2025-11-23 08:45:02
#WinterWonderland arrived early this year...
(From our #EveningWalk in the Ammergau Alps last night... 25-30cm fresh powder everywhere, -7℃, no people, but lots of animal tracks)
#SilentSunday
#WinterWonderland arrived early this year...
(From our #EveningWalk in the Ammergau Alps last night... 25-30cm fresh powder everywhere, -7℃, no people, but lots of animal tracks)
#SilentSunday
Series D, Episode 13 - Blake
ARLEN: I won it in a lottery. What do you care?
BLAKE: I don't, so long as it wasn't issued to you.
ARLEN: It's Federation.
BLAKE: That's what I mean.
ARLEN: Do I look like one of theirs?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/413/40…
A New Tropical Forest Fund Will Pay Countries, Locals and Indigenous Tribes to Protect Their Trees - Inside Climate News
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22112025/tropical-forest-fund-protects-trees/
Tracking Southern China’s Forest Growth from Space: #forests grow from space: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1113767
Source: Sam Altman's Merge Labs, which seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of LA-based nonprofit Forest Neurotech (Emily Mullin/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/sam-altman-brain-computer-interf…
A bit of #mountainMonday ! I took this in January 2024.
I hiked that mountain and decided not just to hike to the summit but to spend some considerable time and try to capture some photos that express cold & #winter.
I layed down to the ground and waited for the wind to blow s…
"Colombia poised for another drop in deforestation in 2025, data show"
#Colombia #Deforestation #Environment
WIRED: Sam Altman’s new brain venture, Merge Labs, will spin out of a nonprofit, Forest Neurotech https://www.wired.com/story/sam-altman-brain-computer-interface-merge-labs-spin-out-nonprofit-forest-neurotech/ Focus on usin…
Malaysian companies dominate PNG forest-clearance permits: report https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/malaysian-companies-dominate-png-forest-clearance-permits-report/
Early winter this years #coldswim season. Water at about 4,5°C while the air was about -3°C. Swam for about 4min #Uckermark
interacting with the container ecosystem makes me viscerally understand everyone who's ever expressed a desire to get up, go into the forest, and never come back
Deep in the primeval forest of, um, Burnaby, BC.
#Photography
"Some are proud because they made a lot of money while cutting down a forest. Others are proud because they are planting trees that will produce the oxygen breathed by their grandchildren. What if success was not privatizing resources but instead contributing to the commons, to make it each day better, richer, stronger?" — @…
Why there’s no European Google?…
👀 Eyes above the trees: LiDAR technology improves forest assessment with laser beams
#laser
Good movement now. Forest always outstanding at blocking shots. They’ve had some key ones.
#LFC
📢Forest Research in the UK is seeking two new members for the Expert Committee on #Forest #Science. 🧬🌳📖🌲🪵
Please boost.
* one early-career,
* one from the forestry sector,
Please see details on the link below.
The ECFS provides independent research oversight for Forest Research, the largest research and evidence organisation in the sector. Chaired by me; covering a fascinating range of research and engagement from urban #trees to timber security and #climate science.
Apply below, closing 30th January 2025.
➡️ https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/about-us/careers/current-opportunities/149805-2-x-committee-members-forestry-commission-expert-committee-on-forest-science/
I hear the foxes yapping up in the forest
They're getting closer
I suspect it's going to be a difficult year for pasturing chickens
My contribution to #footpathFriday !
This was a really nice walk. Just as I like it: small paths along a nice mountain.
But I also remember that it was the time I was suffering from something called "frozen shoulder". It was a bit of a challenge to take off /on the backpack. As a wrong movement cause some REAL pain.
But this is over as well and I just try to rec…
"Amazon could lose over a third of forest cover by century's end"
#Amazon #Trees #Environment
Belated #MonochromeMonday / #MountainMonday: A moody winter day in the Ammergau Alps. A view down the snowed-in river bed of the Linder with the Notkarspitze summit catching the last light in the distance...
0 days since I've stepped on a nail, in a forest, in new shoes.
Yes, again. The previous shoes got a similar treatment. It didn't reach the feet.
Roots of uprooted tree near the summit of Shindagin Hollow State Forest
#photo #photography #forest #landscape
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MiddayShow
Frankie Rose:
🎵 A Forest
#FrankieRose
https://frankierose.bandcamp.com/track/a-forest-2
https://open.spotify.com/track/3GvTSXhAyZm7LrDXuPixpA
Hey, I’m your friendly neighborhood leftwing extremist; anarcho-syndicalist, anti-imperialist, non-binary mess (they/them, bi as fuck) from Bergen, Norway.
