Coming up:
[From Monocle magazine's July 12th email newsletter:
"Takahata Isao Exhibition: The Man who Planted Japanese Animation" at the Azabudai Hills Gallery in Japan through September 15th; Takahata is known for movie such as Grave of the Fireflies (1988), The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013), etc.: www.azabudai-hills.com/azabudaihillsgallery/sp/isaotakahata-ex/en/
"Birds, Birds, and Birds: All Sorts of Fujimoto Yoshimichi’s White Porcelain with Overglaze Enamels" at the Kikuchi Kanjitsu Memorial Tomo Museum (in Toranomon?) through September 28th: www.musee-tomo.or.jp/en/current_exhibition.html
"The Architecture of Sou Fujimoto: Primordial Future Forest" at the Mori Art Museum through November 9th: www.mori.art.museum/en/exhibitions/soufujimoto/ A Monocle interview wiith Fujimoto, from Hokkaido: monocle.com/design/architecture/interview-sou-fujimoto/ ]
[Anime NYC is August 21st-24th: animenyc.com ]
[Dragon Con 2025 is coming up August 28th-September 1st in Atlanta: www.dragoncon.org/ ]
[Paperhand Puppet Interventon's 2025 show is currently ongoing, at UNC's Forest Theatre. They were effected by the unexpected flooding in July.]
"Chatham County Board of Elections Extends 2025 Municipal Candidate Filing
PITTSBORO, NC— The Chatham County Board of Elections announces an extended candidate filing period for eligible residents interested in running for local offices in the 2025 election. Registered voters who reside in Chatham County, NC, may file to run for the following offices:
Town of Goldston Commissioner – Ward 3
Goldston Gulf Sanitary District – Two Board Member Seats
WHAT: 2025 Extended Municipal Candidate Filing
WHEN: Monday, July 28, 2025, at 8:00 a.m. through Friday, August 1, 2025, at noon. During this period, candidates can file to run for office Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. WHERE: Chatham County Board of Elections 984 Thompson St. Suite D Pittsboro, NC 27312
Offices Up for Election:
Town of Goldston Commissioner – Ward 3 (Filing Fee: $5)
Goldston Gulf Sanitary District – Two Board Member Seats (Filing Fee: $5)
Candidate Filing Requirements:
Must be at least 21 years of age by Election Day
Must be a resident of Chatham County and reside in either the Town of Goldston or the Goldston Gulf Sanitary District
What to Bring:
Valid photo ID
Filing fee payment: Exact cash or check made payable to Chatham County
Individuals with questions may contact the Chatham County Board of Elections office at 919-545-8500 or elections[at chathamcountync gov]. Information about the Chatham County Board of Elections is available online at www.chathamcountync.gov/elections.
Members of the media interested in attending/covering this event are asked to please notify Public Information Officer Kara Lusk in advance at 919-542-8258 or kara.lusk[at chathamcountync gov].
Kara Lusk
Public Information Officer
Chatham County Government"
"Big Canoes Sunset Paddle - New Date & Time!
What: Big Canoes Sunset Paddle
When: July 30th from 6:45 to 8:00 pm
Where: Meet at 6:45 pm at the Robeson Creek Boat Ramp on Hanks Chapel Road, Pittsboro (GPS 35.70393, -79.10015). Please note this is the Boat Ramp, not the Canoe Access that is also on Hanks Chapel Road.
Directions: From Pittsboro, take US 64 Business heading east towards Jordan Lake and turn right on Hanks Chapel Road. From Apex, take US 64 Business heading west towards Pittsboro and turn left on Hanks Chapel Road. Follow Hanks Chapel Road past the entrance to the Robeson Creek Canoe Access and continue on Hanks Chapel Road to the entrance to the Robeson Creek Boat Ramp. Meet in the parking lot at the boat ramp.
Event is free and open to the public but pre-registration is required since space is limited. Register to reserve your space on a Big Canoe at this link: eventform.com/?eid=pUS1DtIy3M77HZsz9IO3Uaxk5QP-sGcIm-2
Friends of Lower Haw (FLOHA) is partnering with State Parks to offer a Big Canoes Sunset Paddle. State Parks will be bringing 2 of their 29-foot Big Canoes. This Big Canoes trip is suitable for children and adults – a great outing for families! Life vests for children and adults will be provided. All ages are welcome, but young children who are unable to paddle or keep themselves upright will need to be accompanied by a guardian. Guides will be State Parks Interpretation & Education staff and FLOHA volunteers. We will take a leisurely paddle on Robeson Creek to watch the sunset while the crescent moon rises.
Friends of Lower Haw
www.lowerhaw.org
lowerhawevents[at gmail]
"Chatham Career Connect Hiring & Resource Expo Coming to Siler City
SILER CITY, NC— Job seekers of all experience levels are encouraged to attend the Chatham Career Connect Hiring & Resource Expo — a free, high-impact event designed to empower individuals in their job search and connect them with immediate employment opportunities, essential support services, and valuable community resources.
WHAT: Chatham Career Connect Hiring & Resource Expo
WHEN: Thursday, July 31, 2025
WHERE: At Jordan-Matthews High School, located at 910 East Cardinal Street, Siler City, NC.
TIME:
• 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM: Job Readiness Activities Prepare for success with helpful tips and tools before meeting with employers.
• 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM: Hiring & Resource Expo Meet face-to-face with employers hiring now and connect with community resources to support your career journey.
Attendees are encouraged to bring copies of their résumé and dress professionally. Whether you're entering the workforce, changing careers, or seeking support services, this event offers a valuable opportunity to take the next step.
This event is presented in partnership by NCWorks and the Chatham County Office of Equity and Engagement.
For more information, contact Courtland Gingles – courtland.gingles[at ncworks gov], Renita Foxx – renita.foxx[at chathamcountync gov]. NCWorks is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Program.
Members of the media interested in attending/covering this event are asked to please notify Public Information Officer Kara Lusk in advance at 919-542-8258 or kara.lusk[at chathamcountync gov].
Kara Lusk
Public Information Officer
Chatham County Government"
"Chatham Community Library Presents 'Photographing the Haw River'
PITTSBORO, NC— Chatham Community Library will host Dr. Kevin Ricker as he presents "Photographing the Haw River" on Saturday, August 2, in the Holmes Family Meeting Room. This program is free and open to the public.
WHAT: "Photographing the Haw River"
WHEN: Saturday, August 2, 2025
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Chatham Community Library
Holmes Family Meeting Room
197 NC Hwy 87 N
Pittsboro, NC 27312
WHO: Dr. Ricker will give a fascinating presentation about his nature photographs taken at the Haw River. Marvel at images of birds, butterflies, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals that make the Haw River their home.
This program is part of the Lower Haw Presents lecture series hosted by Friends of Lower Haw River and is co-sponsored by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation and the NCWF Tri-County Conservationists Chapter.
Residents may visit the libraries’ website www.chathamlibraries.org, or contact the Library at (919) 545-8084 for more information on this and other events and programs.
Kara Lusk
Public Information Officer
Chatham County Government"
Pittsboro First Sunday will be August 3rd, from 12-4pm at Pop-Up Park (50 West Salisbury Street). The Chatham County Historical Association will be tabling and there will be live music, food trucks and artisanal retailers. The festival is sponsored by the Pittsboro Business Association.
Coming up at The Plant in Pittsboro:
Their 2nd Annual Okra Jamboree will be Sunday, August 3rd 2-6pm: www.theplantnc.com/event-details/2nd-annual-okra-jamboree Featuring: live music by the Dub Fire Reggae Band, a Chris Smith book signing, Okra Farm Tour, a panel discussion, food tasting, and pop up vendors
Their 18th Annual Pepperfest will be Sunday, September 14th 2-6pm: www.theplantnc.com/pepperfest
Their 3rd Annual Chestnut Carnival will be Sunday, November 16th 12-6pm: www.theplantnc.com/chestnutcarnival (GMO American chestnuts??)
[From The Plant August 17th – their first (annual?) Pawpaw Palooza:
:Aug 31, 2025, 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
The Plant, 192 Lorax Ln, Pittsboro, NC 27312, USA
Join us for our first Pawpaw Palooza at The Plant! Come out to celebrate this unique and delicious fruit!
There will be Pawpaws for sale, Pawpaw Cocktails, pop-up vendors and more!
Interested in being a vendor? Sign up with the link below!
theplantnc.com/events-for-vendor-sign-up "]
The 2025 SC Pawpaw Festival will be Saturday, August 30th 3–8pm at Blue Oak Horticulture in Taylors, SC. I think pawpaws, a large banana-like fruit found along creeks, the larval foodplant of zebra swallowtail butterflies, begin to become ripe at the beginning of August here, and are quickly eaten by wildlife. Persimmons become ripe around September, and maybe also wild grapes, and then mast season begins around October.
