artsyhonker | Reading

I have slept so much this week. Both Wednesday and Thursday evening I had a miraculous lack of commitments, and both evenings I thought "I could get a bunch of things done now" and instead ... went to sleep. And re-read Ocean's Echo because I needed a comfort reread, apparently.

Anyway, I had Friday off work and Monday is a bank holiday, and I spent my day off going to Woking and back to buy new ice hockey skates from the place my friend works. She's only been telling me since last July I will benefit from new skates, and I have finally reached a point of "ok FINE I will SPEND MONEY then". (In April I bought a new chestpad and a new pair of shorts, both from Bauer's women's range, both on visits to Puckstop opposite iceSheffield when I was there for Nationals, both providing this weird feeling of stuff actually fitting as opposed to simply covering the relevant body areas.) I had a lovely time picking out new skates with friend L: they are very pretty and fit amazingly, but also I am having to relearn how to skate in them and it feels very odd.

Today and Sunday I have the last two Kodiaks 2 "home" games of the season in Peterborough (we have one last game next weekend, away at Coventry). I'm going to keep using my old skates for these games because I'm not solid enough in the new ones yet. On Monday evening I have CUIHC full club formal hall, and a pretty green velvet dress to wear to it, thanks to a charity shop run at the end of January.

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/5/2/just-think-about-how-many-clams-you-could-scoop-up-with-these-things

Via MTSOfan - the ladles have fish “hidden” in them as an enrichment activity!

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/5/2/just-think-about-how-many-clams-you-could-scoop-up-with-these-things

bruces_poems_feed

Posted by Bruce-the-Sheep

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/05/its-morning-and-sun-carries-naked.html

It's morning and the sun carries naked treetops like antlers

*
Trucks emerge from the night
And vanish into the day

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/05/its-morning-and-sun-carries-naked.html

nanila posting in

awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

lhune posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) I was glad the receptor area for coffee spills was big enough when I forgot to put my cup under tge machine this morning ^^’

2) Change of plans means I am now at the hairdresser (otherwise it would’ve been a week later)

3) Sunshine at moment, with a bit of luck the rain will only arrive this evening

hyperlipid_feed

Posted by Peter

https://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2026/05/insulin-resistance-17-ros-nox2-ret-and.html

I'd like to just state, as I start this post, that I have absolutely no doubt that adding a modest dose of α-tocopherol to a lard based obesogenic high fat diet is protective against the associated fatty liver and liver damage. The mechanism is not clear to me as yet, but while pondering it a perfectly reasonable explanation for the problems caused by higher doses of α-tocopherol became apparent. That's what this post is about.

I want to discuss the supplementary figure S2:

taken from

α‐Tocopherol suppresses hepatic steatosis by increasing CPT‐1 expression in a mouse model of diet‐induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

ALT is a routine indicator of liver damage, more specifically, of hepatocellular injury.

I'm interested in how progressively increasing levels of dietary α-tocopherol produce worsening liver damage on an high linoleic acid background. I've added in, from Fig 1 panel C, the measured plasma levels of vitamin E involved for the two oral dose rates which we are given, plus I've removed those parts of the chart which are not relevant to the discussion:

From other parts of the paper the group realised that CPT1, the main mitochondrial fatty acid uptake protein, is down regulated in α-tocopherol liver damage and that down regulating CPT1 function using an inhibitor restores the toxicity eliminated by α-tocopherol added at 50mg/kg to the high fat diet. I agree that the role of CPT1 down regulation might be important to the hepatotoxicity of high dose α-tocopherol.

So they went to a cell culture model to see if α-tocopherol reduced CPT1 activity in HepG2 cells.

This is their bar chart:

and this is the line I wish to discuss:

People may have noticed that I have ignored the value for 1μM of added α-tocopherol so here's an aside to attempt to justify this fudge. I have several reasons for this. Primarily it doesn't fit my hypothesis, you have been warned. Added to this is that it has a higher standard deviation than all other bars on the chart, especially those containing α-tocopherol. It's very difficult to interpret this because the methods do not specify if the cell cultures were replicated, if repeated aliquots of tissue protein from the cell culture were analysed and averaged or whether Western Blots were repeated and the data presented are the averages of several densiometry measurements. We could tell a fairy tale which looks like this, with tightly grouped results in four of the bars but with one outlier at 1μM in culture:

the elimination of which would allow us to redraw the bar chart to look more like this:

I have to emphasise that this is a COMPLETELY hypothetical situation. The only problem is that it makes sense once we think about mechanisms.

So let's think.

It takes thirty seconds on any search engine to ascertain that insulin controls the transcription and expression of the gene for CPT1, negatively.

The more we facilitate insulin signalling, the lower CPT1 will be. These are the terms in which we need to be looking at the cell culture results.

The cells were cultured, for 24h, in "10% fetal calf serum/Roswell park memorial institute (FCS/RPMI)‐1640 (Sigma)" which not only provides 25mM of glucose and everything else a cell might want, it also provides significant amounts of insulin and IGF1.

They were then transferred to 1% FCS/RPMI‐1640, which also routinely provides 25mM glucose but with no insulin, IGF1 or any appreciable fatty acids. These cells are quiescent and give a stable platform for assessing CPT1 production without the complication of rapid cell growth over 24h.

Anyone who has followed this blog for any number of years will be very aware that glucose, acting via an NADPH oxidase, in this case NOX2, is an insulin mimetic in its own right. A jump from 5mmol/l to 10mmol/l in humans with pharmacologically fixed insulin levels will demonstrate this insulin-like signal.

This is the paper and this is my doodle drawn on somebody else's doodle:

Equally, we can go to this paper and see that glucose at 30mmol/l produces a seriously damaging level of ROS and insulin *resistance*. Here's my doodle:

The full discussion is in this blog post.

In cell culture at 25mM glucose I would posit that there is a serious ROS signal being produced in the complete absence of insulin which looks, from an HepG2 cell's perspective, a lot like supra-peak insulin signalling. And it's stable. The cells are not like mice, they don't do meals. There is a constant ROS signal equivalent to supra-physiological insulin. This "insulin-like" ROS signal, by imitating insulin, sets our CPT1 baseline level in this column of the bar chart:

Our next move is to look what happens when we add 1μM (a small amount) of oleate to that base line ROS signal. Oleate dose nothing to ROS production via NOX2 but does generate its own ROS signal via RET, as per Protons. The increase is enough to go from insulin resistance levels of ROS to even more insulin resisting ROS, more insulin resistance and this allows more CPT1 production, as in the blue oval:

Bear in mind that there is no insulin. At all. These extra ROS will suppress insulin-like signalling but negative feedback limiting insulin signalling is unable to reduce the ROS because the ROS are not, in this case, from insulin.

But ultimately we can reduce the ROS signal by adding α-tocopherol.

Adding 0.1μM of α-tocopherol is just too little to do anything, we can imagine the blue oval moved one column to the right.

The addition of 1μM of α-tocopherol *should* reduce the ROS signal and allow sightly better insulin signalling which might reinstate a little of the suppression of CPT1 by lowering the ROS signal back closer toward to peak insulin-mimesis. In my imagination like this:

As more and more α-tocopherol is added the levels of ROS are stabilised at lower and lower levels until, somewhere between 25μM and 50μM of α-tocopherol, the added ROS from the oleic acid are neutralised and suppression of ROS now equates the control levels of insulin resisting ROS seen in the control cells.

