ironymaiden | Reading

I may feel like a dishrag, but if so it's a dishrag who had a wonderful time returning to Arisia after six years, even if the ziggurat on the Charles is still a dreadful place to hold a convention. For the Dramatic Readings from the Ig Nobel Prizes, I performed selections from W. C. Meecham and H. G. Smith's "Effects of Jet Aircraft on Mental Hospital Admissions" (British Journal of Audiology, 1977) with what I hope was an appropriately haggard channeling of my sleepless night and Leonie Cornips' "The semiotic repertoire of dairy cows" (Language in Society, 2024) with what I hope was an appropriately technical rendition of cow noises. I heard papers on the proper techniques of nose-blowing, whether snakes dress to the left or the right, the sexual correlations of apples. It feels impossible, but it must have been my first time onstage since onset of pandemic. Readers who overstayed their allotted two minutes were surrounded by a chorus of bananas.

I had forgotten how much socializing my attendance of conventions used to entail. I turned the corner for registration and immediately spotted a

nineweaving, followed in close succession by a

choco_frosh,

a_reasonable_man, and a

sorcyress. I was talking to the latter in the coat check when Gillian Daniels came in and now I have a signed copy of the second edition of her chapbook Eat the Children (2019/2026). I had not lengthy enough catch-up conversations with

awhyzip and

rinue and am now in possession of a signed copy of Nothing in the Basement (2025). I brought water with me and kept forgetting to duck outside to drink it. Dean gave me a ride home afterward and commented on my tired look, which was fair: six, seven years ago I could sprint through programming even after a night of anaphylaxis or a subluxed jaw and these days there's a lot less tolerance in the system. It seemed to be a common refrain. If I have fun and don't take home any viral infections from this weekend, it'll be a win.

Tomorrow, panels.

Current Music: Wolf Alice, "Midnight Song"

siderea

(h/t

hudebnik)

Two things: this is a thing that has happened, I have a read on what it is that nobody else seems to have come up with.

1) The thing that happened:

2026 Jan 16: NYTimes: "Thousands of Chinese Fishing Boats Quietly Form Vast Sea Barriers" by Chris Buckley, Agnes Chang and Amy Chang Chien

The most interesting thing here is the visualization animations, so if that link doesn't work for you:

2026 Jan 17: TaiwanPlus News [TaiwanPlusNews on YT]: "NYT: China Tests Civilian Fishing Boats in Maritime Military Operations"

Watch on YouTube

2) Take:

“The sight of that many vessels operating in concert is staggering,” said Mark Douglas, an analyst at Starboard, a company with offices in New Zealand and the United States. Mr. Douglas said that he and his colleagues had “never seen a formation of this size and discipline before.”

“The level of coordination to get that many vessels into a formation like this is significant,” he said.

Yeah, so, about that:

Watch on YouTube

It turns out that the world leader in developing systems for coordinating large numbers of semi-autonomous vehicles is China.

The way a drone show works is that the design of the show and the intended positions and trajectories of all the individual drones is calculated and stored on the coordinating computer, from which they are transmitted to the drones during the show. However, drones in the air can be knocked off course by turbulence, so they also have onboard collision avoidance and position resumption algorithms.

The drone show company in question, Shenzhen DAMODA Intelligent Control Technology Co., Ltd. brags they can control 10,000 drones from a single laptop.

There were only 2,000 ships. Well within what their system could handle.

So what this could be is a test of such a coordination technology deployed to civilian boats.

Perhaps on each of those ships was either a sail-by-wire system that puts them under remote/autonomous control, or a receiver/interface that relayed instructions to the human pilots from a drone-controller that both received orders from command-and-control and managed the specifics of positioning through the same sort of collision-avoidance and repositioning algorithm as light-show drones.

Also, I suspect the way DAMODA manages to control so many devices from a single laptop – I was not able to quickly get a bead on this, and it would be unsurprising if they were less than forthcoming about their secret sauce – is that they have been figuring out ways to offload more and more of the steering logic onto the drones themselves. There comes a point, I suppose, where the logic for collision avoidance and repositioning crosses over into what used to be called (back in the 1980s and 1990s) flocking algorithms. Perhaps this was a test of a flocking algorithm based system for boats.

