Quid fortasse malum fiat?

Sunflowers may be the future of "vegan meat"

Sunflower flour emerges as a sustainable, nutrient-packed, and surprisingly meat-like plant protein innovation.

A collaboration between Brazilian and German researchers has led to a sunflower-based meat substitute that’s high in protein and minerals. The new ingredient, made from refined sunflower flour, delivers excellent nutritional value and a mild flavor. Tests showed strong texture and healthy fat content, suggesting great potential for use in the growing plant-based food sector.

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Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Fairies and Fey." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for fairies, seelie or unseelie sidhe, the Wild Hunt, elves, other types of fey, Radical Faeries, other queers, tricksters, contraries, rebels, adventurers, mentors, historians, explorers, magic users, partners, teachers, leaders, dark lords, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, fantasy species, activists, other unusual fantasy folk, doing magic, doing things backwards, causing mischief, breaking rules, caring for the land, exploring new territory, meeting new species, upsetting predictions, twisting tropes, flipping stereotypes, expecting the unexpected, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, other fantastic activities, Underhill, faery rings, the forest primeval, underwater, underground, liminal zones, castles, ruins, dungeons, dragon lairs, schools, kitchens, campfires, libraries, apothecary shops, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other phantasmagoric settings, faerie magic, unusual magical systems, magical artifacts, enchanted musical instruments or weapons, quests, time periods other than medieval, governments other than monarchy, dragons, unicorns, enchantments, potions, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, fey time distortions, time travel, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo Card 11-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia is about live happy lesbians in a quirky fantasy world.

Clay of Life is Jewish fantasy about a blacksmith and a golem.

Dragonsilk is about trauma and recovery.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with a few really exotic characters.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household, where the line between truth and fantasy isn't always clear.

The Ocracies features all the political systems other than monarchy.

The Odd Trio is about a family consisting of a dwarf, an elf, and a human.

P.I.E. is urban fantasy about paranormal investigations,

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. Eric the Elven King has interdimensional refugees. Officer Pink features centaurs and mystic shifters. Vybra of the Broken Angels specializes in fantasy sex and often dresses as a fairy.

Practical Magics is low fantasy with a prosaic focus.

Quixotic Ideas is contemporary fantasy where magic integrates with modern life in positive ways.

The Ursulan Cycle is genderbent King Arthur.

Or you can ask for something new.

Boost the signal to reveal a verse in any open linkback poem.

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My air plants arrived today. :D So I gathered materials to start assembling the lantern terrarium. (Start with Photos: Fairy Garden Lantern Deconstruction. Continue with Photos: Lantern Terrarium Assembly Part 2 Testing the Fit.)

( Walk with me ... )

Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens

* The Past
* Cryptic Populations
* Sideways in Time
* The Future
* Science!

It left out crossbreeding with other species (like Spock in Star Trek) as well as backbreeding where remnant genes become more prevalent due to environmental pressures until speciation occurs. Regarding the latter, Sherpas are already a borderline species because they can survive at higher altitudes than other Homo sapiens due to their Denisovan heritage.  They are at least a definable subspecies based on habitat adaptations, more realistically a remnant population of Denisovans with heavy Homo sapiens introgression.  But when you start talking about biological differences among humans, then humans immediately start doing stupid things, so most scientists won't do it.  Anyhow, if the Sherpas became isolated from other humans and stayed in the Himalayas, environmental pressure would push them toward more Denisovan-like traits.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Today's Cooking
Gaming
Birdfeeding
Worldbuilding
Art
Birdfeeding
Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo Card 11-1-25
Philosophical Questions: Accuracy
Moment of Silence: Patricia Crowther
Birdfeeding
Holiday
Books
Wildlife
Garden of Repose
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Follow Friday 10-31-25: Kpop
Bingo
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Sustainability
Birdfeeding
Good News

Trauma has 34 comments. Affordable Housing has 57 comments. Robotics has 95 comments.


There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, November 4 with a theme of "Fairies and Fey." I hope to see you then!


"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv and needs $191 to be complete. Maiara and Arthur discuss taking notes.


The weather is cool and fall-like now. It rained a couple of days. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, two goldfinches, and a male cardinal. A great horned owl has been hoo-hooing outside. :D Currently blooming: dandelions, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, sweet alyssum, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, oxalis, firecracker plant, tomatoes, violas. Tomatoes, ball carrots, and groundcherries are ripe. Fields are almost all harvested.

The Most Powerful Type of Worldbuilding by Curious Archive

I rarely link YouTube videos anymore, but this one had some good observations about "moldy worldbuilding" and how it shows the passage of time. So I'll throw out some ideas based on that.

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Today is cloudy and cool.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 11/1/25 -- I trimmed weeds from the daffodil bed.

EDIT 11/1/25 -- I spread the first bag of composted manure on the daffodil bed.  It covered the far side and half the center.

EDIT 11/1/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/1/25 -- I spread the second bag of composted manure on the daffodil bed.  So that's done, aside from raking up a pile of leaves to create the mulch cover for it.  This concludes today's yardwork target. \o/

EDIT 11/1/25 -- I started trimming weeds from the tulip bed.

I am done for the night.

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

How would the world change if there was an accurate measure of aptitude?

Little if any. Some types of aptitude can be tested pretty well. People often choose not to act on them. In fact, people often prefer the less accurate ones.