myrmepropagandist

pro-ant propaganda, building electronics, writing sci-fi teaching mathematics & CS. I live in NYC.🎖️(<<Medal Awarded for the time when there were too many people.)
Proverbs 6:6

bug haters DNI

If you only use bluesky follow me here:
https://bsky.app/profile/

I am a single human person not an ant colony.

tumblr: https://futurebird.tumblr.com/
bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrmepropagandist.bsky.social
pronouns: she/her/lady/ma'am/That One/Mrs.
give me your stray bits and I'll spend it promoting ants $: 1DS6Qg8UgDws3kJ5qWa24agrVvP8j7iuUU

Public Key

npub1ppewzys45ygvxrmaxs9hwwrtt706u2pgcwrllex9dpqyt7wpnthqjaqv2g

NIP-05 Address

futurebird_at_sauropods.win@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqsuhpzg26zyxrpa7ngzmh8p44l8aw9q5v8pllunzkssz9l8qe4mspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsef6yur

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ppewzys45ygvxrmaxs9hwwrtt706u2pgcwrllex9dpqyt7wpnthqjaqv2g

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Last Notes

2026-09-09 23:40:32 UTC

How easy is it for you to vote?
(international poll)
If you can't vote or if there isn't voting for any government representation that you can participate in? Pick the last option.
If you are eligible to vote but there are obstacles pick the third option.

2026-09-04 10:16:17 UTC

Jean Baudrillard has written about economics but I think very few people can stomach what he's saying. Listening to some academic say that money is fake and meaningless (this isn't a good summary of what he's saying, but it is what a lot of what he is saying sounds like) is intolerable when rent is due. When you suffer the toothache that blinds you with pain ONLY because you cannot pay a dentist.
Money is as real as pain, starvation, housing, death.
But also? Completely fake and meaningless.

2026-08-19 12:51:06 UTC

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"AI Race" inspires FOMO and panic, fear of China! All kinds of nonsense. And it justifies this reckless build out of data centers that no one is really justifying or explaining.
These data centers will be the legacy of these decades of our civilization. It's the biggest thing we are investing in. They are our man on the moon, our interstate highway our pyramids.
Why should we build them?
What good are they?
Is it worth it?
Can we please just talk about this at all?

2026-08-19 12:44:15 UTC

Taylor Lorenz has a new video called "Meta is losing the AI race"
I have not decided if I'll watch it, but the title alone is a very bad sign.
It assumes that there *is* an "AI race" with some desirable destination that can be won or lost. To me this is industry propaganda at this point.
Could the content of the video subvert the expectations of the title? If so tell me.
I said, months ago that Taylor, like Hank Green, was being used to spread hype.
https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/116885086560257189
#note1nlm…gr3n

2026-08-07 13:36:04 UTC

Here me out.
Let's have a few new manhole cover designs taken from nature to honor this wonderful spider.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/98834-Cyclocosmia-torreya

2026-08-03 11:57:41 UTC

It's Uber for nursing.
Nurses will bid against their coworkers for shifts, the one willing to work for the lowest wages "wins"
Well. I think someone else is winning.
https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/uber-for-nursing

2026-08-02 12:45:10 UTC

Patreon has gotten worse. It's trying to be a platform and it's really annoying to manage the "memberships" you have, super clunky and slow.
I don't know what they did to the site. I just wanted to cancel one membership and increase a few others, but it's taking forever.
They also seem to want more information about who I am "enter your real legal name" type stuff.
The utility of this stop gap may be running out.

2026-08-02 10:46:56 UTC

A video platfom.
* You pay a fee to host videos for one year.
* Your video will be served to 1000 people for free and you can embed it wherever
* You can pay a flat fee to see the more popular videos on the platform.
* The platform has a built-in patreon -like system where people can support creators and keep their videos served to the public for free over 1000 views
This is some of the functionality that a peer-tube might need to really work IMO.

