@peachfront@toot.community
@peachfront@toot.community avatar

peachfront

@peachfront@toot.community

Senior parrots, birds, birding, rock swaps, crystals & stone-cutting. Sometimes I write funny dialogue for the birds in your photographs. I read books, & I vote!

Formerly known as Peachfront on Twitter & Instagram, & Amethyst Qu on Medium.

Haven't owned peachfront.com domain in years but you may find my old trip reports at peachfront.diaryland.com.

Pro Tip: Diaryland does not have any www's.

#birds #crystals #photography #fedi22 #books #writing #selfpublishing #birding #nature

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

peachfront, to photography
@peachfront@toot.community avatar

In case you missed my brag & boast about our Limpkins at Fontainebleau State Park on the northshore of New Orleans. They were easily visible around the fish pond on Friday morning, as was the scatter of their discarded apple snails.

peachfront, to Birds
@peachfront@toot.community avatar

Guess who I met today at the park... first clue is a line of discarded Apple Snails... you probably don't need the second clue

Hey_Beth, to random
@Hey_Beth@sfba.social avatar

deleted_by_author

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    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @Hey_Beth

    I live in LA-1, a highly gerrymandered district that historically allows the GOP to place truly terrible men in that seat...Scalise is the self-proclaimed "David Duke without the baggage"-- Duke being former KKK grand wizard who used to live here before he fled to Moscow to escape tax evasion charges

    Scalise is useless trash who represents no one!

    Even after being himself a victim of gun crime, this coward won't lift a finger to do anything about the out of control guns!

    peachfront, to photography
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    Audubon sez it's owl month, have a paywall/ad-free owl story

    https://vocal.media/earth/for-a-real-hoot-owl-see-you-in-the-moonlight

    TheConversationUS, to USpolitics
    @TheConversationUS@newsie.social avatar

    Efforts to ban books in public schools and libraries have reached an all-time high, according to the American Library Association.

    In 1982, the US Supreme Court ruled that there are limits on a school’s power to ban books, but the justices didn’t agree on the acceptable reasons.

    https://theconversation.com/where-the-supreme-court-stands-on-banning-books-212497
    @bookstodon

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @Bluedepth @TheConversationUS @bookstodon

    they're banning books in libraries not bookstores, nobody cares if some intellectual buys a book, the point is to stop kids from having books especially if the kids are already trapped in a terrible situation where their parents are denying them an education-- a situation I, as somebody who was once an abused child, knows very well

    don't assume "everyone" has money, bans are to keep the vulnerable powerless, they aren't attacks on the strong

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @Bluedepth @TheConversationUS @bookstodon

    And yes, kids are resourceful & creative, denied books that speak to them, many will create fanfic & other communities where they secretly share their own outsider & gay fiction BUT there are also ongoing efforts to criminalize that kind of expression online

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @Bluedepth @TheConversationUS @bookstodon

    agree the kids will always read & create, we've all seen how highly Black & LGBT communities prize education in the face of oppression

    BUT...

    when the intent in Florida & elsewhere is to criminalize whole populations, including Black & LGBT+ people, for sharing books, i struggle to find optimism

    samizdat alone doesn't win one's freedom, just look at Russia, they're still not free & it doesn't look like they ever will be

    GottaLaff, to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    It’s the end of an era for a once-critical pandemic document: The ubiquitous white -19 vaccination cards are being phased out.

    Now that COVID-19 vaccines are not being distributed by the federal government, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped printing new cards.
    https://apnews.com/article/a70eb7f3f32b961eae1a7bf69175ad11

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @GottaLaff

    i noticed when I got the latest booster they didn't even glance at my old card... sigh

    GottaLaff, to random
    @GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @GottaLaff

    i'm in Louisiana, i got a silent pop up

    maybe it's something about the settings, i have most things that make noise turned off on my phone

    except tornado/hurricane warnings

    kcfromaustcrime, to books
    @kcfromaustcrime@mastodon.online avatar

    Number 7 in the Karen Pirie series by current day Queen of Crime Fiction - Val McDermid, Past Lying is due out around the 12th October.

    https://www.austcrimefiction.org/book/past-lying

    Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn't be surprised when an author's manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime.




    @bookstodon

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @kcfromaustcrime @bookstodon on my TBR list!!!

    Private
    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @kimlockhartga @bookstodon

    There are too many good ones out but I've tried a quick scan of what's been suggested so far to avoid putting a duplicate

    These 5 rank highly for me--

    Tender is the Flesh -- Augustina Bazterrica

    The Cabin at the End of the World -- Paul Tremblay

    X- Davey Davis

    Hawk Mountain --Conner Habib

    Our Share of Night- Mariana Enriquez

    There are so many others, horror is hopping!

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @duanetoops @kimlockhartga @bookstodon

    They are both great reads! I actually listened to Chainsaw as an audiobook, it's great in that format too.

    Private
    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @JoanGrey @herhandsmyhands @romancelandia

    Was someone grumbling because you borrowed some books? I wish people wouldn't do that... People who borrow books can often afford to read many more books than they otherwise would-- a very good outcome

    That said, the recent increase in KU's fee did not go to KU authors; compensation for reads have tested their lowest rates ever over the summer

    Private
    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @austern @bookstodon if they were all as good as the two on that list I've read (Boyfriend Material & Consider Phlebias) you had a great month!

    rberger, to random
    @rberger@hachyderm.io avatar

    “Thirty years ago, if I told you that a bunch of billionaires and intellectuals on the right are waiting in the wings to impose a dictatorship on the United States, you would have said that I was insane,” he said.

