I sure love *washes hands* cooking. I'm making really *washes hands* good use of my *washes hands* smoker. Tonight we *washes hands* will eat well *washes hands*. The hubby better be *washes hands* happy with the meal I'm preparing. *washes hands*

In other Michigan news, the state looks set to elect it's first transgender lawmaker. Joanna Whaley won her Democratic primary and will compete in November for a state house seat, beating a primary opponent who tried and failed to disqualify her for not running under her deadname

Somehow, the public has associated clean solar and wind with polluting data centers. That’s bad news

Data Centers are Radicalizing People Against Clean Energy

The data center backlash has dominated the American political landscape this year, and is quickly rising to become the defining environmental and land-use issue of the 2020s.

headwatersblog.substack.com

Some police departments have PR units larger than their city's local newsrooms

Josh Sternberg@joshsternberg.com · 2d ago

There are 7 PR people for every journalist in the US. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

The conventional NUMTOT narrative also overlooks the truth nvke that many of the private streetcar and train companies were pretty shitty real estate speculators that did not run very good service - from a certain view, it was public roads against the private big-business railroads!

Leon English@leonenglish.bsky.social · 2d ago

I think cars suck and have transformed our society in ways that are obviously bad, particularly with the benefit of hindsight, but 100 years ago people were super excited about having their own car and being able to drive around on their own terms, and we shaped our society around those preferences.

The change in how summer days are experienced will be a fascinating case study in how climate adaptation extends to the tempos of daily life as well. Kids will play in the evening, yard work will occur at sunrise. As the climate changes, the cultural institutions we know will change with it.

Summer Isn’t Summer Anymore

The dog days are an invitation to remember freedom and reclaim it.

substack.com

Act 1, Act 2

Some people are cut out for city life, and others thrive in the countryside. I don't believe in demonizing either lifestyle. All geographies should be given the tools they need to thrive economically, socially, and culturally.

The "rural" for a lot of "rural" white voters is aesthetic. It's a lifestyle choice, not their livelihood. So you can't win them with policies that help rural areas. Their interest in "rural issues" begins & ends with the view from their porch & property values.

Apparently scientists are still identifying new monkeys!! Look at this lil guy

The Mizzou Center for Agroforestry just launched a program to breed melons adapted to grow under the shade of tree crops, and I can't get over how cute these promotional photos are

My fiancé got us a cheese advent calendar where we opened a new cheese every day. It was the most magic I've had around the holiday season since I was 12

Tom & Lorenzo@tomandlorenzo.bsky.social · last wk.

People on Bluesky sigh and talk about The Discourse as if it were something required of them instead of something they opt to partake in, day in and day out. You really don't have to. Post about your favorite cheese

I got so flustered by Kiss The Ground (2020) that I never even did a 30-tweet thread about it on the old site

Ethan Kocak@ethankocak.com · last wk.

I have a personal belief that the more a person is a nerd for something: dinosaurs, The Odyssey, etc, the less likely they are to enjoy a popular entertainment version of that thing.

Georgia's watermelon association is abandoning their annual coronation of an industry queen in favor of a new "brand ambassador" position. A curious shift from "gowns and tiaras" to "polos and blazers" with implications for gender aesthetics and representation in rural areas

End of the Melon Monarchy?

Georgia’s “watermelon brand ambassador” is a queen in all but name.

ambrook.com

Is how we farm degrading the nutritional content of our food? I investigate the science to see.

Soil Quality and Human Nutrition: It's Complicated

A growing anxiety among our nation’s eaters centers on the decline of nutrient density in various foods.

open.substack.com

Yesterday I visited a chicken-hazelnut agroforestry system. One of the issues with “free range” chickens is that the birds don't feel safe in open pasture, as they evolved to hide from sky-dwelling predators. The cover provided by shrubby hazelnuts allows them a sense of safety.

Adaptive reuse in the rural Heartland Grain elevator -> fireworks store

Data center NIMBYs have a point, since projects tend to strain local grids and electrical bills Development laws should advance addative projects (housing, transmission lines) and restrict negative projects

Spencer: Data center criticism is valid, but St. Louis shouldn’t be ‘NIMBY city’

Mayor Cara Spencer said that data center opponents have valid concerns about the developments, but that newly proposed zoning rules would help protect St. Louisans while weighing economic growth.

stlpr.org

My hometown fair was last week. One of the hog exhibitiors’, a 10 year old showing their first pig, father had just been diagnosed with an acute illness weeks before. At the livestock auction, the community rallied to put together a pot and buy her pig.

So this means all those clinics that suspended service in fear of retaliation will begin moving heaven and Earth to restore critical care, right?

Trump's HHS shelves threat to withhold Medicare and Medicaid funding over trans care

NPR has learned that the Department of Health and Human Services will not be pushing its most aggressive attempt to end gender-affirming care for youth nationally.

npr.org

Looks like my personal commitment to never eating iceberg lettuce has once again been vindicated

I couldn't care less about TB's share price, my guy. What I DO care about is a serious problem in public health. Nobody wants to cooperate with authorities to find where outbreaks came from! Because the person/company/country that's the most helpful & finds the problem? ALWAYS GETS BLAMED FOR IT.

Free-quent Flyer@freequentflyer.bsky.social · 3w ago

Since there's an ongoing all-of-society effort to protect Taco Bell's share price I am forced to ask, "REALLY GOOD" relative to what or whom? Which fast good company are you pretending to shame about their lack of product tracing acumen?

Perennial cover crops might sound crazy. But, if we're smart about species physiology, could represent an important avenue to perennialize the land.

Cover Cropping with Perennials

A promising approach to perennializing our lands

open.substack.com

When showing The Little Rascals movie in Britian, the character Alfalfa has to be renamed to Lucerne. The screenwriters unfortunately didn't go for my suggestion that the we just name him Medicago sativa and show the same movie in both countries!

I really hope this outbreak doesn't last long enough for me to be able to spell cyclosporiasis correctly on the first try

What in the Zillow is going on here

Man, nobody could build a shithouse like the WPA.

“Crop-based biofuels were not effective at reducing emissions once the wider effects on land use were taken into account… When you take food out of the global food market, you have to replace it elsewhere… Allowing crop-based fuels into aviation would be a huge step backwards”

UK ministers changed stance on biofuels after officials’ US lobbying tour

Revelation raises concerns that US commercial pressure could weaken Britain’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions

ft.com

The paper has long been the primary medium of scientific discourse. But what formats might emerge to replace it? In this post, I explore how community notes, interactive media, and adversarial collaborations could serve as the next evolution of scholarly discussion.

The Next Generation of Scientific Dialogue

What formats will we see after the death of the paper?

headwatersblog.substack.com

On the one hand, I love this idea of including a playlist in a book. On the other hand, I just know if it becomes popular it'll immediately be used by media conglomerates for cross-promotion and not actually be crafted by the author.