asakiyume

asakiyume, 8 days ago to random

What are the trees talking about? The willows, all turned out in bright new green, are trading gossip. The maples, still in the crinkled, unfolding-butterfly-wing stage of leafing out, are asking questions, all a-wonder. The hickories are popping their leaves out of giant buds like fireworks, and they're that excited. But the #pines, the evergreen pines, they're murmuring about winter. "This is just a warm spell. Wait a bit, a short six months, and it'll be cool again."
#wss366 #microfiction

asakiyume, 10 days ago to random

Excellent article in yesterday's Daily Hampshire Gazette about UMass's violent suppression of student protests. #FreePalestine #UMass #PoliceViolence #LocalJournalism https://www.gazettenet.com/More-than-100-arrested-at-UMass-pro-Palestinian-encampment-on-Amherst-55049834#:~:text=AMHERST%20—%20More%20than%20130%20people,from%20police%2C%20according%20to%20UMass

asakiyume, 11 days ago to random

Refusing to drain the sky

asakiyume, 12 days ago to random

My nephew shot this video at UMass before being tackled by the police and arrested. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6shuu3ubQl/?igsh=MmU5bjc4anhsd3Ey

TootTropiques, 18 days ago to brazil

Valuable 1823 edition of Johann von Spix's “Simiarum et vespertilionum Brasiliensium species novae” was just recovered in London 16 years after being stolen from the Goeldi Museum's rare books collection. This important work is famous for its descriptions and drawings of the monkeys of Brazil as well as other plants and animals then considered new to science.

@bookstodon #Brazil #arttheft

https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2024/05/01/pf-recupera-em-londres-livro-de-1823-furtado-de-museu-no-para-ha-16-anos.ghtml

asakiyume, 18 days ago to random

"Do you think 'taste buds' is short for 'taste buddies,' like, little flavor friends in your mouth?" Sean asked.

"Nope. I absolutely do not think so," I said, cutting a #thick slice of bread & slathering it with honey.

"I wonder if you have tons of sweet taste buddies in your mouth," Sean said, watching. "Or hey--what if you have just one lonely sweet taste buddie trying to process all that honey? ... I wonder how they #measure how much sweetness each taste bud gets?"

#wss366 #microfiction

asakiyume, 18 days ago to apps

Read this story b/c it was on a list of Hugo nominees, and it sounded funny and pointful, and it was both! I laughed out loud several times. "Better Living Through Algorithms," by @naomikritzer https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_05_23/ #Hugo2024 #Apps #AI #HumanTouch

asakiyume, 25 days ago to climate

On #roast days, when the surface temperature soars to 57 C, we stay underground. Dad wants to move to someplace that's livable aboveground all year round, but Mom doesn't want to leave. "My family's lived here for generations," she says. "Since before there even were roast days."

"So long as the water holds," Dad grumbles. It's the stock answer to "How you doing?"

"Well, water's holding and not too saline." (All right, I guess)

I hope it always holds.

#wss366 #microfiction #ClimateCrisis

asakiyume, 1 month ago to random

Uncompromising, hard, rich, and sweet: R. T. Ester's "Sleeping Arrangements, in IZ DIGITAL (@IZDigital)"

"‘Heaven’s timing can’t always be known,’ I tell her.

There’s artifice in my voice I have not heard in a long time. I am virtue laid to rest with shame."

--truly powerful story

#SFF #Interzone #HereAtTheEndofAllThings #NaijaDiaspora

https://interzone.digital/sleeping-arrangements/

asakiyume, 1 month ago to random

Super article on the Lower Sioux's move to build houses out of hempcrete: a green substitute for concrete. Great from the perspective of green technology, housing, and indigenous self-sufficiency. May a multitude of green alternatives to how we build flourish--this among them! #Housing #Sovereignty #Indigenous #Sioux #GreenTechnology #Hemp #Hempcrete

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/16/hempcrete-indigenous-tribe-minnesota

asakiyume, 1 month ago to random

"It will be in all of us"

My religion ❤️ 🌱 🌺🌿

(screenshots from Annihilation [2018]: Josie turning into flowers)

Screenshot showing Josie walking away from the viewer, toward flowers and long grass, with dimples on her arms where flowers are going to erupt.
Flowers and vines have emerged from Josies neck and arms, she is passing a huge stand of improbably but lovely white and purple flowers.

asakiyume, 1 month ago to random

Solaria, Luna, & Estelle, freshman roommates at Arcturus Academy of Magic Arts, each brought a magical dorm-warming item. Solaria's family were laborers: they gave her a little cookpot that always had food in it.
Luna's father had done well as an accountant with the East Lanka Chamomile Company, & she brought a Sack of Holding out of which she pulled bedding & a wardrobe.
Estelle, however, took the prize with a Grandmother's #Trunk. It contained a whole alphabet of goods. #wss366 #microfiction

TootTropiques, 1 month ago to psychology

"The dead don't stop haunting you just because you move on."

