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[personal profile] poliphilo
 Today will be hot. Tomorrow, they say will be even hotter. I looked out and the air was so clear it seemed the hills had moved a mile closer.

A Friend gave us a talk yesterday about the Samaritans and their work in prison. At least one of our other friends said, "Suicide and prisons? No thanks. I'll give it a miss." But the talk was inspiriting. Our prison system is horrible. It shuts up unhappy people in conditions guaranteed to make them even unhappier. But the Samaritans- who train inmates to be "listeners"- bring a little light into the gloom. Our friend says the work keeps him sane.

Here's Lewes Prison (not my picture) 

Lewes_Prison.png

It makes me think of my boarding school. For two reasons.

1.  We used to drive past it on the way to school- and as we turned the corner by those high, horrible grey walls I knew my own incarceration was only half an hour away.

2. It's a building of the same period (mid-19th century) and of a similar design. The Victorians thought you could terrify people into good behaviour. It doesn't work. 

Unbelievably... no, scrub that and substitute all too believably....Lewes Prison is a Grade Two listed building, which means the fabric can't be altered without permission from on high. In consequence the people who run the prison have to pay a recurring fine to the authorities for further uglifying their ugly building by topping it off with razor wire.....

New Year's Resolutions Check In

30 June 2025 02:11 am
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[personal profile] 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... )

Gender

29 June 2025 11:56 pm
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[personal profile] 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.

Early Humans

29 June 2025 10:30 pm
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[personal profile] 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.

Moment of Silence: Acelightning

29 June 2025 08:25 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
[personal profile] acelightning / [personal profile] acelightning2  has passed away.  She has been a supporter of the Poetry Fishbowl for years and offered up some insightful prompts.



ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] 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... )

Photo cross-post

29 June 2025 04:31 pm
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[personal profile] andrewducker


We had a nice day on the beach in North Berwick. A few of Sophia's old nursery friends, getting back together, with a few siblings thrown in. They got on like it wasn't mostly a year since they last saw each other, and they had a ball digging holes, wading through seaweed and climbing on rocks. The weather was just as fabulous as it looks here.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Birdfeeding

29 June 2025 01:51 pm
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[personal profile] 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. :/

(no subject)

29 June 2025 03:35 pm
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[personal profile] theharbourreader posting in [community profile] addme
Name: Blythe
Age: 37

I mostly post about:
Life on the Cornish coast, daily swims in the sea, studio days at the pottery wheel, what’s blooming in the garden, what I’m reading (mostly mid-century women writers), the small rituals that keep me steady, and occasional thoughts on slow living and soft rebellion.

My hobbies are:
Ceramics, sea swimming, baking things that go with tea, reading literary fiction (especially anything with layered domestic dynamics and quiet emotional collapse), pressing flowers into notebooks, and making seasonal playlists.

I'm looking to meet people who:
Write or read with heart, find beauty in the everyday, value kindness, know the pleasure of a well-brewed pot of tea, or also spend entire evenings choosing which notebook to start. Anyone who understands that joy and sadness often walk hand in hand.

My posting schedule tends to be:
Softly inconsistent— I'm aiming for 2-3x week, sometimes once a week, sometimes three times in a day if I’m feeling chatty or emotionally unspooled. Usually seasonal—more reflective in winter, more playful in summer.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
Cruelty, racism, snobbery, homophobia, transphobia, or taking yourself far too seriously. I’m not here for edge for edge’s sake.

Before adding me, you should know:
I write a little like I talk—long, meandering, full of parentheses and feelings. I will absolutely comment on your post about moss or jam or the book you half-finished three years ago. I’m not perfect, but I’m trying to be soft on purpose.

Happy Pride.....

29 June 2025 09:21 am
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[personal profile] disneydream06
Gay Trivia.....


Which performer worked as a spy for the
Allies in WWII, smuggling German secrets
across Europe in coded messages hidden in
her sheet music?


