Landrace Gardening: Sweet Corn Breeding

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. The current batch features landrace gardening.

Sweet Corn Breeding

I am breeding an open pollinated landrace of homozygous sugary enhanced (se) multi-colored sweet corn on my farm in Paradise Utah. I call it "Paradise Sweet Corn" in honor of the town where it was developed. Paradise sweet corn contributed genes to "Lofthouse Sweet Corn" an su/se hybrid which is named in honor of my father who has gardened for decades in Paradise.

Read more of this article.

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December Points Bonus

Over in dw_news (which I highly recommend subscribing to) there is an announcement about the December Points Bonus. It says in part:

For the month of December, all orders in the Shop of points and paid time (whether for you or as a gift) will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

If you have been enjoying your time on Dreamwidth, then consider buying points now to show your support. Alternatively, it's holiday season, thus a good time to buy points as gifts for your friends on Dreamwidth.  My paid account, which lets me post polls, is reader-supported.  Plus we have lots of new Twitter refugees, so if you know some, consider giving them points to encourage them to stick around.

Please spread the word so more folks know about this opportunity.

Birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and cold.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows but not much activity.

I put out water for the birds. 

Fast Antidepressant

A study in mice shows promise for an antidepressant that works in about 2 hours.  It has a very targeted chemical effect, rather than broad like previous ones.  If this can be replicated in humans, it would make a huge improvement over current treatments that take a month or more to work, if they work, and tend to have ruinous side effects.  It is also possible that this will work on some folks for whom current drugs do not.  If your brain misbehaves, or you just enjoy studying neurochemistry, then you may want to keep an eye on this line of research.

Diet and Mind

This article talks about food and mental health.

TL;DR: If your mind is malfunctioning, check your diet first, because a poor diet can cause problems which are then fixable simply by improving diet. If your diet is good or improving it doesn't help, then move on to other problem-solving methods. Trying diet first is cheaper and safer than other options for mental care. Getting into details...

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Wonders of Nature Bingo Card 12-1-22

Here is my card for the Wonders of Nature Bingo Fest. kiramaru7 is hosting this over on allbingo from December 1-December 31. Come celebrate nature in all its glory. You can play this one as a photo treasure hunt if you wish. (See all my 2022 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


WONDERS OF NATURE BINGO CARD

Prey	Sun	Seeds	Seaweed	Climate
Moss	Rainstorm	Island	Extinction	Evolution
Wood	Winter	WILD CARD: Flowers	Sandstorm	Canyon
Seashell	Prairies	Snow	Predator	Jungle
Valley	Fruit	Trees	Sky	Geyser