redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
[personal profile] siderea points out that you probably have >a href="https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1882720.html">"at least one underlying condition" for which the covid vaccine is (still) recommended by the US government, because most people do: the list includes being overweight, high blood pressure, depression, former smokers, and "physical inactivity." She speculates that the list may have been drafted to be as inclusive as possible, by someone who didn't have the authority to say "just give it to everyone."

The current official announcements, widely echoed, sounds as though most people can't get the vaccine, because the FDA is now being run by anti-vaxxers. That is almost certainly not an accident: if you think you can't have the vaccine, you won't ask for it.

Siderea also points out that even if you aren't on that list, a doctor can prescribe this, or almost any approved medication, to anyone they think it's appropriate for. In other contexts, this is what they mean by "off-label" use of a drug.

Note, however, that this may affect whether you have to pay for the vaccine yourself, rather than it being covered by insurance.

It has been pointed out elsewhere that you can always lie to them: nobody has a complete list of former smokers, for example.

Day 1695: "Pass some gun laws."

Sep. 11th, 2025 10:36 am
[syndicated profile] wtfjht_feed

Posted by Matt Kiser

Day 1695

Today in one sentence: Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA and a central MAGA organizer who built a conservative student network tied to spreading false claims the 2020 election was stolen, organizing for Jan. 6, Christian nationalism, and anti-LGBTQ+ culture wars, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University; Trump, without evidence, blamed “radical left political violence” for Charlie Kirk’s killing, saying liberal rhetoric was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today,” and vowed to target “the organizations that fund it and support it"; “THIS IS WAR”: Right-wing figures used Charlie Kirk’s killing to call for retribution against the left, even before authorities named a suspect or motive; Speaker Mike Johnson led a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk on the House floor that collapsed into a shouting match between Republicans and Democrats; a teenage student opened fire at Evergreen High School on Wednesday, shooting two classmates before shooting himself and later dying at the hospital; a federal judge blocked Trump from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook; consumer prices rose 2.9% in August from a year earlier, up from 2.7% in July; and 42% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, with 56% disapproving.


1/ Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA and a central MAGA organizer who built a conservative student network tied to spreading false claims the 2020 election was stolen, organizing for Jan. 6, Christian nationalism, and anti-LGBTQ+ culture wars, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University. He was hit in the neck mid-sentence while answering a question about transgender politics and mass shootings. Officials said they had “good video footage” of the suspect and recovered a “high-powered bolt-action rifle,” but the “college-age” gunman remains at large. Kirk used his podcast, campus events, and media platforms to push conspiracy theories, tell women to abandon careers for the home, and claim LGBTQ+ rights would “endanger children.” He leaves behind a wife and two young children. It was the 46th school shooting of 2025, so far. (Desert News / New York Times / The Guardian / Axios / Politico / NPR / Washington Post / NBC News / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Trump, without evidence, blamed “radical left political violence” for Charlie Kirk’s killing, saying liberal rhetoric was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today,” and vowed to target “the organizations that fund it and support it.” He cited attacks on Republicans, including his own 2024 assassination attempt and the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, but omitted recent political violence against Democrats: the June killing of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband; the separate June shooting of another Democratic state lawmaker and his wife by a man carrying a hit list of 45 elected Democrats; the 2022 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi; the 2021 pipe bombs mailed to Democrats by a Trump supporter; the 2025 Molotov cocktails thrown into Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home; and the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. He also left out the Jan. 6 threats to Mike Pence by pro-Trump rioters who beat police officers while trying to overturn the election. Nevertheless, Trump ordered flags to half-staff, promised a posthumous Medal of Freedom ceremony with “a very big crowd,” and called him “the Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk.” (The Guardian / New York Times / NPR / NBC News / Associated Press / New York Times / Axios / NBC News / Politico)

3/ “THIS IS WAR”: Right-wing figures used Charlie Kirk’s killing to call for retribution against the left, even before authorities named a suspect or motive. Elon Musk called the left “the party of murder,” Laura Loomer warned that “More people will be murdered if the Left isn’t crushed with the power of the state,” Federalist co-founder Sean Davis demanded “extermination of the entire anarcho-terrorist network,” and Stewart Rhodes – the Oath Keepers founder convicted of seditious conspiracy for Jan. 6 before Trump commuted his sentence – vowed to rebuild the group and urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. That law allows presidents to deploy the military to suppress large-scale rebellions, which doesn’t apply to an isolated shooting like Kirk’s. (Mother Jones / Wired / Politico / New York Times / Vox / Salon / Reuters / Axios / Washington Post)

4/ Speaker Mike Johnson led a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk on the House floor that collapsed into a shouting match between Republicans and Democrats. Rep. Lauren Boebert said, “Silent prayers get silent results,” prompting Democrats to shout about a school shooting in Colorado. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna yelled at Democrats, “You all caused this,” while a Democrat replied, “Pass some gun laws!” Johnson, meanwhile, urged calm, saying, “we can settle disagreements and disputes in a civil manner.” (New York Times / Politico / Axios / Slate / Politico)

5/ A teenage student opened fire at Evergreen High School on Wednesday, shooting two classmates before shooting himself and later dying at the hospital, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said. All three students were taken to St. Anthony Hospital, where one victim remained in critical condition, another was stable, and the suspect was pronounced dead. It was the 47th school shooting of 2025, so far. (Denver Post / ABC News / CBS News / Associated Press / CNN / New York Times / Axios)

6/ A federal judge blocked Trump from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, allowing her to remain on the board and participate in the Sept. 16–17 meeting. Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the Federal Reserve Act’s “for cause” standard covers only a governor’s “behavior in office,” not alleged conduct before joining the Fed, adding that “the public interest in Federal Reserve independence weighs in favor of Cook’s reinstatement.” (ABC News / NBC News / Politico / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / New York Times)

7/ Consumer prices rose 2.9% in August from a year earlier, up from 2.7% in July, the Labor Department reported. Prices increased 0.4% over the month, with groceries up 0.6%, gasoline up 1.9%, and shelter up 0.4%. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3% on the month and 3.1% over the year. (Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / CNN / NBC News / New York Times / NPR / Axios / CBS News)

  • Youth unemployment hit 10.5% in August, the highest since 2016 outside the pandemic. Economists blamed Trump’s tariffs, high interest rates, and AI replacing entry-level jobs, warning of “a lost generation” of young workers. A New York Fed survey found Americans put their odds of finding a new job at just 45% – the lowest on record. (Axios)

poll/ 42% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, with 56% disapproving. Trump’s approval on the economy was lower at 36%, compared to 43% on crime and 42% on immigration. (Reuters)

⏭️ Notably Next: Congress has 19 days to pass a funding measure to prevent a government shutdown; and the 2026 midterms are in 418 days.


