Category: Education

Your pet’s milestones.

Another article from Penny.

These milestones would not be in place without us owners. For all pets, cats and dogs and birds, and more, do not think in terms of milestones.

However, our pets are so special to us humans that we create these special moments.

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How to Capture and Cherish Your Pet’s Special Milestones

For pet owners watching their companions move through different pet life stages, the days can blur faster than expected. The core tension is real: documenting pet milestones sounds meaningful, but pet memory keeping often slips between busy routines and the pressure to make every photo, note, or keepsake “perfect.” Yet the emotional value of pet moments shows up later, when a goofy habit fades or a first-time victory becomes a distant detail. Preserving pet memories turns everyday life into something that can be held onto.

Quick Summary: Pet Milestones Made Easy

  • Start by choosing a few essential pet milestones you want to remember and track.
  • Capture special moments with photos to preserve milestones in a simple, shareable way.
  • Record quick notes alongside memories to add context and meaning over time.
  • Keep small keepsakes from key moments to create lasting, tangible reminders.

Rescue Blurry Milestone Photos With AI Upscaling

Once you’ve decided which “firsts” you want to keep, the next challenge is making sure the photos look as special as the moment felt. AI image optimization tools can help rescue milestone shots that are dim, soft, or low-resolution by automatically improving lighting, sharpening tiny details (like whiskers and fur texture), reducing blur, and enriching colors for a clearer, more vibrant result. That’s especially helpful for those quick, imperfect captures, your pet’s first day home, first park trip, or first birthday, where you don’t get a redo.

An AI image upscaler takes this a step further by enhancing resolution and clarity so you can enlarge a favorite photo while still preserving detail and visual quality. If you want a simple starting point, the Adobe Firefly AI image upscaler feature is one way to create a print-ready version for albums, frames, and long-term saving. With your milestone images looking crisp, you’re ready to follow a straightforward process for documenting your pet’s life without overwhelm.

Build a Simple System to Capture Pet Milestones

This process helps you reliably capture your pet’s big moments and keep the memories easy to find later. It matters because when life gets busy, a simple system beats a perfect plan you never use.

  1. Pick your “must-capture” milestones
    Start with 6 to 10 moments you truly care about, such as first day home, first vet visit, first groom, first trip, and adoption anniversary. Keeping the list short prevents decision fatigue and makes it more likely you will follow through. Add one flexible category like “unexpected win” for funny or sweet surprises.
  2. Set up a one-glance reminder you will actually see
    Put key dates into a personalized calendar so upcoming milestones do not sneak past you. A year-round visual reminder also prompts you to capture seasonal favorites like the first sweater day or first beach trip. Choose one place to track dates, not three.
  3. Create a repeatable photo checklist for “firsts”
    When the moment happens, take three quick shots: a wide scene (context), a close-up (face details), and one with you or a family member (connection). Use natural window light when possible and keep the background simple so your pet stays the focus. This tiny checklist makes even rushed photos feel intentional.
  4. Log the memory and file it immediately
    Right after you take the photos, write one sentence in your notes app: what happened, the date, and one detail you do not want to forget. Then save everything into a single folder using the same naming style each time, such as “2026-07 First Park Trip.” This keeps your camera roll from becoming a scavenger hunt.
  5. Organize health records alongside the memories
    Choose one home for pet documents, such as a binder with tabs or a digital folder with subfolders for vaccines, meds, and receipts. After each visit, add a quick summary like weight, any new instructions, and the next due date. Pairing health notes with milestone photos gives you a fuller picture of your pet’s life story.

Habits That Make Pet Milestones Easy to Keep

Milestones are easiest to cherish when they become routine, not a once in a while project. These habits keep memory keeping light, repeatable, and realistic, even on busy weeks.

One-Minute Memory Note

  • What it is: Write one sentence: date, what happened, and one detail you loved.
  • How often: After any notable moment.
  • Why it helps: Tiny notes make photos meaningful years later.

Sunday “Sort and Label” Reset

  • What it is: Spend five minutes naming new photos and moving them into your pet folder.
  • How often: Weekly.
  • Why it helps: You avoid a giant camera roll backlog.

Window-Light Photo Habit

  • What it is: Take pictures near soft diffused lighting instead of harsh overhead bulbs.
  • How often: Whenever you photograph.
  • Why it helps: Your pet looks calmer and clearer in a less stressful light.

Monthly Keepsake Check-In

  • What it is: Add one favorite photo and one note to a monthly album page.
  • How often: Monthly.
  • Why it helps: A median of 59 days can turn effort into autopilot.

Start Small to Preserve Your Pet’s Milestones for Life

It’s easy to love your pet fiercely and still let the little moments slip by in the rush of everyday life. A gentle, routine-first mindset, tiny check-ins instead of big projects, keeps pet memory simple and sustainable while reflecting on the pet-owner bond. Over time, those small captures become a clear, comforting record of pet growth and milestones, valuing your pet’s life journey without pressure. Celebrate one tiny milestone today, and your pet’s story will take care of itself. Pick one small next step now: label a favorite photo, jot a two-line note, or record a quick moment. That’s how motivating pet milestone preservation turns into a steadier sense of connection that lasts well beyond the day.

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Once again Penny has written about looking after our pets, and she has set out some brilliant habits. I particularly like the monthly keepsake check-in, and starting small so that you do not end up not doing anything at all.

