Talk nerdy to me :D
Mechanics in nature.
There’s a protein that’s basically a tiny little mobile suite that literally walks along microtubules.
Some bacteria propel themselves with a literal electric motor.
Your ears are more something that belongs under the dashboard of a helicopter than something growing organically… they can literally detect an air-pressure change caused by a pin dropping on the other side of the room, by allowing that pressure to beat on a drum connected to a chain of bones that transmit pressure into a little snail that squirts little jets of fluid over a tiny little field of grass stuck to the inside of the snail shell, and depending on how much grass wiggles, it sends a jolt over to your brain as an interpretation of pitch. AND IT DOESN’T STOP THERE! Connected to that snail are three little hula-hoops made of bone, each oriented to a different plane, and also filled with tiny grass and fluid; and when you move your head along that specific plane, the tiny grass wiggles and that’s how your brain knows which way you’re moving / gives you a perception of balance.
There’s a type of grasshopper with gears in its legs.
I love this shit.
yeah, that’s pretty interesting. I would also argue that genetics and the way that information is processed and organized in the body is pretty interesting.
and what’s also cool is that the body has such a consistent spatial layout. I.e. you could think that since genetics produce proteins, they only do a biochemical reaction, but not a mechanical reaction. Then what causes the geometric layout of the body to be so consistently shaped?
Just came here to say that I love how engaged people are with their hobbies. Keep going!
Aztecs.
Mixtec-Pueblo culture before European contact was vibrant, dynamic, and layered. It was reflected by its surrounding cultures of K’iche’ (Mayan), Chichimeca, Iréchikwa (Purepecha), and Otomi. Their books look like comics painted on accordions. I’ve been to Teotihuacan so I’ve seen the massive pyramids the peoples of the valley built millennia ago. I’ve read about how cities were planned and zoned then built with stone and you can still witness the logic behind those decisions today. The comida is good too.
I wish I was smart so I could learn Spanish easier.
On the words of Hernan Cortés: “Su casa es mi casa.”
Jokes aside, I am positive a Game of Thrones or Vikings-like tv show based on the birth of the Mexicas, then the expansion with finally the fall of the Aztecs would be brutally fantastic.
I always look at the Mexican flag in awe for what it really means and how it became.
Any books that you would recommend but aren’t academic?
Jokes aside, I am positive a Game of Thrones or Vikings-like tv show based on the birth of the Mexicas, then the expansion with finally the fall of the Aztecs would be brutally fantastic.
It’s a cartoon but there’s Onyx Equinox which is pretty cool and plays in mesoamerica.
Aperiodic tilings! Just a couple of years ago someone discovered a single tile (down from the set of ~20000 that was first used to prove that aperiodic tiling was even possible) that can completely cover an infinite plane without ever falling into a repeating pattern.
The use of “aperiodic” is somewhat loose here compared to what I would expect. Like… I can instantly see several places with the same pattern just on that small sample…
Aperiodic, in this sense, doesn’t mean that there aren’t any bits that repeat. In fact, if you pick any patch of tiles of any arbitrary size, that patch will be repeated infinitely many times. What it means to be aperiodic is that if you slide the whole tiling over so that one of the patches aligns with the repeated bit, there will still be something outside the patch that doesn’t align. Compare that with, say, a repeating grid of squares, where if you slide one square onto a different square then everything lines up, all the way to infinity; it’s impossible to tell that it’s been slid over.
Oh, goddamn it, this is gonna take a while.
- Code. Like, I actually get real pleasure from seeing elegant and well-structured code. I have no idea why, but I’ll almost start salivating at particularly beautiful code.
- Anime. Yeah, I’m a walking stereotype, a software developer who likes anime. But have you seen Frieren? It’s so goddamn good.
- Philosophy. No, not bullshit continental philosophy. I’m talking real philosophy. Analytic philosophy. Distilled and legitimately useful logic. Which of course leads me to…
- Science. My YouTube feed is full of fascinating deep-dives into esoteric mathematical and scientific topics. Fuck yeah.
- Tabletop RPGs. Surprisingly, not a huge D&D fan, though it can certainly be fun. These days, I’m much more into story-focused systems, like Fate or Blades in the Dark. Most people I mention that to have never heard of either.
- Science fiction and fantasy. I mean, are you surprised at this point?
- Writing science fiction and fantasy. I mean, are you surprised at this point?
- Politics. Less so nowadays, since our political system is falling apart and we’re being overrun by fascism, but I still do enjoy a meaty policy discussion.
That’s a good list for starters.
Who is the most criminally under appreciated philosopher/author and why is it Ursula LeGuinn?
Ha! My glob, she was so amazing. I had the opportunity to attend a reading she did from The Lathe of Heaven years ago, and I was struck anew not only by her creativity, but by the philosophical ideas underpinning it. A lot of people think The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is her most philosophical work, but I actually found what Lathe had to say about control, obedience, and power incredibly compelling.
Adventure Time fan as well?
I like it, but I don’t nerd out about it.
Star Wars and history - in particular how Lucas had aspects of Nazi Germany and the Vietnam War because he was an anthropology student and knew that empires most often fell from within.
So yeah I’m still on a big Andor high right now, waiting for some novels and other books to drop after that.
Other books I can recommend:
The History and Politics of Star Wars - Death Stars and Democracy (the author is a World War I historian)
Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy
Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy
pls talk about andor
Korean cooking, specifically their use of fermented and preserved food and how it relates to their climate of very hot summers and very cold winters and also their history as tributary state to Ming China and later under Japanese occupation.