But these control cells are still looking at 25mM of glucose and, at the high levels of ROS this will be generating, there is still more scope to improve the insulin-like signal towards more effective CPT1 suppression by reducing ROS further out of insulin resistance and toward insulin signalling levels. This happens with 20-50μM of α-tocopherol.

That's what I think is happening.

It's cell culture. It's as close to steady state as we can imagine. It almost certainly tells us something interesting about high levels of ROS at or above peak insulin levels and how manipulating these levels downwards has some effect on insulin signalling downstream of ROS generation.

Just before I take a break we can look at this in terms that I've viewed ROS mediated insulin mimesis before.

That's using the concept from

Evidence for Electron Transfer Reactions Involved in the Cu2+-dependent Thiol Activation of Fat Cell Glucose Utilization

and this well worn graph:

Looking at intact organisms I modified this to show an (arbitrary) upper limit to insulin derived ROS set by the negative feedback cells use to resist the action of real, actual insulin. It looked like this:

But in cell culture with glucose fixed at 25M there is no negative feedback and, though insulin signalling does still become obtunded, ROS generation can exceed that mediated by peak insulin and we end up with a graph very much like the one in Czech's seminal paper where ROS were added from a bottle of hydrogen peroxide:

In the current case we are achieving supra-peak ROS generation using NOX2 and 25mM glucose and then even more by adding to this level of ROS that from oleic acid a 1μM like this:

The in vitro data points are capable of reducing insulin-like signalling by raising ROS. We can then add in the likely ROS reductions mediated by α-tocopherol and see the progressive improvement in insulin signalling.

Which, of course, suppresses CPT1 protein production.

Just as a final "dig" at α-tocopherol 1μM, the two places where it could have acted to markedly reduce insulin signalling, via either high or low ROS, to facilitate CPT1 suppression are these:

I don't buy it.

To summarise: In cells generating stable insulin resisting levels of ROS α-tocopherol moves the ROS signal closer towards imitating an effective insulin-like signal. We can put the same information directly on to Czech's graph like this:

Of course, insulin stores fat.

If you store fat in liver cells you get fatty liver. Does this happen in vivo? When plasma levels are 163μmol/l, rather than the 50μM used in cell culture? Under dynamic insulin signalling conditions?

This not as simple as it seems. A live mouse is not a cell in culture with 4.0mM of added hydrogen peroxide out of a bottle or an added ROS signal from metabolic manipulation via culture medium, both of which can be reduced by a simple antioxidant. In-vivo there are limits to ROS generation and it's the movement of these limits which matters.

Peter

https://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2026/05/insulin-resistance-17-ros-nox2-ret-and.html

starandrea

Yay beach! Happy May ♥

pepysdiary_feed

Posted by Samuel Pepys

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/05/01/

Up betimes and my father with me, and he and I all the morning and Will Stankes private, in my wife’s closet above, settling our matters concerning our Brampton estate, &c., and I find that there will be, after all debts paid within 100l., 50l. per annum clear coming towards my father’s maintenance, besides 25l. per annum annuities to my Uncle Thomas and Aunt Perkins. Of which, though I was in my mind glad, yet thought it not fit to let my father know it thoroughly, but after he had gone out to visit my uncle Thomas and brought him to dinner with him, and after dinner I got my father, brother Tom, and myself together, I did make the business worse to them, and did promise 20l. out of my own purse to make it 50l. a year to my father, propounding that Stortlow may be sold to pay 200l. for his satisfaction therein and the rest to go towards payment of debts and legacies. The truth is I am fearful lest my father should die before debts are paid, and then the land goes to Tom and the burden of paying all debts will fall upon the rest of the land. Not that I would do my brother any real hurt. I advised my father to good husbandry and to living within the compass of 50l. a year, and all in such kind words, as not only made, them but myself to weep, and I hope it will have a good effect. That being done, and all things agreed on, we went down, and after a glass of wine we all took horse, and I, upon a horse hired of Mr. Game, saw him out of London, at the end of Bishopsgate Street, and so I turned and rode, with some trouble, through the fields, and then Holborn, &c., towards Hide Park, whither all the world, I think, are going, and in my going, almost thither, met W. Howe coming galloping upon a little crop black nag; it seems one that was taken in some ground of my Lord’s, by some mischance being left by his master, a thief; this horse being found with black cloth ears on, and a false mayne, having none of his own; and I back again with him to the Chequer, at Charing Cross, and there put up my own dull jade, and by his advice saddled a delicate stone-horse of Captain Ferrers’s, and with that rid in state to the Park, where none better mounted than I almost, but being in a throng of horses, seeing the King’s riders showing tricks with their managed horses, which were very strange, my stone-horse was very troublesome, and begun to, fight with other horses, to the dangering him and myself, and with much ado I got out, and kept myself out of harm’s way.

Here I saw nothing good, neither the King, nor my Lady Castlemaine, nor any great ladies or beauties being there, there being more pleasure a great deal at an ordinary day; or else those few good faces that there were choked up with the many bad ones, there being people of all sorts in coaches there, to some thousands, I think.

Going thither in the highway, just by the Park gate, I met a boy in a sculler boat, carried by a dozen people at least, rowing as hard as he could drive, it seems upon some wager.

By and by, about seven or eight o’clock, homeward; and changing my horse again, I rode home, coaches going in great crowds to the further end of the town almost. In my way, in Leadenhall Street, there was morris-dancing which I have not seen a great while. So set my horse up at Game’s, paying 5s. for him. And so home to see Sir J. Minnes, who is well again, and after staying talking with him awhile, I took leave and went to hear Mrs. Turner’s daughter, at whose house Sir J. Minnes lies, play on the harpsicon; but, Lord! it was enough to make any man sick to hear her; yet I was forced to commend her highly.

So home to supper and to bed, Ashwell playing upon the tryangle very well before I went to bed.

This day Captain Grove sent me a side of pork, which was the oddest present, sure, that was ever made any man; and the next, I remember I told my wife, I believe would be a pound of candles, or a shoulder of mutton; but the fellow do it in kindness, and is one I am beholden to.

So to bed very weary, and a little galled for lack of riding, praying to God for a good journey to my father, of whom I am afeard, he being so lately ill of his pain.

Read the annotations

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/05/01/

kaberett

Today has been. the first time in A While that I have spent mostly horizontal and mostly asleep on account of migraine, despite drugs. I am Not A Fan.

( Read more... )

dark_kana posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) no working day! Sleeping in a little this morning

2) gorgeous weather. Wearing a lovely dress and enjoying a BBQ with hubby's BFF

3) going to work on my crochet project this evening

choco_frosh

Y'know what? From now on, I am just going to tell everyone that I'm too irresponsible to own and take care of either an apartment or a car.

(Guess who apparently left a light on in his car [? or something?], and now is going to need a new battery and probably a tow truck? It Me.)

bruces_poems_feed

Posted by Bruce-the-Sheep

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/05/yesterday-you-fell-asleep-margarida.html

Yesterday you fell asleep, we
still had all the knives in our mouths,
three unused.

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/05/yesterday-you-fell-asleep-margarida.html

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/5/1/that-face-when-you-finally-scratch-that-itch

Via uso_otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/5/1/that-face-when-you-finally-scratch-that-itch

rmc28

Books on pre-order:

Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May)
Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie (12 May)
Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec)
Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027)

Books acquired in April:

and unread:
1. Greater Good (Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy 2) by Timothy Zahn
and previously read:
1. Warhorse by Timothy Zahn

Borrowed books read in April:

Like Real People Do by E.L. Massey
Like You've Nothing Left to Prove by E.L. Massey
Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

Rereads in April:

Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

April had a lot of ice hockey and a lot of driving (including two separate Nationals tournaments), and thus relatively little reading. One day I will actually read the Thrawn books, honest ...

greatpoets_feed

Posted by duathir

https://greatpoets.livejournal.com/4189960.html

Cross-post from

war_poetry:

Howl Under a Blue Light Filtered Moon
(Dedicated to Allen Ginsberg)

I saw the best minds of my generation scrolling themselves to death,
starved for meaning, lit by the blue glow of a thousand screens,
dragged through the feed at 3 A.M. looking for something real.

