Tonight I'm making the Tomato Basil Bread on page 15 of Hello! 365 Tomato Recipes.  It uses dried basil flakes and sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, rather than fresh, so it can be made any time of the year.  We are planning this as an accompaniment to a meatloaf later this week.

EDIT 9/9/25 -- The result is ... interesting.  Way sweeter than we expected.  It will probably work as an accompaniment to meatloaf, but I'm not sure it'll work as sandwich bread.

Planet birth photographed for the first time

For the first time, a growing planet outside our solar system has been discovered to inhabit a gap in a disk of dust and gas.

Astronomers have directly spotted a rare young planet, WISPIT 2b, still forming within the gap of a dusty ringed disk around a star like our sun—something long theorized but never observed until now.

I spotted this, for those of your interested:

Online Memorial

In case you have not signed up and would like to, a Virtual Memorial for Alice Stewart/Acelightning has been set up as a Zoom meeting starting Sept 13 2025 at 1:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada).

To sign up please send an email to MemorialForAceLightning@gmail.com to get specific details.

Thanks to all that want to come.

This month's theme was "Communication Styles." I wrote from 1:30 PM to 3:45 AM, so about 11 hours 45 minutes, allowing for lunch and supper breaks. I wrote 5 poems on Tuesday and actually finished everything. \o/

Participation was about the same, with 6 comments on LiveJournal and another 30 on Dreamwidth. A total of 9 people sent prompts.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the September 2, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:

"Bring Unique Qualities"
"For Those Who Work at It"
"The Only Thing That You Absolutely Have to Know"
"A Reader, an Interpreter, and a Creator"
"Simple and to the Point"


Buy some poetry!
The September fishbowl sold out! Wow, that hasn't happened in a while. You are all awesome.

If you've been wanting to sponsor an older poem, or commission something new, now is a good time -- I have time to post things. Ask me if you need a list of available poems in your favorite series, characters, topics, etc.


This month's donors include: janetmiles and fuzzyred. All sponsored poems from this fishbowl have been posted. There are 0 tallies toward a bonus fishbowl.


The Poetry Fishbowl has a landing page.

This poem came out of the September 2, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from chanter1944, see_also_friend, and wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "affiliate" square in my 9-1-25 card for the Piracy Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the series Daughters of the Apocalypse.

( Read more... )

Today is mostly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/8/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
 

This video demonstrates how the location of mass affects travel downhill.

If you want to build a wheel, put as much of the mass as close to the hub as possible for more efficient travel. Here is an old wagonwheel. See how the center is built up? That's not just to strengthen the area around the axle, it makes the wheel work better.

Today I'm making Ultimate Ginger Cookies.  Currently the dough is in the refrigerator chilling.  :D

EDIT 9/7/25 -- These turned out as molasses spice gingersnaps, quite zesty.  They're tricky to bake because you have to take them out while they still seem quite raw in order to leave them chewy.  If they're starting to set up at all, they are crunchy when cold.  However, if you want to make a gingersnap crust or crumble -- or you just prefer crunchy cookies -- that's the way to go. 

The earlier "ultimate ginger cookies" recipe I had was a lot lighter than these, but I couldn't find that one.  I'll probably try again for a version of that, but these really are excellent molasses spice gingersnaps.

EDIT 9/7/25 -- Last batch is out of the oven. \o/

... I am tempted to make apple crumble with the crunchy ones.

These clear windows can secretly produce solar power

Cholesteric liquid crystal coatings enable transparent, unidirectional solar concentrators compatible with modern windows.

Scientists have created a transparent solar coating that turns ordinary windows into clean energy generators without affecting clarity. Using cholesteric liquid crystal layers, the coating redirects polarized sunlight to the window edges where solar cells collect it. A small prototype already powered a fan, and full-sized windows could boost efficiency 50-fold while cutting the need for costly photovoltaic cells.


Useful, if it's affordable.