@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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stux, to random
@stux@mstdn.social avatar

As creepy as it looks it's fascinating how it's way too curious it cannot contain itself

A fish with human like eyes watching a hooman smash a shell for it

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

@stux

is this a fish with a face of a grumpy banker?

Grouch-man fish?

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Both Democrats and the left are so shell shocked by all of the Republican nonsense I think everyone is just going to vote for Biden or whoever without any hand-wringing at all. That's already how Biden's first election went down-- but, somehow its gotten worse.

Nevermind that Biden isn't that well-liked. He's fine. He's not actively trying to get my friends murdered and ban Black History from schools the bar is so damn loooooow.

futurebird,
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I think it's a little confusing to Republicans since the energy isn't enthusiastic and "yay! go my guy!" but rather very grim, organized, and serious.

My mom has been doing nothing but register new voters all over PA for 6 YEARS now. She has no real love for Biden, nor do I.

NanoRaptor, to random
@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    @NanoRaptor

    art/life

    https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805316248021.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.64.17631802EKIn7W&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Bad Trend:

    To cut down on server loads and possibly to prevent bots from trawling sites increasingly I encounter hobbled search engines. Shapeways has broken their search. I buy a lot of 3D models of math objects, I know shapeways has these models but sometimes a search like “4D cube” or “6 cell” gives you nothing but the rather insulting suggestion shown. “klein bottle” ignores “klien” and just shows… bottles (I’m not asking for help, pointing out a failure) This sucks.

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    @FeralRobots I noticed this when I ran a website that was just a blog. Every few months my server fees would go up— but not from unique visitors— just bots loading every page and image and not posting comments of enjoying my art or talking about my math puzzles. I hated it!

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    @FeralRobots Many websites struggle with tons of requests— often from bots trawling for data— it’s a real problem and getting worse with all these LMM and AI art programs wanting datasets. I have sympathy for their annoyance at paying to basically give up free data often to have it copied without attribution in the form of content farms. Yet at the same time: let me search for real dammit I buy your stuff you idiots

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I have to say “I’m not looking for help” because when i describe usability problems too often what I get are work-arounds — but that isn’t the point.

    I think some businesses/type person points out facts like “80% of our searches that end in sales use one of these key words: iphone, bottle, etc.” so it seems like it would be helpful to just show everyone what works for most people. But particularly with a place like shapeways that isn’t what makes your service valuable.

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    If what worked for 80% of people could work for me I’d just go on Amazon. Or heck — go to a local store. The ability to serve the needs of the “long tail” is the main new benefit and innovation of online services and these companies are using marketing group think to destroy what made them unique.

    Listen, if it’s about bots using up all your server power you can say “to access full search please log in” — (Anyways one more reason to keep working on my personal homegrown search engine. )

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    @nirak which general engine is good?

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    "Most dangerous ant spice's[sic]" via youTube:

    1. Harvester ant
    2. Redwood ant
    3. Odorous house ant
    4. Leafcutter ant
    5. Argentine ant
    6. Carpenter ant
    7. African ant
    8. Red fire ant
    9. Bulldog ant
    10. Bullet ant

    List is hot mess.

    On what planet are the little dofuses known as Odorous house ants dangerous?

    I've decided making up something called an African ant then using a photo of a trapjaw probably racist somehow.

    Carpenter ant??? That's like half of all ants!

    6. Argentine ant While it is true that Argentine ants are invasive in some regions, they are harmless to human. Ironically, they cause the most harm to other ants. And speaking of "other ants" this photo is not an Argentine ant. It is the correct color... but everything else is wrong. This is a Carpenter ant species (Camponotus)
    That's not a fire ant that's a harvester ant!
    "4. African ant" What the heck is an "African ant" I mean... if we wanted the most famous "dangerous" ants in Africa those would be the Driver ants... but this isn't even one of those. This is Odontomachus, the "trap jaw ant" Trap jaw ants aren't even that widespread in Africa Africa has two species (Odontomachus assiniensis and Odontomachus troglodytes this is nothing like either one!) and they aren't dangerous at all. (Unless you are a springtail or tiny grub. )

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    @Mabande Totally. Thing is I think they were thinking of “African driver ants” which are an important enough group of species to go by such a common name and also… actually “dangerous” if you refuse to listen to the local wisdom on how to deal with them.

