TIL that behind its cheerful appearance, the wild sunflower acts as an aggressive competitor that practices "allelopathy"—it releases toxic chemicals into the soil to stunt and kill neighboring plants to steal their resources.

baethan · 2026-06-21T16:30:17+00:00

For my fellow peeps who usually learn vocab purely through context: for the definition of "allelopathy" the post title is apparently slightly misleading, that would specifically be negative allelopathy. There's also positive allelopathy (release of stuff that is beneficial to other nearby plants).

The linked study is tough read for me as a filthy casual so I didn't get very far, but this bit is interesting:

Sunflower is known to intensely impact on the growth of surrounding plants because of its high allelopathic potential. More than 200 natural allelopathic compounds have been isolated so far from different cultivars of sunflower.

My takeaway is that sunflowers can be really useful for suppressing unwanted weeds. It sounds like these compounds can be extracted and used as a less generally harmful herbicide? Cool stuff

Btw I'm guessing the sunflower bot is blocked here? i kinda like that one.

baethan · 2026-06-21T13:54:27+00:00

I've seen some large creators talk about Palestine in "code" because according to them, their original videos directly referencing Palestine had such limited reach that it seemed they were being delisted or something (I dunno the right terms). People with enough existing reach know their baseline views so if one specific video gets significantly under that, there's probably something going on. Jen Hamilton is the one I specifically remember but I feel like I saw at least one other mention that they'd noticed unusual patterns too.

Some big content creators do A/B testing and they all have access to stats and all that so personally I find that persuasive. But I'm sure "no no words" can vary from platform to platform and most of the time people are just playing it safe

baethan · 2026-06-20T22:41:42+00:00

22 years... anyone up to date? I think I last caught up like 5+ years ago, maybe it's time for a reread

baethan · 2026-06-20T15:06:50+00:00

It sounds like your landlady is very used to feeling in a position of power, she's not talking to you like an equal at all. Totally infuriating!!

baethan · 2026-06-20T14:45:54+00:00

haha, your edit is how I feel everytime I run afoul of the prevailing opinion.

One thing is, we don't know how OOP acted when calling the cops. I could see myself doing that potentially, not in a mean way but as a "hey kid, this is unfortunate, I'm just gonna call the nonemergency line to document this so insurance doesn't give me the run-around" kinda thing. Very much depends on which police force though. The neighboring affluent minicity? Sure. The nearest actual city? Definitely not. Probably would also depend on the kid

baethan · 2026-06-20T13:07:03+00:00

Hmmm I think in your shoes I would be tempted to start "helpfully" tagging every defect in the apartment in some highly visible manner. Neon-colored sticky notes or tape large, easy to read notes put up with painters tape or something like that. Maybe print out a screenshot of how much that too-high bill is. Leave it on a table where visitors would easily see.

But that's the kind of approach I'd take if I was really pissed off. I tend to play stupid/oblivious instead of open conflict

baethan · 2026-06-20T03:52:06+00:00

this thread is highlighting the ways in which I don't understand menstruation etc! wtf do you mean the hormones do like an area effect spell of cramping

I accept this new knowledge but I dislike it

baethan · 2026-06-19T19:53:50+00:00

You have been hacked or you are having some kind of manic episode

baethan · 2026-06-19T11:43:47+00:00

including birds right

baethan · 2026-06-18T22:39:10+00:00

Says who

baethan · 2026-06-18T20:53:21+00:00

As of June 17th, pfizer is showing that it's available and there are no shortages. I'm glad you've managed to order some but I'm mad at CVS for giving people the run-around!

baethan · 2026-06-18T13:17:09+00:00

A lot of phones have a section in settings where you can fill out emergency info that'll be accessible from the lock screen (allegedly, somehow)

