@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

sunflowerinrain

@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online

Immigrant, singer, ex-techwriter, ex-editor, ex-TickIT auditor, catlady, Baha'i. Used to design, implement, and deploy CRM middleware, but now forgotten how because left it to study music BA(Hons) from UEA. Have a minor horde of descendants and other family, far away in various parts of the globe, none of whom I've seen IRL since Covid appeared.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

CitizenWald, to histodons
@CitizenWald@historians.social avatar

Well, here's a nice one for @CoinOfNote (as well as all @histodons ):

Tom Holland: We must celebrate England’s forgotten founding mother

"If a fire broke out at Tom Holland’s house, the one item he would rush to rescue is a coin. . . . For his 50th birthday Holland tracked down and spent 'my entire family savings' on the coin that was minted in Chester during her rule, which had been found in an abandoned Roman fort before appearing at an auction in New York"

So cool.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d5805e06-18e8-456b-8284-bdd345287351?shareToken=d395a39b1fd793d6f206f08a264061b3

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@CitizenWald @CoinOfNote @histodons Makes more sense than celebrating a saint who had nothing to do with England.

ChrisMayLA6, to food
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Its difficult to assess what % of food (or food based energy) consumed is ultra processed, but here is a chart that aggregates a number of studies to suggest the range of % for a selection of countries.... & then when you know Big Food in the USA spends more on lobbying than the Tobacco industry (which is likely to be similar in UK)... it starts to make sense.

Link that to public health & we have some more context for the UK's health crisis.

More food regulation is needed now!

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@peterbrown @ChrisMayLA6 I regret that milk is homogenised but didn't realise it's actually injurious to health.
It's possible to get unhomogenised milk from expensive sources (and isn't it it odd to pay more for something not to be done?), but the best is straight from the milking machine if you can get to a dairy farm. You have to be rich to afford decent food. We need regulation that truly protects consumers.

sunflowerinrain, to random
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

Trees full of rapidly-ripening in the garden, and no-one to pick them!
Anyone want a in sunny ? Three double guest-rooms... small charge to cover water and electricity...
And all the cherries you can eat.

sunflowerinrain, to random
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

Both and .
Pass my soapbox. In spite of certain badly-worded commentaries, this planet has no shortage of water. We have shortage of potable water and water for irrigation, and water being inconveniently placed. The first can be addressed by technologies old and new, if the political will were applied. The second makes me cross. Water is vital; petroleum is merely useful - so why do petroleum pipelines cross continents but we don't transport water?
https://climate.copernicus.eu/precipitation-relative-humidity-and-soil-moisture-april-2024?utm_id=cb-april-24

johncarlosbaez, (edited ) to random
@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Yay! The science fiction author @gregeganSF helped me figure out this picture! It's called the hexagonal tiling honeycomb. A lot is known about it, but we described it in a new way.

An 'Eisenstein integer' is a complex number of the form a+bω where ω=exp(2πi/3). We proved that the center of each hexagon in this picture corresponds to a 2×2 self-adjoint matrix of Eisenstein integers with determinant 1 and positive trace.

We did it here on Mathstodon, and then @ai joined in and gave a different proof. It's a nice example of how people can team up spontaneously in the Fediverse to solve problems. For details, check out the n-Category Café:

https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2024/04/line_bundles_on_complex_tori_p_2.html

In the process, a lot of nice math was revealed. For why this result is important, read my earlier article:

https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2024/04/post_2.html

Briefly, the hexagon centers correspond to principal polarizations of the abelian variety ℂ²/𝔼² where 𝔼 is the lattice of Eisenstein integers. These are concepts that algebraic geometers know and love. Next I want to interpret the other features in this picture using related ideas from algebraic geometry.

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@johncarlosbaez @gregeganSF @ai I understood slightly less than half of that, but its poetry delights me. I could happily sing it as recitative.

The only way I can remember what "abelian" means is through that mathmo joke which goes "What's purple, and commutes? An abelian grape."

sunflowerinrain, to animals
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

It's after 1am. I'm kept awake by the sounds of one of Pepper's gifts scrabbling in the boxes in the bedroom. It hides successfully when I search for it.
Pepper is ignoring it; he clearly expects me to appreciate the opportunity to hunt, as I'm not able to go out and get my own prey.

