@futurebird@sauropods.win
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

futurebird

@futurebird@sauropods.win

pro-ant propaganda, building electronics, writing sci-fi teaching mathematics & CS. I live in NYC.

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futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

E-bikes are very cool and I'm glad they are getting popular.

However.

There is a big difference between a crash at 12mph and one at 20mph.

Your ebike can give you injuries normally only found in motorcycle accidents. And there isn't enough advice on what constitutes sufficient maintenance for ebikes.

If you don't get balding tires fixed on a regular bike you could fall off and bruise or break a leg.

At ebike speeds that same fall will shatter your leg in dozens of pieces.

BE CAREFUL

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Keep your tires and breaks in top condition.
The breaks on ebikes wear out very fast since they have to grip tires moving much faster and I don't think they have the ideal material selected for that task as of yet. Do not balk when you find out you need to get new pads every single year if you ride daily.

The same is true of the tires. They wear out fast, and can get smooth and dangerous.

Since you can ride an ebike at 20mph without being an athlete, it's just more dangerous.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@viq

Another issue is they are much heavier! Yes when I was a bike messenger I probably broke 20mph on the regular. I was also very fit and when I'd crash (which I did often) I'd just tumble around and grab the bike and get back up.

An ebike can weigh five times as much as a fixie. Even if you use pedal assist, you are still going very fast.

The bike is another object in the crash that can hurt you.

Of course if a car is involved forget it. But I'm talking about solo crashes.

Javier, to random
@Javier@ratherbemaking.games avatar

Saw some text online that made me want to turn it into signage. What good are graphic design skills if you can't have a little fun with them.😜

roberthurdman, to minimalism
@roberthurdman@mastodon.online avatar

I saw this on a bumper sticker today. I love it so much.

smolwaffle, to random
@smolwaffle@union.place avatar

Yes

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I’ve been putting off making this post because it’s not what I wanted to report and I’m disappointed. A few weeks back my Dorymyrmex bureni colony showed tantalizing signs of a miraculous recovery from the loss of their queen. I love this colony, I wanted it to be true— (Antdrew on formiculture.com tried to warn me not to be too optimistic: Just because female workers continued to emerge weeks after the queen died did not guarantee the new queen were fertile.) He was right.

1/

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

For the past two weeks all the new workers have been tiny males. It’s exciting to see & record the male form of this species: I will have a set of all casts in my pinning box… but these winged boys mean it is likely the end of the line for this colony. If only I could take them down to Florida so they could fly!

I’m going to update my old posts about the matter; see if I can find another queen, keeping these ants has been a wonderful adventure and they have and continue to teach me so much. 2/2

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

What is the best explanation you’ve heard for 1 not being a prime number? For me it’s “because it breaks everything in my programs since the loops won’t terminate” but that’s obtuse. “Because the God of math decrees it so!” is compelling, but shallow.

“it can only be divided by 1 distinct number” is contrived.

1 “feels” prime— it has the fewest factors. (Primeness being about NOT having factors) ruling it out for having too few? eh.

“it’s the zero of multiplication” is better… thoughts?

jvluso,
@jvluso@towns.gay avatar

@futurebird @weaselx86 this is how a lot of math terms are. The set theory definitions of integer addition and subtraction, which form the basis of arithmetic and higher math weren't formally defined until the 1920s, but the concepts of addition and subtraction were widely used and agreed on for thousands of years before that. The definition that gets formalized is the one that's the most useful in the most situations.

IngaLovinde,
@IngaLovinde@embracing.space avatar

@futurebird one more way to thing about it: imagine a half-line of points / vectors with non-negative integer coordinates. There is a zero, and there is a "smallest" (cannot be represented as sum of two others) vector, 1.
Now imagine a quarter-plane, there will be two "smallest" vectors besides zero. They're interesting because we can represent any other vector in our quarter-plane as a sum of these "smallest" vectors (and not just sum but an unique sum). Of course we're interested in smallest non-zero vectors, otherwise zero vector would be the only smallest one. What we're interested in are "generating" vectors, those that define a shape of that quarter-plane and its content, and zero vector doesn't define anything.
We can then do the same exercise with 1/8th of 3-dimensional space, etc.
Now extend this to the space with countably many dimensions (and vectors with finite number of non-zero coordinates). And define the mapping between this space and positive integers: vector with a_i coordinate at ith place is converted to the product of ith prime numbers to the a_ith degree. Then vector addition turns into integer multiplication, "smallest" vectors turn into their respective primes, and origin / zero vector is converted to 1.
1 is a prime in the same sense as zero is the smallest vectors, but this doesn't get is anywhere, we're interested in smallest non-zero vectors, those that generate everything else.

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

The bald eagle could have easily gone extinct. But we did all sorts of "woke" things protecting it legally, ran conservation and study programs, banned DDT (that was good for other reasons too) and in 2007 they were removed from the endangered species list.

Likewise pine forests could be dead from acid rain.

The ozone could have a huge hole.

We CAN take care of nature when we want to. And the successes have been worth it.

I feel like we forget this, you know?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@mister914 What could be more woke than saving a bird?

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@cshentrup Maybe using “woke” a term with a long history to mean “senseless” is a huge mistake.

