Congenial Conversations

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Safety
Artificial Intelligence
Science
Birdfeeding
Activism
Books
Poem: "If You Don't Fall Down"
Birdfeeding
Moment of Silence: Spikedluv
Space Exploration
Creative Jam
Philosophical Questions: Emotions
Pinetree Garden Seeds Order
Poetry Fishbowl Report for February 3, 2026
Unsold Poems for the February 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl
Vocabulary: Dinkus
Poem: "An Inkling of Things to Come"
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 2-13-26: Lord of the Rings
Read "Forelsket"
Poem: "Stones and Woods"
Extinction
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Website Updates
Poem: "The Tranquility and Beauty of the Winter Landscape"
Birdfeeding
Good News

Safety has 44 comments. Food has 45 comments. Wildlife has 37 comments. Food has 65 comments. Robotics has 136 comments.


There will be a half-price sale in Not Quite Kansas from February 16-22.


The 2026 Rose and Bay Awards are now open for excellence in crowdfunding. It's time to vote for your favorite projects!

The award period for eligible activities spans January 1-December 31, 2025.
The nomination period spans January 1-January 31, 2026.
The voting period spans February 1-February 28, 2026.

These are the handlers for the 2026 award season:

Art: gs_silva Nominate art! Vote for art!
Fiction: fuzzyred Nominate fiction! Vote for fiction!
Poetry: gs_silva Nominate poetry! Vote for poetry!
Webcomic: curiosity Nominate webcomics! Vote for webcomics!
Other Project: curiosity Nominate other projects! Vote for other projects!
Patron: fuzzyred Nominate patrons! Vote for patrons!

The weather has been cool here, and it rained a little on Saturday. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large flock of sparrows, several starlings, a mourning dove, and a male cardinal. I saw a honeybee in the forest garden, and when I went out to the bee tree, I saw a bee flying into it. This is way too early for them to be out; there is liquid water but absolutely no food.

Say it again: Abortion bans don't stop abortion. They only cause women and infants to die.

The Society of Family Planning, a reproductive-rights nonprofit, compiles a report called #WeCount that tracks the number of abortions in the United States. The report goes back to 2022, and the most recent data covers the first half of 2025.

Its data shows that the abortion rate hasn't gone down at all since the end of Roe. It's gone up.

( Read more... )

Another AI Post -- on Assumptions and the Future

A discussion with a knowledgeable friend on this triggered the following post, which will cover a number of elements of both the technology and, perhaps more importantly, its uses and impacts.


AI would be a useful tool if used responsibly, but mostly it is used so people can hurt each other.

arcana [ahr-key-nuh]

noun:
mysterious or specialized knowledge, language, or information accessible or possessed only by the initiate

Examples:

What became clear is that even publishers, agents, and retailers, who’ve rightly been focused on signing writers and selling books, didn’t appreciate how much the arcana of the business would matter in the move to digital platforms. (Tim Carmody, Why Metadata Matters for the Future of E-Books, WIRED, August 2010)

His novels move with kinetic energy, his plots are intricate puzzles shrouded in religious iconography, ancient cryptography and other obscure arcana. (Marc Weingarten, 'The Da Vinci Code' stunned the world. Now Dan Brown releases his most ambitious book yet, Los Angeles Times, September 2025)

And beyond all else he glimpsed an infinite gulf of sheer darkness, where solid and semi-solid forms were known only by their windy stirrings, and cloudy patterns of force seemed to superimpose order on chaos and hold forth a key to all the paradoxes and arcana of the worlds we know. (H P Lovecraft, 'The Haunter of the Dark')

We are the subjects, and so is everything around us, of all manner of subtle and inexplicable influences: and if our ancestors attached too much importance to these ill-understood arcana of the night-side of nature, we have attached too little. (Catherine Crowe, The Night Side of Nature)

"Under the impression," said Mr Micawber, "that your peregrinations in this metropolis have not as yet been extensive, and that you might have some difficulty in penetrating the arcana of the Modern Babylon in the direction of the City Road, - in short," said Mr Micawber, in another burst of confidence, "that you might lose yourself - I shall be happy to call this evening, and install you in the knowledge of the nearest way." (Charles Dickens, David Copperfield)

Indeed, it is to be feared that some of the more rustic and bashful youths of Devil's Ford, who had felt it incumbent upon them to pay their respects to the new-comers, were more at ease in this vestibule than in the arcana beyond, whose glories they could see through the open door. (Bret Harte, Devil's Ford)

Origin:
'hidden things, mysteries,' 1590s, a direct adoption of the Latin plural of arcanum 'a secret, a mystery,' an important word in alchemy, from neuter of adjective arcanus 'secret, hidden, private, concealed' (see arcane). It was occasionally mistaken for a singular and pluralized as arcanas, because arcana is far more common than arcanum. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

An Ionic Gelation Powder for Ultrafast Hemostasis and Accelerated Wound Healing

Rapid and effective bleeding control remains a clinical priority, particularly for deep or irregular wounds where conventional dressings are inadequate. Here, an ionically responsive, powder-based hemostatic system (AGCL) composed of alginate, gellan gum, chitosan, and a glutaraldehyde crosslinker is presented. Upon contact with calcium ions in blood, AGCL rapidly forms an adhesive hydrogel network within ≈1 s, enabling ultrafast gelation and a high blood uptake ratio (≈725%). The powder exhibits strong bioadhesion (>40 kPa), excellent sealing under mixed-mode loading, and robust storage stability for up to 24 months under ambient conditions. In vitro assays confirm minimal hemolysis (<3%), high cytocompatibility, and greater than 99% antibacterial efficacy.

