This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...


* "Books" in history

* "Female Leads" in hooked_on_heroines

* "Follow Friday Master Post" in interested_in_that

Skills That Survived Every Economic Collapse in History

Every economic collapse in recorded history — from Weimar Germany to Argentina's default to Venezuela's currency crisis — followed the same brutal pattern: institutions failed, credentials evaporated, and the most "educated" people were often the first to starve. Doctors drove taxis. Engineers washed cars. PhDs traded cigarettes for potatoes.

So which skills actually survived? Not the ones you'd expect.

This video is an economic autopsy of seven major collapses across a century of data — drawing on NBER labor forensics, Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, World Bank research, and the real stories of Argentine mechanics, Cuban physicians, Russian dacha farmers, and Lebanese currency brokers — to identify the four structural categories of skills that have demonstrated resilience in every single collapse environment ever studied.


So let's take a look at what these are and how to use them...

( Read more... )

March heat in the U.S. was the largest temperature anomaly ever recorded

Heat usually doesn’t define March, a month that still carries a hint of winter’s last breath. This year, it felt more like a preview of late spring, and sometimes even early summer.

Across the United States, temperatures didn’t just creep up. They jumped far beyond what anyone would expect for that time of year.

The numbers tell a blunt story. The average temperature for March hit 50.85 degrees Fahrenheit. That is 9.35 degrees higher than the 20th-century average.

It is not just a record for March. It is the largest jump above normal for any month ever recorded in the Lower 48 states.

Daytime highs pushed even further, running 11.4 degrees above average, nearly matching what people usually feel in April.


Ya THINK? It hit 89 fucking degrees here in central Illinois. REPEATEDLY.  We're also in drought conditions.  I've had to water things already planted so they don't die, in what should be the wettest time of year. >_<  I really don't want this to be another year of eight months watering.

Today is cloudy and mild.  It has been spitting a few drops of water now and then, but the promised storms have not arrived. :/

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- While we were out at Whiteside Garden, I picked up a generous clump of wild ginger.  :D  I also saw a red-headed woodpecker.

We stopped at Home Depot and bought 12 concrete blocks, the kind with two holes, and water sealer.  I'm going to make a planting bench with the solid-top pallet that we obtained earlier.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I planted the clump of wild ginger at the east end of the savanna where moss is growing.  I'm going to try establishing a woodland garden there.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I did some work around the patio.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I planted the mountain mint in the wildflower garden.  This looks similar to the mystery wild mint that I had before, which is among the most popular pollinator plants.  If so, that boosts genetic diversity.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I hauled 6 of the 12 concrete blocks out of the car.  For some reason the guy putting them on the flatbed trolley gave me two different kinds; some have flat ends and some have ridges sticking out, and these aren't the kind of blocks meant to interlock.

I am done for the night.