Angels of burnout, prophets of anxiety,
wired into coffee and code and self-diagnosis,
naked in their rooms, refreshing the apocalypse for updates.

Who texted their prayers into the void and got an emoji in return,
who built their gods out of hashtags and dopamine,
who confessed their sins to algorithms that sold them better ones.

Who wandered suburbia in eternal leases,
tethered to Wi-Fi, dreaming of the open road but afraid of gas prices,
who howled under fluorescent lights of office towers
as their dreams were formatted into PowerPoints.

Who made love to ghosts through pixelated glass,
mouths pressed to screens, hearts buffering,
and cried out for human touch in the language of memes.

Who believed in justice and were met with comment sections,
who marched, livestreamed, and bled for change
while billionaires built rockets to leave them behind.

Who raged against the machine
only to find the machine was polite,
efficient,
and offered a free trial.

Who searched for beauty and found filters,
who searched for truth and found ads,
who searched for God and found Wi-Fi signal
two bars, unstable, but better than nothing.

Who traded their time for content,
their thoughts for engagement,
their solitude for a sense of being seen.

Who sat in therapy learning to breathe again
after years of holding their breath online.

Who drove through endless sameness: Target, Starbucks, Costco,
each city identical, a looped simulation of convenience,
who whispered, is this all there is?
and the algorithm whispered back, You might also like…

Who raised children in a collapsing climate
and taught them to recycle while billionaires mined their future,
who prayed for rain and got floods,
who prayed for peace and got ads for antidepressants.

Who loved recklessly anyway,
who built gardens in vacant lots,
who found poetry in protest signs,
and community in the ruins of comment threads.

Who refused to be quiet,
who kept creating,
kept dreaming,
kept breaking open
in a world that profits from our numbness.

I saw the best minds of my generation rediscovering touch,
planting trees, turning off their phones,
staring at the stars again,
saying softly,
maybe this is enough.

By Elden Locke

.

https://greatpoets.livejournal.com/4189960.html

ysabetwordsmith posting in

crowdfunding

What are your planned crowdfunding projects for May? What did you accomplish during April?

The May

crowdfunding Creative Jam will run Saturday 16-Sunday 17 with a theme of "Quests."

Current Mood: busy

nanila posting in

awesomeers

anais_pf posting in

thefridayfive

These questions were written by

pebbleinalake.

1. Do you like to spend time outdoors?

2. What is your favorite flower?

3. Any favorite warm weather activities?

4. Have you ever kept a garden? If so, what did you grow?

5. Do you know how to swim?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**

starandrea

The dahlias are outside. I hope I don't regret that in the morning,* but they looked so happy and there are just so many of them. Originally I thought putting them on a tray near the back door meant we could carry them outside (on the tray) during the day and bring them back in the same way at night. Ha ha. They are much too big for that.

( picture )

*"Star, didn't you set up not one but two popup greenhouses outside the back door?" I did, yes, and one of them is full of unsprouted cannas and the other one is full of patio furniture and houseplants, so clearly the space is well-planned and efficiently utilized.

( picture )

I should clarify, all the dahlias are too big to easily move, but some are tall and spindly despite my efforts to feed them artificial sun. I see now that putting the smaller tubers in smaller pots disadvantaged them in the race for light: the smaller pots were shorter, and that inch or two made a difference. Anyway, I put the bushy ones outside and left the skinny ones inside under the plant lights for now.

( picture )

I moved the blueberry twigs out too and put the indoor cannas where the blueberries used to be. I set up a dedicated seedling light next to them for the nasturtiums (and Cheri's cosmos and Marci's sagelings). I hope the seedling light turned itself off. I just realized I didn't check, but hopefully I plugged it into the timer side of the outlet strip.

( picture )

I also have some montauk daisy cuttings inside: my neighbor told me to just put them in the ground, but it's been so dry, and they'd be great out by the street if I can get them growing, so I started them in water. They are not happy. But another neighbor dug up some geraniums for the shade garden, and they bounced back after just a day, so the spring plant migration has begun. (All that discarded pachysandra and vinca definitely didn't hurt.)

In conclusion, here is a relatable short video by jesuisbaggsy on youtube: The thing that threw me most about neurotypical living was their homes. (They have spare rooms! "that's different")

In further conclusion, here are some pretty pictures for reading all of that.

( bridge garden - with bridge! )

( unrelated vet notes )

pepysdiary_feed

Posted by Samuel Pepys

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/04/30/

Up, and after drinking my morning draft with my father and W. Stankes, I went forth to Sir W. Batten, who is going (to no purpose as he uses to do) to Chatham upon a survey.

So to my office, where till towards noon, and then to the Exchange, and back home to dinner, where Mrs. Hunt [L&M say “Mr Hunt” P.G.], my father, and W. Stankes; but, Lord! what a stir Stankes makes with his being crowded in the streets and wearied in walking in London, and would not be wooed by my wife and Ashwell to go to a play, nor to White Hall, or to see the lyons,¹ though he was carried in a coach. I never could have thought there had been upon earth a man so little curious in the world as he is.

At the office all the afternoon till 9 at night, so home to cards with my father, wife, and Ashwell, and so to bed.

Footnotes

Read the annotations

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/04/30/

kaberett

Went into town this afternoon to post some things, and observed Several Creatures. The blue butterfly around the lilac near the top of the hill was very welcome; the Egyptian goslings are starting to look almost grown up, with eye markings and a general reduction in fluff and increase in sleek!

(Elsewise today: SLEEP, post-gym Spatzen, more free electrons and therefore more laundry; both social and solitary wiggles; good therapy; and some Tentatively Positive Communication re Admin: the LRP.)

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/4/30/steph-who-lebron-who

Via Oregon Zoo, which writes, “Positive-reinforcement training like this basketball practice plays a critical role in animal well-being, and helps keep the sea otters healthy and active as they age. Rip (Tide) City!”

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/4/30/steph-who-lebron-who

lhune posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) Lunch on my sunny balcony where I’m mostly shielded from the wind

2) Reading one of those books that I bought some time ago but never got to ^^

3) ~~Possibly going to an art fair this evening~~ Didn't go to the art fair but I did receive the mail I had been waiting for from my landlord. I feared they were ignoring my messages.

bruces_poems_feed

Posted by Bruce-the-Sheep

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/04/andrew-dreams-of-catherine-wheels.html

The Catherine Wheels run riot,
crackling through the night
like a herd
of excitable colts,

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/04/andrew-dreams-of-catherine-wheels.html

nanila posting in

awesomeers

pepysdiary_feed

Posted by Samuel Pepys

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/04/29/

Up betimes, and after having at my office settled some accounts for my Lord Sandwich, I went forth, and taking up my father at my brother’s, took coach and towards Chelsey, ’lighting at an alehouse near the Gatehouse at Westminster to drink our morning draught, and so up again and to Chelsey, where we found my Lord all alone at a little table with one joynt of meat at dinner; we sat down and very merry talking, and mightily extolling the manner of his retirement, and the goodness of his diet, which indeed is so finely dressed: the mistress of the house, Mrs. Becke, having been a woman of good condition heretofore, a merchant’s wife, and hath all things most excellently dressed; among others, her cakes admirable, and so good that my Lord’s words were, they were fit to present to my Lady Castlemaine.

