the_siobhan | Reading

2026 Sees the Most Right Whale Calves Born in One Season Since 2009

Decades of diligent conservation seem to have allowed the whales to really turn a corner in the last 36 months, with milestones like record numbers of sightings, strange vagrancies, and an increasing population being celebrated.

Now, 23 calves were born during the 2026 right whale calving season—the highest number since 2009. Of the 23 mom-calf pairs identified this season, 20 of these were returning moms. Since that year, the average has been around 15 animals, but some years there have been 7 or fewer.

13 of these returning moms last had calves in the 2021 or 2022 seasons, marking a shorter interval between births than the recent average of 7 to 10 years. This is closer to the normal or healthy interval of 3 to 4 years.

It's so good to see a population recovering from whaling. :D

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

For the upcoming 4th of July, enjoy some of my previous posts about fireworks. Watch a video of fireworks going off and fireworks fail.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Ward Walks

Here in Batavia, Illinois, our Local Conversation group helps to bridge the walkability perception gap by running what we call Ward Walks, wherein we take a walk around town to see just how easy it is to reach common destinations. And what is perhaps the most commonly desired destination than an ice cream shop?

Being able to take a walk to get ice cream on a whim is practically a quintessential American ideal, which makes it ironic that it’s so hard to do in so many of our towns and cities. It’s precisely this expectation that the Ward Walks highlight. As the name implies, each walk highlights a different ward (i.e., political district) around town, starting at a city park and traversing toward an ice cream spot before walking back.

This is something that anyone interested in community can do: walk (or roll, whatever) around your neighborhood. See what amenities you can or can't reach that way. Is there at least one place to eat, to shop for everyday needs, to touch grass? Is there a church, a school, a health care facility, some sort of recreation? And so on. What you learn will be useful in any local activism for improving your hometown.

Current Mood: busy

soc_puppet posting in

dw_community_promo

Starting today: Summer of the 69 is an old-fashioned panfandom fest that runs from June 9th through September 6th, to hit 6/9 in both common date formats. It's dedicated to creations featuring the sexual position in question, though it doesn't have to be the first, last, or only sexual position featured in a given work.

Contributions are open to all sorts of non-gen-AI works and content, from recs to fics to art to crafts to podfic to vids to just about anything legal you can think of, and are open to all fandoms and original works. The fest features themes introduced weekly that themselves typically run for two weeks, to give participants some inspiration to work off of. There's also a comment meme in the style of old-fashioned kink memes, where you can prompt scenarios to your heart's content!

To learn more, go to

summerofthe69; you can also check out this year's theme calendar right here, add prompts to the comment meme over here, and browse the AO3 collections for this and past years over here.

Come check it out!

cornerofmadness

Cleaning does that to me. I did get part of my computer room cleaned, not entirely but it's under control now and that makes me happy. I have three bags of books that need to go for donation. I had taken them to work but no one wanted this batch. In the process I found the missing parts of my cosplay. I didn't find my damn camera. Really?

Called the Cleveland Clinic and my estimation of them has fallen greatly (well not of the doctors there but god the staff) the call triage people leave so much to be desired. They claim they only called me on the 4th. Dudes, I called you back FIVE times in May. And how can the call center NOT know the damn phone number for the gastroenterologist department. All I want to know is do I need new testing before I come up there (I'm betting yes, already been looking for a doctor. Can't find any)

Called my insurance because I'm locked out of my web page. They get me back in so I can use the chat to ask my question about dexcom (I love that because I then copy and paste ALL of it to keep it to use against them later) They said call CVS and here's a number if they still get the 'there's no authorization' for it and it is a 20$ copay. I call CVS they're not blocked this time but it's 150$ that's 75$ a piece not 20. I tell them not to fill it and tomorrow I have to call all the by mail places UHC gave me because I can't tell what the prices will be. I'm so over all this shit and this fucked up insurance. (Seriously those on my list who aren't American, I know several countries are talking about going from state supported to privatization like America has. Fight as hard as you can. This is a nightmare)

Sent pictures to my landlord of my broke ass porch. No one has responded.

I did do something fun. Adagio offered me a free tin with my picture on it (Yes sadly AI generated) I took the free one, ordered a big tin of it (since it was an earl grey blend and I love it) I paid for the two little sample tins. I know it's silly. I know I shouldn't because it's AI generated. But it's going to be rough birthday and I wanted something fun. (so rough apparently I'm crying just thinking about it).

And now on to the fannish 50 portion of this post

As a reminder I'm using Buffy the Vampire Slayer for this set of questions

Day 6: Least favourite male character. This one is easy. I didn't want to use a one off. And yes sometimes it's Xander but he's more of an annoyance than anything. I know a lot of fans would have put Riley here but I had no issues at all with Riley at first (he was annoying later).

No, it's Andrew Well that I absolutely hated. Yes Warren (and sadly Jonathan who had been a decent side character) were part of it but those two didn't become a recurring thing. Andrew Wells in no particular order, begs and pleads to get a shot at raping Warren's ex, wants to help to turn Buffy into a sex slave, kills Jonathan, tries to kill Dawn and Xander.

And then suddenly he's a fucking Scoobie. He gets into the fringes of the friend group. He ends up a spokesperson for Buffy and Giles and the Watchers. He gets to mock Spike and Angel twice.

This show wanted me to cheer for a would be rapist/murderer.

Worse, fans DID! Because he was funny. Do you want to know how many times I heard that excuse in the heyday of Buffyverse? I wrote a lot of Connor fanfic. I thought this character had (wasted) potential. People gave me shit about writing Connor fanfic. Often the same people would write Andrew in a good way (versus the scum bag he is) and while I'm usually a live and let live fan, write whatever you want but if you come at me and your excuse for a rapist as YOUR character is that 'he's funny and Connor isn't' just don't engage with me about this.

