yeah moss is great but how about a vascular plant that has basically ... gone back to the way of the moss...

Azorella compacta

It's... it's a carrot that has given up on having leaves...

Imagine a hostile planet with plants like this... could you tell that they once grew in less cold and arid climates? What if flora of the twilight days of a planet look like the earliest life... but when you look closer there are abilities, and structures that tell their history....

Another all too barren spring in NYC. There should be so many insects, so many ants, so many tiny creatures filling the parks, hitting the windshields of cars.

Remember when bugs used to hit the windshields of cars because the air was so full of life?

I guess most people think this is 'improvement' but they are wrong. There is a campaign to put the American bumblebee on the endangered species list!

We are living in an eerie lifeless netherworld and I don't know why more can't see it!

I was listening to a podcast about SETI w/Seth Shostak and Michael Godier about how aliens (in theory) might get our attention (& how we might get their attention)

One idea: "piggybacking" For an astronomically significant event eg. a supernova you take that opportunity to broadcast your signal in the opposite direction so that everyone who is looking at the supernova gets your signal too.

I was musing on what a cool idea this was... but then it hit me. They just invented space pop-up ads.

Retired old people who aren't just ... busy being sick and dying give back to their communities in HUGE ways. We had someone's grandpa come to our robotics competition to cheer the team on. The old people in my building do all the serious political organizing and man the polls. I'm too busy working being in my 40s and all that.

Lowering retirement ages takes away more than just "retirement" ... it makes everything harder.

Far as I'm concerned it should be 59.

Important: Pica has *no* "legitimate need" for your credit card or SS number. **Please do not give her your personal information.** She is NOT in charge of a "Charity that Helps Persecuted Cats" nor does she have "Online Courses to Help U Sleep Better" She is NOT a "Sleeping Expert."

I think most of this is obvious but I'm just trying to clean up after the last ... incident. #catsofmastodon

Pica wishes you a happy caturday. Tuna and cash can be sent to her new P.o. box. #pica #caturday #catsofmastodon

Pica taps me on my shoulder to remind me of my responsibilities (to feed her) #pica #catsofmastodon #cat

Good morning everyone! Here is an important announcement from Pica, the very small and loud tabby cat. #catsofmastodon #pica #video #meow

Via tumblr:
(https://www.tumblr.com/futurebird/735700044986105856/image-descriptions-mattxiv-posts-a-series-of?source=share)

(Original post on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0U4FnMJmn0/ )

There were no image descriptions on the tumblr post I took the time to add them.

What would it take to make text-only, low-bandwidth websites/web apps fashionable again? If connectivity is poor: enjoy a more vintage experience. For safety/accessibility or for those with satellite phones it also seems important for emergencies.

(You’d think the “mobile friendly” web pages would have been about this. But, ‘mobile friendly’ design seems more about taking away features & reveling, like a greed-driven fiend hot with amoral avarice, since your targets might not have adblock.)

Release most domestic animals in a forest and they will be gone within the year. Cows? Eaten. Chickens? Extra Eaten. But not pigs. Pigs *revert* — they survive and each generation is more close to some lost wild boar ideal form than the next. Why are pigs different? Are they less domesticated? Is it the omnivory? Is it their intelligence?

In a few decades people say they need power weapons to protect their families from the pigs. What the heck?

(edit: some cows, chickens survive? see replies)

How do people go through life not knowing what weevils are? I was talking about ants to a teacher the other day and mentioned something about weevils & they were like "what are weevils?"

"Like beetles but with the long snoot to drill acorns and trees."

"drill acorns!?"

"That's how they end up hollow"

"oh."

"That's how acorn ants have a place to live!"

"oh. I didn't know so much was going on in acorns."

"That's not even the tip of the iceberg!"

I'm astonished.

Most know that ants dig in the dirt, or maybe they live in a decaying log. But ant nest diversity is vast.

Some ants make "carton" a paper-like substance used to construct nests in trees. Other ants use the silk of their larvae to bind leaves together for a green living nest. Some ground-nesting ants build flood levies in concentric circles to protect the entrance from monsoon rains. And of course, there are the wood ants who make massive mounds of pine needles.

Ants made all of these!

For me, right to to repair isn't just about ewaste, and preventing corporate gouging.

It's about mental health. Being able to fix your gadgets is therapeutic. Empowering. Good for the soul.

In a world full of complex technology it's easy to feel small and helpless. And maybe I'm too much of an idealist, but I think that if everyone could experience the joy of fixing or modifying a gadget now and then we'd all be a little more open minded, a little more daring. A little harder to push around.

A new study has found a terrible bottleneck in human ancestors about 900k years ago. There were as few as 1000 individuals left ... if this is verified further there was a time when we almost didn't make it.

https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.adj9484?casa_token=VS5dMv1ze_YAAAAA:v_FMiEjYJUA2-lPfVrsCOG4Lmaz039L-TwYp2grgDR3NQegiogx55LWUx2hkI9yF_laj_HLllS7S

I still cannot get over the wonder and mystery of what gall wasps can do to plants. This is bio-engineering! The wasp lays her egg and somehow the plant makes a structure that is not a fruit, it is not a seed, it is not a leaf or stem. It's a wholly recombinant architecture customized to the needs of the growing young larva. The plant provides food and shelter-- It's like a cancer, but with a purpose.

How did it evolve? How is it done!?

(Photo by Timothy Boomer, https://wildmacro.com/)

I think about this a lot.

(Cartoon by Tyson Cole: https://www.tysoncoleart.com/)

The Great Squid People used to ride the gleaming white chalk roads in great glass globes of water pulled by teams of clattering crabs.

But then the deers took over, a Dark Age came when the roads were covered with grass.