This is today's second freebie, thanks to new prompter andromedaprime. It also fills the "transformation" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. It is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

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Traditional burials are bad for the planet. So this woman created her own 'cocoon coffin' made of seaweed instead

Ultimately, she made her own — a fully compostable, translucent “bioplastic” material made out of seaweed. Creating this material even led Kostur to use it in fashion accessories and wedding floral displays, which is now how she spends most of her time professionally.


This is one of the very few modern funeral displays that meets or exceeds the splendor of some historic ones.  Plus the symbolism is extremely helpful.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Witches and Wizards." 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 witches, wizards, other magic users, mentors, elders, teachers, students, adventurers, explorers, damsels/gentlemen in distress, historians, partners, leaders, dark lords, the Chosen One(s), superheroes, supervillains, teammates, fantasy species, ethicists, activists, queerfolk, other unusual fantasy folk, studying magic, doing magic, enchanting artifacts, breaking curses, breaking rules, exploring new territory, meeting new species, upsetting predictions, twisting tropes, flipping stereotypes, expecting the unexpected, researching, revising theories, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, experiments changing paradigms, 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, witch's huts, wizard's towers, magical schools, castles, ruins, stone circles, dungeons, dragon lairs, Underhill, the forest primeval, underwater, underground, liminal zones, kitchens, campfires, libraries, laboratories, apothecary shops, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other phantasmagoric settings, unusual magical systems, pointy hats, robes, wands or staves, cauldrons, herbs, crystals, potions, magical artifacts, quests, time periods other than medieval, governments other than monarchy, dragons, unicorns, enchantments, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, inventions that change everything, 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, lab conditions are not field conditions, 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:

Fall Festival Bingo Card 10-1-25


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.

A Conflagration of Dragons has unforseen disasters and cultural upheavals.

Gloryroad Crossing is the weird village where adventurers go to restock.

Kande's Quest is sword & soul with caucasian-inspired demons.

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

Not Quite Kansas has a helpful demon.

The Ocracies features all the political systems other than monarchy.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks.

Path of the Paladins is low fantasy about paladins trying to restore a world gone to ruins.

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

Polychrome Heroics has primarily superpowers, but magic is described as "sorcery" there. Antimatter & Stalwart Stan are a cross-cape couple, and Antimatter essentially does science-based magic. Aubrey the Alabaster is another sorcerer. Eric the Elven King has interdimensional refugees.

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.

Yellow Unicorns is a quirky fantasy setting where the only yellow things people can see are the unicorns.

Or you can ask for something new.

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

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More LLM fun! Miserable fail at running a vending machine business simulation

This is quite interesting. Researchers set up multiple LLMs and configured them to run a vending machine simulator, described as "Agents must balance inventories, place orders, set prices, and handle daily fees – tasks that are each simple but collectively, over long horizons." Basic business process.
[---8<---]
Basically it was a demonstration of how such large-language models are terrible for long-term runs and shows their ability to hallucinate and make poor decisions.


It is obviously a bad idea to replace intelligent human employees with sloppy programs.

Today I'm making caramel apple crisp in a muffin tin.  I diced up a Jonathan apple with a little lemon juice, then divided it among 4 cups, then added a spoonful of apple cider caramel sauce to each.  The crumble topping is quick oats, flour, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and butter cut together until crumbly.  It's in the oven baking now.  :D

EDIT 10/6/25 -- Well, that turned out super awesome.  It's like a warm, diced caramel apple in a bowl.  (Note that if you prefer your caramel apples with nuts, the crumble topping will accommodate sliced or chopped nuts.)  Happily there are 2 more Jonathans and a whole carton of caramel sauce in case we want more.

14 Ways to Celebrate & Take Action for Banned Books Week

From July 2021 to the end of the 2024 school year, PEN America recorded nearly 22,810 cases of book bans across 45 states and 451 public school districts.

These numbers represent a crisis of censorship that is only growing, especially targeting historically marginalized voices that share stories and lived experiences of racism and LGBTQ+ oppression.


The most effective approach is to make it illegal to ban books.  An effective tactic is to point out how much time and money it will save.  People in office may care fuckall about civil rights or reading, but they are probably tired of hearing het up soccer moms whine about a book with two boys kissing.

Fruit might be the surprising key to healthier lungs

Eating more fruit could help protect lungs from air pollution damage, particularly in women. Researchers point to antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds in fruit as possible defenses against harmful airborne particles.


Fruit also includes many valuable nutrients such as vitamin C.

Of course, it would be better to avoid putting pollution into the air in the first place, or failing that, to live somewhere with lower pollution and more trees to filter the air -- and hey, you could make them fruit trees!

52 Best Self-Care Gifts for Peak Pampering

We all know someone who deserves a little pampering. Actually, we all are someone who deserves a little pampering.

Meaningful self-care goes beyond a simple bubble bath or at-home facial (though, those are really nice, too), and we all need support and resources to maintain self-care routines that truly benefit us.

If you’re looking to be that support for someone else, self-care gifts can make a major impact.


Take care of yourself and those you love.