Growing Pawpaws in WNC with Petrichor Pawpaws (September 21st , 2-5pm), organized by the Organic Growers' School: organicgrowersschool.org/forest-farming
At Chicken Bridge Road on the Haw River in northern Chatham County southwest of Carrboro: chathamjournal.com/2025/07/10/unclaimed-sheep-to-hit-the-auction-block-in-chatham-county/
Post-Chantal flooding on the Haw River, July 7th:
youtube.com/watch?v=ptsC2e1iU4g
www.youtube.com/shorts/QVttGddkfAg
[From the Haw River Assembly July 8th:
Articles on the local flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal:
- https://chathamjournal.com/2025/07/07/tropical-storm-chantal-unleashes-historic-flooding-on-haw-river-near-bynum-bridge/
- https://www.wxii12.com/article/north-carolina-aftermath-tropical-depression-chantal/65316850
- https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/orange-county-news/businesses-in-chapel-hill-look-to-recover-from-chantal-flooding/
- https://abc11.com/post/emergency-evacuations-water-rescues-underway-durham-county-due-major-flooding/16998028/
- https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/floodwaters-from-haw-river-swallow-up-parts-saxapahaw/83-5ff11286-a48e-48fd-abfc-4d649dfe6a58
- https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/woman-dies-in-chatham-county-floodwaters-after-audi-submerged-swept-away/
- https://apnews.com/article/tropical-depression-chantal-north-carolina-flooding-74946d15cd1f01a5fc697d1b46289617
www.hawriver.org/floodresources
Sent out July 18th:
Sewage spills in the Haw River basin during the flooding, around 3.8 millions gallons:
- Greensboro - 7/9/2025 - 2,000 GAL - North Buffalo Creek
- Greensboro - 7/8/2025 - 125 GAL - North Buffalo Creek
- Durham - 7/7/2025 - 32 GAL - Little Creek
- OWASA (Chapel Hill) - 7/7/2025 - 81,000 GAL - Bolin Creek
- OWASA (Chapel Hill) - 7/7/2025 - 968,100 GAL - Morgan Creek
- Greensboro - 7/7/2025 - 125 GAL - Brush Creek
- Durham - 7/7/2025 - 82,650 GAL - Sandy Creek
- OWASA (Chapel Hill) - 7/7/2025 - 2,700,000 GAL - Morgan Creek
- Swepsonville - 7/6/2025 - 28,000 GAL - Haw River ]
[From Northeastern University and the Haw River Assembly, sent out August 1st – Tropical Storm Chantal flooding in eastern Chapel Hill and sites contaminated with trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene (more?) –
 |
| From Northeastern University and the Haw River Assembly, sent out August 1st – Tropical Storm Chantal flooding in eastern Chapel Hill and sites contaminated with trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene (more?) |
ChathamCAN (Climate Action Network): chathamclimateaction.org/
[A Great Southeast Pollinator Census events in Chatham County : chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/2025/07/great-southeast-pollinator-census-events-in-chatham-county/ , go.ncsu.edu/pollinatorcen25 , and youtu.be/ncC-mM7ZSNw ; Friends of the Lower Haw had an event August 23rd 9-11:00am at 4551 US Highway 15-501 North, Pittsboro, NC 27312.]
From the JCRA:
The Midweek Program
"Buzzed and Bruised: When Plant Damage is a Good Thing"
Tim Alderton, Research Technician
Wednesday, August 27 at 3 PM
We usually think of chewed leaves, torn petals, or bug-bitten stems as signs of trouble in the garden — but sometimes, a little damage can be a very good thing. In this week’s Midweek Program, our Research Technician and resident plant whisperer Tim Alderton will explore the fascinating ways some plants not only tolerate damage, but actually benefit from it.
jcra.ncsu.edu/midweek/ (online?)]
[Volunteer for a trash trap cleanout in Kinston (on the Neuse River) August 5th: soundrivers.org/volunteer-signup/
]There will be a Loose on the Neuse trash cleanup August 3rd, 9:30-10am-2pm in eastern Raleigh, between Milburnie and Anderson Point Park, a shuttle to Milburnie and paddle downstream; an afterparty at Anderson Point; organized by Sound Rivers, Orvis Raleigh, and Neuse River Outfitters: soundrivers.org/volunteer-signup/
From the Eno River Association (the Eno is a tributary of the Neuse, going to the ocean near New Bern):
"Eno River Mill Presents:
Uproar Festival of Public Art Kickoff Party
Friday, August 1, 2025, 6:00 - 9:00 PM
Eno River Brewing (329 Eno Mountain Rd, Hillsborough)
Sixty bold, high-impact, outdoor works of art will be showcased throughout the downtown communities of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, and cash prizes will be awarded based on public voting and a jury panel of experts.
Be sure to vote to help select the $10,000 People’s Choice Winner! Uproar artists represent six states–North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.
Think of Uproar as a big, artsy scavenger hunt. Uproar will provide a free and accessible arts experience for visitors of all abilities. Check back soon for details, including where to find all the art. More information.
Durham County Library Presents:
Reel Fun! Exploring Our Local Underwater Critters!
Wednesday, August 20, 2025, 6:00-7:00 PM
Main Library (300 N. Roxboro St)
Join North Carolina Conservation Biologist Mike Walter for an evening of aquatic fun as he explores the wet wildlife right in our backyards. Mike will showcase scenes from the unseen, sharing the colorful and exciting world of fish, freshwater mussels, and crayfish in Eno River State Park and Duke Forest as well as some of the research projects currently underway to conserve these treasures of our streams and rivers! Register online. "
The Bike Durham Monthly Community Meeting will be Monday, July 28th 7-8pm at Antioch Baptist Church (1415 Holloway Street, on the 3 and 3B bus routes); the topic is GoDurham bus system improvements. Meet at the Major the Bull statue in CCB Plaza downtown to cycle to the meeting: actionnetwork.org/events/bike-durham-july-2025-community-meeting For more information contact: info[at bikedurham org]
Move-A-Bull City Open Streets will be Sunday, October 5th, from 12-4pm: moveabull.org
From the Haw River Assembly:
"Thursday, August 7: Movie Night at the Varsity Theater!
🍿 The film, "State of Change: Living with Water,” by PBS NC explores how NC communities are returning waterways to a natural state to address the impacts of climate change. Stories include how the Battleship North Carolina modified its marshy surroundings to adapt to rising sea levels, how Conserving Carolina is working to restore floodplains in western NC and how the Coharie Indian Tribe is reconnecting with the river they’ve lived on for centuries. **Varsity Theatre: Doors @ 6 pm; Film @ 6:30; Panel Discussion @ 7-7:30 pm. RSVP HERE!
Panelists Include:
- *Allison Whitaker* Champions climate awareness and resilience at the NC State Climate Office, cultivating a safer future for all of us!
- *Aiden Loretz* Our pipeline community organizer, they focus on environmental justice and collaborate with your neighbors to fight against unnecessary pipelines!
- *Michelle Lotker* An Emmy-winning storyteller, connecting people through journalism and environmental advocacy.
- *Julie Youngman* A senior attorney at SELC, specializing in environmental litigation. Her career includes military service, private practice, and teaching law.
- *Emily Sutton* Our Executive Director and Haw Riverkeeper will be moderating the panel discussion."
"Friday, August 8: Project WET Climate Resilience Workshop
🍎 An engaging workshop focused on the Climate Resilience section of the Project WET curriculum. The Climate Resilience Lessons of Project WET provide educators with foundational knowledge about climate change, enabling them to confidently address the topic in their classrooms. Participants will learn effective ways to communicate the impacts of climate change and inspire youth to become informed stewards of their environment.
Receive Criteria I credits towards your North Carolina Environmental Education Certification! Bynum Community Center: 9:00AM - 2:30PM. $15 fee: Register HERE! "
"Sunday, August 10: Lower Haw Natural Area Post-Chantal Clean-Up
Join Friends of Lower Haw and Haw River Assembly for a volunteer workday to help clean up trash and debris from Tropical Storm Chantal in the Lower Haw Natural Area, between Bynum and Pokeberry Creek. 9:00 - 11:00AM
We’ll provide bags, grabbers, and extra gloves if needed. Please bring your own water, comfortable shoes, bug spray, and any personal items you might need. No RSVP is required — just meet us at Earl Thompson Park at 9:00 AM for a brief safety chat before we begin. Have questions? Email events@hawriver.org or visit the Facebook event. "
"Saturday, August 16: Wetlands Hike in Cary
🌿 Join us for a guided hike along the beautiful White Oak Creek Greenway in Cary! From 10am - 12PM, we’ll take time to observe and learn about the unique characteristics of this ecosystem, including native plants, wildlife, and how wetlands play a vital role in protecting water quality. Secure your spot using this link! "
"Sunday, August 17: Hawesome: Live Music On The Haw River
🛶 Join a unique paddle meet-up on the Haw River with local drinks and music from your boat. This event supports community organizations and artisans. Events occur rain or shine, with a rain delay buffer. Severe weather updates will be emailed. Each event costs $15, benefiting the Haw River Assembly (fees are non-refundable).
Bring your own shirt for $10 to have a hand-drawn heron design printed. Emily's linoprint captures the essence of the Haw River's wildlife, turning art into wearable advocacy. This unique print is exclusive to the Hawesome event, making it a special keepsake. You can sign up for one or multiple dates using THIS FORM. "
"Help us host the 2025 Haw River Learning Celebration!
📣 September 20–October 10, we host over 1,000 students from five counties in the Haw River Watershed and we need YOUR help to keep it going strong! Here’s how you can make a difference: (Questions? Email events@hawriver.org)
- Register HERE to donate
- Register HERE to be on our amazing team of Volunteers!
- Like to cook? Register HERE to donate a meal
"Speak Out Against MVP Southgate Pipeline at Upcoming 401 Public Hearing August 12th
What's Happening The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will hold a critical public hearing on August 12 regarding Mountain Valley Pipeline's permit application for the MVP Southgate project, a high-pressure methane gas pipeline that would cross waterways in Rockingham County. The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Eden City Hall Council Chambers, following a press conference at 5:15 p.m. (City of Eden, 308 E Stadium Dr, Eden, NC 27288)
Why This Matters NCDEQ has previously denied MVP Southgate's permit applications twice due to public opposition (hello people power!), but the company has returned with a modified proposal that would transport even more methane gas into the state. The proposed pipeline would cross the Dan River at the North Carolina-Virginia border, potentially impacting a waterway that provides drinking water and recreational opportunities to the region while serving as habitat for endangered species.
How to Get Involved Community members who cannot attend the hearing can still participate by submitting written comments to the agency or signing petitions, ensuring their voices are heard in this consequential permitting process. Those interested in attending can find registration details and carpooling options from the Triangle area HERE, with additional promotional materials available to help spread awareness about this important opportunity for public input."
SSEP public hearings:
September 2nd 6-9pm at Rockingham Community College
September 4th 6-9pm in the Kernersville Municipal Council Chambers
"Understanding HB402: How NC Made Environmental Protections Harder to Pass
Early this week, the NC legislature convened to override several vetoes from Josh Stein [DS: Several Democrats joined with the Republican majority to give them enough votes to overturn the Democratic governor's vetoes; see how your legislators voted]. These veto overrides resulted in a few devastating policies for North Carolinians and our environmental protections.
One particularly troubling bill is HB402. This bill, titled "Limit Rules With Substantial Financial Costs" will make our work to move PFAS and 1,4-dioxane policy through the Environmental Management Commission much more difficult. This bill requires a unanimous vote for any policies that could incur "substantial” costs. This will include any minimization plans or reductions of industrial toxins on dischargers. Without a unanimous vote, which is virtually impossible with this Environmental Management Commission, it will be much more difficult to move statewide policy on surface water or groundwater regulations for these toxins.
Despite these setbacks, grassroots organizing and community voices have overcome legislative barriers before—and we will do it again!
5 Things You Can Do To Help The Haw:
- Attend the August 12th hearing regarding Mountain Valley Pipeline's permit application!
- Go outside and enjoy one of our Swim Sites that passed this week!
- Report trash and debris in your area!
- Help us by donating to our long-term Chantal Recovery Efforts: Resilience and Recovery Fund
- Do you think we’re ready for the next natural disaster as a result of climate change? Take our Climate Concerns Survey! "
[From 7 Directions of Service August 14th: ...
MVP Southgate
Earlier this week, impacted community members and advocates against MVP Southgate united in Eden, NC to tell the North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality to deny the project’s water quality permit. Almost all of the comments given during the public hearing were against the project, highlighting the risks to the Dan River and other drinking water sources, fragile aquatic habitats and species, and MVP’s terrible record of violations and fines.
NCDEQ has denied MVP Southgate’s water quality permit 3 times since 2018, and the project has never moved forward.
Tell NCDEQ to deny Southgate’s permit by Sep 12th! |
Webinar on Aug 26! We Pay, They Profit: Fighting North Carolina’s Methane Gas Plan |
Large corporations — Duke Energy, Enbridge, Inc., Williams Transco and Mountain Valley Pipeline developers — want to build a massive web of new methane gas pipelines and power plants in North Carolina.
This plan would affect all North Carolinians. Our rural neighbors would face a slew of safety and health risks from these pipelines, with numerous schools, farms and local businesses located dangerously close to the proposed project sites. And billions of dollars of debt from the costs of construction and fuel for these projects would be directly passed on to electric customers across the state, who could see higher monthly bills.
Join us on Aug. 26 to learn how this gas buildout will impact North Carolinians and discover ways to take action to protect your community. |
Upcoming No Pipelines Events
- TUES Aug 19 – Greensboro: No Transco SSEP Meeting – register
- TUES Aug 26 – We Pay, They Profit Webinar – register
- TUES Aug 26 – Guilford/Forsyth: No Transco SSEP Meeting – register
- TUES Sep 2 – SSEP Public Hearing – register
- THURS Sep 4 – SSEP Public Hearing & Rally – register
- WED Sep 10 – MVP Southgate Comment Party – register ]
[From 7 Directions of Service August 18th:
Protecting Water from Transco SSEP |
The NC Dep. of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) is currently reviewing SSEP's water quality impacts, and determining whether to allow the project to move forward.
Between now and October 6th, the public is invited to weigh in. Join our voices and tell NCDEQ to deny Transco’s water permit!
The proposed route crosses both Jordan Lake and Randleman Lake watersheds which together supply drinking water to more than 1 million North Carolinians and serve as a recreational area for residents across the state. 173 streams and wetlands would be crossed by SSEP, and construction could lead to long-term damage and major downstream consequences. |
NCDEQ has the power to block SSEP. Here’s how you can participate in their decision— |
1. Attend a NCDEQ public hearing, Sep 2 & Sep 4:
September 2nd at 6pm (Speaker registration on-site at 5:30pm) Rockingham Community College Advanced Technologies Building Auditorium 560 County Home Road, Wentworth, N.C., 27375
September 4th at 6pm (Speaker registration on-site at 5:30pm) 134 East Mountain Street, Kernersville, N.C., 27284
Rally to Protect Water! — RSVP Before the Sep 4th hearing, we’ll gather at 4:30pm at Harmon Park in Kernersville to hear from powerful speakers and get inspired. Then we’ll head over to the hearing together at 5:30pm. Wear red and black. Buttons, stickers and signs will be provided.
2. Submit your comment to NCDEQ online or by mail:
Visit nossep.org to review talking points and access the submission form.  |
Attend an upcoming No SSEP community meeting! |
[From the Haw River Assembly August 15th:
"Saturday, August 16: Jordan Lake Clean-Up with Clean Jordan Lake!
Join volunteers for a post-Hurricane Chantal cleanup at Jordan Lake's Ebenezer Church Recreation area starting at 8:30am. Teams will work both on foot and by boat to remove trash from shoreline areas, with all supplies provided plus coffee, pastries, and prizes for a trash treasure hunt. Learn more HERE. (If you are interested in conducting your own clean-up, please contact us HERE!)"
"🔬 Saturday, August 20: Water Quality Monitoring with the Haw River Assembly
From 12:00 - 1:00 PM, join our water monitoring experts to learn about how water quality is monitored in the Haw River. Understand the relationship between dissolved oxygen and aquatic life, how turbidity is determined and other monitoring techniques. Dress to possibly get wet along the river! (Think boots!) Please register for this free program by emailing Phillip Cox!
Where: Haw River Bynum Beach Access (Parking at Bynum Community Center, 28 Charlie Fields Rd,
"Saturday, August 23: Community Volunteer Clean up Day
"Rally to Protect Clean Water: Community Mobilizes Against Transco Pipeline Project
This week, Aidan is calling all supporters to join the fight against the Transco-Williams Southeast Supply Enhancement Project at a crucial rally and public hearing on September 4th in Kernersville.
The event begins with a 4:30 PM rally at Harmon Park featuring impacted landowners, environmental leaders and the Piedmont Raging Grannies before moving to the NCDEQ public hearing at 6 PM. Attendees are encouraged to wear red 🔴 and black ⚫ while organizers will provide signs, stickers and other materials to show unified opposition to the proposed pipeline. This is a critical opportunity for community members to make their voices heard on the project's potential impact to North Carolina waterways.
Read Aidan’s full post HERE! "
On Third Fork Creek, if I recall correctly, in Durham, going to Jordan Lake:
insideclimatenews.org/news/13082025/north-carolina-brenntag-water-contamination-environmental-justice/
The annual NC Big Sweep trash cleanup is coming up in September; I think Durham concentrates on the first weekend of the month.]
[From Keep Durham Beautiful:
| ||
|
The Durham Pride Parade will be Saturday, September 27th, around 10-11am-1pm.]
[The SAF's End of Summer Celebration will be Saturday, August 9th 5:30-8:30pm.]
[BEAVERS! Who? What? Where? When? Why? was July 29th 6-7pm: durhamcountylibrary.libcal.com/event/13376482 "Who threatens beavers?" (the City of Durham and others? Beavers recently saved money for the Czech (?) government, by restoring wetlands at no cost to the government. A while ago I linked to a page about a state government cease and desist letter about a beaver dam and the reply (in Michigan or nearby, in the 90's?).
"What European government saved one million dollars when beavers engineered a dam overnight? Why are beavers so territorial? When were beavers parachuted out of planes in Idaho? What is the function of a beaver’s tail? Where can you find beavers in North Carolina? Who threatens beavers?
The worlds second largest rodent...
Incomparable engineers creating natural dams more effective than human made dams...
Hunted nearly to extinction for their pelts which were used as a form of currency in early North American development...
Responsible for "beaver fever” a zoonotic parasitic infection spread in water...
The national animal of Canada...
The source of castoreum used for centuries for medicinal purposes, perfumes, and food flavoring...
Join Falyn Owens, Wildlife Extension Biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, to learn more about these rodent engineers!
Falyn Owens is the Wildlife Extension Biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. She works with organizations, businesses, and communities to find ways for people and wildlife to coexist in our shared world. Her main goal is helping people understand the wild species that live all around us - from birds and beavers to coyotes and bears – and use that knowledge to prevent problems or address them responsibly if they do occur. You might have seen her on the local news talking about snakes, deer, or other common species. She’s chair of the state’s Beaver Damage Control Advisory Board and administers the NC Beaver Management Assistance Program. Falyn also trains wildlife control professionals and rehabilitators on handling wildlife encounters safely, humanely, and legally. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, foraging for mushrooms, and learning about all the smaller critters and plants that people tend not to notice.
July 29th starting at 6 pm in the auditorium of the Durham County Main Library located at 300 North Roxboro Street in Durham.
Registration is appreciated in order to receive notifications about this event. Seating is first come first served. Registration does not hold or guarantee a seat.
