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:
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I am a single human person not an ant colony.

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npub1cp2pgntkzkpqa23rytnchggwzywyggvst9yzkgd6w8j349ef7s9shuhrnq

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futurebird@sauropods-win.mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqsvq4q5f4mptqsw4g3j9eut5y8pz8zyyxg9jjptyxa8reg6ju5lgzcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dslvz46u

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Last Notes

2026-08-11 11:32:54 UTC

I now consider it rude to cite a scientific paper in an internet discussion or argument if you haven't read the whole paper. If you don't *know* it don't cite it. What is the point?
If you are just pointing to the paper because you read the abstract and think it's interesting you need to say that.
If you are pointing to a paper because you saw someone else make a similar point and then point to that same paper... you should instead use that person as your reference.
Not doing this is fake.

2026-08-09 11:41:20 UTC

For some reason the idiom "ten toes down" for "strong committed" is all over the place.
I keep hearing people saying "is she ten toes down for this?" or "I've always been ten toes down" for that... and I just hate it so much.
I just get this spongebob cut-scene horrific imagery every time I hear it.
But I guess it's better than "balls to the wall" whatever that's supposed to mean.
If you like these, it's not a big deal I just get squicked out because I aways imagine it very literally.

2026-08-07 10:50:28 UTC

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Do you tell a child "in fact most of the time it's OK to talk to a stranger, there is a small chance however..." no. You say "Never talk to strangers."
And sometimes public health communication treats the general public like children. Some people hate this. I get it.
That's my understanding of what justifies the anger. Fauci was disloyal to Trump and made Trump look stupid. Fauci didn't always convey nuance and details he didn't think the public could handle.
4/

2026-08-06 13:17:24 UTC

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The ant species is in Australia and to write a species description you'd need to collect the ants, or identify them in an existing public collection and write a paper making a case that would pass peer review that these ants don't fit in any existing species bin. I don't have the skills to do that yet, and I couldn't have done this without the field photos on iNaturalist and the help of other users there.
So I'll leave it to an Aussie to do the rest.
2/

2026-08-03 19:38:54 UTC

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Another idea that has been sticking with me comes from a more conservative friend. (Maybe my conservative friends aren't all that conservative... but play along)
He was talking about the 1950s and the dream of having a family and a house and how that was all gone. And I was pointing out that for most people it was never here.
"but that's when more people had it than do now, more people were middle class, you could start your life."
I think he has a point.
5/5

2026-08-03 19:36:10 UTC

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But I keep thinking about the company that wants to make nurses bid against each other driving their wages lower and lower just to have a shift.
It feels like a fire to me, in a shirtwaist factory.
At some point the creative innovations of the market sound like rolling back civilization rather than creating it.
4/

2026-08-03 19:32:31 UTC

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And "it's so bad right now" is kind of a red flag for me when reasoning about the world. When I find myself thinking "it's so bad right now" I pull the breaks on my thinking because every era of history has been a crisis if you can only ask the right person.
But at the same time I really do wonder if it has gotten ... worse. We could talk about wealth gaps, we could talk about corruption.
3/

2026-08-03 19:30:15 UTC

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But I kind of hate the words "capitalism" and "socialism" --I'm using them here in their American vernacular sense. Political scientists, historians and other nerds will find this very obnoxious. But the technical definitions don't help anyone to describe the world around them with precision.
Something a close friend said to me has been coming back to my mind over and over. She said "capitalism has gotten mean, it's just so bad right now"
2/

2026-08-03 19:26:33 UTC

American capitalism has always had no chill. No sense of reflection, no moral floor. But, that was supposed to be the point. A feature, not a bug.
Like a hurricane or a wildfire only the tallest and most healthy trees would survive. And this would make companies efficient, prices low, trade networks rational.
If you ask Democrats what they think about capitalism and socialism at this moment polls show that Democrats like BOTH. Capitalism has grown less popular, socialism has made gains.
1/

2026-08-03 14:55:57 UTC

Ants have little combs on their front legs and they use them to keep their antennae free of dust and debris.
When they clean their antennae they look like they are brushing their very long hair.
Here is a collection of photos I've tagged showing ants grooming.
Need to stay lovely:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=47336&verifiable=any&field:Behavior%20Observed=grooming

2026-08-03 13:07:34 UTC

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@nprofile…3rm0
I know NOTHING clearly.
But thinking about this it makes more sense.