✏️ Notables.

  1. Democrats added one more seat in the House after a Virginia special election, bringing the partisan breakdown in the House to 219 Republicans to 213 Democrats. There are three vacant seats, which means Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose two Republicans in any party-line vote. (CNN)

  2. Senate Republicans voted down a Democratic measure to force the Justice Department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Republicans tabled the effort in a 51-49 vote, with Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Josh Hawley —joining with Democrats. (Wall Street Journal / New York Times)

  3. House Republicans passed its $892.6 billion defense policy bill by a vote of 231 to 196, largely along party lines. (Politico)



Support today’s essential newsletter and resist the daily shock and awe: Become a member

Subscribe: Get the Daily Update in your inbox for free

Geese

Sep. 11th, 2025 07:53 pm
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

I can hear lots of geese honking overhead. I'm so jealous of them getting to warmer and brighter places for the next six months.

S.W.A.T.: Fan Fiction: HQ Fun

Sep. 11th, 2025 02:01 pm
darkjediqueen: (Default)
[personal profile] darkjediqueen posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: HQ Fun
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Explicit Sex
Fandom: S.W.A.T.
Relationships: Molly Hicks/Donovan Rocker
Tags: Established Relationship, Roleplay
Summary: Donny really loved Molly and the fun they have.
Word Count: 2,662

HQ Fun )

pronker: barnabas and angelique vibing (Default)
[personal profile] pronker posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Dark Shadows

Pairings/Characters: Roger Collins, CC Female, Which Would Give Away Too Much If Named

Rating: G

Length: 2,394 words

Creator Links: AO3 Profile

Theme: Food & Cooking

Summary: Roger meets a friend for dinner who shares his discomfort regarding marriages.

Reccer's Notes: Roger remains one of my favorite Dark Shadows characters, acted superbly by Louis Edmonds, a veteran of stage costume dramas. He always wears period clothing with impeccable insouciance despite figure-hugging trousers, wing collars, and Victorian handlebar moustaches. In this fic, we see how much food presents an opportunity for revealing, soul searching reflections with a sympathetic friend, in fact so much that they don't even eat until the last paragraph or so. The universality of sharing food provides a letting down of the hair, so to speak, voluminous in his friend's case and not-so-much in his. There's an absolutely delightful twist at fic's end. Also, the AO3 profile mentions Author's website, WickerManStudios which contains stories along with more personal content.

Fanwork Links: Mysterious Circumstances

Thursday

Sep. 11th, 2025 08:48 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Holy moly. I ordered a pillow from Amazon this morning at 5:15 am. It is now 9 am and they just delivered it. As I was getting to sleep last night, I thought, hmmmm it would be nice to have another pillow just like this one. It's a very flat pillow that I really like and doubling up might be nice once in a while. I remembered this when I got up for volleyball and figured I'd just hit 'buy again' on my phone while I was thinking about it. It said delivery between 3 pm and 7. Cool. BUT they beat that by a lotta hours. Sadly, it wasn't a locker delivery so I have to either go down between 1 and 2 to pick it up or wait for delivery and hope this isn't a day that they skip.

The going down would be no problem EXCEPT, I told Bonny, I'd go with her to her first car wash. She always gets it done at the Lexus dealership but doesn't want to go that far this time so wants to try out one of our local car washes. I told her I'd show her how the poor people do it. hahahahahaha And she also wants to go to Costco and she also wants to stop at the grocery. And then probably lunch. We may not even get home til well after 2. No big deal.

I got a letter from my health insurance agent reminding me to check on my coverage changes. The details won't be available until Oct. 15 but my insurance (UHC) has some preliminary stuff available. Their website is really spectacular (especially compared to Humana). I was easily able to find out that last year (well, this year so far), I have spent $109.32 on medical stuff. Not too shabby considering. The government (medicare) pays for my insurance premiums and UHC pays for the rest, except co pays. They even pay for my over the counter drugs. Their preliminary 2026 stuff says that my co pays will go up from $30 to $40. I can live with that. Here's hoping for another year of this.

Hazel stopped in last night. She's crumbling. They called her yesterday at 7 to say John was having trouble breathing. He's now on oxygen. But, yesterday afternoon, she was there and everything stopped. 'It was nothing but quiet and I couldn't see him breathing at all.' She waited a bit to be sure and then went to get the nurse. When they got back to his room, he was awake again. This really shook her up. She says they are both so ready for this all to be over. She sat here last night for about 20 minutes and told me that story again as if she had just sat down. She often repeats herself but I've never heard her do it within 15 minutes. I just hope he doesn't linger on forever.

I have some data collecting I want to do before I head out with Bonny but before that, I feel like I should get dressed so I think I'll do that now.

PXL_20250911_013241417
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A woodcarver's foster daughter sets out to free a maiden from a magical tower prison, just the sort of thing that always works out exactly according to plan, without unforeseen geopolitical complications.

SideQuested by K B Spangler & Ale Presser

SGA: Battle Potato by fiercelydreamed

Sep. 11th, 2025 11:09 pm
mific: (Teyla serious)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: Gen. Teyla Emmagan & Rodney McKay & John Sheppard & Ronon Dex
Rating: G
Length: 7229
Content Notes: No AO3 warnings apply.
Creator Links: fiercelydreamed on AO3, anatsuno on AO3
Themes: Food and cooking, Team as family, Friendship, Hurt/comfort

Summary: The thing was, John had never been good at patient, and Teyla looked like okay was a couple galaxies over from wherever she was now.