-- Dirk Wittenborn, 'Pharmakon'

@bookstodon #psychology #psychedelics

asakiyume, 1 month ago to random

Six-year-old Ami's idea of putting numbers in #order was unusual. She wrote
0 6 9 3 8 2 5 4 7 1.
and explained it like this:
"It's an order from soft & curved to sharp and straight. Zero is a whole soft oval. 6 & 9 try to make curls, & 3 makes double curls. 8 connects the doubles! Then 2 starts to uncurl & makes a sharp point. 5 has that, plus more straight parts. With 4, the curve is gone, & then it gets simpler for 7 & then down to just 1." #wss366 #microfiction #numbers

hootalex, 1 month ago to random

asakiyume, 1 month ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 27 March How does it feel knowing strangers will read your work?

I love the idea. I love-love-love connecting with people far away. And it's fun connecting with nearby folks too. It's all good!

msquebanh, 1 month ago to food

The 3rd largest source of #food carbs, in tropical areas, after rice & maize, is #cassava #tubers. Native to South America, it made its way to many places in Africa, Middle East & Asia nations during early trade times. Nigeria is world's largest producer of this food crop & Thailand is largest exporter of cassava starch. Very drought tolerant, thrives in poor soil & is a #FoodStaple in developing nations.

My family grew them in Vietnam. We've been eating them for generations.

#AsianMastodon

asakiyume, 2 months ago to random

"The Amazon rain forest is not virgin forest--rather it is a vast garden, cultivated by Indigenous people."

YES!

Europeans, used to a European model of land usage, arrived in the Western Hemisphere and didn't recognize that the woodlands and grasslands of North America and the rain forests of South America were not wildernesses, but managed lands.

Thx @TootTropiques for the article! https://theconversation.com/ecologia-a-amazonia-nao-e-uma-floresta-virgem-mas-um-grande-jardim-plantado-culturalmente-pelos-povos-indigenas-225160 #Amazonia #LandUse #Wilderness #indigeneity #IndigenousRights #biodiversity

asakiyume, 2 months ago to random

Great article on language diversity--many thanks @TootTropiques, for posting it!
"The real view from Mars, it turns out, is that linguistic diversity on Earth is far more profound and fundamental than previously imagined ... There is no single way that a community 'really speaks.'"
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/22/disappearing-tongues-the-endangered-language-crisis

asakiyume, 2 months ago to random

Accused of rotting the fibers of society, the southern poet An Mei was #exiled to the northern steppes to contemplate her life choices.

"How will you continue in this barren land?" she was asked on her first night on the windy plains. A good question for one whose words of dissent came clothed in the wet heat and ten thousand colors of her tropical district.

"I'll remake myself and my work," she replied, eyes on the vast horizon, the mercilessly bright stars.

#wss366 #microfiction

cstross, 3 months ago to random

Some thoughts on spam:

1. Right now it's a single idiot running a scripted Joe Job. But we know how spam ecosystems develop. The next steps are inevitable.

2. Next, someone will release an activitypub spamming script. It will hammer on servers to create throwaway accounts then use them to post.

3. This will drive a bunch of small servers off the fediverse and cause acrimonious defederation squabbles.

4. Surviving servers will limit sign-ups, requiring proof of humanity (or identity).

/1

asakiyume, 3 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub Complete this phrase: I write because...

I need to quote Leonard Cohen, "A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes"

"I'd like to tell my story"

and later in the song:

"I sing this for the crickets
I sing this for the army
I sing this for your children
And for all who do not need me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZQjekxGEks

seanpatrickphd, 3 months ago to random

A bit of a personal essay on the blog today, about empathy and faith and morality and how I've come to experience those things. As with most of my writing, I don't know if anyone will want to read it, but I enjoyed writing it down.

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/02/07/on-the-visceral-experiences-of-empathy-and-faith/