Note: U.S.-built buses at that.

[Image description: A Lion electric school bus is seen on display in Austin, Texas, Feb. 22, 2023.]

A sad reminder that the MAGA wing of the Republican party continues to be against most anything that can actually help turn around climate change.

[Image description: former President Trump]

Not quite your traditional gaming, but with 600 responses to user actions at least as complex as some interactive computer games I've played.

[Image description: two new Furbies]

[Image description: Lead claimant Rikki Held, 22, confers with members of Our Children's Trust legal team before the start of the nation's first youth climate change trial at Montana's First Judicial District Court on June 12, 2023 in Helena, Montana]

A longish essay, but it does a great job of capturing the conflicted feelings that I share about giving up air travel.

[Image description: a jet plane in a forest of evergreen trees]

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/748817

I spent most of the morning at Mogan Ridge West, putting in about 12 miles in all. Basically, I hiked the outer loop, though I did bushwhack about a mile and a half for variety.

We're definitely into summer hiking weather here, with high humidity, spider webs, gnats, and ticks. This trail also hasn't seen much use lately, so it's overgrown in grass in many areas. About half of it is gravel road, so you can combine unpleasant walking surface with increased ticks and chiggers.

Still, it was a pleasant walk in the woods and decent exercise. I met one other hiker about halfway and we swapped notes on which local trails were worth revisiting. Fortunately we were hiking in opposite directions so we didn't have to have the awkward conversation about whether to hike together.

More pictures on imgur.

[Image description: trail marker post with area map and arrows pointing in many different directions]

Actual evidence from actual scientists.

[Image description: A patient holds bottles of medications for hormone replacement therapy as part of her gender-affirming care.]

Well at least:

“The situation is not really getting worse, but it’s also not really getting better,” Steinhauer said. “It is not a bee apocalypse.”

[Image description: honeybee on honeycomb in a hive]

Generally depressing societal news.

[Image description: Bud Light, Target, and Disney logos overlaid with the "NO" circle-and-slash and surrounded by angry emoticons]

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/675946

I spent the day yesterday wandering around some trails in the Shawnee National Forest (southern Illinois) from the Golden Circle trailhead to Pounds Hollow and back. I didn't keep super good track of my route, but it was something like (trail numbers): 1440 to 154 to 001 to 155 to 001 to 137A to 165 to 166 to 164 to 001 to 180 to 185 to 184 to 183 to 006, bushwhack to 134 to 006A to 006B to 109, roadwalk Karbers Ridge to 001 to 010A. Whew! The River to River Trail Society has some excellent brochures with georeferenced PDFs that cover trails in this area.

The weather was a bit sticky, but not too bad - high temps in the lower 80s. Between some recent rain and increased horse traffic for the summer, low spots in the trails are getting pretty torn up in places, particularly as you get closer to the various horse camps. Poison ivy is out in force, ticks are too so take reasonable precautions.

The area is a mix of pleasant forests, clifftop vistas, and streambeds (almost all dry at the moment). Pounds Hollow Lake is one of the ones in the area created by the CCC building a dam in the 1930s and has a reasonably popular swimming beach, as well as rest rooms and potable water.

I had planned to camp at Pounds Hollow, but I stupidly forgot to pack cash to pay for the $10 fee, so what was planned as a 20 mile day turned into a 29 miler when I took the most direct route back to the trailhead where I started. There are a couple of other good spots along that route back, but all the water sources were dry or stagnant, and I didn't have enough water along for dinner & breakfast so I said the heck with it and came home. All told, 29.2 miles in just a shade over 12 hours. The last 4 or so were pretty tough, but I made it.

[Image description: southern Illinois forested hills receding into the distance, framed by trees and viewed from the top of Buzzard Roost]

More pictures at imgur.

I'll start: pesto as a bagel topping.

Good news for photographers