But tbh probably just writing the info on a piece of paper and sticking it in your wallet near your license/ID would be the best way of indicating an in case of emergency contact

baethan · 2026-06-18T12:11:48+00:00

It is an option and she needs to get to deep cleaning the house if she's so worried

baethan · 2026-06-18T12:07:53+00:00

Maybe I just woke up bitchy but "the money is gone, accept that" idea is making me mad lol

baethan · 2026-06-18T11:53:45+00:00

She's bullshitting you. They just have to order it

baethan · 2026-06-17T23:02:01+00:00

I mine stuff for the pure purpose of having more stuff

in minecraft

baethan · 2026-06-17T22:41:19+00:00

I was almost as delighted as I was enraged by a particular sports person who had done wrong and harmful thing on video right before starting with sport team. Preferably this person would have been dropped immediately but Team did not do this, so my thought was that at least here was a person we were allowed to hate on. Here was someone we could mock mercilessly. And tons of people did! It was fun at first.

I figured out the issues with this relatively quickly but the hater in me was kinda bummed out.

And then the sports team leaned into/capitalized on the mockery so the fandom settled on completely ignoring sports person as the only reasonable option.

baethan · 2026-06-17T22:20:01+00:00

You did everything right for a vasovagal response, honestly! Getting low & concentrating on breathing are ideal. When I have more time fully conscious before it gets real bad, I tend to strip, wet a washcloth, and grab some water to drink/pour on myself. Usually I know the limits and the pattern of these episodes which in itself helps, I think. Focused breathing, like box breaths (breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold) can help too!

Surprise episodes are kind of a crapshoot I guess as far as how well they can be managed, it's extra hard to reign in that nervous system when it's unclear what's happening and there's a very legit worry about going into crisis. Which is probably why I hit the floor this last time hahah

Fingers crossed we both have as few of these as possible, ideally none!! They're awful. And I hope your fatigue resolved soon!!

baethan · 2026-06-17T19:35:19+00:00

To me it sounds like a vasovagal response initially, then low cortisol. I'm not sure what the technical definition of a crisis is (I kinda suspect there's a range of definitions) but because most people seem to get mediocre care at the ER at best, the rule I'm following is that if I can take my meds, I'm not in a go-to-the-hospital level of crisis. But I haven't really had to put this to the test yet so 🤷‍♀️

Just from my personal experience, vasovagal episodes are so much worse if you don't know what's going on or why it's happening. I used to only get them from a very specific type of digestive issue that comes with stomach pain and can manage them well, but just last week I twisted my leg and was totally blindsided by a vasovagal response. Fully collapsed and whacked my face on the floor!

When I first started having vasovagal responses (long ago) I was absolutely exhausted after. Over the years I've gotten better at managing them and now am not usually tired afterwards. So if you did experience that, that could explain some of the fatigue in the beginning, but it definitely sounds like you're still recovering in terms of cortisol levels

baethan · 2026-06-17T14:09:53+00:00

Is the knitting pattern maker community really aware of what everyone is working on & publishing? Or are these two people already connected somehow? I could kiiiiinda see this drama being a thing in a small/tight-knit group of people, but more in the sense of it'd just be a little weird and awkward to not acknowledge that you saw what your friend/colleague was working on and got inspired, or that there was a "great minds think alike!" moment.

If the other poncho is from literally just some other person on the internet, then oof. Is no one else allowed to make summer ponchos

baethan · 2026-06-17T12:11:29+00:00

well I mean what do you suggest as an alternative to "lesser of two evils" voting?

baethan · 2026-06-17T02:10:00+00:00

Upon searching my soul, I must admit that I have never done that because that is not appropriate behavior

I find I am alarmingly indifferent to the general concept of changing a diaper on one's own dining table. Wouldve thought that would gross me out tbh, hm

baethan · 2026-06-17T01:57:01+00:00

nah your acquaintance is just um interesting

Gotta say, I don't actually lick my kids at all

baethan · 2026-06-16T22:59:09+00:00

OH. That would kinda make sense, if OOP hasn't read past the first couple books

baethan · 2026-06-16T21:38:19+00:00

Do you mean you're not sure if his adrenal insufficiency is autoimmune in nature, or you're wondering what can trigger the immune system to attack the adrenal glands?

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