Tessera

Where I grew up (Appalachia), people said "dag" (or "daggone") as a mild swear word. "You failed that test? Dag, too bad." My partner (PNW) has a vowel merger where "leg/beg" have the same vowel as "lag/bag." My partner is excited about a restaurant called "Deg Thai." Hilarity ensues.

Brendan Keogh@brkeogh.bsky.social · last wk.

SIMPLICIO: "I don't trust chatbot output — except for summarizing longer texts." SALVIATI: "How do you know whether the summaries are accurate if you have not read the longer text yourself?" SIMPLICIO: [blank stare]

Surely the solution here is just *don't use AI tools* for your writing and research and continue to do your writing and research in ALL the ways you were doing it before you started using AI instead of doing the work??

c0nc0rdance@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · last wk.

Breathing as "a task to be completed as needed" is a downright interesting idea.

When we see fellow mammals submerged, we imagine our lifestyle of continuous breathing. But pinnipeds live in a world where breathing is a task to be completed as needed, like we view visiting the bathroom, or eating a snack when hungry. Just pinnipeds, living their best life. (📷: Michael Boyyd)

L.A. TACO@lataco.bsky.social · last wk.

It is my experience that people who say "I don't mind if everybody knows, I have nothing to hide" all seem to close the door when they take a shit. Privacy is different from shame.

Sunday Taquitos #30: Flock This! Art by @ivan-ehlers.bsky.social

A cartoon of two people standing under a flock camera speaking to each other. The man says “I’m fine with mass surveillance ‘cause I’m not doing anything wrong.” The woman responds “… Until someone changes the definition of what’s ‘wrong.’”

⚜️ Royal Blood ⚜️@royalblood1.bsky.social · last wk.

Coooooooooool

Absolutely insane shot by Guzman Ramos ✨

rob mahurin @robtasm.bsky.social · 2w ago

To read later.

Alexey Petrov@alexeypetrov.bsky.social · 2w ago

The premise, style, and even the perceived timing of Michael Kratsios’ 2026 paper, "Science: A New Golden Age," invites a comparison with Vannevar Bush's classic "Science, the Endless Frontier," written in 1945, which established the US science funding doctrine. 🧪

rob mahurin @robtasm.bsky.social · 2w ago

How much of "wow that looks like a dinosaur" (note: egrets ARE dinosaurs) is due to forty+ years of dinosaur reconstruction with cues from birds? A century ago, when Iguanodon "was" a lumbering spike-thumbed Godzilla, would this behavior have seemed less dino-ish and more … birdlike? 🧪: 🦤🦖🐊

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘@kojamf.bsky.social · 2w ago

Deborah Sandidge Photography "Looking like tiny dinosaurs, Great Egret chicks reach up and grab the sleepy parent’s bill hoping to be fed. This was one of my favorite nests to photograph in the wetlands, the chicks were so animated! Filmed with my Nikon Z9 and NIKKOR Z 600mm f/4 TC lens."

rob mahurin@robtasm.bsky.social · 3w ago

An excellent crepuscular volumetric cloud shadow stretching over this volleyball game during last night's #sunset. Took me a few tries to get the ball in the air.

The shadow of a cumulus cloud stretches across the sky at dusk. In the foreground is a volleyball game, with the ball hanging in the sky.

I'm not sure about the provenance of the image, but it (a) roughly gels with other predictions that I've seen, and (b) perhaps explains why Bluesky has been so full of astounding #sunset photos lately.

Map of the northeastern United States. A bright band stretches southeast from Lake Superior to the Chesapeake Bay and out to the Atlantic, with the words "Thick smoke" over the Washington, DC area. Caption text below the bright band: "Predicted wildfire smoke Friday afternoon (HRRR model)."

WeRateDogs@weratedogs.com · 3w ago

Benji's new skill is the best news I have heard in days.

This is Benji. He recently learned how to wiggle his toes. Not sure what to do with that yet, but a good skill to have in his back pocket just in case. 12/10 (TT: benjiandbaxter)

Ralph Snyder@ralphsnyder.bsky.social · 3w ago

Since most of the "greenhouse-trapped" heat in the atmosphere escapes at night, carbon dioxide has a bigger impact on raising nightly minimum temperatures than on raising daily maximum temperatures. I didn't understand this until fairly recently, and nearly everyone I tell about it is surprised.

I wish there was more discussion of daily minimums. They are rising faster than daily maximums 🧵

Tyska@jtyska.bsky.social · 3w ago

A lovely "sun pillar" here. These clouds are made of plate-shaped ice crystals floating horizontally, each one reflecting the sun like a tiny mirror.

Wow, another stunning sunset in Oakland tonight! @eastbaytimes.com

rob mahurin@robtasm.bsky.social · 3w ago

The darkening sky over the treeline is full of multiple matters of multihued gold and purple clouds, with small scratches of blue sky peeking out near the horizon. In the foreground, houses.

Apparently they DO make them like this any more. Best old song I've learned today. My Classical Greek is super-rusty but the pronunciation here sounds on target. I wonder how much confidence we have in the chords and harmonic progressions and melodies? Maybe it's explained in the book.

Post nicht verfügbar.

Colin Burt@cdburt4.bsky.social · 3w ago

A lovely photo of a "sundog": like a rainbow, but from ice crystals. Light bends around the insides of horizontal hexagonal plates, so the sundogs appear level with the sun on either side. There are lots of other ice halos from different shapes and orientations of ice crystals. 🔭

It was like a rainbow without the rain… Then I got lost in whether this was a clouded sky or waves within the sea…

A chemistry student is telling me that an "oligomer," a word I don't know, has more units than a monomer but fewer than a polymer. "Oh! From the same place as 'oligarchy'." Knowing enough things to make connections is SO FUN, y'all. Not everybody understands that school makes adulthood MORE FUN.

rob mahurin@robtasm.bsky.social · 4w ago

Golden and purple clouds in the west at sunset, viewed through an arching doorway.

Looking northeast at sunset. Above a building, a still-lit pink cloud peeks from above and behind a cloud already shadowed.

I happened to be watching the sunset tonight from just the right place for this excellent crepuscular shadow to pass directly overhead. It was like having the sky split into bright and dark halves. (See alt text for an explanation.) #bluesky #sunset 🔭

Kelly Cottingham@kecotting.bsky.social · 3w ago

"im having my house painted" "what a hassle, you have to take everything off the walls, you have to cover all your furniture" "what? no"

WIP. I’m visiting my parents and painting their house bit by bit. “Sewing Corner” 5x7, oil on canvas panel #oilpainting #art #painting #paintingfromlife #homeinterior #crafty

Oil painting of a corner of a room with sewing materials on a desk and a desk chair facing the viewer.

The grandfather “has some pretty significant injuries and is not out of the woods yet.” why did they leave him in the woods #lunchpun

Tourist Seriously Injured After Yellowstone Bison Launches Man 8 Feet In The Air

A tourist was seriously injured Friday evening after being thrown 8 feet into the air by a bull bison in Yellowstone National Park. Professional…

cowboystatedaily.com

Worst Movies Ever@worstmovies.bsky.social · 4w ago

"this bad movie adaptation of my book was well-reviewed, which also made me angry"

Post a 70s movie that starts with the letter P 🎥🖤 The Phantom Tollbooth (1970) TMDB score 69% Norton Juster, who wrote the novel, said: "It was a film I never liked. I don't think they did a good job on it. It's been around for a long time. It was well reviewed, which also made me angry."

Knuth's "TeX" is from "technology", with the Greek chi. The documentation for Lamport's La-TeX macros says it rhymes with "blah blech." I frequently say "blah" and "blech" when my LaTeX is not doing what I want, so it tracks.

c0nc0rdance@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 3w ago

Is the noise here a vocalization from the swan? I have noticed that robins and doves often vocalize in time with their wingbeats when they take off. My guess is that the flapping moves extra air through their respiratory system.

Here's the same process, but in reverse. Majestic, uh... *most* of the time. Mute swans can weigh 16 kg (35 lbs). The Flintstones Accelerator/decelerator here is about avoiding the drag (& rotation!) that comes from the whole body entering the water at speed. (📷: CaenhillCC Rescue via TikTok)

havin a stretch together on a lazy #caturday

Two cats stretched out on a paisley rug. Pandora, left with tortoiseshell colors, is twisted into a sort of corkscrew with her belly and hind feet in the air; her eye is open and she is watching the camera. Odin, on the right in long black hair, has his face near Pandora's. Their front paws are touching.

rob mahurin@robtasm.bsky.social · 4w ago

A crepuscular shadow, facing west just after sunset. There is a layer of haze which is still illuminated by the setting sun. But on the right, some distant hill is cashing a shadow on this layer. The chiaroscuro boundary happens to pass directly overhead, splitting the sky into golden and blue halves. There is a hint of a bright ray near the "two o'clock" angle.

See the description in the previous photo — this is the same sky, but facing east.

Stunning colors with the sun setting after tonight's rain. #bluesky #sunset

rob mahurin@robtasm.bsky.social · last mo.

Stunning colors with the sun setting after tonight's rain. #bluesky #sunset

A brilliant golden sky is visible through and above trees, framed by the wall and roof of a balcony. In the foreground is a wind chime.

A wind chime is silhouetted through a window against a stunningly lavender sky.

#bluesky #sunrise