llewelly

llewelly, 1 day ago to random

google 15 years ago: "We're using machine learning to fight the spam industry"

google today: "We're using machine learning to be the spam industry"

llewelly, 6 days ago to random

actually, neurotypicals only want to talk about the weather until you start talking about all the myriad ways weather is being altered by fossil-fuel driven global warming.

llewelly, 10 days ago to random

I remain convinced that extra-terrestrials have never visited Earth.

However, I admit the Nintendo 64 controller is difficult to explain.

llewelly, 13 days ago to poetry

3664
is headed 'round the bend
no knowing when
we'll see its like again
for a short time
it lit up the night
so wave to it goodbye
as it heads around the limb
of the Sun

#Sun
#SolarStorm
#3664
#aurora
#poetry

Solar synoptic map drawn by forecaster Lash, via NOAA: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-synoptic-map

llewelly, 14 days ago to random

I was trying to take a nap, but I was awakened by a nightmare: in my dream, early-branching tetrapodomorphs like Acanthostega and Ichthyostega with 7+ fingers were denounced as forgeries of so-called "AI" and erased from natural history.

Like nearly all dreams, it didn't make any sense when examined in the cold light of reality. At least, I hope not.

#fossilFriday

llewelly, 16 days ago to snails

a snail that lives with ants??

" Allopeas myrmekophilos was regularly found in colonies of the ponerine army ant Leptogenys distinguenda. The gastropods always remained inside the bivouacs of their hosts, where they were able to move around undisturbed by the ants. During emigrations A. myrmekophilos was always carried by workers in a manner identical to brood or prey items."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/PL00012646

unfortunately springer wants $40 for it!

#canHazPdf

#ants
#snails

llewelly, 28 days ago to random

today I learned:

some cicadas have symbiotic gut fungus (yes, fungi, not bacteria) that make amino acides for them. These fungi are related to the infamous "zombie" cordyceps fungi.

some cicadas in N. America have gone extinct in recent times, some without having their songs recorded

https://arthro-pod.blogspot.com/2024/04/arthro-pod-ep-157-cicadas-of-north.html

The podcast arthropod did an interview with Alie Kratzer, author of the upcoming book The Cicadas of North America

#cicada
#zombieFungus
#invertFest
#insects

llewelly, 1 month ago to random

the moray eel is a fierce predatory fish with a vicious reputation, and so it "makes sense" that it has those strange and terrfiying pharyngeal jaws.

Mola mola, on the other hand, has the reputation of being bizarre, and silly, swiming on its side to imitate a manta. And yet, it also has pharyngeal jaws.

#mola
#moray
#eel
#pharyngeal
#jaws

llewelly, 1 month ago to poetry

hello little cat
for you I've come back
there's no one
for which I'd do
the many things
I do for you

#poetry
#cats

llewelly, 1 month ago to random

easter fact:

if a rabbit leaves you a chocolate egg, it's not real chocolate.

llewelly, 1 month ago to random

an ant, Crematogaster nigriceps, lives in Acacia trees, and modifies the trees in ways detectable by lidar, and different from how other acacia tree dwelling ants do it, making ant colonies of this species much easier to find!
https://www.science.org/content/article/laser-mapping-spots-ant-colonies-dense-forest
@futurebird

(via https://mastodon.online/ )

llewelly, 1 month ago to random

"Sperm whales will also apparently use defensive defecation against annoying photographers."
https://boingboing.net/2024/03/28/sperm-whales-unleash-poop-tornado-to-fend-off-orcas.html

now that's news you need!

#orca
#whales

llewelly, 2 months ago to random

officially, Moby Dick is not the protagonist. Unofficially, you will either spend the entire novel rooting for Moby Dick, or you will give up in the first five pages.

llewelly, 2 months ago to random

1/3
one fine day many years ago, I was sitting in front of a spinning pottery wheel, trying to focus on making a mug, or maybe a vase. Around me, in the repurposed garage that served as a pottery studio, there were about 5 or 6 fellow students practicing wheel-thrown pottery. The garage door was open, and a mild breeze was blowing, just enough to help newly turned pieces dry a litte faster, but not too much faster.

llewelly, 2 months ago to random

I fall asleep to old podcast eps I've already heard in a semi-random list. This morning the one playing when I woke was about studying aphids by making them part of an electrical circuit: tiny wire is attached to the aphid, and the other end of the circuit is attached to the plant, so when the aphid feeds, electricity flows through the plant's fluids, the aphid, and on through a scope which shows a waveform, whose shape tells whether the aphid feeds on xylem or phloem. I thought of @futurebird .

llewelly, 2 months ago to random

every 2 or 3 weeks I need to trim all the eyebrow hairs that have grown long enough to curl back and stab me in the eye.

llewelly, 3 months ago to random

sure, if insects vanished, there would be a mass extinction, but on the other side of it, wasps and bees would be replaced by bats and birds, and ants would be replaced by social spiders.

hm, some how this seemed humorous before I posted it. Oh well.

llewelly, 3 months ago to Etymology

I've been reading that joke about etymology and entomology for at least 10 years, but I don't know anything about its history, and that bugs me in ways that I can't put into words.

#entomology
#etymology
#bug
#word

llewelly, 3 months ago to random

me: the existence of the photon implies the existence of the photoff

them: dark ...

llewelly, 3 months ago to Paranormal

it amazes me that nobody has written a song called "La Chupacabra" and set it to the tune of "La Cucaracha"

(I can't do it; I know I've tried.)

#chupacabra
#cryptid

llewelly, 4 months ago to shark

you've heard of slenderman?
now it's time for slenderShark!
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2024/5079-megalodon-body-form
"This factual evidence indicates that †O. megalodon had an elongated body relative to the body of the modern white shark. "

#shark
#slenderman
#megalodon
#megalodonTheSharkNotTheClam

llewelly, 4 months ago to random

who put the rant in tolerant?

llewelly, 4 months ago to random

@Himmapaan , Marc Vincent, and Niels Hazborg released a new episode of the wonderful podcast Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs:

https://chasmosaurs.com/2023/12/30/podcast-show-notes-episode-30-tetzoocon-on-ice/

it is all about tetzoocon, the convention run by @john and @TetZoo

#dinosaurs
#fossils
#tetrapods
#tetzoo

llewelly, 4 months ago to random

@futurebird , did you see this post about ISI , the invertebrate studies institute?
https://mastodon.online/

llewelly, 4 months ago to random

the existence of #dinosaurs implies the existence of dinosoothes, but somehow no one talks about them.