Our pets are so precious to us.

Nonsense on Stilts

The book by Massimo Pigliucci.

The subtitle of the book is “How to Tell Science from Bunk“

I am up to page 48 and I read something that is so obvious but had not occured to me before now. I have spoken to friends and they, too, had not realised this.

Namely, that the fact that “…. a variation on the old latitudinal hypothesis ….. explains a major causal factor explaining the rise of more successful civilizations in Euroasia, say, than in sub-Saharan Africa or on the American continent, is that Euroasia expands along an East-West axis.“

This East-West expansion provides greater opportunity for the invention of agriculture and the domestication of, say, the horse. Simply because feed crops are easier to grow owing to the smaller change in weather patterns. Unlike, the North-South expansion, where there is the problem of having to adjust to different weather towards the North or towards the South.

Here is the book from Amazon.

Version 1.0.0

It is a very interesting book.

Trashing the living world

The latest post from George Monbiot.

In a weird way, this post published by Geo Monbiot on the 24th July, 2026, reveals a similar vein to yesterday’s post about the Save Europe Act. I mean they are both about the unfair and unreasonable power held by those in political command.

Over to Mr Monbiot (and I have his permission to republish):

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Chickened-Out

Posted on 24th July 2026

Trashing the living world on behalf of corporate power: is this really all we can expect from the ministers in charge of protecting it?

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23rd July 2026

There’s a slightly mean question I often ask British people with an interest in the living world: can you name the Environment Secretary? I don’t intend to show them up: it’s not them I’m testing. I watch the brows knit, a finger go up, the mouth open and close. “It’s, you know, the one who … no, they went, didn’t they? That other one …” It’s been like this for seven years.

Why? Because throughout this period, we’ve not had environment secretaries. We’ve had portals through which corporate lobbyists may pass. The last incumbent to represent the wider public interest (and I can scarcely bring myself to type these words) was Michael Gove. In his other roles, he’s widely remembered with loathing and disgust. Out of office, he continues to poison public life, as editor of the Spectator. But in this role, to general astonishment, he placed the public good above special interests.

Standard operating procedure, by contrast, is exemplified by the final acts of the outgoing secretary, whose name, to put you out of your misery, is Emma Reynolds. To give just one example – which could be seen as an embodiment of everything that has gone wrong here – she spent her last weeks in the post trying to remove the brakes on industrial chicken farming.

In front of a parliamentary committee this month, she railed against the planning constraints holding back yet more giant chicken factories (let’s not grace them with the name of farms). If only these obstacles were demolished, she mused, “there is great investment out there waiting to be made … I want to bring down these barriers as much as you do”. She said she had spoken to other departments to ensure permission for new chicken factories was easier to obtain.

Neither she nor the MPs questioning her gave any hint of why these buildings have run into trouble with the planning system. In fact, there was no mention of any of the problems the factories cause: the MPs’ only apparent interest was in what the industry wanted. What’s the point of MPs if they simply channel corporate demands? But these factories are killing some of our most beautiful rivers. They generate far more dung than the surrounding fields can absorb. The surplus washes downhill into the nearest stream.

The only decision that counts is the planning decision. As soon as permission for a chicken unit is granted, the local tributary, and possibly the main stem of the river it drains into, is as good as dead. It’s not even as if these factories support jobs and growth: by killing the rivers, they help to destroy local economies.

I thought we’d won this argument. But argument, it seems, is no match for economic power. Reynolds’s loyalties appeared to lie not with the ecosystems she was meant to protect, but with the lobbyists threatening them. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising: before she joined Keir Starmer’s government, she worked as a lobbyist, representing the financial sector.

Disturbingly, it was the new environment secretary, Angela Eagle, while working as Reynolds’s deputy, who sought to drive through the “planning reforms” the poultry industry is demanding, telling chicken lobbyists “planning should enable ambition, not stifle it”. Will she now take Burnham’s “circuit breaker” promise seriously, and junk this appeasement of one of our most destructive industries?

At a recent farming festival, Reynolds claimed that boosting the poultry sector would enhance our food security. I don’t know how many times we need to point this out, but isn’t it bleeding obvious that it has the opposite effect? The feed sustaining chickens in these factories must be either imported or grown on land that could otherwise directly feed people. There could be more soya in chicken than in tofu: one report estimates that it takes 109g of soya to produce 100g of chicken breast. Yet this is just one of several components of their diet.

The chicken business in the UK is also controlled by a handful of giant companies: another security red light. If food security were the objective, the government would encourage us to eat fewer chickens and other animals, and more plants. But in parliament, Reynolds also proudly announced that she was disregarding the targets set by the government’s Climate Change Committee to reduce livestock numbers. I find myself asking, over and again: “Are they trying to harm this country?”

To advance their dismal agenda, Reynolds and Eagle set up something called the Farming and Food Partnership Board. Its aim is to encourage “closer collaboration between farming, industry and government”. How could it possibly be closer? The environment department, Defra, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the farming industry. The only members of this new board are government ministers and corporate representatives and lobbyists. Among its objectives is a “poultry sector growth plan”, to address the issue of “planning barriers”.

This chickening out is just one of many examples of how, by working for special interests, the environment department has harmed the ecosystems and the people it is supposed to protect. Another is the government’s “delivery plan” to restore nature, released by Reynolds just before she left office. It’s not a plan, and it won’t deliver: just a catalogue of vague hopes and blandishments. It could be summarised as “do nothing, for fear of offending landowners”. Far from meeting its promise to protect and restore 30% of the land in England by 2030, Reynolds’s department has presided over continued decline. That’s her legacy: less nature, less resilience, less security.