I overthrow capitalism in my free time because states are silly, bread is for the people, trans rights are sacred, and Thinkpads reign supreme 4eva, lol!! 🏳️⚧️💻
#Anarchism
#EveningWalk, two hours ago...
(Photo credit: @…)
i found these two gems at the record store up the street and, at twelve bucks each, couldn't resist. i listened to these LPs (and dream weaver and forest flower) a ton in high school.
#jazz #vinyl #vinylrecords
In Kyrgyzstan, world's largest natural walnut forest thins away #Kyrgyzstan
#FotoDerWoche mit herbstlichem Spotlight.
https://blog.till-westermayer.de/2025/11/photo-of-the-week-autumn-forest-gundelfingen-xii/
Fall Color near the peak of Shindagin Hollow State Forest
#photo #photography #forestfriday #forest
Adobe updates Firefly's app to add a prompt-based video editor using Runway's Aleph model, and adds image and video models from Black Forest Labs and others (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/16/adob
In Asia's Sundarbans, women are becoming the guardians of the world's largest mangrove forest—and it's changing everything.
Through self-help groups, local women are planting mangrove saplings along degraded coastlines, protecting their communities from cyclones and rising seas while earning income.
It's climate action that actually works for the people who need it most.
Just read "Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest" by Phoebe Wahl (to my kids but also for myself). It's a delightfully cozy and whimsical book, full of magical forest creatures and gentle community. What an excellent book.
#AmReading #ReadingNow
plant_pol_kato: Kato plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators from Kyoto University Forest of Ashu, Japan, from 1984 to 1987. Edge weights represent frequency of interactions.
This network has 772 nodes and 1206 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Weighted
https://networks.skewed.d…
According to #ForestHills #Indivisible, ICE raided my local fruit stand yesterday. This is the first I'm hearing about it, I don't have any details other than what's in the email. #FuckICE
Beautiful night in the woods. It didn't rain at all and we woke up to an awesome sunrise instead of the pouring rain we usually get. I'm not used to packing up my shelter and having it be dry.
Should be a good day of training.
#SearchAndRescue #SoOthersMayLive
"So far, only Brazil and Indonesia have announced investments in the scheme. The World Bank has agreed to host the facility. Several countries have murmured positively, but not yet committed any money. The UK has made clear it will not contribute at this stage. There will need to be greater momentum at Cop30 if the plan is to get off the ground."
"Brazilian finance ministry officials, who have spent the past 18 months working on this project, say the TFFF would be a step…
Yes. A personal search engine, visualizer, and interface builder.
“look, the way grok is integrated into X is gross and stupid and bad, but i do believe having an LLM familiar help you navigate the dark forest of the internet is going to be the future — ideally this is on your device or through a trusted and secure host, but it will be immensely helpful”
Yes, forest trees die of old age. But the warming climate is killing them faster #environment
Frozen forest
(From tonight's evening walk in the local woods...)
#SilentSunday #MonochromeMonday #LandscapePhotography
Man, I’m trying so hard to find a profile pic that isn’t just me in some damn ushanka or trapped in a forest.
Yes, forest trees die of old age. But the warming climate is killing them faster
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-forest-trees-die-age-climate.html
Runner in the Danby State Forest
#photo #photography #sports #running
Noise is the forest of everything.
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick says he will not pursue any NFL coaching vacancies with Giants' job open
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/ne…
Das erste #FotoDerWoche des neuen Jahres kommt bei mir aus dem winterlichen Wald im Wildtal.
https://blog.till-westermayer.de/2026/01/photo-of-the-week-i…
Pulp giant RGE admits possible deforestation breach in Bornean wildlife habitat https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pulp-giant-rge-admits-possible-deforestation-breach-in-bornean-wildlife-habitat/
A plant that looks like a fungus,
lives like a parasite,
and clones itself in the dark
—Balanophora may be one of evolution’s strangest experiments.
At the foot of moss-covered trees in the mountains of Taiwan and mainland Japan,
as well as within the subtropical forests of Okinawa,
an unusual organism emerges from the forest floor.
It is often mistaken for a mushroom,
yet it is actually a rare flowering plant that produces some of the smallest…
Sonnenberg ridge entirely living up to its name...
(Made the most of the last warm weather yesterday afternoon to hike/climb along this beautiful long ridge with many cliffs, roped sections, some cute chamois and hardly any people — temporarily felt like late August, yet in two days supposedly snow starting...)