In any event, this might not be an example of a lot of people doing a thing. This might be an example of a thing being done to a lot of people. I mean, it almost certainly is the latter in that the government of China's modus operandi is to "voluntell" its citizens, and one of the concerning things here is the apparent use of civilians for military maneuvers. I'm saying this might be a test of a system that doesn't rely on acquiescence to government authority.

vivdunstan

Martin tonight: “I go for months, and the only mammals I see are grey squirrels (and dogs and cats). And then today I see roe deer and otter!”

This is in his usual walk, to the wooded river valley just near our home. He walks there, a short distance, from home each Saturday.

Two roe deer running into the distance across a grassy field

An otter swimming partially submerged in a river

pepysdiary_feed

Posted by Samuel Pepys

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/01/17/

Waked early with my mind troubled about our law matters, but it came into my mind that [sayings] of Epictetus, which did put me to a great deal of ease, it being a saying of great reason.¹

Up to the office, and there sat Mr. Coventry, Mr. Pett, new come to town, and I. I was sorry for signing a bill and guiding Mr. Coventry to sign a bill to Mr. Creed for his pay as Deputy Treasurer to this day, though the service ended 5 or 6 months ago, which he perceiving did blot out his name afterwards, but I will clear myself to him from design in it. Sat till two o’clock and then home to dinner, and Creed with me, and after dinner, to put off my mind’s trouble, I took Creed by coach and to the Duke’s playhouse, where we did see “The Five Hours” entertainment again, which indeed is a very fine play, though, through my being out of order, it did not seem so good as at first; but I could discern it was not any fault in the play. Thence with him to the China alehouse, and there drank a bottle or two, and so home, where I found my wife and her brother discoursing about Mr. Ashwell’s daughter, whom we are like to have for my wife’s woman, and I hope it may do very well, seeing there is a necessity of having one. So to the office to write letters, and then home to supper and to bed.

Footnotes

Read the annotations

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1663/01/17/

sistawendy

The sun was out on a Saturday morning, and I had no afternoon plans, so you know what that means: another bike ride across Lake Washington. Yes, the cyclists are serious and to a one faster than I am, but this time:

There were multiple groups of at least fifteen riders. I encountered one of the groups at a twisty section of trail with poor visibility, so they started yelling, "Rider up!" to each other to alert their group to my presence. One of them said, "Hi, rider up!"
Lone cyclists like yours truly were definitely unusual. If they weren't in big groups, they were in small groups.
Was the wind coming out of the east? Westbound was way easier than eastbound.
I got the route wrong again because I tried to do the intuitive thing when I got to the hospital entrance: I turned toward the bridge. But neau, you need to turn away from the bridge and toward the bulk of the UW campus because that's the way to the overpasses that let you dodge stoplights.
The intersections where SR 520 meets Montlake Blvd. are pedestrian-hostile, boy howdy. And they're brand new. Le sigh.
Sure, there are lots of walkers with cups of coffee from the UW on west, but cyclists own the bridge, baby. To be fair, that would be a long walk mostly in a straight line.

Gripes aside, though, it was a wonderful morning to ride. And I'm sure Dad would have approved of my stopping at PCC and then carrying about ten pounds of groceries uphill. Uff da!

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: The Grateful Dead, "Uncle John's Band"

cupcake_goth

As is traditional for me when I’m sickly enough that all I should do is rest, I have thought of at least five different craft projects I want to do. I have written them down in my fancy planner, so I’ll remember them for when I’m healthier. I may stagger upstairs to grab the supplies for the easiest one and slowly work on it.

—-

Miss Erzabet No Biting is doing her very best to nursemaid me and keep me pinned to the couch, but is startled every time I have a bout of coughing. I don’t blame her, because I find it pretty alarming, too. I know it’s only day two of the antibiotics and higher dose of prednisone, but I don’t feel any better yet and I’m frustrated about it.

—-

I’m still pining over this goddamn striped dress from Selkie. There’s one in my size on Mercari, and if it’s still available in a month I’m going to consider breaking my no-buy for clothing to get it. Of course, if I had any sense I’d soothe my coveting with either this dress from Dracula clothing or this set from Blackwood Castle.

… Oh dear, the Blackwood castle set is on sale.

staranise

What a week, up and down the whole time. I hope I don't have the flu because I'm supposed to be starting painting classes tomorrow.

I unfortunately have to ask for money again; here's the gofundme campaign.

ysabetwordsmith

So very true. Do not view with mouth full.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: amused

acet posting in

addme

Name: Hi I'm Ace!

Age: 30s

I mostly post about: life, coding, activism, politics, idk things? I'm just getting back into "Real Life" blogging so am setting up a new journal. My pervious one was

theladyunicorn and I think I had another potentially ~immortalaussie before that but those were well over a decade ago.

My hobbies are: reading, writing, fandom, collecting old books, web design and development, collecting and dropping hobbies, candle and jewellery making, gaming, doing to much, volunteering

My fandoms are: My main fandom is BTS at the moment but I dabble in a lot of things. If you're after fandom specific posts that will be over at my other new journal

thequirkyfan which I'm also still setting up.

I'm looking to meet people who: Cool and want to be friends

My posting schedule tends to be: Who knows!

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: I strongly believe that Love is Love, Anti Genocide, BLM, Disability Rights, and all of that stuff and I ask that you are too

Before adding me, you should know: At the moment I imagine a lot of my stuff will be public unless its super personal etc. I will use content warnings as appropriate as I will talk about mental health, health problems, disability and weight loss etc

I'm nonbinary/genderqueer possibly ftm idk things and use they/them pronouns. The link above has a lot more info

rocky41_7 posting in

booknook

Mae's Top Reads of 2025!

I wanted to put together a little highlight reel of the year's reads, so here it is!

The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson: This series is is all fantasy politics. There's no magic or fairies or prophecies, just Seth Dickinson's invented world and the titanic machinations of Empire. And it is electric...Baru herself is the epitome of ruthlessness. Her goals are noble—her desire to free her home, to end the tyranny of the Masquerade—but she will do anything to achieve those goals. She is a truly fascinating character, calculating, controlled, brilliant—and constantly tormented by the need to weigh her choices and the potential futures ahead.

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin: Le Guin captures truly great sci-fi because this work is so imbued with curiosity. Le Guin is asking questions at the heart of any great sci-fi work: What defines humanity? What can we achieve, and how is it done, and what does that mean for society? What is society? What does it mean to be alone? What does it mean to be part of a whole? To me, sci-fi can't be truly sci-fi without a measure of philosophy, and The Dispossessed has this in droves.

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield: Armfield's writing beautifully illustrates this journey, and she does a particularly good job of doling out information a little at a time, so that the reader often share's in Miri's confusion and muddled state of mind.

The Originalism Trap by Madiba K. Dennie: Dennie does a great job making this book accessible to everyone...She doesn't stop at "here's what's wrong" either--she has proposal and suggestions for how to counter the outsized influence of this once-disfavored theory and what we as citizens can do to push back against it.

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter: The book is obviously well-researched, and Hofstadter does a thorough job of documenting his sources and influences, as well as recommending additional reading on a broad range of topics touched on in his own book. So much of what he establishes here makes perfect sense when looking at modern American society. He so neatly threads the needle between where we started and where we are now that at some moments, it felt like the fog was lifting on something I should have seen ages ago.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez: Jimenez's writing is beautiful and vivid—for good or for ill, as there are some gruesome events that take place—and really sweeps you up in the events of the story. He also does a wonderful job capturing the emotional mindsets of the characters. In particular, I thought the way he handled the relationship of the two main protagonists, Jun and Keema, was very realistic given who they are, and the emotional payoff of his taking the time to work through that was so worth it.

And for the haters among us, below the cut are my most disappointing reads of 2025.

( Booooo )

jazzfish

Just finished Lord of the Rings. This may well have been the first time I read the Appendices all the way through (though I did skim the ones on the calendars and the alphabets).

Two takeaways from RotK:

First, the Scouring of the Shire hits different when you're under occupation. It's also perhaps the most fantastical part of the book, since it posits that the citizenry were nearly all ready to rise up and just needed a push, as opposed to a third of them cheering on Otho and Sharkey and a third of them just hunkering down and hoping it would all pass them by.

Second, the meme take on Denethor as 'doomscrolling in the Palantir to Sauron's algorithm' is ... remarkably apt.