I'm sooo tired! And not looking forward to clearing up the inevitable mess.

sunflowerinrain, to random
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

This week the has been looping through:
"Ah, que les hommes sont bêtes" by [0]
"Ombra mai fu" by [1]
"Where the bee sucks" by [2]

and...
"Combine harvester" by [3]

[0] Current repertoire
[1] Current repertoire, SSA arrangement
[2] Recent repertoire
[3] Never be in the repertoire, sadly

sunflowerinrain, to solar
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

Lunch yesterday with a small group of women who occasionally nosh chez one of us. Chat on Paleolithic discoveries, fruit trees, mountain-climbing experiences, local history, and solar power, amongst other topics. The oldest of us (79) had installed panels. Shocked at the price quoted by installers, she researched and ordered the materiel, paid someone to attach the panels to the roof, got out her old college notes, and did the rest herself.

Edent, to Health
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “Viewing my CT Scan in 3D using Linux”

Several years ago, I had a CT scan of my jaw. The dentist wasn't sure if she was allowed to give me a copy of the scan, which led me to ask "who owns the copyright to my medical images?" I still don't have an answer to the copyright question - but I do now […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/viewing-my-ct-scan-in-3d-using-linux/
⸻

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@Edent When I was leaving England my GP told me to see the admin staff to get my data, and to add to it (hadn't always lived there, so my records were incomplete). Admins refused to let me see it, because of "data protection". After raising various arguments, I finally said that should mean I had to give them permission to see it (whose body is it?). Result: confused but stubborn admins.
In France your xray etc prints are handed to you to deal with. They're yours. Makes sense.

Linux_in_a_Bit, to random
@Linux_in_a_Bit@linuxrocks.online avatar

Companies making an app to control a device which should have had physical controls, and could have had them cheaper :blobcatgooglytrash:

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@Linux_in_a_Bit @icedquinn I find the idea of an internet-connected toothbrush frightening, nay, horrifying.
Yonks ago I was with a group of excited devs discussing connected fridges which would monitor their contents and send an order to a supermarket when stocks ran out. As we were people who all hated shopping, it seemed a brilliant concept. Then I thought about the possibilities and ramifications. No. Really, really no.

fkamiah17, (edited ) to random
@fkamiah17@toot.wales avatar

I endorse this graphic.
Edit: I have to say the response to this post has been eye-opening (in an excellent way) and hilarioius. Special shout out to the lady from Texas - welcome!

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@fkamiah17 Galicia... and the Welsh-speaking enclave of Patagonia...

First time I watched the videos of the Festival Interceltique I was amazed at the breadth of it.

https://www.festival-interceltique.bzh/le-festival/

joyce, to random
@joyce@hcommons.social avatar

Tonight I decided I needed to read something comforting. So I'm rereading The Last Unicorn. OMG it's good.

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@mrcompletely @joyce @neilhimself When I was acquiring books for my bibliophile daughter (still a mad reader as an adult: she admits to having over 7000 books in her house), I vetted them first and discovered that many books for older children/YA are delightful* for adults too. Still some of my favourites.

  • The reverse of many books labelled Children's Classics. Well-meaning aunts gave me such books for birthdays, which is how I came to be struggling through Pilgrim's Progress at age 9.
sunflowerinrain, to kindle
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

The on my needs replacing. I'm trawling through websites and videos, searching for the correct model, of the hundreds produced and then dumped (nearly as bad as printers).
One webpage says a Kindle should last 2-5 years before needing a replacement battery. Mine will be 12 years old next month. Amazon no longer acknowledges it, which is fine because it still works for @gutenberg_org . Or it will, when I can replace the battery.

sunflowerinrain, to random
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

"Having to get legal advice before giving a gift to society will discourage many developers".

We've seen that in other arenas too: charity being wiped out by heavyhanded legislation.

https://bits.debian.org/2023/12/debian-statement-cyber-resillience-act.md.html

sunflowerinrain, to random
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

War on . Irritating in its linguistic ignorance but also saddening as a sign of lack of empathy, of aggressive prejudice, of bullying and possible violence.
I was idly wondering if banning pronouns in English would lead to greater clarity, so I drifted down that rabbit-hole. At first, yes - but then the more examples, the more difficult it became. Everything in third person, with nouns, and much converted to passive ("you can think of...er, no, examples can be thought...").

