“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” – Alfred Austin

“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.” – George Eliot

“To plant a garden is to dream of tomorrow.” “Even if you have only a tiny piece of earth, you can create something beautiful, which we all have a great need for. If we read more

(quote)

Last year’s techwide reckoning continues. The tech industry has seen more than 240,000 jobs lost in 2023, a total that’s already 50% higher than last year and growing. Earlier this year, mass workforce reductions were driven by the biggest names in tech like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Meta and Zoom. Startups across many sectors also announced cutbacks through the first half of the year. And while read more

(quote)

Well, bless their hearts — Gen Z is killing the Southern drawl, y’all.
That’s according to a new study published in Language Variation and Change, which claims the classic Southern American accent has been slowly fading over time — with the younger generation now helping to hammer the final nail into the proverbial pine box.

“Today’s college students don’t read more

(quote)

From September 16 to October 3, the largest folk festival in the world takes place on the Theresienwiese. The festival site covers an area of 34.5 hectares. 898 companies have applied for Oktoberfest 2023. 474 businesses were approved this year, including 140 from the catering trade, 138 fairground businesses, 196 market traders and several service businesses. There will read more

(quote)

Sir Michael John Gambon CBE (19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career, he received three Olivier Awards and four BAFTA TV Awards. In 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.

Gambon read more

(quote)

George R. R. Martin, Jodi Picoult and other famous writers join Authors Guild in class action lawsuit against OpenAI
New York (CNN) — A group of famous fiction writers joined the Authors Guild in filing a class action suit against OpenAI on Wednesday, alleging the company’s technology is illegally using their copyrighted work.

The complaint claims that OpenAI, the company behind read more

(quote)

Stabbed Napa County homeowner pulls out knife, stabs assailant, sheriff says
When a 61-year-old man was stabbed in the back on his Napa County property Saturday morning, he pulled the knife out of his back and stabbed the 33-year-old assailant, officials said. Both the homeowner and attacker are recovering from non-life-threatening stab wounds.

The read more

(quote)

San Francisco’s first tech boom wasn’t about silicon, but steel. Steel cable that triggered a revolution in urban transportation. Scotsman Andrew S. Hallidie, an experienced maker of wire rope (steel cable), employed his expertise to invent the cable car on Clay Street in San Francisco, with the first run on August 2, 1873. Hallidie said he wanted to surmount hills in the City too steep for horse-drawn streetcars.

Not only read more

(quote)

Tony Bennett, legendary singer and master of the American songbook, dies at 96 “I’ve never worked a day in my life,” Tony Bennett told USA TODAY in 2011, “because I love what I do.” The great singer cited that bit of Confucian wisdom often. In a career spanning more than six decades, Bennett conveyed that joy and read more

(quote)

An Australian sailor who survived two months in the Pacific Ocean by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater is “stable and very well”, a doctor says. Sydney resident Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella left Mexico for French Polynesia in April, but their boat was damaged by a storm several weeks later.

Mr Shaddock embarked on his more than 6,000km-long (3,728-mile) voyage from Mexico’s city read more

(quote)

Canadian wildfire smoke reaches Europe as Canada reports its worst fire season on record
(CNN) Canada has officially marked its worst wildfire season on record, with smoke from the blazes crossing the Atlantic Ocean and reaching western Europe, with at least 19,027,114 acres already charred across the country. Wildfire activity in Canada typically peaks from June to August, leaving read more

(quote)

A scuba diver has forged an unlikely bond with a wild fish and the pair meet up every summer beneath the waves for a reunion.
Rex Colubra made friends with the small mouth bass while on a fresh water dive in September 2021. The odd encounter ended with the 40-year-old naming the fish Elvis. The pair now see each other every year when Rex travels back to the Wisconsin lake where read more

(quote)

“Let us protect our children; and let us not allow them to grow up into emptiness and nothingness, to the avoidance of good hard work, to introspection and analysis without deeds, or to mechanical actions without thought and consideration. Let us steer them away from the harmful chase after material things and the damaging passion for distractions… Let us educate them to stand with their feet rooted in God’s earth, but with their heads reaching even into heaven, read more