Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

This is how #waterwars start. It's going to be really bad.

For anyone who doesn't know, the #Gunnison, #SanMiguel, #SanJuan, #Yampa, and #White #rivers are all tributaries of the #Colorado. So the entire #Southwest is in *deep* trouble. The #RioGrande and #Arkansas are equally important: much of #NewMexico and southern #Texas depend on the former; and #Kansas, #Oklahoma, and of course Arkansas itself on the latter.

As rough as it will be in Colorado, downstream it will be worse. We have the #headwaters for all the major rivers across about a quarter of the country ... and our water-sharing agreements were written during an unusually wet period. The fighting will begin in the courts, but I'm not at all sure it will stay there.

#MountSaintHelens, 1980. The big boom really grabs your attention, of course. I think the first part of the video, where nothing much seems to be happening until you realize the *entire mountainside* is sliding down, is even more awesome.

Anyone who knows me knows how I love #mountains, and how purple I get talking about them. It's one of the few parts of my life where I indulge in mysticism. I love them for their permanence, their impartiality. They make no demands. They expect nothing. They *are*.

They don't hate us, they don't love us—they're not even indifferent, because indifference is a choice. I like to think they'd feel a kind of indulgent affection for the small scurrying life on their flanks, if they could. I know they don't.

But they're not immortal. They're born, they grow, they age, they die. We live on their shattered bones.

Unimaginable violence drives their life cycles, and by extension ours. Heat, pressure, collision, miles of rock folding and shattering. Bubbles of the mantle rising through the cracks, and sometimes escaping to give us the *tiniest* glimpse of the power below our feet.

#Volcanoes live fast and die young, compared to the more common kinds of orogenesis, the slow folding and slipping that builds entire ranges. They often nestle among their older, calmer cousins, unremarked until—

—well, until.

All mountains are alive, and sometimes they remind us. They will kill us if we give them the chance, with no malice at all. We have choices they don't. The danger will never stop us from giving them that chance, over and over. At least not those of us who can't stay away.

We can't change their lives, nor should we try. On the balance, I sure am glad they're here to change ours.

Never let it be said I'm above a little self-promotion. 🙂 This may be the last short story in the Seaway Station universe for a while: I'm going to concentrate for a while on the Silmarillisaurus, the writer's bible for the universe, and then get to work on the novels.

#dinosaurs #timetravel #sciencefiction #SeawayStation

Main BSQ site: https://www.boundaryshockquarterly.com/product/30-fading-empires/

Amazon, including paperback option: https://www.amazon.com/Fading-Empires-Boundary-Shock-Quarterly-ebook/dp/B0F397V5QY

This is really neat and clever IMO.

"We've been trying to reach you about your Frosted Flakes' extended warranty."

Run, run while you can!

See, this is why I miss living in #Minnesota: everything is just so efficient!

#seemslegit

Maybe not the only #alignment chart you'll ever need ... but probably the last.

My main hope for the future of my country is that people this stupid can't hold on to power forever.

93% of young male #Triceratops think they could beat a full-grown #Tyrannosaurus in a fight. 48% think they could beat two at once. 🦖

I know I should just block #spambots and delete their comments, but sometimes I can’t resist.

[sad Mr. Ed noises]

They have such Mondays to show you.

I have in fact read the #MIS (#medication #information sheet) for the #Pfizer #vaccine, since that's the one I've been getting, and I do the same for every prescribed #medication I take. People act like it's some kind of super-secret information, when really it's as easily accessible as a Mike #Waltz chat on #Signal.

Use as needed.

#Tyrannosaurus #rex by Gerhard Boeggemann. I like how the emphasis isn't on the size of the tyrannosaurs: they and their prey are huge, but they're still a small part of a much larger #ecosystem. Also, this could practically be a scene right out of the WISP (Work In Some Progress) so that's a bonus. 🦖✍️