Reccer's Notes: A touching hurt/comfort story set after the team rescues Teyla from Michael. Although Teyla and her baby are back in Atlantis, she's slow to recover and remains low and depleted. Rodney has a plan to cheer her up, though, involving food, and he ropes John in to help. It was I think written in the hiatus before the last season so a few minor details have been jossed, but that doesn't matter. This is the best sort of found family story, with them all rallying around to support Teyla. Lovely.

Fanwork Links: Battle Potato, and there's an excellent podfic read by anatsuno.

Summer fic round-up!

Sep. 11th, 2025 11:28 am
tweague: An image of an iron age spearhead with La Tene style decoration (Default)
[personal profile] tweague
Well, September is here, the children are back at school, and it's time for the inevitable DW round-up of Stuff Wot I Have Posted On AO3 This Season ^_^ Summer is normally my slack time, as there's six weeks of looking after children to sap the mental and physical energy, but I did manage to fit in a total breakdown couple of days where the children were at sports camp and I wrote 20k of Ted Scott filth for no readily apparent reason, so that's bumped the total word-count up considerably.

So, on the main Tweague imprint, we have:
World Enough and Time - written for [personal profile] philomytha in the Hurt Comfort Exchange 2025. 12k, rated E, Biggles/von Stalhein to the general prompt of 'medically inadviseable sex pls' 😂 It definitely is that. I had a lot of fun chopping the context down to the bare minimum necessary to support the iddy character interactions and smut.
Human Frailty - written for [personal profile] ysande in HCEx 2025. 9k, rated G, Bertie + Gimlet: the long-foreshadowed follow-up to Water Like A Stone, wherein I give Gimlet a dose of pneumonia and then launch him vaguely in Bertie's direction. Pure self-indulgence.
Adazzle, Dim - 25.6k, rated E, Bertie/Gimlet (usual warnings for mild BDSM apply, please see the tags for details). An absolute beast of an installment in my ongoing Bertie/Gimlet obsession, wherein I send the boys for a nice holiday to Monaco.
A Matter of Taste - 1.3k, rated G, Biggles + others. A small birthday present for [personal profile] gattycat, because her larger birthday present got a bit. Heavy. A quintuple Biggle (5 x 266 words), five times Biggles drags his friends out for curry.

And on the goblin brain imprint (so please read the tags!!), we have:
Anabasis - 5k, rated E, Worrals/Frecks, gratuitous summer smut.
Breathe - 10k, rated E, Bertie/Gimlet, aka the one where Bertie has had a bad week and his coping mechanisms are not very well calibrated.
Regular Fellows - 19.5k, rated E, Mr Hapworth/Mr Monet/Ted Scott. aka It's All [personal profile] rosanicus' Fault. Is this the first Ted Scott fic on the internet??? I am never going to google round enough to find out.

I think that's the lot! Now the holidays are over, so I just need to remember how to write again.

spinning WIP

Sep. 11th, 2025 05:21 am
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
Or: if your goal is threadweight/cobweb, why silk fiber is not quite as profligate an expense as you might think:



The white is mulberry bombyx silk; the tawny stuff was my briefly foraying into eri silk. This is for personal use/enjoyment (needle lace) so it's fine that I'm wandering off like this. This is several hours of admittedly inefficient spinning, since I take frequent breaks so there's a very start-stop nature to it, but because the spin is so fine, this bobbin is...not very full.



This is what I have REMAINING in 2 oz. of mulberry silk combed top (about $25 USD). It exploded out of the package (typical) and also, it barely looks like I've even used any of it. As it stands, I suspect I'm going to be spinning this combed top for the next 30,000 years. :)

That said, silk is my absolute favorite to spin and I prefer spinning threadweight, so this is not a hardship.
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I had a chiropractic appointment and a pedicure this morning. I had no plans to shop, but Pip needed shoe laces for his work shoes and since I wasn’t certain we had any at home (he tells me this when I’m dropping Grant off, so I wasn’t able to check before leaving the house), I wanted to pick up a pair just in case.

So I ended up hitting Walmart while I was downtown (and picked up a few other things while I was there) and I got in a walk around the park. I stopped at the farm stand and at the veterinarian (for Ti’s special dog food) on the way home. Later in the afternoon, on my way home from mom’s, I checked at Sunnycrest and they finally have the beef sticks Pip likes back in stock!

I dried and folded mom’s load from yesterday, hand-washed dishes, cleaned off another portion of counter, swept the bathroom, went on several walks with Pip and the dogs, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and cut up said chicken for said meals, and scooped kitty litter.

Once again, I read fanfic.

Temps started out at 42.3(F) and reached 72.3. It felt hotter, but it was sunny and lovely.


Mom Update:

Mom was feeling a little meh today. more back here )
[syndicated profile] improbableresearch_feed

Posted by Marc Abrahams

A human can estimate how much a particular pig weighs by simply looking at the pig. The accuracy of that prediction is said to improve if the human uses augmented reality glasses of the type described in this study: “Pig Weight Prediction System Using RGB‑D Sensor and AR Glasses: Analysis Method with Free Camera Capture […]

(no subject)

Sep. 11th, 2025 09:40 am
oursin: Brush the Wandering Hedgehog by the fire (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] daegaer and [personal profile] syderia!

and I said to myself, sit down

Sep. 11th, 2025 04:47 pm
nnozomi: (Default)
[personal profile] nnozomi
To my relief, the stray cats didn’t forget me over my summer elsewhere; my morning run is now reliably interrupted by a belly-patting session with Miké-chan in the park, and one of the green-eyed cats near the nighttime junior high came immediately over to say hi when I went past, winding in and out of the fence and bonking its forehead into my hand.

How does everybody save (non-work-related) files as a rule? As with so many things I am old-school and inefficient; at the end of the month, the latest version of everything I want to save goes onto a couple of USBs, stored in different places. If it’s the middle of the month and I want to be sure to save something, I email it to myself. I never use GoogleDocs etc., everything is on my hard drive + memory sticks.

Work: Someone in a translation I was editing had come up with “adversary management,” which confused the hell out of me until I realized the intended meaning was “adversity management.” Presumably “adversary management” is a little more active…

I found a decent, simple recipe for limeade and have made it twice with very good results. Actually the first time, I couldn’t find limes in the supermarket and had to make sudachi-ade instead; even more of a pain to squeeze (it takes three or four sudachi to make up one lime), but just as good taste-wise. Lovely tart pale-green summer drink, and the kitchen smells deliciously limey as a bonus.