Parking is available in the library parking lot or at the North Queen Street Garage (115 North Queen Street) located directly across from the library behind the apartments under construction.
Questions? Email mkoslofsky[at dconc gov]"]
[From the US Census Bureau; there was a housing data webinar at 2pm on July 31st and these webinars are coming up:
- August 7: Exploring the World of Census Health-Related Data
- August 14: Finance Statistics: Data for Businesses and Policymakers
- August 14: From Chaos to Coordination: Utilizing Census Bureau’s Emergency Management
- August 20: Introduction to the American Community Survey
- August 27: Extract, Analyze, and Visualize LODES from the LED Extraction Tool
- August 28: Connecting Dots: Turning Data into Educational Impact ]
[The British William Blake Society's annual August Graveside Gathering on Blake's his death anniversary will meet August 16th at 12pm in Bunhill Fields Burial Ground; all are welcome; to be livestreamed on their Instagram page.
The First Line
"This new art prize, awarded in conjunction with the Blake Cottage Trust, is in memory of Roland Bonham Manuel whose private sketches and notes embody the vitality and freedom of the imagination.
Set up by those close to BlakeFest in Felpham, and inspired by Blake's own private notebook, The First Line prize is about what the first lines of a sketch embody: the intention, the freedom of imagination, the power of a bounding line placed with confidence."
See: rora.me.uk/
Webinar September 3rd 7.30-9pm: "In Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld
and The Philosophers' Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination -- C.G. Jung Lectures, Bristol presents: Patrick Harpur in Conversation"
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See also; Blake's "And Did Those Feet"... – www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/01/and-did-those-feet-william-blake-in-bradford/ ]
MyHome NC on PBS had a segement on the Devil's Tramping Ground, in the southwest corner of Chatham County, several week ago [around June 24th?]. It is still around and open to the public, but it is now a private camp site; the fee to stay overnight is $15 dollars, with a limit of 10 people. Visiting during the day seems to be free and reservtions aren't necessary. I think the site is a woodland clearing on the west side of appropriately named Devil's Tramping Ground Road, northwest (?) of Harpers Crossroads (yet people refer to the town of Bear Creek), south of Siler City; there is supposed to be an old railroad grade nearby, but I didn't notice one: www.theoriginaldevilstrampingground.com/ I should go there again, and to White Pines, but I've only looked at aerial images online in recent years; it is relatively far away, in a not very populated area. There were reportedly three-toed bigfoot sightings near the Deep River in Chatham County starting in September 1975 and occasionally further west in the Uwharrie Mountains (these very ancient mountains aren't very lofty now; I think they were a center for stone tool production or raw material for a very long time; concievably tools taken in the Triangle originated in the Uwharries, such as at Morrow Mountain, now a state park; Morrow Mountain is at the confluence of the Uwharrie and Yadkin rivers and apparently the Yadkin becomes the Pee Dee River here; the 16th century Town Creek Indian Mound is also in the region). I've tried to look into the bigfoot sightings, and there might have been an investigation by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission at the the time. See Jim Brandon's 1978 book, I think now reprinted.
[An episode of NPR's The Broadside on the Devil's Tramping Ground will be on August 25th at 12 and 8pm.]
The Chatham County Vortex Paracon will be October 25-26th 8am-10pm (both days?). Tickets are $25: www.theoriginaldevilstrampingground.com/event/chatham-county-vortex-paracon and www.chathamcountyvortexparacon.com/
The Kecksburg UFO Festival in Pennsylvania was July 18-20. The Mothman Festival in West Virginia will be September 20-21? -- www.mothmanfestival.com
[The "Sandown Clown" on the Isle of Wight on the south coast of the UK, near Portsmouth, on a date in May or June.] [See: theghostinmymachine.com/2022/05/30/encyclopaedia-of-the-impossible-sam-the-sandown-clown/ , the Cool Dudes Walking Club channel and others on YouTube, fatemag.com/post/the-sandown-clown-incident , etc. ; I plan to add more later; I think the original source is a BUFORA publication from the 70's, but now online.]
[2019 MO exploded south of Puerto Rico June 22, 2019. ]
[In the daytime June 25, 1987 the pilot of a Boeing 737 was reportedly buzzed by a 4' "missile" in the vicinity of Charleston, West Virginia: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[July 10-13, 1978 a (commercial, repair?) garage in Galax, Virginia was hit by hundreds of nails of all kinds each day: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[The evening of July 14, 1952 two airline pilots reportedly saw 8 red UFOs in formation near Newport News, Virginia: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[July 15, 1981 a 30' cylindrical UFO reportedly landed momentarily on a body of water in the Newberry, South Carolina area: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[July 19-20 and July 26-27, or July 12-29, in 1952 UFOs were seen and detected by radar over Washington, DC; they escaped interception by the super- or hyperpower: UFO Exist! (Paris Flammonde, 1976) and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Washington,_D.C.,_UFO_incident ]
[July 19, 1962 a UFO reportedly landed in a creek in Asheboro, NC, making a "bubbling sound:" Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[A UFO and members of its crew were reportedly seen near Bauru, Brazil July 23, 1947: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[Two Eastern Airline pilots saw a UFO 20 miles west of Montgomery, Alabama around 2:45am July 24, 1948; the USAF explained it away as a meteor: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[July 28, 1962 a fishing boat observed five figures wearing blue to white uniforms on an alleged Soviet submarine that passed them as it headed seaward off Avalon, Catalina in California: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[July 30, 1915 the submarine U 28 sank the 600-foot, 5,223-ton British steamer Iberian in the North Atlantic, off Ireland (?), and the German captain, Georg Gunther Freiherr von Forstner, and other officers and crew reportedly saw a crocodilelike animal that was briefly (10-15 seconds?) thrown or leapt entirely clear of the water. U 109 reportedly encountered an approximately 100-foot crocodilelike animal in the North Sea at 10pm on July 28, 1918. A sailor, P.W., from the Netherlands reportedly saw a large, thin, light gray animal with a long neck about 400 miles north of Suriname July 22, 1916. A sighting July 30, 1875 from the Princess, near Boston? – In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents by Bernard Heuvelmans, translated from French by Richard Garnett, drawings by Alika Watteau, 1968 edition and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_U-28_(Germany) , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Iberian_(1900) ]
[The night of August 1, 1962 three fishermen on two boats in the Mediterranean off Le Brusc, France reportedly saw frogmen boarding what seemed to be a submarine, but then it lifted off, hovered, and flew away, rotating: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[Reportedly, around 1:15am August 2, 1983 by the Government Bridge on Basing-stoke Canal in Aldershot, UK a 77-year-old man was rejected for UFO abduction: "You can go. You are too old and too infirm for our purpose. Very few "Grays" in here? – Bartholomew and Howard, 1998. FT: no more abductions??]
[Around 9pm on August 4, 1990 in Calvine, Scotland "13 miles (21km) north of Pitlochry" – a photo of a large "diamond-shaped UFO" and two Harrier fighter jets (?) was taken; given to the Daily Record; the US and UK militaries apparently thought that it was a secret US or UK aircraft (the UK was accused of having misused US secrets to develop its own stealth aircraft); connected to the 1990 events in Kuwait? – Fortean Times October 2022 issue FT423.]
[UFOs were reportedly seen in Gotland, Sweden August 5, 1957: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[A "baboon" or other primate was reportedly seen in Matthews, NC August 8th and 9th in 1977: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[The Great Daylight Fireball of 1972 passed through the atmosphere and back into space August 10th over western North America.]
[August 18, 1961 thousands of dead or injured sooty shearwaters, large pelagic (?) seabirds, fell around California's Monterey Bay, between Pleasure Point and Rio Del Mar; many were carried to the shore and lived: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[August 18, 1972 two bricklayers working on a house in Ixtapalapa, Mexico (in the Mexico City area?) reportedly saw two flying entities accompanied by "a faint humming noise:" Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[Bizarrely, a 25," 10 pound shark was reported caught in East Lynn Lake, in West Virginia, August 18, 1977 and an octopus 3' long from a boat in the Kanawha River, close to Charleston, December 24, 1933: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[August 18, 1979 a pilot and passenger reportedly saw a UFO near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[August 18, 1980 in the Sea of Japan the captain of a Soviet research ship reportedly saw a cylindrical, metallic UFO come out of the ocean, hover, and then fly away at a high speed: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[The Florida scoutmaster UFO sighting was August 19, 1952: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[A tiny man that disappeared with a flash was reportedly seen on a road in a forest south of Narken, Sweden on the rainy night of August 19, 1970 and again in the evening on February 16, 1971 in nearby Straken, close to Overkalix, etc.: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[A single clam is supposed to have fallen in Yuma, Arizona August 20, 1941: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[The Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO incident was the night of August 21, 1955 in southwestern Kentucky.
[The Hopkinsville Goblins, Kelly Little Green Men, or the Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO encounter was in southwestern Kentucky near Hopkinsville and Kelly August 21, 1955. Some have attributed the events, including gun fire and a perceived siege, to a meteor, a family of irate great horned owls, and bioluminescent fungi, but did they even check whether there is such a bioluminescent fungi present in the area and would owls, apparently impervious to bullets, besiege a house? There is or was a festival commemorating the event, possibly a victim of the pandemic: www.kellyky.com/ , Wikipedia, etc.]
Reportedly an entity that sounds similar somehow got into a house in Mandurah, Western Australia (south of Perth?) one night in 1930.
