Comments by "Victoria Eads" (@victoriaeads6126) on "PBS Terra" channel.

  1. So many of these tipping point events remind me of a slow plumbing leak. It seems like just a few drops here and there, but when you put a bucket under it, you realize that you're losing gallons of water daily. Of course, a plumbing leak can be fixed fairly easily.....
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  2. They call it the compost BOMB effect for good reason. If you've ever maintained a large compost heap, you'll know it needs to be turned regularly or the methane buildup can cause fires and explosions. Backyard compost isn't usually too dangerous, but that's why those fancy composting bins are able to rotate. It saves you from turning it with a shovel.
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  3. I've always loved these little guys! The description of "charismatic," in my opinion, is apt. They have such character and attitude! I had a couple as pets from the pet store as a kid. It is fascinating to see natural selection pressures in action here! San Jose is such a beautiful city, too. I have only been there once so far, and there was far too much to experience in just one short visit, especially since we went for our friends' wedding! They are from the island, so it was great to be there with folks who know it well, even as tourists.
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  4. A couple of years ago we watched one of those ant wars between two nests in front of our house. They are intense 😲
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  5. It seems really weird, doesn't it? I always have this idea that lab things and food/kitchen things are never the same. I mean, you wouldn't want to eat petri dish agar, and lab cleanliness (very, very important lab cleanliness!!) is probably a big part of this mindset, but it's really interesting that it's the same stuff.
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  6. Great content. I think nuanced preparation dependant on where you live and work is probably best. We live in Northern Virginia. We do occasionally get perceptible quakes, and it is important to know that our quakes are near crust quakes. The quake that damaged the Washington Monument was centered around Mineral Virginia, very close to the North Anna NUCLEAR power station. After event reports showed that the staff of the North Anna facility knew their jobs and did them well, keeping many people safe even in a highly stressful, unpredictable situation. Quake preparedness for the win!
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  7. Winter is definitely less severe here in Northern Virginia as compared to even 5 years ago, we haven't really gotten any snow in several years.
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  8. I think my favorite part is the very end, they all descend on it like a flock of hungry birds while the lady who made the glass noodles just takes it in stride 😂❤
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  9. I would guess they were rock ants before that. Fancy upgrade? 😂
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  10. ​ @classified022  The difference is that in the other G7 countries, health care is actually care, not milking people for every penny before they are allowed to survive. When you take health care costs out of the equation, even with a small increase in taxes (if we taxed billionaires on their assets, there wouldn't have to be any tax increase for almost anyone) and regulate the rent & mortgage systems to help the regular people instead of 'increasing shareholders value' by jacking up costs because they can and effectively keeping people extremely poor, along with actually tying wage increases to inflation and limiting how much CEO pay packages can be compared with the average worker, then the housing costs wouldn't be so out of whack with what people can afford.
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  11. ​ @davidhoward4715  yeah, some subs are designed for that kind of extended mission. They don't usually stay out THAT long, but it is possible.
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  12. We live right next to one of the ridges in the Blue Ridge, and we see all sorts of ways the weather is affected by the mountains, too. The rainbows are nice 😂
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  13. When we think about what people will do in an emergency situation, the assumption is that people will behave selfishly. The truth is very different. Most people will do what they can to help each other out in an emergency.
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  14. That community probably catches a couple of whales a year and uses darn near every part of the animal. It isn't even comparable to commercial whaling practices.
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  15. Dander! Not hair, dander!!!
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  16. I can't even imagine how amazing that must feel Yay to them!!!!
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  17. I love this series. Great stuff, every time.
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  18.  @annabbott1963  Agreed. A little of that can be attributed to recent solar activity, but only a little. I mean, it used to be that in Loudoun county, tomatoes shouldn't go outside or be planted until @Mother's Day weekend. Mine have been on the back porch, acclimating to the sunlight, for a week now without needing to be brought inside.