My mom reminded me of a piece of graffiti seen years and years ago which became a family joke: “I love grils. / [Different handwriting] You mean girls. / [Different handwriting again] Hey, what about us grils?”

Courtesy of the farmboys as usual, I learned the Chinese word for post-its (便利贴, convenient stickers) and duct tape (大力胶, really strong tape). Also 心急吃不了热豆腐, you can’t eat hot tofu when you’re fretting, roughly equivalent to “hold your horses, calm down.”
Earlier this year the actor Zhang Zixian was among the farmboys’ visitors; he’s the one whose nuanced performance as Wang Shi’an in The Rebel absolutely blew me away, and it was mind-blowing in another way to see him out of character: cheerful, comic, laid-back, with a bit of a stammer, obviously very likeable but coming off nothing like either poor screwed-up evil Wang Shi’an or one of the most gifted actors in the business, for all that’s what he is. Performers are something else.

Speaking of performance, Y and I went to Takarazuka a couple of weeks ago because they were reviving their production of Guys and Dolls, which has been one of my favorite musicals all my life. It was very disappointing on one front: the Japanese book and lyrics, dating from the 1980s, are limp and awkward and miss the point entirely more often than not, an extra shame because the original English ones are so sharp. (I know it’s a tall order to turn good English lyrics into good Japanese lyrics which are also singable and mean the same thing, but it has been done! The Japanese lyrics for the latter-day Gershwin musical Crazy For You are a masterpiece.) Also the audience was very subdued, hardly rippling with laughter even at the punchlines that survived into Japanese (“Tell him I never want to speak to him again! And tell him to call me here”), although Y figured this was just a cultural thing. Still, the dancing was very good (including the traditional Takarazuka Grand Staircase at the end), and the singing was a lot of fun: you get used very fast to the “men,” ie women playing otokoyaku, singing contralto instead of tenor/bass, and the second act in particular was riveting. This is from a much earlier production, but the staging doesn’t ever seem to change, and it gives you a good idea of what the otokoyaku sound like (Shibuki Jun as Sky Masterson singing Luck Be A Lady). Parenthetically, it amuses me that Takarazuka is obviously much stricter about policing YouTube than about B站. Also, we killed some time wandering through the theater shop looking at the vast quantity of performer headshots etc., reflecting that the gorgeously androgynous otokoyaku overlap interestingly with the occasional gorgeous androgyny of male C-pop (and J-pop and K-pop) singers, approaching from the opposite side as it were. I imagine there have already been papers written about this as a cultural/sexual/sociological phenomenon.

Music: I’ve probably posted it before, but Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 devolves (or rather sublimates) into jazz in the middle of the second movement, which I can never resist. I’ve linked it with a timestamp here (Mitsuko Uchida’s recording, with notes on YT by the astute Ashish Xiangyi Kumar), but listen to the whole thing if you have a chance.
Also, Jiang Dunhao song of the post (because I can): his own 铁皮火车不停开, sung live sometime last year, which I find very comforting.

In purely personal stuff, I’m depressed and annoyed with myself for taking no steps AT ALL toward ever getting anything I’ve written or translated published, in spite of helpful suggestions on all sides. I’m struggling with the pessimistic feeling that it’s all pointless: I’m terrible at promoting myself (either to agents/publishers or to would-be readers), I’m probably not writing anything that would suit the publishing zeitgeist, I don’t have connections who would do the promoting for me and nobody will take on a writer cold at this point in time, I don’t know the ins and outs of the process of getting translation rights etc., I can’t bring myself to try to get a novel published through what now seems to be the typical route of short stories*, and so on and so forth. Obviously the solution is to get off my ass and at least TRY, and if I fail disastrously in terms of original writing, then to look into self-publishing, but it’s very hard to get rid of the WHY BOTHER YOU WILL FAIL (and probably poison the waters by doing it wrong the first time around) dark cloud.
*Short stories. I think I’ve said so before, but my mind just seems to work in novel lengths? I never can think of anything I want to write as a short story. I have written lots of short story-length fics, but by virtue of being fanfic they’re all kind of…within novel-length [or drama-length, you know, long-form] continuities, not completely freestanding. I don’t know. Ideas for doing something to deal with this?

Photos: Very few, because it’s been too damn hot and humid to be motivated to photograph anything. My limeade and some flowers and the balcony with sudare at sunset, Koron-chan taking her ease, and also WARNING for people who don’t like creepy-crawlies, a very elegant centipede. I thought it was a lot like Oliver Melendy’s encounter …something which looked like a tiny, elaborate trolley car. It was perched on a leaf, standing firmly on ten blunt little round feet that could have been wheels… The whole creature was a rich cinnamon brown color, and along each of its velvety sides was arranged an ornamental row of creamy scrolls., but if you are more Mona than Oliver, maybe don’t click.



Be safe and well.

Just One Thing (11 September 2025)

Sep. 11th, 2025 07:56 am
nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila posting in [community profile] awesomeers
It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

Community Thursday

Sep. 11th, 2025 06:53 am
vriddy: Washing Machine Hero Wash (Wash)
[personal profile] vriddy
Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted and commented on [community profile] bnha_fans.

Commented on [community profile] addme.

Commented on [community profile] common_nature.

Commented on [community profile] anime_manga.
china_shop: Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan crouched down, stroking a black cat, on a gree background. (Guardian - meet cute)
[personal profile] china_shop posting in [community profile] sid_guardian
Poll #33601 Caught out
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11


In episode 1, when Zhao Yunlan first spots Shen Wei, why does he recoil inside, grimacing? (check all that apply)

View Answers

Shen Wei is staring so intensely
4 (36.4%)

Shen Wei looks extraordinarily respectable
2 (18.2%)

Shen Wei looks like the kind of person who might judge one harshly
4 (36.4%)

Zhao Yunlan was dangling an employee out the window
9 (81.8%)

Zhao Yunlan dropped an employee out the window
9 (81.8%)

Zhao Yunlan has issues with authority figures
2 (18.2%)

the SID is supposed to be a covert organisation, and they're causing a scene
6 (54.5%)

other
2 (18.2%)

Shen Wei has a landline in his apartment. What is his policy with regard to phone phishing?