That’s kind of my whole point here.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I really wish the people complaining about the use of "woke" to describe environmental law would pay a little more attention to who is using (misusing) that word now... and consider that "tree hugger" used to be something of a nasty mocking term for anyone who dared to suggest that maybe driving animals into extinction was... bad and wrong...

CStamp,
@CStamp@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird Today, the anti-woke folk would be spreading more DDT around. :(

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

And when I say animals. I mean ALL animals.

enog, to wildlife
@enog@masto.ai avatar

Baby Robins, almost ready to take off from our porch 🥳
Sorry, just one picture, and I won’t bother you anymore.
Last year, we had Mourning doves, this year, Robins 😊

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I know a bunch of you are going to like this post about a coin-op first ever SF public computer network.

https://www.tumblr.com/lessproblematical/750984563870810112?source=share

This machine speaks to me:

SETIEric,
@SETIEric@qoto.org avatar

@futurebird A blast from the past. When I moved to Berkeley in 1988 there was still a Community Memory terminal in the laundromat where I did my wash.

I found it interesting, although even at that time I had access to worldwide (although non-internet) email and remote login through work.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I don't know how my ancestors survived.

apex predator who could easily subdue and eat me in a tree

my brain: Kitty Cat! Little kitty cat! Let me hug it!

servelan,
@servelan@newsie.social avatar

@futurebird

dsalo, to random
@dsalo@digipres.club avatar

Johns Hopkins is doing a long-COVID survey and apparently is having trouble finding controls -- people who haven't had COVID. If this is you, consider giving them some clicks.

https://covid-long.com/

epicdemiologist,
@epicdemiologist@wandering.shop avatar

@futurebird @dsalo Also I wish they'd had an option for "I don't have a social life" (in terms of meeting up with friends etc.)

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@dsalo

This survey is kind of hard to take if your health has vastly improved since 2019. I wrote them a little note about it.

I've had four shots, but I credit that stimulus check with my health getting better since it allowed me to find a MUCH better job.

(though I guess if I had gotten COVID ever ... or had to deal with long COVID the check wouldn't have mattered so maybe the shots count too)

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@epicdemiologist @dsalo

They are going to be like "why are all the responses from mastodon/fediverse a bunch of weirdos?" LOL.

john, to art
@john@sauropods.win avatar

A random artwork from my gallery:

"Abelisaurus Portrait" — 2022

Abelisaurus was a meat-eater from the Late Cretaceous of South America.

https://johnconway.art/abelisaurus_portrait

18+ indigoparadox, to random
@indigoparadox@mastodon.social avatar

Mom found a little friend while she was folding her sheets. I managed to rescue it [pronoun tentative] into a jar and take some pictures, tho they're not the best. I've already released it onto the front lawn.

I assume it's an ant... maybe a new queen? It's about the size of a US quarter, which seems rather large. I'm not an expert. I'm a little curious... Paging @futurebird, maybe? 🥺

Sorry again for the lousy pictures... I didn't wanna hold it up on its journey for too long...

A large black wingless insect viewed from the bottom, partially obscured by the ridges of the jar it's in.

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

Have you thought much about, or engaged with "liminal space" content in the past 10 years? (Through a reddit group, tumblr, compilation videos etc.)

Regardless if you care about such content now, if you ever spent some time enjoying or being disquieted by such images and media... that's "engaging"

If you don't know what this is about you have not. If you know what it's about but just never paid it any mind? Same.

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@Willow_Crow @futurebird >40 and I engaged with it IRL before it was Internet phenomenon, spending a lot of time in abandoned buildings either used as squats or for raves (or both) and spent a lot of time wandering through such spaces especially in the afternoons after the party was finished and there were few people around (although the squatters were sometimes followed around by an entire gang of local cats, a mix of pets and strays (one tomcat was later rehomed by a fish supplier))

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Research means formulating a question. Sketching the kind of evidence you think would provide answers to the question and then dispassionately looking for that evidence and either answering the question or determining it can't yet be answered.

Falling into an internet rabbit hole and stimulating your sense of fear or wonder reading the strangest things you can find that creep you out isn't research. It's fun maybe, but it's not research.

Yes both involve searching and reading but ... come on.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@DrSuzanne

Part of conspiracy culture seems to be creating this pile of unsettling half-understood things. Ominous images. Creepy theories... but never asking any particular question or looking for an answer (or even looking to see if it could have an answer)

It's like when I read a bunch of SCP files and ghost stores and then I can't sleep because the shadow men will eat me.

Only this isn't a cheap thrill ... it destroys families. And yet they keep saying how much "research" they do!

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I hate what debates tend to be: soundbite mines where each side runs around claiming that they got in the best "dunk" and thus won.

It reminds me of when I as a teen and the ran the dozens in the school yard. "Yo mamma so fat the lobbyists say 'save some for me!'"

Can't even agree who won the last election. How can Trump ask to participate in a system he doesn't even recognize as legitimate?

Why debate Biden? You don't think he's president, right?

norgralin,
@norgralin@hachyderm.io avatar

@futurebird we’d all be better off of they were sent to individual rooms to write their answers. But it’s really just pageantry for future “internet owns”. So that’s what we’re getting.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@norgralin

The more I think about it I think I'd enjoy it more if we forgot the "civil" debate and they just played dozens.

At least that'd be funny.

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