You can tell I had a lot of anger about it. Shockingly I still do. Maybe more than I realized. I didn't even like Spike on Angel so much (though it was better than I expected it to be) but I had nothing but pity for them after dealing with Andrew. And all the other characters dropped a notch (even my well loved Giles) for letting Andrew in. I believe in second chances but I also believe in atonement of which Andrew did nothing

( all questions under here )

Current Mood: distressed
Current Music: Hudson & Rex

ysabetwordsmith

summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the 2026 theme calendar here and the comment prompt post. The initial theme is "First Time 69: Everyone has to start somewhere."

Welcome to Summer of the 69, an event focused on creative works about the sexual position, open to all fandoms and to original works. Participation is through two means: A comment meme and weekly themes, running from June 9th through September 6th.

Poke a bigot in the eye, make some sexy stuff!

Current Mood: busy

flemmings

T'other day when I was shopping for berries, Some Man parked his cart in front of the section and proceeded to examine the plastic clam shells one by one, opening each and inspecting it until he found, I assume, what he wanted. This was a new trick by me, and, since people who believe themselves to be the only person in the universe are annoying, an annoying one. I know people will open egg cartons to check for intactness, though you don't really need to count them, as I saw one woman doing. Like, the box says one dozen and you can see all the eggs are there, so umm why are you counting them?

Joke was on me of course, because when I went to wash my raspberries last night, most of them were mouldy. Lesson learned, which is mostly, don't buy your fruit from Loblaws.

Warm and muggy today, and less wind than recently so the mug registered. Did bag up the vines from yesterday's endeavours, which filled a bag to capacity. Seems I wore a hat yesterday too and took it off at some point and then covered it with vines and forgot all about it. Ah well. It could have used a wash anyway. Sweated through the everythings, of course, and must drag bag around to the front before the rain starts.

An oddity I never noticed in my forty-odd years of acquaintance with Turandot. The three ministers's song, which is possibly my favourite bit, starts with the dreamy Ho una casa nell'Honan, con il suo laghetto blu. Uhh,, since when has blu been an Italian word? But it is: adopted at the end of the 17th century. Has to be a loan word, surely, but what did Italian use for deep blue before that?

ysabetwordsmith

Ecosystem 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... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Enjoy a hurdy-gurdy guitar.

Current Mood: busy

boxofdelights

It's Swan Lake, but the swan is a beautiful dog and the lake is a comfy chair
( sleeping dog )

conuly

1. This author is clearly pretty young. Still, they won't be half-bad once they get a little more experience.

2. Wow, this author's note is unhinged

3. and long

4. and not apparently connected to anything omg

5. Oh, wait, she's in the 7th grade!? Well, now I definitely won't leave any sort of comment about whatever the hell that was!

6. Still, she's definitely a better writer than I thought if she's producing this at the age of 12. (The fic, not the author's note.)

ysabetwordsmith

Coping 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... )

Current Mood: busy

solarpsychedelic

Do we choose an analog or a digital life? Are we all burning out on social media and the internet?

Doomscrolling for ten hours a day and arguing with bots of course is terrible for mental health. But I don’t think going totally offline is good either, given how embedded the technology is in daily life.

I still think returning to a Web 1.0 mindset helps with online burnout. Long form blogging and simple websites are still good ways to communicate and present what you care about.

ysabetwordsmith

I came across a post about screenless time before sleep, and had some further thoughts...

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today 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.

.

Current Mood: busy

sweettartheart posting in

100words

This week's prompt is asset.

Your response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as inspiration only.

Please use the tag "prompt: #498 - asset" with your response.

Please put your drabble under a cut tag if it contains potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers for media released in the last month.

If you would like a template for the header information you may use this:

Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title

Post:
Title:
Original (or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:

If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!

sanguinity

In other, better news: my beta signed off on my revised (revised revised) ending for Langstroth on Bees! Yippee hooray hurrah! \o/

( In which I go on )

We still have the whole damn thing to edit, because it was written over (*checks notes*) twelve years, and I have leveled up as a writer hugely in that time, and... yeah. So we'll see how that goes.

BUT I HAVE OFFICIALLY STUCK THE LANDING. IF WE CAN GET THIS THING EDITED I AM GOOD TO GO. \o/

badly_knitted

Title: Justified
Fandom: FAKE
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, OMC.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Dee is a good cop, but not always proud of what he has to do.
Written Using: The dw100 prompt ‘Maverick’.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Justified... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

badly_knitted

Title: Overshadowed
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Fourteenth Doctor, Donna Noble.
Rating: G
Written For: Challenge 1032: ‘Joy’ at

dw100.
Spoilers: The Star Beast.
Summary: As happy as the Doctor is to see Donna, he’s worried too.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, or the characters.

( Overshadowed... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

badly_knitted

Title: Flying Rats
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 921: Vermin, at

torchwood100.
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Nothing is going to steal produce from Ianto and Jack’s garden, not if Ianto has any say in the matter.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Flying Rats... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Hemlock B Bootsalotta

I didn't get this far in life by pacing myself

Wildlife

Cuddle Party

Walkability

Open for 2026: Summer of the 69

I'm worn out mentally and physically

Summer of the 69

(no subject)

Nature

Music

The ballet of sleep

My thoughts reading this fic:

Technology

🤔

Sleep

Birdfeeding

Prompt: #498 - Asset

Langstroth on Bees update: The Ending Has Landed

FAKE Double Drabble: Justified

Doctor Who Drabble: Overshadowed

Double Drabble: Flying Rats

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May 2026

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