December 9, 2021

Tiny living machines called xenobots can create copies of themselves

Is this the start of "The Blob?"

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tiny-living-machines-xenobots-replicate-copies-frog-cells

November 13, 2021

My day was so Thrilling I just had to share

(I don't think I've been here before. I was looking for gardening, and found you first, but I think my story will fit right in here.)

My day, Nov. 12, 2020

I went down hill to town to mail a letter and get some wood chips. I saw there was section that was older and the leaves had composted nicely. I filled my pickup. Came home and was helped by Les and Mary putting it in the garden. They also found more Golden Chanterelles while I was gone. When I went to feed the Llama I saw she hadn’t eaten the apples I had given her this morning and I proceeded to step over the fence and check on her. My second step didn’t clear the fence. The fence is a very loose fence and it was pulled down as I tried to support myself with it while I landed flat on my back. And it’s like that isn’t enough fun so the feeding box made of 2X6 redwood comes along and hits me in the head. Great, I’m still alive and breathing. I roll over, get myself up, put the feeder back and continue to check on the Llama. She is fine, out eating from the abundance of green grass. I went into the garden and watered down a bed Angie and I had planted in garlic and lettuce starts. I dressed the seedlings with the mulch and had noticed the last two sunny days had dried out the top of the soil. I watered that just after sunset and got to see a few clouds brighten up the sunset and a planet light up in the sky

Many Blessings.

October 3, 2021

So I go out on this beautiful day to feed the critters and find a Mt. Lion killed 5 ewes

That is my entire flock of ewes. I still have the big ram and 3 yearling rams. My living lawn mowers are no more. Sure put a damper on my day. We had a lion come years ago killed a couple of goats and several sheep. I have made arrangements for someone to come and take them to a rendering facility. None of the animals had been eaten on. In the past only the hind leg of one of the goats had been eaten on. Usually the problem is coyote. putting up electric fence stopped that.

Just needed to vent my troubles.

Hope your day was a good one.
ADW

July 17, 2021

Lightning warning, I'm in Western Sonoma Co. CA

This just came via email:

For our area which is Fire Zone 507
Currently from Sunday, July 18 at 5:00 p.m. through Monday, July 19 at 5:00 p.m.

URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service San Francisco CA
147 PM PDT Sat Jul 17 2021

...Dry lightning potential Sunday into Monday...

.Upper level moisture will increase over the region Sunday
morning through Monday morning from the south. The upper level
moisture will accompany upper level instability increasing
chances for thunderstorm activity. Thunderstorms will be a mix of
dry and wet, but given how dry the fuels are any lightning
strikes will be problematic. The threat for thunderstorms
diminishes Monday afternoon as the moisture moves northward.

CAZ507-511-512-180500-
/O.UPG.KMTR.FW.A.0002.210719T0000Z-210719T1800Z/
/O.NEW.KMTR.FW.W.0003.210719T0000Z-210720T0000Z/
North Bay Mountains-East Bay Hills and the Diablo Range-
Santa Cruz Mountains-
147 PM PDT Sat Jul 17 2021

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 5 PM SUNDAY TO 5 PM PDT MONDAY
FOR DRY LIGHTNING FOR HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF FIRE WEATHER ZONES 507
511 AND 512...

The National Weather Service in San Francisco has issued a Red
Flag Warning for lightning, which is in effect from 5 PM Sunday
to 5 PM PDT Monday. The Fire Weather Watch is no longer in effect.

* AFFECTED AREA...Fire Weather Zone 507 North Bay Mountains,
Fire Weather Zone 511 East Bay Hills and the Diablo Range and
Fire Weather Zone 512 Santa Cruz Mountains.

* WIND...Given the potentially dry nature of thunderstorms gusty
and erratic winds will be possible with developed storms.

* TIMING...Thunderstorm threat most likely Sunday afternoon
through early Monday afternoon.

* LIGHTNING...Isolated dry thunderstorms will be possible Sunday
afternoon through early Monday afternoon.

* IMPACTS...Given the dry fuels over the higher elevations, any
cloud to ground lightning strikes have the potential of starting
new wildfires.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions
are either occurring now...or will shortly. A combination of
strong winds...low relative humidity...and warm temperatures can
contribute to extreme fire behavior

March 1, 2021

The West's Infernos Are Melting Our Sense of How Fire Works

https://www.wired.com/story/west-coast-california-wildfire-infernos/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

(This is from last Sept. but I didn't find a post about it. Thought it worth sharing.)

On the windy, hot day of July 26, 2018, as record 113-­degree temperatures baked Redding, California, in the northern Sacramento Valley, Eric Knapp toiled in an air-conditioned government office. After work, he planned to meet his wife and 3-year-old daughter, and some family friends, for dinner. Slender and fair-skinned with a gentle smile, Knapp is a research ecologist for the US Forest Service. He was well aware that, three days earlier, in coastal mountains west of town, a wildfire had started when a trailer got a flat tire and the metal wheel rim scraped the asphalt, sending sparks into dry brush.

Like the vast majority of wildfires, this one, called the Carr Fire, burned initially as a wide but shallow band of flames advancing slowly, like a battalion of infantrymen marching shoulder to shoulder, and left behind charred grass and lightly scorched trees. The Carr Fire was also typical in that it moved according to the dictates of wind, ground slope, and flammable fuels—southeast around a lake, then up a hill, in part because heat rises. Early on that particular morning, the fire had crested a rise above Redding and, with a northwesterly breeze at its back, crawled downhill toward town.

Knapp was finishing up for the day when his friend Talitha Derksen, a wildlife biologist with a daughter close in age to Knapp’s own, sent a text saying that her neighborhood might have to be evacuated. One of the agencies tasked with that judgment call, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection—aka CalFire—is one of the world’s largest and most effective wildland firefighting organizations. CalFire bases evacuation recommendations on predictions of where, and how quickly, a flame front will move next. That day, the fire appeared likely to reach the floor of the Sacramento Valley at a subdivision called Land Park, about a mile northwest of Derksen’s house.

Knapp and the others changed plans: They’d meet at Derksen’s, order pizza, and help her get ready to leave in case it came to that. Knapp stopped at his house to grab fireproof Nomex clothing. As he headed to Derksen’s, he considered dropping by the office again to pick up his hard hat and emergency fire shelter—a sort of fire-resistant pup tent—but decided he was unlikely to need them.

Snip... That is the first 4 paragraphs, See link above for the rest.