Welcome to J Town!
A gathering place to promote posts and projects, chat about the news, check on the weather (and brag about yours!) and waste spend a little time. Bring your music, your news stories, your life stories, word of your latest projects, a photo of your town, and, above all, your sense of humor.
USDA 2012 Plant Hardiness Zone Map
New Hardiness Zone Map May Already Be Outdated [New York Times]
...The 2012 version shows that planting zones have been shifting northward as winters become more mild. But a researcher contends that this long-awaited map is already outdated.
Nir Krakauer, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the Grove School of Engineering at City College of New York, has overhauled the U.S.D.A.’s hardiness map to better account for recent temperature changes. Unlike the U.S.D.A., which came up with its planting zones by using average annual minimum temperatures from 1975 to 2005, Dr. Krakauer looked at long-term temperature trends, including recent data that shows that winter temperatures are increasing more rapidly than summer temperatures. His results were published this week in Advances in Meteorology.
According to his calculations, about one-third of the country has already shifted half-zones by comparison with the map, and over one-fifth has shifted a full zone. (Each zone has a minimum temperature range of 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and half zones have a 5-degree range.)
Dr. Krakauer has also created an online calculator where anyone can plug in a longitude and latitude and see the adjusted temperature change. In New York City, for example, his calculator shows that the minimum winter temperature is 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer) than suggested by the hardiness map.
If you want to use Dr. Krakauer's online zone-adjustment calculator and need a longitude and latitude, you can enter your zip code at the National Weather Service, and find your coordinates on the right, below the 7-day strip of weather pictures.
This fabulous Obama Birth Certificate Tray is only $19.95 at Fishs Eddy, perhaps the most entertaining housewares store ever. Fishs Eddy is located at 889 Broadway, at 19th Street, in Manhattan, but the internet is our friend.
h/t to the New York Times Editor's Blog piece on Kansas birthers.
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(more under the Orange Entwined Js)
J Town Features Table of Contents:
● Click for
J Town Babbling Brook (Got Post?)
● Click for
Community Action Corner (Got Project?)
● Click for
Meta Spotlight and J Town Virtual Library
● Click for
J Town is for Healing
● Click for
You Are Here
Got Post?
J Town is looking for
Readers ... people who read Daily Kos posts and want a place to share them. When you find a diary worth promoting, comment in the threads and we will send the
Judicious
J Town
Jolly
Jeniuses (ie Editors Armed With
Republishing Marks) to check it out and Republish here. The posts will show up in this list:
J Town Babbling Brook. And if you write a diary, you can promote it here also!
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Got Project?
The Community Action Corner is a place to organize, discuss and promote all of our DK projects, blogathons, take-action measures or advocacy projects, whether we are planning online activism or working on projects for offline activism in our home communities or other communities, such as community gardens. Take-action petitions can run for more than one day to reach a wider audience. It is a place to hook up with people when we need help, volunteers, advice, tips, or contributions and to see what other DKossacks are doing. We have so many people with experience covering such a wide range of issues and activism, and we can share our experiences here. In short, the CAC will grow and expand organically to cover all our needs for projects for communities online and offline!
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Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse on J Town's new feature:
A Community Action Corner is a much needed feature for DK. Whether working on blogathons, fundraisers, take action or other projects at DK or activism in our home communities, we now have a home base to help spread the word to reach a wider audience and provide all of us with a work room! |
Sara R:
I like the idea of a Community Corner as a go-to place to learn what creative good works are going on in the DKos community on any given day. The more people know about what is going on, the more they can get involved – and be inspired to come up with new ideas and projects, as well. |
citisven:
I totally love the idea of a community bulletin board type of space where people can post things they're organizing and action items, something that stays up for a few days, giving others a chance to share ideas, contribute, give advice. |
llbear:
CAC is great place for us to share tips from our experiences. I think any projects undertaken by Kossacks designed to help people forgotten by most of the country is a great thing. |
rb137:
This is a great idea -- herding kittens is harder than it looks, and this will be a great tool to ease our admin work and to spread word about our many excellent progressive projects at DK. |
Our projects promoted
"Activism is my rent for living on the planet."
~ Alice Walker
DK Quilt Guild: NN13 project, Palo Alto VA wheelchair quilts The DK Quilt Guild will be making wheelchair quilts for the veterans in the Spinal Cord Injury/Disability unit ("SCI/D") of the Palo Alto VA Medical Center (the VA hospital nearest San Jose) to be delivered at NN13.
Climate Change SOS Blogathon and 350.org Petition Sign the petition at 350.org to ask Mitt Romney two questions about his solutions for climate change that highlight how dangerous it would be if he were president. Romney has flipped flopped on whether climate change is real, and admitted he is climate change illiterate. His energy plan does not mention climate change. If president, he would approve a tar sands pipeline the first day that will move us closer to game over.
Community Quilt Projects The Community Quilt Project is run by Sara R and connects the community in a very unique way: "Community Quilts are a way of sharing care, compassion and support for community members who are facing illness or other hardships. "
The Inoculation Project - Sunday morning at 10am Eastern Solid science education is the best inoculation against ignorance. The objective of this weekly project is to combat the anti-science push in conservative America by providing direct funding each week to math and science projects in red state classrooms.
Your Project Here Promote your short term or long term project in the comment threads.
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Meta Spotlight and J Town Virtual Library
Posting Statistics and Top Comment Submission
and Sneck!
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J Town is for Healing
People visit J Town to meditate on the California Poppy Field, grab some moon energy for healing and release, and to curse their bad luck at Nurse Kelley's Cursing Tree. Feel free to use the images provided here for reflection and to share your hardships, illnesses, and losses in the comment threads. We are at our best when we care about others.
Our California Poppy Field |
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Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
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Nurse Kelley Shares Her Cursing Tree with J Town
Because sometimes it feels good to simply curse the unfairness of it all.
Cursing Tree Instructions: "I stand very close to the trunk and, depending on my need, I might yell at it, kick it, heave curses at it, look up through the branches and curse the universe, or just stand there and cry. When it was obvious exmearden was suffering and would die soon, I even beat it with my fists." ~ Nurse Kelley
“Life. Optimism. The future of us. Smooth the waters of the past, so that we can push out into the waves a bit further, for a little longer. Pull who we love and what we love close to us, around us like a warm blanket, which gives us comfort and lends a strength we may not see inside ourselves. Underpin our days with caring and contact and not isolation and fear.”
~ Kris Froland (exmearden)
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J Town is a community diary series founded February 14, 2011 by JanF and Julie Gulden. It posts daily at 9 am Central* / 10 am Eastern / 8 am Mountain / 7 am Pacific. *Democracy in action (or inaction). (The fine print)
You Are Here |
High Line, New York, NY (click photo for info)
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Each day in J Town starts as something new. It is, quite literally, what you make it.
Have fun and let the Towning begin!
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