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

First and second person verb forms could still exist but require extra thought (until it became ingrained and automatic?).
\me... er, I, er, er, sunflowerinrain try to get her head around I mean oh bother, this person's...
Hang on. Possessive adjectives.
Sunflowerinrain am going for a cup of tea and a lie down.

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

Musing on was triggered by conversation with an English friend who was bemused by the idea that some don't have pronouns. Not sure said friend believed me.
Considering that language influences thought, I wonder if people whose language has gendered are less sensitive to it? When your table and chair are female and your plate is male, perhaps it i s less meaningful.
Also, the USian obsession with segregated bathrooms doesn't hold in France.

sunflowerinrain, to random
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

The best place to go for a curry is, it seems, Orkney.

https://theorkneynews.scot/2023/12/02/top-award-for-dil-se-chef-hanif-khan/

molly0xfff, (edited ) to random
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

• enter password for password manager
• verify from email that it's me signing in from a "new location" (VPN)
• use security key
• use password from manager to sign into actual service
• complete image CAPTCHA
• receive text message with 2FA code
• unlock phone with fingerprint to get code
• access service

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@molly0xfff You can wait a long time for a code sent by SMS in an area where there's no (or only occasional) mobile coverage.

ParadeGrotesque, to random
@ParadeGrotesque@mastodon.sdf.org avatar

At the end of the day, COVID-19 made people realize:

  • They could work from home and that most offices are shitty places.

  • Their job was really shitty.

  • Governments could finance pretty much anything they wanted.

  • Global warming could be stopped.

  • The really important jobs were the ones that are the worst paid (nurses, for instance).

  • Most governments are run by idiots, who are in the pocket of the wealthiest.

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@ParadeGrotesque People forget really quickly under the influence of propaganda. It's so successful, I wish it wasn't almost always used for evil (perhaps those with ethics find the methods of propaganda too repugnant?).

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

I wish more people did these. It's fun to learn odd little things:

First job - Stop
Current job - Sending
Dream Job - Your
Favorite food- Potential
Favorite dog - Passwords
Favorite footwear- Or
Favorite Candy bar - Memorable
Favorite Ice Cream - Data
Your Vehicle colour - To
Favorite Holiday - People
Night owl/earlybird - Who
Favorite day - Collect
Tattoos - This
Favorite colour- For
Like vegetables - Social
Wear glasses - Engineering

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@dgar I rarely (possibly never) have favourite whatevers, so when $favourite_thing is demanded for "memorable data", I sling in something. And then forget what it was...

Tattooed_mummy, to random
@Tattooed_mummy@wandering.shop avatar

I'm being mansplained to on Facebook and it's the funniest thing ever. a guy is telling me how watches can't work without electricity, it's not possible even if they're wind up, that power needs to be stored in a battery. I'm trying to explain to him about springs, but he doesn't understand I'm dying 😂.

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@Tattooed_mummy Where is he? I want to show him my wind-up radios!
Seriously, reading this made me feel OLD. When I were a kitten, no watches had batteries.

Deglassco, (edited ) to random

Olaudah Equiano’s book, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself,” stands prominently among autobiographies penned by former slaves in 18th-century Britain. Its comprehensive and detailed recounting, along with supporting documentation from various letters, offers unparalleled insights into Equiano's life, surpassing what we know about any of his peers.

Image: Olaudah Equiano as a young man in the 1770s/1780s.

1/

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@Deglassco Thank you for this thread!

sunflowerinrain, to animals
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

The feral cat who has taken up residence on the kitchen windowsill is desperate to come indoors. Today he almost succeeded in his ploy to get through the catflap. He lurks in wait for Pepper to open it, and tries to sneak in behind him. Cue much fury.

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@mxtthxw The other cats are furious. They might eventually accept him. A friend started off with two acquired the usual way, and has been adding ferals. Now up to five, and they all eat together, and sleep on beds and sofa.

sunflowerinrain,
@sunflowerinrain@mastodon.online avatar

@mxtthxw Good luck! My family has done this many times; only twice did it fail, though several times it took weeks.

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