Squirrel with a view.

#Seattle

Käthe Seidel was a pioneer in ecological engineering, using plants like reeds and rushes to clean waste water. This is standard now, but mocked when she started doing it in the 1950s.

Here is part of her tale, told by Elisabet Sahtouris in the 1990s - before Käthe Seidel's work caught on:

"Scientists from NASA, from Japan, from many institutes worldwide who have discovered her work have visited her to learn more, yet there is relatively little followup given its scope and importance except for the remarkable installations for which she has been more or less directly responsible.

"Why?" I asked her, as we sat in the huge old mansion that served as headquarters for the Limnology Group, in the midst of a nature preserve near Krefeld in Germany, where she now lives alone until her immanent eviction, due to sale of the property by the Max Planck Institute.

Her answer was telling. "Men always reach for technology, for development. They insist it will bring us to higher levels of progress. They haven't the patience to work with slow-growing plants, nor do they understand natural cycles as women do. They see my work as farming, not engineering, so they go away and return to their machinery."

"Wait till we run out of water," I countered. "They'll all come running to you then."

"It will be too late then," she said matter-of-factly in her rich, low register voice. "Neither these cabinets, nor the research reports in them, nor I, will be around."

[Sadly, yet perhaps predictably, Dr. Seidel passed away a few months after her eviction.]"

Wikipedia article on Käthe Seidel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A4the_Seidel

The rest of Sahtouris' story: https://www.ratical.org/LifeWeb/Articles/rushes.html

Palantir: Powered by Fascism ™️

Palantir posted a manifesto that reads like the ramblings of a comic book villain

https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/palantir-posted-a-manifesto-that-reads-like-the-ramblings-of-a-comic-book-villain-181947361.html?src=rss

#Palantir #Fascism #Tech

Researchers warn of severe long-term damage to the brain after Covid following new study.

"A study published in January followed essential workers who had provided blood samples both before and after contracting Covid. It found that people who developed long-term neurological symptoms after Covid also showed increased levels of phosphorylated tau, a protein linked to early brain degeneration."

Source: https://www.uniladtech.com/science/research-warns-long-term-brain-damage-covid-650802-20260415

Study: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(25)00556-0/fulltext

Aside from Florida, nearly the entire contiguous U.S. has experienced earlier than average first plant blooms in 2026. Earlier springs can cause longer allergy seasons, accelerate wildfire risk, increase pests/mosquitoes, and lead to less reliable snow-fed water.

Map by: https://www.usanpn.org/data/maps/spring

Y’all, I want to talk about beans. And capitalism. And stupidity and greed. You know, the American Way.

Now Bean Clubs, ie people who trade beans, have been around forever. US clubs as far back as the 1800s, and the 4H Club has had an active Bean Club since the 1930s.

But #RanchoGordo has expensive beans for rich white people, and trademarked the term #BeanClub, and is threatening to sue anyone who uses the term. This has got to be one of the stupidest trademark claims I have ever seen. (Edit: I used copyright where I should have used trademark.)

They have literally sent cease and desist letters to heirloom bean growers and distributors.

Y’all, beans. We’re talking about beans. Late stage capitalism is so goddamn stupid. I’m tempted to go start a porn site called BeanClub, just for the giggles of it.

https://www.today.com/food/news/rancho-gordo-bean-club-trademark-cease-and-desist-rcna267350