From ordinary discourse my Lord fell to talk of other matters to me, of which chiefly the second part of the fray, which he told me a little while since of, between Mr. Edward Montagu and himself, which is that after that he had since been with him three times and no notice taken at all of any difference between them, and yet since that he hath forborn coming to him almost two months, and do speak not only slightly of my Lord every where, but hath complained to my Lord Chancellor of him, and arrogated all that ever my Lord hath done to be only by his direction and persuasion. Whether he hath done the like to the King or no, my Lord knows not; but my Lord hath been with the King since, and finds all things fair; and my Lord Chancellor hath told him of it, but with so much contempt of Mr. Montagu, as my Lord knows himself very secure against any thing the fool can do; and notwithstanding all this, so noble is his nature, that he professes himself ready to show kindness and pity to Mr. Montagu on any occasion.

My Lord told me of his presenting Sir H. Bennet with a gold cupp of 100l., which he refuses, with a compliment; but my Lord would have been glad he had taken it, that he might have had some obligations upon him which he thinks possible the other may refuse to prevent it; not that he hath any reason to doubt his kindness. But I perceive great differences there are at Court; and Sir H. Bennet and my Lord Bristol, and their faction, are likely to carry all things before them (which my Lord’s judgment is, will not be for the best), and particularly against the Chancellor, who, he tells me, is irrecoverably lost: but, however, that he will not actually joyne in anything against the Chancellor, whom he do own to be his most sure friend, and to have been his greatest; and therefore will not openly act in either, but passively carry himself even.

The Queen, my Lord tells me, he thinks he hath incurred some displeasure with, for his kindness to his neighbour, my Lady Castlemaine. My Lord tells me he hath no reason to fall for her sake, whose wit, management, nor interest, is not likely to hold up any man, and therefore he thinks it not his obligation to stand for her against his own interest.

The Duke and Mr. Coventry my Lord says he is very well with, and fears not but they will show themselves his very good friends, specially at this time, he being able to serve them, and they needing him, which he did not tell me wherein.

Talking of the business of Tangier, he tells me that my Lord Tiviott is gone away without the least respect paid to him, nor indeed to any man, but without his commission; and (if it be true what he says) having laid out seven or eight thousand pounds in commodities for the place; and besides having not only disobliged all the Commissioners for Tangier, but also Sir Charles Barkeley the other day, who, speaking in behalf of Colonel Fitz-Gerald, that having been deputy-governor there already, he ought to have expected and had the governorship upon the death or removal of the former governor. And whereas it is said that he and his men are Irish, which is indeed the main thing that hath moved the King and Council to put in Tiviott to prevent the Irish having too great and the whole command there under Fitz-Gerald; he further said that there was never an Englishman fit to command Tangier; my Lord Tiviott answered yes, that there were many more fit than himself or Fitz-Gerald either. So that Fitz-Gerald being so great with the Duke of York, and being already made deputy-governor, independent of my Lord Tiviott, and he being also left here behind him for a while, my Lord Sandwich do think that, putting all these things together, the few friends he hath left, and the ill posture of his affairs, my Lord Tiviott is not a man of the conduct and management that either people take him to be, or is fit for the command of the place.

And here, speaking of the Duke of York and Sir Charles Barkeley, my Lord tells me that he do very much admire the good management, and discretion, and nobleness of the Duke, that whatever he may be led by him or Mr. Coventry singly in private, yet he did not observe that in publique matters, but he did give as ready hearing and as good acceptance to any reasons offered by any other man against the opinions of them, as he did to them, and would concur in the prosecution of it. Then we came to discourse upon his own sea accompts, and came to a resolution what and how to proceed in them; wherein he resolved, though I offered him a way of evading the greatest part of his debt honestly, by making himself debtor to the Parliament, before the King’s time, which he might justly do, yet he resolved to go openly and nakedly in it, and put himself to the kindness of the King and Duke, which humour, I must confess, and so did tell him (with which he was not a little pleased) had thriven very well with him, being known to be a man of candid and open dealing, without any private tricks or hidden designs as other men commonly have in what they do.

From that we had discourse of Sir G. Carteret, who he finds kind to him, but it may be a little envious, and most other men are, and of many others; and upon the whole do find that it is a troublesome thing for a man of any condition at Court to carry himself even, and without contracting enemys or envyers; and that much discretion and dissimulation is necessary to do it. My father staid a good while at the window and then sat down by himself while my Lord and I were thus an hour together or two after dinner discoursing, and by and by he took his leave, and told me he would stay below for me.

Anon I took leave, and coming down found my father unexpectedly in great pain and desiring for God’s sake to get him a bed to lie upon, which I did, and W. Howe and I staid by him, in so great pain as I never saw, poor wretch, and with that patience, crying only: Terrible, terrible pain, God help me, God help me, with the mournful voice, that made my heart ake. He desired to rest a little alone to see whether it would abate, and W. Howe and I went down and walked in the gardens, which are very fine, and a pretty fountayne, with which I was finely wetted, and up to a banquetting house, with a very fine prospect, and so back to my father, who I found in such pain that I could not bear the sight of it without weeping, never thinking that I should be able to get him from thence, but at last, finding it like to continue, I got him to go to the coach, with great pain, and driving hard, he all the while in a most unsufferable torment (meeting in the way with Captain Ferrers going to my Lord, to tell him that my Lady Jemimah is come to town, and that Will Stankes is come with my father’s horses), not staying the coach to speak with any body, but once, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, we were forced to stay, the jogging and pain making my father vomit, which it never had done before. At last we got home, and all helping him we got him to bed presently, and after half an hour’s lying in his naked bed (it being a rupture [with] which he is troubled, and has been this 20 years, but never in half the pain and with so great swelling as now, and how this came but by drinking of cold small beer and sitting long upon a low stool and then standing long after it he cannot tell) … —[We are not going to be told the treatment. D.W.]— [his bowells went up again into his belly, being got forth into his cod, as it seems is usual with very many men. – L&M] After which he was at good ease, and so continued, and so fell to sleep, and we went down whither W. Stankes was come with his horses. But it is very pleasant to hear how he rails at the rumbling and ado that is in London over it is in the country, that he cannot endure it.

He supped with us, and very merry, and then he to his lodgings at the Inne with the horses, and so we to bed, I to my father who is very well again, and both slept very well.

Read the annotations

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/04/29/

kaberett

DID make it to the post office and get A Parcel into the post!
DID make it to THE GYM, and was Charmed to notice that one of the other regulars was wearing unexpected-by-me nail varnish.
We brought home many Field Treets and I am continuing to merrily vacuum them up with my horrid little mouth!
Saw the bat! Hello bat. What a good bat you are.
Very much enjoyed the Graun on a photographer who spent a year following the ZSL veterinary team (NB multiple images of post mortems in there).
Negative electricity prices for a while in there today meant: Much More Laundry (most of which is dry), surprise and delight at A running the underfloor heating in the bathroom (WOM FEET); b r e a d; experimental autopyrolitic oven cleaning.

ailbhe

In print, generally as ebooks:

The Green Man's Foe by Juliet McKenna

I'm reading it very very slowly and in little bits, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I have a bunch of these lined up for if I ever, you know, get my mojo back.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

This is the Georgette Heyer Readalong gang's current Readalong book - we discuss it in a chat on Sunday evenings. I can safely say I would not be reading it otherwise; a slow, analytical read doesn't show it in its best light, and I'm too tired these days to read a book in a sitting overnight when I ought to be asleep but am actually eating cereal out of the bag and desperately trying to find out what happens to Hero McHeroface.

