the way you like them. I save a ton of recipes and have a bunch of cookbooks, but mainly I need them for measurements and techniques, not flavorings. I mean, don't get me wrong, sometimes they will come up with a combination that would never have occurred to me which is delicious! But a lot of the time, I'm going, I'll swap in X for Y and I will like it better. If there are too many of these in one recipe, then it's not really that recipe (not that I would comment to say so!), but the technique might be useful just the same.

*
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 05:24 pm
Title: My Redemption
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery & Star Trek: Section 31
Music: My Redemption by Halestorm
Summary: 'don't need saving to save myself/ don't need forgiveness to bless my guilt'
Notes: Premiered at [community profile] wiscon_vidparty 2026!
Warnings: quick cuts, flashing lights, blood, violence

AO3 | bsky | DW | tumblr | YouTube
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 04:17 pm
DEMOCRACY REPORT 2026: Unraveling The Democratic Era?

1. Democracy in the World 2025
* Democracy is back to 1978 levels for the average global citizen. The gains of the “third wave of democratization”, starting 1974 in Portugal, are almost eradicated.
* The level of democracy for the average citizen in Western Europe and North America is at its lowest level in over 50 years, primarily due to ongoing autocratization in the USA.
* The USA loses its long-term status as a liberal democracy – for the first time in over 50 years
.

Read more... )
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 04:44 pm
My Extremely Square ass is writing a scene where a character does LSD, and they (AMAB NB) hallucinate seeing and fusing with a female version of themself- for the rest of the trip, their proprioception/body map is altered so that they feel as though they have a more "female" body shape (eg, breasts, wider hips).

My question is in the title- is fucking with the body's proprioception/body map/sense of touch in this way something LSD can do? Also, the contents of the trip are kind of plot-relevant, so if LSD can't actually do this, are there any hallucinogens that can (and that people take recreationally/Actually Enjoy Tripping On)?

Thanks!
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 01:53 pm
This poem is spillover from the March 17, 2026 Bonus Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] readera. It also fills the "Woodworking" square in my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Broken Angels thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "Preserving the Quality and Character," so read that first or this won't make much sense.

Read more... )
Sunday, May 24th, 2026 07:36 pm
Edit: Ok, another crap idea. Axing it. Got it. Thanks.

Context for this wee scene - shift handover between bodyguards, 1st speaker has drugged their boss because his gambling was out of control. Can't find the right search string to get around medical advice on mild sleeping pill sedatives etc, but I think diazepam probably isn't strong enough? Or maybe it is, or maybe only if enough is administered it would cause other problems. Not that anyone is particularly worried about an overdose but the scene is rather early in the novel for that to happen.

“You’re in for a rough day once he wakes up.”
“How bad did he lose?”
“I spiked his drink at 750,000 bhat.”
Pod shakes his head.
“We could just not let him wake up. Keep feeding him diazepam until we’re ready to deal with him again.”
“Is that what you gave him?”
“Rohypnol first, and GHB to mess with his memory. Diazepam cause we got home at 4 and I wanted the rest of the night off.”

Sunday, May 24th, 2026 01:18 pm
Scientists discover the oldest wooden tools ever used by humans

Scientists have uncovered the oldest known hand-held wooden tools ever used by humans — and they’re an astonishing 430,000 years old. Buried for hundreds of thousands of years at an ancient lakeside site in Greece, the carefully carved wooden objects reveal that early humans were far more skilled and resourceful than once believed.