2026-07-31 10:36:08 UTC

I'm really glad that @npub1fdr…lvhs mentioned mastodon along with other social media in his interview with John Stewart (it was a very good interview and I think it will be very educational for a lot of nice liberal people) it was also funny and upbeat, because that's what Stewart does well.
We might need to educate a lot of people about alternative media, about tech issues like why showing your ID to just use the internet is a terrible idea and won't make kids safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dAIJRjb-Bw&t=2641s

2026-07-31 00:00:24 UTC

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"Listen you little twerp THAT is NOT 'some old show' ... "
"isn't it from the 1980s"
why did they have to say the word "nineteen" like that? :(

2026-07-30 23:58:07 UTC

"even my *grandma* enjoyed the live stream, she said it was like this old show she liked called mystery science theatre"
-4
-23
-9
-73
[me taking massive damage from how this makes me feel old]

2026-07-28 13:11:20 UTC

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It's not unreasonable to say that Stephen Miller thinks all of these people deserved to die and he is glad that they are dead.
I wonder if he would tell the truth if you asked him.

2026-07-28 12:37:33 UTC

Renee Nicole Good is dead forever. I watch you shrug and laugh with Stephen Miller, the man who, in the most charitable reading of all events, sees her death as an acceptable loss.
Emmanuel Clifford Damas died "of a tooth infection" they say. Emmanuel is dead forever. You sip your drink; watch Stephen Miller's bloodless lips moving, smiling.
Your teeth could rot in your head. Do you know that? The dress, the press pass are just a costumes for every human animal in this room.

2026-07-23 10:47:56 UTC

NYC is considering a law that would make delivery drivers full-time employees with more rights and benefits more often. Predictably Uber, Amazon and Instacart are howling and sobbing about this and claiming they will need to raise prices just to survive and this is the end for them they will DIE if you pass this law etc. etc.
They are so upset they hired a push-poll political consulting firm to find out just how much people in NYC hate them.
I hope it hurts. I hope it hurts a whole whole lot.

2026-07-22 14:51:32 UTC

I will hear a leftist say "if it had not been for tikTok ..." or "if it had not been for twitter ... " these huge social movements like Black Lives Matter would have never been possible. There would have been, they say, a media black out.
And they are correct. And yet, I still detect little sense of urgency or interest from the same people in educating and promoting social media that we can control like the fediverse.
The microphone can be unplugged the cameras cut off at any moment.

2026-07-11 12:22:00 UTC

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Yes it's annoying to answer the same question, and there are examples where it can be taken too far in the other direction... but in the expert communities I encounter they are more likely to unknowingly become hostile to new people. There is more going on in conversations than information exchange. I think this is one of the reasons some people turn to LLM chatbots. The chabot will never scold you for asking a question that's been asked before. Heck, the chatbot LOVES that. 🙄
2/

2026-07-11 00:25:30 UTC

But what *is* music? Do the dunes not sing? Were they not made by the hand of the creator to sing to us?
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/898/494/904/032/118/original/b7ce878bd162d8d6.png

2026-07-08 01:57:02 UTC

Victorians had their death photography. Photos taken after a person was dead, sometimes propped up to seem life-like.
We find this ghoulish today.
Will this be how we see chatbots of dead people in the future?
Worse, one of the reasons people stopped doing death photography was because as photos became more common people didn't die without at least leaving one or two photos...

2026-07-01 10:23:38 UTC

I know we've talked about this before but I'm just so disgusted with how useless most search engines are now. They all second guess me.
The most obscure or unusual word is ignored so it's very hard to search for the intersection of a popular thing and an obscure thing.
I have a theory that for many people search has never worked well for them since they just didn't use computers very much, or it was not explained well. Now those of us who found search effective get to see what it was like.

2026-06-29 20:11:33 UTC

The problem with being xenophobic when you are an American is you have essentially decided to give yourself an autoimmune disease.
Those are really nasty. Often deadly.
"America 250" was meant to be a bit like the Chicago World's Fair... but the US is feeling too racist right now, so... can we handle the implicit multiculturalism of a US fair?
No. No we can't.

2026-06-28 21:29:25 UTC

Since they were mowing the park all day I was nervous to find out if #antsFivePoints would be spared. Well the signs worked!
Since the hill is the only part of the park that still has tall grass it was full of birds feasting on all the bugs chased there— This is a great start. I will try to plant some good local flowers in fall.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/829/857/211/747/827/original/94b3b5b945f9dc6b.png

2026-06-09 10:28:03 UTC

One of the most popular horror stories right now is "The Backrooms" the backrooms are an empty pocket dimension, a maze of human built environments, infinite dead empty space devoid of reason, nature, or diversity.
The backrooms are a datacenter.