2026-08-03 09:12:55 UTC

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@nprofile…7c3h
I'm asking because there is a kid in Iran who is depressed because they can't go outside and identify bug. (there are other things to be depressed about but I find this young person's choice of focus in an obvious crisis very relatable and I want to help them)
iNaturalist isn't that great for nations without a lot of English speakers. Low density of observations.
The kid speaks English really well, but I thought there might be more data on the region elsewhere.

2026-08-02 23:13:59 UTC

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one of them is gonna try to make one of these things like a virus-- thank god they are kind of huge and conspicuous.

2026-08-02 23:11:33 UTC

When they keep saying the OpenAI agents "escaped containment" does that mean that the agent was running on their server and used an illegal process to get information from another server?
Or does it mean that the agent put a new process on another server and that is what did the hack?
Because it kind of sounds like the later? That is, do these things do what computer viruses do?

2026-08-02 21:45:56 UTC

I didn't watch the whole interview. But, what I found most fascinating from the parts that I saw is that ... he's a true believer. He really just thinks he's right about all of this stuff and it is fatal and dangerous because he's wrong.
I do think he must know he's stretching the truth in some cases, but he thinks its for some ... better cause.
Is this just because he doesn't want to admit he was wrong?
If only it were just one person who would need to die on that hill.

2026-08-02 11:14:15 UTC

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I know how to make content that "pops off" and I seriously considered taking my ant videos in that direction. But I knew it would make me miserable. I knew I'd need to lean into things like scary thumbnails and sensational titles.
On my videos that did well I loved answering questions about ants in the comments. I loved how curious people were about these little creatures that are all around us. That made me so happy.
Right now there isn't a platform that's a good fit for what I want to do.

2026-08-02 11:09:21 UTC

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The mission of the video platform has to be about independence and FOSS but that's not enough. It also has to be about building an ad-free framework for viral (yes viral, popular) content.
What I think we have now are alternatives that work fine as long as you aren't popular. I think in the alt-net we have a kind of contempt for popular viral things, because so often the drive to make them is serving ads or being nefarious.
We really need to get over that.

2026-08-02 10:54:31 UTC

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As someone who has had videos (about ants) that mostly aren't popular (I don't really care) but sometimes my tikToks would get like 100k views (and I never made a penny off of this) I worry about putting my content on some nice little server because I just don't know when it will blow up.
If I do have a "hit" I want it to reach people. I gave up on tiktok and youtube because I'm not interested in working hard to try to get people to watch ads. Even if you pay me.

2026-08-02 10:50:59 UTC

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I want to imagine a system that is add free, but if you wanted to do ads, I think the least annoying way would be a free version of "popular videos" subscription where the embedding of ads would be very standardized.
The odious of ads could also be limited by only allowing ads from members of the system. But really this ought to be possible without ads.
Serving video isn't free. Any system needs to recognize this and build in payments sensibly.

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.

2026-08-02 00:08:32 UTC

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@nprofile…jhhq
My brother made me listen to this!
And I liked it!

2026-08-01 23:43:39 UTC

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Ok ok ok one more story pitch:
This one is a horror story. And it's about humanity meeting with another intelligence at last (rather than aliens I like to think that we just communicate with ants at long last, but it could be aliens)
But in this story we are telling them about the "Mirror test" and very smug about how some creatures can't pass it "You see? he thinks it's another dog!"
And they ants are just not getting it "it *is* another dog. Don't you know how mirrors really work?"
👻

2026-08-01 00:57:56 UTC

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@nprofile…t3mw
Probably don't delete it I think.
Let me show you what i mean:
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/117/017/532/225/799/220/original/34e268cc999aaa19.png

2026-07-31 23:03:09 UTC

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People can come fight me if they want but I don't think investing in companies is something every single person needs to do. I think public companies are an OK idea, but why does everyone need to have a stock portfolio?
Can we just pause and question this whole premise?
How much money is really needed to fund companies that *needs* to be raised from the public? Isn't there a limit?
And if stocks are speculative devices isn't that money not really being used effectively?
Isn't this ... bad?

2026-07-31 22:40:31 UTC

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When I was a kid I remember Proctor & Gamble having ads on TV. Not for their products just for ... their image.
Now the move is to have your CEO be the kind of fool who is always in the news and send him around on podcasts acting like he's on stimulants.
Yes, he's very strange, but you know... that's how genius works. That's why he makes the big bucks!
It's all so transparent. The fun needs to stop.

2026-07-31 21:29:30 UTC

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@nprofile…gg3l
Sometimes the names show signs that they were just getting tired.
Formica incerta?
Camponotus confusus?

2026-07-31 21:26:10 UTC

Circular breathing is an advanced technique most frequently used by wind instrumentalists to hold a continuous note.
Circular financing is kind of the same thing, but instead of playing the flute you are inflating a bubble.
The more you know!

2026-07-31 20:01:22 UTC

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@nprofile…49as
I once thought that all of these things had to be written down, well organized, somewhere. But instead I keep finding rabbit holes.
Today's mystery? Why does this chart say Camponotus planatus is from Cuba, but iNaturalist says it's introduced there?
https://antwiki.org/wiki/Camponotus_Species_by_Subgenus
I will add the "Cuban Polyrhachis" to my list of confusing things about the natural history of ants.

2026-07-31 11:00:36 UTC

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@nprofile…ugpy
At some point you need to ask: why do people on the fedi understand these issues better? It's selection bias. And it's a common thread that runs through these issues of privacy and digital autonomy.
It's also the ability to recognize that getting to design the software, getting to run the platform isn't work, it's power.
And obviously that power should be democratic. No one person should be able to control the network and bend it to their own ends. Obviously.

2026-07-31 10:36:08 UTC

I'm really glad that @nprofile…ugpy 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.
It could be very important.

2026-07-30 20:31:44 UTC

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@nprofile…ks48
I work with 18 year olds. Their problems wouldn't be solved by $5000. They can't pay for college, buy a house, find stable worthwhile jobs.
I'm not impressed.

2026-07-30 11:40:12 UTC

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Overheard conversation on the train:
"... you just tell it to make it sound less like AI. It can do that too."
"But you're never gonna learn. I want to learn."
The teens were discussing cheating on their schoolwork. One was reading the essay the other submitted from his phone. She didn't seem very impressed with his time saving idea.
Text editing, and generating filler seems to be the real place for this technology. It's how it's really being used by the public.

2026-07-30 11:34:49 UTC

Bill Oliver, a member of Canada's Progressive Conservative Party, delivered a speech in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick:
"Public confidence in the office of an advocate matters" he said then, without pausing, Oliver continued:
"Here's a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points..."
He then turns beat red and just keeps reading the AI generated text hoping that no one noticed.
Everyone noticed.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/117/008/702/117/750/346/original/1b72593a2e59aa34.png

2026-07-29 23:59:56 UTC

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@nprofile…nx9p
I've always said if someone could show me a robot that was as small as the largest ant (about 3cm long) with the agility of the clumsiest ant (so it need not be able to climb glass, just most vertical and irregular surfaces while carrying a load about about twice it's weight)
Then I would be very impressed and maybe give them like $1000 for some stock even.
Anyone?

2026-07-29 23:54:53 UTC

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The question was "How will your company make money?"
"lots of robots that are going to be shaping atoms"
SHAPING ATOMS
my... god

2026-07-29 23:53:59 UTC

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Should have listened to the CW, but you didn't listen, did you? You HAD to look in the box.

2026-07-29 12:31:43 UTC

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@nprofile…u5f7
Telling a story online can be magical under the right circumstances. And maybe that's because no one has figured out how to monetize it effectively yet.
I love it when I'm reading a story online and people interact and ask questions, and it feel like you are sitting around a fire at night.

2026-07-29 11:48:19 UTC

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I think some Democrats are just a bad, but there is also this old idea that if you can't get excited about war you are... scared. An unrealistic person who doesn't understand that there is violence in the world that sometimes must be answered with violence. I've seen Democrats waste their energy and time and look ridiculous trying so hard to prove that yes they too will put the state to the task of violence.
Those who violence don't buy it. Those who don't are disgusted.

2026-07-29 11:44:35 UTC

Masculinity, machismo which is the same word in Spanish, but I tend to think of machismo as "masculinity, but with a stylish mustache."
Is "enthusiasm for war" a masculine trait? Listening to Ben Shapiro, or the now late Lindsey Graham (and our president) talk about bombing people with glee, I don't find their lust for violence masculine, I struggle to see the threads of humanity in it.
It's peevish, spiteful, petty. None of these men can fight, someone else must do it for them.

2026-07-29 11:09:01 UTC

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But they weren't bad. That's not really my point. Reading the chapters and experiencing the story in a linear way also made sense. That's part of the joy of a book, it's an experience that takes time to process. When I see that an audiobook is 13 hours long I'm pretty excited to spend all of those hours in that world.
But storytelling can also be more dense. And that interests me. How much could you take away and still have the same story? What might be improved by doing this?
3/3

2026-07-29 11:05:37 UTC

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I recently had an experience where I read one of the best scifi books I've ever read in the past few years. It's the new "James S. A. Corey" series: The Mercy of Gods. In the first book I accidentally skipped about 60 pages. I thought the authors (James S. A. Corey is two people I think?) were deliberately pushing me forward into the future and asking the reader to fill in the horrific events of the past.
It worked really well. Which makes it seem like those chapters were "bad"
2/

2026-07-29 10:57:04 UTC

I think sometimes, writing fiction can fall into the same trap as writing code.
"I wrote 200 lines of code!"
No one cares. What does it do?
Especially in this era, where if you just want to lay down bland paragraphs, if you want to just generate "content" you can have an LLM do it.
Suddenly quality, intention, elegance matter much more.
Because only a person can tell another person a story.
1/

2026-07-28 23:16:33 UTC

Can someone give an example of a nematode doing something nice and good?

2026-07-28 20:56:45 UTC

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@nprofile…nx9p
OK I don't know what this is. Stephen A. Smith is a black sportscaster and self-important man.

2026-07-28 20:54:04 UTC

If you don't remember who he is or know what he said... don't worry about it. I just want to talk about it and give a take for those who saw it.
Stephen Smith thinks he's rich. He *is* rich... a little... but he thinks he's RICH (and he isn't RICH) he's being... asperationally conservative and it's kind of gross. It's also a little tricky since he's not going to go full Clarence Thomas and be racist. There may be a glimmer of sense in that old shriveled head.

2026-07-28 15:14:04 UTC

Has anyone investigated if leaf cutter ants carry their leaves so they can be in the shade and stay cool? (and so they can't get ID'd to species by curious naturalists)
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/998/249/557/826/386/original/f6e6dfd824a394f3.png

2026-07-23 19:15:15 UTC

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@nprofile…m6l9
I was thinking about how odd it is that there is a clothing store in the US and maybe a few other countries called "Banana Republic" a few days ago.
I never really questioned this. I kind of think I know what they mean, something old time-y, exclusive and exotic. But also? What the hell.
They don't sell military suits with self-awarded metals, or cute handbags filled with bribes and guns from the CIA... or maybe they do.
It is odd. What are they trying to tell me?

2026-07-23 16:38:27 UTC

What kind of name is "Hugging Face" ? Nobody is going to discuss that? It's just... fine?

2026-07-23 10:51:12 UTC

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Instacart: "But if you pass this law we will Surely Die!"
Me: "Would that be such a bad thing?"

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.

2026-07-23 04:06:34 UTC

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@nprofile…0fr7
This is what I'm asking.

2026-07-23 03:57:41 UTC

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It's nice to meet the carrot thief at last.
Why does nature always come and FIND me.

2026-07-23 03:57:02 UTC

I wake up to #PicaTheCat hissing and spitting at the door to our porch. We are 8 floors up and there is a raccoon looking in at Pica and she's MAD.
The raccoon didn't see me on the couch. But it wasn't that scared of Pica through the glass. It seemed curious about what might be in the apartment.
I stood up, and the raccoon ran, Pica was delighted and is still strutting around.
She's a good guard cat.

2026-07-23 01:23:47 UTC

... so ... I'm kind of scared to ask. But.
There is this idea of "data centers in space" and everyone is arguing about "can it be done?" but... can someone please tell me WHY you'd want to do this?
In my sci-fi story there is a data center in space and it up there because it's illegal and doing very bad things. But... that's not it, is it?

