#San Joaquin River

[wildernessjournals]

Following these small lakes, the source of Pinnacles Creek which feeds into Piute Creek, which feeds into the San Joaquin River, which flows to the San Francisco Bay. John Muir Wilderness, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, USA. Photo by Van Miller

[demoniccow]

Do you use seasonal photos for your devices? Here's a gorgeous photo of a spring morning beside a river to add to your collection:

[anarcho-mom-unist]

Yo, this is the Waterfront! Right on the San Joaquin River, the park (where they hold the Stockton Pride Festival) and the surrounding area are quite nice. Not only does a bunch of recreational activity happen on the river, Stockton is also California’s largest inland port!

This is a deeply weird selection for a curation of images called “unplaces” —it lacks, for one example, have the uncanniness of a warehouse or underpass or some type of factory.

N Center St, Stockton, California.

[pcttrailsidereader]

Another casualty of a tough winter and spring. This bridge crosses the South Fork of the San Joaquin River at the junction of the Piute Pass Trail and the PCT/JMT in the High Sierra.

[mypetcamera]

Hike

.

of that day only photos recall the curves in rock and color of sky

nothing at all about the quality of the air inhaled under strain of hike

nor of the scurried creatures under the brush as we strode by in determination for another view, another beautiful rise

nor of the waters streaming sound distant as a long gone song that memory cannot reconstruct

that day happened and happens now as I tell it again

although you can never know anything true beyond the evidence my words

my joy that I was there

and a sadness that you were not.

[sonyachristian]

California Community Colleges Advancing the AI conversation

It’s the end of an era… The Bakersfield Californian is moving from 7 days a week paper to 5 days a week, Tuesday through Saturday. The Bakersfield Californian’s history can be traced to Kern County’s first newspaper, the Weekly Courier, which was first published August 18, 1866. It got its present name in 1907, and it moved to its downtown location in 1926. I remember being heartbroken when…

[wine-porn]

Harris Ranch

After last night’s Shiraz, wanted to head a–possibly–opposite direction in style, but honestly, not much different. Incredibly eucalyptus in the nose, the body dense and purple-staining. Drrrrty, oily earth grasps the bouquet, the fruit buried beneath musty funk and wilted floral. Tasting it presents a nice, even mouth-feel, well-balanced between a well-acidified wine and one blossoming with…

[thorsenmark]

Wide Open Spaces in Devils Postpile National Monument by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While walking the Devils Postpile Trail and taking in views with some nearby forest and river with reflections. The view is looking to the south.

[wachinyeya]

A historically and culturally significant lake in California's San Joaquin Valley that first disappeared in 1898 has returned after last year's atmospheric rivers flooded the region.

Tulare Lake, known as Pa'ashi — or "big water" — to the local Tachi Yokut Tribe, was "once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River," per Earth.com.

Vivian Underhill, who published a paper on Tulare Lake as a postdoctoral research fellow at Northeastern University, noted it was mostly sustained by snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada mountains and was 100 miles long and 30 miles wide at its peak.

The lake served as a key resource for Indigenous Peoples and wildlife and was once robust enough to allow steamships to transport agricultural goods throughout the state.

However, government officials persecuted and displaced the indigenous communities in the late 1800s to convert the area for farming through draining and irrigation.

"They really wanted to get [land] into private hands so that indigenous land claims — that were ongoing at that time — would be rendered moot by the time they went through the courts," Underhill told the Northeastern Global News. "It was a deeply settler colonial project."

While Pa'ashi periodically reappeared during the 1930s, '60s, and '80s, the barrage of atmospheric rivers California experienced in 2023 revived the lake despite the region receiving just 4 inches of rain annually. According to Underhill, Tulare Lake is now the same size as Lake Tahoe, which is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide.

Its resurgence has led to the return of humid breezes at least 10 degrees cooler than average and native species, including fish, amphibians, and birds. Lake Tulare was once a stopping point for migratory birds traveling a route known as the Pacific Flyway.

"Something that continues to amaze me is — [the birds] know how to find the lake again," Underhill told the Northeastern Global News. "It's like they're always looking for it."

The Tachi Yokuts have also returned to Pa'ashi's shores, once again practicing their ceremonies and planting tule reeds and native sage.

[dailyoverview]

Water and sediment swirl through San Francisco Bay, mixing with the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of California. The Bay, which covers roughly 1,600 square miles (4,000 square km), drains water from approximately 40% of the state — including the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and the Sierra Nevada mountains. Surrounding the Bay are the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.

37.670000°, 122.270000°

Source imagery: Maxar

[lizardsaredinosaurs]

Hey, this is my little piece of river, okay?

Riparian Woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes riparia), subspecies of the dusky-footed woodrat

San Joaquin valley, California, currently only areas of the Stanislaus River

Status: federally Endangered

[demoniccow]

[transit-fag]

[probablyasocialecologist]

Some of the world’s largest investment banks, pension funds and insurers, including Manulife Financial Corp.’s John Hancock unit, TIAA and UBS, have been depleting California’s groundwater to grow high-value nuts, leaving less drinking water for the surrounding communities, according to a Bloomberg Green investigation. Wall Street has come to Woodville, wringing it dry. Since 2010, six major investors have quadrupled their farmland under management in California, to almost 120,000 acres in all, equivalent to a third of all the cropland in Connecticut.

[...]