See a much more detailed explanation with illustrations here.

( Read more... )

Today is partly sunny and cool.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/15/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I refilled the hopper feeder.  I've seen a sparrow.

I also saw a honeybee in the forest garden!  I went to the bee tree and saw a honeybee fly into it.  This is waaayyy too early for bees. There is liquid water, but absolutely nothing to eat. :(  Use to be, the bees only appeared after the last frost.  It's months too soon for that.

EDIT 2/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/15/26 -- I spread a bucket of mulch under the golden rain tree.

I am done for the night.

The 1916 (Olympic) games were cancelled due to an international dispute occurring during that year

A dispute that left millions dead, sure. Not how I'd describe WWI, but okay.

***********************

( Read more... )

The key to defeating Trump? Mass non-cooperation

The extraordinary level of grassroots solidarity and creative resistance in anti-ICE protests in Minnesota has given people a new appreciation for the power that mass non-cooperation can have in resisting the Trump administration’s drive toward authoritarianism. And it has created an awareness of why such action is clearly needed.

( Read more... )

A New Day. And in the last couple days I got 2 bats done. A white one for Noah and a purple one for Jordan.

I was worried last night because I couldn't find Skye. I was afraid she had gone to the basement to hide and I just couldn't stand that thought - her down there alone in the cold. Dave had already gone to bed. I searched with a flashlight everywhere in the house, basement too and couldn't find her. So finally I just went to bed feeling terrible. This morning when I got up at 5 there she was in front of our bedroom door, like she always is, waiting for me to get up and feed her. Skye has taken over as the center of my attention. I remember it was like this at the end of mom's life. Trying to manage everything perfectly and not being able to control anything in the end. Berdella kept advising me, "you're not in charge of death" and that was a comforting thought. In mom's case I certainly wasn't, though I did try to be in control of prolonging LIFE. In Skye's case I can be in control of both life and death. I hate it. My heart is acting up and doing it's skipped beats a lot. Well anyway. It looks good right now. Another day is dawning and Skye is in control of HERself for now. Though I did shut the door to the basement. I want to take that option off her choices of places to be.

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260214.html

Roses are red, nebulas are too, and this Valentine's gift is a

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260214.html

bookclub_dw has posted the poll for choosing the March book. 

The February Poetry Fishbowl made its $300 goal, so there will be a half-price sale in Not Quite Kansas from Monday 16-Sunday 27. Mark your calendars accordingly, and I hope to see you then!

This series has about half a dozen poems available. Here are a few previously posted poems:

"Cruel Intentions and Difficult Truths"

"The Ramifications of That State of Mind"

"The Conditions of Your Selfhood"

This is the freebie for the February crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by "One Who Falls and Gets Up" by gs_silva. It also fills the "Helplessness" square in my 2-1-26 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the webcomic Alien Romance by gs_silva.

( Read more... )

Rainy and Skye just now. They had been asleep together there on the couch when I walked through, saw them and went to get my camera.

Skye seemed to perk up during the night last night. She ate some food and then sat with me on the couch for a couple hours when I couldn't sleep. I am in a lot of fear of letting her suffer. But I also want to give her as much time as possible so she can enjoy the things she likes. I was having a panic attack or something like it this morning when the vet's office opened and I thought I should call.  I ended up lying on the bed trying to slow my heart because I was so shaky. Eventually I thought I'll call Jules and get a second opinion of the situation. He talked me down and into a more wait-and-see attitude. Whenever the weekend is approaching I start to fear that the animal that I'm caring for will go downhill even more and need to have that suffering ended. I can't stand the thought of an animal suffering. Before weekends I go into a super tense worry mode because the vet's office is closing. I suddenly felt so much better after I let go of the idea of calling the vet. Took a shower, took the dogs for a walk down back and felt like maybe we could all live another day. Thank you Jules.


Alive.

I've talked to some people lately who say that they dread this end time with an animal so much that they would never get another pet. I get that. We went for 4 years without a dog because the end of Tenzing felt so awful. It's even worse to lose a pet if you are the one playing god and deciding their end.

Dave did not catch a single fish at the ice fishing tournament today. He's on his way home now. Going to stop at the taco stand in Conneaut Lake for dinner for us.

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Today is cloudy and chilly.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a small flock of sparrows.  I heard a cardinal singing but didn't see it.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/14/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I put out more birdseed and a fresh cake of peanut suet.

EDIT 2/14/26 -- I spread a bucket of mulch around the apricot tree.

EDIT 2/14/26 -- It's been drizzling here, just enough to wet things, not enough to leave puddles anywhere I've seen.

EDIT 2/14/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

It is now raining enough to leave a few tiny puddles on the patio.

I am done for the night.

I came across a reference that spikedluv has passed away.  There are comments under the last post to this effect. 

Dum

In this usage, dum or dum pukht (and also known as larhmeen or dampokhtak) is a slow-cooking method popular in South Asian cultures. You may have seen dum biryani on a restaurant and not thought twice about what it means. Well, here you go!

The dum is actually the dough seal between the lid and the pot used to make the dish. This prevents steam from escaping, allowing the food to cook in its own moisture. The dish, such as pulao or biryani, is usually cooked over low heat in a brass or clay pot.

Dum means "to keep food on slow fire or steam" and pukht means "process of cooking".

Happy Valentine's Day. May you have the best loves today -- long naps in soft snuggly places, and all the sweetest snackies.