futurebird

futurebird, 15 hours ago to random

I have a soft spot for Libertarians even though I shouldn't and they don't deserve it. When I was a kid I had a weird neighbor who was always giving me Libertarian books... I wish I still had some of them they were WILD. He was a thorn in the side of the local, school board as well insisting that if they had an event at the school that involved politics Libertarians had to be included.

And in defense of the guy, he was about as likable and earnest as a Libertarian could be.

1/

futurebird, 4 hours ago to random

"It's not just a bug, it's a creature."

futurebird, 7 hours ago to random

This timelapse of a fungus kept by leafcutter ants is remarkable. Thousands of ants monitoring humidity, the nutrition needs of the fungus, removing unwanted growths, keeping their brood and harvesting food. Inside: the queen. Totally inclosed in a living home. The walls are food, a place for her eggs, they slowly renew, tended by her daughters.

As every living organism maintains itself, but on a strange macro-scale. These are your cells shedding and being replaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3AZffDtOlw

futurebird, 4 hours ago to random

There were once giant aquatic sloths, like seacows... but sloths. (Thalassocnus)

And they lived in fear of the toothy teethed whale dolphins (Acrophyseter) who are the scariest things I've ever seen.

Miocene is one giant uncanny valley. I don't know why it doesn't get more attention for the sheer creep out factor.

futurebird, 12 hours ago (edited 1 hour ago) to random

Who is the most morally compromised of our justices? If you think it is a tie you may vote for more than one.

If you think one or more of them has vastly outstripped the others in failing to live up to their office, limit your vote to the greatest failures.

futurebird, 8 hours ago to random

New ant video of the pavement ants I disturbed moving nest.

(With narration describing what the ants are doing.)

#antVideo
#ants #tetramorium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a4tlw5htWA

futurebird, 9 hours ago to random

"accuse them of what you do"

feels kinda creepy when you consider this whole "searching my house when I'm not home is trying to murder me"

... and what they tried to argue at the supreme court...

futurebird, 10 hours ago to random

My husband wanted me to plant the garden but I found a Tetramorium queen in one of the planters and had to move her colony to a pot where they won’t be disturbed this summer. When I reunited her with her workers she came to life and they all disappeared into the moss to start again. Sorry little queen!

A shiny black ant hides in moss.

futurebird, 13 hours ago to random

Carol Pasternak shared this great video of a Luna caterpillar (Actias luna) eclosing to their second or perhaps 3rd instar.

I would love to see iNaturalist incorporate the ability to upload videos and append them to creatures. Sometimes you need to see how an insect moves to really understand them. The serving and hosting could be an issue but it would be worth it. #caterpiller #moths #flutterby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYuq4kyrsNo

futurebird, 1 day 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, 1 day ago (edited 15 hours 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, 1 day 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, 1 day ago to random

Ant Insults
(inter-colony)

• Your queen's egg production is FALLING
• Six-Sister (implying the other ant comes from a tiny colony and only has six sisters)
• Termite
• Your majors can't follow a six thick trail.
• Doodle Bug Offering
• Ladybirder (implies aphid rustling)
• frass face

futurebird, 1 day 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, 1 day 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, 2 days 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, 1 day ago to random

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

futurebird, 2 days 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, 2 days ago (edited 2 days 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, 2 days 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, 2 days 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, 2 days 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, 3 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, 3 days ago (edited 3 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, 3 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.