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  19. I don't want to use herbicides, but if you just wait, and maybe give it a periodic seeding with a blend of native grass and wildflower seeds, the native stuff will slowly take over. That's what we've done. Over ten years our yard has slowly been shifting into a more biodiverse environment. We still mow, but not all the time. Sometimes we will just mow a labyrinth into the vegetation and let the rest of the area grow as it will. Then we mow all of it at the end of the season. We can't easily let it go completely wild, since there is prevalent Lyme in our area. Lyme is no joke, if it's caught early it can be fully eradicated, but I know folks who have the Lyme equivalent of moderate to severe long COVID.
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  20. If only there was a way to make significant, enforceable rules about how companies operate to compelling them to change. If only. I guess making rules about not allowing the companies to unduly and unethically influence the process might be important, too. Huh.
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  21. Looking very dapper there, sir!!
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  22. I really like Weathered. This is a great series-factual, approachable, diverse, doesn't shy away from the issues, and broken into topical pieces that keep it all from being overwhelming. Thank you!
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  23.  @annabbott1963  We lived in Fairfax, just south of 66, for awhile! We moved out this way over a decade ago now. When we bought our house in 2013, we got snow every winter for the first few years. We got 4 feet in that big storm in 2016, but now, yeah, nothing. The climate shift has been quick and dramatic. We are getting far more heat, of course, too, even though we live in the rural area north of Purcellville. On most of the maps, this is one of the places to be in terms of climate change, but that doesn't mean there aren't clear effects of it here, too. I guess a silver lining is that the warmer weather is great for the wineries as long as we continue to get enough rain.....
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  24. I love these critters, they are so wonderfully weird!! I've watched them since I was a little one, too. We have a fair number of them living in our area, largely all one species. It's pretty cool, though, because predatory insects tend to be affected more by insecticides and herbicides due to the concentration effect. Having them and assassin bugs live in our yard means we have a relatively healthy ecosystem in our area, and a fair bit of biodiversity. We are happy to encourage this!!!
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  25. England is a much smaller territory, the animals you refer to were larger and bred less frequently, and , well, they aren't usually animals humans are inclined to hunt. Intentional strategies are necessary for creatures like cane toads, which can explosively breed, have few natural predators, if any, are nocturnal and sneaky, and hold little interest to humans beyond those who know about them and want to get rid of them.
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  26. We were in Austin in April because we traveled to Texas to watch the eclipse (good times, we were just able to see it despite the cloud cover over Fredericksburg). One thing that was clear even between Austin and San Antonio is that the urban center in Austin has more green spaces. We didn't get to Houston, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are fewer green areas there, too. I was really excited to see the Moonlight towers, btw, they are really neat!!!
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  27. All of these are showing me that where we live right now is a pretty awesome spot. We moved here for many reasons, but climate change wasn't actually on that list, so knowing that we picked well is reassuring. I only hope that people wise up and move to more stable climate regions before it becomes far more difficult and expensive than it already is. If we discovered that we were in an unstable location, like south Florida, we would be finding a way out already, not waiting to see it get more extreme.
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  28. This all makes so much sense. I hope urban planning is already taking this data into account. How Phoenix will continue to be habitable eludes me, though. They are in a valley with extremely dry air. There's just nowhere for that heat energy to dissipate. It's a lovely place, but eventually I think people will decide it's not worth it.
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  29. Lol, that's because we never truly domesticated cats, they just decided to move in one day. Many times. 😋
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  30. I'm glad to see that you're getting interest in this topic. These shows are important and they are, imo, very well produced. Maiya and your team, thank you for the hard work!!
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  31. Side note: I love our intrepid host doing dry/wet bulb experiments with safety glasses...on top of her hat...while squinting slightly as she observes the spinning thermo. Oh Maiya May! 😋 Please be careful!
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  32. Is the tracking study still open? I live in a rural area with an abundance and variety of native wildlife. My one cat is indoor/outdoor. I would be really interested to see how his adventures compare to a suburban or urban cat. Our other two cats, much to their chagrin, are indoor only. Obviously all are neutered and vaccinated.
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  33. Not always feasible. Many folks near me, for example, have working barn cats. The culture here, though, is almost always to spay/ neuter, vaccinate, and feed your barn cats so that they are FAR less likely to spread or contract illnesses.
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  34. "I thank the good Lord for antihistamines." Preach. I love animals, and we have three cats (plus five very pretty peafowl and a plethora of other critters), but allergies. They are rough.