A: Marlene Dietrich
B: Audrey Hepburn
C: Josephine Baker
D: Clara Smith


Da Answer... )

Sunday Word: Bagatelle

29 June 2025 07:51 pm
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[personal profile] sallymn posting in [community profile] 1word1day

bagatelle [bag-uh-tel]

noun:
1 something of little value or importance; a trifle
2 a game played on a board having holes at one end into which balls are to be struck with a cue
3 a short literary or musical piece in light style

Examples:

If anything, the slowly accumulating final chord of the bagatelle could have set up the softly arpeggiated one at the start of 'Twilight Way', the first of the 'Poetic Tone Pictures.' (Joshua Barone, Review: Dvorak’s 'Poetic Tone Pictures’ Makes Its Carnegie Debut, New York Times, February 2023)

Pinball got its start in 18th-century France with the billiardslike tabletop game bagatelle, which used a springlike launcher. (World-ranked pinball wizard is reviving the game in San Antonio with a new startup, san Antonio Express-News, March 2020)

When you are caught in a web of conspiracies, the best of deeds becomes a mere bagatelle, as we find in the fall of Udensi. (Henry Akubuiro, Travails of a Good Samaritan , The Sun Nigeria, March 2021)

Among the most divisive issues in philosophy today is whether there is anything important to be said about the essential nature of truth. Bullshit, by contrast, might seem to be a mere bagatelle. (Jim Holt, Say Anything, The New Yorker, August 2005)

'Overdue; was the title he had decided for it, and its length he believed would not be more than sixty thousand words - a bagatelle for him with his splendid vigor of production. (Jack London, Martin Eden)

The betrayal of one's friends is a bagatelle in the stakes of love, but the betrayal of oneself is a lifelong regret. (Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love)

Then there were the bird cages, the iron hoops, the steel skates, the Queen Anne coal-scuttle, the bagatelle board, the hand organ - all gone, and jewels, too. (Virginia Woolf, 'The Mark on the Wall')

Origin:

1630s, 'a trifle, thing of no importance,' from French bagatelle 'knick-knack, bauble, trinket' (16c.), from Italian bagatella 'a trifle,' which is perhaps a diminutive of Latin baca 'berry,' or from one of the continental words (such as Old French bague 'bundle') from the same source as English bag. As 'a piece of light music,' it is attested from 1827. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Allbingo and Crowdfunding

29 June 2025 04:16 am
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [site community profile] dw_community_promo
[community profile] allbingo provides a space for creative people to share their work, using bingo cards for inspiration.

[community profile] crowdfunding is a community for creators, patrons, and fans of cyberfunded creativity.

Further details below ...

Read more... )

Today's Adventures

28 June 2025 11:05 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
We went out a couple of times today.

Read more... )

Staying Afloat

28 June 2025 06:02 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Academia: Staying Afloat

You are the right person to do what you do, know what you know, study what you’re going to study. You do it.

You are a lifeboat.

You are not the passenger being rescued from a shipwreck. You are the rescuer. Your skills, your knowledge, your experience reside in you. You have pulled them from the cold ocean where cruel and careless captains have set them adrift.

You are a lifeboat
.

Read more... )

Evaporative Cooling

28 June 2025 05:10 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Art pieces double as carbon-free air conditioning, inspired by ancient civilizations

Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a 3D-printed evaporative cooling system made of hollow clay columns that can cool the surrounding air by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

The columns are filled with water and sand, and when warm air passes through the porous clay exterior, water stored in the sand columns evaporates, which in turn, cools the air that passes through
.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

28 June 2025 01:52 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and sweltering.  It rained off and on yesterday and last night.

I fed the birds.  I've seen several house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/28/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

Sea Fog

28 June 2025 01:32 pm
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[personal profile] puddleshark posting in [community profile] common_nature
Rooks in the Fog, St Aldhelm's Head 1

I have been playing hide-and-seek with the rooks in the sea fog up on St Alhelm's Head.

Not a glimpse of the sea )

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