... "It had big ears, a wide slit mouth and glistened as though it was wet or covered in oil. It stood about half a metre tall, with bulging eyes, covered with a film. /
It was obviously not human, yet it had perfectly formed little hands and feet and was pink like a baby. It made a frightened squeaky noise when it was caught under the [prawning] net [and taken outside]. Our father told us never to speak bout it or tell anyone." ...
Beryl Hickey told a local newspaper about it in 1982 (?), after a friend was reminded of it after the release of the movie E.T.: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[David Todd, a former director of Massachusetts's Amherst College Observatory, got the US Army and Navy to have their radio personnel listen for signals from Mars when our two planets were relatively close August 22-25 in 1924. William Friedman, chief cryptographer for the (appropriately named) War Department, was to work on any signals received. There was an event at Georgetown University's observatory attended by Japan's charge d'affaires. Many doubted the effort at the time. From the summer 2024 issue of the Smithsonian's Air and Space Quarterly.]
[A rightist UFO contactee arrested August 22, 1968 after bombings in Brazil? -- Bartholomew and Howard, 1998 and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladino_Félix ]
[The Lubbock Lights were reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Lubbock, Texas August 25-31, 1951: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[A bowling ball-sized metallic (?) sphere with spikes is supposed to have landed in a 5-acre lake near Concord, NC, between Charlotte and Morrow Mountain, disintegrating into wires, shreds of metal, or chaff underwater in front of witnesses, including two deputies. Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982 dates the incident to August 28, 1962, not in September. A similar spiked sphere is supposed to have fallen sometime in County Wexford, Ireland, close to Duncannon. In October 1958 a shiny 2-franc coin reportedly fell in the garden of a Mr and Mrs Basil McGee in Gastonia, NC (1005 Woodland Drive) while they were outside (after rain?). See Brandon, 1978.]
[Something like crystalline [rock?] "candy or sugar" reportedly fell in Lake County and Napa, California during the night on September 2nd and 11th in 1857; made into "syrup;" the same incident is mentioned in Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982 and Brandon, 1978 (?).]
[Many people, including two police officers, reportedly saw a UFO in Exeter, New Hampshire September 3, 1965: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[Small, warm, flint cobbles are supposed to have fallen on a newspaper office three times September 4, 1886 in Charleston, South Carolina; there was an earthquake on August 31st? Is it true? – Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[Portuguese fighter pilots flying from Granada, Spain to Portalegre, Portugal on the night of September 4, 1957 reported UFOs: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[A bow and arrow hunter in the Cisco Grove area of California reportedly saw a light and was then trapped in a tree overnight by robotic and other beings September 4, 1964: Bord and Bord, 1989.]
[Around 3:30pm September 4, 1977 – a reported UFO encounter in Barrio Abr Centro, Puerto Rico; "How nice Puerto Rico is" -- Bartholomew and Howard, 1998.]
[A red UFO reportedly harassed an ambulance carrying a pregnant woman in Gdansk, Poland early on September 5, 1980: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[September 7, 1954 UFOs were reported around Amiens, France, north of Paris: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[The Flatwoods UFO incident was early in the evening on September 12, 1952 in Braxton County, in central West Virginia.]
[A large meteor landed near Carancas, Peru, near Lake Titicaca, September 15, 2007, releasing noxious gases (?).]
[UFOs were reportedly intercepted by F-4 jets over Teheran, Iran early on September 19, 1976: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[The Petrozavodsk phenomenon was seen from Denmark to the Soviet Far East September 20, 1977, but is named for the capital of the Karelian ASSR, bordering Finland. Some have attributed it to the launch of Kosmos-955 the same day; the satellite returned to Earth September 8, 2000.]
[There is a claim that an asteroid, part of the Northern Taurid meteor shower, came down September 22, 2193 BCE at 10:56am, hitting the capital of the Akkadian Empire: www.researchgate.net/publication/331178226_THE_SUMERIAN_K8538_TABLET_THE_GREAT_METEOR_IMPACT_DEVASTATING_MESOPOTAMIA_-_A_2019_TRANSLATION_ADDENDUM ? A Taurid might have been seen to hit the Moon November 7, 2005: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurids ]
[The "Gorman dogfight" between UFO and an F-51 fighter was the night of October 1, 1948 above Fargo, North Dakota.]
[The Golden, British Columbia, Canada meteorite – October 3, 2012 around 11:30pm PT: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/meteorite-crashes-into-womans-bedroom-golden-bc-1.6207904 and www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55013725 ?]
[A UFO was reportedly seen in Greenville, North Carolina October 4, 1973 and there were many reports in the South on or around the 4th: UFO Exist! 1976.]
[2008 TC3 landed in Sudan October 7, 2008, the first impactor to be tracked prior to entering the atmosphere, for 20 hours.]
[Around 3:30am on October 8, 1967 police officer Gene Blaney reportedly saw a "big glob of fire" fall in Putnam County, New York, close to Brewster: Brandon, 1978.]
[The Pascagoula, Mississippi UFO incident was October 11, 1973, with a following USO report the evening of November 6, 1973: Brandon, 1978 and Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[A tiny man was reportedly seen in Dunn, NC October 12th and pre-dawn on the 25th in 1976: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[The Antonio Villas Boas UFO abduction was reportedly around 1am on October 15, 1957 in Brazil: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[UFOs were reportedly seen in Oloron-Ste.-Marie October 17, 1952 and again October 27th in Galle, also in southwestern France: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[The Falkville, Alabama "Metal Man" incident was the night of October 17, 1973: www.fatemag.com/post/the-metal-man ]
[October 17, 2012 – the Novato meteorite fragmented over northern California around 19:44PT: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novato_meteorite ]
[During the night of October 18, 1867 fire reportedly fell for around 10 minutes in Thames, Ditton, Surrey, England, UK, and quantities of sulfur were seen on puddles in the morning: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[A red UFO reportedly interacted with a US Army helicopter near Mansfield, Ohio on the night of October 18, 1973: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
[Pilot Frederick Valentich reported a UFO as he flew across Australia's Bass Strait, from Moorabbin Airport in Victoria to King Island, and vanished October 21, 1978; this is apparently not the only UFO-related disappearance in the area: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989. See also the book Phenomenon. And another book?]
[Fish reportedly fell in Marksville, Louisiana the morning of October 25, 1947 (?): Brandon, 1978 and Bord and Bord, 1989.]
[A UFO was reported near Levelland, Texas on the night of November 2, 1957: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[Three small, "chattering" UFOnauts and their 'VTOL' vehicle with three propellers and were reportedly seen by a truck driver in the Meridian, Mississippi area November 7, 1957: Bord and Bord, 1989.
[WT1190F, a temporary satellite, came down November 13, 2015, but might have been part of the Lunar Prospector probe.]
[A truly gigantic UFO was reported by a Japanese pilot and another pilot over northeastern Alaska late in the afternoon on November 17, 1986: Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, by Janet and Colin Bord, 1989.]
["Angel hair" reportedly fell, thickly, in Montgomery, Alabama November 21, 1881: Brandon, 1978; Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982; etc. And in Milwaukee, Green Bay, etc. in late October 1881: Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1982.]
[November 27, 1954 in Florence, Italy more than one oblong UFOs and falling "angel hair" apparently interrupted a soccer match between Fiorentina and Pistoiese at the Stadio Artemio Franchi before about ten thousand spectators. The heavy fall of angel hair at the Stadio and nearby is explained away as spider silk, but the fast-moving UFOs were also reported. Boron, silicon, calcium, and magnesium was detected in the angel hair: www.fatemag.com/post/happy-world-ufo-day , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadio_Artemio_Franchi , www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29342407 , and www.bbc.com/sport/football/20917594 ]
"Artificial Intelligence (alternative) group"
An unaffiliated, non-political anti-"AI" or "AI" skeptical group will meet on Fridays 9-10am beginning in August at the tables outside the Pittsboro Public Library. A new trend? For more information call organizer Gaines Steer at 919-302-7235. "This is an invitation to join an emerging small (and unaffiliated) support-group to explore some practical ways to protect valued ways of living, somewhat free of AI's all encompassing outreach(*).
(*) In short order, groups like this will be forming all-over the USA. The time is ripe!"
According to Wikipedia: a major oil spill was found on the Colonial Pipeline in a nature preserve near Huntersville, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, July 27, 2020; two news helicopters collided over Phoenix July 27, 2007, with no survivors; the first meeting of Mattachine Midwest, based in Chicago, was July 27, 1965; the "Western" and Soviet occupations of Austria ended July 27, 1955, and the country was reunified during the Cold War, unlike Germany, Korea, and China ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied-occupied_Austria ); the Korean War was paused July 27, 1953 and ever since, so far ( cpcml.ca/ITN2025/TI5599.HTM#1 ).
I thought I heard an NPR headline last night that Mexico City had its 700th anniversary celebration on July 26th, not in the spring? [APNews: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XErfKq_5W7k and apnews.com/video/projection-display-in-mexico-city-marks-700th-anniversary-of-founding-of-tenochtitlan-c5850657759f43579a0dae41fd3e65fc ] [ english.elpais.com/culture/2025-07-01/mexico-city-honors-its-pre-hispanic-heritage-on-the-700th-anniversary-of-tenochtitlan.html , yucatanmagazine.com/mexico-city-at-700/ , www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/07/23/700-years-of-tenochtitlan-mexico , mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/tenochtitlans-700th-anniversary/ , theworld.org/episodes/2025/07/28/mexico-city-celebrates-700-years-since-the-founding-of-tenochtitlan , www.wnyc.org/story/mexico-city-celebrates-700-years-since-the-founding-of-tenochtitlan/ , sacministry.gov.mm/en/news/9087 [Myanmar on page 2 of Google's search results for " Mexico City 700th anniversary"!], latinamericannewsdigest.com/mexico-city-approaches-700-year-anniversary-historians-argue-founded/ , etc. From July 27, 2014: america.cgtn.com/2014/07/27/pre-hispanic-celebrations-mark-500-years-since-spanish-conquest ]
[The Spanish Conquest of Mexico was 504 years ago, August 13 or 21, 1521. From memory, I think Cortes had the last emperor executed in 1525.]
