W
I don't know if we're doomed, but we do seem to rush headlong into new technologies, often without considering their possible impacts.
Everyone is in a hurry, it seems. It would be good to slow down. Not sure where it is we are rushing to.
I'd love to hear what @mark thinks, too...
In the beginning, the Bible tells us,
God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night.
And so it has been ever since — until now.
Here in the 21st century, we humans are on the cusp of turning night into day — and bidding good night to the stars that have guided us home for thousands of years.
Two little-noted applications under review by the Federal Communications Commission would, if fully implemented, fundamentally remake the night sky. But the FCC, the satellite regulator, appears to have fast-tracked approval without much of a pause to weigh the benefits of these proposals against the harms they could cause to life on the planet.
A start-up called Reflect Orbital proposes to use large, mirrored satellites to redirect sunlight to Earth at night, with plans to bathe solar farms, industrial sites and even entire cities in light that could, if desired, reach the intensity of daylight. At the same time, Elon Musk’s SpaceX wants to launch as many as a million satellites to serve as orbiting data centers — 70 times the number of satellites now in orbit. We could have a million points of light streaking across our skies at night.
I wonder if any of the processors who do frozen fruits would be interested in buying these farmers' peaches. I have no idea if converting that Del Monte cannery into a frozen fruit processing plant is cost effective...
@ShiroKuro Yes they are, as are many other fruits and berries. A lot of people do smoothies and frozen fruits are an essential ingredient. And as you note, they don't have added sugar.
And I'm with you on the non-sugar sweeteners, whether they be chemical or a natural alternative like stevia, which I dislike.
Del Monte collapse leaves California peach growers stranded. ‘No place else to go’
The changing peach industry
Growers have been through this before.
Bankruptcies claimed processors in the past, including Tri-Valley Growers more than two decades ago. But past bankruptcies and consolidations left multiple processors in the marketplace. Without Del Monte, the only meaningful buyer of cling peaches in mass is Pacific Coast Producers.
For perspective, California had 11 processors in 1980, according to the canning association. Only one remains.
From the Sacramento Bee:
I guess canned fruits just aren't as popular as they used to be. We have a lot more options, like more access to fresh fruit from all over the world. Thinking things like sweet cherries from Peru in the dead of winter. Or frozen fresh fruit.
@Mik said in Attention, Costco shoppers who are gardeners!:
Our mantra is low maintenance.
I'm simplifying many aspects of my gardening, too, though I have to say most of my yard doesn't really need that much work. (Of course being a gardener there are lots of tasks I undertake that I don't consider work!)
I have a postage stamp-sized lawn and mowing takes less than a half hour. Battery mower requires no maintenance beyond an occasional blade sharpening. I long ago gave up the whole lawn maintenance thing and skip fertilizer/aerating/etc and my lawn doesn't look much different from anyone else's.
Probably the biggest source of annual maintenance is in the fall. We have two 60+ year old maple trees, one in the front yard and another in the back. And the neighbors who surround us have similarly large trees. We get a ton of leaves from September into December. But that's something I could turn over to a landscaper if necessary.
I am eliminating some of the beds, though. Need any hostas? 
I can buy a lot of fresh local produce for $150. Plus money for dirt, plus plus plus.
Yea, hobby veggie/fruit gardeners like me aren't doing it to save money on food. I do it for the satisfaction of being able to walk out into the garden and pick something that I grew; it brings me great joy. Working in my garden connects me to the earth in a very profound way. And to family - my father and his mother were avid gardeners, as was my maternal grandfather. I feel like they're all working beside me as I putter around my garden.
Don't forget the exercise. Think of the money I save on a gym membership or exercise equipment. Those piles of dirt aren't going to move themselves!
UPS says they'll be here tomorrow! Would love to get started assembling and installing them, but I have to take out the old beds, including moving the dirt that's in them.
Unfortunately, right now those beds are blocks of ice, as is the cubic yard of leaf compost in my big composter. It's gonna be a few more weeks...
I remember @pj talking about Hugelkultur, and I think I'm going to try that approach when I fill these new beds.
A bipartisan majority of Americans believe vaccines are safe and that children should receive them to attend school, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, illustrating the challenges President Donald Trump's administration faces to win broad support for upending decades of health policy.
The six-day poll, which closed on Monday, comes as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has led the U.S. government to drop recommendations for several childhood immunizations and boosted federal support for states providing exemptions to vaccine mandates, such as for school attendance.
Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue. The White House declined to elaborate on Trump’s plans.
