@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.

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

alexwild, to random
@alexwild@mastodon.online avatar

I am firmly of the opinion that the U.S. Constitution is hot garbage that causes considerable harm to the people who live here, and it should be replaced.

futurebird, to Cats
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I understand Pica’s form is not conducive to her pronouncing human words— and so I’ve tried my best to glean some meaning from the collection of chirps, peeps, screams & mews that pass for her natural tongue. But for all my attentiveness & patience— I can make no sense nor decern any pattern or reason in the cacophony— yet, she will persist at her efforts to hold— conversation sometimes lengthy ones with whoever will engage. Murrping and mewing as if answering and asking questions.

sbourne,
@sbourne@mastodon.social avatar

@futurebird I had a dream last night that one of my cats, Hilo, managed to teach me the word for one of her "toys" (it was a green wooden 12 inch ruler, which doesn't exist in real life). It was "The!", translated into human English.

YakyuNightOwl,
@YakyuNightOwl@mastodon.world avatar

@futurebird Lived with a cat years ago that developed a limited spoken vocabulary, but used it in context, so we went with the flow.

He could say "Pam" for his favorite human. The rest of us were "Mom." "More" could be about food. "More" could also be for skritches. He used "no" and we all heard a lot of "Noo Pam" during baths.

Hagukh, to Lichen
@Hagukh@mas.to avatar

A small place with mosses and lichens where there is a lot to discover.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

So.

None of you thought it might be important to tell me that ferns have sperm that swim??? I just had to find all this out on my own?

And, (apparently, & no one thought to bring this up either🙄) fern plants are only one form... they have this 'other form' (tiny, ephemeral, difficult to find in the wild) alternates generations-- Fern spores don't grow into ferns! (WHAT) they grow into 'gemetophytes' (WHAT) THEN you get a fern.

Feel like I've uncovered a massive scandal.

abetterjulie,
@abetterjulie@wandering.shop avatar

@futurebird @Twarda very much this. If you were in earth sciences in my school, you were "dumb." It was toxic and wrong, and the adults perpetuated that culture. It makes mad.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@abetterjulie @Twarda The more I think about it the more preposterous it seems— but then these pronouncements become self-fulfilling: academically serious students avoid biology and ‘earth science’ — students with less confidence gravitate towards it- the teachers then end up adjusting the depth of the material to to meet the students— so the so call “easy” science classes end up both easy and more boring. This happens in math as well and I’ve been striving to fight it.

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

Aenictogiton are ants with many colonies ... somewhere ... Central Africa. We know these ants exist because the conspicuous flying males have been collected many times. (Even by our own expert nature photographer @alexwild who took rare photos of living males! )

Based on the morphology of these males they are probably army ants, so they don't make a stationary nest and stay on the move. But, no one knows what the workers or queens look like.

An enduring Ant Mystery!

https://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Aenictogiton

yurnidiot, to random
@yurnidiot@mstdn.social avatar

i don't like how these ones taste

cat sitting on the shelf in a shop pushing off cans of cat food onto the floor

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

This is really about eco-systems but at first I thought it was a food pyramid according to

(she isn't allowed outside so it's mostly just bugs and kibble)

CliftonR,
@CliftonR@wandering.shop avatar

@funkula @futurebird

This is a terribly incomplete food pyramid, it does not include orange foam earplugs, which are an essential nutrient for cats.

  • my cat Maxwell, probably

I put toddler-proof latches on my nightstand drawers, but he still pulls the top drawer open a crack and fishes around in there, occasionally succeeding in finding one that I didn't put far enough out of his reach.

grumpybozo, to Futurology
@grumpybozo@toad.social avatar

It never ceases to annoy me that the people who fear from essentially fear that some very smart will subliminally persuade its creators and controllers to do things that enable it to escape their control and/or gain control over ‘real world' levers of power.

Meanwhile they dismiss the whole idea of current having what mimics subtle agendas, grounded in how they have been trained, reinforcing established modes of thought TODAY in harmful ways.

This seems disconnected. 🧵

punkpaleo, to random
@punkpaleo@sauropods.win avatar

Made some chocolate chip ammonites for this !

A close-up image of a chocolate chip cookie with an ammonite impression sitting on a white plate. On either side of it are two ammonite fossils, the left one brown and the right one brownish-yellow.

punkpaleo,
@punkpaleo@sauropods.win avatar

I also made a quick trilobite who surprisingly survived the baking process!

A chocolate chip cookie in the shape of a trilobite sits on a white plate, its two chocolate chip eyes staring up. The baking process has made the trilobite's midsection particularly fat.

janetlogan, to trans
@janetlogan@mas.to avatar

After a year of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, a lifeline for trans and nonbinary people faces cuts | PBS NewsHour

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/after-a-year-of-anti-lgbtq-legislation-a-lifeline-for-trans-and-nonbinary-people-faces-cuts

"The nation’s only mental health hotline designed specifically for — and almost entirely staffed by — transgender people will pause operations for the last two weeks of the year, and will decrease its hours of operation when it returns in 2024."

