To Cry About

Today I'm baking cinnamon cookies using a crushed cinnamon candy cane and the Candy Cane Cookies recipe (which works with any flavor).

EDIT 11/26/25 -- These turned out well, with a definite cinnamon flavor.  \o/ 

Today is mostly cloudy, windy, and cold.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 11/26/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/26/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 11/26/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Tiny Yellowstone quakes ignite a surge of hidden life underground

Researchers studying Yellowstone’s depths discovered that small earthquakes can recharge underground microbial life. The quakes exposed new rock and fluids, creating bursts of chemical energy that microbes can use. Both the water chemistry and the microbial communities shifted dramatically in response. This dynamic may help explain how life survives in deep, dark environments.


Fascinating!

Also, things like this are why I laugh when space exploration only targets "life as we know it." There are whole ecosystems right here on Earth that don't rely on the Sun for their power source. Just most people tend to ignore them.  Since Earthlike worlds seem uncommon in this galaxy, most life is going to be hidden in hot rocks, under ice, etc. and is only likely to become visible without tools if it forms a mat of slime somewhere a bit more hospitable.  Really.  Most xenobiology is done with a microscope.  But it's also why I want to scrape the recently exposed parts of Antarctica to see if anything survived under its ice.

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, December 2, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Sentient and Self-Aware Machines." I'll be soliciting ideas for androids, robots, sexbots, sentient ships, other digital people, programmers, gizmologists and super-gizmologists, super-intellects, rebels, researchers, journalists, historians, explorers, partners, teachers, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, ethicists, activists, other people who work with self-aware machines, programming, changing or breaking programs, building hardware, choosing a hardware body, finding partners, upsetting predictions, expecting the unexpected, researching, revising theories, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, experiments changing paradigms, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, cyberspace, computer centers, HAMshack, robot factories, worldgates, liminal zones, schools, sharehouses, libraries, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, starships, bizarre exoplanets, foreign dimensions, other places frequented by digital people, American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Robots, hardware, software, quicklife, artificial intelligence, ethics of self-aware machines, toolkits, space exploration, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, inventions that change everything, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has the AYES.

The Blueshift Troupers is designed for easy crossing with other genres or tropes as they visit different planets, thus can easily accommodate self-aware machines.

Diminished Expectations has the gynoid and others.

Kung Fu Robots is entirely about self-aware robots.

P.I.E. has Zephyr, a digital person.

Polychrome Heroics has the rescued sexbots among others.

Schrodinger's Heroes is dimensional science fiction, designed for easy crossing with any other characters / setting / genre, thus convenient for self-aware machines.

The Steamsmith includes the tommies.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks will reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

To restore trust in government, this Belgian town opened a lottery that elects 30 random citizens to power. It's working.

In 2019, Ostbelgien, a town in Belgium with about 80,000 residents, took a gamble on a new approach to governing: The city’s parliament voted to establish a permanent Citizens’ Council and Assembly, giving randomly-selected citizens the power to make decisions.


Gosh, I never expected to see anything like that on Earth. It's something done on the Common Ground colony in my science fiction. They have elected seats too.  Now I have to wonder if politicians will start keeping fish to demonstrate their grasp of ecology.

Rats are snatching bats out of the air and eating them

Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) figured out how to get inside the kiosk and climb up to the bats’ landing platform at the entrance, using a curtain the researchers placed inside the kiosk for filming purposes. From August to October 2020, cameras captured the rodents — standing on their hind legs and using their tail to balance — grabbing bats mid-flight, killing them with a bite and dragging the carcasses away. The rats also caught bats as they landed on the platform.


Rats, especially brown rats, can be vicious little predators. It will be interesting to see if A) rats evolve further in predatory directions and B) bats learn to avoid them. Hats off to Dougal Dixon, you called it dude.

Note from birdhouse architecture: don't create a platform or perch near an entry hole that predators can stand on. Fliers can typically enter without it. Probably the rats can't climb upside down, but you might want to check that.

This poem is spillover from the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Aroace" square in my 6-2-25 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred and librarygeek. It belongs to the Finn Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

This poem is spillover from the May 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from fuzzyred and dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Power(ful)" square in my 5-1-24 card for the Superpower Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred and librarygeek. It belongs to the Finn Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

This poem came out of the November 5, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Chamomile" square in my 11-1-24 card for the Sleepytime Bear Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred and librarygeek. It belongs to the Finn Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains some intense topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes digestive upset, reference to human trafficking, implied mayhem, emotional upheaval, exhaustion, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

( Read more... )

Today is cloudy and chilly.

I fed the birds.  I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 11/24/25 -- We spent about an hour breaking down brush to shove in the chipper.  I think we got through about half the big pile of brush. It  made a surprisingly small pile of splinters on the tarp.  Some of what's left has berries on it, so those will have to go in the firepit along with the thorns.  The bigger branches will need to be hacked into kindling.  But we made great progress. \o/

I'm making Crockpot Xawaash Chicken Stew today.  When I came back in, the whole house smelled of African spices.  :D

EDIT 11/24/25 -- We put away the equipment.

EDIT 11/24/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/24/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.