Still Passionate and Confused

Fighting fire with fire: How prescribed burns reduce wildfire damage and pollution

Wildfires are becoming more intense and dangerous, but a new Stanford-led study offers hope: prescribed burns—intentionally set, controlled fires—can significantly lessen their impact. By analyzing satellite data and smoke emissions, researchers found that areas treated with prescribed burns saw wildfire severity drop by 16% and smoke pollution fall by 14%. Even more striking, the smoke from prescribed burns was just a fraction of what wildfires would have produced in the same areas.


And how long did it take white people to figure out what tribal folks have been doing for, oh, 20,000+ years?

Beavers restore lands damaged by wildfire, human abuses, or other causes. 

This is especially useful with climate change causing more drought.  I recommend recruiting all available keystone species to resist the decline.  Good examples for Turtle Island / North America include beavers, buffalo, goldenrod, milkweed, oak trees, prairie dogs, redwood trees, salmon, sea otters, and wolves.  While not everyone has the resources to house any of those personally, you can still support organizations that aim to promote them.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Gender
Early Humans
Moment of Silence: Acelightning
New Crowdfunding Project: Land of Eem
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Staying Afloat
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Morals
Bingo
Poetry Fishbowl Report for June 3, 2025
Birdfeeding
Native American
Follow Friday 6-27-25: Hiking
Hobbies: Stage Magic
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Goblincore
Ancient Life
Ceramics
Artificial Intelligence
Books
Exoplanets
Birdfeeding
Good News

"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 40 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 144 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 93 comments.


sunshine_revival is setting up to activate July 1. See the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Spread the word!




summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are Tetris 69 and Body Worship 69.


"In the Heart of the Hidden Garden" belongs to the Antimatter and Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It only needs $40 to be fully funded. Lawrence leads Stan to Criss Library.


The weather was sweltering recently but has cooled off slightly. It's been raining a good deal and drizzled again this evening. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of mourning doves, a male cardinal, a fox squirrel, and at least 1 probably 2 bats. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, daylilies, snowball bush, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, narrow-leaf mountain mint, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, wild bergamot, chicory, Queen Anne's lace. Cucumbers, tomatillo, and pepper have green fruit. The first 'Chocolate Sprinkles' tomato ripened and some other tomatoes are showing color. Wild strawberries, mulberries, peas, and blackberries are ripe. Black raspberries are winding down.

Today is partly sunny, humid, and hot.  It drizzled yesterday evening.

I haven't fed the birds yet, but I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.  They've put a good dent in the thistle seed again.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I fed the birds.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I refreshed the mosquito dunks.

I refilled the hopper feeder and thistle feeder.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries.  They're coming in nicely.  :D

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I picked a handful of herbs to make a skillet scramble for supper.

I've got a few peas ripe in the new picnic table garden -- enough for a stir-fry maybe.

EDIT 6/30/25 -- I sowed 3 pots with mulberries.

Now it's starting to drizzle again, so I am done for the night.
 

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.

acelightning / acelightning2  has passed away.  She has been a supporter of the Poetry Fishbowl for years and offered up some insightful prompts.

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. :/

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... )

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.

I have made bingo down the G column of my 6-2-15 card for the Pride Fest Bingo, plus 7 extra fills. That covers Row 5 also.


G1 (support) -- "Fatherhood Is Support" (standalone)
G2 (aroace) -- "Preparing Every Nook and Cranny" (Polychrome Heroics: Finn Family and Mallory)
G3 (found family) -- "Born and Found and Made" (standalone)
G4 ("I'd rather eat cake") -- "The Bond with a Dog" (Polychrome Heroics)
G5 (belonging) -- "Worthy of Love and Belonging" (Polychrome Heroics: Kraken)

B3 (activism) -- "The Result of Your Own Bad Behavior" (Monster House)
B5 (unlabeled) -- "Emodox" (A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows)

I3 (rainbow) -- "Along These Sympathetic Fibers" (Peculiar Obligations)
I5 (community) -- "When Warmth and Gentleness Are Needed" (Clay of Life)

N1 (growth) -- "Tomato Seedlings in Tin Cans" (Daughters of the Apocalypse)
N5 (comfort) -- "All It Takes to Be Invulnerable" (Polychrome Heroics: Marionettes)

O5 (validation) -- "Choose to Be Gentle" (Arts and Crafts America)