Much worse is planned: Starmer’s government proposed a “regulating for growth bill”, whose text we haven’t yet seen, but which appears to threaten even greater assaults on nature protection. It may contain one of his government’s most alarming proposals: creating a system that could be described as pop-up freeports, in which companies all over the country would be able to operate in temporary “sandboxes”, where the usual rules don’t apply. We should see this as a key test of Burnham’s promise to end neoliberalism: will he drop this nonsense?

I’ll keep asking the question, regardless of who occupies this office: do you know the name of the environment secretary? The answer is likely to depend on one factor: whether they are ready to break the grip of corporate power, and defend us and the rest of the living world. Whether, in other words, they want to do their job.

http://www.monbiot.com

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It makes for grim reading.

Thanks to George Monbiot for revealing the truth as to what is going on with the United Kingdom Government.

Save Europe Act

This is very important to all people, not just Europeans. This is vital for every citizen across the world.

Dan originally sent me the link to this video. I thank him enormously.

Here is the video:

I repeat, all persons who care about freedom, should sign this Act.

The wildfire smoke

A useful article from The Conversation.

When I first read this article, I thought everyone will be aware, such is the awareness of wildfire smoke in so many places, and media.

Then I realised that this was wrong, and if only one or two people benefit from the advice then it should be republished. The original was on The Conversation.

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Yes, breathing wildfire smoke can harm your health – here’s what you can do to protect yourself

A woman rides a bike through city air tinted orange by wildfire smoke. Neither she nor a woman walking in the background is wearing a protective mask.
Heavy wildfire smoke from Canada’s forests turn skies orange in Toronto and across parts of the U.S. in July 2026. Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images

Colleen E. Reid, University of Colorado Boulder

Wildfire smoke from fires burning in Canada and northern Minnesota has been pouring across the Great Lakes and northeastern U.S. states, turning skies an eerie shade of orange. In the West, smoke has also been spreading into communities in Colorado and neighboring states as more wildfires burn in hot, dry conditions in July 2026.

University of Colorado environmental health researcher Colleen Reid explains what’s in that smoke and why breathing it is a health concern everyone should be aware of.

What is in wildfire smoke?

Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture that includes nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter. When homes or buildings also burn, they can release an even more toxic stew of chemicals from burning electronics, furniture, plastics, paints and much more.

What you see when you see a smoke plume or when the air is hazy with wildfire smoke are the tiny particles that are too small to fall to the ground right away with gravity.

These particles, which scientists call particulate matter, are very small – we measure them in microns. When you breathe them in, they can harm your health. The smaller the particles, the deeper they can get into your lungs and body.

Map shows heavy smoke and low air quality across the Great Lakes Region and into the Northeast
EPA air quality monitors show high risks from smoke in many parts of the Great Lakes and northeastern U.S. on July 15, 2026. Reds are considered very unhealthy levels. Purples are either extremely unhealthy for light purple or hazardous for areas in maroon. AirNow Fire and Smoke Map

You may have heard the term PM2.5. It means particles that are 2.5 microns or smaller in diameter, many times smaller than the width of a human hair. High concentrations of these particles in the air during wildfire smoke episodes are what trigger air quality alerts.

Has wildfire smoke been increasing recently, and why?

Yes, wildfires have become more frequent and more intense just in the past couple of decades, and when wildfires become more frequent and intense, so does the smoke.

Scientists have found that wildfires are becoming more frequent due to a variety of factors that include increases in fire weather – hot, dry, windy conditions that fuel the spread of fires due to climate change – as well as other natural and human factors. The reasons for the increases in wildfires vary in different parts of the world.

Other studies have found that wildfire smoke makes up an increasing portion of the PM2.5 in the air in the U.S., and in many areas it is offsetting the decreases in air pollution that the U.S. has gained through regulations of industrial and vehicle emissions under the Clean Air Act.

How could wildfire smoke affect my health?

Some effects of breathing wildfire smoke include shortness of breath, coughing, itchy or watery eyes, headaches, rashes and itchiness. But smoke can cause more serious harm. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown that hospitalizations and emergency department visits for asthma and other respiratory diseases increase during wildfire smoke events.

After you breathe in the particles, they cause inflammation and oxidative stress, and they can move into the blood and spread throughout the body, affecting other organ systems.

People stand in a field as a smoke plume turns the sky orange and then dark.
The height of a smoke plume, like this one from Colorado’s Aspen Acres fire near Pueblo on July 1, 2026, affects the amount of particles and chemicals people on the ground are exposed to. But generally, if you can smell smoke, you’re breathing it in. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Breathing wildfire smoke has been associated with higher risk of preterm births and other issues during pregnancy, and potentially cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks and strokes, although the evidence for these effects are more mixed.

The longer-term health effects of wildfire smoke are less clear, but it is a growing area of research.

Where can I learn more about wildfire smoke risks where I live?

The first thing to do to protect yourself from wildfire smoke is to know how bad the smoke is and how long it is going to last.

One great place to get information for where you live on current wildfire smoke is fire.airnow.gov. You can zoom in on the map to where you live and find color-coded circles reflecting data from both U.S. EPA air-quality monitors and PurpleAir sensors that people have put in their homes.

