Safety
Jan. 19th, 2026 05:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithTiny plastic coatings from farm fertilizers are quietly reshaping the mystery of “missing plastics” in the ocean.
Plastic-coated fertilizers used on farms are emerging as a major but hidden source of ocean microplastics. A new study found that only a tiny fraction reaches beaches through rivers, while direct drainage from fields to the sea sends far more plastic back onto shore. Once there, waves and tides briefly trap the particles on beaches before many vanish again. This helps explain why so much plastic pollution seems to disappear after reaching the ocean.
That sounds like another problem that could be reduced with a ban on using plastic to make microbeads.
Fandom Snowflake Challenge #10
Jan. 19th, 2026 03:19 pmteaotter posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
snowflake_challengeRemember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.
( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #10 )
And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.
And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
bbcnewsworld_feedSpanish PM vows to find cause of deadly high-speed train crash
Jan. 19th, 2026 09:30 pmbbcnewsworld_feedWatch: Spain train crash survivors describe 'absolutely terrifying' scene
Jan. 19th, 2026 11:59 ambbcnewsworld_feedMore Buffy/Angel rewatch, among other things...
Jan. 19th, 2026 03:40 pmshadowkatFound out last night that my niece passed her EMT training and is a now a certified EMT. Also she may end up in Georgia at some point in May, with a course on how to prevent fires by setting them (burning off brush). My lovely niece is well on the way towards her goal of becoming a forest ranger. It's actually easier to protect trees than people. People are difficult. So, I'm glad she shifted from human rights to environmental protection and forestry.
I'm really enjoying my re-watch of Buffy and Angel. The later seasons hold up better than the earlier ones do - partly because the later seasons were done in the early 00s and not the late 1990s. So while there's still the errant - "I ran like a girl" - the other characters snort at it.
Season 7 and Season 4 Angel actually have some well-written episodes in there. Deep Down - S4 Angel, where Wes searches the ocean for Angel and rescues him, and Angel, Gunn and Fred confront Connor is a good episode. And Wes has become very interesting.
Also, the first episodes of S7 are really good. I find the series more entertaining now than I did when I initially watched it. Maybe because while I don't remember most of the details, I remember the final result, so don't have quite the same anticipation or worry that I had when I first watched it - when it aired for the first time in 1997-2003. Also, I'm not as invested in the romantic "ships"? I know they are all doomed. So, it's comforting in a way it wasn't back then. And, I'm not trying to figure out where it is going, or pulling it apart like a puzzle to figure out what will happen next. There's something to be said for not over-analyzing the plots of television shows?
Buffy S7 Takeaways?
( Lessons through Beneath ME )
And Angel S4 is more enjoyable than I remembered. It's kind of obvious though that the writers are writing out Cordelia.( Read more... )
Wes's arc is more enjoyable than Cordelia's. ( Read more... )
They brought in Gwen to chemistry test her against Angel and Gunn, as a potential replacement for Cordelia - I can tell. She got a back story and everything.
I don't remember most of this - or enjoying it nearly this much.
**
Outside of television watching - I did another watercolor. Not perfect. This is of a confrontation between a little old woman with a walker and big truck that I saw ages ago in Jamaica, but can still visualize.
Monday Word: Bristlecone
Jan. 19th, 2026 05:11 pmstonepicnicking_okapi posting in 1word1daynoun
a pine, Pinus aristata, of the southwestern U.S., bearing short needles crowded into long, thick bundles and cones having scales tipped with a slender, curved spine; one of the longest-lived trees, useful in radiocarbon dating
examples
1. Ultimately, it's the rising temperatures and droughts associated with global warming that will significantly impinge upon Nature's finest masterpiece -- the near-immortal Great Basin bristlecone pines. Dr. Reese Halter: Saving the Ancient Pines by Reducing our Global Footprints, 2010
2. "There is a bristlecone pine tree that's nearly five thousand years old."
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
origin
first recorded use of the word 1893
crafting hangout
Jan. 19th, 2026 05:19 pmunicornduke(no subject)
Jan. 19th, 2026 09:13 pmtellshannon815
Challenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
Honestly, trope doesn't entirely resonate. I can remember years ago, seeing something about tropes and just not relating to any of all that forced to share a bed/enemies to lovers/coffee shop AU stuff. But I do have a theme, which is alternate timelines. What if So and so never died? What if the villain made the obvious choice that the original writers seem to have somehow totally missed? What if Character X was the one to move from his cancelled spinoff to the main show? I have done them all.