View Answers

he never answers; he has the Dixing power of call screening
0 (0.0%)

smiting the phishers through the phonelines, for the public good
0 (0.0%)

polite bewilderment
2 (18.2%)

fake polite bewilderment and amenability, to the point where *they* hang up on *him*
6 (54.5%)

gently but inexorably bringing the conversation around to the subject of bears
7 (63.6%)

other
1 (9.1%)

dreamy: (bittersweet)
[personal profile] dreamy
long story short, I am now living in my home state once again, no longer living with my mother, and working from home.

I don't feel like warning anyone about anything, and I don't expect anyone to read or respond anyway, so just let me get my thoughts out. they won't be well written or likely all that coherent but i'm in kind of a numbed out state right now and i'm pretty sleepy but I have a lot to cover.

Read more... )

right, so that was extremely long. it's full of sad and bad things. but also good things. yay. now I'm so sleepy.

all I have to say otherwise is that i've been working on some cool novel ideas, i've been playing the Sims 4 a lot lately, and i've been watching the new interview with the vampire TV series and it's really good! I also saw Sinners twice this summer - FANTASTIC movie! highly recommend. if you haven't seen it, watch it immediately and go in blind. no trailers, no spoilers. it's worth it.

i've gotten rid of most of my online accounts and only occasionally chat in a discord group maintained by some friends. i've given up on trying to make friends online. but oh well, if you read this and want to say hi, please do.

ok. bye.

The Iliad: Fanfic: Riddled

Sep. 10th, 2025 11:20 pm
drabblewriter: (Epic - Troy Saga)
[personal profile] drabblewriter posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: Riddled
Fandom: The Iliad
Characters: Apollo, Chryses, Chryseis
Rating: G
Length: 100
Summary: Chryses cries out, and Apollo answers. How can he not when the man is one of his most devoted followers, when Apollo knows what is to lose a child?

Read more... )

Self-satisfaction

Sep. 11th, 2025 12:09 am
mecurtin: face of tuxedo tabby cat Purrcy looking smugly happy (purrcy face)
[personal profile] mecurtin
When Purrcy is very happy to be next to a human he sits upright on his butt like a little guy, spreads his legs, & prepares to lick his belly & otherwise have a good time. He is extremely vulgar & the envy of all human males, I'm informed.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is sitting up like a human with a kind of dopey expressing on his face. Trust me, I've chosen the camera angle carefully.
drabblewriter: (Epic - Troy Saga)
[personal profile] drabblewriter posting in [community profile] 100words
Title: Lucky Shot
Fandom: Greek Myth
Characters/Ship: Apollo, Achilles, Cassandra
Rating: G

Read more... )

Day of frustrations

Sep. 10th, 2025 10:27 pm
silver_chipmunk: (Default)
[personal profile] silver_chipmunk
Got up this morning somewhat after 10:00, had breakfast and coffee. Showered, and washed my hair.

Then I dressed and puttered on the computer and my phone til 2:15 when I left to go get my vaccinations at 3:00. I got to Duane Reade by 2:30 and checked in on my phone and sat down to wait. I thought they might take me early bt they didn't call me.

At 3:00 they took in a walk in and I said I had an appointment for 3:00. The woman said had had to go to the desk and tell them. So I was standing on line when they started talking about smelling smoke. Everyone came out from the pharmacy area and security went in. They were saying it was the middle computer, but the next thing I knew they were saying it was gas and everyone had to leave the store.

I asked what about my vaccination appointment and the woman took my name and said she would call me and I could come in tomorrow as a walk in. The fire department arrived around then.

So I left the store and went and got my face waxed, which I needed. That was fine.

I walked to the bus stop and had just gotten there when my phone rang and it was Duane Reade and they said that the store was reopened and I could come in right then. So I said yes and headed back.

Then it turned out that they were only going to give me the flu shot, because corporate was upholding the ludicrous standards set up by that clown RFK jr. they wouldn't give me the Covid. Despite Governor Hochul's executive order stating that pharmacists could give the Covid vax without a prescription, to anyone.

They said they could only give it to me if I had an underlying issue. So I told them I was prediabetic, which is true except borderline, and they accepted that. I was pretty steamed though.

So I got my shots. No problem. Came home and called [personal profile] mashfanficchick and told zer. We discussed it for awhile.

I went into the bedroom and read Partners in Crime til 6:45 and then I came out and got the computer ready for Teaming the FWiB.

But his end of things got screwed up somehow and it took us over 20 minutes to connect. So we had little time before I got off at 8:00 for Monster of the Week time.

I was hoping that Discord would be better than last week. It wasn't. It was about the same. It was another session zero, setting things up, so I didn't miss any game time, but I still missed an awful lot of what went on.

We ended a bit before 10:00. I got on Roll20 to try and input my character sheet. That was difficult too but eventually I got in, then couldn't figure out the character sheet setup.

I logged out, fed the pets, and had dinner, and here I am.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Got my face waxed.

3. Got the vaccinations finally.

4. May get to see [personal profile] mashfanficchick tomorrow.

5. My gaming group.

6. Good books.
yhlee: a fox with the label FOX YOU! (fox you!)
[personal profile] yhlee
Ex Tenebris: a gothic space opera TTRPG [Kickstarter, already funded!].

Beyond the dark emptiness of space, beyond dreaming, lies the Tenebrium. Only you can unearth its mysteries, defeat the twisted horrors that lurk there, and keep humanity from becoming prey.

In Ex Tenebris, you play a ragtag team of investigators, protecting the Republic of Stars from terrifying supernatural threats. You will face sorcerers and cults, dark technology from lost civilisations and the slobbering terrors lurking in the nightmare realm of the Tenebrium.

Ex Tenebris is a complete TTRPG containing all the rules, setting and scenarios that you need to embark on adventures amongst the stars.

[...]

Ex Tenebris takes inspiration from the grotesque imagery of the Aliens movies, the existential dread of Event Horizon, the mysticism of Dune, the dark gothic setting of Warhammer 40,000, and the weird science/magic fusion of Ninefox Gambit.


