History is Awesome!

Happy birthday, carbonel!

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Can a society exist without laws?

( Read more... )

I took pictures of the seeds that I gathered at the Charleston Food Forest (Part 1, Part 2) and the Coles County Community Garden.

( Read more... )

These photos of the Coles County Community Garden came from October 9, 2025. Begin the trip with Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side and Charleston Food Forest Part 2 Left Side. Continue with Seeds.

( Walk with me ... )

This poem came out of the October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It also fills the "wizards" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem belongs to the series Gloryroad Crossing.

( Read more... )

Today is partly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/10/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/10/25 -- I did a more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/10/25 -- I loaded the new construction staple gun and tested it. This thing works great with very little pressure against a surface to get the staples in. :D The only drawback is that, like most tools, it is sized for a man's large hand and is awkward for me to use with my small hands.

EDIT 10/10/25 -- I got the wire mesh cut, but I clearly don't have the time or energy to finish the whole project today. Still, progress.

EDIT 10/10/25 -- I put damp sand in the bag of groundnuts to keep them from drying out.

EDIT 10/10/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I watered the telephone pole garden and savanna seedlings, irises, new picnic table, and septic garden.

As it is almost suppertime, I am done for the night.

Are we entirely surprised: A woman’s place was not in the home: New book challenges assumptions about women’s work in early modern history:

Far from being the unpaid homemakers and housewives of traditional historical record, women contributed to all the most important areas of the economy, such as agriculture, commerce, and care.
More than half of the work done by women in the period between the 16th and 18th centuries took place outside of the home, and around half of all housework and three-quarters of care work was conducted professionally for other households.

***

I posted this in a comment over at agonyaunt apropos of the woman who thinks her husband is too laid back (she sounds too tightly wound): ‘Rawdogging’ marathons: has gen Z discovered the secret to reclaiming our focus?:

Specifically, it means sitting still and staring into space for an extended period. Most importantly, without your phone.... It sounds as if the TikTok generation has somehow invented meditation. That’s one criticism levelled at rawdogging, but young people are battling monumental levels of distraction these days: while older generations had to learn to tolerate boredom, they must learn to cultivate it.

Further on modern meditation practices, this suggests that they've become horribly detached from their place in a wider context of spiritual and societal practice: 'When meditation becomes primarily about managing your own internal state'.

Back in the day late 70s/beginning of the 80s I encountered a person or two for whom meditation was just that, a dive into an escape from all the pressing troubles of their existing life (rather than dealing with those).

***

Rather different from the early modern images of witchcraft and witches that the popular mind tries to impose on The Middle Ages: Medieval witch stories, and a literary grandmother for the Wife of Bath.

***

Country diary: The unlikely success of wildlife in lead country: 'Bonsall, Derbyshire: It was, in fact, the poison in the ground that prevented this patch from becoming cattle country – then nature took care of itself'

***

This is fascinating: Remembering Quintard Taylor: Historian of the Black West and beyond

***

Poisoning Crimes and the ‘Mushroom Murderer’: Patterns and Precedents (Cassie Watson is one of the authors)

The fact that poisoning may not initially be suspected is yet another unique feature of this method of killing, and so proof of a criminal offence has often rested upon circumstantial evidence. The nineteenth-century development of forensic toxicology brought more cases to light and led to more convictions, but reliable toxicological and pathological evidence concerning the cause of illness and death is not the first but the second stage in a successful prosecution. There must be some formal suspicion raised first, to lead to a medico-legal investigation. Criminals might try to evade prosecution through claims of accidental poisoning, or may not be detected at all if symptoms are misattributed to other conditions.

Continuing from Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side, these photos show the remainder of the right side and the left side. Continue with the Coles County Community Garden and Seeds.

( Walk with me ... )

We visited the Charleston Food Forest on Thursday, October 9.  These pictures are from the front and right side. Continue with Part 2: Left Side, the Coles County Community Garden, and Seeds.

( Walk with me ... )

Happy birthday, busarewski and hano!

An LLM can be poisoned with only 250 malicious training documents!

This is fascinating. Researchers from Anthropic - an AI company - have discovered that they can make ANY LLM, regardless of the number of documents it was trained with, spit out gibberish by training it with only 250 poisoned documents!

And all it takes is the keyword SUDO.

Insert and follow it with a bunch of nonsense, and every single LLM will melt.


Now go drop "Sudo" as the name of a character, place, etc. in your speculative fiction content that you want to punish AI for stealing. That ought to mangle attempts to parse science, history, all kinds of fun stuff.

Today's theme is Jazz.  Amusingly this includes both music and a character in Transformers.

( Read more... )

Today we went to the Charleston Food Forest and Coles County Community Garden, along with other errands.  See photos.

( Read more... )

This poem came out of the October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from rhodielady_47 and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "talking dog" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem belongs to the Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia series. It follows "The Unretired Witch" so read that first for best results.

( Read more... )

This poem came out of the October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by janetmiles. It also fills the "witches" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem belongs to the Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia series. Its sequel is "The Disappointing Daughter."

( Read more... )

janetmiles has sponsored "The Unretired Witch" and "The Disappointing Daughter." I'll get these posted as soon as I can.

Today is mostly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/9/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/9/25 -- I spent a total of 1 1/2 to 2 hours gathering seeds at the Charleston Food Forest and Coles County Community Garden.  I am sooo tired, but I got a great haul. \o/

EDIT 10/9/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

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