Arduino, ESP32, smart home automation. I could talk for hours. I’ve started to get into PCB design this year, and I’ve had a lot of fun with it!
Where can I learn how to link different tech through HA? Insteon switch to flip a wifi bulb. Z Wave switch to open the Shelly relay for the garage door. ZigBee water sensor trips insteon siren. Etc. Is that all YAML? Is the Ecobee thermostat worth it?
Just install HA and try it out! It’s a lot easier to do than you might think. Every vendor or connection type has its own Integration. Most integrations can be set up through the UI very easily. I have dozens of integrations.
And the automations have had a lot of work the last few years. They are getting much easier to set up in the UI without having to worry about code or yaml.
The integrations are working. I just don’t know how to cross link them…
Here’s an example. The first picture is part of the UI configuration for this automation. The second picture show the yaml that was generated from this. Utility Room Occupancy is a Zigbee door sensor. When it turns on (the door opens), it triggers the Utility Room Lights on. The light is actually a WiFi LED bulb. The rest of the script turns the light off when the door closes.
What’s beautiful about Home Assistant is that it just creates devices that look identical no matter what integration you’re using. A light is a light no matter how you interact with it.
Fabrics, pattern drafting, and sewing techniques. Historical clothing and corsetry. History, soooo much history. Religious movements, belief systems, and paradigms. Language, writing, and literature. Plants and gardening. Birds and bugs. Tea and tisanes. Houses, their interior systems and construction, renovating them, maintaining them, and hacking their unique quirks and issues.
Quasi-egalitarian Neolithic and Chalcolithic civilizations like Çatalhöyük in Turkey or the Carpathian Basin civilizations in Eastern Europe, and some/much of the Indus Valley civilizations in India
Old mechanical things.
The Japanese have a myth called tsukomogami. It’s the idea that things get a soul after 100 years.
And while I don’t believe that’s technically true, per se. It’s fundamentally based on something that I adore, and that’s the fact that mechanical things all age individually and that it’s something that we’ve lost with modern technology.
My go to examples are always typewriters and vintage camera lenses.
Each typewriter will age differently. Different keys will become sticky, it’ll become misaligned in different places. They develop individual personalities as they get older. So much so that forensics can actually pinpoint when a specific typewriter typed a specific note.
In terms of camera lenses it’s much the same thing. Different lenses will wear differently depending on what aperture/focal length, etc… that the photographer uses most often. Mold and discolouration between the glass elements will eventually form a unique look to a specific lense.
It’s magical (to me) and something that I am sad that we are losing with modern consumer technology based on on “throw it away and get a new one”.
Sorry. Longer than I intended. But you asked for it.
I’m super into mechanical watches for the reasons mentioned. Quartz (battery operated), not so much. But I’ve got a growing collection of mechanical watches and they’re some of my favourite possessions. Not because they’re flashy and make me look rich or whatever but because of the mechanisms inside.
Rucking, lifting, Wing Chun, Star Citizen, Stoicism (the og version). I try not to monologue too much on them but it takes restraint.
beard pic?
Self-hosting, device modding and homebrew, and getting the most out of PC hardware/DIY gaming setups.
IT jobs are a ton of fun for me when I’m helping someone new to the hobby because they love to get invested in all of the little tips and tricks to bring the most out of their machine (Even if they have to use Windows ;-;).
Every single console I’ve ever owned has been cracked open with homebrew installed, and it’s a large reason I got into retro gaming and 3D printing spare parts for things.
Also, hosting PC game servers for yourself and friends instead of paying a provider is so liberating, you start looking at it as “I paid for the whole machine, how far can I push the experience?” and start pushing mods and configs in games that would bring most VPS systems to their knees.
Ice, ice, baby! I love fancy ice. Have gear to make crystal clear big ice for whiskey, and also a countertop ice maker for what the kids call “the good ice”.
It’s just such a cheap upgrade to any drink.
what about beer
I don’t drink beer, but honestly down here I’d ice it too, and put it in an insulated cup. Anything that’s supposed to be that cold won’t stay cold except between the months of December and February.
Wine I like not iced, it’s ok tepid, more important that it sits open awhile to aerate, and coffee and tea are good hot, so I guess not literally every drink. Love that fancy ice though!
have you seen the death star ice ball
Yes! And you just reminded me, I need to get started on skull ice for Halloween!
Watches bro!
Digital watches are fine & the battery operated ones are cool too, God speed to them, but I’m talking about the Analogue ones.
Specifically Automatic ones.
Fucking piece of assembled metal parts and it will go all tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick on its own from the moment you put it on your wrist.
It’ll continue to show you the proper time. Some will also tell you what day of the week it is or what’s the date. Heck, I’ve got one that tells me the day, date, month AND the moon phase!
On top of this, these nuggets are built such, that they will last longer than your poor ass on this planet, still blingy and going tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
You know those make Seikos and Citizen? Those mfs put bloody gps AND solar IN.A.FUCKING.WRIST.WATCH!
Why you ask?
So that when your dumb ass gives up on adjusting to the local time after you get off the plane in a different time zone, it will do it for you. That shit is too posh for your fumbly fingers to try to set the correct time, so it says, “Hold on, let me look at the sky real quick and I will set the day,date & time myself, you are too dazed and hungover. Please save your filthy fingers for your disgusting Doritos.”
You know the best part? They look more gorgeous than Kate Winslet’s porcelain titties embellished with a diamond neck piece.
It’ll cost less than your monthly groceries. Don’t miss out bro, get one.\I used to. I had a small collection that was stolen from me and I never replaced any.
