Many inland dikes in the Netherlands are made of peat that needs to be damp to be strong enough to hold back water. I didn't know this until today. And now, of course, they're drying out.
#climate #heat #Netherlands
https://apnews.com/article/netherlands-drought-water-dikes-climate-6eb8910dabc77f2fe962ac5aad638347
I have never seen a cat filling out paperwork, and they seem pretty content, on the whole.
Then I realized that I HAVE seen cats that had to wake up from their nap to move because the sunny spot had shifted, so I suppose we all have our struggles in life.
NPR: "President Trump said on social media late Saturday that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries asked the U.S. 'to hold off any attack' on Iran because 'the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.'"
THE REST OF US: Are "the perimeters of a deal" anything like his healthcare "concept of a plan"?
Don't know that I ever heard of Ceuta before yesterday.
But, wow, for that many people to cross the border that quickly with "nothing but the shirt on their back" -- and, judging from the news photos, often not even that! -- that is really something. Hard to imagine how the situation can be managed justly.
From the website of the company that’s destroying books to feed them into the ravenous AI maw.
“A physical book is a delivery mechanism for information. Once that information has been extracted and encoded into an AI model, the delivery mechanism has served its purpose. What remains is paper, ink, and binding material. The book is not destroyed. Its value has migrated. The paper returns to the material cycle; the knowledge enters the intellectual one.” https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/ai-labs-buy-scan-shred-millions-of-rare-books/news-story/0c3b45a67093ab462a587a0348538ce9
#USA gov't map of #Africa mislabels every country at global conference ‼️
The map contained an #AI watermark indicating it was made with OpenAI tools. 👀
It had:
• Nigeria (where #US currently has several hundred troops deployed) as landlocked in the Sahara Desert
• Mozambique, which is in southeastern Africa, relocated to the Horn of Africa
• Ivory Coast in West Africa placed on the other side of the continent
The State Dept blamed a staffer.
#trump #TrumpAdmin
--
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-government-map-africa-mislabels-every-country-global-conference-2026-07-30/
Several neighborhood guys hanging out just down from our house this morning. Acting suspiciously. Probably up to something.
(Odocoileus virginianus)
#NaturePhotography #White-tailedDeer
"We don’t know what’s going to happen – so live beautifully regardless."
Why? Because...
"I think we are in a liminal moment: we know the present set-up can’t hold, but we don’t know what’s going to come next. We are basically at the top of this very sharp bell curve, just in the moments before it tips down the other side. Everything that has been going up and up and up – population, wealth, the price of oil – are about to dip."
--- Sarah Wilson interview in The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2026/jul/29/sarah-wilson-book-interview
"The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouting of a ruler among fools."
Ecclesiastes 9.17
And, apparently, Canada is still on fire.
I don't think I've read anything about all that since the US president played his Tariffs card to try to block the wildfire smoke at the border. Also, since France and Spain started burning.
I went to what I believe we all felt was a pretty normal high school in the suburbs of Washington DC. The foreign languages on offer at the time were French, Spanish, German, Latin, and Russian.
But I was wondering a day or two ago whether any of my classmates achieved any fluency in their language. And, particularly, whether they have retained any of it.
I've retained a lot of the vocabulary, but I've said for years that I can read it way better than I can speak it.
Him: So, have you ever been to Cape May?
Me: Yes. But it was a long time ago. Back when it was still called Cape April.
If it is a number, he probably just made it up on the spot.
Europe's wildfires in North American news: www.npr.org/2026/07/25/nx-s1-5907963/wildfires-spain-france
200,000 people evacuated
242,000 acres have been burned in France
Spain trying to provide shelter for its own evacuees
Madrid, Avila threatened
Lithobates sylvaticus
Narrator: note how the domestic feline retains its ability to camouflage itself while at rest.
"A person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is." --- Mark Twain
You might say that Missy is a shadow of her former self.
#caturday #CatsOfMastodon #KatzenTag #shadows #Schatten #ShadowDay