Now ebooks for a couple of days, and then once I'm home the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. UT is, as I recall, mostly-complete fragments with some commentary. The twelve-volume History of Middle-Earth reverses the proportions, and is thus less interesting to me. UT also contains a version of the Quest of Erebor ("The Hobbit") as told from Gandalf's perspective, which should be neat.

All quiet on bus stop patrol. Tuesday had a couple of plateless SUVs and a couple of blocks-away whistle choruses; Thursday and yesterday were quiet. It's nice to be out in the snow in my black wool coat and hat, though, and nice to get some smiles from folks driving past.

atlas_obscura_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/colombuss-ombu

Detail of the tree and its twisted branches

The Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, known as La Cartuja, is linked to Cristopher Columbus. In fact, in 1509 he was buried there, alongside his son Diego, until 1536, when his remains were transferred to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Yet something of his voyages to America still endures here.

Another son, Hernando Colón, brought ombú seeds from the American continent on one of his father's voyages, which he accompanied. He planted them later in the Monastery's gardens, so the ombú tree of La Cartuja became the first European specimen of this species.

The ombú (Phytolacca dioica) is a herbaceous tree native of the Argentine pampas and bordering areas of Uruguay, southern Brazil, and Paraguay. It is characterized by its longevity, its remarkable immunity to insect attacks due to its toxic sap, and its soft trunk containing a large amount of water. This was precisely the problem that nearly killed the tree in 1992, due to a poorly planned restoration.

In an attempt to repair the cavities caused by the humidity, technicians from the Andalusian Regional Government applied an obsolete technique: They filled them by injecting polyurethane foam. However it had the opposite effect from the one intended, since the tree absorbed even more water, generating in turn a growing amount of fungus.

Fortunately, specialized gardening technicians managed to save the tree by removing the polyurethane foam. Thus, today we can see this five-hundred-years-old ombú tree, close to the statue of Columbus that was erected here in 1887 by the Pickman family, the British owners of the pottery factory that was established in the former monastery.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/colombuss-ombu

atlas_obscura_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fanny-o-deas

The country of Ireland is known for many things, from its world-class writers and singers to its award winning actors and playwrights. But there is one iconic institution you can find in any corner of the globe, and that is the pub, with its welcoming charm and decor, and its full-hearted embrace of music. Perhaps this is singularly personified in Fanny O'Dea's (pronounced DEES), a 17th-century pub that is still operated by the same family, for nine generations and counting.

Not only is this family-run business, perhaps the longest continually operated pub in all of Ireland. It also contains a few hidden treasures as well, if one knows where to look. The first one is easy to locate, but a rarity nonetheless, and that is its thatched roof. Due to modernization, not a lot of places maintain this feature of a bygone era. The second is the traditional turf fire. What makes this common attribute so special is that it has been continually burning for nearly three hundred years!

What started out as a remote traveler's inn serving the clientele moving between the more populated towns of Ennis and Kilrush, would blossom into a restaurant and bar. Fanny's serves traditional meals five days a week and the bar will have both whiskey and Guinness. They also have a speciality known as the Egg Flip. This a family-made concoction with warm whiskey, brandy, or Bailey's. It is a closely guarded family recipe that has been handed down through several generations. It is perfect for those cold and chilly nights.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fanny-o-deas

badly_knitted posting in

get_knitted

Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.

This Week's Question: What are your crafting goals for 2026?

If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: My Room

umadoshi

I finished Chuck Wendig's Wanderers (which according to the acknowledgements clocks in around 800 pages in hard copy) and wound up in that all-too-familiar place of "that was interesting, but I don't think I'm going to bother with the sequel". (Although by definition, I imagine the sequel must be telling a very different kind of story.) No idea why it is that I can often tell only partway through a book that I probably won't pick up its sequel and yet still want to finish the current one.

I also just read Inside Threat, the sixth of K.B. Spangler's Rachel Peng [see icon] novels. There's one more planned, and then that's it for this novel series; I think she's still intending to write a third Hope Blackwell novel (some of the events of that probably-someday book directly influenced what happened in this one, but the whole 'verse is a very twisty pretzel in terms of chronological vs. publication order). And this reminds me--I don't think I ever mentioned here that Act III of the A Girl and Her Fed comic, the core of the whole thing, wrapped up a few months ago, ending the series. (IIRC, Spangler does have ideas that could eventually turn into a fourth act of the webcomic, but has no current plans to pursue doing it. It sounds like AGAHF and the associated works understandably got harder and more exhausting to do over the last decade as the real-world US political situation got worse and worse and worse.)

