futurebird

futurebird, 10 hours ago (edited 40 minutes ago) to random

I don't know, pick one:

A. You have an excellent education, the means to answer questions: building a consistent understanding of the world. You are hard to trick. That said, you live in a society where the powerful can't be criticized. Many things you know cannot be said.

B. You freely and loudly express your ideas. But, you have very little education, formal or otherwise. You have been tricked before & know you could be again. You just don't have the best tools to prevent this.

futurebird, 11 hours ago to random

The decisions and policy that have the most profound impacts on the greatest number of human lives often aren't the ones talked about most often in political discourse.

What is the biggest difference between life in this era and say... European feudalism?

I would argue it's near universal literacy. And along with simply having access to the written word, the highest percentage of a population armed with some scraps of what you might call a "liberal arts education"

The ability to self-teach.

futurebird, 4 hours ago to random

“We see you haven’t voted yet. Your voting record is public,” a recent mailer to Texas Republicans says. “Your neighbors are watching and will know if you miss this critical runoff election. We will notify President Trump if you don’t vote. You can’t afford to have that on your record.”

The thing about a "strong" "leader"? Eventually you'll be the one targeted when things get desperate enough. No matter how much you think you are the kind of person who wouldn't be.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-supporters-are-now-sending-threatening-letters-to-get-people-to-vote-for-him/ar-BB1mV1XP

futurebird, 12 hours ago to random

Are you living in your home or apartment, living your own life...

OR

...do you run a bed and breakfast for your cat?

futurebird, 8 hours ago to random

Just two amazing women hanging out. Absolute legends. Have to love it.

(Impulse Ants is one of the strangest antkeepers online. They have a bewildering collection of exotic queens. Dozens of videos comparing the size. At first I thought they were fight videos & was very angry. But Impulse claims they are just helpful for learning morphology. I wish they'd use a better camera if they are going to stress the girls out like this. These two seem delightfully indifferent.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4ticy2U6g0

futurebird, 23 hours ago to random

At the Role-Playing Games club today, a fun debate. The whole campaign is on this ice-locked ship in the arctic: the DM introduced the possibility of sirens.

One player declares their character is ace and therefore immune to romantic seduction.

Not so, says DM these sirens call out with "whatever you desire most" ... another player wonders if, since their character is monk seeking enlightenment and the death of all worldly desires are they immune?

Apparently the sirens do enlightenment too.

futurebird, 13 hours ago to random

Increasing the Social Security cap is not "communism" and never will be "communism."

futurebird, 1 day ago to random

This passage from “The Algebraicist” by Ian M. Banks makes me think of many of the people around that former president…

futurebird, 1 day ago (edited 1 day ago) to random

It’s such a privilege to share my home with living breathing royalty. I check on her in the morning since she’s least likely to be disturbed. They are nocturnal and she’s been up all night laying eggs and being fussed over by her daughters. At this time of day she’s sleeping deeply enough that she won’t stir if I remove the light cover. Sleeping Beauty!

I never settled on a name for her. She’s just “the queen” —

futurebird, 1 day ago to random

I know N. flavipes is invasive but they are still very pretty ants. This is what we get for importing so many plants. The garden trade is almost wholly responsible for nearly all of the invasive ants! Stop planting non native plants!

futurebird, 1 day ago to random

Say good morning to a lucky squad of Nylanderia flavipes. They attacked this Archips sp. oak leaf worm as it was feeding. The worm tried to escape by jumping from the tree but the little army was too numerous and relentless. Urban ants tend to be a little protein starved. Our built environments are crusted with sugar— but thin on arthropods to snack on.

(sometimes I think about what would happen to the NYC roach population without the pressure of ants— then I shudder) Ants are omnivorous.

futurebird, 1 day ago to random

Damn I got this seersucker mostly for the camp value— but it turns out it really does make me feel less hot and miserable on a humid day! Saratoga here I come!

futurebird, 2 days ago to random

In the Algebraicist by Ian M. Banks some aliens come to earth in early human history and take a bunch of humans and human DNA and set them up all over the galaxy— get them up to speed on tech and those humans and the aliens just leave Earth alone to develop “naturally” — so when humans on earth eventually explore the galaxy some of the aliens they meet are just other humans. (this is just a minor plot point if you can imagine)

So if this happened are you mad? Or no?

futurebird, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago) to random

You can sniff at block-based programming if you like, but I do find that students who used such languages in middle school have an easier time adapting to object oriented and nonlinear programming later — the downside is that nonlinearity is nearly always an illusion in computer science. And under those floating islands of functions and classes there is an absolute order —

I’ll work with some middle school students next year and so I’m learning about all this scratch nonsense.

futurebird, 2 days ago to random

There is an ant colony that lives in the cracks of the asphalt in 2nd ave. In the center of the street. I don’t know if I should call them absolute legends or idiots. They use the cracks as highways like sidewalks ants. It’s a big colony although I can never get a good look at them without getting hocked at.

Perhaps I am the legendary idiot in this story.

futurebird, 2 days ago to random

Here is a really interesting documentary about ants... including information about "cardboard ants" who build paper nests rather like wasps.

I've read about these ants but seen very little of images or videos.

It's in French, but will show English subtitles if you get the settings right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nQJVZZ-BEo

futurebird, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago) to random

Wow... Repulicans think FBI agents and cops shouldn't be armed. I mean that's the only way they wouldn't be moaning and crying about the FBI showing up being an "assassination attempt on Trump" ... if agents were simply not armed.

You know?

I agree. Why not.

futurebird, 3 days ago (edited 2 days ago) to random

Best movement of “The Planets” by Holst?

futurebird, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago) to random

Overheard on the bus:

1: “… a big sexy fireman.”
2: “oh no girl”
2: “… even has one of them spotty dogs. Takes it jogging.”
3: “Dalmation! Dalmation!”
1: “Yeah!”
2: “You shure he’s a real fireman?”
1: “He’s got the dalmation!”
3:”he got 101 bitches!”
1: 😡
2: 🤭

😆

futurebird, 3 days ago (edited 23 hours ago) to random

Is it "unjust" and "mean" to not let Pica lick (but not even eat) my mozzarella sicks?

Facts:

1. She has done this before
2. She won't even eat them, just mouth them.
3. She has a strong opinion about doing this.

futurebird, 4 days ago to random

Official campaign video says "unified reich" to describe Trump victory.

Campaign blames the intern.

I guess we should be happy they aren't just doubling down and saying "what's wrong with unity" or whatever.

The Intern.

That doesn't explain anything!
Why do you have lil nazi interns? (we know why)

futurebird, 4 days ago to random

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, 4 days ago to random

I have a bit of a problem with buying too many blank journals & notebooks. And as my taste has grown more fancy (I'm a paper snob for the ages) I've realized that I will never write in any of the notebooks on several shelves at home. But they are very nice blank books.

I could have maybe sold them as a lot on ebay for like $50 ... but that's annoying.

I took them to work and put up a little sign on the book cart in the hall "Free blank notebooks. Take one!"

They are all gone! I'm so happy!

futurebird, 3 days ago to random

"The law is both powerful and fragile. No matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law."

Letitia James

Just caught up with the "how much money you think you may have" part of this quote.

Ouch. Delayed burn!

futurebird, 4 days ago to random

A big part of programming is boring details, language idiosyncrasies. For example, I wanted a java program to tell me the coordinates of the last mouse click. In Swing presents more options than I want— it’s too much control. So I have StdDraw to make the graphics & UI options less complicated: even then it wouldn’t work until I added pauses— This took like an hour.

How do I teach this miserable skill whatever it is?
You know it can be done, you keep isolating & eliminating until it works.