archersangel | Network

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-highway-widening-cities-faster-curb.html

U.S. cities are rapidly becoming urban heat islands, where these cities are significantly warmer than their surrounding area. Vast expanses of asphalt and concrete trap heat, while large, densely packed buildings disrupt wind flow and intensify the effect. But beyond parking lots and skyscrapers, recent research points to highways as another cause behind America's urban heat islands.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-highway-widening-cities-faster-curb.html

ysobel

just haven't had much to say :)

I've been loving everything about Artemis II. The photos are gorgeous, the crew seems awesome, and the whole thing is so ding-dang wholesome.

Ear continues healing; I have no idea what it will look like in the end. Or whether the ear canal will go back to holding earbuds in, or if I have to figure out an alternative. (Right now earbuds go in fine but slide out within ten minutes.)

Migraines are stupid and I hate them.

melagan

Finally, I'm on the upswing of a wicked head cold. Naps helped. Lots of naps.

I'm digging into my Fandom Trumps Hate fic. I hope my bidder likes it. In any event it's keeping my brain occupied and keeping me out of trouble.

I came across this article 7 tiny hacks that can improve your to do list and it reminded me that years ago I made a to do list every morning.

It's been awhile since I did that. Life's a little simpler now that I'm retired and my kids are grown with families of their own. I gotta say, it did help.

How 'bout you? Are To do lists a part of your day?

I'm going to admit right now, my list were far too ambitious and I did well if I could finish one half of the tasks.

hannah

In less than an hour, I leave to see Voxtrot. It's hard for me to understand, even as nervous as I am about it, even though I'm already dressed up for dancing at a concert. When I first started listening, they were already over, and a band getting back together after so many years apart isn't something that happens. It just isn't. This is almost too much to take in. I'm getting tingles. I've been listening to both their albums over and over this week. I don't think they're going to play previously unknown material, as I've heard a few other bands do before - City Swans by Neko Case, for example - but I don't know how far back they're going to go. It could go all the way back to their EPs. It could be a playthrough of the second album. I'll find out when they start playing.

Does Dreamwidth load slowly for anyone else? If I'm opening it in a new tab, it takes a measurably longer amount of time to load up than, say, anything else on the internet. It could be something on my end - I mostly want to gather data right now.

The mourning doves stopped by my place today, cooing loud enough to make it seem worthwhile for me to call back to them and greet them in return. Spring keeps arriving.

Current Mood: excited
The sound around: Change - Voxtrot

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-rivers-polluted.html

After months of relentlessly miserable weather for most of the UK, spring brings renewed enthusiasm for spending time outdoors hiking, wild swimming, paddling, or on walks.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-rivers-polluted.html

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-warmer-caribbean-slower-hurricanes-worse.html

Rapid ocean warming is likely to make tropical cyclone rainfall more intense and longer lasting, increasing flood risks in parts of the North Atlantic region. A new study led by Newcastle University using satellite data shows that tropical cyclones and their post-tropical cyclone counterparts are responding quite differently to surface warming. The findings reveal that during the tropical cyclone phase, warmer and more humid conditions are causing storm slowdown and strongly increasing rainfall intensity.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-warmer-caribbean-slower-hurricanes-worse.html

elisem

How did it be April? It seems simultaneously sudden and somehow like it took a million years. Guess I'd better catch people up; sorry about being out of touch.

State of the Me:

Still waiting for my insurance to be reinstated. (There's a whole saga that I'm too tired to retell right now, but rest assured that Things Are Being Followed Up On.)

It's been eleven weeks and one day since my mother died. My father died three years ago; their funerals were three years apart on the same day. (Which I guess makes future anniversaries of that day more efficient or something, but the last day of January is likely to not be a great day for me next year and ongoing. Just saying.) My sister continues to be a hero on dealing with all sorts of things big and small connected with all this. (My mother-in-law Ruth made me promise to remember to say my sister is a hero, but I would remember anyhow. Also, I miss Ruth, who passed in February two years ago. Which adds to the grief anniversaries.)

There are a lot of finished pieces I need to get up in the shop. I did manage to get the "Autocorrect" series up, the ones with a duck and an ice cube, or a fork and an ice cube. There will be more. Also, I just found all these hockey player charms, and something needs to be done with those.

The interruption in insurance is delaying some parts of the work on recovering from agoraphobia, but other parts continue. I have plans for a stroll down the block with a neighbor soon.

There is so much art I want to make. And so many people I want to talk with. (Hi!)

So that's part of the State of the Me. If you feel like sharing, what's the State of the You? And hi! Hi!

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

I am excited to see that the yellow violet has propagated itself, and now there are two little clumps blooming in the forest garden. :D

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I pulled weeds out of two pots so I can plant pansies and violas in them.

I've seen a male cardinal and heard a squirrel barking.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I made one pot with a black viola and a black pansy, intending to add some other black plant later. I made another with a black viola, a black pansy, a purple-and-white viola, a blue-shaded viola, and a white alyssum. I watered the pots and added some sticks to discourage squirrels from digging in them.

I also tested out a trick that I saw in a video. Take a large garden staple, push the tines down into a narrow pot, squeeze together like tongs, and pull the plant out. It takes a bit of practice to make it work, but it does work better than other methods I have tried for safely extracting plants from those multipacks.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I made a pot with a black viola, a black pansy, a purple-and-yellow pansy, and a white alyssum.

The weather is turning cooler and the breeze is picking up.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I made 3 pots with various shades of purple, yellow, and orange pansies and violas. For now these are on the white planters alongside the big pot of mixed Johnny-jump-ups.

.

Current Mood: busy

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-defensive-rewilding-wetlands-forests-border.html

Restoring forests, wetlands and peatlands could help defend national borders as well as tackle climate change, according to new research from the University of East London (UEL). The study introduces the concept of "defensive rewilding"—the intentional, pre- or mid-conflict restoration of ecosystems to shape terrain in ways that can slow, redirect or impede military advances, while delivering environmental benefits.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-defensive-rewilding-wetlands-forests-border.html

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-exaggerated-amoc-collapse-headlines-cloud.html

The real climate risks to Ireland from changes to the Atlantic currents that sustain its mild climate are obscured by exaggerated claims in media headlines and movies, according to Dr. Gerard McCarthy, a Maynooth University (MU) oceanographer at the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units (ICARUS) in the Department of Geography, who has led research recently published in Nature Climate Change.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-exaggerated-amoc-collapse-headlines-cloud.html

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-amazon-droughts-trigger-forest-stress.html

Two back-to-back droughts in 2023 and 2024 caused the most severe decline in forest moisture and biomass (the total mass of living vegetation such as leaves, trunks and branches) in the Amazon since 1992, according to a study published in the journal PNAS. And many of the hardest hit areas are unlikely to recover before the next major drought arrives.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-amazon-droughts-trigger-forest-stress.html

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-cascadia-subduction-zone-isnt-complicated.html

Recent seismic imaging off Vancouver Island has revealed something extraordinary: a tear in the subducting oceanic plate beneath the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The finding briefly raised the public's hopes that Cascadia might be "shutting down," potentially lowering earthquake risk in North America's Pacific Northwest.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-cascadia-subduction-zone-isnt-complicated.html

prettygoodword

anthimeria or antimeria - (rhetoric) n., the use of a word from one part of speech as if it were another.

In English, most commonly using a noun as a verb, as in "Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle" -- Shakespeare, Richard II, act II, sc.iii, l.95. Indeed, many of the 1500+ word coinages that Shakespeare is credited for were anthimeria. In linguistics, the more common term is zero derivation, deriving a word from one of another part of speech without modification. Like most terms from rhetoric, this is from Ancient Greek, from antí, opposite + méros, part.

---L.

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-glaciers-rapidly-declining-extreme-losses.html

Earth's glaciers are continuing to shrink at alarming rates, with new international research revealing that 2025 was among the worst years on record for global ice loss. Published in the Climate Chronicles collection of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, the study provides the latest global assessment of glacier mass change, showing an accelerating trend driven by rising temperatures.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-glaciers-rapidly-declining-extreme-losses.html

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-qa-colorado-river-basin-strain.html

As drought conditions intensify across the American West and the impact of climate change accelerates, cities such as Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas may face a sobering reality. While it certainly helps, water conservation may no longer be enough.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-qa-colorado-river-basin-strain.html

phys_environment_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-seabirds-reveal-global-mercury-oceans.html

Mercury released into the oceans affects marine environments worldwide. Traditionally, its distribution and quantity have been estimated using marine biogeochemical simulation models.

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-seabirds-reveal-global-mercury-oceans.html

sistawendy

Dinner with the latex gang. It's my next-to-last hurrah before I turn into a temporary teetotaler on Tuesday. (Alliteration and assonance ahoy!) Sugar Hill, down the western slope of Capitol Hill on Pine St., has pretty great Thai eats & cocktails. Must... not... be jealous of how women half my age look in latex. And it occurs to me that my goodness, I know a lot of local sex workers, both cis and trans.

Shallow fashion details: the same little purple skater dress that I wore to KinkFest last weekend. My excuse was that I wanted to show how the yogurt sauce stains had mysteriously disappeared, but really, that dress is the best one I have for warm(er) weather. Accessories: butterfly-themed. Boots: silver cowboy, from Stetson.

Current Mood: chipper
Point in the space/time continuum: the living room of the Devil Girl House