George Budd @Gbudd@qoto.org

#blackmastodon SHOW'EM.

#mentalhealth

Some dogs can detect bombs and drugs. And some have trouble perceiving stairs.

"Female 'Samurai'

While 'samurai' is a strictly masculine term, the Japanese bushi class (the social class samurai came from) did feature women who received similar training in martial arts and strategy. These women were called “Onna-Bugeisha,” and they were known to participate in combat along with their male counterparts. Their weapon of choice was usually the naginata, a spear with a curved, sword-like blade that was versatile, yet relatively light.

Since historical texts offer relatively few accounts of these female warriors (the traditional role of a Japanese noblewoman was more of a homemaker), we used to assume they were just a tiny minority. However, recent research indicates that Japanese women participated in battles quite a lot more often than history books admit. When remains from the site of the Battle of Senbon Matsubaru in 1580 were DNA-tested, 35 out of 105 bodies were female. Research on other sites has yielded similar results."

During WW2 the British kept captured Nazi generals and other high ranking officers in a couple of stately homes, treated them well, with good food and even trips to London for lunch. The Nazis spoke freely among themselves about important German military stuff, presumably thinking the British were either too gentlemanly or too foolish to do anything so crass as bug every room in the building.

Spoiler alert: the British had bugged every room in the building.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20698098

One year ago, this lil hillbilly appeared in my backyard crying for help. As it turned out, she was in heat and wanted to get affectionate with every thing and everyone. We got her all fixed up and showed her that living in a house is the best. Hobbies include boxes and attacking shadows. Has a huge collection of plastic bottle caps. Her name is Peach Lorraine #CatsOfMastodon #caturday #rescuecats

📌Today at 10am ET special grand jury report in #Georgia to be released. #TrumpIndictment

When your dog thinks he's in the Matrix

The UK's Civil Aviation Authority have a brief report about what caused all the flight cancellations the other day:

https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/NERL%20Major%20Incident%20Investigation%20Preliminary%20Report.pdf (440KB PDF)

A few interesting thoughts about their findings…

The major cause was:

> The plan included two waypoints along its route that were geographically distinct but which have the same designator.

I don't know enough about ICAO4444 / ADEXP to be sure, but it sounds like an understandable, albeit avoidable, error.

(1/n)

Kiddo and I went for a walk to get the aforementioned iPad. It's stupidly hot, so we were both in sundresses.

Honked and catcalled at so many times it was ludicrous.

I hope the women in the cars with them eviscerate them, if not for disrespect to a nearly 50yo woman and a child waiting to cross the street then for disrespect to them for doing that WHILE THEY WERE RIGHT THERE.

Do not do this. Do not honk, do not whistle, do not yell. You are not being "appreciative", you are not giving a compliment. You are harassing and advertising that you are a threat.

This is not a good survival strategy.

A day-late "Hurah!" for the men who did the first Space Strike:

Gerald P. Carr
Edward G. Gibson
and William R. Pogue

something something fully automated...

@Jorsh

As I've said before:
* At peak, 20% of Twitter daily active users were Black.
* The Nazi experience is *worse* on the Fediverse than Twitter. Much worse. It's not even close.

Many Fediverse users want people to "stop using Twitter," more than they want to make Fediverse "welcoming to all people."

People are still on Twitter not because of Elon, or their own personal failings. They're still there (for now) because of our failure to create a better Fedi.

Yes, so far I've failed too. 🤷🏿‍♂️

For all the folks starting their #PhD (or their master thesis) today - a reminder why your PhD advisor can solve a problem so "easily" ...

#astrodon #academia #AcademiChatter #research

Telepawted

Karl Jansky invented the field of radio astronomy #OTD in 1932.

During a solar eclipse he saw no change in the faint radio hiss he'd been monitoring, which ruled out the sun as a source. He soon attributed this "star noise" to large ionized gas clouds near the center of the Milky Way.

A good friend of mine unexpectedly lost his wife. A couple months later we were golfing together, chatting about nothing. He asked what my dinner plans were and I told him wifey wanted my homemade chili and cornbread, but I didn't feel like stopping at the store. We golfed a few more minutes when he quietly said, “Make the chili."

did you know that 100 years ago there were *electromechanical* radio transmitters?

these things are so crazy, you just have to read this

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 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/)

Division By Zero