The colors show the level of PM2.5 at that location and suggest the associated health risk.

To find out how wildfire smoke is expected to change over time in North America, you can look at maps from FireSmoke Canada and the U.S. Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program.

What can I do to protect myself and my family from wildfire smoke?

First of all, depending on the level of the air quality index where you are, there are different recommendations. When wildfire smoke reaches unhealthy levels, stay indoors as much as possible, with doors and windows shut to keep the wildfire smoke out.

If you have an air cleaner, use it, but check the filter, as filters can fill up quickly. Similarly, check the filter on your home HVAC system and replace it if needed.

If you have to go outside, consider wearing a well-fitting N95, KN95 or KF94 mask. These masks can protect you from inhaling particles in the air around you. Looser masks, such as surgical masks, mostly protect others from what you breathe out instead. They do not have a tight seal around your mouth, and when you breathe in, the air with all of the particles can find its way around the sides of the mask.

Having a tight fit of the mask to your face is important so that when you breathe, the air is going through the mask and capturing the smoke particles rather than letting them into your body where they cause harm.

If your home is leaky and you can see haze inside, consider going to a public space, such as a library or mall, with a good HVAC system. Some municipalities have designated clean air spaces where anyone can go.

Colleen E. Reid, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Thank you, Colleen, and thank you The Conversation. Lots of good advice.

Starting Your Own Pet Boarding and Daycare Business: A Complete Guide

Once again, Penny supplies a guest post.

I love what Penny writes, and here is another of her guest posts.

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For new pet boarding owners and first-time pet care entrepreneurship hopefuls, a pet daycare business startup can feel like the perfect way to turn a love of animals into steady, local work. The real tension is that caring for pets professionally means balancing joy with responsibility, and getting clear on what families in the local pet service market actually need. Community pet care needs can look very different from one neighborhood to the next, and the wrong assumptions can lead to stress for pets, disappointed clients, and a business that never finds its footing. With the right foundation, a caring idea can become a service people trust.

Understanding What Builds Trust in Pet Care

At its core, a successful boarding and daycare business is a promise: safe care, clear routines, and honest communication. A pet boarding services overview clarifies what you offer, while daycare facility requirements spell out what your space must support, from safe separation to clean airflow. Animal welfare standards set the non-negotiables that protect pets and guide daily decisions.

This matters because families are not buying a kennel run, they are buying peace of mind. With 94 million U.S. households now own a pet, trust is what turns first-time clients into regulars. Clear standards also reduce incidents, staff burnout, and stressful handoffs. Think of it like a child daycare check-in. Parents relax when the rules are consistent, the facility feels secure, and safety steps are visible. Pet parents respond the same way when your policies and setup match your care claims.

Build Business Skills That Make Your Pet Care Idea Profitable

When you understand what earns trust, the next step is building the business know-how that helps more local pet parents find you, and stick with you. If you want a more structured way to sharpen your planning and promotion skills, going back to school for a business degree can be a practical move while you develop your pet boarding or daycare idea. Whether you earn a degree in marketing, business, communications, or management, you can learn skills that can help your business thrive. 

And because online degree programs are designed for flexibility, it can be easier to run your business while going to school at the same time. If you’d like to explore a guided option, you can look into an accredited online business program while you keep moving your plans forward. With your skills and support lined up, you’re ready to follow a step-by-step launch plan to bring your pet care business to life in your community.

From Idea to Opening Day: Your Launch Checklist

This quick launch path helps you cover the unglamorous essentials (legal, safety, staffing, marketing, and money) so you can open with confidence and avoid costly do-overs.

  1. Confirm your services and business setup
    Start by choosing your exact offer: daycare only, overnight boarding, add-ons (baths, pickups), and your ideal pet size and temperament. Then pick a simple business structure and name, and open a separate business bank account so your income and expenses stay easy to track.
  2. Handle licensing and basic policies early
    Call your city or county to ask what approvals apply to animal care businesses, including zoning, permits, and any inspections that affect where you can operate. Write plain-language policies now (hours, drop-off rules, behavior standards, vaccination requirements) so every customer gets the same expectations.
  3. Set up a safe, low-stress facility flow
    Design your space around safety and calm: separate areas for small and large dogs, clear entry and exit paths, secure gates, and easy-to-clean surfaces. Build your care routine around pet comfort too, since a consistent diet can reduce tummy troubles and help pets settle faster.
  4. Hire, train, and schedule for reliability
    Start small with dependable coverage for peak times, then add staff as demand grows. Train everyone on handling basics (leash control, safe group play, cleaning routines, incident reporting), and use checklists so care stays consistent even on busy days.
  5. Create a simple budget and local marketing plan
    List your monthly must-pays (rent, utilities, payroll, cleaning supplies, software) and one-time setup costs (build-out, crates, fencing, signage), then set pricing to cover those with room for slow weeks. Promote locally with a polished Google Business Profile, partnerships with vets and groomers, and a “first visit” offer that encourages trial bookings.

Pet Boarding and Daycare Questions, Answered

Q: What insurance do I actually need to open?
A: Start with general liability and animal bailee or care, custody, and control coverage for injuries, escapes, or property damage. Many owners also add workers’ comp if they hire staff and commercial auto if they offer pickups. Ask a broker for a pet-care specific quote and confirm exclusions in writing.

