@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

dmself

@dmself@mstdn.social

IT Consultant and part-time #tomato farmer. #ComputerScience, #Math, #Biochemistry.

Mostly posts pictures of #plants, #birds, and #insects, with occasional wry commentary.

Interested in: #Coffee, #Vinyl records, #Folklore, #Anthropology, #PhilosophyOfMind

Not a sorcerer.

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futurebird, (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

(via. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/hnknnw/now_its_our_cone_of_shame/)

"Now it's OUR cone of shame."

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@futurebird
Feline space enthusiast and human companion recreate the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz docking mission. By booping noses, they symbolically re-create the famous "handshake in space" between Leonov and Stafford, reminding us all of an iconic (if short lived) thaw in the Cold War.

dmself, to Animal
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

This is so sad. Two (or possibly even ) kept apart by a man-made barrier... (Update: definitely not just friends.)

Fortunately, I sometimes commit minor crimes, and sometimes even violate the Prime Directive. You know, in the name of .

Now they are together.

dmself, to Plants
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

These are the fruits of a . They are capsules that dry out, break open, and release black .

I could these, but it typically takes 5 years from seed to , so it's easier to the mature I already have.

One of the fruits, separated from the plant. It has been torn open to reveal three internal chambers, and four shiny black seeds, about 2 mm in length. The fruit had already opened when i collected it, so there were probably more seeds, but only these are left.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

What is the worst lyric from a Rush song? I vote for:

“Some world-views are spacious but some are merely spaced?”

huh?

It doesn’t help I thought he said “some are merely space?” But “spaced” is only marginally more intelligible. What on earth is a “spacious world view” That this is in a song complaining about “bad design” makes it worse.

Really the whole set of lyrics is dubious. But imprinted forever in my mind. There is nothing quite like a Rush song. Or Geddy’s voice.

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@futurebird
Net boy, Net Girl,
Send your signal round the world,
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the cyber sea.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Are Trump's lawyers naturally terrible, or do the conditions of their job, probably getting yelled at for making reasonable suggestions... train them to be terrible since it's the only way they can keep the job?

If they aren't getting paid weekly... they aren't very bright.

I expect it's similar to a NFT or crypto reddit forum where there is a "no FUD" (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) rule. Of course he'll win!

At a recent event he said that he "won all 50 states"

Yeah. And they all clapped.

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@futurebird
It's a rule in ecology that if two species compete for the same resource, one of them will go extinct. Thus species specify. If they can't get the best they settle for something worse and get by.

There is a lemur in Madagascar that's so small it had to settle for the worst food. An adult Golden Bamboo Lemur each day, eats 12x enough cyanide to kill any other animal of the same size. Science still doesn't know how it survives.

I assume Trump lawyers live in an analogous ecology.

dmself, to LEGO
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

As a USA tech worker who lives in a city, and has only seen at the state fair, I may not be qualified to participate in .

Nevertheless, in 1995, I taught my wife how to make a sheep based on the 1970 model of my childhood.

I left one on her desk. A week later, she had not noticed, so I built a 2nd one at 2x scale.

Another week, still hadn't noticed, so I built a 3rd at 4x scale.

Another week, I finally pointed them out. She screamed in surprise and kept them forever.

Two crude sheep made from Lego. The 2nd one is identical to the 1st, but 2x the scale, that is 4x the number of blocks.
Three crude Lego sheep. The 3rd one is 4x the scale of the original, or roughly 16x the number of blocks. Many of the white blocks have turned dingy brown due to age and exposure to sunlight.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Just memorize your social anxiety away!

Why did I get to age 40 not knowing that most of my crippling social anxiety could be cured by simply making flash cards of the faces of all the people I need to interact with at work or at other events and simply memorizing all their names?

This probably won’t for everyone but it’s shocking effective it has been for me. And it’s not like I’m particularly bad with names when learning them “naturally” (although I’m slower than average) 1/

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@guitargabe @futurebird

The Asian and Middle Eastern contractors at my old job used to have this problem. They would ask, "May I take your photo to use as the icon in my contacts list?"

