New kind of flu shot is on the way as the FDA approves Moderna's mRNA-based vaccine
https://apnews.com/article/flu-vaccine-moderna-mrna-fda-mflusiva-59d991a6bf70c26e2f0c210cc8ca87f1?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Business and Finance @business-and-finance-AssociatedPress

How it was that they so aboundingly responded to the old man’s ire—by what evil magic their souls were possessed, that at times his hate seemed almost theirs

Happy "Owl Day"!🦉🙌

the horned owl's opinion-
every day
is long
木兎は不断日永と思ふ哉
-Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶), 1807.
Trans. David Lanoue.

#OwlAwarenessDay #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay #owls #フクロウ #Japan #ukiyoe #浮世絵

Mamdani 's hackers: New York City's Public Interest Technology initiative encodes a vision of technology as an enabler for ordinary people.

... and 3,000 super-skilled techies applied for 35 jobs, though the paycheck is not what it would be in Big Tech and there's no stock options, because most people want their work to be meaningful. Getting people to click on ads is not meaningful.

https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/08/find-yourself-a-city/#to-hack-in

h/t @pluralistic

Hawaii has fenced out the predators killing its seabirds. On Kaua'i, home to 25,000 feral cats, some 55,000 pigs and perhaps a million rats, ground-nesting birds had nowhere safe left to lay. So conservationists wrapped Kilauea Point in a $1.7 million predator-proof fence, sealing out cats, pigs and rats to shield local, ground-nesting birds. Biologists reckon the full refuge could eventually hold hundreds of thousands of birds. Earth Hope https://earthhope.substack.com/p/hawaiis-pig-free-refuge-gives-seabirds
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Reminder that Hugo voting closes at noon Pacific time today. Please if you can make sure to vote for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. As a past winner I know what a huge difference it makes.

https://sassafrass.bandcamp.com/track/somebody-will-duet
Speaking of music recommendations, here's my favourite version of Somebody Will. Goes well with my Utopian ~cloak~ hoodie.
#TerraIgnota @adapalmer

Britain is building birds more room. Scotland has become the first UK nation to make “swift bricks”, £30 hollow nesting blocks, mandatory in every new building, tackling a 60% collapse in swifts since the mid-1990s. Everwild Outdoors https://everwildoutdoors.com/scotland-rules-swift-bricks-to-be-mandatory-in-all-new-buildings/
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Today is Bandcamp Friday! On which they waive their revenue share and pass the funds directly to artists & labels. I have a track on The Pegasus Nominees: Songs of Space, Science & Science Fiction. So today is a great day to support the filk team that worked hard to make this incredible collection of music a reality. https://prometheus-music.bandcamp.com/album/the-pegasus-nominees-songs-of-space-science-science-fiction

Gizmodo asks “Will We Ever Solve the Problem of Losing Data?”

I love this answer: “I know of one data storage form that can be permanent: a library. Or rather, a world full of libraries. Libraries aren’t perfect storage devices (nothing is), but they are fiercely committed to self-repair. A good library is a collection of people, technologies, and practices that pass an obligation—to remember the things we must remember—from the last generation to the next.”
https://gizmodo.com/will-we-ever-solve-the-problem-of-losing-data-2000792386 #libraries

By Robert Gonsalves

#Art #Painting

@adapalmer

I'm glad that the Green Wall project gets some credit. Unfortunately there are people who will refuse to accept that human activity can affect the climate even if its in a really good way.

In many places the Green Wall projects are helping get this current relative abundance of water back into the ground. There will likely be another drought period in the future and those reservoirs will be a blessing.

The Mediterranean is winning back its waters. Greece has signed off its South Aegean Marine Park across the southern Cyclades, with an Ionian park weeks behind, putting it on course to protect 35% of its seas by 2027, ahead of the EU’s 30-by-2030 target. GTP Headlines https://news.gtp.gr/2026/07/16/south-aegean-marine-park-moves-ahead-as-greece-targets-35-marine-protection/
#ShareGoodNewsToo

One of my favorite goals of studying history is to discover, as best we can, what historical figures believed based on the evidence we have.

@adapalmer  does a wonderful job of this in "Inventing the Renaissance" with Machiavelli and his different motivations in life. She does a beautiful job illustrating in evidence and prose that Machiavelli is complicated. He may have had an altruistic yet impossible task that influenced his interpretation as a monster.

And I'm not going to talk about her ideas more because its been about 6 months since I finished the book and I don't have it on me.

Water is returning to the African Sahel. After the catastrophic droughts of the late 20th century, aquifers from Senegal to Ethiopia are refilling, water tables in Niger have risen four metres, and Lake Chad has swollen to ten times its mid-1980s size. Near-extinct scimitar-horned oryx now number over 600, and farmers have nurtured 200 million trees back onto once-bare fields. Yale E360 https://e360.yale.edu/features/sahel-groundwater-climate-monsoon
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Heat pumps are winning Americans over. In the first quarter they outsold fossil-fuel furnaces by 32%, the fourth year running that manufacturers have shipped more heat pumps than furnaces. Nearly half of new US homes built in 2024 came with one. Grist https://grist.org/energy/the-us-may-be-hitting-a-tipping-point-for-heat-pumps/
#ShareGoodNewsToo

LAcon V has published the Worldcon schedule! Here are the panels that I'll be participating in and the link to the more detailed program guide. https://guide.lacon.org/ https://wandering.shop/@LAcon

Once down to a single breeding pair, Serbia’s Eastern Imperial Eagle is rapidly recovering. In 2017, Serbia’s Eastern Imperial Eagle was on the edge of extinction. Bird monitors in the country that year found only a single breeding pair. That same year, the eagle became the subject of targeted conservation, and now the country’s monitors have recorded 29 territorial pairs, with 16 pairs successfully fledging 25 young. Bird Guides https://www.birdguides.com/news/eastern-imperial-eagle-continues-serbian-recovery/
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Six First Nations, Canada and British Columbia have signed off on a marine reserve covering 6,700 km² of the Great Bear Sea. Mia-yaltwa Ha’lidzogm hoon (“Realm of the Salmon”) will be co-governed by the Wuikinuxv, Nuxalk, Kitasoo Xai’xais, Heiltsuk, Gitxaała and Gitga’at Nations, who have also declared it an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area. Parks Canada https://parks.canada.ca/amnc-nmca/cnamnc-cnnmca/cotecentrale-centralcoast #ShareGoodNewsToo

The strip of land that once divided East and West Germany is now one of the country’s richest habitats. The 1,400 km Green Belt holds 7,500 recorded insect and spider species, 580 of them threatened, plus otters, wildcats and whinchats. Thuringia, Bavaria and Saxony have just agreed to permanently secure a 95 km stretch by 2028. DW https://www.dw.com/en/east-west-border-death-zone-now-germanys-biodiversity-oasis/a-77917041
#ShareGoodNewsToo