Untreated Pain

Pain can kill people.  Untreated chronic pain is especially prone to destroy and shorten lives.  The medical industry routinely tortures people by denying them care.  This is a problem.

Teen Girls

In which society is the psycho and takes it out on teen girls.

We need better examples than this.  Happily, anyone can make those, or crowdfund someone else making them, or buy them after they are made.

70 Worldbuilding Questions

 In an image.

Book Title Types

Here are some examples of book title categories.

Monday Update 3-4-19

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Marriage and Health
Community Building Tip: Movie Night
Distinguishing Character Alignment
The Fridge Problem
Bingo
Poem: "The Perfect Way of Moving"
Poem: "Cut With Our Own Dust"
Poem: "How We Correct Them"
Poem: "The Courage to Admit Them"
Meet Ugly Bingo Card 2-28-19
Young Sign Languages
Emotional Intimacy Question: Craziest Thing
Poem: "Like a Hand-Sewn Quilt"
New Game: Hako Onna
Sac Noir
Good News


Winners have been posted for the 2019 Rose and Bay Awards. Thank you for your support.

The next Poetry Fishbowl will be on Tuesday, March 5 with a theme of "Easterns as a Genre."


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics.  That means you can open a new one during the fishbowl if you wish. 

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.

"So Many Notes and Colors and Flavors" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Shiv. Heron and Shiv are comfort-cooking, and not everything goes smooth.


Weather here has been variable.  It was mild for a while, then we got a little snow, and now a cold snap.  Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large flock of sparrows, a large flock of mourning doves, a small flock of dark-eyed juncos, a pair of cardinals, a female downy woodpecker, a male downy woodpecker, a rabbit, and a squirrel.

Antibiotic Resistance and Heat

Rising temperatures and higher population densities -- two things humanity is boosting vigorously -- also raise antibiotic resistance.

Like we needed another way to be seriously fucked.

Losing Atolls

Most atolls will become uninhabitable starting from 2030-2060 due to sea-level rise.  The waves will not only cause worse structural damage but also wipe out supplies of fresh water.

If you live in areas threatened by rising waters, develop an exit plan.  It will be easier to move the sooner you do it, because eventually people will stop buying property there and you won't be able to cash out, so you'd have to leave with no return for starting anew elsewhere.

Speeding Forest Regrowth

In a bit of climate news that does not suck: warmer temperatures may speed the regrowth of forests in the Eastern U.S.  Since forests store carbon, and we want less carbon in the atmosphere, we could capitalize on this by restoring more forests there. 

Fresh Plants Better for Mental Health

Fresh fruits and vegetables are better for your mental health than canned or frozen ones.  One fairly obvious reason mentioned in the article is that preserving foods tends to reduce their nutrients.  However, a few methods such as fermenting can increase the nutrients.

One reason not mentioned, and not tracked on labels, is life energy.  This is accounted for in some systems that recommend eating fresh, raw, wholesome ingredients.  In general, eating foods which are alive (like yogurt or fresh-picked berries) or very recently alive (fresh potatoes that are boiled, or a lobster taken from a tank and slain just before it it hits your plate) give you more life energy than things which have been dead a long time.  The less messed-with, the more life energy; the more processed, the less life energy.  Also foods raised with joy and verve have much more life energy than those raised in desolate conditions.  So organic, pastured, wildcrafted, etc. tends to be more nourishing than factory-farmed stuff.

Going a step further, you can capitalize on the benefits of growing or at least picking some of your own food.  This can be a challenge for people with mental illness.  However, depression and activity don't like to live together!  Getting outside in the sunshine and fresh air is good for mental health; so are walking around and doing practical tasks.  Even if all you do is pick enough apples for the next few days, you're ahead of the game compared to buying a jar of applesauce at the store.

Captivity Prevents Extinction

Numerous species have been saved from extinction by captive populations.  When humans block that process, more species die out.  

I have told and told people that separating animals from humans is a death sentence for the animals.  If humans don't love them or find them useful, those animals cease to exist,  And when the numbers get small enough, only heroic action can save them.  Block that and they die.  So lobbying to ban zoos, aquaria, etc. is lobbying for animals to die out.  >_<

Plant Catalogs

I have set up selections from the spring catalogs.  This time I picked Burgess and Farmer Seed, both of which I've used before and will have by far the largest orders.  I split them out hoping they don't arrive on the same day.  Spring Hill is new to me and more expensive, but snagged my attention with a couple of nifty items.  Now it's just a matter of my partner Doug making the orders online.  \o/

I wanted to get this done sooner, but at least it's done before spring really arrives, and not way too late like some years.  Progress is good.

Conservation and Science

This article challenges the amount of science that goes into conservation and hunting plans.

( Read more... )