2026-07-22 15:27:45 UTC

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@nprofile…hnqz
I've been trying to establish a pollinator garden in my park. For months I've come to the park and picked up trash in this one little area, because that is what I could do.
One day I came and someone else was there picking up trash too. "I see you all the time! It makes our park nicer."
I could weep.
I have more than just two hands.

2026-07-22 15:25:49 UTC

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@nprofile…hnqz
There are problems with the idea of "the good leftist" and sometimes there are limitations on what people can do. I used amazon's "dot" when I couldn't walk. I hated using an amazon product, but it was already set up and I needed to turn the lights on and off and manage my crutches.
But I won't let the limitations of individual action paralyze me. I will do the things that I can and glory in the way my little actions are amplifies when others join in.
Social media is part of that.

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.

2026-07-22 11:35:21 UTC

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I know dozens and dozen of men who never really worry about if they are "manly enough" at all. Or they worry so little it's not top of their mind. They just know. It's possible to just know.

2026-07-21 22:29:09 UTC

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@nprofile…9af7
Yes they drink tree and grass root juice.

2026-07-21 22:21:25 UTC

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Solenopsis molesta are tiny ants who sometimes live in the nests of other ants making tunnels that let them steal things.
But they also rase scale insects underground. This is why you never see them on the sidewalk.

2026-07-21 11:27:06 UTC

The right weren't sincere about caring about free speech ... that didn't shock me. But I am a little amazed that they aren't sincere about free trade either.

2026-07-21 08:01:10 UTC

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@nprofile…2ch3
I suspect this is about getting pliable insecure men to enlist more than anything.

2026-07-21 01:41:33 UTC

Do you wan to see a cool ant?
The problem with seeing a cool ant is you will want to know "why is it like that?" and too often the answer is "no one really knows"
Anyway please enjoy the slender style of Aphaenogaster dromedaria. She lives in Papua New Guinea.
My guess is that this look helps her to hide in dense forest? But if someone would give me the funds I could go find out I think.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/123349220

2026-07-21 00:43:26 UTC

So now everyone is doing a blockade?
The US, Iran, Houthis ...
Wow global capitalism is so effective at distributing resources.

2026-07-20 11:54:59 UTC

I found a few pieces of a torn up dollar bill while cleaning the pollinator garden this morning.
The soil is soft and teaming with spring tails and ants. The flowers bobbed from the weight of the fat carpenter bees and bumblebees — honey bees and sweat bees too.
I planted some native flowers that my mother helped me find at the farm. More for the ants to enjoy!
I’m so wealthy!

2026-07-18 13:06:57 UTC

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@nprofile…gt80 @nprofile…49as
I think the use the acorns as a nest— the weevils that create these spaces (who a long gone when ants arrive) eat the most nutrient rich parts of the acorn.

2026-07-16 01:20:14 UTC

how can someone die of a heart attack when they don't even have one?

2026-07-15 20:35:44 UTC

It is really really really hard to NOT tag every single ant as "cute."
🥺

2026-07-15 15:34:42 UTC

"The Largest Ant in Australia"
It's gotta be something terrifying, right? Some kind of massive bull ant with mandibles 2 inches long that eats kittens and your hopes and dreams for breakfast. An ant with a sting that can kill five grown men! (don't know how that would work...)
However. No.
No. The largest ant is Notostigma foreli. Long-legged awkward and deeply shy these ants are never seen in the day. They have big eyes that they use to avoid everyone.

2026-07-15 14:52:08 UTC

To the little ants a mite would about the size of a housecat. Which is more evidence that #picaTheCat is a mite.
She gloams on to you like a mite.

2026-07-14 22:41:44 UTC

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@nprofile…a5dn
I don't know!
I think we'd want the one with the smallest queen as that's the upper limit on the size of the other ants... mostly.
I thought it might be Camponotus planatus... but I think they get even smaller.

2026-07-14 22:29:30 UTC

Someone asks "What is the smallest species of camponotus?" I think about it a bit and then try searching on my phone where the overview isn't turned off.
"Camponotus nearcticus"
Common Name: The Smaller Black Carpenter Ant
Such a terrible answer. Terrible. Camponotus nearcticus is an averaged sized Camponotus, which means they are on the "medium to large" size for ants.
IDK why it irritates me so much. I think it's how shallow it is.

