Discussion of All Things Political

Science Newsfrom research organizations

Scientists discover vast hidden structure beneath Antarctica’s ice.

A giant fan-shaped network of hidden basins has been discovered beneath East Antarctica, revealing that several well-known subglacial features are actually part of one massive geological structure. The finding sheds new light on Antarctica’s ancient tectonic history and could help scientists better understand how the ice sheet behaves today.

A New York Cemetery Was Hiding Over 5 Million Burrowing Bees, One of the World’s Largest Concentrations

At roughly 5.5 million, a colony of ground-nesting bees that scientists discovered under a New York cemetery may be one of the largest bee aggregations ever documented.

Subsequent research showed that the bees have likely lived there for more than 100 years, thriving in the cemetery’s undisturbed sandy soil—an incredible discovery.

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This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...


* Commented on Just One Thing (03 June 2026) in awesomeers.

* Commented on TV TUESDAY: TV PLUS in tv_talk.

* Commented on Bees and Silver Slides in everykindofcraft.

* Commented on just create - vote edition in justcreate.

WHAT I MISS ABOUT THE EARLY (1996-2000) WORLD WIDE WEB

The Internet was dominated by kind of counter-cultural people

Then the mundanes showed up, and it began to suck -- much like what happened to fandom.

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Today is mostly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches. Red-winged blackbirds are singing overhead.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a male cardinal at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I watered plants in the house yard.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I watered plants in the new picnic table garden.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I watered more plants in the house yard.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- We went out skywatching shortly after sunset and spotted 3 bats flying around the yard. :D Yay bats!

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Today is mostly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
 
I've seen a grackle at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.
 
EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I watered plants in the house yard.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I watered the new picnic table garden.

I walked around the yard a bit.  The purple penstemon from last year is blooming in the wildflower garden with clusters of little white trumpets.  :D

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. I am done writing!


Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Fun with Language." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for linguists, translators, interpreters, historians, diplomats, refugees, explorers, partners, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other people who get into interesting linguistic situations, translating, interpreting, reading, researching, revising theories, conversing, traveling, inventing languages, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, asking for help and getting it, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, libraries, laboratories, meeting rooms, ruins, liminal zones, trading posts, port cities, schools, churches, supervillain lairs, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where languages mix, alphabets, pictograms and other symbols, lost languages, ancient tomes, mysterious texts, misnomers and mistranslations, recordings, the record that breaks the record player, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, intercultural entanglements, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

If you speak a language other than English and know untranslatable words from it, by all means share. Some other resources you might find helpful:

20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words From Around the World

45 Beautiful Untranslatable Words That Describe Exactly How You’re Feeling

203 Most Beautiful Untranslatable Words [The Ultimate List: A-Z]

Beautiful Untranslatable Words From Around The World

Eunoia website


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Hazbin Hotel Fest Bingo Card 6-1-26

Pride Fest Bingo Card 6-1-26


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Bear Tunnels features numerous tribal languages.

Clay of Life is Jewish fantasy with occasional bits of Hebrew or Yiddish.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse spans a variety of languages, including a split before Before and After English.

Eloquent Souls presents a setting where soulmarks are common, but they don't always appear in the same language.

Fiorenza the Wisewoman is Italian fantasy with bits of Italian.

Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania, with languages including Dacian, English, French, Hungarian, Romanian, and Latin.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with a few really exotic characters, set in Sweden with occasional tidbits from other languages.

Not Quite Kansas includes demonic and angelic writing.

Peculiar Obligations features a mix of Quakers, pirates, and other people speaking diverse languages.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. It spans a wide range of languages including Arabic, Dhivehi, English, Esperanto, French, and several tribal ones.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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I have made bingo down the B and O columns of my 5-1-26 card for the Greek Myth Fest Bingo.  I also made 4 extra fills.  I had this stuff done a week ago, just haven't had time to post about it, and I don't have the time to list them all.

We made it to the end of May! \o/ If you have completed some of your short-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We've also passed through of spring. If you're doing seasonal goals, hopefully you have finished the spring one(s), so you can look ahead to the summer batch.

I'm continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 9
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 16
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 23
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In February 28
New Year's Resolutions Check In March 31
New Year's Resolutions Check in April 30

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