We've finally cleared our main garden of all our inherited plants, except for the yucca. Assuming this is common yucca / Yucca filamentosa, it is native to just south of here, like Virginia, so I think of it as helping the plant move north ahead of global heating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_filamentosa
Also, I'm told that previous owners have tried to kill this plant multiple times and failed dramatically (it looks very healthy). I try not to pick fights I expect to lose.
@skyfaller wow it's hard to beat sourcing them from your own neighborhood! We're trying to turn our hill into wildflower meadow so we went with a few mixes that are just found in PA.
What is the best / most ethical #mp3player still in production?
What is the best mp3 player of all time, including models no longer produced? If you allow for modifications / upgrades, like replacing the hard drive with a flash drive, does that change the answer? To be clear, I care most about the user experience today, not how much fun it was like 20 years ago.
I already ordered a Tangara, but they aren't shipping yet, and @Maggie's Sansa Clip died so she's looking for an mp3 player now.
Sadly I had completely forgotten about them, and when I opened the box, their batteries were 100% dead and wouldn't hold a charge. This is why we need easily repairable open hardware!
For #ThrowbackThursday, on this day in 2019 I was at The Bourse, which was a bustling "food hall," with multiple vendors I loved. There was a bar that served excellent non-alcoholic shrubs, and a great fresh pasta stall. Has it recovered at all yet? Last time I stopped by it was dead and the stalls were empty.
COVID-19 hadn't happened yet, and normal people didn't know it was going to happen (despite Cassandras who knew we were not prepared for the next pandemic).
@skyfaller not dead yet! The Bourse still has customers at lunch time even if half the stalls are empty. No Mario Karaoke (which might be progress). No idea if the site-wide liquor license is still in effect. Will ask GrubHouse guy next time.
Or maybe
Tear it apart
Start with [the] assumption:
That a million people are smart
Smarter than one!
It's sad how much of this 1999 song is still relevant (basically all of it, aside from dated references like answering machines). Reminds me of Joan Jett's jacket from ~1981, with all of the pins on it like "keep abortion legal" that still feel timely. Follow this up with RATM and get angry enough to make changes
Why were most of the cyclists in this photo wearing masks in November 1977? Was it to avoid breathing polluted air?
If so, thank goodness we have the EPA now; I hope we can address modern threats to air quality, like climate change related wildfires, rather than giving up and letting the air become difficult to breathe again.
@oreoteeth Then would you say that it's odd they're still wearing masks in November, then? Would this have been after smog season?
Are they wearing the masks to make a point about how increasing bicycle use would reduce smog, rather than for practical reasons because it was actually smoggy that day?
@skyfaller Well, we do get those freakishly warm fall days sometimes. It's def possible that there are smog days in the spring or fall. I mostly went to the Velodrome on summer nights. Couldn't say if LV cyclists were still masking in the fall.
And of course it's also possible that local industry smokestacks were pumping out more pollution than normal on that particular day.
@nancywisser Fair, maybe I am misusing the tag. This scene was actually pretty noisy; aside from all the geese and goslings, it was by multiple busy roads full of cars.
My interpretation of the tag is that it should feel peaceful and relaxing, and the person posting the picture should shut up and let the picture do the talking ;-)
@Strombo It is not greater than the effort to update one client's site, but if I want to scale this as a business, I can't do everything myself.
Also TMI but I have mental health issues where I go thru periods of being unavailable / unable to work on various tasks, and clients should be able to update their websites when I cannot.
I seem to have adopted an intern at my dysfunctional web business.
The intern is in high school, knows basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and has a little experience using Ruby and other programming languages. However they have never used git, for example, and presumably lack experience with similar essential tools.
How would you help a beginner programmer get started, with a focus on technologies relevant to the web and web infrastructure?
OK, which semi-urgent task should I prioritize once I get some breathing space?
Plants should be planted before it gets too hot, block parties can't be planned until we confirm dates with the city, and my band needs to start work on pressing our record if we're going to have it ready by our planned release date.
I asked protestors at the UPenn camp how non-Penn people can best help, and they said their top need right now is more people attending rallies.
They said the best way to stay up to date on when rallies are occurring is to follow relevant accounts on Instagram, or to check this whiteboard at the camp.
A rally is happening tonight at 7:30pm. (Edit: that was Monday, May 6)
I hired a landscape designer and he delivered this #LandscapeDesign. It looks good, but somehow communication broke down and they included a lot of non-native plants when I thought I was clear I wanted native plants. If they include obvious introduced plants, how can I trust they'll source plants that meet my less visible criteria, like straight species / open pollinated & local ecotype? So I guess I have to modify and implement it myself, based on what native plants I can source.
@skyfaller I keep thinking about this. Native plants are a passion of mine. If I may recommend, consider planting some kind of Joe Pye weed somewhere. Such a tall pollinator-friendly plant to have around. Butterflies love it.
Planning to buy one of every perennial he has. For shrubs I'm planning to get Aronia melanocarpa var. depressa, Vaccinium corymbosum, Rubus occidentalis. I might use Cornus sericea for my yard tree, but I'm not sure how tree-like it is.
By native I mean native to eastern half of North America, and by local ecotype I mean as specific to Philly as possible.