We USians all knew that they couldn't remember our weird western names (or sometimes there were 2 Davids or 2 Michaels and they got us confused), but anyway it saved embarrassment all around.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It's really interesting to me how these magic anti-radiation stickers, look a little like a wireless charging coil... And are even placed like one on a phone... using a real technology to add realism to the fake. They also look like the maze of the Minotaur. (I have a thing for things that blend old and new graphic forms like this... and I'm fascinated by scam products. )

I guess the radiation gets lost in the maze.

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@futurebird
It reminds me (and even looks like) an incantation bowl.

This was a magic object to protect against demons. A clay bowl inscribed with a long text spiraling into the center where a picture of a demon was drawn. Evil spirits were compelled to read the entire text only to find themselves trapped at the center.

Typically it was buried face down, so that demons coming up from below would get caught in it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incantation_bowl

dmself, to Halloween
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

Ar grocery store: cost $5, but cost $1.

Needs must when the Devil drives.

dmself, to gardening
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

Remember that I've been watching for the last several months?

I didn't plant it; I don't know where it came from; but I've long suspected it sprouted from the seed of a grocery store , probably carried here by a bird who found it in the trash.

Here is the fully ripened fruit. Taste test confirms it is a cantaloupe.

Small and mostly seeds. A waste of space. That's why you don't plant seeds from .

The same melon, cut in half. It is almost entirely rind and seeds.

TarkabarkaHolgy, to random Hungarian
@TarkabarkaHolgy@ohai.social avatar

Kid at the kindergarten saw the blood bank car speeding past with the sirens on, and yelled "It's the blood police!"

(Accidentally inventing a new CW series in the process)

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@TarkabarkaHolgy

In the criminal justice system, blood-based offenses are considered especially venous.

The dedicated hematologists who investigate these viscous fluids are members of an elite squad known as The Blood Police.

These are their stories.

[lub-dub]

(Law & Order: ABO)

dmself, to random
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

I didn't think I had any , but then I remember that I had this , and if you look real real close, you can see some tiny white spikes of calcite.

(I am not necessarily campaigning for over . This is just an excuse to post my geode.)

A spherical geode, cut in half. It is mostly purple crystals inside, but also a clear quartz, and some rocky metallic clumps.

dmself, to random
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar


I campaigned pretty hard for . In fact, I worried that I used up all my content and wouldn't have any left for the semifinals. Corundum lost, though, so i'm glad I posted everything.

? I don't have any content for that, but go look at it. Looook aaaat iiiittt.

Then vote for it. thxby

dmself, to gardening
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

I planted some from grocery store , and on only a few days they have turned into real plants.

I have never grown sweet potatoes. This is just a test. The frost will kill these vines long before they produce.

This isn't like growing potatoes. You don't bury any of the fleshy part, you break off a long slip, and then bury it diagonally, with only a little bit above the dirt.

Like tomatoes, any part of the slip can become roots.

Three store bought sweet potatoes. There are stem like growths emerging from them. These are called "slips".

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

: were not named after at all. In fact it's the opposite.

When Spanish explorers were introduced to the sweet potato, they called it "", borrowing a native word.

Later, when the inca showed them the potato, they called it "patata", which seems to be a combination of a native word like "papa" and their borrowed word, "batata".

The word "patata" came into English as "potato" long before English speakers encountered the batata.

of

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

More : The and the aren't even related.

The potato is in the family. The sweet potato is in the family.

The potato is known to have been domesticated near the Andes by at least 2500 BC.

The sweet potato is much older, at least 5000 BC. We don't even know where it was domesticated: probably either in the Yucatan, or in northern South America.

There are many varieties of sweet potato, but literally 1000s of varieties of potato.

dmself, to random
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

I don't collect minerals, so I have very few. This synthetic corundum rod was used in a hospital laboratory.

They're called "sapphires" despite the fact that they are pure Al2O3. They are scratch resistant, not reactive, can withstand extreme heat, and have special optical and mechanical properties.