2026-05-30 11:51:33 UTC

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How have so many people been trained to think like they are private equity managers who just want to cut every job, anything that makes middle class people exist?
And this comment had a bunch of likes ... none of the people getting mad about this really are private equity managers. They won't get rich. But the sight of people with "cushy" (livable, decent) jobs just makes them mad?
It's so depressing.

2026-05-30 11:47:55 UTC

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I'm struggling to even getting myself into the headspace where two people working a truck is upsetting to me.
Maybe this person works for UPS or some delivery company where drivers work alone and it is often *very dangerous*. (but just workable I guess? They still block traffic all the time) and they want everyone to suffer?
How do you look at a $7,000,000 patriot missile and get mad about more people being employed in the very honorable and *life-saving* work of collecting garbage?

2026-05-30 11:43:39 UTC

People are cheapskates with poor people but spendthrift with billionaires.
I just listened to someone complaining about how "the garbage union" has schemed so that there are always two people operating NYC garbage trucks to "waste my tax dollars" and I guess making too many wealthy sanitation workers... oh no the horror.
I like that there are two people on each truck. It's more efficient and safer. But, even if it was somehow a waste I promise you that's not who is wasting your money bud.

2026-05-22 10:22:27 UTC

If you can convince people that their vote won't be counted, that it won't matter, that voting might be scary with ICE agents at the polls, the Elon can just do magic hacking with space lasers and change the result anyway you can depress turnout.
This is all nonsense. Voting does do something and this simple fact is so inconvenient and frustrating that tons of money and energy is going to convince you otherwise.
1/

2026-05-16 20:12:56 UTC

Mourning Dove Life Priorities
1. Love
1.5. Food
2. Cuddles
3. Food
4. Feed Child
5. Food
6. Freaking out together
7. Cooing to assert DOMINANCE
7.5. Food
8. Cooing just because
9. Empty Mind
10. "REFILL FEEDER" stare
.
.
.
1046. Acting skills
1047. Nest Architecture

2026-05-16 11:56:53 UTC

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Massive lie.
I thought being in my 30s was going to be the best but 40s are even better.
I no longer care what irrelevant people think. I have not felt the fear and despaire that was all over my 20s... which were the WORST.
I assume in my 50s my body may start getting on my nerves a bit? But I love getting older. Never liked how I look more more than I do now.
Never liked how I spend my days more.
The only good thing about being 20 was running fast. That was nice.

2026-05-16 11:03:06 UTC

If you know a teen who is a senior in high school, and if they are a "high achieving" sort of kid please remember this can be a tough time of year and tough time of their life.
It can seem like the whole world hangs on the decisions they cannot control.
It can seem like doors are closing forever.
Everything.
Never.
Always.
Forever.
These words can dominate their thinking. I don't know how to tell them isn't true. We love that you want to win so badly, we love you when you lose.

2026-05-13 21:13:51 UTC

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"I usually am not an ant"
It's OK. No one is perfect.

2026-05-11 08:57:26 UTC

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I was going to say "no asbestos is useful" but thinking about that more I think you are correct, because so are LLMs in a very narrow setting, just like asbestos, but instead we have foolish business persons who want to put this stuff in everything.

2026-05-11 03:00:47 UTC

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I can't imagine "the internet" getting boo'd like that in 2001 Grads would have cheered along for "internet"
Or even like bitcoin in say 2010, lots of people were skeptical but would not have just boo'd
This is remarkably unpopular.

2026-05-10 12:54:16 UTC

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The ants that live in my tiny roof garden are very annoyed when I "rastle" their aphid herds with a lint roller. I think there are tiny wanted posters of me.
However, my vegetable garden is too tiny for aphids. And I give the ants candy and even the aphids once I kill them by freezing them.
I realize I probably am more involved with the ants and their ways than everyone might want to be but it's rewarding.