Unveiled by Courtney Milan

I finished this and fully intend to write about it sometime. But I liked it, anyway.

Audiobooks:

I started Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir but it was too dark for me in early January, so then I switched to re-listening to seven Murderbot books in a row, which was lovely, and A Civil Contract by Heyer which I find very reliable for going to sleep. I started re-listening to two Emma Orchards but got distracted and switched to Temeraire because the publisher had re-issued the 4th one with the missing audio restored. I first read a Temeraire book in June 2008 and I've been rereading every so often since, and they are just reliably great. I'm interspersing those with Kowal's "Lady Astronaut" books (which I CANNOT fall asleep to because they are too exciting and so is the narration / performance).

Also, I've listened to 3 chapters of The Scarlet Pimpernel from the Gutenberg Project and I was very impressed. I must see what else they have.

wychwood

Meme via various people including

rmc28

Film I watched: in the cinema I think it was The Choral; otherwise, Miss H and I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy between finishing M*A*S*H and starting B5, which I hadn't seen for 20 years and enjoyed revisiting.
Series I finished: M*A*S*H season 11!
Book I finished: Choices, by LA Hall, which was the "fun" book in my "currently reading" collection.
Book I bought: I bought half-a-dozen Terry Pratchett ebooks on 99p sale yesterday; paper would have been An Immense World by Ed Yong, which I'm halfway through and enjoying a lot.
Book I received as a gift: I asked for tokens in the last rounds of present-giving, so it's been a little while... according to my journal, I got some for my birthday last year but the only one I mentioned specifically was House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones, from my singing lesson buddies.
Food I ate: I had porridge for breakfast, but have eaten some bacon-flavour Wheat Crunchies and four Lindor truffles since then (white, milk, salted caramel, coconut).
Meal I cooked: Porridge, if "pouring boiling water on it" counts as cooking! If not, uh... I've had mostly cold food, couple of boiled eggs, uhhhh, pasta with pesto and cheese for lunch on Monday is the last actual cooking, I think.
Drink I had: Water! I did have some deeply mediocre fizzy lemonade as part of a sandwich meal deal a couple of weeks back if you don't want to count that, which is useful because otherwise I'd have been going back a year or two...
Song I listened to: If that means "track", I'm just listening to the end of Bach's variation 12a in the Art of Fugue! If actual singing, apparently "You Got the Car" by Kasey Chambers, according to my mp3 player, which lives on shuffle.
Album I listened to: I bought a couple of organ CDs at the concert I went to on Monday, so those.
Playlist I listened to: I think I listened to one of my playlists at work the other day, maybe the Space Songs one?
Concert I went to: For once I have a recent answer! I went to a lunchtime organ recital on Monday, performed by a friend from youth chorus who I hadn't seen in 25 years; it was lovely to see her, and the music was fun.
Game I played: Another level of Terra Nil on Monday
Person I talked to: I said good morning to a couple of people in the sprint review this morning before muting; with my actual face, the supermarket delivery person who brought my groceries on Monday night and had just seen a fox running down the site drive.
Person I texted:

toft, if WhatsApp counts; Miss H, if I count Teams; literal text message goes back a couple of weeks - I got a scam email from someone at church, and messaged her to let her know.

bruces_poems_feed

Posted by Bruce-the-Sheep

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/04/fascioners-of-progress-kendel-hippolyte.html

Because you do not heed the voices of Imagination,
neither the tongues of trees nor the voices of poets,
earth will erupt in a conspiracy of poetry and nature.

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/04/fascioners-of-progress-kendel-hippolyte.html

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/4/29/imagine-having-a-job-rescuing-abandoned-sea-otter-pups

Via VAMMRS, who posted this photo in celebration of Marine Mammal Rescue Day! Sea otter pups are all equally adorable, so I don’t know exactly which one this is.

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/4/29/imagine-having-a-job-rescuing-abandoned-sea-otter-pups

rmc28

The Last...

Movie I watched:
in the cinema: Project Hail Mary (2026)
on (my friend's) TV: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)
Series I finished: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 (2026)
Book I finished: Daughter of the Deep, by Rick Riordan (2021)
Book I bought:
bought outright: Warhorse, by Timothy Zahn (1990)
pre-ordered: Call Me Traitor, by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec 2026)
Book I received as a gift: Amsterdam, by Russell Shorto (2013) - given for Christmas 2023 according to my booklog, still languishing on the TBR
Food I ate: pressed nut+fruit snack bar to finish off my post-hockey-practice meal in the small hours this morning
Meal I cooked: porridge for Nico's breakfast this morning
Drink I had: pepsi max
Song I listened to: "Castle of Glass" by Linkin Park
Album I listened to: Hadestown OBCR
Playlist I listened to: "three-plus years in love (with hockey)" - which reminds me I need to figure out where Living on a Prayer fits into it, as we ended up belting it out as a team on the bench on Saturday, and yes it needs to go in (unless I start a new playlist for my fourth season ...)
Concert I went to: my friend and teammate's gig in Jesus College bar last month
Game I played: does ice hockey count? does Duolingo count? (though I gave up on it last year for being too gamified and no longer teaching me). I literally can't remember when I last played a board game and I don't really do computer games.
Person I talked to: Nico
Person I texted:
Individual: Charles
Groupchat: Kodiaks 2 leadership

nanila posting in

awesomeers

dark_kana posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) Gorgeous weather! Going to enjoy lunch in the sunshine and cycling to training

2) Reading a good book

3) Dinner with friends from volley. Really looking forward to that, it's been a while since I've last seen some of them... ^^

starandrea

The day really got away from me there. Like, I walked past the dahlias tonight and thought, I'd better see if they need water, and when I looked down I noticed the nasturtiums I thought hadn't sprouted yet were growing through the holes in the top of their container. (Also the dahlias needed water.)

If we're lucky we'll get to try again tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a picture of my dog.

kellan_the_tabby

[Remy, a big black dog with white toes and a white splotch running down his chest and belly, is sitting at the corner of the house. He’s staring off to the left of the camera, ears folded over.]

Just some stuff. Like a dog.

& what a dog he is!

[Remy’s looking right at the camera now, tongue hanging out in a big smile, ears perked forward in a friendly manner.]

& then he jumped on me, because he’s large & appalling.

There was a mouse in my trash can late one night! I almost managed to get it into a container with a lid, but those little bastards can JUMP.

[A perfectly standard brown field mouse is sitting in the bottom of a translucent plastic trash can, along with an ice cream sandwich wrapper. It’s making no attempt to hide, and its ears and whiskers are eloquent of curiosity.]

I also finally got the eye plants into iNaturalist, upon which it declared that they’re actually called ‘saltlovers’, Halogeton glomeratus. They’re invasive, of course, deadly to livestock, & tend to show up on disturbed soil — which is pretty much what we’ve got here. We haven’t got a ton of it, & there’s other stuff that’ll crowd it out, so I’m not real worried about it being here.

Also, it looks like this.

[Clusters of tiny flowers, pink in the center with translucent white petals all round, fill nearly the entire photo. There are also a few equally tiny green leaves.]

They’re neato! We just don’t need em.

[This photo’s much the same, with the addition of bright pink plant stems visible in with the flowers. They’re nearly the same color as the center of each flower.]