["Masar Badil: August 21 and 22… Two Days of Rage Against Genocide, in Support of Jerusalem and the Prisoners" – masarbadil.org/en/2025/08/6566/ = masarbadil.org/2025/08/6563/
Thursday, August 21, 1969: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_mosque_fire
On the Australian arsonist: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Michael_Rohan
On the Al-Aqsa Mosque: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque ]
[Gorbachev was overthrown in the August Coup, August 19-22, 1991, but it failed and the USSR was dissolved at the end of the year: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_coup_attempt ]
[The Haitian Revolution was August 21, 1791 to January 1, 1804: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution ]
[George Lester Jackson was killed at California's San Quentin State Prison August 21, 1971, an event that possibly helped spark the uprising at the Attica prison in New York state in mid-September of that year: www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/08/20/long-live-the-spirit-of-jonathan-jackson/ ]
[The International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism Day is August 21st: www.un.org/en/observances/terrorism-victims-day ]
[Russian journalist Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina, 29, daughter of rightist author Aleksandr Dugin, was killed in a car bombing August 20, 2022 around 9:45pm local time near Moscow. Her father was in another car and it is possible that he was the intended target. They both supported Russia attacking Ukraine. Russia accuses Ukraine of responsibility and says that the culprit fled to Estonia.]
[August 22, 2025: famine has been officially declared in Gaza; an emergency situation is going on in a hotel near UNC (not at the Carolina Inn) in Chapel Hill, a major road [East Franklin Street near University Mall and Village Plaza?] has been closed, and there is a fire; Hurricane Erin went by offshore and it has been kind of dark, cool, and dry (but humid?); etc.]
The International Day Commemorating the Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief is August 22nd: www.un.org/en/observances/religious-based-violence-victims-day ]
[[August 24th:] On NPR's "1A" news round-up Friday, August 22nd it sounded like a guest was openly defending an Israeli leader's comment about needing to kill a set ratio of Palestinians for every one Israeli (50 or 60 for one Israeli?). That would explain Israel's repeated aid massacres. See the recent FAIR article (to be linked above) on "Western" mainstream media coverage of the casualty statistics. "On the Media" Saturday was devoted to the plight of VOA, RFE, RFA, etc., built up by Reagan, and attacked, with Russian government-type charges, by Trump, they say. 'What were we in Russian prisons for?,' they ask. VOA allegedly threaded the line between outright "propaganda" and ... (putting a good face on the news?), successfully, during WWII (like NPR, PBS, the NYT, the WSJ, and the Washington Post today?). Really? They did, very briefly, admit that VOA, etc. are government entities, but then they went back to NPR's preferred "independent" media label. On the BBC's From Our Own Correspondent the morning of August 24th – all "North Korea watchers" are/were waiting to see when it falls, but now allegedly tottering Russia is helping the Koreans (they think that the DPR Korea, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, etc. can only 'fall,' unlike governments of the bloodthirsty "rules-based international order" in the USA, UK, Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, Romania, Colombia, El Salvador, Mauritius, etc.; the anniversary of the first burning of Washington, DC, by the UK, is around the 24th).]
[The morning of August 25th: As with Palestine, NPR (in a report from Carrie Kahn) defended the idea of attacking Venezuela (they even dragged out Corina -- Machado, interviewed on Fox; one quote from President Maduro; quotes from two former US ambassadors to Latin American countries -- don't be a "paper tiger;" why did Trump allow US investment before a war? ) and minimized the ability of the defenders to extract a great deal of blood from the invaders. They cover up the damage Israel has incurred, while pretending that Iran is going to 'collapse' and that Hezbollah and Hamas are done (don't bring up Yemen). There was also a report on how the "new Syria" has given up the "ideology" of supporting Palestinian liberation; nothing about what Israel is still doing to Syria, even under HTS. Also, the plight of poor John Bolton. Laura Loomer, who apparently wants to be the 21st century McCarthy, was once banned by Uber and Lyft, for hate speech?! At 10am -- we can't have voter-verified paper ballots, it is too slow and everything is just fine! "Dictator" Hugo Chavez can't get to the electronic voting machines, and was no longer alive in 2020. Grassroots Democrats or leftists used to question electronic voting machines. A listener blames President Putin for Trump's recent election comments. At 11am -- we can't have vengeance either ("the science of revenge;" a 'deadly addiction;' the "dark triad;" Christianity, Buddhism, and liberalism; "science;" no social systems or political economy here; with Celeste Headley; that new late summer 2025 Australian liberal book on human history and the "dark triad," personified by the political triad they hate, Putin, Trump, and Xi, etc.).
Israel bombed AP and Reuters reporters at a Gaza hospital and then bombed it again, killing others. The BBC host, Tim Frakes (?) didn't ask a former Israeli soldier about international law when he went on about how Israel has to get Hamas -- at every hospital in Gaza.]
[The traditional Western Virgo period, following Leo, and preceding Libra, begins August 23rd.]
The Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the USSR was signed August 23, 1939, following the failure of negotiations with the UK and other European states to deter Germany, giving the USSR more time to prepare for a German attack and survive WWII: ml-review.ca/aml/AllianceIssues/WBBJVSNaziPact.htm Today several imperialist countries and organizations, such as the EU and Canada, equate socialism and fascism every August 23rd, while collaborating with US wars of aggression, disappearances, and torture; Zionist war crimes; fascists in Ukraine; Islamist terrorists in Syria and elsewhere; rightist coups in Latin America; etc. ]
"August 23,1939 – 86th Anniversary of Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact – Government of Canada’s Cold War Historiography About Origins of Second World War" – cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/TS5529.HTM
november8ph.ca/2025/08/tribute-to-liberty-turns-its-attention-to-albania/
Towards the anti-war US right, yet pro-Stalin: sonar21.com/the-sad-state-of-us-based-russian-scholars/
"August 19, 1989 – 36th Anniversary of Chertsey Meeting – Significance of Historic Meeting in Chertsey, Quebec [Canada]" – cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/TS5528.HTM
[The Battle of Stalingrad was August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943, with pockets of resistance afterward, and was a major turning point in WWII; February 23, 1943 was marked as Red Army Day in the UK, while today media in the USA and UK typically give the public the impression that WWII was mainly a victory won by the Americans and British (or even Ukraine, apart from the USSR as a whole, in 2022-2023), though much or most of the fighting in Europe was on the Eastern front and it has been argued that Japan surrendered in the end because the Soviets entered the Pacific War, not because of the horror of the Allies' nuclear warfare. See: redphoenixnews.com/2023/02/02/the-battle-of-stalingrad-and-the-german-soviet-non-aggression-pact-of-1939/
["Much to their surprise, some bird-watchers saw a Rock Pigeon [Columba livia, the cosmopolitan non-native pigeon of urban areas, bolding added] offshore from [Cape?] Hatteras on August 23, 1997:" Birds of Carolina: Second Edition, 2006, UNC Press. Seven species of doves and pigeons have been seen in the Carolinas. In my lifetime urbanization (?) gave pigeons habitat to move into my general area. I'm not sure if they live in more urban downtown Chapel Hill yet. I found one sitting on eggs at the to of a little used downtown Raleigh stairwell on a late May afternoon one year.]
[The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition is August 23rd, commemorating the beginning (?) of the Haitian Revolution on the night of August 22 - 23, 1791 in what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo: www.unesco.org/en/days/slave-trade-remembrance]
[India's Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed at the lunar south pole August 23, 2023, making India the 4th country to carry out a soft landing on the Moon and the first to land at the south pole, where there might be valuable water ice.]
[The Wagner Group was allegedly decapitated in an airplane crash, near Kuzhenkino in Tver Oblast, Russia August 23, 2023.]
[The White House, US Capitol, Navy Yard, etc. were burned by the British August 24, 1814: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington ]
[The US government had access, without warrants, to all telegraphic traffic passing through the country, from August 24, 1945 to May 1975 (called Project SHAMROCK and carried out by the NSA), and similar programs existed before 1945 and up to recent times iin te US: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_SHAMROCK and portside.org/2025-08-18/week-peoples-history-aug-20-26-2025 ]
[France first tested a thermonuclear device August 24, 1968 at the Fangataufa atoll in French Polynesia.]
[The BBC (especially?) and NPR are highlighting Ukraine's secession from the USSR (which still existed in 1991) August 24, 1991. A Ukrainian poet (?) on the BBC cast it as 500 years or something of Russians trying to suppress the non-monarchical Ukrainians (he specifically blamed the long ago tsars Catherine the Great and Peter the Great, and no Soviet leaders). How are the Russophobe western Ukrainians going to live with ther neighbor after the War (move the country away, like a mythological flying river?)? Like Latvia and Estonia, constantly seeming to want to drag the "West" into WWIII through NATO, which would devastate the Baltic states first of all? Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Grenada, Panama, Greenland, and native Hawaii live with the USA peacefully and even cooperatively (positive or not), despite what the US has done to them. Nothing about what the pro-German rightist Ukrainians and others, now hailed in the "West," did in WWII. The BBC's Julian Warrwicker (spelling?) had on as weekend guests a male WSJ editor from Ukraine and an academic (?) woman from..., who went along wth it too. The academic (?) woman on the 23rd was 'cooperative,' despite probably being from the Caribbean. Anne Applebaum even sounded reasonable on the War. Allegedly around 2022 a Ukrainian woman offered Russian soldiers sunflower seeds, Ukraine's "national flower" (but aren't sunflowers from what is now the US?), to grow and bloom after their deaths. How lawful and nice to civilians Russian soldiers must be, compared to the Israelis (and many Americans?). Her gesture could be taken more than one way? NPR's This American Life painted a picture of Palestinian suffering and powerlessness in the occupied West Bank on the 23rd.]
