RIP Mary-Dell Chilton (Feb 2, 1939 – Jun 24, 2026), a pioneer in plant sciences and the inventor of transgenic plants.

At the U of Washington, she started out to disprove a theory that a bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens causes a disease in trees by modifying their DNA. She discovered that the theory was true. She then developed a way to replace the harmful DNA in the bacterium with desirable DNA, such as genes that promote pest and drought resistance.

https://www.ncbiotech.org/news/plant-dna-pioneer-mary-dell-chilton-dies-87
1/n

"The President and Vice President must be impeached, convicted, and removed."

On July 1, active duty air force Major Jason Watson held a powerful speech in Washington D.C. calling for the removal of Trump and JD Vance.

He then walked up the stairs and held a protest sign before being arrested by capitol police.

Full speech:
https://youtu.be/k2-AyA3SLEs?si=4UsTpY1J9IFFgBDM

IHeart Radio laid off two DJs I have listened to on our local stations for decades. The CEO of iHeart makes over $10 million a year.

Fuck that guy.

#foxesInLove #comic

Source: https://foxes-in-love.tumblr.com/post/820941561793822720
Copyright: https://foxesinlove.net

If you have to leave your home for a fire, don’t waste time trying to set up sprinklers or hoses if your home is on a pump. As soon as the power goes out, so does your water. Even without a pump, if everyone leaves hoses open, water pressure drops so much that even hydrants won’t produce adequate flow.

If a fire is moving fast, just leave. People have died driving out of fire zones in multiple recent fires in the us. Cars are not fire proof, and when wind drives smoke and embers, you can’t see

If you aren’t aware, when you evacuate for a fire in the US, sometimes you are out of your home for days. The power will usually go out during that time. You may not know if you have a home for days. If you left livestock behind, you won’t know where they are. You won’t know if you have fences or water or barns.

Plan now for those possibilities. If you don’t have a trailer, what’s your evac plan for animals? Can you cut fences or open gates? Plan now. It is hard when ash is raining on you.

If you recently moved to somewhere where a wildfire can get to your home, some advice:
Have a fireproof box with your passport, mortgage docs, birth certificates, etc. so you can grab them in a hurry, but hopefully won’t lose them if you must leave them behind.

Have a go bag with a change of clothes, basic toiletries, and if possible, a few days of any key medicines you need.

Decide now that you are OK leaving everything to burn, because you don’t want to confront that as the house goes up.

Huh. I wonder why I’ve never seen the Elon Musk food bank, or the Musk hospital for uninsured children, or the Musk shelter for the homeless?

Remember, SCOTUS drops a few popular decisions before they fuck us all over.

Great work by Jared Polis. Tina Peters is out stoking the fires of election conspiracies a few months before an election while she should be in prison.

/s

#Fedihelp Is anyone here in contact with #LadyGaga? My 14yo grandson who I love dearly is lying in hospital on life support. His mum, my daughter, is reading aloud for him the David Attenborough book he was planning to get. His favourite artist is Lady Gaga and my daughter is trying to contact her, to ask if she might send our boy a message to be read to him. It would mean a lot. I know this is a long shot, but can anyone put me in touch?

I’ve seen some great old goose value memes. Haven’t seen a Trogdor, Badger Badger, or Musk Ox one though. Fuckin’ kids.

I did consider boosting the post so y'all could eat him alive, but like, this is literally the shirt I'm wearing right now.

He can live for now. It's not breakfast time yet.

Buy our pride merch. Fund our work. https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/pride-month-merch

Y’all, NYT has good scoops. It does. I won’t deny it. Nonetheless, the rag is a fucking propaganda tool of mediocre shitbags. I have no fucking clue what the editors think the end game of this speedrun to concentration camps is, but regardless, they haven’t a fucking care in the world for reality. Please, for fuck’s sake, stop driving engagement with their content. If they pick a side, great. For now though, they are team head-in-the-sand-one-eye-to-fascism.

#books folks: my partner remembers a maybe-kid-oriented, DK-style structural cutaway book that included art of the Titanic, Britannic, Lusitania, and other ships that had sunk. Read it sometime in the mid-90s.

We can’t find it! Lots of books about the individual ships, but partner’s certain it was one big book. Anybody know? Thanks!!

Great work, everyone! 🫠

I know there are several non-ham folks who will see this who are in or near Ventura County...consider this a formal invitation!

My club's ARRL Field Day effort is probably the best place to find out what we hams are actually doing. We'll be at 377 W. Potrero Road in Hidden Valley, sorta between Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. The event starts Saturday at 11:00 am and goes for 24 hours. A third of our outfit is just for public information and visitors.

Email for details keith@w6kme.org

Purple martins are really neat birds (especially when your bird biologist friend builds you a house that makes it easy to check in on them).

Check out this super cute tidy nest they built! They pick aspen leaves, using the leaves to regulate moisture for the incubating eggs. Look how perfectly they layered the leaves! Evolution is SO COOL.

Tip for anyone else who buys sun hoodies for running and has the damn hoods keep falling back:

Pick two points on the top (I go for the ~ 3 and 9 o’clock position, or where seams are). Fold the front edge back on itself. Tack that fucker down with your sewing machine.

I’ve fixed 3 from different brands. Saves a lot on returns.

Also, the North Face ones just work. Every other brand has too much slack in the hood opening.

One thing many folks don’t think about is how hard it is to fight fire in hot temperatures. My medics have an entire “firefighter rehab” protocol. You get pulled off the apparatus, sent over for temp and vitals checks, and may have to get fluids and so forth. If you don’t get better, off to the hospital. In summer structure fires, we drop crew members to heat illness quickly no matter how attentive we are.