Q: How strict should my vaccination and health policy be?
A: Clear rules protect pets, your staff, and your reputation. Require proof of core vaccines, parasite prevention, and a symptom-free check at drop-off, plus a plan for isolating cough, vomiting, or diarrhea. Put your policy in plain language and enforce it consistently.

Q: What should I do if a pet gets sick or injured on my watch?
A: Get written owner permission for emergency care, a preferred vet, and a spending limit before the first stay. Train staff to document symptoms, call the owner fast, and transport safely if needed. Keep a stocked first-aid kit and a simple incident report form.

Q: How do I set prices without guessing?
A: A pricing strategy helps you set prices based on costs, demand, and the add-ons you offer. Calculate your true daily cost per pet, then compare local competitors and adjust for your hours, staffing ratio, and facility quality. Test packages and a small peak-day surcharge instead of constant price changes.

Q: What regulations tend to surprise new owners?
A: Zoning, noise rules, waste disposal, fire safety, and occupancy limits can affect your layout and capacity. Call your city or county early and ask what permits, inspections, and signage rules apply to animal care businesses. Getting clarity up front prevents expensive remodels later.

Turning Pet Care Passion Into a Reliable Local Business

Starting a pet boarding and daycare business can feel like balancing big heart with real-world rules, costs, and what-ifs. The steadier path is a simple mindset: build trust through clear standards, thoughtful planning, and consistent care, then improve one decision at a time as you grow. When that approach guides the launch, entrepreneurial motivation turns into confidence, startup challenges become manageable checkpoints, and long-term business growth starts to look realistic. A successful pet care business is built on clear policies, calm systems, and genuine care.

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As an ex-entrepreneur, a very ‘ex’ by the way, I can support that last sentence. As well as the three items of a successful business, I would add that, above all, there has to be an identified need for the business, and it helps enormously if the person, starting the pet business, is a salesperson.

Because the key role of a salesperson is to listen: to your potential customers, to whosoever will be your competitors, and through discussion with key people in your line of business.

Our changing world.

Now, it is the technology being applied to our electricity supply.

Although we have an array of solar panels here at home, we still have electricity cables coming to the house. In the Winter, when the solar panels are nowhere enough for our electic consumption, we depend on Pacific Power to provide the electic power for our home.

That is why the following article, published by The Conversation, was highly relevant.

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Electric companies don’t need to black out customers to prevent wildfires – here are 3 relatively fast, affordable solutions

Jasmine Garland, University of Colorado Boulder

A severe winter snow drought has left snowpack levels far below normal across the American West in 2026. Without a slow-melting blanket of snow to keep the soil and forests moist, alpine vegetation is drying into a tinderbox earlier than normal and ramping up the fire risk.

The historic dryness means electric utilities are facing a dilemma: how to deliver power through dry, windy regions without accidentally starting a catastrophic fire.

To cope, many utilities are turning to a controversial method pioneered in California: the public safety power shut-off – better known as a preemptive blackout. Imagine your power provider deliberately cutting electricity to your entire neighborhood for hours to days, not because a storm hit or a wire broke, but because the weather forecast is hot, dry and windy. This preventive darkness is fast becoming the new normal for millions of residents in the West.

A map of the Western U.S. shows just about everywhere except northern Idaho far below normal.
Most of the snowpack in the Western U.S. was far below the 30-year average in June 2026, suggesting a dry summer ahead. Snow-water equivalent is a measure of the amount of water in snowpack. National Water and Climate Center

As an energy systems researcher living in the West, I study how our electric grid interacts with these escalating climate risks. I believe utilities have better options that boost fire safety quickly while avoiding the drastic move of shutting off the power or investing in expensive alternatives, such as underground power lines or microgrids.

Billion-dollar spark: Why the West is going dark

To understand why a utility would willingly turn off its own product, you have to look at how the Western grid was built.

Most rural power lines consist of bare, uninsulated aluminum wires strung across thousands of miles of wooden poles, often through rugged forests. If those wires accidentally touch one another or trees or the ground, they can short-circuit, sending off sparks that can start fires.

This system, once considered the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century, has been responsible for some of the worst fire disasters in U.S. history.

Utility workers in hard hats and reflective vests burying a power line in a trench next to a road.
Burying power lines can keep the wind from blowing tree branches into them, but it can be prohibitively expensive, particularly where transmission lines pass through rugged mountains. AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

In California, electricity infrastructure has ignited eight of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires. The legal and financial fallout can be devastating. In 2019, Pacific Gas & Electric was forced into bankruptcy due to an estimated US$30 billion in wildfire liabilities stemming from equipment-caused blazes, including the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed much of the town of Paradise. Because utilities are regulated monopolies, they can pass these massive liability costs to their customers over time.

California utilities have been using preemptive outages for several years to avoid causing more fires on hot, dry, windy days. Today, that strategy has spread beyond the state. According to the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, the independent grid reliability authority for the West, 24 western power entities had used preemptive shut-offs by 2026.

Colorado’s Xcel Energy implemented its first major preemptive blackout in 2025. Some of these outages have left communities without power for up to five days.

Chart shows how the number of utilities and agencies with policies for preemptive blackouts increased from 16 in the years before 2025 to 24 in 2026 alone
The number of utilities and agencies with policies of using wildfire preemptive blackouts has risen quickly in recent years in Western states. Jasmine Garland, based on WECC data, CC BY-ND

Fortunately, keeping communities safe does not have to mean leaving them in the dark. There are ways utilities can modernize electric system infrastructure quickly that lower the fire risk and keep the power flowing.

