Northern by birth, Southern at heart

If you like these weekly compilations, please consider tipping me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles! (June Doodles are late because I bit off a little more than I could chew with the whalefall and I've been having a really hard time with life, but I'm working on it as best I can and it should be ready soon!)

1. Plastic waste could be cheaply recycled using water and oxygen

“Researchers have found a way to break down everyday plastic waste into valuable chemicals using nothing but water and oxygen, with no catalyst needed. Stirring melted plastic into water scatters it into microscopic droplets, and the chemistry that cuts the tough polymer chains begins on its own. […] The same approach handled a messy range of real waste [… and] ran just as well in tap water and seawater as in purified lab water[….]”

2. A Brazilian bay’s surprise shark nursery sparks conservation project

“A fishing community in Brazil’s southeastern Ilha Grande bay once saw the blacktip sharks […] as potential food. That perception has shifted, at least in part thanks to scientists who discovered that a nearby cove is frequented by dozens of pregnant blacktip sharks, prompting efforts to protect the area. […] The scheme also aims to start environmental education activities in schools so that sharks will come to be seen as part of the region’s natural heritage.”

3. Defying Trump, Baltimore Rugby Players Refuse To Comply With Trans Sports Ban Demand

“[... T]he new rules stipulate complaints about trans athletes can only come from an opposing team. As The Banner reports: “The Capital Union teams decided not to tell on one another, rendering the ban functionally meaningless in regionwide games.” [...] Countless other rugby teams are also speaking out against the ban, including the Golden Badgers of Golden, Colorado—a Division 1 team, meaning it competes at the most elite level.”

4. How a community is helping sea turtles hatch in the Philippines

“When they find a nest, the eggs are dug up, counted, placed carefully in a bucket and brought to a hatchery. In past seasons, researchers found that most, if not all, nests left “in situ” on the beach were eaten by dogs or flooded by the tide. [...] In the early mornings or evenings, researchers and local patrollers take the hatchlings that surfaced that day, sometimes a hundred at once, and place them on the shore, where they begin their race to the West Philippine Sea.”

5. Researchers unlock new path for ultra low-cost solar by swapping out scarce and costly metal in PV cells

“An international team of researchers has successfully built the first high-performance, commercial-scale tandem solar cell that does not rely on indium, a scarce and expensive metal, replacing it instead with [tin oxide,] a material that is far more abundant and costs one per cent as much. [...] “Remarkably, we scaled this technology up to a 207.9 cm2 mini-module, obtaining an outstanding certified efficiency of 31.0 per cent.””

well now i just havee to draw more rocky in my style

I am a raccoon biologist and one of the few people in the state allowed to take in captive bred raccoons that had been possessed illegally. The raccoon in the photos is Moonshine, but she is currently at the animal sanctuary where I work as I had been quarantining multiple new intakes from an abuse case. I still have two males (Rum Tum Tugger and Electra) left in my home enclosure as we are getting them neutered and then hopefully sending them to an AZA accredited zoo.

Americans:

From Wikipedia: A graham cracker is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour.

The next ingredient (which is also extremely traditionally American but slightly more variable) is typically Hershey's chocolate, but you could probably swap this out in the UK with any plain chocolate bar.

Last ingredient is big marshmallows, the kind you do the chubby bunny challenge with, like the size of your thumb and twice as thick.

A proper s'more, the most traditional possible variety, involves to graham cracker squares, two slab segments of Hershey's chocolate, and one to two marshmallows depending on your preference for filling and gooeyness. You put a slab of chocolate on one of the graham cracker squares. Your marshmallows should be toasted, usually over a campfire but if you're doing them at home over a gas stove burner is fine, but the fire part is critical. You can toast them to whatever degree you like, some people like them nice and golden brown but still kind of firm in the middle, me personally? I want that bitch to CATCH ON FIRE, I want it gooey and sticky as hell in the middle, crispy and burnt on the outside. Slap that motherfucker on your graham cracker and chocolate square, top with the other one so your marshmallow and chocolate are sandwiched together by graham cracker on the outside. You do this with your freshly toasted marshmallow because ideally it will be hot enough to start to melt the chocolate so it sticks to the marshmallow and the graham cracker and, combined with the gooey marshmallow, it keeps the whole thing together, and for that reason some people will let them sit for a hot second to let the melting process happen (especially if like me you have chocolate on BOTH graham cracker squares, not just one, because you're a sugar fiend), but if you are a young child you do not have that degree of patience and you eat that shit immediately, unmelted chocolate and all. Consume your summer camp delight like a tiny club sandwich, get gooey sticky marshmallow and chocolate all over your hands, and enjoy.

The first is that you don't pull the marshmallow off the roasting stick and somehow put it on the chocolate. Your staging area will look something like this, with the graham crackers and chocolate already set out (though not usually on the fire like this, for us it was always someone's lap or a picnic table or something)

And when your marshmallow has reached appropriate roasting perfection, you use the graham crackers to slide it off the stick.

and ideally, as a CHILD you are using a literal stick. Like you walked around and spent time looking for The Perfect Stick off the ground while the adults set up the fire. It has to be thin enough the marshmallow will fit, sturdy enough that it won't bow, long enough that you won't burn yourself roasting your marshmallow. And preferably doesn't have a lot of bark that's sloughing off, OR so much bar sloughing off you can peel it all back and get to the clean stick under it. If you're smart, you might stick the tip into the fire first to "wash" it/burn off anything that was still lingering, but. well, most kids don't.

When you bite in, the marshmallow and chocolate SHOULD ooze out all over you. If you don't kinda look like this eating it, you've probably done it wrong:

You find a spot, not above all the logs where everyone sticks their marshmallows by default, but at the heart of the fire. Ideally between a couple logs already glowing gold. Something like here:

Below the leaping flame. Near the logs. There's probably only one or two spots good enough for this on any given fire, but that's okay because everyone else is up above. They will get their marshmallows faster. They will be either firm or burned or both. That's not your goal.

Rotate the marshmallow slowly. Ideally come in at an angle so the part closest to the flame is the side, not the tip. The spot closest to the fire is the spot that turns a crispy golden brown, and you want that everywhere, on the tip and around the circle.

You keep going, slowly turning, for several minutes. Several people will rotate in and out of the higher sections, getting their fast delight. Eventually, your marshmallow will start sagging badly, risking falling. Maybe it does fall and got start over. But eventually it will be golden brown all over, and so liquid it no longer clings to the stick. It is ready, finally.

You say "who hasn't gotten one yet?" And deposit it onto their waiting graham crackers and chocolate. You've made an excellent marshmallow. It isn't for you. Get another while you're over by the bags and go back to the heart of the fire.

That's your evening. One, slow, perfect marshmallow at a time, given to whomever still wants s'more. You're making art for children to stuff into their mouths cheerfully. You're watching the movement of the fire and the heat of the logs, like you would if you were maintaining it — maybe you would be, maybe you were the one who built it — but right now that's not the goal. Let someone else put more logs on, while you take only the one stick and find the best spot for it to live.

You will, eventually, finish a marshmallow and find that nobody moves to accept it. Maybe they're all eating right now, or maybe they've gone through so many they're hesitating. Eat your masterpiece then. Enjoy it, the hardest and most perfect result from a fun and beautiful moment. Go back in for another, until you've run out of marshmallows and the fire is too low or until even you are done with s'mores, until you have made enough.

“The tiger”(2020) based on a poem written by Nael age 6

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

I thought I could never care for anyone again, until I met you.