Hello and happy Friday to you. I wanted to touch base with this roundup. I hope it finds you well.
Reading
In 1981, Coevolution Quarterly published a 20 question quiz written by Leonard Charles, Jim Dodge, Lynn Milliman, and Victoria Stockley that is designed to reveal how well you know your local natural environment. Here are the questions:
Trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap.
How many days til the moon is full? (Slack of 2 days allowed.)
What soil series are you standing on?
What was the total rainfall in your area last year (July-June)? (Slack: 1 inch for every 20 inches.)
When was the last time a fire burned in your area?
What were the primary subsistence techniques of the culture that lived in your area before you?
Name 5 edible plants in your region and their season(s) of availability.
From what direction do winter storms generally come in your region?
Where does your garbage go?
How long is the growing season where you live?
On what day of the year are the shadows the shortest where you live?
When do the deer rut in your region, and when are the young born?
Name five grasses in your area. Are any of them native?
Name five resident and five migratory birds in your area.
What is the land use history of where you live?
What primary ecological event/process influenced the land form where you live?
(Bonus special: what’s the evidence?)
What species have become extinct in your area?
What are the major plant associations in your region?
From where you’re reading this, point north.
What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom where you live?
I went on a walk earlier this week and it was good. I need to get out to a park with my camera. I wish I knew the answers to some of these like native edible plants. Fortunately winter is somewhat receding, so warmer days aren’t too far behind.
YouTube
Naming conventions are great until there’s an exception. Also worth checking out: highways to nowhere.
A story I’ve been following a while starting with someone deciding to rehabilitate a lobster caught from a grocery store.
Video Games
This looks interesting.
Wii U and Nintendo 3DS eShops shutting down in 2023, frustrating fans – Polygon
Unfortunate but predictable. Nintendo is a hugely hypocritical company when it comes to their history. They sell their nostalgia in newer games, but often lock away their older games or make consumers purchase them over and over. While the gaming majority favors new games and moves on, there are many who still enjoy playing and seeking out older games and would be more than willing to pay money to play them through official means. Unfortunately video game publishers don’t care about their history unless it makes money. The great thing for these systems is there already have been efforts underway to ensure games are still playable. Also in case anyone wonders while I still purchase physical games when possible… this is why I have trust issues.
Related: Man Who Lived in Small Apartment Owes Nintendo $14.5 Million
#NEAT
The megaflush after the Super Bowl.
A traffic simulator you can mess with. I remember being staunchly against roundabouts over 10 years ago. But I’m definitely pro roundabout now. Even if you take their efficiency out of the equation, they drastically reduce crashes that result in death or serious injury.
Traffic flow measured on 30 different 4-way junctions – YouTube
Then that reminded me of this video of a simulated intersection traffic volume, and how much I hate the cloverleaf interchange.
I Used AI To See What These 23 Popular Cartoon Characters Would Look Like In Real Life | Bored Panda
Google Wants to Turn Your Old Mac into a Chromebook With Chrome OS Flex – MacRumors
I have an older MacBook that this might work for in a couple of years. I still want to leave MacOS on it because it’s more useful that way for me, but this doesn’t seem like a bad option to leverage older hardware.
I love this simple design. Birds made from LEGO. Put a bird on it!
Please send in suggestions if you come across them. I am probably going to take a week off from the roundup soon.
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