There isn't a whole lot I can say about a sixth novel in a series, but Spangler's descriptions of the series when she's doing promo on Bluesky always entertain me. Yesterday she posted "It's book launch week! Spend the weekend catching up with my bargain basement cyborg hivemind. Murder, mystery, and a detective who just wants to be left alone with her poetry and bad romance novels"; here's her "what's this series about?" Bluesky thread from a few days ago.

So once again: highly recommended, and it's entirely possible to just read this set of novels without reading/knowing the comic. It means not knowing a lot of things about the world overall, but they're things that Rachel herself doesn't know at this point (and doesn't learn about until Act II of the comic, which starts after her books have wrapped up). I enjoy the comic and other material very much, but the Rachel books are by far my favorite.

And that bit got long, so just quickly:

--I'm a few more chapters into Braiding Sweetgrass and haven't picked up a next novel yet.

--

scruloose and I are current on the new season of The Pitt and four episodes into Pluribus, and just watched the season 2 premiere of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. (Now to just hope this season covers past vol. 10 of the manga, since after we finished season 1 in 2024, I read volumes 7-10 before deciding to stop reading ahead and stick with the anime. It'd be nice to get at least a bit of new-to-me material this season, given that. Anyone know offhand how many episodes S2 will be?)

--And I've technically started a new (!) video game, in the form of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (on Switch), but am not very far at all yet.

Current Mood: blank

ruuger

I have been feeling a bit left out because I have been posting fic again recently, but haven't got a single spam bot commenting on my fic, wanting to make art for me :(

But it finally happened!

I posted a Mandalorian h/c fic (quelle surprise) this afternoon, and I just got a comment telling me how much they like the fic and someone commented about wanting to turn it into a comic "so more manga readers could enjoy it).

I'm finally one of the cool kids!

For some reason I'm always ignored by the spammers and scammers. All my friends on Instagram are getting fake celebrities messaging thems, but I've never got a single fake Pedro Pascal slipping into my DMs.

Seriously, though, this is a PSA to those few people who might not yet have heard of the scammers that are currently targeting AO3 users. What makes them more insidious is that they are not anon and leave comments that seem fairly legit, making it easy to think that they're a real user who has enjoyed your fic. But the tell is that they want you to contact them outside AO3, either via email or Discord, often under the pretense of wanting to make fanart or you fic (or to just give you more feedback). If you get comments like this, do not respond to them, just delete the comment, block and report the user.

lovelyangel

U.S.S. Athena
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Episode 1

(Spoiler-free Commentary)

The premiere episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is available for free viewing (for I don’t know how long) at YouTube. I made time to watch it last night.

I had been hopeful for a good showing, and I was not disappointed. I’ve always loved Holly Hunter (since Broadcast News... and, yay! The Incredibles!) and want her to be a big success here. Also, I’m a fervent Trekkie – from way back to the actual broadcast years of the original series in the 1960s.

In the episode, Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti were fabulous, as expected. The cadets were the expected variety of races, temperaments, maturity, composure, and intelligence; they have room to grow.

(One odd thought... if you take the academy’s chancellor and most? all? of the academy’s recruits into space... wouldn’t losing them all at once be catastrophic for the academy? I guess we’d better hope that only a small percentage of cadets are on the Athena at any one time. Dunno.)

I don’t have the time nor the budget to subscribe to Paramount+, so I won’t see the remainder of season one until much later. But I’ll continue to monitor reviews. There are always lots of review articles online. I did follow review articles of Foundation and Murderbot when I was watching those series. There are plenty of Starfleet Academy reviews online currently.

There was one article I enjoyed: I Love That Holly Hunter Can’t Sit in a Chair Normally on ‘Starfleet Academy’ at Gizmodo. And I too love that about Captain Ake.

What was quite interesting was the comments section of the article. Apparently a large number of Trekkies really dislike the new show. Reading their complaints was interesting. I hope the producers of the series ignore that feedback and simply continue on their chosen path.

On the other hand, a couple of comments did resonate with me.