This rush for water is an outgrowth of a decades-long bet on farmland by investors who see food cultivation as an asset class virtually assured of appreciating in a warming, more populous world. Globally, large investors and agribusinesses have snapped up about 163 million acres of farmland in more than 100 countries in the past 20 years. The land grab has given rise to a grab of an even scarcer global commodity: water. In a bid to ensure thriving investment portfolios, some of the world’s largest financial entities have amassed control over lakes, rivers and underground aquifers in places from California to Africa, Australia to South America, giving them outsize roles in managing an endangered resource that’s the basis of life on Earth. The trend has contributed to shifting hydrological patterns that stand to permanently disrupt communities’ access to fresh water. Local populations are paying the price in drained wells, high water bills and contaminated water supplies.

[...]

In the past decade, parts of the San Joaquin Valley have dropped as much as a foot per year, according to the US Geological Survey. Subsidence, as the sinking is called, has damaged bridges, canals and other infrastructure that will cost billions of dollars to fix, the state says. The aquifers themselves are irreparable. Many groundwater basins, when drained, never recover their former storage capacity, hydrologists have found. “Groundwater in California has been treated as an extractive resource—you pump and hope for the best,” says Graham Fogg, an emeritus professor of hydrology at the University of California at Davis. “Capitalism is driving this. Investors don’t care, because in 10 years they can make all the money they want and leave.”

[unfunpleasures]

unfunpleasures OFMD fic directory

I’m bad at using Tumblr now, but it feels like I should, at the very least, have a fic master post.

One-shots

Fig-ured Out: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated G; 1,526 words. Stede's online date doesn't show, but that doesn't mean his evening is a wash. A prompt fill for OFMD Fluffvember 2023 Day 7: First date | "It's pouring down out there."

24-Hour Pharmacy: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated T; 2,436 words. It’s New Year’s Eve and Ed is alone. Even better: he’s en route to the only drug store on this side of town that’s open all night tonight, and it’s after 11 and he’s risking life and limb (okay, that’s probably an exaggeration, but drunk drivers and weirdos abound on nights like this) to go grab a pregnancy test, some snacks, and a bottle of moscato (which depends on how the test goes) for his roommate Anne. Not like he had anything better planned, honestly– ordering takeout and watching TV with Anne had been his big plans for the evening– but it’s cold and dark and loud and he’s not super thrilled with how the night’s going. Then he meets someone in the snack aisle and he changes his tune a little.

It’s a Date: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated T; 2,769 words. Stede's a regular at the coffee shop Ed works at. They're both going to a party at Lucius', but Stede's bringing a date. Ed's bummed about it.

Help Me Make It Through the Night: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated E; 5,867 words. Ed’s a champion bull rider who’s just lost to relative-newcomer Stede Bonnet. On their respective drives out of Wyoming, a summer storm leaves them both looking for a place to stay. Written for OFMD AUgust 2024 Day 6: Rodeo and #OneBedWeek. (You can find the podfic here.)

Picking Flowers: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated G; 2,002 words. Stede decides to pick some flowers and gets caught in the act. Written for the OFMD Gotcha For Gaza event.

Longfics

Kings River, 1969: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated E; 33,155 words. Fresno County, CA, June 1969. The mighty Kings River runs through the San Joaquin Valley of California, beginning as snowmelt in the high Sierras and running over 132 miles down the valley to where it terminates near what used to be Tule Lake. Besides providing a haven for wildlife and fishermen alike, there are multiple powerhouses along its course, and it provides irrigation for over a million acres of farmland, including several dozen acres of citrus along the south bank of the lower river in Piedra. This was the domain of one Edward Teach: 29 years old, single, and trying his damndest to keep his criminal record from getting any longer. Ed works on a citrus farm along the Kings River and newly-divorced Stede Bonnet, fresh from Tennessee, has just taken a job as a horse trainer at the ranch up the road. Written for AU-gust 2023 day 14: place-based.

Stationary: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated E; 111,161 words. Edward Teach has made a massive mistake-- what's a few more? A Gentlebeard lovers to exes to lovers fic set in the modern era. (You can find the ongoing podfic here.)

SMAUs

Ask a Punk: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated E; ongoing. Ed Teach is a barista who lives at and co-runs a DIY space. Money is tight and times are tough, so when he literally runs into trust fund kid Stede Bonnet, whom he recognizes from the cafe as one of his regulars, at the local university, his housemates convince him to rope him in as a bankroll. Stede is game to help out, but it quickly becomes clear that neither has their mind solely on business. (You can find the Twitter thread here.)

Series

Drive Me, Crazy: Blackbeard/Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet; Rated E; ongoing. California, 1974. Stede Bonnet is fairly new to trucking, which he started as a means of getting some time away from his failing marriage. He enjoys the time on the road, but he finds it a bit lonely-- that is, until he meets seasoned driver Edward Teach. Series includes (in order): Daydreams About Night Things, Drive Me, Crazy, Still Thinkin' Bout You, 'Till The Rivers All Run Dry (longfic), Home For the Haulidays (Christmas one-shot), Baby, It's Pure Love (Valentine's Day one-shot), and Here In Love (CJizzy one-shot).

[sonyachristian]

Wrapping up an academic year

I started my week in DC for a White House AI summit, and so did my Washington Monument photo ritual… Back in Sacramento, the executive team had a two-day planning meeting, and we also celebrated Deputy Chancellor Daisy Gonzales who is transitioning to lead the California Student Aid Commission: *** It was also a time to honor Juneteenth, a federal holiday to commemorate the ending of slavery…