- Josh Fox, lead designer & writer
- Becky Annison, writer
- Juan Ochoa, illustrator
- Nathan D. Paoletta, layout and graphic design
- Andriy Lukin, logo design
- Jog Brogzin, cartographer
- Chirag Asnani, writer
- Sarah Doom, writer
- Eleanor Hingley, writer
- Kieron Gillen, writer
- Yoon Ha Lee, writer (howdy!)
- Tejas Oza, writer
- Galen Pejeau, writer

Wednesday What I'm...

Sep. 10th, 2025 08:45 pm
reeby10: the lower half of a person laying on grass and reading with the words 'time to escape' and a ripped looking border (reading)
[personal profile] reeby10
Reading
  • I finished River Monsters by Jeremy Wade. Very enjoyable book! Would love to read more from him.
  • I started reading A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan (Monster Hunter #1), which is a mystery series about a cryptozoologist. Pretty fun and it was fun to see the author obviously did a lot of research about Lake Michigan and such.
  • I started reading My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter by Aja Monet, a poetry book that's the current pick for the DEI book club I'm in at work. Don't love the poetry style, but it's ok.
  • Ficwise, I'm still primarily reading VegasPete, but I did read several Sterek fics this week too. Currently reading part 8 of the Love & Blood series by [archiveofourown.org profile] raelle , which I was on the first fic of last week.
Watching
  • The roommate and I finished The Eclipse. I can't say I really enjoyed it? Like it wasn't a bad show! But the angst and homophobia was not what I was looking for tbh.
  • The roommate and I started Perfect 10 Liners and we are loving it! I really dig the big big cast college dramas and there are just so many good actors and pairs :)
  • We watched the latest episode of Revamp the Undead Story with the best friend. Stuff's starting to get really good!
  • Saturday, our internet was out, so the roommate and I picked back up on Teen Wolf since she has the DVDs. I think we made it about halfway through.
  • AEW not quite as usual bc our internet was out. Still gotta catch up on Collision, but idk when that's gonna happen.
Listening
  • Still on t-pop. I've started making my own playlist of faves, particularly with songs from the dramas we've seen.
Writing
  • I wrote some poetry.
  • Also wrote a fill for [community profile] comment_fic .
chibifukurou: (Psyduck Mystery Dungeon)
[personal profile] chibifukurou posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom:The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Pairings/Characters: Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan
Rating: T
Length: 14.5k
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] CheckersXIV
Theme: Food and cooking, (Five) Things, Complete AU

Summary: Luo Binghe has accepted his life for what it is: a dull repetition of a burned-out passion for a job. Back when he started his "Not Your Mother's" cooking channel on youtube, he had been ready to face the world. Now he just wants the world out of his face. When he hits one more bump in the road, he can't really say it's too surprising considering that the universe seems to just hate him.

And yet, the universe sends him to Shen Yuan.
_
Or 5 times Shen Yuan accidentally distracts Luo Binghe's attention from his videos, and the one time Luo Binghe gets his.

Reccer's Notes: This theme was a good excuse to go back for a reread. I love a fic where the point isn't so much falling in love as growing into the kind of person ready to love and be Loved. 

5+1 is always a fun framing device. Particularly when combined with in universe comment section. And I love that this js a broad world with various people who know each other from various settings in it. 

Fanwork Links: The Way to a Man's Heart is His Stomach

Daily Check-in

Sep. 10th, 2025 06:10 pm
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
[personal profile] starwatcher posting in [community profile] fandom_checkin
 
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday, September 10, to midnight on Thursday, September 11. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33598 Daily Check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 24

How are you doing?

I am OK.
12 (50.0%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
12 (50.0%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
9 (37.5%)

One other person.
11 (45.8%)

More than one other person.
4 (16.7%)




Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
 

Challenge 491: Riddle

Sep. 10th, 2025 05:03 pm
teaotter: Zhao Yunlan looks at a glowing sphere (ZYL breaks ALL the rules)
[personal profile] teaotter posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Our new challenge is:

RIDDLE



As always, you can interpret the prompt literally or figuratively, in whatever way works for you.

Each work created for this challenge should be posted as a new entry to the comm. Posting starts now and continues up until the challenge ends at 4pm Pacific Time on Saturday, September 20th. No sign-up required.

Mods will tag your work with fandom and challenge. When you've posted entries to three consecutive challenges, you will earn a name tag, and we'll go back and tag all your previous entries with your name.

All kinds of fanworks in all fandoms are welcome. Please have a look at our guidelines before you play. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact a mod. And if you have any suggestions for future challenges, you can leave them in the comments of this post.

Also, keep an eye out for the next [community profile] ffw_social post, which will go up in the next couple of days. If you haven't joined the [community profile] ffw_social comm, it's never too late to come and check it out. (Posts are locked, which means you have to join to see them.)
[syndicated profile] pivot_to_ai_feed

Posted by David Gerard

Inception Point AI is a podcast network that officially launched yesterday. CEO Jeanine Wright worked at podcast network Wondery until May 2024.

What does Inception Point do? It generates AI spam podcasts! 3,000 podcast episodes a week, with iHeart Media ads on them. [Hollywood Reporter]

Wright thinks the podcasts are great:

I think that people who are still referring to all AI-generated content as AI slop are probably lazy luddites. Because there’s a lot of really good stuff out there.

Inception Point claims “10 million downloads since September 2023” — if you want to believe that number. That works out to 64 listens per podcast. They’re getting pennies at best.

If you look at the front page of Quiet Please, you’ll see precisely what this is — it’s the podcast equivalent of the flood of AI spam  books on Amazon. These sell only when someone is tricked into buying them. [Quiet Please]

The podcasts sound like bored robots reading bad text. The cover images are all AI generated.

Wright brags about Inception Point’s AI personalities:

We believe that in the near future half the people on the planet will be AI, and we are the company that’s bringing those people to life.

Inception Point’s spam podcasts don’t actually make any money:

The startup is currently bootstrapped, and employees are not yet salaried, but the company will soon seek outside funding.