    “But it’s no longer insane. It’s now real. There are those people out there,” Linker added. “The question is: will they get their chance.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/01/red-caesar-authoritarianism-republicans-extreme-right

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @rberger

    30 years ago was 1993 & if you were alive then & saw how insane they were with fury that a perfectly moderate and reasonable guy like Bill Clinton was in office after Reagan/Bush NO? you wouldn't have said this was insane, you would've said, Hello Captain Obvious?

    In the early 1990s, the 2nd largest owner of homes was the RTC because of S&L loan fraud/foreclosures)-the right had already made it clear they wanted to end the middle class & home ownership in the US

    It was ALWAYS real

    futurebird, (edited ) to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    American life expectancy is lower than that of Cuba, Lebanon, and Czechia (edited as I confused Czechia with Chechnya, beat me with a sack of holtmash dumplings I guess)

    The gap is drawn starkly along lines of class, wealth, race. The second graph is so stark and horrifying I thought it was fake at first, but I found the source and I'm starting to think it's real.

    https://www.brookings.edu/articles/accounting-for-the-widening-mortality-gap-between-american-adults-with-and-without-a-ba/

    https://alaskapublic.org/2023/03/27/live-free-and-die-the-sad-state-of-u-s-life-expectancy/

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @futurebird

    Cuba used to be well-known for its medical care provided to all, so it wouldn't be surprising for them to outperform a country notorious for denying health care to all but the wealthiest-- in the US even the middle class have to consider, every time they think of getting treatment, if this is the time the insurer will deny something & cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars you can't pay

    But, yeah, our life expectancy has always been a disgrace compared to others

    Teri_Kanefield, to random

    deleted_by_author

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    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @Teri_Kanefield

    the whole strategy of insulting the judge's intelligence didn't play out so well... I'm 🤣

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @thereisnocat @Teri_Kanefield

    Square footage is an objective number!!!

    antipode77, to Reptiles
    @antipode77@mastodon.nl avatar

    @bookstodon

    How "Reptiles of Ecuador" came into existence.

    A fascinating history of small steps, lots of persistence and inventiveness.

    https://www.anoleannals.org/2023/09/10/the-making-of-the-reptiles-of-ecuador/
    However, how do you create a comprehensive field guide about a species-rich animal group in a mega-diverse country?

    https://www.reptilesofecuador.com/index.html

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @antipode77 @bookstodon

    Crikey it looks even heftier than Ridgely & Greenfield!!! (Birds of Ecuador)

    MineralCup, to random
    @MineralCup@mastodon.social avatar

    R2M8 Barbenheimer showdown!

    Arsenuranospathite has radioactive uranium nestled in a deadly cocktail of arsenic, while Rhodochrosite is a brilliantly-pink carbonate gem.

    Vote: https://www.mineralcup.org/2023/campaigns/round-2-match-8

    Results: https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-2-match-8

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @MineralCup

    Gotta be voting for Rhodochrosite this time... I don't make the rules, I just do what the Triceratops on my shelf tells me to do...

    Private
    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @owlislost @bookstodon

    Daisy Jones would make a great audiobook, I enjoyed it as a regular book but envy you thinking of that option!!!

    This weekend I'm reading Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, I've just started it but so far highly recommended!

    timbray, (edited ) to random
    @timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

    Wondering about Long Covid (or Post-Covid Syndrome).
    Do you know people who are suffering significantly as follows? (This is a multiple-choice poll.)

    (pls boost if the subject interests you)

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @josh @timbray

    In the US where there is no safety net, you simply can't risk letting it be widely known because your job (& thus your health insurance) is is immediately at risk & there's no coming back from that if you're not old enough to access Medicare/Social Security

    Long covid, with no known treatment, seems to be an illness where there's no upside to letting it be known you have it if you can possibly bluff your way through to continue picking up a paycheck

    JamesGleick, to random
    @JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

    This is Handmaid’s Tale stuff. We are the dystopia now.

    I remember when even anti-abortion politicians were careful to say they would never criminalize the pregnant women. Now Nebraska is imprisoning a mother who helped her teenage daughter with an abortion pill.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/22/burgess-abortion-pill-nebraska-mother-daughter

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @JamesGleick

    Women have lived in dystopia for most of human civilization

    "Conservative" men are keenly aware that for thousands of years we were slaves & feel cheated of their total power over women, including their daughters & wives-- they don't wish freedom or happiness for ANY of us, the traditional view is we're property & they want their property back now

    Sure, they pretended to believe we were people for a few decades from maybe 1978 & into this century but that's done now

    benb, to random
    @benb@osintua.eu avatar

    CNN: Republicans consider cutting $300 million in Ukraine aid from defense bill: https://benborges.xyz/2023/09/21/cnn-republicans-consider.html

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @benb

    GOP "leaders" are firmly in Putin's pocket & should all be arrested for bribe-taking & treason, next question!

    evanpeterjones, to bookstodon
    @evanpeterjones@mstdn.social avatar

    It's giving Dark Academia's, How To Get Away With Murder but for theatre nerds and I'm here for it. Act 2 is hittin hard, ugh!!!

    @bookstodon

    peachfront,
    @peachfront@toot.community avatar

    @evanpeterjones @bookstodon

    it was so sad... sniffle

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