[The discovery of a planet around Proxima Centauri, only about 4 light years away, but not visible from here, was announced August 24, 2016: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri_b Another planet was recenty discovered around alpha Centauri and I think one was also detected around relatively neaarby but dim Barnard's Star, long suspected of having one or more planets.]
]French revolutionary Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just was born August 25, 1767 in Decize and he was executed by guillotine July 28, 1794 in Paris, with Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (who had been born May 6, 1758 in Arras): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Antoine_de_Saint-Just and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre ]
[March 25-August 25, 1989 -- sort of anti-war 機動戦士ガンダム0080 ポケットの中の戦争: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_0080:_War_in_the_Pocket ]
[German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born August 27, 1770 in Stuttgart in the Holy Roman Empire and passed away November 14, 1831 in Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel ]
[Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (August 28, 1749 – March 22, 1832)]
[Naturalist, author, and illustrator Roger Tory Peterson, famous for the series of Peterson field guides, was born 114 years ago, August 28, 1908, in Jamestown, New York and passed away July 28, 1996 in Old Lyme, Connecticut. There might be events at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown: rtpi.org/ ]
[The Windsor Free Festival in the Windsor Royal Park in England, UK was suppressed the morning of Wednesday, August 28, 1974: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Free_Festival ]
]Libya's Great Man-Made River has several anniversaries on or around August 28th and September 28th; for example Qaddafi placed a foundation stone August 28, 1984, one of two plants making the pipes was inaugurated by Qaddafi August 28, 1986 in Brega, and water first reached Gharyan in the northwest September 28, 2007. The Brega plant was bombed by NATO July 22, 2011.]
[The USSR's first nuclear test, RDS-1, was early on August 29, 1949 in Semipalatinsk in the Kazakh SSR, breaking the USA's nuclear monopoly and blackmail: www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/23/79-years-ago-the-us-tested-the-first-atomic-bomb/ ]
[The International Day Against Nuclear Tests is August 29th, for whatever reason: www.un.org/en/observances/end-nuclear-tests-day , established December 2, 2009 by an unanimous vote of the UN's General Assembly. I was surprised to learn that the US detonated nuclear weapons as recently as 1992 and France and China in 1996, among other countries: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States%27_nuclear_weapons_tests ]
[Gennadiy Borisov, an amateur astronomer using a home-made telescope in Crimea, discovered 2I/Borisov August 30, 2019, the first known interstellar comet and the second known interstellar object observed travelling through our solar system. It is possible that the first meteor from outside the Solar System was recently discovered. Comet Borisov isn't expected to return. The first interstellar object, 'Oumuamua, thought to be natural, though some have suggested that it could be artificial, was discovered October 19, 2017, and there has been discussion of sending a probe after it. An approachng interstellar comet (?), 3I/ATLAS, was recently discovered.]
[Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassalle was born April 11, 1825 in Breslau, now Wroclaw and passed away August 31, 1864 in Carouge, Canton, Switzerland, after a pistol duel the morning of the 28th; he founded a predecessor of today's Social Democratic Party of Germany May 23, 1863, a first in global political history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Lassalle and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_German_Workers%27_Association ]
[US and allied military forces withdrew from Afghanistan by the end of August 2022, but the US continued to bomb the country and cause economic hardship and death for Afghan civilians.]
[Asteroid 3 Juno was discovered [in Pisces?] September 1 [?], 1804 by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding (September 29, 1765 in Lauenburg – August 31, 1834 in Göttingen). Star Names?] [t was discovered September 1, 1804: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Juno ]
[September 1, 1859 – the first observation of a (?) solar flare, during the Carrington Event; even stronger solar storms have hit the Earth during human history, but that was before electronics: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Christopher_Carrington (born May 26, 1826).]
[Martha, a captive passenger pigeon at the Cincinnati Zoo, the last known member of her species, passed away September 1st, 1914 early in the afternoon. Passenger pigeons may have been the most abundant bird ever known, their flocks darkening the sky, but they were exterminated by habitat loss and wanton hunting. How far back did the great flocks go? It is possible that they became so vast after something in their environment changed.]
[Annual International Vulture Awareness Day is September 6th in 2025, the first Saturday in September: www.vultureday.org , celebrating these majestic, interesting, ecologically vital, and in many cases threatened birds.]
[F]or other [anniversaries see: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/08/summer-came-in-with-buzz-and-whirr-goes.html ]
[August is supposed to be National Make-a-Will Month.]
[August 22nd is Eat a Peach Day (and I plan to do so), according to the Days of the Year website.]
[The 24th is Knife Day according to SMKW.]
[The 26th is supposed to be Dog Day, the 27th Banana Lovers Day, the 28th Red Wine Day, the 30th Beach Day, and the 31st Eat Outside Day.]
After hot, dry, mostly sunny weather I thought I heard thunder this evening. The temperature cooled, but it didn't rain much. [It cooled off a lot, with cloudiness and damp weather around the end of July/beginning of August. I found six pretty large black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on some parsley August 2nd, and it should be enough for them for a while this time. About two purple and one blue morning glory flowers so far, but far more have been all white.]
[From the August issues of Sky and Telescope and Astronomy magazines:
[Due to the current major lunar stand still, the waxing Moon will be near (about a degree) and below the star Antares in Scorpius the evening of the 3rd, contrasting with the reddish star. The Moon will be well south in Sagittarius August 5-6th for the same reason. The Moon again be in Scorpius and southwest of Antares on August 30th, but they will appear about 4 1/2 degrees apart.]
[The Griffith Observatory will broadcast the major standstill southern moon transit August 5th and probably every month until the end of the year; there was an Internet broadcast July 8th of the Observatory’s Gottlieb Transit Corridor: conta.cc/4meu1tw
[In Pisces, Saturn and Neptune (visible with binoculars) will be separated by about 1.1 degrees August 6th. Their third conjunction in a year will be February 15, 2026, separated then by only 0.9 of a degree. The first conjunction was in late June.]
[The asteroid Pallas reaches opposition August 7th, around 5pm. Vesta is in Libra, near the star Zubenelgenubi. Comet Wierzchos is in Hercules, going into Bootes and Corona Borealis. It is currently at magnitude 12, but is approaching the Sun and might brighten to magnitude 4 at the beginning of 2026.]
[ 立秋 (りっしゅう / 입추 / Lìqiū / Risshū / Ipchu / Lập thu, the beginning of fall) is August 7th-22nd in 2025: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liqiu ] ["Risshū (Beginning of Autumn)" and Obon, in mid-August -- www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/b09714/ I think Rittō is around November 7th this year: www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/b09720/ritto-beginning-of-winter.html ]
[The Full Moon is August 9th.]
[The asteroid Julia reaches opposition in Capricornus (?) August 11th, around 5am. It was discovered by astronomer Édouard Stephan of France August 6, 1866: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/89_Julia ]
[Jupiter and Venus will appear very close together in the east the morning of the 12th, less than a degree apart (about 0.9). They rise after 3am, Jupiter about four minutes before Venus (Jupiter rises around 4am at the beginning of the month). They are bright objects in the night sky, Venus being at magnitude -4.0 and Jupiter at -1.9. They will meet again next June, in the evening and not as close (about 1.6 degrees), though in a conjunction on November 9, 2028 they will appear to be separated by only 37.' Mercury will be lower in the sky on the morning of the 12th. Earlier, the waning Moon, Saturn, and Neptune will be close together.]
[From HASTRO around a few weeks ago:
Useful links:
Aldo Vitagliano's SOLEX ephemeris software: www.solexorb.it/
www.imcce.fr/lettre-information/archives/225
August 26, 2027 Venus and Jupiter would appear 0.49488° apart, but will be hidden by the Sun, which is apparently not uncommon.
The morning of November 10, 2028 Venus and Jupiter will be 0.61201° (0° 36′ 43.2″) apart (32° from the Sun?).
November 22, 2065 Venus will appear so close that it will start to occlude Jupiter and maybe a large Jovian moon.]
[It has been raining a lot, cloudy, and unusually cool for most of August 2025 so far; I saw the Moon and one of the planets, low in the trees, from inside on the morning of August 14th, but I haven't seen much in the night sky for many days. It rained again [and thundered] briefly the evening of August 14th, but it has been getting warmer, humid, and less cloudy.] [The cicadas began calling again. Upset brown and gray flycatchers and a male hummingbird recently; another zebra swallowtail butterfly around the 9th, and two small skinks; the oakworms have been out; the relatively few black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars finished, without defoliating the parsley (!), but sawfly (?) larvae defoliated their dayflower; many bright red and black dayflower leaf beetles today; a few dragonflies; I heard that two copperheads have been seen here so far in 2025, in the spring and a second and larger one around the 11th, evening flocks of grackles, the blue catmint bloomed late, on the 13th; the pink milkweed finished earlier; there are a few mushrooms and I heard a large Rana sp. frog call once today, the 14th. No satyr butterflies??]
