tonight I was feeling a bit blue, so I went out on my bicycle to do some #geocaching.
Now, when you go out to find caches, you basically need your mobile and a pen. 2 things. I managed to forget 50% of them.
No pen, no fun.
Then woah, I see a supermarket, still open! I get in and look for a pen. Nothing. I asked the workers there, who started laughing. I guess not many people look for pen late at night, so we laughed together!
They were out of pens, but we had a nice chat, and they gave me a beautiful pink pen for present. It's the personal pen of one of the workers.
It was a nice night.
I love humans when they are bros
One of the best #book I read in a long time: The Mating Mind, by Geoffrey Miller
George Miller is a professor of Evolutionary Psychology, and the main thesis in this book is that our astonishing mental capacities come (mostly) from sexual selection.
In order to prove that, Miller takes the reader in a trip around the history of the theory of evolution, especially of sexual selection of course, and I tell you: I've done multiple exams on Evolution, Miller is the one who really gave me a good idea of how, how much, when and what sexual selection is all about.
It's packed with juicy, easy to chew paragraphs like how we think the courting worked in the paleolithic, what are the current hypothesis about the origin of the mind, why Wallace was after all a creationist (he denied sexual selection and thought the soul was given to us by a god), and so on. And in some moments I laughed hard, the guy has a razor-sharp humor.
The case he makes lacks evidence here and there, by his own admission, but frankly I'm sold on this hypothesis now.
I totally recommend it, a beautiful read
Today was the first walk in the nature with friends after the long lockdown. I felt quite depressed lately, I was psychologically proved, but a single day around made my mood so much better!
I'll post some pictures to make you part of it, #plants #animals and #ecology
The habitat was either #mediterranean forest, dominated by Quercus ilex with some human planted pines, or sand dune #habitat, which is a beautiful and fragile ecosystem that I think should deserve more attention.
More details in the caption of every pic.
If you feel down, go for a walk in a park, take pictures of weird plants and animals, open a bit to how marvellous this living things are and feel free to tag me
Now, that's an interesting #psychology study.
A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder.
DM me if you want the PDF and don't have access to ResearchGate or anything
Haunyte with meionite in a calcareous geode from the Monte Somma (which is the complex of the Vesuvio, which you may know better).
Naples university mineralogical museum
I passed by the #climatestrike yesterday here in Naples. I really can't feel like I belong to this movement.
* I don't like slogans, and the ones I heard were pretty violent, including death threats to right wing people, and far left typical songs.
Anger was the feeling I perceived the most, which may biased because angry people shout the most.
* People knew a lot about climate and environment. That is, until you ask questions. There is no place for doubts in this climate action.
* The traffic was stopped by a human wall. I had to exchange insults and raise my bicycle to get past the fu**ing barricade.
* I do not know how to feel when kids, like 12 yo, engage in such political actions. I still feel like they are too young to really get what's happening.
I'd like to repost a picture that @freemo posted a long while ago
A few years ago I thought that not being able to even draw a cloud was a very silly limit, and decided to try to get past it - and see how long it would have taken me.
Here are some pictures, from time 0 (before starting to study) to around 20 hours of studying and trying.
Feel free to laugh at my time 0 drawing, it's ridiculous, I know. I'm still bad at it, but it felt good to overcome a mental obstacle. Oftentimes, it takes less than one may think!
I wrote a while ago about how I switched my #garden from typical #permaculture elements to a more rational and classic food production system.
I think it's working out really, really great. This are the latest pictures, blog post to come in a little while.
I am experimenting with very closed space dense planting, little mulch (most of organic goes to compost) and yeah, I'm digging it. Sometimes double-digging it.
I went to a local farmers market yesterday, and at the entrance I saw this.
A friend started saying 'that is me and you at the side circles, and the us in the middle, which is bigger than both', but I was all like 'ah, that's #nextcloud alright!'
Setting up a server we plan to use to host #foss, possibly #decentralized applications like #pleroma, #matrix, #peertube, #nextcloud, independent websites and other tools.
Aim is to help local projects, #circularEconomy structures and other like-minded people and projects to get the data back in their hands.
We are doing the whole thing as a #faircoop local node atm, and part of the funds for the server were donated by faircoop. Server itself is physically hosted in Naples, at the Ex-Asilo Filangieri
Exciting times.
I am happy to see how many veggies can grow underneath a small 6 sqm polytunnel.
Right now plants are not doing better than the outside ones, but it's a good insurance in case of bad weather.
Since I do not mulch anymore here (plants are very close), irrigation is automated and I don't have to worry about bad weather... is basically a 1 day job and don't think about it again until food is ready!
Reusable coffee cups are just a drop in the ocean for efforts to save our seas
They are easily marketable strategies to attract 'environmentally-minded' customers though
#Italian, PhD student in computational biology (#bioinformatics)
#atheist, #evolution lover, very bad #banjo player, very casual poster, I am glad whenever a feel a sincere human connection
I'm a mod here at #QOTO, feel free to reach out!