Apparently they taste pretty gross, too, so as long as your livestock have something else to eat, they’ll avoid them.

Still gonna see about pulling a bunch of them once the flowers start dying, but if we’ve always got a couple of them around, I think we can cope.

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

pepysdiary_feed

Posted by Samuel Pepys

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/04/28/

Up betimes and to my office, and there all the morning, only stepped up to see my wife and her dancing master at it, and I think after all she will do pretty well at it. So to dinner, Mr. Hunt dining with us, and so to the office, where we sat late, and then I to my office casting up my Lord’s sea accounts over again, and putting them in order for payment, and so home to supper and to bed.

Read the annotations

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/04/28/

kaberett

Last week I:

finished weaving in the ends on A's gloves (before we hit site for the first event of the year)
read more She's A Beast
ate a bunch of food I didn't have to cook (current experiment: do Lichfield brownie bars only taste That Good in a field?)
explored Steeplechase LRP Centre when it had PEOPLE on it (and also when it didn't)
including seeing a green woodpecker!
and SO many birds of prey
made a bunch of unilateral decisions about where tents would go directly affecting two other departments in response to external constraints, and redesigned internal tent layout on the fly in response to different external constraints, and... it all worked???
rethought several steps in the lost property process and goodness that works way better and is much less stressful

and then today has been about half and half "sleep" and "endless lost property paperwork". And Now: To Bed.

bruces_poems_feed

Posted by Bruce-the-Sheep

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/04/vyasas-instructions-hunter-and-hero.html

Beaming with a gentle lustre
Soft as rays of autumn night,
Graced witli auburn locks that clustered
Like a cloud with lightning bright!
Bearing grace in all its fulness
On his more than mortal form,
Filling every living creature
With affection pure and warm!
Speaking by his gentle features
Peaceful thoughts that filled his heart,
By his soft and trustful glances
Seeking confidence t' impart!
Mighty source of all the Vedas,
Source from whom all virtues flow,
Him the King Yudhishthir questioned,
Curious his great end to know.

"Unattained by mighty virtue,
Saint! thy visit is to me
Like a holy life's fruition.
Like the rain from cloudless sky!
Rites performed bear fruit to-day,
Brahmans' blessings bring forth weal,
Mighty Saint! since by thy visit
Honoured in this world I feel!
By its grace it conquers evils,
By its glory spreads our fame,
From thy kindness as from Brahma's,
Untold bliss and blessings come!
Not the moon with gentle radiance
Cheers my sad and weary eye, —
Now my heart forgets its sadness,
Beats with joy, for thou art nigh!
Thy desire I may not question,
Peaceful souls have no desires!
But a wish to hear thy utterance
With a boldness me inspires!"

In graceful words thus spoke the monarch;
Vyâsa, by his kindness led.
Anxious for the monarch's glory,
Thus unto Yudhishthir said:

"He who strives for fame and glory
Bears for all an equal love,
He who strives for peace and virtue
Should with love impartial move.
Yet my partial heart, O monarch,
Is by virtues drawn to thee;
Virtues have a power attractive
Even on holy saints and high.
Are ye not of race imperial.
Worthier far than Suyodhan?
Has the old king lost his reason¹
Thus to wrench from you your own?
And will fortune help a monarch
Who on Karna places trust?
Friendship with unrighteous mortals
Is but fame and honour lost!
When your foes left paths of virtue,
You in virtue took your rest ;
And midst changes, still unchanging,
Shewed forgiveness, ever blest!
Vainly did they seek to shame thee,
Man of ever changeless love!
'Tis thv wealth of worth and virtue
In true light their actions prove!
But mark my words! by valour only
You can win in battle's hour;
And in might is strong the foeman, —
Therefore seek increase in power.

"Jamadagni's son,² who conquered
Thrice seven times the kings of earth,
Great though he, the chieftain trembles
At great Bhishtna's³ mightier worth!
Death is powerless, death is conquered
By that chief's resistless power;
Trembles earth when mighty Bhishma
Wields his bow in battle's hour!
Doughty Drona!⁴ in the battle,
Speeding arrows in his ire,
Like a world-consuming furnace
With its quivering tongues of fire!
Fiery Kama learnt his lessons
From great Jamadagni's son.
Death himself, in Karna's⁵ presence
Owns a terror, strange, unknown!
These are chiefs, believe me, monarch,
Whom in battle thou shalt face!
Hence let Arjun with due penance
Seek celestial arms and grace.
Let him seek that gift of prowess
Gods themselves by penance crave, —
This, O monarch, is my mission, —
Win the gift that speeds the brave."

Then the great and mighty Arjun
Stept forth reverent and slow,
Bowing to Yudhishthir's mandate,
Like a student meek and low.
And the gift, the fiery mantra,
Issuing from the holy saint,
As the sunlight falls on lotus,
So unto great Arjun went!
And the mantra's sacred radiance.
Which the hero proudly wore,
Quickly oped his eye of reason,
Taught him secrets of deep lore!
And his form betokened glory,
And his heart was fixed and strong,
Urging penance pure and holy,
Vyâsa spoke to Arjun young.

"Strengthened by this mantra, Arjun!
Yielding thy own place to none,
Girt in arms perform thy penance.
Unto fasts, ablutions prone.
Let this Yaksha lead thee, youth!
To the lofty golden hill,—
There you do your sacred penance,
Please great Indra, do his will."

Thus speaking to the mighty chief
The saint evanished from his view,
Obedient to his sacred word
Appeared the Yaksha, faithful, true.
The Yaksha bowed and felt a love
For Arjun, gentle in his speech;
The pure are quick in confidence.
And fi'iendship is not far to reach.

As darkness fills Sumeru's bowers
When slow the god of day departs,
The parting from the mighty Arjun
Filled with grief his brothers' hearts.
Dispelled awhile by sense of duty, —
Albeit so strong was brothers' love, —
The sorrow of the parting brothers,
Though keen, did not oppressive prove.
And hope and trust in Arjun's might.
And bitter hatred of the foe,
And confidence in Arjun's power
Dispelled the brothers' common woe.
As darkness leaves the hours of day
And seeks the stillness of the night.
Thus sorrow left the mighty chiefs,
And fell on Krishnâ⁶ in its might.
As flakes of snow the lotus fills
Spontaneous tear-drops filled her eye,
Nor could she weep, for tear-drops shed
Might be an inauspicious sign!
One look she gave, 'twas dear to soul, —
And Arjun caught the parting grace, —
His treasure and memento dear
Through pathless woods and weary days.
By grief her tender heart was wrung.
Like summer rills by tuskers soiled;
Her voice was choked with tears restrained,
She spoke in accents sweet and wild.

"Restorer of our ancient fame,
Now trailed in mire by foemen's art,
Until thy mighty penance ends,
Our absence should not pain thy heart.
In fame's pursuit, in pleasure's quest,
In deeds which glorious records fill,
Unfailing Fortune leans to him
Who labours with a mighty will!
To rule the world was Kshatriya made,
His wealth is conquering power in strife!
Disgrace, alas! has quenched that power, —
To true-born warriors dear as life!
Disgrace, which kings in distant lands
Have doubting heard, heads bent in shame!
Which stains our former stainless worth,
Our world embracing mighty fame!
Disgrace, which wipes our former deeds.
And hides in gloom our glory's blaze!
Which wipes our future prospects fair.
As evening wipes the sun's last rays!
Disgrace by hated foemen dealt, —
This bitter thought is cruel, smart!
Disgrace which in thy absence, chief!
Will freshen in this sorrowing heart.