The first series I ever saw to completion was Once Upon a Time, where Jafar was the one to move across from the Wonderland spinoff to the main show (imagine his lamp ending up in Gold's shop and Zelena accidentally letting him out). Another one was The Flash, where Eobard manipulated Nora into giving Barry the metahuman cure and the finale showed a dystopian 2049 that resulted from this (at the time I started that, I was convinced that was the route canon was going to take; to this day, I still don't get why the writers wasted time on Cicada rather than pursuing this route and just letting Eobard be the bad guy). I've saved Sun, Jin and Sayid on Lost several times over (and after a prompt in last year's three sentence ficathon, I was even tempted to expand on my attempt at Smokey McSmokeFace going back to the classical Roman era to get off the island while he was still human).
And yes, I have a few ongoing such works which I'm determined to finish. The School Spirits one where Mr Martin chooses to possess Emilio instead and the impact this has on Charley and Yuri is barely started (the upcoming new season may help with that), and I am determined I will push past my mental block on a) the Lost series where Sun joined the others in 1977 (I lost heart after the decision in canon to kill her off, which I still strongly disagree with 15 years on) and b) the Dark series where Ulrich successfully rescues Mikkel from 1986 (at this rate, I think I'm actually going to end up going down the Choose Your Own Adventure route, one where Ulrich and Mikkel get their happy ending and the minimum of characters are erased from existence, and one where Claudia gets hers.)
At the scene of Spain's worst rail disaster in over a decade
Jan. 19th, 2026 08:51 pmbbcnewsworld_feedBirdfeeding
Jan. 19th, 2026 03:09 pmysabetwordsmithI fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows and a lady cardinal.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I've seen two starlings and a male cardinal.
EDIT 1/19/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
I am done for the night. 5:20 and I can still see light in the west. :D
The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
Jan. 19th, 2026 03:45 pmgilda_elise
When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust… from bestselling author Isabel Cañas.
In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong.
I love Cañas’ writing, but I felt that this book didn’t quite hit the mark. I never felt that the two main characters, Alba and Elías, were as compelling as they could have been. I never got to know them as well as I would have liked, and have come to expect from Cañas’ work.
I tend to think that part of the reason is that more time had to be given to explaining the situation, unlike her first two books where the situations were those most readers would be familiar with. Because of that, the romance side of the story was overwhelmed by the horror.
And horror there is in Alba’s possession. Some parts are out and out creepy and I liked that the reader is kept guessing as to what’s really going on and who can be trusted. But for my self, I would have preferred more time spent on the romance's development, which at times felt rushed.
I won’t go so far to say that I didn’t enjoy the story, because I did. But the book would place last in line when it comes to her three books.
Mount TBR 2026 Book Links
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
1. The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
2. Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
3. The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
Main Character Female
Indigenous, Asian, or Latino author
1. The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
Media literacy heuristics
Jan. 19th, 2026 02:50 pmrebeccmeistersiderea, who taught me to ask, "What is new and different in what I am reading/hearing about/seeing?"I frequently teach this heuristic to students. Part of being a student is learning how to learn and how to summarize. This heuristic is really useful for summarizing information from a textbook chapter or a lecture. Don't try and include everything, focus on what's new and different.
In this article, the analogies of the "centaur" and "reverse centaur" are really useful, and new to me:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur
What are some of your media literacy heuristics?
the company president took my chair and I’m sick of being disrespected
Jan. 19th, 2026 06:59 pmaskamanager_feedI’m off for the holiday, so here’s an older post from the archives. This was originally published in 2014.
A reader writes:
I started the position I’m in just 2 months ago as an account executive. Before this position, I was an admin assistant and volunteer coordinator elsewhere. I am also 23, I’ve been working since I was 14 and been in office roles since the age of 19 – meaning I’ve been working long enough to pick up on office politics, and to avoid dramas.
Quick background of my current workplace: 12 full-time employees. Most employees have worked there for over 2 years. Some 6 years. Pretty much everyone is close but nice, and I’m the newest and the youngest. I’m sure the next youngest person is 30.
Yesterday afternoon, I ran out to get a quick snack only to return to see the president of my company in my seat talking to my coworker/ supervisor. Okay, that’s fine – her back is to me so she didn’t realize I was back so I spoke up said “hello,” and since she didn’t budge, I grabbed my water bottle and went to the cooler to fill it up. I returned – placed it on my desk with a thud and home girl is still there! Okay… I decided to sit on a couch nearby. I sat there for 15 minutes, really beginning to fume. I pulled out my phone and ended up browsing, texting some friends – from the corner of my eye I counted amount of times she turned around to look at me. 3! At that 15-minute mark I got up, excused myself and reached behind her to unplug my laptop, then returned to the couch. Of course I was too pissed to really do any work – I pretended to. She got up 5 minutes later. No apology.
