The county fair

Jun. 11th, 2026 01:57 pm
athenais: (Default)
[personal profile] athenais
We went to the county fair
It was 100°F there
The goats were mad
The quilts were rad
And (it was senior day so we got in free) everyone had grey hair!

. . Jane McKean knitted the emotional support chicken

. . .

Today we did a culture

Jun. 11th, 2026 07:43 pm
oursin: Painting by Carrington of performing seals in a circus balancing coloured balls (Performing seals)
[personal profile] oursin

Off to the Royal Academy to see the Michaelina Wautier exhibition before it finishes.

A female artist who was pretty much erased; painted in genres not usually associated with lady painters; and we note the probable significance of having a male artist (brother) in the family, in fact it looks as though several paintings were collaborations between them.

Worth seeing, even if her paintings do not have the drama of her contemporary Artemisia Gentileschi.... (No decapitations.)

Observed while we were out a poster for this forthcoming exhibition: Hepworth in Colour at the Courtauld, so I think that is going on the agenda.

Also considering the Escher exhibition, adjacent in Somerset House though I'm not sure one would want to combine the two?

Music

Jun. 11th, 2026 01:52 pm

Space Exploration

Jun. 11th, 2026 01:32 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
NASA Reveals Details of its ‘Moon Base’ Program to Prepare Humanity for Next Chapter of Exploration

Moon Base is the first stage of establishing a semi-permanent human presence on our satellite, and the data gathered during missions I, II, and III will inform the first visit of humans to the Moon since Apollo 11 in 1969.

Both Moon Base I and II are targeted for 2026. The first mission will utilize Blue Origin’s Mark 1 Endurance lander to drop two critical science instruments on the Moon. The first will gather data on how thrusters impact the regolithic Lunar surface, while the Laser Retroreflective Array will help orbiting spacecraft determine a more precise landing location using reflected laser light
.

NO HATRED ZONE

Jun. 11th, 2026 11:09 am
johnpalmer: (Default)
[personal profile] johnpalmer

This Dreamwidth Journal is a NO HATRED zone.

You want to hate on me, I might allow it, I might not. You hate on someone else, you’re gone.

You can’t be a “Trump supporter” and it’s nearly impossible to be a “Republican,” and be free of hate. Look, if “the Democrats would be worse,” wasn’t irrational, why are we stuck in a Middle Eastern war? Okay, and, when you have irrational, nasty, feelings about people (e.g., “Trump is bad, but DEMONcrats would be worse,”), we call it “hatred.” I mean, only because that’s pretty much what hatred is, is irrational nasty feelings, far out of proportion to any harm done to you.

So if you’re a Republican, I honestly don’t know why you’d give the Republican Party your support. They’ve put judges in places that let Trump hurt people; and they even let Trump start illegal wars, without threatening impeachment and removal. Believe it or not, there was a time when Republicans could turn on a bad Republican. Richard Nixon was about to be impeached, and removed, with Republican support, so he resigned. Trump’s murder on the high seas, to stop cocaine boats headed for Europe; and Trump’s illegal wars, should have had him removed. I know, you might say “but what’s hateful about allowing a President to murder a couple hundred people, or several thousand in Iran?” as if human life meant so little that even one murder on the high seas wasn’t enough to remove the boss of federal law enforcement for high crimes.

I use brutal logic when discussing hate; hate is a disease that requires careful eradication, because it’s so enjoyable to us. We love to dream of an enemy, we love to pour out our venom to an enemy, and it’s hard to think about thousands of Iranians, including schoolchildren, dying thousands of miles away, so it’s easy to just, you know, erase them as unworthy of consideration. “It’s nothing personal,” you might say, as you drop a 2000lb bomb on their head, but, when it’s your corpse, it’s very personal. To think of all these people, as being unworthy of life, so that we should just read about them, and act as if it’s “news” and not “crimes against humanity,” well, that’s a pretty hateful outlook.

Look, I’m sorry, but, y’all confused a lesson. In a war, a soldier kills, and will do so in every manner possible, that is honorable, and proud. The soldier can’t think “this is someone’s dad, son, brother, uncle,” and instead must do a horrible job with very limited compassion. We have to be the soldier’s conscience, and we can’t turn our own consciences off, just because it’s people in uniforms doing the killing. They are the ones who can’t think of the lives of each individual; they are the only ones who have that excuse. The rest of us, we have to keep watch, and make sure they continue to act honorably, and proudly, most emphatically by only placing them in honorable, proud, combat situations, like defending us from real threats, not Trump's imagination. “Accidentally” blowing up a school isn’t honorable, or proud. Honor, and pride, require the military use careful rules of engagement, that sometimes put our troops further into harm's way before fighting back, but it maintains the discipline needed to have a world class fighting force.

So: no loud hate. And no quiet hate, where we discuss “collateral damage” as if it were shoe scuffs, and not people’s lives. ObBeetlejuice: “Th-these aren’t my rules, see. In fact, I don’t have any rules.” But thinking it’s cool to snuff people’s lives out, as if they were a burning cigarette butt, is hateful.

So, no offense, but it’s really hard for me to imagine a good Republican who is free of hate. If you think the party is doing okay, it should have removed Trump already, so, no, it’s really not okay.


Birdfeeding

Jun. 11th, 2026 12:16 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly sunny, muggy, and hot. It rained on and off for several hours last night. I saw so many fireflies in the evening! :D

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/11/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.










.

Safer Driving Through Science Fiction

Jun. 11th, 2026 12:56 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Surely, issues like traffic jams, speeding, and road rage can be solved through these creative strategies...

Safer Driving Through Science Fiction
nancylebov: (green leaves)
[personal profile] nancylebov
I'll go though it, bit by bit, in the first comment, but you might want to experience it cold.

CW for just about everything except animal abuse since there are no animals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8AsxmLnoic&t=8s

Quite well read, 4 parts, about 3 i/2 hours.

(no subject)

Jun. 11th, 2026 09:44 am
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] angevin and [personal profile] spaceoperadiva!

Community Thursdays

Jun. 11th, 2026 12:07 am
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...


* Posted "News" to [community profile] liberal.

* Posted "Books" to [community profile] library_community.

* Commented on "A thought experiment" in [community profile] linguaphiles.

* Posted "Linguistics" in [community profile] linguaphiles.

* Posted "Birdfeeding" in [community profile] birdfeeding.

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 6/10 Game

Jun. 11th, 2026 12:24 am
settiai: (Siân -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Reading Wednesday

Jun. 10th, 2026 07:06 pm
troisoiseaux: (reading 7)
[personal profile] troisoiseaux
In Guys and Dolls and Other Writings, the Damon Runyon collection that I started back in January, I've finally read all of Runyon's "Broadway Stories" of dim-witted gangsters, which are usually funny, occasionally maudlin (or sentimental: there is one Christmas episode, as it were, playing off the joke of "wise men" vs. "wise guys"), and then out of left field the last one ("A Light in France", 1944) was set in occupied France and involved setting a Nazi on fire. Have also read one stand-alone short story ("A Call on the President") that for some reason is classified separately under "The Turps" - after its central bickering married couple - rather than with the rest of "Other Fiction," presumably because of its distinct narrative voice:
The fellow in the striped pants ses what do you want to see the President of the United States about? I ses look Mister, we came all the way from Brooklyn to see the President of the United States and I have got to be back to work on my job tomorrow and if I stop and tell everybody what I want to see him about I won't have no time left. I ses Mister, what is so tough about seeing the President of the United States? When he was after his job he was glad to see anybody. I ses is he like those politicians in Brooklyn now or what?

(At one point Ethel Turp gets distracted "making snoots" out the window of the Oval Office at someone who had been rude to them and my brain immediately cast Myrna Loy, although - after going down a short Wikipedia rabbit hole - in fact Ann Sothern got the role when it was made into a movie in 1939.)

Have also been reading Madly, Deeply, the diaries of Alan Rickman, 1993-2015; now on 1995 and the filming of Sense & Sensibility and (back-to-back? simultaneously? unclear) Michael Collins, which I hadn't heard of and caused a little confusion (for a minute I was like, huh, I didn't know Sense & Sensibility filmed in Dublin!) but has been particularly interesting in terms of thoughts on playing a character based on a historical figure.

Storm Damage

Jun. 10th, 2026 01:12 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Severe storms down trees, knock out power to thousands across Minnesota

A line of severe thunderstorms raced across Minnesota overnight, bringing wind gusts of more than 80 mph, downing trees and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.


As climate change progresses, violent storms occur more often and do more damage. This is only going to keep getting worse.

If you are able-bodied, I recommend getting a chainsaw and learning how to use it. For less-able folks, a hand saw, or even a chainsaw that you could loan out, may make sense. Reason being, few people want to do blue-collar work nowadays, so any tree services in a given area tend to run months behind on work. When a storm hits, they get a huge surge in demand, but there is no surge capacity to absorb the demand. That means there's nobody to clean up the fallen limbs and trees promptly. Ordinary residents need to pick up the slack to clear debris from their yards, the streets, for less-able neighbors, etc. to restore road access and remove tree parts from places they don't belong. If you have a broken roof, punctured septic tank, or smashed car then by all means try to get the attention of overworked professionals. Otherwise you are probably on your own. Look out for each other. Form neighborhood storm response teams if possible. Here are some resources...

Read more... )

Bundle of Holding: Dungeononomicon

Jun. 10th, 2026 03:17 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Jump-start your tabletop fantasy roleplaying campaign with the hundreds of pages of system-neutral tools and tables in this all-new Dungeononomicon Bundle from Raging Swan Press.

Bundle of Holding: Dungeononomicon

Upcycling

Jun. 10th, 2026 12:55 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Rescuing London’s Precious Building Materials Diverting Them from Dumps for Reuse

A salvage and reuse operation in London is ensuring that every charming bit of wood, brick, glass, porcelain, and steel that has made the city beautiful can continue to do so with a second life in the circular economy.

Started through an epiphany of “street logic” by a man frustrated by red tape, Yes Make is making things all over London out of what the city might otherwise throw out.

“We’re creating a regenerative supply chain for the city we love,” says Joel De Mowbray, founder of Yes Make, to the Guardian. “Turning things that would otherwise go to waste into objects that have cultural potential.”



This kind of salvage operation is replicable anywhere, since towns generally have a cycle of demolition, renovation, and construction that generates considerable materials typically thought of as "waste" which are still useful. If you're looking for a cheap startup business, and you're at least a little crafty, then upcycling is an excellent bet because its raw materials tend to be free or cheap. The more we can keep out of landfills, and the less new material we consume, the better.

RIP Chit Chat Cafe @ Pacifica Pier

Jun. 10th, 2026 10:25 am
athenais: (grief)
[personal profile] athenais
An icon is gone: the Chit Chat Cafe at the Pacifica Pier has been demolished. A few days ago people noticed a big crack next to and under the cafe. Within hours that crack in the pier's foundation had widened and chunks of cement were falling into the sea. Soon the walls of the cafe were coming apart. The area was fenced off; the owners were not allowed inside to recover their cash box or anything else. Yesterday morning bulldozers razed the building.

Although the poor condition had been obvious for years it seemed to happen out of the blue, no strong storm or earthquake to blame, just time and failing materials. No one knows if the pier itself can be saved. There's no money lying around Pacifica's coffers ready to be spent on it, that seems clear. The pier was built in 1973. It's been closed off and on since I started going there in the late 90s because storms do occasionally damage it. It's heavily used for crabbing and fishing. I've never seen it empty when open. The Chit Chat Cafe was once a bait and tackle shop. Locals still came in to buy bait on occasion.

I went there often to drink coffee and watch the waves. I was there last week, in fact. I loved walking along the beachfront, too, out to Mori Point. Once I started taking classes at the Royal Bee Yarn shop a block away I often stopped by to get a late coffee before class started. My favorite barista was a woman in her 40s who was a metalhead and we frequently swapped concert stories and band recommendations; she loved that I was into K-pop and I loved that she was deep cuts all across the metal band spectrum. I hoped Bellis would one day come to California so I could introduce them. I hope she finds a new job that she loves as much as she loved making their famous sandwiches and fancy espresso drinks for the clients.

The pier is probably more important to the community than the cafe, but the Chit Chat was certainly a popular destination for everyone in that area. There are other coffee shops around, in fact there's another Chit Chat Cafe a mile north along the esplanade, but it's not as funky and it's right by a shopping center. I will probably start going there next time I need to sit brooding over my knitting mistakes while looking at the sea, drowning my sorrows with a perfectly foamy cappuccino. But it just won't be the same.

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Kerry

May 2013

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