"How changed thou art! like wounded tuskers.
Prowess lost, and glory faded.
Deprived of power by foemen's wile,
Like day by clouds of autumn shaded!
Thy arms unused have lost their glow.
Nor deck thee as they did of yore;
Thy form how changed, like summer lakes,
Now faded by the loss of power!
Duhsâsan dragged me by this hair!
Untied they are, their lord is fate!
On thy great fame they cast reproach,
Oh! art thou Dhananjay⁷ the great?
A Kshatriya he who can protect —
A bow is useful in the war —
But vain their import if they fail
In virtues by their name they bear.
Thy warlike virtues, all but dead,
Ingloriously thy rise await,
And seem to share our common grief.
And imitate our common plight!

"But rash thy foemen thee insult.
As tuskers touch a lion's mane!
Duty for thy worth elects thee,
As the day elects the sun!
A hero's deeds all deeds excel.
And fill the glorious rolls of fame;
A hero's name holds foremost place
When men their mighty chieftains name!
Then be a hero! do thy deeds, —
And if perchance within thy heart,
A thought of us awakes a pang,
May Indra every grief avert!
In sacred spots, from dangers free.
May all thy time in safety pass;
Beware the wicked, impure foes
Who turn against the pure, alas!
Thy duty calls thee! Arjun, go!
Perform the saint's behest in peace;
And all our dearest hopes fulfilling,
Come thou to our dear embrace!"

Thus spoke Drupad's noble daughter,
Deepening his resentment high;
And he crimsoned in bis anger
Like the sun in northern sky!
Accoutred in his mighty weapons,
Fancying all his foes before,
As spells assume a power terrific.
He a form terrific wore!
The bow before which foemen trembled,
Famed by many a mighty deed.
The quivers never seen by foemen,
And the long and shining blade,
And his gem-bespangled armour.
Like the star-decked sky, — he wore!
Scars by Indra's darts inflicted,
Hid by glory evermore!
Guided by the faithful Yaksba
He unto the mountains hied,
Filled the hearts of saints with sorrow,
As with tears the chief they eyed.

A heavenlv music filled the realms on high.
And fragrant blossoms gently fell from sky.
And the sea with breakers ever restless
Clasped the earth to whisper words of sweetness!
Bhāravi (6th century) India
Translated by Romesh Chunder Dutt
From "The Hunter and the Hero"
Source: Lays of ancient India. Selections from Indian poetry rendered into English verse
by Romesh Chunder Dutt; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1894

Durycidhana's father, who banished the Pandava brothers after they had staked and lost their kingdom.
Parasurama, a Brahman and son of Jamadagni, is said to have conquered and slaughtered the Kshatriyas twenty-one times. The struggle for supremacy which went on for centuries between the priests and kings of India (as in Europe in the Middle Ages) is darkly indicated in Parasnrama's story.
Bhishnia, a great-uncle of Yudhishthira and Duryodhan alike, was the mightiest of the mighty warriors among the Kurus. He is said to have been safe from death except by his own will.
Drona, a Brahman, and preceptor of the Pandavas and of Durodhana in arms. He was famed for forming phalanxes in battle.
Karna, king of Anga or East Behar, was a fiery and wild chief, and was favoured by Duryodhana, because he was the only warrior among the princes of the age who was a match for Arjima in archery and skill of arms.
Krishnâ (with a long â) is a name of Dranpadi. Krishna (with a short a) is the name of the Yadava chief, the ally of the Pandavas.
A name of Arjuna. Duhsâsana, a brother of Duryodhana, dragged Draupadi by the hair after Yudhishthira had lost his kingdom. Drauadl declined to braid her hair after that till that insult was revenged.

<< (Book II) Yudhishthira's reply (Book IV) Autumn fields >>

https://brucespoems.blogspot.com/2026/04/vyasas-instructions-hunter-and-hero.html

dark_kana posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) a hot water bottle to relax my aching back/shoulder/neck muscles

2) enjoyed eating outside in the sunshine with hubby for lunch

3) lazy evening, going to work on my crochet project. Or read a library book

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/4/28/now-this-is-a-party

Via Alaska SeaLife Center, which writes:

This is what we call a sea otter party! 🦦 🥳

All four otters change their social groups multiple times a day, and on this day all four got to come together for an enrichment party!

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/4/28/now-this-is-a-party

cmcmck

Stirling is on the River Forth.

This is the old bridge (no, not the one the battle of Stirling Bridge was fought on, which was there before this later medieval one)

( More pics! )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: ici

jazzyjj posting in

awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

starandrea

polyamships is hosting a discussion, rec, and comment event for

3weeks4dreamwidth, with a post every other day (masterlist) and the ongoing promise to include "all your polyamorous shipping content."

The Day Two prompt asks, How did you discover poly ships? What makes you write/read/draw them?

And I thought, it was Power Rangers in Space, right? I started writing Zhane with Andros and Ashley because I wanted to write Zhane and Andros together, and I also wanted to continue an established series (another million-worder) where Andros and Ashley were together. That seems straightforward enough.

( it was not quite that straightforward )

"oh that was one year for the record
I know I never will forget her and how it was between us
in the great love of 1998"
--South65

pepysdiary_feed

Posted by Samuel Pepys

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/04/27/

Up betimes and to my office, where doing business alone a good while till people came about business to me.

Will Griffin tells me this morning that Captain Browne, Sir W. Batten’s brother-in-law, is dead of a blow given him two days ago by a seaman, a servant of his, being drunk, with a stone striking him on the forehead, for which I am sorry, he having a good woman and several small children.

At the office all the morning, at noon dined at home with my wife, merry, and after dinner by water to White Hall; but found the Duke of York gone to St. James’s for this summer; and thence with Mr. Coventry, to whose chamber I went, and Sir W. Pen up to the Duke’s closett. And a good while with him about our Navy business; and so I to White Hall, and there alone a while with my Lord Sandwich discoursing about his debt to the Navy, wherein he hath given me some things to resolve him in. Thence to my Lord’s lodging, and thither came Creed to me, and he and I walked a great while in the garden, and thence to an alehouse in the market place to drink fine Lambeth ale, and so to Westminster Hall, and after walking there a great while, home by coach, where I found Mary gone from my wife, she being too high for her, though a very good servant, and my boy too will be going in a few days, for he is not for my family, he is grown so out of order and not to be ruled, and do himself, against his brother’s counsel, desire to be gone, which I am sorry for, because I love the boy and would be glad to bring him to good.

At home with my wife and Ashwell talking of her going into the country this year, wherein we had like to have fallen out, she thinking that I have a design to have her go, which I have not, and to let her stay here I perceive will not be convenient, for she expects more pleasure than I can give her here, and I fear I have done very ill in letting her begin to learn to dance.

The Queen (which I did not know) it seems was at Windsor, at the late St. George’s feast there; and the Duke of Monmouth dancing with her with his hat in his hand, the King came in and kissed him, and made him put on his hat, which every body took notice of.

After being a while at my office home to supper and to bed, my Will being come home again after being at his father’s all the last week taking physique.

Read the annotations

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/04/27/

starandrea

I asked if there was anything I should post about during

3weeks4dreamwidth, and

china_shop kindly replied, "I would love to hear about your very first steps to learning Chinese."

🔖 Some background~

( why I started learning Chinese, and where I am with it seven years later )

🔖 My first steps in learning Chinese~

( specifically and generally, and what I would tell myself if I were starting now )

🔖 In conclusion, some early study notes~

( so many old resources, some more current and/or helpful than others )

kaberett

Headline: hooooooome.

dark_kana posting in

3_good_things_a_day

1) a day at the office. It's nice to catch up with the colleagues

2) going to enjoy cycling home, enjoying the sunshine ^^

3) Lhune is coming over for dinner and Merlin episodes :-)

studyhacks_feed

Posted by Study Hacks

https://calnewport.com/who-asked-for-this/

https://calnewport.com/?p=16877

Last week, Elizabeth Lopatto published an insightful article in The Verge. It boasted an intriguing title: “Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want.”

“Within recent memory, people who made software and hardware understood their job was to serve their customers. It was to identify a need, and then fill it,” she writes. “But at some point following the financial crisis, would-be entrepreneurs got it into their heads that their job was to invent the future, and consumers’ job was to go along with that invented future.”

I certainly noticed this shift when it first began emerging. See, for example, my 2015 article titled, “It’s Not Your Job to Figure Out Why an Apple Watch Might Be Useful.” But it really picked up speed in the last half-decade. Here’s Lopatto with a needle-sharp summary of our current status quo:

“In the place of problem-solving technology, companies have jumped on successive bandwagons like NFTs, the metaverse, and large language models. What these all have in common is that they are not built to really solve a market problem. They are built to make VCs and companies rich.”

Of these three examples, large language models clearly have the most potential utility. But this doesn’t let AI companies off the hook when it comes to figuring out and communicating those uses.

As Lopatto points out: “Normal people aren’t running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to automate every single part of their lives.“ Their biggest exposure to AI is using a tool like ChatGPT as a more verbose Google, or perhaps occasionally formatting an event itinerary. This is cool, and even useful, but at the moment it is probably less positively impactful in their lives than, say, the arrival of the iPod in the early 2000s.

But unlike an iPod, these same ordinary users are forced to hear about AI constantly; not just enthusiast tech bro nonsense, but dark, disturbing, relentless accounts about how everything is about to change in terrible ways that they can’t control.

This isn’t sustainable.

Generative AI has no shortage of ways that it might, with care, be shaped into genuinely useful products, but this shaping needs to actually happen before the hyper-scalers earn the right to continually harass the psyche of billions of people with breathless pronouncements. Most people don’t care that GPT 5.5, released late last week, underperformed Opus 4.7 on SWE-Bench Pro. They want the AI companies to let them know when they have a product that will actually and notably improve their lives, and until then, they want these companies to leave them alone and try their best not to crash the economy.

As Lopatto concludes: “At some point, our Silicon Valley overlords forgot that in order for their vision of the future to be adopted, people had to want it.” They still have a lot of work to do.

AI Is Destroying the Job Market. Also, AI Is Saving the Job Market

I couldn’t help but add a quick additional note about AI to this week’s newsletter…

One of the big stories of the last year was the shrinking post-pandemic job market for recent college graduates. Many media outlets confidently offered an explanation for this shift: AI was automating the work of entry-level positions.

An article from last summer proclaimed that “AI is wrecking an already fragile job market for college graduates,” going on to note that “ChatGPT and other bots can do many of [the] chores” that used to be handled by entry-level workers. Another article, published only two weeks ago, offered a stark warning: “college graduates can’t find entry-level roles in shrinking market amid rise of AI.”

But then, last week, new job numbers revealed that the entry-level job market for college graduates was rebounding, and hiring in this demographic is now projected to rise significantly. Whoops. I guess AI wasn’t actually automating those jobs. (I told you so.)

Does this mean the media will stop trying to force this technology into these more routine workforce narratives? If only wishing made it so. A recent Wall Street Journal article describing these positive numbers included the following line: “In some cases, artificial intelligence is spurring hires by enabling companies to expand services and product lines.”

So, let’s get this straight: AI is simultaneously contracting the job market for recent college graduates while also expanding the job market for recent college graduates.

Is there anything AI can’t do?

The post Who Asked For This? appeared first on Cal Newport.

https://calnewport.com/who-asked-for-this/

https://calnewport.com/?p=16877

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/4/27/everyone-needs-a-nap-sometimes

Photo by Courtney Edwards, via Elakha Alliance

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/4/27/everyone-needs-a-nap-sometimes

Profile

artsyhonker

My Website

March 2023

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

rmc28 - Long weekend
daily_otter_feed - Just Think About How Many Clams You Could Scoop Up With These Things!
bruces_poems_feed - It's morning and the sun carries naked treetops like antlers - Almin Kaplan
nanila in awesomeers - Just One Thing (02 May 2026)
lhune in 3_good_things_a_day - Saturday 02/05/2026
hyperlipid_feed - Insulin Resistance (17) ROS NOX2 RET and alpha-tocopherol in cell culture
starandrea - "we believed in fairy tales that day" (suzy bogguss)
pepysdiary_feed - Friday 1 May 1663
kaberett - [migraine] ... mrgh
dark_kana in 3_good_things_a_day - Friday 01/05/2026
choco_frosh - (no subject)
bruces_poems_feed - Yesterday you fell asleep - Margarida Ferra
daily_otter_feed - That Face When You Finally Scratch That Itch
rmc28 - To-read pile, 2026, April
greatpoets_feed - Elden Locke, 'Howl Under a Blue Light Filtered Moon'
ysabetwordsmith in crowdfunding - May Monthly Post
nanila in awesomeers - Just One Thing (01 May 2026)
anais_pf in thefridayfive - The Friday Five for 1 May 2026
starandrea - "not your typical girl next door unless you live next door to heaven" (south65)
pepysdiary_feed - Thursday 30 April 1663
kaberett - creatures!
daily_otter_feed - Steph Who? LeBron Who?
lhune in 3_good_things_a_day - Thursday 30/04/2026
bruces_poems_feed - Andrew dreams of Catherine Wheels - Adrian Grima
nanila in awesomeers - Just One Thing (30 April 2026)
pepysdiary_feed - Wednesday 29 April 1663
kaberett - some good things!
ailbhe - What I have been reading, a third of the way into the year
wychwood - meme sheep say baa
bruces_poems_feed - Fascioners of Progress - Kendel Hippolyte
daily_otter_feed - Imagine Having a Job Rescuing Abandoned Sea Otter Pups
rmc28 - Meme from @muccamukk
nanila in awesomeers - Just One Thing (29 April 2026)
dark_kana in 3_good_things_a_day - Wednesday 29/04/2026
starandrea - excellent subject line
kellan_the_tabby - just some more randomage
pepysdiary_feed - Tuesday 28 April 1663
kaberett - vital functions (ish)
bruces_poems_feed - Vyâsa's instructions (The Hunter and the Hero - Book III) - Bhāravi
dark_kana in 3_good_things_a_day - Tuesday 28/04/2026
daily_otter_feed - Now THIS Is a Party
cmcmck - Bridges!
jazzyjj in awesomeers - Just one thing: 28 April 2026
starandrea - "I'll be on a porch somewhere telling any passerby that cares about the great love of 1998" -south65
pepysdiary_feed - Monday 27 April 1663
starandrea - "he looked at her like she was speaking Chinese, with some of the letters left out" (suzy bogguss)
kaberett - tada
dark_kana in 3_good_things_a_day - Monday 27/04/2026
studyhacks_feed - Who Asked For This?
daily_otter_feed - Everyone Needs a Nap Sometimes

Style Credit

Style: Pink Panther for Lefty by sarken

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated May. 2nd, 2026 04:07 pm

Reading Feed

What I'm Reading

Reading

Navigation

AI Is Destroying the Job Market. Also, AI Is Saving the Job Market

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags