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Nature
Jun. 9th, 2026 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithEcosystem of Pansies Thrives on Soil Contaminated by Lead Mining–Turning it into Clean Organic Compounds
For areas contaminated by lead and zinc mining across Europe, a class of plants known as “metallophytes” are helping enrich nature while diminishing pollution.
The Guardian reported on this kind of ecological double speak, where wildflowers seemingly grow in healthy abundance on semi-mountainous landscapes in the north of the UK, a place that has seen lead and zinc mining since Roman times.
That is an awesome scenario.
( Read more... )
For areas contaminated by lead and zinc mining across Europe, a class of plants known as “metallophytes” are helping enrich nature while diminishing pollution.
The Guardian reported on this kind of ecological double speak, where wildflowers seemingly grow in healthy abundance on semi-mountainous landscapes in the north of the UK, a place that has seen lead and zinc mining since Roman times.
That is an awesome scenario.
( Read more... )
Technology
Jun. 9th, 2026 02:04 pmysabetwordsmithCoping with the Non-Modern World, Tuesday, Second Period
"Right," Yennefer said to her class. "Let's talk about technology. You from the future, you're just going to have to figure out how to reverse this on your own time. If you're coming from a time that's just about got the hang of the water mill, or is more reliant on magic that not everyone has, the technology of this world is a boon. Hot water from a tap, flush toilets, hair dryers, don't even get me started on the phones, that will be a whole separate lesson...and then you go home and you have none of that. How can you cope? Yes, you can learn how your favorite bits are done and become a genius inventor, and yes, that may have knock-on effects you couldn't have anticipated for the rest of your society, but who cares when you're nice and comfortable and not dealing with a chamber pot? But also, that sounds like a lot of effort."
Well, that's the background radiation of my life. I always remember, in greater or lesser detail, an extremely wide range of technology. I mean from digging stick to star generator wide. So a few tips...
( Read more... )
"Right," Yennefer said to her class. "Let's talk about technology. You from the future, you're just going to have to figure out how to reverse this on your own time. If you're coming from a time that's just about got the hang of the water mill, or is more reliant on magic that not everyone has, the technology of this world is a boon. Hot water from a tap, flush toilets, hair dryers, don't even get me started on the phones, that will be a whole separate lesson...and then you go home and you have none of that. How can you cope? Yes, you can learn how your favorite bits are done and become a genius inventor, and yes, that may have knock-on effects you couldn't have anticipated for the rest of your society, but who cares when you're nice and comfortable and not dealing with a chamber pot? But also, that sounds like a lot of effort."
Well, that's the background radiation of my life. I always remember, in greater or lesser detail, an extremely wide range of technology. I mean from digging stick to star generator wide. So a few tips...
( Read more... )
Sleep
Jun. 9th, 2026 01:45 pmysabetwordsmithI came across a post about screenless time before sleep, and had some further thoughts...
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Birdfeeding
Jun. 9th, 2026 01:34 pmysabetwordsmithToday is cloudy, muggy, and hot. A beautiful day to stay indoors and write! Yesterday it rained copiously. The patio was still wet this morning, so we must have gotten more rain at night.
I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 6/9/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 6/9/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder. Quail are calling outside. :D
EDIT 6/9/26 -- Aaaaand it's raining again.
.
I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 6/9/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 6/9/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder. Quail are calling outside. :D
EDIT 6/9/26 -- Aaaaand it's raining again.
.
link roundup: what it says on the tin
Jun. 9th, 2026 09:16 ammiscellaniumi have a bad habit of just leaving tabs open instead of bookmarking them, partly because i'm terrible at organizing my bookmarks. here's a bunch of links i had open on my work laptop so i can close those tabs. some are actually or ostensibly work-related, others are not. may you find them interesting :)
Pornography and Politics: The Court, the Constitution, and the Commission (1971, Richard Funston)
Police Lie. Vermont Police Lie Too. (2026, Emily Rose for The Rake)
Federal employee charged with DUI after crash embedded his car in side of Waitsfield building (2025, Auditi Guha for VTDigger. and no, i haven't seen any updates)
World of Antiquity: Video Library [links don't work, just a reminder because a coworker recommended it. no clue if the videos have captions on youtube]
Eugenics in Vermont: Secondary Sources (University of Vermont Library)
Accounting for Those Sterilized: An Analysis of Eugenical Sterilization Certificates Filed Under Vermont’s 1931 Act for Human Betterment by Voluntary Sterilization (2024, Richard Witting)
A Signet Classic [The Fall of Valor by Charles Jackson] (2025, blog of Dartmouth's Rauner Special Collections Library)
The Steely Dan Dictionary (Dan O'Malley)
Deadhead/Danfan Conversion Chart (undated but before 2017, by Walter Becker)
"Hey Nineteen" (fan discussion and interpretations of the lyrics, circa 2004)
Words Made Flesh: Nineteenth-Century Deaf Education and the Growth of Deaf Culture by R. A. R. Edwards (2014, book review by James Trent)
Eugenics in Vermont: Sources [no clue who is responsible for this site. there is no public-facing information and i haven't reached out to the email yet.]
Juvenile Justice (2023, white paper produced by UVM's Vermont Legislative Research Service team)
Pornography and Politics: The Court, the Constitution, and the Commission (1971, Richard Funston)
Police Lie. Vermont Police Lie Too. (2026, Emily Rose for The Rake)
Federal employee charged with DUI after crash embedded his car in side of Waitsfield building (2025, Auditi Guha for VTDigger. and no, i haven't seen any updates)
World of Antiquity: Video Library [links don't work, just a reminder because a coworker recommended it. no clue if the videos have captions on youtube]
Eugenics in Vermont: Secondary Sources (University of Vermont Library)
Accounting for Those Sterilized: An Analysis of Eugenical Sterilization Certificates Filed Under Vermont’s 1931 Act for Human Betterment by Voluntary Sterilization (2024, Richard Witting)
A Signet Classic [The Fall of Valor by Charles Jackson] (2025, blog of Dartmouth's Rauner Special Collections Library)
The Steely Dan Dictionary (Dan O'Malley)
Deadhead/Danfan Conversion Chart (undated but before 2017, by Walter Becker)
"Hey Nineteen" (fan discussion and interpretations of the lyrics, circa 2004)
Words Made Flesh: Nineteenth-Century Deaf Education and the Growth of Deaf Culture by R. A. R. Edwards (2014, book review by James Trent)
Eugenics in Vermont: Sources [no clue who is responsible for this site. there is no public-facing information and i haven't reached out to the email yet.]
Juvenile Justice (2023, white paper produced by UVM's Vermont Legislative Research Service team)
More writing rambles
Jun. 9th, 2026 06:26 amadoreThe results are in: for the poll about whether or not to have the doll on the cover of Dollshops & Deathmages, 64% voted for the cover with the doll and 36% voted for the cover without the doll. So I'm keeping the doll, and I feel better about that decision than I did previously. I love the ability to make decisions on everything that comes with being indie, but while actually executing that ability I'm sometimes indecisive.
Trying to settle on an author newsletter was similarly difficult for me to decide. I finally caved and moved to MailerLite. A fellow participant in the cozy fantasy anthology who is tracking reader downloads said 200 people signed up for it so far, so by the time the anthology runs its course there's a good chance that with the new subscribers I'll still be below MailerLite's free threshold of 500 subscribers. I have indie author friends who use MailerLite so even if MailerLite makes it difficult to get ahold of a human for support, I know humans of my own who might have suggestions.
I've written 10k words of Dragons & Debutantes, which is the point at which I feel like "this is getting real" about a book. I'm also writing a secret project... actually you know what, you're all in on the secret. It's an angsty sapphic romantasy called A Princess Bewitched. Since Mynah Clement is now a cozy pen name and this project isn't cozy at all, it's got to have different publishing plans, and I think it's for the best that I write it first and figure that out later. I've got around 20k words down which I'm rewriting from the beginning, and a methodvriddy talked about recently (type the sentences from scratch with your edits, with the old sentences side by side, instead of typing/deleting/shuffling things in the existing sentences) is working really well with this one.
Trying to settle on an author newsletter was similarly difficult for me to decide. I finally caved and moved to MailerLite. A fellow participant in the cozy fantasy anthology who is tracking reader downloads said 200 people signed up for it so far, so by the time the anthology runs its course there's a good chance that with the new subscribers I'll still be below MailerLite's free threshold of 500 subscribers. I have indie author friends who use MailerLite so even if MailerLite makes it difficult to get ahold of a human for support, I know humans of my own who might have suggestions.
I've written 10k words of Dragons & Debutantes, which is the point at which I feel like "this is getting real" about a book. I'm also writing a secret project... actually you know what, you're all in on the secret. It's an angsty sapphic romantasy called A Princess Bewitched. Since Mynah Clement is now a cozy pen name and this project isn't cozy at all, it's got to have different publishing plans, and I think it's for the best that I write it first and figure that out later. I've got around 20k words down which I'm rewriting from the beginning, and a method
vriddy talked about recently (type the sentences from scratch with your edits, with the old sentences side by side, instead of typing/deleting/shuffling things in the existing sentences) is working really well with this one.
Magpie Monday
Jun. 9th, 2026 01:57 amysabetwordsmithdialecticdreamer is doing Magpie Monday with a theme of "Kitchen Fixes." Leave prompts, get ficlets!Drabble Challenge May 2026 Masterpost
Jun. 8th, 2026 07:52 pmravensilversea
A month-long drabble challenge run by thedrabblecollective on Tumblr. The challenge theme was Alternate Universes, so all of the prompts were inspired by different kinds of AUs (Full Prompt List Here). I managed to complete the first six days of prompts, and I've listed the fics below:
( Read more... )
Economics
Jun. 8th, 2026 05:07 pmysabetwordsmithSpaceX rejected in attempt to get listed in the S&P 500 index! Bodes ill for AI IPOs...
As you may have heard, SpaceX has filed to do an IPO (initial public offering [of stock shares]) and go on the stock market. Lots and lots of people are salivating, perhaps Leon Muskbrat most of all. They also filed with the New York Stock Exchange for a quick listing on the Standard & Poor 500 stock market index.
And they were rejected to get listed on that index.
[---8<---]
The AI company Anthropic has also filed for an IPO. It's sealed, so details are not much available, like what percentage of shares will be let loose. But like all AI companies, it is not profitable.
I'm glad that some people still have standards.
So much of the tech industry and AI is just ... hype. People want it to be valuable and profitable. But that doesn't actually make it so. That's before counting the fact that AI value is stolen from other people's work, not creating new worth.
As you may have heard, SpaceX has filed to do an IPO (initial public offering [of stock shares]) and go on the stock market. Lots and lots of people are salivating, perhaps Leon Muskbrat most of all. They also filed with the New York Stock Exchange for a quick listing on the Standard & Poor 500 stock market index.
And they were rejected to get listed on that index.
[---8<---]
The AI company Anthropic has also filed for an IPO. It's sealed, so details are not much available, like what percentage of shares will be let loose. But like all AI companies, it is not profitable.
I'm glad that some people still have standards.
So much of the tech industry and AI is just ... hype. People want it to be valuable and profitable. But that doesn't actually make it so. That's before counting the fact that AI value is stolen from other people's work, not creating new worth.
Poem: "Zakkyo"
Jun. 8th, 2026 03:16 pmysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from greghousesgf. It also fills the "Clothes" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. It has been sponsored by janetmiles.
( Read more... )
greghousesgf. It also fills the "Clothes" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. It has been sponsored by janetmiles.( Read more... )
Tags:
Poem: "Lichengloss"
Jun. 8th, 2026 01:51 pmysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Growth" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles.
"Lichengloss"
noun: the painfully slow struggle to learn a foreign language
For some learners,
a new language comes
as quickly and easily
as water flowing.
For most, it is not
so simple or swift.
It is a labor of
endless hours
and days, grasping
at ideas that slip
through fingers
like so much mist.
The knowledge is
hard-won yet halting.
Every word learned
must be maintained,
practiced, lest it
fade and be lost.
Every new twist of
grammar seeks
to bind them.
Language lies
over the tongue,
wrinkled and strange,
stretching itself.
It grows as
slowly as lichen
covering a stone
but nevertheless it grows.
dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Growth" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles."Lichengloss"
noun: the painfully slow struggle to learn a foreign language
For some learners,
a new language comes
as quickly and easily
as water flowing.
For most, it is not
so simple or swift.
It is a labor of
endless hours
and days, grasping
at ideas that slip
through fingers
like so much mist.
The knowledge is
hard-won yet halting.
Every word learned
must be maintained,
practiced, lest it
fade and be lost.
Every new twist of
grammar seeks
to bind them.
Language lies
over the tongue,
wrinkled and strange,
stretching itself.
It grows as
slowly as lichen
covering a stone
but nevertheless it grows.