#SilentSunday
Are you politically homeless? May I suggest: Anarcho-syndicalism! 😉
#Anarchism #Anarchy #Politics
Series A, Episode 05 - The Web
BLAKE: Hold off long enough to make a deal.
AVON: You're going to have to be quick, Blake. Those pursuit ships are coming this way.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/105/467 B7B5
Communities in the DRC are building something remarkable: a 1-million-hectare biodiversity corridor connecting two major protected areas.
Strong Roots Congo has already secured 23 community forest concessions covering nearly 600,000 hectares. The project does double duty—allowing wildlife to move safely between habitats while supporting local livelihoods and protecting Indigenous peoples from land grabbing.
plant_pol_kato: Kato plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators from Kyoto University Forest of Ashu, Japan, from 1984 to 1987. Edge weights represent frequency of interactions.
This network has 772 nodes and 1206 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Weighted
https://networks.skewed.d…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #AfternoonShow
Paul Hardcastle:
🎵 Rain Forest (original mix)
#PaulHardcastle
https://boizo.bandcamp.com/track/paul-hardcastle-rain-forest-boizo-edit-free-download
https://open.spotify.com/track/3dbpLKZFd8Oc19cqiSuWoW
For today's #footpathFriday I chose this trail that I enjoyed this #autumn. I walked it to check whether I could bike it as well. -- Well, I met two bikers but it looks quite ... challenging. Well, not THIS part, but quite some other parts.
We have a Target nearby in Forest Hills. At the rate they're going, I don't know how longer they'll last (I certainly have stopped going there!)
https://skyview.social/?url=https:%2F/…
📉 COP30: Zimbabwe's forest and energy projects reveal the downside of carbon credits
#zimbabwe
A Golden Morning At Piz Beverin.
(Luckily, the dense fog was just starting to lift when we arrived, revealing the silent spectacle beyond and the majestic peak...)
#SilentSunday #LandscapePhotography
Professor David Bowman said that,
because many of the fires in Australia this month appear to have burnt rapidly through grassland,
it made for difficult firefighting conditions.
“You can’t fight these things in the same way you fight a forest fire
because they’re travelling so quickly with high winds.
Everything you’re trying to do was being controlled by the wind,” he said.
Professor Bowman said, if heatwave conditions continued in Victoria,
the e…
Just finished "The Word for World is Forest" by Ursula K. Le Guin. Can't believe I didn't read this one earlier, and this strengthens my resolve to finish off the rest of her stuff I have yet to read sooner. I think it benefits somewhat from having read it after "Four Ways to Forgiveness" which gives more of the Hainish context. Certainly none of the blurbs I had read about it did it any measure of justice, which is one reason I hadn't prioritized it. More than being about colonization, it's about a solution to the paradox of tolerance, and both the price and imperfections of that solution. As usual with Le Guin's science fiction, it's a rich companion to anarchist thought.
I think the typical objection to seeing it as an answer to the warlord question would be that it serendipitously positions the indigenous population with more power and a less ruthless opponent than in the imagined scenario, and it uses the League of Worlds as a sort of deus ex machina to foreclose further retribution. Ultimately that's why I think it's more about the paradox of tolerance than anything else, but I also think in regards to the warlord problem that we are too quick to underestimate just how numerous and enthusiastic the opponents of a warlord might be, and to overestimate the strength of technological weapons wielded by frail (and psychologically unarmored) humans.
In any case, Le Guin gives this book's alien humans yet another fascinatingly credible capability, and getting to see the introduction of ansible technology with all its implications is pretty cool too. Maybe not
Good morning! For this #silentSunday I want to share this #foggy path with you.
I was on my way down and when I entered the fog, temperature really dropped. Actually I didn't want to stop or slow down in order to avoid cooling out.
But at this spot I had to take a quick break for…
"Pay to protect: Brazil pitches new forest fund at COP30"
#Brazil #COP30 #Environment
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #Expansions
Philippa:
🎵 Midnight in the Magic Forest
#Philippa
https://philippa.bandcamp.com/track/midnight-in-the-magic-forest-qf003
🌲 Prescribed burning helps store forest carbon in big fire-resistant trees, long-term Sierra Nevada study shows
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-forest-carbon-big-resistant-trees.html
Fave hike of 2025... Ahh memories... Only 5 weeks ago, but already feels like a lifetime ago...