Solution 1: Covered conductors

The quickest, most cost-effective physical fix is to use covered conductors. Think of the electrical cords in your house. If you touched the bare copper wire inside, it would spark. But you don’t get shocked by household cords because they are wrapped in plastic insulation.

Utilities like Southern California Edison are actively wrapping their high-risk mountain wires in heavy, weather-resistant polymer insulation. By the end of 2025, SCE had installed over 700 circuit miles (1,126 kilometers) of this insulated “tree wire” in high-fire districts over the span of about a year and committed to modify an additional 1,481 miles (2,383 kilometers) by 2028.

A worker stands by a giant roll of covered conductor line – power lines covered in a plastic.
A Southern California Edison crew installs new covered conductor power lines in Aguanga, Calif. Elisa Ferrari/Southern California Edison

If a severe windstorm blows a heavy pine branch directly onto an insulated line, it simply rests against the wire without sparking. It is a highly effective middle-ground fix that’s significantly less expensive than burying transmission lines in mountain forests, and it can be deployed rapidly across thousands of miles.

2. ‘Fast-trip’ settings and topology optimization

Another option is to change how the electricity behaves inside the power line using automated technology.

Traditionally, if a tree branch touched a power line, the system would try to push electricity through the line anyway, causing repeated sparking. Today, utilities are deploying “fast-trip” settings on their circuit breakers.

Think of these like the ultra-sensitive circuit breakers in your home. The microsecond a branch bumps an outdoor line, these smart systems detect the disruption and cut the power to that specific wire before a spark can even form. This allows operators to isolate a single high-risk area rather than shutting down power to an entire county.

Topology optimization is another promising operations technique. It acts like Google Maps for the electric grid. Instead of shutting power down when one line is facing high risks, advanced software attempts to safely route electricity around the danger zone using neighboring, lower-risk lines.

By dynamically changing the pathway of the power, utilities can drastically reduce the electrical load and heat on vulnerable lines without cutting power.

Solution 3: AI and real-time smart sensors

Advanced computer software and artificial intelligence are also helping utilities act with surgical precision.

In the past, if a utility feared a windstorm could spark a fire, it had to shut off power to a large region because it lacked localized data. Today, utilities are deploying smart sensors called dynamic line rating that are installed directly onto power lines. These sensors act like digital stethoscopes, measuring real-time wire temperature, wind speed and line sag.

When combined with panoramic, AI-powered camera networks, the grid gains eyes. Xcel Energy in Colorado has deployed 81 of these cameras. Instead of executing a sweeping blackout, operators can use these cameras and automated smart switches to isolate the high-risk span in a windy canyon while keeping the lights safely on for the surrounding town.

The era of risk-aware grid design

The future of Western energy relies on moving away from static, 20th-century safety manuals and toward a practice called risk-aware dispatching.

In simple terms, this means treating the power grid like a living, breathing weather map. On a calm day, electricity is routed along the cheapest path. But when fire conditions spike, AI algorithms will automatically recalculate the region’s electricity flow, diverting power away from fragile forest lines and routing it through safer plains or underground urban corridors.

The era of cheap, unmonitored overhead power lines is over. To adapt to a changing climate, I believe the grid must evolve from a passive network of copper, aluminum and wood into a smart, dynamic machine. By combining insulated wires, targeted undergrounding of power lines, and real-time sensor data, utilities can avoid sparking devastating fires without resorting to frequent blackouts.

Jasmine Garland, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Colorado Boulder

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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We live (very happily) in a rural part of Southern Oregon. Much of the land close to us is covered in trees. Large parts of our property has trees and bushes. We try and keep the area directly around the home clear, but what with me being over 80 and Jeannie with Parkinson’s, it is a challenging task.

We have had far less snow over the Winter than normal. There is no guarantee the coming Winter will provide the (historically) past levels of snow. We will have to wait and see.

Defiance, even when it is not easy.

Learning the skills of resistance.

Saying ‘no’ is difficult. This is an article from The Conversation that talks of our need at times to be the opposite of friendly, to stand one’s ground, and to be true to yourself.

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The science of defiance: A psychology researcher explains why people comply – and how to resist

Defiance need not be aggressive or loud. Sergio Mendoza Hochmann/Moment via Getty Images

Sunita Sah, Cornell University

You’re in a meeting when your boss suggests changing a number to make the quarterly report look stronger. Heads nod. The slides move on. You feel a knot in your stomach: Do you speak up and risk being branded difficult, or stay silent and become complicit?

Most people picture defiance as dramatic outbursts. In reality, it’s often these small, tense moments where conscience collides with compliance.

I first saw the power of defiance not in the workplace, but closer to home. My mother was the ultimate people-pleaser: timid, polite, eager to accommodate. Barely 4 feet, 10 inches tall, she put everyone else’s needs above her own. But one day, when I was 7, I saw a different side to her.

We were walking home from the grocery store in West Yorkshire, England, when a group of teenage boys blocked our path in a narrow alleyway. They hurled racist insults and told us to “go back home.”

My reaction was instantaneous: Stay quiet, avoid conflict and get past them as quickly as possible. I grabbed my mother’s arm, urging her to move with me. But she didn’t. My quiet, deferential, never-confrontational mother did something completely different. She stopped, turned and looked the boys directly in the eyes. Then she asked, calmly but firmly, “What do you mean?”