Tags:
Safety
Jun. 8th, 2026 01:49 pmysabetwordsmith3 Teens Win Global Earth Prize for Inventing Tamarind Powder That Easily Removes Microplastics
Their grand prize-winning invention is called Plas-Stick, and used powdered tamarind seed as the base for an all-natural microplastic clumping agent. After a short agitation period, the clumped microplastic-tamarind mass can be removed with nothing more than a magnet.
Notably, Plas-Stick is the first-ever Global Winner of The Earth Prize from India.
Designed for use in shared water containers, the biodegradable powder binds invisible plastic particles into visible clumps that can then be easily removed with a handheld magnet, offering a simple and low-cost alternative to complex filtration systems.
Gizmology for the win! \o/ Extra credit for sustainable ingredients.
Their grand prize-winning invention is called Plas-Stick, and used powdered tamarind seed as the base for an all-natural microplastic clumping agent. After a short agitation period, the clumped microplastic-tamarind mass can be removed with nothing more than a magnet.
Notably, Plas-Stick is the first-ever Global Winner of The Earth Prize from India.
Designed for use in shared water containers, the biodegradable powder binds invisible plastic particles into visible clumps that can then be easily removed with a handheld magnet, offering a simple and low-cost alternative to complex filtration systems.
Gizmology for the win! \o/ Extra credit for sustainable ingredients.
Perhaps Too Much Thought?
Jun. 8th, 2026 07:48 pmrionaleonhartI went to Bristol to visit my cousins over the weekend and had an absolutely lovely time!
These were the cousins who originally introduced me to The Goes Wrong Show, so they had a lot to answer for. I confessed to how hot I was for Robert, and I was heartened when my cousin S said she understood completely. "He's not my usual type," she said, "but he has such presence."
S doesn't really know anything about fanfiction, but she read my Goes Wrong fic about Vanessa joining the Cornley Drama Society, The Outsider, and she seemed to enjoy it! She laughed quietly a few times while reading, which was very gratifying.
"You should get in touch with Mischief Theatre!" she said, very earnestly. "You should send this to them. I'm sure they'd love knowing that someone put this much thought into their characters."
I thought that this was a) extremely sweet and b) a suggestion only someone who isn't into fanfiction would ever make. If Mischief ever come across my fanfiction, it is going to be because a third party sent them the link to my Goes Wrong website with the message 'lol look at this weirdo', as God intended.
Being in Bristol also meant I had the opportunity to visit the Clifton Suspension Bridge, one of my favourite places in the UK! It was absolutely bucketing with rain, so we couldn't admire the view for long, but it's still a gorgeous place even in terrible weather. Here's a sketch of the bridge I did back in 2018, in a Bristol café, just after seeing it for the first time:
The photograph I took in 2018 and used as the basis for the above sketch:
And the photograph I took two days ago, in worse conditions but with a better camera:
It's such a pretty place! Highly recommended if you ever happen to find yourself in Bristol.
These were the cousins who originally introduced me to The Goes Wrong Show, so they had a lot to answer for. I confessed to how hot I was for Robert, and I was heartened when my cousin S said she understood completely. "He's not my usual type," she said, "but he has such presence."
S doesn't really know anything about fanfiction, but she read my Goes Wrong fic about Vanessa joining the Cornley Drama Society, The Outsider, and she seemed to enjoy it! She laughed quietly a few times while reading, which was very gratifying.
"You should get in touch with Mischief Theatre!" she said, very earnestly. "You should send this to them. I'm sure they'd love knowing that someone put this much thought into their characters."
I thought that this was a) extremely sweet and b) a suggestion only someone who isn't into fanfiction would ever make. If Mischief ever come across my fanfiction, it is going to be because a third party sent them the link to my Goes Wrong website with the message 'lol look at this weirdo', as God intended.
Being in Bristol also meant I had the opportunity to visit the Clifton Suspension Bridge, one of my favourite places in the UK! It was absolutely bucketing with rain, so we couldn't admire the view for long, but it's still a gorgeous place even in terrible weather. Here's a sketch of the bridge I did back in 2018, in a Bristol café, just after seeing it for the first time:
The photograph I took in 2018 and used as the basis for the above sketch:
And the photograph I took two days ago, in worse conditions but with a better camera:
It's such a pretty place! Highly recommended if you ever happen to find yourself in Bristol.