2026-05-10 12:39:09 UTC

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Ants can help improve soil, they are predators of some small pest insects. (but they may also farm aphids which is a mixed bag. Generally having both ants and aphids might be better than just having aphids since the ants will clip their wings so they can't spread and keep their honeydew from causing leaf rot by cleaning it up... however you might want to just remove the aphids with some tape so the ants find something else to do. They love "ranching")

2026-05-09 21:21:58 UTC

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I'm not really expert enough to answer this but most of the things that help native bees ALSO help native ants. And that's what would be better, if there were more ant diversity IMO.
So things like keeping leaf litter around, flat rocks on soil, avoiding massive mowed lawns.

2026-04-28 20:00:45 UTC

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I've thought of an experiment to test my theory that Lasius emarginatus uses sidewalk and wall cracks to navigate and this is why they are successful. I will stop and create a break in their pheromone trail along a crack and see if it trips them up. With other lasius ants if you clean a spot along their trail they will be confused for a bit until they can reconnect it.
I will compare this to what happens when doing the same thing with Lasius neoniger and see who can recover faster.

2026-04-09 00:11:28 UTC

RE: https://discuss.systems/@dev/116366160899745456
I have not been this mad since ya'll told me that NYC wasn't in New England.
😡
#note177c…qc9t

2026-03-29 12:14:44 UTC

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I bring up Paula Radcliffe because she was targeted despite HAVING KIDS and being very conventional looking as if that should matter.
The only thing she did wrong was train better and be a total badass who could lay down sub fives til the end of time. Amazing runner. She was just ... good.
And we know girls can't be good, right?

2026-03-24 21:44:28 UTC

Sora, the money pit, has been shut down.
Who could have predicted this???

2026-03-24 16:13:47 UTC

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This baby bird is too cute. I CAN'T STAND IT. it's too much.
You will get no sympathy. Give the baby everything you own.

2026-03-24 10:04:46 UTC

Ants are social creatures and so they are no strangers to social exploits.
Kidnapping!
Coups!
Slavery!
Hi-jacking!
Highway Robbery!
Protection Rackets!
Wars of Territory Conquest!
Wars of National Security!
Wars of resource extraction!
Wars of stealing your house!
You can find ants doing things that have the same shape of many human crimes. Is it projection to name what these ants do with our ideas of human crimes? Perhaps.

2026-03-23 09:19:42 UTC

New word just dropped:
"conspress"
To express concern.
"Despite his many conspressions you can't count on him."
"I must conspress my fear for your future."
"I will conspress him to our cause."
Just pretend it's real and use it and it'll become a word in five years.

2026-03-22 13:55:45 UTC

Cat Owners
Has your cat ever been any of the following when asking for food?
Check all that apply.
Pica is often a little condescending, or she really thinks we don't know how to get her food and need help. Because the fact that we have not fed her *must* be because we were too dim to understand what needed to be done..

2026-03-22 12:32:30 UTC

I've linked to the time code where the error happens.
It's possible to tell that the video is AI generated, but something about how it breaks down here is very disturbing. No one in the comments seemed to notice.
I was scrubbing around trying find out what article they asked the AI to summarize to make this.
Anyway here is the creepy moment.
https://youtu.be/8yTO9nQdN7w?list=TLPQMjIwMzIwMjYkZfxbXaBybw&t=1141

2026-03-22 11:51:13 UTC

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There is this cynical and currently popular idea that everything is "virtue signaling" and to some extent it's true. Part of why people do what is right even when it won't benefit them is about making a statement to themselves and others about what we value.
But, it's also ... not that hard, not even that remarkable to really want to be a good person even when you don't personally benefit. I'd even suggest it's normal.

2026-03-22 11:47:12 UTC

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Nothing irritates a bully more than when someone else demonstrates the courage or honor that they lack. They will have an immediate need to prove that any such acts were either a sign that the person was duped, or that the sacrifice was motivated by a desire for public acclaim, not any principles or moral values.
To confront true selflessness is terrifying for the bully. Nothing could be more alien. Nothing more clearly calls into question their own self worth.
No! It's virtue signaling!

2026-03-22 11:39:48 UTC

Bullies are often fundamentally cowardly: if their home, or their country is under attack they rank saving their own life and possessions first and above the group.
A bully will expect any group they target to crumble in a similar manner. The idea that their threats and attacks might cause people to find a common cause, that it might inspire bravery and unification is not something they can anticipate or imagine.
Because were it them? They would shove the child out of the lifeboat and run.

2026-03-22 11:22:16 UTC

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Also when schools gut their arts programs, when they get rid of things like shop class and PE it's really harmful. It's harmful even if all you care about is students learning "the basics" eg. how to read and write, how to understand numbers and a smattering of history. Young people can't understand those things as well when they simply have less experience in everything.

2026-03-22 11:14:35 UTC

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When I only work with students in a context where I'm giving a grade, and that grade is "high stakes" because colleges care about math grades the students are less likely to bring their full creative potential to the subject of math. Grad grubbing happens.
But when they know me from working on a project first, where the feedback is narrative, where they help set the goals they are just more open to really learning the material, just just "getting through it"

2026-03-22 11:12:16 UTC

I teach both middle school "technology" (think shop class mixed with Computer Science) and I later teach the same students in geometry and calculus in high school. This means when I first work with students there are no grades, just an opportunity to be creative and learn how to use tools and programming to make things.
This creates an amazing foundation for our work in academics later.
I wonder if it could be a model for improving math education we could expand?

2026-03-22 09:11:54 UTC

RE: https://mastodonapp.uk/@PoliticalCartoon/116271879521141158
Image Description: A stippled ink realistic drawing of a middle aged white man at a gas pump. His arms are flung in the air as he tosses the pump falling to his knees crying out "why?"
He has on a red MAGA hat.
The drawing is black and white and the hat is the only color.
#note12ce…ad6j

2026-03-22 00:42:48 UTC

Who is 4.5 years old, has 600 daughters and 500 eggs ready to go for spring?
This queen carpenter ant. I’ve known this bug longer than some people— and I like her better.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/270/043/128/239/482/original/8f4e4977650da76b.png

2026-03-21 21:00:59 UTC

When you talk about people you make them important. I want to think more about who I choose to make important.
Even if you are criticizing someone, burying their bad ideas with logic and all the knives of science you're still making them and their ideas important.
You can expect me to talk about Iain M. Banks more and the questions I have about his work.
It's why it's probably is a good idea to do a critical review of Newitz and their "Terraformers" which I also have questions about.

2026-03-21 09:37:00 UTC

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People just LIVE like this! All the time! You mom probably does!

2026-03-21 09:35:34 UTC

ugh. sponsor block missed an ad. And I listened to the WHOLE advertisement (for a mattress?) then *I* had to add the start and end times of the ad to the sponsor block list myself.
:(
poor me how i suffer some days.
(I'm being silly, this is the first ad I've experienced in a week and it really confused me since I forgot that ads exist. "why is the science show man telling me about a mattress? what is happening???" Advertising is madness, truly. )

2026-03-21 09:17:55 UTC

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I don't want to report a user to their home server. I want to report them to a list of 100 servers that I trust who would also quickly and quietly block them limiting their reach.
And I want to be able to decide who I trust with that information. The needlessly controversial #fediblock tag was created because we don't have a tool like this.
Using public hastags to do this is obviously inferior. But users adapt to system that can't be bother to adapt to their needs.

2026-03-21 09:16:42 UTC

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I have experienced a moderate amount of this nonsense, I don't think the fedi is worse than other online spaces but... shouldn't we strive to be better? Not just "good enough?"

2026-03-21 09:13:56 UTC

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I really wish there was a more sophisticated way to share moderation examples. Eg. individuals and servers could "trust" each other and then automatically share lists of reported domains and users *including* the offending posts and comments about context.
Right now the software offers to let your report a user to their home server and this is almost always a terrible idea since their whole server is probably terrible and it just makes more slur filled posts show up.

2026-03-21 08:54:18 UTC

The word "gubernatorial" as in "gubernatorial election" (election of a governor) cracks me up. Because I always hear it as "goobernatorial" as in the governor is a goober.

2026-03-21 08:47:28 UTC

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My grandma called them "Conniption Bugs" because when you see one you have a conniption fit as they are rather large and astonishing, but in the end harmless.
Seeing a dobsonfly is good luck because it means the fresh water streams and lakes are clean enough to support the hellgrammite who are the most cute and evil-looking larvae of any insect.

2026-03-21 08:44:58 UTC

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Dobsonflies are Megalopterans, large insects loved by fishermen because they attract all the best fish in fresh water. They have a bunch of goofy names:
Helgramite, Dam-worm, The Andy, Flying Crabs, Scrabbles, Molly-Grubs, Flying Worms, Stone Crab, Hell Devils, Conniption Bugs, Bogart, Ho Jack, Hiltamites, Snake Doctor, Alugmites, Water Grampus, Hell Divers and many more...
If you see one hanging around a porch light, turn it off. They only have a week to mate.

2026-03-20 09:34:55 UTC

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That old psudoscience story about a vast vanished ancient civilization that lived on early earth and left little evidence that they existed.
But they were ants. They live 200 million years ago and left for space and we find out about them when they return in their space habitats to check on the old home planet and see how things are going.

2026-03-20 09:32:59 UTC

Ants That (Probably) Do Not Exist
1. Cave Ants
2. Sea Ants
3. Time Ants
4. Space Ants
5. Cloud Ants
6. Ice Ants

2026-03-20 09:26:19 UTC

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Barnacles confused Darwin so much he cried. But that's OK. Nature is vast and confusing and if you never cry about it you probably aren't really trying to understand it very hard.

2026-03-18 18:24:08 UTC

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This is why phones are not real computers. You can't write a program and put it on your phone. Unless you make a server and make it a website. And now my husband will want me to make him a website for all his programs.
And I will make it since I need it for my horrible iphone.
I would love a linux phone, but I wonder if that will ever be workable. I have this goofy work app and I bet it won't run on that. And what about wireless payment?
Anyway this sucks.

2026-03-18 11:48:17 UTC

prepping for the Ant Show— the girls are NOT happy about being away from home.
It’s like a mini museum of ants in a box!
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/250/011/633/030/455/original/098b07c752153f13.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/250/011/814/186/679/original/c4444414d0df916b.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/250/011/972/274/039/original/42a9107b0cfc605f.png

2026-03-18 00:14:34 UTC

A woman made love to over 24 ghosts and now she will marry one of them.
...
...
...
she found her boo

2026-03-17 20:07:49 UTC

* Even proofs done “by induction” use deductive reasoning.
* Do not leave your proofs on the induction range THAT could cause a fire.

2026-03-16 12:05:19 UTC

render distance very low today
who used all the compute?
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/238/744/391/667/166/original/72d2c70667a735b3.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/238/744/588/380/929/original/d11e9f9b3f514716.png

2026-03-16 00:31:11 UTC

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OK now you are creeping me out.

2026-03-15 23:10:10 UTC

My husband and some of my students are sensitive to sound and recently there have been so many sirens in NYC. Just nonstop. It's not the police or fire ... it's these ambulances, some of them aren't official but they have highway level sirens and use them on residential streets.
Is there some kind of community org that works to stop noise position?
Sirens are designed to penetrate the sound insulation of cars on the highway. But we do not live on a highway. It's too loud.

2026-03-15 13:28:42 UTC

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If you have a job and you boss is named "Jane" but you decide you'd rather call her "Debbie" since you think she looks more like a Debbie than a "Jane" and you also decide you'd rather only speak to her by singing... well is it "against free speech" if she fires you for being annoying and not treating her with respect?

2026-03-15 11:09:45 UTC

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With an online conversation it's hard to know if someone who disagrees with you is being sincere or not.
"LGBTQ people and their allies want it to be illegal to express yourself"
There are always limits to expression. If I decide I don't want to call you by your name, but I feel that "Sealion" is a better name for you, I could get in trouble at work or at school for doing that after you object... because it's rude.

2026-03-14 22:48:15 UTC

She wants to be taken seriously —- but look at her toes.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/229/961/559/833/015/original/e03f0bd2d6c2334c.jpeg

2026-03-14 21:11:53 UTC

The human brain is 2 percent of body weight but the ANT BRAIN is 15 percent of total body-weight (in the smaller ants)
checkmate primates

2026-03-14 17:31:50 UTC

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They dig and maintain the nest.
They forage for food and lay trails.
They defend each other and the queen from threats.
They find and farm scale insects for nectar.
They stop and greet each other and check if anyone who wants to enter is from the colony.
So much complexity and you have one of the smallest ant brains. They do vary in size a lot, and ants have relatively large brains for their size as insects (bees do too)
But when you look at the smallest ants it's kind of shocking.

2026-03-14 17:16:18 UTC

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I've written program to make the legs of 3D models of ants walk in a realistic way. You control the legs in two groups of 3, the lower part of the limbs can self correct. Still I'm certain the program is too long to fit in their little heads. But, they are racing around protecting their mother like they are going to do something with mandibles thinner than one of my hairs.

2026-03-14 17:12:46 UTC

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They still have six legs, tiny mandibles and tiny ant intentions and projects they are working on with their mother.
What do they have in their legs? One muscle fiber per joint?
They are so complex and tiny it's breaking my brain a little.
I don't understand why people aren't freaked about about this more often.

2026-03-14 17:08:48 UTC

I have a new queen. Lasius brevicornis. The queen is about 9mm Her nanitics are so tiny I'm going to cry. They are 1.5mm and transparent yellow.
They are smaller than the antennae on my Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen. Nanitics are the first workers in a colony and they are often smaller than the workers produced later when the colony is better established. But this is out of control. They are just so small.
They would make a fruit fly look like an elephant.

2026-03-14 13:36:09 UTC

I'm going to start an interoperability religion. This is the only way.
DO NOT post that damn #xkcd comic don't you dare.

2026-03-14 12:29:42 UTC

Even ants get hacked. Ant opsec is tremendous, but there are beetles and other ants who find exploits all of the time.

2026-03-14 10:01:12 UTC

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In decades of knowing trans people in being in places that are more accepting of trans and LGBTQ people I've never once had someone say "how dare you misgender me" though if someone had I don't know if that would matter, it's just nothing like what people expect and fear.
No one is pole dancing. I do not live in a gay pride parade.
I'm a Christian, I go to church now and then. I'm inwardly kind of prudish and I don't even like being around people swearing much.

2026-03-14 09:55:28 UTC

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I sometimes want to just explain to the bigots, this could all be very normal if you'd stop huffing bigoted media and get to know someone who was trans. It's just like ... a hormone imbalance that can be treated. It's like being mad at people for having red hair. If only you knew how boring this could be, how normal. How easy to forget that they are trans.
And I could just forget, if it weren't for the bigotry and the threats to their safety.

2026-03-14 09:51:56 UTC

I know 8 trans people well and many more as acquaintances. The 8 people I know well range from being an old childhood friend, to coworkers, to students, to neighbors.
I'm mostly aware that they are trans at all due to the increase in anti-trans laws and blatant transphobia in the US. Were it not for that? I might not know or even care. I worry about them.
In each case the fact that they are trans is one of the less interesting things I know about them.

2026-03-13 21:56:47 UTC

You must pick one very minor talent:

2026-03-13 15:27:24 UTC

contrary to popular belief, there *is* crying in mathematics

2026-03-13 13:11:22 UTC

Ladies please do not let some woman with a media empire, conservative influencer career and/or government appointments and **no kids** tell you that *you* need to be married, have lots of kids and not bother your silly little head with college.
This has been happening multiple times.
Please don't fall for it.
Also ignore if she has a nanny.

2026-03-13 10:55:52 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@kumarvibe/116218018125876181
These are not "pills that turn you into an ant"
Queen ants often dig a hole when they leave to found a new colony. The queen will seal herself away in a little pocket with no entrance or exit until she can lay and raise several eggs. Then the small workers emerge and forage for her.
This is why a queen ant can be kept in a test tube with water and she will be very happy.
These little plastic bubbles are too small and there is no water. But the ants seem to be alive still. Very upsetting.
#note15xw…4f32

2026-03-12 16:31:02 UTC

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OMG
I suppose this would be obvious to some of you but I just realized this is why they think it’s so “easy” to cut a government budget.
They assume someone somewhere must be eating lobster and then cut that.
Poor Elon.

2026-03-12 11:13:01 UTC

Some of the Lesser US War Department Budget Items Included:
Lobster Tails $7,000,000
King Crab $2,000,000
After the meals, the table is always a mess with these kinds of foods. There is something more visceral about eating an animal that you need to tear apart with your hands. The warriors must feast and remind themselves they are warriors. And of course we should pay for this, after all these are the men who keep us all safe and they have so much to be proud of and celebrate in their work.

2026-03-12 09:29:44 UTC

I have a playlist of "classical mix" for studying and Different Trains came on.
I had to turn it off.
I've listened to Steve Reich's piece many dozens of times and contemplated the source of the sound samples. I've wondered if you can hear any difference in the whistles.
But a voice whispered in my ear. "It's not trains this time, is it?"
Sprawling warehouses. Is that a data center or is it a camp?
Either way, out of sight and out of mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different_Trains

2026-03-11 11:48:13 UTC

Why can't someone just tell me about one of these things before it happens so I could get in on the rug pull and make some money with the rest of ya'll just once?
It's not fair. They keep using tweets like this to make the market jump and wiggle and all of us have to just watch while they get rich off of insider information. Since no one ever gets in trouble for insider trading anymore I just feel like a sucker for being left out.
:(
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/210/374/734/835/336/original/af9cb32615b3a160.png

2026-03-10 23:53:01 UTC

Hi everyone. I need to get a rough sense of how many people are around #onhere (in this part of the fedi) who might be in the greater NYC region.

2026-03-10 00:54:33 UTC

In a few years my husband wants to go to China. We've been before to the big cities which are amazing but we'd like to go to one of the dozens of cities in China with millions of people most people in the west know very little about.
I'd like to go to see ancient invertebrates. Is there anything to do at the Qingjiang biota? There has to be a university or museum or something there.
My husband speaks Chinese ... poorly, like a 10 year old. Which I think is impressive tbh.

2026-03-09 20:07:26 UTC

Ant Fact of the Day:
"Ant Garnets" are tiny red gems found by ants. I know this sounds made up ... but it's real.
Harvester ants dig deep nests (up to 6m!) and they bring the soil to the surface grain by grain. Sometimes they find garnets, tiny precious red gemstones.
These are waste to the ants: they end up in the spoil heap around the nest. When it rains, the lighter stone washes away, the garnets from deep in the earth remain.
Those in the know can collect them from the surface.

2026-03-08 12:19:06 UTC

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My disgust for war, for the military, is not the result of being sheltered.
I hate your wars because I know exactly what they are and how when violence occurs it reverberates for generations.
Someone has lost a daughter and with her many of their reasons for living. What grim task will they devote themselves to?
What would you do, Pete, if they killed your family? Do you think you are the only person who loves their children?
I think you must.

2026-03-08 12:14:07 UTC

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The events feel unreal but the deaths are very real. This is not a video game. This is not a text adventure.

2026-03-08 12:11:54 UTC

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Right wing war hawk commentators are saying that hitting a civilian target, a school filled with little girls is "good strategy, actually" we, the soft-handed peace-nicks are simply not smart enough to understand the strategic power of this action.
But, if the Department of war won't say it remains unclear if this atrocity is based on incompetence or dim-witted malice.
update: We can infer that they "missed"
https://shakedown.social/@AAronL1968/116193541496761440

2026-03-08 12:08:19 UTC

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His speeches sound LLM generated because they are filled with so many cliches and empty sentences. And because they sound nothing like they way he speaks extemporaneousnessly. Of course this could just be a bad speech writer. Or it could be that when your ideas are bad no words can fix it.
The Department of War will not even say if they missed or not. Did they *want* to hit that school? If not the school then what?

2026-03-08 11:54:24 UTC

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@hacks4pancakes/116192434654015384
I have been watching this story simmer for several days. I've been wary of it. It fits too neatly into the criticisms and warnings many of us have been raising. But it's starting to look like, yes, they are using an LLM to make critical decisions.
At the same time I have heard parts of speeches from the US Secretary of War.* I have been dismayed by his shallow thinking. It doesn't help that his speeches also sound like they are also composed by an LLM.
*formerly Defense
#note1jxf…tacz