“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin went on. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”
The emergency would empower the president to ban mail ballots and voting machines as the vectors of foreign interference, Ticktin argued.
said in This is so wrong:
A Columbia University student was arrested on Thursday by federal immigration officers who reportedly misrepresented themselves by posing as New York police officers looking for a missing child in order to to gain entry to a residential building to make the apprehension.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/columbia-student-detained-federal-agents
Update:
Federal immigration authorities arrested a Columbia University student early Thursday, triggering protests on campus along with allegations that agents had entered the university-owned residence under false pretenses.
Just hours after detaining student Ellie Aghayeva, though, the federal government abruptly reversed course, permitting her to walk free after the apparent intervention by President Donald Trump.
In a social media post Thursday afternoon, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he expressed concerns about the arrest during an unrelated meeting with Trump, who then agreed to release her immediately.
"I am safe and okay," Aghayeva wrote on Instagram, minutes after Mamdani's post, adding she was in "complete shock" from the experience.
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/26/g-s1-111684/columbia-student-arrested-ice-missing-person
@RealPlayer You can check to see if your Panasonic system has Link2Cell and if it works with your cell phones. If it doesn't have L2C, and if @bernard doesn't want my phones, you're next in line. You could try them out to see if they work for you.
Or you could buy new from Costco. Easy return if they didn't work for you for some reason.
Regarding your home phone number...If you really, really wanted to keep it you could go with an MVNO, a mobile virtual network operator. That's a wireless provider that offers cellular service over the usual cellular networks (Verizon, ATT, T-Mobile), but at much lower rates. If you've heard of Consumer Cellular, you're already familiar with an MVNO; they use the ATT network and have retail stores.
MVNOs: https://bestmvno.com/what-is-an-mvno/
It might be a good alternative for you to keep your home number but lower the cost significantly. Buy a cheapo cell phone and port your home number to whatever MVNO you pick. You'd really be using it just for talking and wouldn't need to worry about data caps or speed; the plans all pretty much have unlimited talk and text.
Trump Won’t Stop Trying to Punish Kilmar Abrego Garcia
A federal judge must decide whether Abrego is the target of a “vindictive prosecution” by the Trump administration.
From Intercept:
From Ting's Feb update:
Link to videoWhen over 1 million homes lost power during Winter Storm Fern last month, the Ting electrical safety network delivered real-time, neighborhood-level outage data to emergency responders. These insights help prioritize response and reduce risks like home fires, flooding from frozen pipes, and serious impacts for entire communities
A Columbia University student was arrested on Thursday by federal immigration officers who reportedly misrepresented themselves by posing as New York police officers looking for a missing child in order to to gain entry to a residential building to make the apprehension.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/columbia-student-detained-federal-agents
@Bernard said in Ditch the internet phone?:
@wtg Very kind offer, wtg, but I honestly don't know what I'd do with five handsets. As I mentioned above, I think I've used the internet phone maybe twice in the past few months.
Thank you.
You don't have to use all of the handsets! But I'm not sure I was clear about how we use the Panasonic setup...we don't have an internet phone anymore either. We use it with our cell phones.
While a cell phone can be carried anywhere, if you don't have it on you, it's a pain to answer calls. Neither of us carries our phone with us on our person when we're at home. Quite frequently I leave mine in my purse in the closet and can't hear a call coming in at all. Or I'm in another part of the house or out in the yard.
The Panasonic has a Link2Cell feature that lets you bluetooth your cell phone(s) to the cordless system (it can also have an internet/VOIP line coming into it, but that's a separate matter). We have the cordless handsets in the basement and on the first and second floors. We can pick up our cellular calls from the handsets rather than having to find our cell phone(s) to do so. It will also alerts us when we receive a text message, though it doesn't actually display the message. Despite the fact that there is voicemail and the text will be there when you check the phone, we are geezers who still operate under the "if the phone rings you try to answer" school of behavior.
Of course if you carry your cell phone around in your pocket, or if you just check your phone for voice mail and texts when you feel like it, then the cordless units don't add any value!
Been on the lookout for metal raised planting beds. The cedar ones aren't holding up well and I'm looking to replace them.
Costco has these planters from a company called Vego that look pretty nice:
https://www.costco.com/s?dept=All&keyword=vego
I had to look at the manufacturer's website to figure out what the hell size the 6-in-1, 9-in-1, and 10-in-1 products are. If anyone is interested, give a holler and I can provide an explanation and/or additional links.
American eagle in my friend's yard, just a few blocks away. Not a super great video, bird can be seen a bit better if you're full screen on a laptop or monitor.
Link to videoCitizen scientists discover a Great Barrier Reef coral giant ‘like a rolling meadow’
"Citizen scientists". Love it!