I LOVED her doing all that! I'm 5'2" myself and while I don't often get the chance to be in chairs like her character's, I could see myself doing that on occasion. I almost certainly did as a kid. As for those having a "problem" with this show, I am a long-time Trek fan, having started watching as a kid right after it went into syndication in the 1970s (I'm just one year older than the franchise), and I love every iteration. Are they all perfect? No. Do some of them challenge Roddenberry's vision? Of course. Are they woke? You better believe it, from day one 60 years ago! But they never stray so far that you can't recognize the ultimate message: We can be better. We can do our best to be kind, understanding, tolerant, collaborative and uplifting. If you don't like that, fine; don't watch. But don't tell me Starfleet Academy is not Trek, because it very, very much is, and it proved that in the first two episodes right off the bat.

–– MartinC

and:

I liked her character, immensely. And look – I’m 70, and I know they’re targeting a generation that’s several removed from me, but it’s still Trek … and I love it.

And I’ve got to say … when they brought the Athena (god, what a gorgeous starship) down to San Francisco, with Rufus Wainwright singing “you’d better wear some flowers in your hair,” it was practically a religious moment for me. I feel sorry for anyone who can’t share that joy.

–– Zaphod

Haters probably didn’t like Lower Decks or Prodigy or Strange New Worlds either. Well, let them sulk elsewhere. I like all flavors of Trek. (Admittedly, I have some reservations about Enterprise.) Haters include non-Trekkie White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. SMH. Let Miller know that Star Trek has been “woke” for 60 years.

ruuger

I haven't been doing the Snowflake Challenge this year, but the latest challenge popped up on my f-list, and I had to do it.

Challenge #9
Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

( If you've been following me for any length of time, you know where this is going )

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring an image of a wrapped giftbox with a snowflake on the gift tag. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy and cold. Yesterday we saw several skeins of geese, but they were mostly flying east or west rather than north; go figure.

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows and a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/17/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/17/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 1/17/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

atlas_obscura_feed

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mccormick-bridgehouse-chicago-river-museum

Entrance to the museum

When you walk along the Chicago Riverwalk between May and October, you may stumble across a bridgehouse that is actually open to the public. This would be the McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum, located in the southwest tower of the Michigan Ave Bridge.

The Friends of the Chicago River opened the museum in this 5-story tower in 2006. The ground floor contains the gear room, which contain the massive gears and weights that lift the bridge a couple times per week. The remaining floors are dedicated to exhibits on the history and impact of the Chicago River, such as native wildlife in the watershed, and how the river's flow was reversed in 1900.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mccormick-bridgehouse-chicago-river-museum

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ironymaiden

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Page Summary

sovay - If you don't want the death of the party after I'm gone, sing one for me
siderea - The Chinese fishing boats maneuvers [war, curr ev]
vivdunstan - Bambi and Tarka
pepysdiary_feed - Saturday 17 January 1662/63
sistawendy - long-haul cycling
cupcake_goth - (no subject)
staranise - (no subject)
ysabetwordsmith - Humor
acet in addme - (no subject)
rocky41_7 in booknook - Book review: 2025 summary
jazzfish - scouring, etc
atlas_obscura_feed - Colombus’s Ombú in Seville, Spain
atlas_obscura_feed - Fanny O’Deas in Ireland
badly_knitted in get_knitted - Check-In Post - Jan 17th 2026
umadoshi - Weekly proof of life: mainly media again
ruuger - My first phishing spam on AO3!
lovelyangel - Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
ruuger - Snowflake challenge #9
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
atlas_obscura_feed - McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum in Chicago, Illinois

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Page generated Jan. 18th, 2026 02:26 am

and her minions

Reading

If you don't want the death of the party after I'm gone, sing one for me

The Chinese fishing boats maneuvers [war, curr ev]

Bambi and Tarka

Saturday 17 January 1662/63

long-haul cycling

(no subject)

(no subject)

Humor

(no subject)

Book review: 2025 summary

Mae's Top Reads of 2025!

scouring, etc

Colombus’s Ombú in Seville, Spain

Fanny O’Deas in Ireland

Check-In Post - Jan 17th 2026

Weekly proof of life: mainly media again

My first phishing spam on AO3!

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Snowflake challenge #9

Birdfeeding

McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum in Chicago, Illinois

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November 2024

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