LadyDragonfly, to random

Other products by the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter people:

  • You Thought This Was Yogurt
  • Fuck Off It's Mayonnaise
  • It's Probably Corn
  • Surprise Motherfucker That Wasn't Hummus
  • No One Said This Was Ham
  • I Hope These Aren't Hornets
crossedwires, to trans
@crossedwires@mastodon.social avatar

We are raising money through Sunday for .

Trans Lifeline is a grassroots hotline and microgrants 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation offering direct emotional and financial support to people in crisis - for the trans community, by the trans community. Find out more on https://translifeline.org/

You can donate to our fundraiser at https://www.twitch.tv/charity/crossedwireslive

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

Futurebird's Five State Challenge!

Before Feb 1, 24 make "real contact" with 5 people you already know from 5 different US states "at risk of not voting" and have a conversation with them about registering and voting.

As you get it done post the states you've hit on this thread. This could mean looking up old HS friends, ex-coworkers, distant family.

"real contact" means one of the following: a face to face conversation, a phone/video call or an interactive email or text conversation. 1/

beholderess, to bookstodon
@beholderess@c.im avatar

Started reading I Love Russia: Reporting from a lost country by Elena Kostyuchenko. Being a queer anti-war Russian myself, this book is important to me, putting in words many hunches I’ve been feeling for years about history, loss, feeling of disorientation and subsequent resentment that led to the present moment. Note that the author is very much against the current administration and its course, and it cost her dearly

Annoyed to see how many people on Goodreads have rated the book 1 star either based on name alone without even reading it, or for it daring to speak with empathy about any Russian :(

@bookstodon

SleepyCat, to random
@SleepyCat@mk.absturztau.be avatar

naps

Swede1952, to ihatemymanager

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

"Tufted Titmice flit from branch to branch of the forest canopy looking for food, often in the company of other species including nuthatches, chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers. When they find large seeds, such as the sunflower seeds they take from bird feeders, titmice typically hold the seed with their feet and hammer it open with their beaks. In fall and winter they often hoard these shelled seeds in bark crevices. These acrobatic foragers often hang upside down or sideways as they investigate cones, undersides of branches, and leaf clusters. They sometimes come all the way to the ground to hop around after fallen seeds or insects. Titmice are very vocal birds and are also quick to respond to the sounds of agitation in other birds, coming close to investigate or joining a group of birds mobbing a predator." - allaboutbirds.org

CiaraNi, to random Danish
@CiaraNi@mastodon.green avatar

You know that wee ‘We’re in the library! The library is nice!’ nod and a smile that strangers exchange when they wander past each other in the library? That’s the atmosphere I feel every time I wander into Mastodon. Here’s a bouquet of flowers to say tak and thank you for making this space this nice.

dougfort, to random
@dougfort@mastodon.social avatar

Life!

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

It was always interesting to me growing up in the days before LaTeX how, although and computer science were clearly joined at the hip— it was only my math homework that was impossible to type. And not just due to missing symbols— there were whole missing models of expression. This has changed in many ways— but the person who can type calculus notes in real time remains rare. Probably, handwriting recognition will fill this need before fast and natural typing becomes common.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

For a time typesetting math was about presentation— increasingly math documents are a kind of encoding. To write the equation is to establish that relation with variables. I’m excited to see interactivity increasingly a part of our documents. This is a proof, but it’s also a demonstration— and you can mess with it!

Still the world of word processing, social media, and presentations lag behind— some of the most exciting new presentation software fails to do anything useful with equations at all!

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

A week ago I wrote about how the movement wasn't exactly new-- how it was linked to a longer history of police brutality and fighting back against that brutality.

One of the most difficult things to understand about racism in America is how few of the worst atrocities are recorded, well known, brought to justice.

A story my dad told me made this terribly clear. 🧵

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

In the 60s my dad joined the national guard. He wanted to get a degree in chemistry and not end up working in the steel mill like his dad. Both of these things worked out and he ended up working for the EPA (which he and all his work buddies called "air pollution" for some reason, talk about bad branding)

Anyway it's the 60s and this handsome fellow is on a base for some basic training.

They got evenings on weekends off and could go into town.

sylvia_ritter, to art
@sylvia_ritter@mastodon.social avatar

Speedpainting 28112021.
https://www.deviantart.com/sylviaritter/art/Speedpainting-28112021-899227957

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • InstantRegret
  • magazineikmin
  • ngwrru68w68
  • cubers
  • thenastyranch
  • Youngstown
  • rosin
  • slotface
  • cisconetworking
  • mdbf
  • ethstaker
  • JUstTest
  • Durango
  • khanakhh
  • GTA5RPClips
  • anitta
  • osvaldo12
  • everett
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • tacticalgear
  • provamag3
  • modclub
  • Leos
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •