Becka's Notes

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.

sunshine_revival has posted a Friending Meme. The calendar of activities is here and the fest will open on July 1.  Use the master post to navigate the event.

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

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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.

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.


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We went out a couple of times today.

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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.

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People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Do people in wealthier countries have a moral obligation to help those in poorer countries?


If you want to hold all the money, you have to pay all the bills. If you don't want to pay all the bills, make sure other folks have enough money to pay their own.

Also, there is no Planet B.  Climate change affects everyone -- but the people in wealthy countries who are causing it have thus far suffered less than people in poor countries who haven't caused it.  If you don't make it feasible for them to stay in their own countries, they will leave so they don't die, and wash up in wealthy countries.  This is already happening some, but you have seen nothing yet.  It will be like the waves of the sea beating the shore, over and over again, until people think they would give anything to make it stop.  And then it will stop.  And then people will wish, just as desperately, to have that many people ever again as the losses pile up and there aren't enough hands  left to hold up civilization.

Our theme this month was "Gentleness Is Strength." I wrote from 12:30 PM to 4 AM, so about 13 hours 30 minutes, allowing for lunch and supper breaks. I wrote 6 poems on Tuesday and another 5 later in the week.

Participation was variable, with 11 comments on LiveJournal and another 30 on Dreamwidth. A total of 10 people sent prompts.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"All It Takes to Be Invulnerable"
"The Bond with a Dog"
"Choose to Be Gentle"
"Emodox"
"The Result of Your Own Bad Behavior"
"When Warmth and Gentleness Are Needed"


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, see the unsold poetry list from June 3. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.

This session's donors include: librarygeek and janetmiles. All sponsored poems from this fishbowl have been posted. There are 3 tallies toward a bonus fishbowl.


The Poetry Fishbowl has a landing page.