A sapphire rod just a few inches long can be 2000 C at one end and 20 C at the other, allowing tests at a wide range of temperature simultaneously using only one part.

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

Also, check out this extremely retro tube that I keep my synthetic sapphire in. My dad gave me this sapphire rod in 1978. It came from his lab, but it broke and had to be replaced.

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

Still got a few hours left, so let me add that corundum, as industrial sapphire, has many uses in laboratory medicine.

It's scratch resistant, heat resistant, acid proof; can be a rod, tube, lens, or bearing. The only material that even comes close is diamond, but diamond is too brittle to make tubes.

You can even make tiny square vials called "cuvettes", which allow your sample to be heated to 1000s of degrees for spectral analysis.

And cuvettes? Totally reusable.

Okanogen, to random
@Okanogen@mastodon.social avatar

People IS NOT A MINERAL! there is no other choice except . Even if you do pretend that non-naturally occurring, non-crystaline, non-solid mineraloids are a "mineral" (which they literally aren't and that's why they are called mineraloids), calcite is still the clear winner because without in the game, it is the other heavyweight. Calcite is just amazeballs!
Vote early, vote once (trying hard to not vote more than once on this one)
https://www.mineralcup.org/results/round-2-match-5

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@Okanogen
Hey. : Behold my vast collection of (technically) actual ! This is who you should be running against in

(ok, you caught me. I confess. Most of the minerals in this photo are not natural. They were made by a machine.)

futurebird, to math
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Every year the many names for mathematical statements cause my students a little anxiety. I want to make an Euler diagram to show how they all overlap and intersect— so please mention any words I could add to this list:

statement
proposition
theorem
axiom
postulate
rule
law
definition
formula
corollary
lemma
conjecture
hypothesis

Can you think of any others?

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@futurebird

For algebra:

( expression
[ number,
variable,
sum {term (expression) + term (expression)},
product {factor (expression) * factor (expression)}
]
)

Difference is a special type of Sum.
Quotient is a special type of Product.

Yes, this is recursive, not really an Euler diagram, and probably better suited for BNF.

dmself, to Flowers
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

My Pink Easter Lily has again. This is the 2nd this year, and only the 3rd bloom in the cactus's 20 year life.

(Canon M50 25mm, various f/)

From view of the flower. It is pink with many petals, and there are yellow threads in the center.
Close-up side view of the flower
Close-up front view of the flower

TarkabarkaHolgy, to books
@TarkabarkaHolgy@ohai.social avatar

Just got this ad on FB.
To quote someone who did write:

WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@TarkabarkaHolgy
Regardless of the content, this falls into the category of

"I have a secret foolproof way to make endless money, but somehow I need you to pay me to learn my secret and become my competitor, thereby endangering my own secret business of foolproof endless money"

so it should be obviously a scam to anyone who thinks about it for a few minutes.

juergen_hubert, to poland
@juergen_hubert@thefolklore.cafe avatar

The Devil often leaves a signature of sorts at the places where he is encountered.

@poland @folklore
https://www.patreon.com/posts/card-player-76962907

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@juergen_hubert
I've read that the modern name (in English, German, French, and most languages) for the metal nickel comes from medieval miners who mistook nickel ore for copper ore. When they were unable to smelt it, they told the story that the spirit Nick had enchanted the copper, and named it Kupfernickel (Nick's copper).

It's kind of weird that one of our important modern elements is named after a figure from German folklore.

dmself,
@dmself@mstdn.social avatar

@juergen_hubert
I'm not a real expert in folklore, but I think it's generally agreed that "Old Nick" comes from the Old English word "nicor" which referred to some kind of water demon. "Nicor" is of uncertain etymology, but may come from German "nix" a water spirit, or Mid Dutch "necker/nikker", meaning demon.

Also possibly from the Norse "nykr", another water spirit (aka nixie) which emerged from lakes as a gray horse-like thing with messed up hooves, and the final joint of the leg reversed.

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