She wasn’t loud or aggressive. And in that moment, she showed me that defiance doesn’t always roar, and it can come from the people you least expect.

I’ve carried these lessons into my work as a physician-turned-organizational psychologist. For decades, I’ve studied why people comply, staying silent when they don’t want to, and how they can resist wisely. In my book “Defy: The Power of No in a World that Demands Yes,” I offer a framework based on behavioral science research that can help you defy in ways that are intentional, effective and true to your values.

worried woman seated with another looking at a laptop
One setting where the choice to defy or comply can arise is work. FG Trade/E+ via Getty Images

What defiance really is

When people think of defiance, they often picture teenagers slamming doors, protesters shouting in the streets or rebels breaking rules just for the thrill of it. But that’s not the kind of defiance I study or the kind that shapes our lives most often.

Defiance is not about being oppositional for its own sake. It’s about choosing to act in line with your values when there is pressure to do otherwise.

That pressure can come from anywhere: a boss urging you to fudge the numbers, a friend nudging you toward something you don’t believe in, a culture telling you to stay in your place. Defiance in those moments might be as small as saying “no,” asking for clarification or simply pausing instead of rushing along with the group. Other times, it means speaking up, challenging authority or maybe walking away.

Seen this way, defiance isn’t a fixed trait that some people are born with and others lack. It’s a practice: a skill you can strengthen over time. Some days you might comply, other days you might resist. What matters is that you have the awareness and the tools to make the choice consciously, rather than letting fear or habit decide for you.

Why people comply

If defiance is so important, why do people so often stay silent?

One reason is a psychological process I’ve uncovered in my research: insinuation anxiety. It arises when people worry that not complying with another person’s wishes may be interpreted as a signal of distrust. Turning down a boss’s request to “adjust” the numbers might feel like you’re implying they’re dishonest. To avoid that discomfort, you go along – even when it violates your values.

Behavioral science has long documented this pull toward compliance. In the 1960s, for example, psychologist Stanley Milgram showed that ordinary people would administer what they believed were dangerous electric shocks to strangers simply because an authority figure told them to.

My own research has shown surprisingly high levels of compliance with obviously bad advice, even when given by a stranger with no consequences for disagreeing. People feel immense social pressure to go along with what others suggest. That’s because if you’ve never been trained in how to say no, it feels uncomfortable and awkward.

A framework for action

If compliance is the human default, how can you build the muscle of defiance? In my research, I’ve developed a simple actionable guide that I call the Defiance Compass. Like a navigation aid, it orients you in difficult situations by asking three questions:

  1. Who am I? What are the core values that matter most to me?
  2. What type of situation is this? Is it safe to resist? Will it have a positive impact?
  3. What does a person like me do in a situation like this? How can I take responsibility and act in a way that’s consistent with my identity and values?
circular chart with arrows connecting the three questions of the defiance compass
Three questions can help you zero in on whether the time is right for you to defy. Sunita Sah

Asking these questions shifts defiance from a gut reaction to a conscious practice. And here’s what’s important: That third question (“What does a person like me do?”) circles back to the first (“Who am I?”), because how you act again and again becomes who you are.

Defiance doesn’t always mean open confrontation. Sometimes it means asking a clarifying question, buying time or quietly refusing. It can mean speaking up or walking away. The key is to start small, practice regularly and anchor your choices in your values. Like any skill, the more you practice, the more natural it becomes.

Why defiance matters now

Defiance may be risky, but it’s never been more relevant. At work, employees are pressured to meet targets at any cost. In politics, citizens face waves of misinformation and polarization. In everyday life, people struggle to set healthy boundaries. Across all these contexts, the temptation to comply for the sake of comfort is strong.

That’s why learning to defy strategically matters. It protects personal integrity, strengthens institutions and helps sustain democracy. And it doesn’t require being loud or confrontational.

Of course, not every act of defiance is safe or guaranteed to make a difference. Sometimes it comes at real personal cost and some people still choose to act even when the impact isn’t certain: think of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat, or Colin Kaepernick taking a knee. In those moments, the act itself becomes the message. Both of those individuals were deeply connected to their values and the assessment is personal: What feels worth the risk to one person might not to another.

Defiance does require practice: noticing when values are at stake, pausing before you nod along, and choosing actions that align with who you want to be. Each act of consent, compliance or defiance shapes not just your story but the stories of our societies.

If you practice defiance, and teach it and model it, you can imagine a different type of society. You can start to envision a world where, in that same alleyway from my childhood, one of the boys will step forward and tell his friends, “That’s not OK. Let them pass.”

Sunita Sah, Professor of Management and Organizations, Cornell University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Across the range of society there will always be persons who choose to act with poor social values. Some are very senior, such as many politicians, some are towards the bottom of society. That is a fact of life.

Sunita Sah does us proud in writing this article, and I am delighted to republish it, with the permission of The Conversation.

Better understanding of Dopamine

I had little idea about dopamine, and I suspect that I’m not the only person.

Luckily, there are a number of medical websites that describe the role of dopamine in some details.

First, a small part of an AI report based on information from HealthDirect

Dopamine is a critical neurotransmitter and hormone that acts as the brain’s chemical messenger, playing a central role in motivation, reward-motivated behavior, pleasure, and motor control.