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  35. Once cats are in an area, even Trap/Neuter/Release (and where possible, adopt) is only partially effective. I live in farm country. The best way to keep the feline population stable here (read: low enough not to become a serious detriment to local wildlife) is to spay/neuter, then care for your indoor/ outdoor or barn cats. There will ALWAYS be cats in the area trying to take your cats' territory, but healthy, well fed cats will maintain a fairly extensive territory, and keep out weaker or ill cats. Our area has few ferals because we and our neighbors all keep to this practice. Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect, but from my lived experience, it is the most effective way to keep everything balanced. The cats are here. That's not changing. How we deal with it is more important now.
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  36. Gah, the idea of watering grass just makes me cringe. We have a lawn, but you'll never see us adding water to it. I would be perfectly happy if the wood violets and other wildflowers took it over entirely.
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  37. @#$%ing redlining! That whole, horrible, utter bullshit, racist system NEEDS to be rooted out. It's like poison ivy-any leftover root system will just grow back. We need the societal equivalent of herbicide. Oh, and investment in green spaces full of native trees, bushes, and plants. Native vegetation has the added benefit of often being easy to grow, as well as adding biodiversity. Diversity all around!!!!!!!!!
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  38. Where can folks get that AWESOME pin? 7:55
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  39. That's what Trap/Neuter/Vaccinate/Release programs, which are often low cost because they are funded by donations, are for. A small, healthy, non-breeding population will keep out ferals, and they won't be overpopulating the area.
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  40. Robert's a great host!
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  41. Having just begun watching, my first thought was NOOOO! We literally NEED citrus, or at least a source of citric acid! That would be HORRIBLE! also,many co k tails would be terrible sans citrus 😋
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  42. Which city in SE Asia was indicated by that huge storm increase?!! Scary stuff!!!!
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  43. ​ @Research0digo  It was built in the early 70s, has Westinghouse reactors, and is owned/run by Dominion, but I didn't see anything about the company contracted to build the original structures. Everything I know about the facility suggests that it's well run and well maintained, though. It's actually quite lovely there-the lake created for the cooling facilities includes a State Park and there's a fairly good winery very close by...well, it's Virginia, so there are several fairly good wineries in the area. We've been there several times because the Lake Anna winery hosts the Virginia Renaissance Festival every June, which is a lot of fun. I know it doesn't guarantee safety, of course. I was born in PA only a few months after TMI, and several members of my family live near Limerick in PA. Limerick has always had a huge problem because it's both illegal to store nuclear waste on the property AND illegal to transport nuclear waste through populated areas on PA, and Limerick is surrounded by suburban developments. Last time I heard, they had to essentially sneak out the waste products in the middle of the night on trains to thread that needle, but I might be wrong. My grandfather's company, Associated Steam Specialty Inc (they used to put out a hilarious donkey themed calendar every year...) actually did some of the HVAC systems at Limerick.
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  44. The fish sample isn't really the proof they're trying to make it out to be-super cooled water will freeze from ANY nucleation site, not just an ice crystal. That's why scraping the bottom of a Petri dish filled with a super saturated liquid will jump start crystal formation-you are creating tiny scratches that serve as nucleation sites.
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  45. Ah.... There's an explanation several comments down. I learn something new every day!
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  46. We have to keep our cat indoors during fledgling season in early summer. He is one cat, and we have a wonderfully abundant bird population, but he goes for the babies. He will also happily take down a parent defending a fledgling, too, which often means death for the whole brood. Not cool.
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  47. I live in an area that is supposedly a great place to live in terms of climate change. Even here we see major shifts in snowfall, wind conditions, and climate stability. We do what we can via voting and purchasing. What are we to do???!
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  48. What a derpy beauty! I was also struck, like other commenters, by the gravity of the scene where you simply took in all the extinct species sitting right there, preserved, but probably never to be seen again as living amphibians.
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  49. At least we've gotten past wondering whether women can menstruate normally in microgravity 🙄😂
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  50. I think weathered is AMAZING. In this installment, though, Mayia May is practically in black and white...while everything else is in full color. Give the woman the saturation she deserves!
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