[I saw a pileated woodpecker here the morning of August 23rd, and I've been hearing them calling loudly nearby, and other species. It has been too cloudy to see much, for weeks, but I saw Jupiter (in Gemini) and Orion one morning and both Jupiter and Venus this morning (it was clear), August 25th. I was suspired to see the greenish (?) flash of a late season firefly winding along the street very early on the 25th. It has been somewhat warmer and watering has become necessary again. It seems very late, but I don't remember seeing any of the little white Convolvulus blooming until about August 23rd. There have been many white and blue Ipomoea, a few purple, and about two white ones with blue markings. I've probably missed the wild potato vines (Ipomoea pandurata), a perennial with creamy white and purple flowers, and yellow bearsfoot (Smallanthus), in the aster family, though they grow where it flooded in July in Chapel Hill. Crownbeard (Verbesina) and maybe green-headed coneflowers bloom now, and within weeks fields in southern Durham County will become bright yellow with species of tall tickseed (Bidens), named for their seeds, which often clinging to clothes. They also grow in eastern Chapel Hill, but are rare. I'm not sure if they grow in northern Durham County. Bearsfoot and crownbeard don't seem to grow where I live, while tickseed doesn't seem to grow much in Orange County or the Neuse River basin part of Durham County. Bearsfoot is the most attractive to butterflies, but monarchs and many other insects visit tickseed, attracting large mantises. Goldenrod species are another important yellow flower in the area but might not be as visually striking as tickseeds. Some tall-growing goldenrods sprouted here, but rarely flower; it might be too dry or shaded. I think there was a small species or more than one that used to bloom in dry part shade here. There have been a few Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus, a perennial sunflower), around, but I think they bloom much earlier in the summer.]
[There have been a few more single mushrooms, yellow Hypericum has been blooming, a few late roses of Sharon, hawkweeds (?), elephant's foot, none of the Lobelia-like flowers yet. American (first?) and Asian beautyberries are turning bright purple. Muscadine grapes seem to be ripening, I found one fallen a few days ago. I found a fallen, ripe (?) persimmon the morning of August 25th. I might have heard a blue-gray gnatcatcher, and woodpeckers. I saw the or a small (< 2'), dark brown copperhead, well hidden and probably cold in the morning shade. I was about to step by it. Clouded skipper butterflies appeared (late?) a few weeks ago. Dragonflies were around (great blue skimmers laid eggs in a very temporary puddle on a driveway, etc.), but I haven't seen any here in a while.]
[A relatively friendly light brown tomcat came through one morning in recent weeks, which is unusual. NC 12 and ferries on the Outer Banks reopen at 5pm today (August 25th), following the passage of Hurricane Erin?]
[The Perseid meteor shower will peak on the 12-13th and lasts from about July 17th-August 24th.]
[The asteroid Ceres will appear stationary August 15th, around 9pm (just above Cetus' 'shoulders' and near Neptune and Saturn?).]
[The Moon will be near the Pleiades star cluster on the 16th. Uranus is also near the Pleiades this month, and getting brighter.]
[Mercury's greatest elongation from the Sun in this appearance will be on the 19th, with a separation of about 19 degrees between them. Mercury will be five degrees above the horizon an hour before dawn and with a brightness of magnitude 0. I don't often see Mercury, since it doesn't appear very high in the sky when the Sun isn't up. On morning of the 20th Jupiter, Venus, and the waning Moon will be in Gemini and Mercury will be underneath, about two degrees below and right (?) of the Beehive, Manger, or Praesepe star cluster in Cancer (probably only visible with binoculars). I couldn't really see anything when Mars was near the Beehive, months ago, but I think I've seen the cluster before. Its stars are magnitude 4.5 or less. The Moon will be closer to Mercury on the 21st.]
[The New Moon will be August 23rd.]
[The asteroid Hebe reaches opposition in Aquarius (?) August 26th, around 10am. It was discovered by Karl Ludwig Hencke observing in Driesen, in Brandenburg, Prussia (now Drezdenko, Poland) July 1, 1847: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_Hebe ]
[The evening of the 26th the waxing Moon will be near Mars. The Moon will be near the star Spica on the 27th.]
[Japanese Tanabata (たなばた or 七夕; "Evening of the Seventh") or Hoshimatsuri (星祭り, Star Festival ) is August 29th in 2025 and the 19th in 2026? – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata The original Chinese Qixi Festival ( 七夕 ) or Qiqiao Festival ( 乞巧; "Beseeching craftsmanship;" 乞巧奠 ; "The Festival to Plead for Skills;" Kikkōden?): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qixi_Festival Korean Chilseok ( 칠석 ): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilseok ] [On Tanabata: www.nippon.com/en/features/jg00097/ and www.nippon.com/en/guide-to-japan/cs00009/ ; "Fumizuki: Star Festivals, Welcoming Departed Ancestors, and Other July Traditions" -- www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/c11807/ ]
[Venus will be about 1.4 degrees below and right (?) of the Beehive star cluster on August 31st.]
[September's Full Moon will be on the 7th and the New Moon will be on the 21st.]
[The equinox will be September 22nd.]
[June 26th a meteorite hit and went through a house in the Atlanta area (McDonough, in Henry County, Georgia)? – news.uga.edu/uga-names-new-meteorite/ , www.cbsnews.com/news/meteorite-georgia-nasa-earth/ , www.fox5atlanta.com/news/meteorite-hit-mcdonough-home-may-be-over-4-billion-years-old , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonough,_Georgia ] [And see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_OaYXxB7Z8 and www.youtube.com/results?search_query=atlanta+meteor ]
Deep River Riverkeeper (DRRK) New Member Paddle with GetOutdoors
Saturday, September 20, 2025
9am-3pm
Deep River Access Park
3485 R Jordan Road
Sanford, NC, 27330
The DRRK was founded in June or July: www.deepriverkeepersnc.org/news/deep-river-riverkeeper-programs-and-projects-in-2025 People can join the new organization by donating any amount of money. There was an attempted friends of the Deep River group years, I think based Burlington. The historic Deep River ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_River_(North_Carolina) ) forms the south border of Chatham County and joins the Haw River at the mysterious Mermaid Point (see the book Down Along the Haw, by Anne Melyn Cassebaum, referencing John S? Hairr of Lillington?) at the southeast corner of Chatham County, downstream from Jordan Lake, forming the Cape Fear River, heading to the Wilmington and the Atlantic Ocean. Nearby Haywood was almost capital of North Carolina and the site of UNC instead of Raleigh. Moncure is another town in that area. The Deep River rises well west of the Triangle region, not far from the Yadkin-Great Pee Dee River basin, which goes down to northern South Carolina. There is a lot to see at this time of year (baby rails?, large moths, the unusual white pines, endangered Cape Fear shiners?) at the Triangle Land Conservancy's White Pines Nature Preserve, a site with a cooler microclimate south of Pittsboro, where the smaller, clear, shallow, not very rocky Rocky River joins the Deep River. Endangered Cape Fear shiners (a minnow; see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Fear_shiner ), Atlantic pigtoe mussels (see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_pigtoe ), and other rare species inhabit the River. Wikipedia claims that the name "Deep River" is a translation of an Indian name, "Sapponah," and the River does have steep banks in my experience, dropping into water of unknown depth, possibly with a somewhat swift current. The North Carolina Gazatteer: A Dictionary of Tar Heel Places and Their History -- Second Edition says that the Sapona Indians lived on the Yadkin River, once called the Sapona River. There was once a lot of industry and mining along the Deep River, and there are Revolutionary War sites nearby (such as the House in the Horseshoe). There are a few powerplants, "green" or not, near the junction of the Deep and Haw rivers.
[There was a Revolutionary War battle at the House in the Horseshoe in a bend of the Deep River at the northeast corner of Moore County July 29 or August 5, 1781.]
This was originally posted at: www.deepriverkeepersnc.org/news/press-release
~Deep River Riverkeeper, Inc.~Announces Official Licensing
[Jamestown, NC ~ July 21, 2025] The Deep River Riverkeeper, Inc. “The New Protector of the Upper Cape Fear Basin” announces its official licensing by the Waterkeeper Alliance® [ www.waterkeeper.org ], the international riverkeeper association that authorizes jurisdiction and supports environmental protectors for rivers. The Deep River Riverkeeper (DRRK), a North Carolina non-profit organization based in Guilford County, formed in December 2024, to support the health and well-being of the Deep River and its tributaries in its 125-mile journey through 6 central North Carolina counties (Forsyth County, Guilford County, Randolph County, Chatham County, Lee County, and Moore County). Its mission is: “To protect the Deep River and its Neighbors through science, education, and stewardship.”
The DRRK Board of Directors represents professional expertise in science, public health, water systems management, community development, land management, education, arts, information technology, marketing, and law. The DRRK employs a dedicated Riverkeeper who leads its activities in water testing and reporting, river clean ups, public outreach, and recreation opportunities. Ms. Stephanie Stephens is the DRRK Riverkeeper and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Environment and Sustainability from UNC Greensboro.
The DRRK completes the missing piece of riverkeeper oversights for the Cape Fear River Basin, the largest watershed in NC. The DRRK joins the Haw River Assembly and the Cape Fear River Watch in advocacy for this major water source in central NC. The DRRK focus also includes science research and education partners, such as UNC Greensboro’s Environmental & Sustainability Program and Duke University’s Superfund Research Center in the Nicholas School of the Environment. The DRRK’s home office is at UNCG.
Media Contact: Dr. Patricia Gray, Executive Director
Website: www.deepriverkeepersnc.org
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