    (Driver ants are like the tide, the ocean, you do not stop them, move out of their way and allow them to do their important work. They will rid your home of all vermin and insect pests then move on.)

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    The ants on the Planet of the Ants are similar to earth ants, but this is convergent evolution at an extreme- distant paths to a similar pattern rather than familial relation. The exoskeletons of the ants are much stronger than the chitin of earth insects, due to a mutation that unleashed huge insects on their planet long ago-- resulting in a very different evolutionary history. Would love to have some sources about just how chemistry/structure of chitin might be altered to make this possible--

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Ants are perfect and this is why ant-like creatures have been found on nearly every planet with an ecosystem and a little scrap of land.

    The ants are very smug about this fact. Nothing human shaped ever shows up with such frequency.

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    This book on Automata is pretty good but this little interjection made my eyes roll. He’s a college teacher but obviously clueless about the US education system. I bet he also thinks that “standards have gone down”

    YES “bring back proofs based grade 9 geometry” —but the forces behind this change are a greater population but not funding education for the working class as well as the rich. Only some get real geometry.

    Also, I have never in my life heard anyone claim this was about “feelings”

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    It has never been the case, in the US that EVERYONE learned logical reasoning. We have only started to try in the past 30 years and some forces really don’t want it to happen (or to pay for it. )

    The population is more educated than ever.

    My grandma had a 6th grade education. Some think that’s where I should have stopped too. (regardless if I have a paper that says HS diploma or not.)

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    @laurentoget see image description

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I have encountered far too many old people who lament that “kids these days don’t know logic or proofs” what this really seems to mean are one of two things:

    *they have interacted with people who didn’t benefit from the liberal arts education that is standard for the upper class for the first time (possibly as their students) and are shocked not everyone got what they did

    *they don’t agree with young people on many things and thus find them “illogical”

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    @FrankFrank when you start complaining about young people

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Is that pro-bollard account still on twitter only? I want them to come here!!

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Questions about the story I can’t answer yet:

    Why are native ants found on earth but no humans live on the planet of the ants? (the ants think it’s because ants are perfect, our planet is just more primitive…)

    Did giant humans live on the planet of the ants long ago and die out like the dinosaurs? Are there huge human bones in the ant natural history museums?

    How do the ants feel about earth ants? Is it how we would feel about a wide eyed simple minded tiny arboreal stem primate?

    Thoughts?

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Man when I watch ant videos like this one moving to Australia almost seems worth it. Love Myrmecia. Just such lively expressive ants. Here is the story of a single mom providing for and raising her little family.

    She is a bright eyed and angry lady and make smaller but also angry looking daughters.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O02adr0BTE

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    @JonKramer

    Sadly no, in the narration he explains that the one who didn't make a pupae didn't make it.

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I've encountered stories with various insect people-- but often enough nothing much is done with the ants that is very exciting. They are either very marshal and rigid, possibly evil, or maybe... psychic?

    I think think the key to getting your ant people right is to have a bunch of different colonies and species of ant. You have then a whole collection of factions and types and conflict to balence the collaboration.

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    So I found out how the cone ants have been escaping. I need some kind of hermetically sealed ant Alcatraz for these girls. #antvideos #nosound

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR9EG-rAODg

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    weird conservative pundits: "I don't know maybe it's time to move on from Trump, to find someone with more broad appeal and less extreme...

    ... Like Ron De Santis!"

    ?confused?

    futurebird, to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I used to nod along when people would say “People need to be more educated for our technological world.” but I was only latching on to that first part “yes! yes! more education! more for everyone!” At this moment I’m questioning that second part: why would more education NOT have been objectively better in the past? What is this framing where people have to be “educated up to meet the needs of technology (but not beyond!)” Shouldn’t education produce advanced technology … faster?

    futurebird,
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    The statement about “more education for a more technologically sophisticated world” is a subtle kind of “education as workforce training” framing and I’m much more about “education as world shapers training”

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