This plan cannot make money unless AI slop podcasts become genuinely popular, which will never happen. Then Wright will be onto the next thing. Quantum podcasts, maybe.

(no subject)

Sep. 10th, 2025 07:35 pm
sathinfection: (Default)
[personal profile] sathinfection

Dear ToT Creator,

Thank you so much for creating for me! I hope that you have a good time with your assignment or treat.

General Likes )

General Do Not Wants )

The Servant )

Sweet Caress )

Please Be My First Boyfriend! )

Dangeum and Jigyo )

I Promise to Return )

Go Jin and Gam-rae )

The Insatiable Man )

I Ship My Rival x Me )

Kiss the Abyss )

[syndicated profile] improbableresearch_feed

Posted by Marc Abrahams

The Foreign Press Center of Japan [FPCJ] televised this special preview [in both Japanese and English]  of the Ig Nobel Prize events, and discusses their place in Japanese Society. The FPCJ’s accompanying announcement says: The FPCJ invited Prof. Kiyoshi Furusawa, Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Science Communication Office for Liberal Arts [SCOLA], College of Science, Rikkyo […]

[ SECRET POST #6823 ]

Sep. 10th, 2025 05:56 pm
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6823 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 25 secrets from Secret Submission Post #974.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

alpaca adventures, cont'd

Sep. 10th, 2025 04:49 pm
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee


Test spin of small experimental alpaca floof batch.

For lagniappe, the completed smol woven object made from my handspun that's headed to [personal profile] eller, mostly wool/silk/angelina blends (both colorways). :3

library loot

Sep. 10th, 2025 05:19 pm
marycuntrarian: (peaks - norwegian wood)
[personal profile] marycuntrarian
Just a little post for now because I like this idea!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

I went to the library a few days ago with my partner. We'd had a lot of books for a while that were overdue, thankfully they don't charge late fees but they do charge for the books themselves after a while.

We have been getting books from the bookmobile that was coming once a month, but the library has been defunded and after November the bookmobile won't be running anymore. We're very crushed because it was one of the few things we could count on that was a nice thing to do and I really loved the driver, a nice older man who had good taste in music and books, he's now unemployed. It's so unfair, and it also needs to be said this was in the works for years so before the orange fucker was in office, Uncle Joe was working on this too.

But I digress, the books I checked out were a copy of Dead Astronauts by Jeff Vandermeer. I am in love with this man's writing in the Southern Reach series and it's going to be interesting to read his voice in a new, unrelated story.

I grabbed Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami even though I absolutely hated Norwegian Wood when I read it years ago. There was something about it that spoke to me, so we'll see how that read goes.

Also took out two compilations of Blacksad comics that I am loving so far. I kind of want to read it all. It reminds me of the homebrew D&D world my Mr. Strange has come up with. It's about a Fantasy Florida that has wild magic and is very animal folk heavy. I think the writing is pretty good if a bit fast paced but the watercolor illustrations are gorgeous and so my type of shit.

Lastly I picked up something called The Bozz Chronicles which is a collection of comics from the 80's about a suicidal alien, the art is cool as fuck and I'm into the vibes. It's very Steampunk which I don't normally go for but I'm feeling this.

Mr. Strange picked up some, of course, Doctor Strange comics, their favorite. ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧˚
dorchadas: (Angel Azrael Art)
[personal profile] dorchadas
Charlie Kirk shot in Utah, died.

It's easy to look at this and say, oh look, the dude who spent his whole life sowing the wind has reaped the whirlwind. And you're honestly not wrong to say that, but the kind of country where people get shot at during a speaking event at a university campus is not really a good country to live in, it's the kind of country we have historically issued travel advisories about. I think it'll be more useful to look at the reaction to this vs. the reaction to the Michigan state reps who were assassinated in their homes, because I suspect it will be very different.

Also, as the reaction to the Minneapolis school shooter (and basically every shooting back to and including Sandy Hook) shows, literally nothing can happen that will make the right engage in a good-faith argument about gun violence, so this won't either.

America thinks of a civil war as two sides in different uniforms lining up and shooting each other, because that's what our civil war is like, but that's not what most civil wars are. I expect our civil war to be more like the Troubles--constantly low grade violence to the point that you never feel entirely safe. There are no frontlines, the battlefield sudden appears in ordinary neighborhoods and bars and train stations and then vanishes as the ambulance siren gets closer.

Also, on a personal note, Kirk had a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. They don't deserve life without a father.
smallhobbit: (ferret)
[personal profile] smallhobbit posting in [community profile] 100words
Title: The Ferret's Luck
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD) AU
Rating: G

Issue: Original Work: Fic: AH SHIT

Sep. 10th, 2025 04:05 pm
himejoshiheart: tbh creature but fictional fanon cowboy man. the endo flag is overlaid over it and if you tell me to kms over that you can eat my entire ass (duskie)
[personal profile] himejoshiheart posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Fandom: technically live a live since they're lal ocs
Rating: teenager
Length: 162 words
Note: very cracky
Summary: i havent posted anything for this challenge yet OH NO

Fucked up applications

Sep. 10th, 2025 07:58 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
I bought a Samsung TV years ago that just sucked eggs. It was a fine TV but their software was so horrible, I finally got rid of it. I have long refused to go near a Samsung phone. A couple of years ago, I bought an LG TV and guess whose software is worse than Samsung???? I got rid of it, too.

Today I had a long and pretty bloody fight with another Samsung TV. I won but the scars are for life. My neighbor, Jim, wanted ESPN. He has an subscription and can get it on his computer but wants it on the TV. (This is not the Jim who does not know the word for remote, this is the Jim that lives next door to him.) He's not tech savvy but around here, he'd be near the top of the bottom of the class. He has full cable but but his girlfriend has a grandson who plays for Colgate so he wanted Colgate football. ESPN Plus.

His 'smart' Samsung TV would not install the app - click on install and get nothing. You had to go to Samsung Plus which is an app on top of the Samsung TV general app and load ESPN there. BUT you can't do it unless you log into Samsung Plus. We went through 8 stages of hell to get Jim a Samsung account and failed at every turn. For an hour. Finally, I just logged onto his TV as me. Screw it. I finally got the ESPN app loaded (and, turns out, it is the slowest app in the city) and we had to log into it, too BUT, of course, now it's Disney + and that involved a shit load of fucking hoop jumping. Until finally, magically, there it was - the Colgate game - airs tomorrow at 6.

Fucking a. He's very grateful. I'm exhausted. And I'd like to shoot every programmer who ever worked for Samsung. (Gimme a few Disney/espn coders for extra credit.)

Meanwhile on 2 different shows and once in real life in the past week, I've heard people in a TV discussion ask
'is that on Netflix or Roku?' This question cracks me up but I am totally weirded out that so many people think it's a viable query!
[syndicated profile] in_the_pipeline_feed

There are some astrobiology headlines today around this paper from a large team working with the Perseverance rover on Mars. It’s all about a particular sampling region, a valley that has been carved into the wall of Jezero Crater. It’s even more focused on a particular outcrop in this area, nicknamed “Bright Angel” because of its distinct tone as compared to its surroundings.

Close examination of this showed it to be some variety of mudstone, a sedimentary rock made of up deposits of very fine silt and sand. This was as expected; that whole region looks to be made of such layered material. The floor of the crater is igneous rock (lava and so on) that has been altered by aqueous weathering in Mars’ past, and there’s a big “Western Fan” of deposits carried into the crater by long-ago water flow. This valley with latest outcrop was a feeder channel for that process, and the Bright Angel area is up near the crater rim. Similar rocks to the initially observed ones show up as outcrops further down this channel, as it turns out. Layers of different color and thickness in these are immediately apparent.

The mudstone ins this area has plenty of silica, alumina, and iron oxide, but it’s quite low in manganese and magnesium oxides, and that makes it quite different from the Western Fan material (which doesn’t show those latter two elements depleted). The interpretation is that those latter deposits were formed under oxygen-poor conditions. The Bright Angel rocks also seem to have had calcium-sulfate-bearing fluid migrating through it at a later point, and overall, you can see signs of deposition, transport, weathering, and erosion over its history.

A close examination shows that there are a lot of dark grains in the lighter rock, informally called “poppy seeds” by the team, that are colored dark blue to dark green depending on the light. These seem to be enriched in iron, zinc, and phosphorus, and their spectral properties indicate that they are some sort of iron phosphate mixture in various hydration states. There are a number of minerals known here on Earth that match this description and whose colors fit well with the observations too. But these Fe-phosphate nodules don’t seem to have been transported along with the original mudstone sediments (they don’t match up with the laminations in the rock) and they don’t seem directly related to the Ca-sulfate deposits that must have come later.

And another odd feature in some parts of the formation are what were termed “leopard spots”, which are around 0.2 to 1mm in size and are circular dark rings with light-toned centers (lighter than the surrounding mudstone, actually). These also don’t have the features of having been deposited that way, instead they look very much like chemical reaction fronts, something spreading out from a central initiation event. Their dark edges are very similar to the Fe-phosphate material of the “poppy seed” nodules and are likely the same sort of material. The lighter cores, meanwhile, are enriched in sulfur, iron, nickel, and zinc and appear to be made up of iron sulfides (and oxidized forms thereof).

So what’s all this add up to? The team proposes that all of this looks like phosphate has been redistributed into the nodules and leopard-spot rings over time, and the lack of association with aluminum-bearing species suggests that this happened at moderate pH and non-oxidizing conditions. Why don’t you see these things all over these rock formations? It appears that these dark phosphate zones are associated with organic matter, spectroscopically, and that would make sense for dissolution of Fe(III) species and reduction to Fe(II) phosphate with oxidation of the organic material. The red color of the original mudstone was therefore bleached according to how much organic matter was present.

Now here on Earth we have seen this sort of thing happening all the time. Such reduced iron phosphates (such as vivianite and others) and iron sulfides are formed by microbial reduction of iron and sulfates, and this Fe-S metabolism is considered one of the signs of early life in the fossil record. And “reduction halos” that resemble the Martian leopard spots are also well known in deep marine sediments and indeed in ancient rocks here, with one hypothesis being that the latter also have a biotic origin. The paper considers abiotic routes to such minerals and formations, but it’s difficult to come up with an abiotic source of sulfide that is consistent with the other minerals present. Abiotic sulfide is generally product under higher-temperature conditions (with production of hydrogen sulfide gas, as at volcanic vents). Abiotic reduction of sulfate to sulfide also takes much higher temperatures, and these rocks just don’t seem to have experienced them.

Under a biological scenario, the mixture of reactants available in the Bright Angel formation at the time of deposition could have provided raw ingredients for a set of biological redox reactions that drove Fe and S reduction, organic matter oxidation, and precipitation of Fe2+-phosphate and Fe-sulfide minerals. In this scenario, oxidized iron and sulfate would be used as terminal electron acceptors for organic matter consumption, promoting the formation of minerals through the release of chemical by-products: Fe-phosphate minerals in the case of iron reduction and Fe-sulfide minerals in the case of sulfate reduction. Where authigenic nodules were formed, the reaction would have shut off before additional reductive processes occurred. In the places where larger reaction fronts formed, the presence of sulfide-bearing cores suggests that sulfate-reducing metabolisms with lower energy yields could have taken hold once those regions of the rock had been depleted of available Fe3+, but had not yet exhausted organic carbon in the reaction front core.

So what we have is a situation where biogenic mechanisms (Life on Mars! At least at some point) would seem to fit the observations quite well, while abiogenic ones are harder to come by. But (as the authors note, and have to note) this does not constitute proof. We certainly do not know what other chemical routes are available without invoking biological redox processes, nor can we rule out their ability to mimic what we’d expect from such biological pathways. We definitely need to study these formations more and try to model them here on Earth, but what we need to do for sure is make good on the sample-return part of the Perseverance mission. Bright Angel samples and others are stored on the rover and at cache points on the Martian surface in labeled tubes for eventual retrieval, but the proposals for how to go get them are in a state of expensive disarray. Until we’re able to do that, no one will be sure. Results like these make that an even more important goal.

Profile

simonejester: danbo and an xbox360 controller (Default)
simonejester

February 2023

S M T W T F S
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
1920 2122232425
262728    

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags