It looked to me like dripping dollops of some kind of purple substance running down maybe a translucent surface, then I looked at the top and my brain recognized the tines and the image sort of popped inside out and yeah I can't bring back the "original" image.
Farmers used to just let their critters loose into the forests to eat the chestnuts off the forest floor because there were just so many. Now I think every American chestnut tree alive has a name.
Would that mean we could vaccinate for them?
Because the disease has become endemic to American forests.
The American Chestnut was the dominant tree in the ecosystem of the forests of Eastern North America. Per Wikipedia, "it was said that a squirrel could walk from New England to Georgia solely on the branches of American chestnuts." In the late 19th century, Japanese chestnut trees were imported, and they brought with them Asian Bark Fungus. American Chestnuts are quite susceptible to this fungus, and it largely wiped out the population.
The fungus infects the above ground portion of the tree, killing it. New shoots will emerge from the stump as the below ground portion of the tree isn't affected by the fungus, but the new growth doesn't get very far before the fungus kills it off again. We have no hope of eliminating the fungus from the forests.
So we've got these zombie tree stumps that will grow enough of a plant to keep the fungus alive and running (it also survives on other species of tree), but not enough to grow large and reproduce. There are some remaining adult trees here and there but the species is considered functionally extinct in the wild as it really isn't able to thrive because this fungus is among us. So unless we can hybridize or otherwise breed fungus resistant chestnut trees, we ain't got no American Chestnuts.
American chestnuts are also susceptible to ink disease and the Chinese Gall Wasp.
A lot of problems were caused by importing plants to North America; tumbleweeds aren't indigenous, they're Russian, and a massive fucking problem.
Woodworking: An entire log of American Chestnut.
About a century ago, the species was all but wiped out by a blight that came from Japanese chestnut. Some three billion trees died. The blight actually survives in the forest living on but not damaging oak trees, so American chestnuts are struggling to reclaim their historic habitats. The species is critically endangered and efforts to rehabilitate the population are underway, including trying to breed large surviving individuals or to genetically engineer blight resistant trees. Logging is of course completely out of the question.
American Chestnut is an excellent lumber, with many of the properties of white oak in a faster growing tree. It is straight grained, hard and strong, easy to saw and split, rot resistant due to tannins. A fantastic choice for indoor and outdoor furniture, structural timber, even telephone poles. Reclaimed chestnut timber from old buildings is highly prized, and what woodworker wouldn't love access to a few hundred board feet of freshly kiln dried American chestnut...if it was possible to ethically source.
To clarify, would you consider this specific individual watch the holy grail, or one of that make, model and spec?
If your job is to inform the Joint Chiefs that the ruskies have a bomber with a canopy and ejector seat, two big honking jet engines and a tail gunner, this'll do.
No, you're about to be visited by three ghosts.
So back in the days of leaded gasoline and lynchings there was this show on CBS called Lassie. It ran from 1954 to 1974 and a total of 591 episodes. The show went through three major revisions in its history and honestly was three almost completely unrelated shows about the same dog, but it's best remembered in its earliest incarnation featuring a small family that lived on a farm including a boy named Timmy and a Collie named Lassie.
Sort of like Mr. Ed or Flipper, Lassie is an improbably smart animal. A typical episode of the show would be some backwoods shenanigans in which someone, usually Timmy, would be trapped somehow, and Lassie would have to solve the problem, often by summoning help from Ma or Pa. The following conversation is typical of an episode of Lassie:
Ma is housewifing in the kitchen. Lassie enters
Lassie: Woof.
Ma: What is it, girl?
Lassie: Bark. Bark.
Ma: Timmy's in trouble?!
Lassie: Woof. Bark.
Ma: He fell down Old Mr. Jones' mine shaft?!
Lassie: Bark. Woof.
Ma: Well let's go help him!
So, you know how Captain Kirk never actually said "beam me up, Scotty" even though pop culture seems to think he did? Same thing with Lassie. Even though it is a perfectly plausible plot for the show, Timmy never fell down a well. He fell off cliffs, into lakes and rivers, down mine shafts and into quicksand but he never once fell down a well.
Absolutely not. I'm staying right here, and they're going to have to kill me right here.
I would call that a cruciform tail rather than a T tail. And it's a high wing, drawing has it as a low or mid wing.
The last one went commando, this one's got drawers on.
Possibly the wrong community for this, it was either here or casual_conversation which also feels like possibly the wrong community for this, but I haven't found anywhere better.
It is allegedly Men's Health Awareness Month, so instead of doing something lazy like post an image macro telling you it's okay to cry or other bullshit platitude, why don't we all hit the trails and talk about what we see along the way?
I went out to a trail around a lake local to me. Was almost tough getting any pictures at all without getting people in the shot. Used to be you could have the whole place to yourself, I'm not sure I was ever out of sneezing distance of someone the entire 2 miles. Used to be people would say hi as they passed, everyone's got earbuds in these days.
A deer! First of two I saw on this walk. Used to be you'd never see any deer or anything like that around this trail, too many people. But they've been clearcutting the forests around here left and right to slap in those godawful HOA housing developments or apartment complexes that we're running out of woods for the deer to live in. Used to be you'd never see them in town, but now there seems to be one living in the back of my yard. Not sure it's a great sign for the future that all the wildlife is being displaced.
The crik. Hope it don't rise.
I've always liked this spot, the path forks a little here and the lower path gives you this peek at the lake. About 20 years ago now I took the best picture I've ever taken at this spot, I was walking this trail shortly after sunrise, happened to look over, said "That's pretty" and snapped a shot with my LG EnV2.
Desire path? I don't fully understand this one, though I remember decades ago it was a lot narrower, like only bikes ever went to the right.
I don't know what this invasive species is but it's apparently not too healthy for the local trees.
So, now it's your turn. Go on a walk, talk about what you see out there.
I foreshadowed this one pretty good. I'm still working on the countertop but the cabinetry is done.
And here are some of those infernal hinges that are way harder to buy than they should be.
If your motherboard comes with a separate IO shield, install that in the case as the very very first thing you do. Many mobos come with them permanently attached these days but some don't.
Be very careful with the USB plugs, they can be kind of fragile.
Many CPU coolers come with a protective sticker over their contact patch. Remove this.