I know for a fact she wouldn’t do that to anyone else. Even at my previous job as an admin assistant, my department supervisor was just the nastiest towards me, I was always overworked – I came in on weekends and very often stayed hours after work. In fact my position was terminated mainly because I didn’t reply to an email she sent me after hours until 10 a.m. the next morning.
It’s all catty and unfair and it’s a shame because all of my past and current coworkers respect me enough and see that I am capable of delivering. It just seems like the C-levels are the ones not seeing that. It happens to a lot of my friends, and I just hate to see talent like me be disrespected because (a) we look/are young, and (b) we’re the newest or different a demographic. I refuse to tolerate things like this because that’s how patterns form.
How can I command respect from people like this? I’m not trying to be best of buds, but I would appreciate being acknowledged.
Note: This small company doesn’t really have an HR, but had I known better and have been less naïve at my previous job I would have went months before.
Whoa.
Going just on what you’ve written here, which is all I have to go on, this a wildly out of proportion reaction.
Your company president sat at your desk for 15 minutes. While you fumed. While you got too angry to be able to work.
She sat at your desk for 15 minutes.
This is … not a big deal.
Yes, it would have been more thoughtful for her to vacate your chair when you showed up. Yes, it’s annoying to be displaced for 15 minutes.
But you know what? She’s the company president. It’s her call. It’s not the most polite call, but it’s just really not that big of a deal. She didn’t lock you out of a meeting or ask you to clean a toilet or insult your mom. She took your chair for 15 minutes.
Now, should she have gotten up? Sure. But it’s hardly the slap in the face that you’re making it out to be. And your reaction here is so out of sync with what’s warranted that it’s actually a far bigger problem than the relatively small offense that she committed.
I’ve had bosses borrow my chair, make me wait outside their office when they were late for meetings, keep me hanging on the phone while they ordered lunch, and signal that my time was less important than theirs in all sorts of ways. Because my time was less important than theirs. I didn’t take that personally. I did, at times, think to myself, “You really shouldn’t be paying me to wait here like this.” But it wasn’t personal, and I didn’t take it as a reflection on anything other than the prerogatives of their place in their hierarchy. If I’d taken it personally … well, I can’t even imagine the effect that would have had on my career.
“Refusing to tolerate things like this” isn’t going to earn you respect. It’s going to earn you disrespect, because people will interpret that kind of reaction as being wildly out of touch. You’ll lose credibility too, and it won’t be there during the times when you really do need to be able to say “no, this isn’t okay.”
Do good work, stand up for yourself when it matters, and let the little stuff go.
The post the company president took my chair and I’m sick of being disrespected appeared first on Ask a Manager.
Yesterday I went out and was social
Jan. 19th, 2026 07:23 pmoursinI mentioned that I was reading Dream Count for an intended new in-person book group of fairly local people connected through being (mostly) women historians (most of) whom I already know.
The gathering to discuss Dream Count was yestere'en in Highgate, at a destination to which there is a bus service from the nearby main road, though on Sunday evenings the service is a little more sporadic than habitual and I arrived a bit early, even after some difficulty finding the house in question. (Serious FAIL by local residents to actually have house numbers visible, ahem, not helped by several houses actually being nos XX-YY which adds to the confusion and in fact I ended up going to the wrong house first.)
However, once I got there it was agreeable to see auld acquaintance and talk of how things had been going -
- I am not entirely persuaded that having a sit-down at a table supper was actually a great idea, or maybe that was just me who had not all that long ago had a large late lunch.
Discussion of actual book did not get started for some while. Everybody seemed to have a rather mixed response, though it did, at least, provide a basis for discussion along several directions.
Future plans to meet at 6 week intervals - not to have full dinner party (relief!)* - next book will be Anna Funder's Wifedom about Eileen Orwell (already have the ebook yay).
Kind lift not all the way home but to useful point with lots of buses from Our Hostess.
*Snacks instead - should I take foccacia and Famous Aubergine Dip? Y/N
The photographic evidence [projects, bicycling, rowing]
Jan. 19th, 2026 01:13 pmrebeccmeister( Read more... )
Anyway, quite the project roundup. So here's George, "helping."
I had to kick him out while I sewed. Too many exciting little things to bap around.
Check-In Post - Jan 19th 2026
Jan. 19th, 2026 06:45 pmbadly_knitted posting in get_knittedHello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.
Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?
There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.
This Week's Question: What are your crafting goals for 2026?
If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.
I now declare this Check-In OPEN!