#WildWednesday #LandscapePhotography #Alps
When we close streets to cars and open them up to people, we can't just leave them as-is for half a decade. We need to build infrastructure to ensure that cars *can't* come back. Otherwise, it's too tempting for drivers who see a pristine stretch of unclogged road to be like, "hey I could be breaking the speed limits or storing my car there for free!", lobby their local weak-spined politicians, and reclaim the road for SUVs.
Some photos from today's hike in the mountains. To escape the fog.
It was very very icy at the bottom. And I was super happy to have my micro spikes.
The way up was pretty calm. Right the #silentsunday I had desired. At the summit there were a bit too many people and I didn't see proper motives. So I just enjoyed the view and the really warm temperature.
On the wa…
"Pakistan declares its third marine protected area, but has a long way to go"
#Pakistan #Environment #Oceans
Massive Logging Project Next to Yellowstone National Park Blocked by U.S. Court https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/massive-logging-project-next-to-yellowstone-national-park-blocked-by…
plant_pol_kato: Kato plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators from Kyoto University Forest of Ashu, Japan, from 1984 to 1987. Edge weights represent frequency of interactions.
This network has 772 nodes and 1206 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Weighted
https://networks.skewed.d…
"Cross-party UK MPs urge Starmer to back global tropical forest fund"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Forests #Trees
Heyo this is one of the #photos that I shared recently in my blog (or ON my blog? 🤔).
Anyways, this scene showed up during our walk near #ebersberg. This scene was one of the very unexpected ones during our walk. - I am really happy that I saw it while we were walking.
It's currentl…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #JazzTheatre
Lex Corten:
🎵 Mulu the Rain Forest
#LexCorten
"China Has Added Forest the Size of Texas Since 1990"
#China #Environment #Trees
Hey all. Just wanted to post the other two #photos from my recent blog post https://www.franzgraf.de/blog/2025/a-familiar-mountain-never-gets-old/
It's one o…
#ThrowbackThursday Platinum printing session at the now defunkt Oregon College of Art and Craft. The pictures are from an unforgettable winter hike in the Eagle Creek valley, just a few days prior (and 6 months before a wild fire consumed the entire valley)...
(Also see my prev. message for my new darkroom setup :)
Stop Amazon forest destruction! #Amazon
Dreamscape asters in the forest
#photo #photography #flowers #bloomscrolling
Almost exactly 2 years ago when it was below -16°C.
This was a real cool experience - literally.
But I'm just so glad that I went there. I think, this waterfall isn't frozen like that so often. So I was just really lucky to be at the right time at the right spot.
And now - enjoy your weekend 😉
#nature
"As Brazil Cracks Down on Forest Clearing, Emissions Fall"
#Brazil #Climate #ClimateChange
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #PacificNotions
East Forest:
🎵 Aural Remedy
#EastForest
https://music.eastforest.org/track/aural-remedy
https://open.spotify.com/track/4nIn8eBrsyQKnG1YIrELmJ
Part of an outcropping of disordered daisies on the jeep trail in Shindagin Hollow State Forest
#photo #photography #flowers
One more photo today from my recent blog post. At first I really disliked the bright white spots in the background - okay I *still* dislike them.
But ... after a while now I think it's not a too bad photo overall. Anyways - let this be a relaxing start into your weekend!
Cheers! and if you want more context: check out the blog post or even follow my blog from the fediverse: @…
Ten English fire services tackled record number of grass, forest and crop fires in 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/31/record-number-wildfires-2025-tackled-by-10-english-fire-services
I never got far from the wood stove today but a few days ago I spotted this snag covered with fungi near the high spot in Shindagin Hollow State Forest
#photo #photography #forest
Finally I did some printing again! ❤️
It took me a bit to get into the right settings again but I have a nice A5 print now 🙂
Good that I just recently ordered some ink as the black was pretty low already.
#photography #printing
For #footpathfriday , here's a nice path I'd say.
This is taken from a bike&hike right after the bike-part and thus the start of a very nice autumn hike last year. When I took this photo, I didn't know - and not even expect how well the rest of the day would be 🙂
Enjoy
#mountains
When I was walking down from the mountains recently I noticed the frost on the trees and branches -- and some single leafs that were still around.
I really liked this extra touch of color in the grey surrounding. And that it's just a little detail on the huge mountain.
#photography #winter
Since it got cold I haven't been too brave about going out and between that trip to the beach, a breakthrough in another project I've been working on for 8 months, and new project that's making me revive even more old projects my #photography has been slowing down: this trail in Shindagin Hollow skirts the side of a steep and deep gorge
"How a radical experiment to bring a forest into a preschool transformed children’s health"
#Education #Children #Environment