Second, part of an explanation from Cleveland Clinic.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in your brain. It plays a role as a “reward center” and in many body functions, including memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention and more. High or low dopamine levels are associated with diseases including Parkinson’s disease, restless legs syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Third, Psychology Today reports.

Dopamine is known as the feel-good neurotransmitter—a chemical that ferries information between neurons. The brain releases it when we eat food that we crave or while we have sex, contributing to feelings of pleasure and satisfaction as part of the reward system. This important neurochemical boosts mood, motivation, and attention, and helps regulate movement, learning, and emotional responses.

How does dopamine make you feel? 

Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behavior. Dopamine makes you curious about ideas and fuels your search for information. Dopamine creates reward-seeking loops in the sense that people will repeat pleasurable behavior, from checking Instagram to taking drugs.

Swedish pharmacologist and neuroscientist Arvid Carlsson won the Nobel prize in 2000 for his research on dopamine, showing its importance in brain function. He helped show that the neurotransmitter is heavily involved in the motor system. When the brain fails to produce enough dopamine, it can result in Parkinson’s disease. The primary treatment for Parkinson’s disease is a drug called L-dopa, which spurs the production of dopamine.

Dopamine has also been implicated in schizophrenia and ADHD; the brain systems underlying these conditions (as well as substance abuse disorder) are complex. The activity of the dopamine system depends on the state of one’s dopamine receptors, and in people with these conditions, the chemical interacts with other factors in ways that have yet to be explained.

How does dopamine function in the brain? 

It is no exaggeration to say that dopamine makes us human. Beginning in infant development, dopamine levels are critical, and mental disabilities can arise if dopamine is not present in sufficient quantities. Dopamine is implicated in genetic conditions like congenital hypothyroidism. Dopamine deficiency is also implicated in other conditions such as Alzheimer’s, depressive disorders, binge-eating, addiction, and gambling.

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My darling Jean takes Carbidopa-Levodopa four times a day and has been doing so for many years.

As one can see from the above extracts, dopamine is incredibly important for the human brain.

Dopamine makes us human!

The reason behind the human ‘week’.

A fascinating history of our week.

Why are there seven days in a week?

The Conversation published a post on this subject back in 2020 under their Curious Kids title. That may have been the reason I did not republish it.

But on June 5th this year, Kelly Kizer Whitt published on EarthSky an article explaining how the ‘week’ came about.

However, I am going to republish the item, as posted by The Conversation.

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Why are there seven days in a week?

Your calendar dates back to Babylonian times. Aleksandra Pikalova/Shutterstock.com

Kristin Heineman, Colorado State University

Why are there seven days in a week? – Henry E., age 8, Somerville, Massachusetts

Waiting for the weekend can often seem unbearable, a whole six days between Saturdays. Having seven days in a week has been the case for a very long time, and so people don’t often stop to ask why.

Most of our time reckoning is due to the movements of the planets, Moon and stars. Our day is equal to one full rotation of the Earth around its axis. Our year is a revolution of the Earth around the Sun, which takes 365 and ¼ days, which is why we add an extra day in February every four years, for a leap year.

But the week and the month are a bit trickier. The phases of the Moon do not exactly coincide with the solar calendar. The Moon cycle is 27 days and seven hours long, and there are 13 phases of the Moon in each solar year.

Some of the earliest civilizations observed the cosmos and recorded the movements of planets, the Sun and Moon. The Babylonians, who lived in modern-day Iraq, were astute observers and interpreters of the heavens, and it is largely thanks to them that our weeks are seven days long.

The reason they adopted the number seven was that they observed seven celestial bodies – the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. So, that number held particular significance to them.

Other civilizations chose other numbers – like the Egyptians, whose week was 10 days long; or the Romans, whose week lasted eight.

Some of the earliest civilizations recorded the movements of planets, the Sun and Moon.
Andrey Prokhorov/Shutterstock.com

The Babylonians divided their lunar months into seven-day weeks, with the final day of the week holding particular religious significance. The 28-day month, or a complete cycle of the Moon, is a bit too large a period of time to manage effectively, and so the Babylonians divided their months into four equal parts of seven.

The number seven is not especially well-suited to coincide with the solar year, or even the months, so it did create a few inconsistencies.

However, the Babylonians were such a dominant culture in the Near East, especially in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., that this, and many of their other notions of time – such as a 60-minute hour – persisted.

The seven-day week spread throughout the Near East. It was adopted by the Jews, who had been captives of the Babylonians at the height of that civilization’s power. Other cultures in the surrounding areas got on board with the seven-day week, including the Persian empire and the Greeks.

Centuries later, when Alexander the Great began to spread Greek culture throughout the Near East as far as India, the concept of the seven-day week spread as well. Scholars think that perhaps India later introduced the seven-day week to China.

Finally, once the Romans began to conquer the territory influenced by Alexander the Great, they too eventually shifted to the seven-day week. It was Emperor Constantine who decreed that the seven-day week was the official Roman week and made Sunday a public holiday in A.D. 321.

The weekend was not adopted until modern times in the 20th century. Although there have been some recent attempts to change the seven-day week, it has been around for so long that it seems like it is here to stay.

Kristin Heineman, Instructor in History, Colorado State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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So there we are, the ancient history of the week. Including the fact that the weekend was not adopted until the 20th century. In the 1940’s to be precise.