2026-07-13 11:13:39 UTC

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Stop fighting wars and revise the phylogeny of the Palaearctic Formica fusca group. There are ants just walking around in your back yard, common ants and almost nobody knows anything about them. We struggle to give them names. These are keystone species. If they vanished the whole ecosystem would topple, but how exactly that might go down is also poorly understood.
I'm not talking about rare creatures. There are common creatures that are "understudied" ... and they are part of our ecosystems.

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 unknowing 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 more than anything.
2/

2026-07-11 12:19:38 UTC

Sometimes when people run a forum or even on social media the long time participants will notice that they answer the same questions over and over and over... this may lead to forum rules that ban posts that are repeats of old questions.
I think this is almost always a mistake if you are trying to build a community. It's helpful and good to link to similar older posts, but nothing makes a community feel insular than being told none of your questions are new and RTFM.
1/

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

2026-07-09 22:16:08 UTC

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@nprofile…d4c6
And here is the thing that's blowing my mind. That substance is probably made by the tree. The wasp has forced the tree to make some kind of food/drugs for ants.
Take a back seat pfizer

2026-07-09 22:12:37 UTC

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@nprofile…d4c6
They aren't harming the galls. They are just enjoying some kind of substance they exude from the top.

2026-07-09 22:11:58 UTC

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@nprofile…nxxc
Looks like Monomorium carbonarium... or some other Monomorium. They are very tiny. It looks like they are ranching aphids like crazy.

2026-07-09 22:08:55 UTC

These galls are formed on oak trees by a wasp that doesn't like to be observed. I can't find any photos of the wasp. But the galls make a substance that drives ants *crazy* They just mob them. There are many examples.
What is going on? This is more intense of a reaction that it just being sugar.
Is the gall wasp getting ants to protect it? From what?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=any&place_id=any&field:Behavior%20Observed=ants%20love%20galls
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/892/294/868/800/306/original/94cefb8cbc7c6262.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/892/294/999/006/395/original/44221aa6e78fa690.png

2026-07-09 12:46:03 UTC

i am 12 and what is this?
https://group.softbank/media/Project/sbg/sbg/pdf/ir/investors/shareholders/2026/shareholders-meeting_46_05_en.pdf

2026-07-09 00:24:12 UTC

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This distribution map is goofy.
Do the ants not have passports or something?
How is it "native" one one side of the border and introduced on the other?
There is a 1991 paper that claims to explain this but I'm so far not very impressed
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/887/161/305/670/517/original/2a23b4a26d7b7496.png

2026-07-09 00:21:18 UTC

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So much of what I read about this ant just reads like slander.

2026-07-08 15:34:40 UTC

i’m not going to accuse Hank Green or Taylor Lorenz or others of a similar ilk of being “schills for AI” —because they aren’t. I think they’re honestly trying to process the new technology *however* it is clear that they spend a lot of time talking to people whose heads are chock block full nonsense, and sometimes things pass by their lips that betray the company that they’ve been keeping.

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...

2026-07-07 23:40:23 UTC

I don't care if the president interferes in a sports match? And it's not because I don't take sports seriously but I just don't think it ... upsetting.
It might be one of the more selfless and vaguely patriotic things our president has ever done. It's kind of like a loud T-ball mom who argues with the school umpire. It's ugly, it's wrong, but it's not evil. Just tacky.
Unless- he had money on the game.

2026-07-07 12:33:31 UTC

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OK this may have been incomprehensible ant-babble. I will try to explain.
Lasius are tiny little ants. You might know them as "black garden ants" they are among the most common ants in Europe and the US.
There are many species. They are NOT easy to tell apart. I've noticed biologists will write the phrase "an unmistakable combination" in a species description then proceed to say something like "Terminal segment of maxillary palp is rather short."
Oh yeah how "unmistakable"
"rather short??"

2026-07-07 11:56:27 UTC

They have found a Lasius emarginatus
x platythorax hybrid. Just kill me now.

2026-07-06 23:47:41 UTC

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@nprofile…jvcx
OK but what about the bitcoin, NFTs and "Health Pills" ?
:(

2026-07-06 23:25:43 UTC

Sometimes I feel like I've failed raising #PicaTheCat she has such a weak moral compass, doesn't understand why stealing, running scams, or even murder is wrong... she's kind of self-centered and a little petty and greedy.
She is, however, very cute, and in need of cuddles.

2026-07-06 15:43:57 UTC

Aphilanthops frigidus is a wasp known as the "Eastern Ant-Queen Kidnapper" the common name is very descriptive. This wasp provisions her young with ant queens (just ant queens!) by finding their nuptial flights and catching one queen after another.
Crime is out of control in this country.

2026-07-06 13:31:44 UTC

It is raining in NYC today and if it's sunny tomorrow it will be a good day to look for queen ants!
Pack few test tubes like this one in your purse just in case!
(If you don't have any test tubes you can wash out an old pill bottle, punch a large hole in the lid then cover the hole with mesh. This is fine as long as you have a place with water to keep the ant at home.)
Really just order some test tubes. It works so well. Your ants won't dry out and die. Who invented this technique I wonder?
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/873/266/668/043/236/original/5a18a70815410a26.png

2026-07-06 02:19:37 UTC

Most goofy common names for ants:
"Goblin Ants"
"Lesser Sneaking Ant" (If someone called me that I too would become a pest)
"Inch Ant"
"Deceptive Carpenter Ant"
"Karoo Balbyter Ant"
"Common American Thief Ant" (why does everyone think ants are criminal?)
"Uncertain Field Ant"
"Spotted Muscleman Tree Ant" (should be musclewoman tree ant)
"Northern Sharkfinned Dolly Ant"
"Small Pugnacious Ant"
"Large Pugnacious Ant"
"Sordid Cocktail Ant"
"Rapacious Panther Ant"
"Ringbum Millipede Muncher Ant"

2026-07-06 00:36:55 UTC

The worst thing to come out of computer science isn't LLMs it's this:
1.10 > 1.9
I will never ever ever be able to cope.

2026-07-05 23:41:08 UTC

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@nprofile…jys7
There is so little info in English on them ... their ant wiki page doesn't even mention that they make these mounds!
So, I don't know what they eat, but they must be getting a lot of calories to have such massive populations.

2026-07-05 23:26:50 UTC

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What is it in their genetics or the interaction of their genetics and life habits with the environment that changes the ant so she collects soil relentlessly, packs, and makes it into and ant sky scraper?
The mounds probably help them to manage heat in their nest and humidity. I like how they are covered in grass.

2026-07-05 23:23:16 UTC

Camponotus punctulatus is a carpenter ant from Argentina. They make massive mounds in open pastures.
This might sound very pedestrian and boring but it's very odd that a carpenter ant is building mound.
Solonopsis (fire ants) make small mounds and are a real hazard because they sting. Camponotus punctulatus can't sting. Yet these carpenter ants change the landscape.
Very little documentation on these ants. Morphologically they look very similar to other carpenter ants.
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/869/929/160/466/400/original/7c7ed5d0f2ee9c46.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/869/929/449/131/716/original/d7d4ff8325ac7374.png
https://cdn.masto.host/sauropodswin/media_attachments/files/116/869/939/163/404/027/original/9aaa7324180b1c02.png

2026-07-03 01:32:40 UTC

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The video is good and kind of shows how people getting very ... strange about "big deaths" isn't really a new thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFsM7fjyJfY

2026-07-03 01:32:03 UTC

I was watching a video by Caitlin Doughty about John Wilkes Booth and some of the conspiracy theories about his body and death. And the Nonsense went on right into 1903 a date that caught my eye since it was when my grandmother was born.
And this made me think about how much can change in a life time.
When my grandmother was a toddler people were still "getting over" the Civil War and its aftermath. When she died there was a Black president.
Also, the US has always been full of nonsense.

2026-07-02 19:33:05 UTC

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@nprofile…w9l5
OK I think I know the genus:
Plagiolepis exigua
or maybe Plagiolepis pissina
There is also an introduced species in some places:
Plagiolepis alluaudi which is from Madagascar. IDK if it's been found in Sri Lanka yet. I kind of hope not since ya'll already have three species.
Plagiolepis jerdonii is brown, not as transparent.