ipomopsis's Journal

Job Opening Director of Tahoe Enviornmental Research Center

https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF05974?utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

don't need any publications to tell me this. all you have to do is use your eyes and brain.
human cat companions feral or in a loving family are killing biodiversity on this planet.
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/12/1218895581/cats-research-study-environment

https://www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/article/lake-tahoe-roadkill-wildlife-study-18435514.php

I was looking through the mysterious Voynich Manuscript
https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/2002046

I think it's a hoax based on the images but it might be fun to try to apply the Inaturalist AI engine to it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-ENVIRONMENT/INSECT-APOCALYPSE/egpbykdxjvq/

Ravens are clearly populating the heck out of Lake Tahoe. I see more and more all the time. On a typical day now I can count about 10 crossing my field of view (even when I don't even leave the house!).
It's very strange. I don't now what's going on but I don't like it.
Perhaps they are coming in with all the other trash and over-development humans are bringing to Tahoe that's throughout international news lately.

I started two new projects in addition to my scat containing trash project.
One for trees struck by lightning and another for recovering damaged trees.

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/damaged-trees-db6c43b1-fea6-4c65-bdc9-d61c3b4dcf50
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/lightning-strikes

It took me a while combing through Inaturalist but I was amazed at how many observations I found of lighting strikes. So cool!

I finally started a project for this and I found a few observations by other people around the world. Might be interesting to see which species show up the most. Likely Coyote.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/feces-scat-with-trash

Well today was a lousy day. I spent the morning thinking it was Thursday. I found out I won't be able to see my cousin I had hoped to see Friday that I hadn't seen in many years. Then halfway through the morning a dog attacked me and bit my leg completely unprovoked.. So I was terribly unproductive today from that I've been cleaning the wound but it's all swollen and red now. I did fill out an injury report. Thank goodness my shoes protected my foot or half my food would be ripped off too. Feeling pretty lonely without my parents around or anyone to talk about about it. And now because of what looks like 2 forest fires near me, it's super smokey outside. which is a bummer because I was looking forward to a couple adventures this week. And it's hotter in my house because the STUPID HOA forced me to take a sun shade down outside my front door. So if I open the windows to cool down that means breathing smoke. I also found out yesterday that a friend of mine is in the hospital and sounds serious after crashing his mountain bike.
Don't get me wrong, I feel pretty lucky with everything I got in the world but when you don't have good health or friends and family, everything else seems a bit bland.

There are far more shrubs in the world than humans, however, when you think about it, humans can be just as common. As with any species, each looks the same but has it's own characteristics, phenotypes, gene expression, etc.

Most people struggle with purpose. Most people are just drones living day to day to get by. It's similar with animals and shrubs. I was thinking yesterday briefly if there is a way to look to shrubs in figuring out purpose in life. If we could figure out the purpose of a single bush, maybe we could understand our own purpose.

I'm thinking this through more as I write this thought down for the first time. Don't have much time but I'll jot it down rather than not.

A shrub in the forest supports insects, mammals, birds, and in turn they support the shrub with pollination, regeneration, and even fending off insects or pathogens. That one shrub might seem like a normal unimportant bush among trillions but it's playing a crucial role on our planet. It's purpose is there to be part of life.

So how do we compare to the shrub/bush? Pretty much the same, we seem unimportant among billions of other humans but collectively we are playing a crucial role in the time line of life. Unfortunately we are mostly destructive to life. Maybe that's because most people don't understand their purpose in the ecosystem as humanity has gotten separated and caught up in the tiny human world.