Space Exploration
Jul. 13th, 2025 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
A 2.35-billion-year-old Moon rock that fell to Earth in Africa is rewriting what we know about lunar volcanism. This rare meteorite, studied by UK scientists and unveiled at a major geochemistry conference, reveals that the Moon was volcanically active far longer than previously thought. With a unique chemical makeup and an age that bridges a billion-year gap in Moon rock samples, it suggests the Moon had internal heat sources that persisted for ages.
Placemaking: How to Connect the Dots
Jul. 13th, 2025 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Working Troubles (part 1 of 1, complete)
Jul. 13th, 2025 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1296
[Friday, 4 August, 2017, 3 p.m.]
:: LaQuinta’s day is a series of disappointments and troubles. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::
Reaching for the small paper bag of leftovers, LaQuinta felt all the air rush out of her lungs in a gusty sigh. “I’ve got a place to sleep. I’ve got a shower or tub whenever I want it, and can use the toilet between ten at night and seven in the morning.” She mouthed the remaining words as her air ran out. “I’ll find some work tomorrow. Maybe I can hide the Surrey at Cash’s place. Maybe it’ll help.”
She lifted the bag, double checked the lock on her bike chain, and stepped away from the parking space in front of her room.
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Birdfeeding
Jul. 13th, 2025 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches plus a pair of cardinals.
I put out water for the birds.
It's starting to drizzle.
EDIT 7/13/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 7/13/25 -- I refilled the birdfeeders again.
I've seen a fox squirrel.
As it is still wet out, I am done for the night.
Marketplace Books
Jul. 13th, 2025 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
New Voices: The Campbell Award Nominees (New Voices, volume 1) edited by George R R Martin
Jul. 13th, 2025 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

The first in a series of anthologies that assemble stories by Campbell Award (now the Astounding) finalists.
New Voices: The Campbell Award Nominees (New Voices, volume 1) edited by George R R Martin
Done Since 2025-07-06
Jul. 13th, 2025 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It's been a week. Starting with my son's fortieth birthday, and ending with the fourth anniversary of Colleen's death. I started writing a "state of the Bear" post last Sunday, and will either finish it today or tomorrow, or give up on it. But productive.
I went out for a walk four days this week -- the longest was about a
kilometer, and the shortest was 650m. I practiced every day,
which I haven't done for a long time. And, at N's suggestion, I
started a work log, to keep track of what I've done for our business.
I'll write it up separately, of course, but it's been remarkably
effective. See under Monday for the start, but it's all been moved out of
Dog/to.do
to different file and workspace, which will mostly
not find its way into this log, although pieces might.
It also shows how appallingly lazy I've been for the last six months.
Not really surprising -- I've been retired for eight years, and I've allowed myself to get out of shape in a great many ways. It's probably too late to get back to where I was a decade ago, but I'll do what I can.
And of course, the best-laid plans... Friday N and I started putting together a piece of patio furniture, and wore ourselves out completely. And yesterday was Colleen's day and I actually got more done than I expected. Weekends are for catching up.
As for links, AI coding tools make developers slower, study finds • The Register. As I've often said, HTML Is Publishing, Not Code
And this is flat-out amazing: Hundreds of robots move Shanghai city block - YouTube
Climate Change
Jul. 13th, 2025 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
I'm Gonna Chow Down My Vegetables
Jul. 13th, 2025 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I mentioned it being exceptional (and barely plausible) that a roller coaster might last seven minutes. We did nevertheless get on some rides that went on seven minutes or more; one even lasted at least a half-hour. This was the miniature train ride around the park, which unlike some modest amusement parks we could name (Michigan's Adventure, Cedar Point) makes a whole four stops at points along the park. This didn't give us as many views as we'd have liked of stuff from the wrong side, but it's always a pleasant kind of thing, and the sort of ride we want to get on when we have time.
Also we got on a dark ride, a boat ride this time. We'd tried to go early in the day but I think the ride was temporarily closed. Later on we saw it open again and didn't know what to expect from Het Bos van Plop, other than that the ``Bos'' thing sure sounded woods-y. And the ``Plop'' suggested something core to Plopsaland's identity. Sure enough, at the station, we saw a TV showing clips(?) from a TV show(?) with people dressed as gnomes and doing funny shenanigans that well, you can see pictures, and I'll suppose the show is what you expect from that. The ride was a fine one, a tunnel-of-love style ride in boats on the water through a lot of scenes, showing models and automata for fun effect. One point I know they had a couple figures on a carousel where the mounts were squirrels and bunnies, just in case they needed to appeal to bunnyhugger the more.
As you can tell I've given up writing a chronological progression of the day. No point to it, and we did a lot of walking back and forth across the park, which isn't that large. Bigger than Michigan's Adventure, probably, but better-connected so it's easier to get to different areas and different-themed areas. We would close out the day --- at only about 6 pm; European parks close crazy early --- with some rides on Heidi and then The Ride to Happiness.
I think we could have got some more rides in, but we weren't sure whether the gift shops would close when the park did at 6 pm, and we hoped for some souvenirs. Turns out they left the shops open after the closing hour, but we've been burned before. Sadly they didn't have much in T-shirts, although I was able to find something at least saying The Ride To Happiness. And we got some magnets and little things like that, including park maps.
As we left a most strange thing unfolded: outside the gate park workers gave us two small bags of baby carrots. Not just us, everybody got them. There were empty bags and partially eaten bags along the sidewalk and abandoned at the tram station. Why does the amusement park give out bags of baby carrots to people leaving for the day? I have not the faintest idea.
We used the tram to get back to our hotel and, after a while, went out looking for dinner, as our plan to eat all our meals at the amusement park didn't pan out. I had seen another kebab place that I thought might be easier to get to on our walks and suggested we try that. That place, too, wanted cash only payment so I had to backtrack a fair bit to get two €20 notes. bunnyhugger worried about having the excess foreign currency when we were flying home the morning after next, but I figured we were planning to spend Sunday riding the interurban up and down the Belgian coast, we'd find somewhere to spend it or most of it. (We talked a bit about going back to the amusement park for a second day, but we weren't sure there would be enough more stuff to do to justify the ticket price.)
After eating bunnyhugger napped for a couple hours. When she woke up she confirmed some horrible news, news comparable in badness to Nigloland's being closed.
It's time now for a pleasant discovery, a couple more Michigan's Adventure pictures.

For some reason I was taking a lot of pictures of operators and their stations as the day went on. Here's the Zach's Zoomer operator.

And here's ... uh ... the daily inspection card, I guess.

Couple folks enjoying the ride. You don't think it's this fast coming out the station!

Ride operator working the buttons of the control panel.

Little stage set up for the Halloween event. We would actually see it in use this year!

And here's just some unused landscape at the edge of the park being let go feral. The parking lot is behind the wooden fense there.
Trivia: A February 1797 appearance of three French frigates in the harbor of Fishguard, Wales, a small fishing village, set off a demand for hard currency and account-holders withdrawing enough gold that the Bank of England had to suspend convertibility. Source: Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation, Peter L Bernstein.
Currently Reading: American Scientist, May - June 2025, Editor Fenella Saunders.
Today's Smoothie
Jul. 12th, 2025 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
News Conference (part 1 of 1, complete)
Jul. 12th, 2025 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1463
[Thursday, 3 August, 2017, 7 p.m.]
:: A small, private conference is not news, but it might shape the next day’s news. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::
Robert Cort’s office was bright and open under the panel ceiling lights. Reflections brightened the long curved wall facing onto the helicopter pad, the walls only a shade or two off from pure white. The carpet made of squares glued down in a mix of diamonds and X shapes, lined in gray, putty, and taupe, was only a few shades lighter than the walnut wood veneer on the furniture. He leaned hipshot against the receptionist’s desk,
Across the long room, the form of Alfonso Durante ran a finger along the wide, waist-high windowsill as he paced the curved wall. “I checked it out with a friend at the newsroom,” he insisted, nearly growling. “They swear that they bought the story from a refugee. A hundred bucks for a tip that put every single person who owns a Surrey, or even rides in one, in danger of reprisals.” He hissed the last word, a snake giving a final warning.
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Birdfeeding
Jul. 12th, 2025 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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
.
Huh
Jul. 12th, 2025 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
2010: Melbourne, Australia
2011: Reno, USA
2019: Dublin, Ireland
2020: Wellington, New Zealand
2024: Glasgow, Scotland
(I was nowhere near the ballot in 2009, Montreal)
At a guess, those are years where vote totals were a bit lower?
( Read more... )
Do you use a Google Pixel 6a phone? Prepare for your battery to get clobbered.
Jul. 12th, 2025 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Well, the circle has come around again and now it's the 6a's turn. But this time, the phone isn't particularly old. This one still has two years of updates available, and the compensation is higher than what was offered to owners of the 4. But it appears that the terms are just as bad, you'll need to make sure the screen is absolutely perfect and that there's nothing else at all wrong with the phone and that you read all the fine print before you try to comply with any of the terms.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/07/a-mess-of-its-own-making-google-nerfs-second-pixel-phone-battery-this-year/
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/07/11/1921242/google-nerfs-second-pixel-phone-battery-this-year
Books Received, July 5 — July 11
Jul. 12th, 2025 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

Four books new to me.Two are SF, one is fantasy, one is a mix of both. I don't see anything unambiguously labelled as series works.
Books Received, July 5 — July 11
Which of these look interesting?
Secrets, Spells, and Chocolate by Marisa Churchill (December 2025)
12 (33.3%)
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (September 2025)
13 (36.1%)
The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride (February 2026)
13 (36.1%)
The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick (February 2026)
16 (44.4%)
Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.8%)
Cats!
29 (80.6%)
River: Remembering the FlowerCat: Four years after
Jul. 12th, 2025 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Colleen died four years ago, at 04:30 Pacific time, so probably around the time I finish this post. It seems like a long time ago, or maybe just a few days. Or two moves. I'm surrounded by memories. Memorabilia. Every so often I'm struck by how many of my things have stories attached to them; many of them involving Colleen. To be expected -- we were together for half a century.
The world is very different from what it was four years ago, mostly not for the better; there are many things that I miss. And of course people. Too many people.
It's 1pm; we lit a candle for Colleen an hour ago, and toasted her memory, and talked for a bit. N found some purple flowers in the front planter to set in a bowl next to the candle. A candle makes a good focus for giving her a silent update. It's been a nice, quiet remembrance.
I'm going to post this, and sing a couple of songs. See whether I get through Eyes Like the Morning without falling apart.
Colleen, I will always love you.
Philosophical Questions: Poverty
Jul. 12th, 2025 02:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Is poverty in society inevitable?
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