Chikara @chikara@qoto.org

ADVANCED WEB INTERFACE

The QOTO edit profile options include an "Apperance" webpage. At the top of the page, I see an "Advanced Web Interface" (AWI) option box.

I do not understand text which explains, "If you want to make use of your entire screen width, the advanced web interface allows you to configure many different columns to see as much information at the same time as you want: Home, notifications, federated timeline, any number of lists and hashtags."

I did click on the AWI box. But the consequences of my action remain unclear. -- see https://qoto.org/@freemo/103101593756636735

What next? Have I overlooked an online resource which will help me figure out what I need to know?

@jasper Thanks for the feedback, especially because you drew my attention to Thomas Midgley -- see Wikipedia "Thomas Midgley Jr." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.; and see "List of inventors killed by their on inventions"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_inventions

SOCIAL MEDIA VENUE. If I understand correctly, QOTO is a social media venue; and -- tbh -- the underlying intent in each of my posts is social.

Think about it: In each post, I'm only working though a half-baked idea sparked by something small. And I'm looking for any kind of feedback that might help me find ways to move outside the box of my own thinking.

OUTSIDE-THE-BOX QUESTIONS. With each post, I'm sharing a work-in-progress, asking questions with a bit of a STEM-related twist. And I'm bringing together a few hyperlinks that establish a wider foundation for more outside-the-box questions.

In response, your words have sparked questions and suggested additional research topics. Good. I'm grateful

@jasper Thanks for the "tbh"

Your acronym was new to me, so I googled it. I liked learning about the evolution of nuance as explained in the featured snippet-- see "'Tbh' no longer just stands for 'to be honest' on Instagram" (Nina Godlewski). Business Insider. May 27, 2016. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-does-tbh-mean-2016-5

@design_RG I proofread each post as best I can, but there is only very small print in a narrow newspaper-like column on the left of the screen.

Then when I post what I think is error-free, the font is larger. Then I see mistakes that were not obvious before.

And so, I use the delete and re-write option immediately. Also, this is the way I identify and correct format errors.

Isn't this what the QOTO system was designed for everyone to do?

@freemo If I understand correctly, you're saying that QOTO has a policy or position on the subject of harassment. Where can I read this?

It appears that if someone -- anyone -- feels he or she is being harassed, it is essential that the complaint is made clear to the the so-called harasser, isn't it? If this simple step is missing, then there's a big logic gap, isn't there? Where can I read this?

The only time I've been confronted with a false claim of harassment is HERE in QOTO.

The only time I've been forced to endure the consequences of that false accusation of harassment is HERE in QOTO.

So this word matters to me.

IS THIS AN AXIOM? No question addressed to a Mastodon administrator can be harassment.

QUESTION? If a Mastodon administrator claims to be harassed, but there is NO written evidence that the so-called harasser was ever informed, then what has really happened?

QUESTION? In response to a question presented to a QOTO moderator, what would be a most appropriate descriptive term for a moderator's responsive complaint of harassment?
• responding to tone?
• ad hominem?
• name-calling? -- see image below, Graham's hierarchy of disagreement; and see"How to Disagree" http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html
HINT: The response I'm looking for is that this isn't going to happen in QOTO.
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@freemo @realcaseyrollins On Dec 8, you wrote sentences I don't understand: "But we federate with every instance that protects a users right to disengage (a rather strict definition of harassment). Locally we are more strict though."

Please explain again using different words.

@arteteco @freemo @realcaseyrollins @design_RG @mngrif @Surasanji @evaristus

Arteteco used a red flag word -- harassment.🚩

My experience persuades me that the word "harassment" has no place in the vocabulary of a QOTO moderator. There are other words and phrases which can be used to make the same point with better precision.

For administrators of QOTO, one of the costs of doing business is -- or should be -- the loss of this shorthand label because it's a loaded term.

BENEFIT OF DOUBT. It's easy to grasp how the default benefit of doubt in most other contexts lies -- or should lie -- with the person who feels somehow harassed or bullied.

But I'm troubled when the President of the United States claims to be harassed, bullied, abused, treated unfairly. There is an asymmetric power relationship which skews my assessment of complains we have heard regularly from Donald Trump.

And I'm troubled when any Mastodon administrator posts any variant of the verb "to harass."🚩

To me clear, this isn't about specific facts or perceived factoids. It's about tactics.

UMBRAGE. As a rhetorical tactic, Presidential candidate Trump often found cause to feel umbrage. -- see Webster definition: "a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult."

As President, this Trumpian pattern continues.

Trump labels whatever annoys him as "harassment." And he repeats his complaint over and over -- dismissing, distracting and overwhelming all other topics.

The umbrage tactic works well for Trump in American politics. And I've observed that it works here in QOTO.

I'm troubled when any synonym of the noun "umbrage" is used as a tactic by any Mastodon administrator.🚩

BOTTOM LINE. I see no evidence of umbrage in the words of @arteteco; and I can't yet parse how this has happened in his prose.

I think his post is an example of what I want to see but I don't understand what I'm reading. This is a nuanced POV. I feel what I feel clearly, but I don't have words to explain my mpression that I'm seeing something good.
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QUESTION: Is QOTO flexible enough to embrace complaint and its opposite in the same post?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@design_RG If I may, I'd like to ask you to do something for me. Is it possible for me to ask you to delete the adjective "scholarly" from your post about me.

Thank you for your kind words and good intentions, but the word "scholarly" functions like an albatross around my neck. -- see Wikipedia 'Albatross (metaphor)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatross_(metaphor)

What's worse, if I allow your use of this term to go unchallenged, I'm guessing it could affect the way someone might think about what I write.

Is it unreasonable to worry that something to do with the word "scholarly" could perversely discourage the feedback I want to engender?

SOCIAL MEDIA VENUE. Am I wrong to think QOTO defines itself as a social media venue?

I guess it's not obvious enough that my intent in each of my posts is social.

Think about it: In each post, I'm only working though a half-baked idea sparked by something small. And I'm looking for any kind of feedback that might help me find ways to move outside the box of my own thinking.

OUTSIDE-THE-BOX QUESTIONS. With each post, I'm sharing a work-in-progress, asking questions with a bit of a STEM-related twist. And I'm bringing together a few hyperlinks that establish a wider foundation for more outside-the-box questions.

NOT RIGOROUS. Yes, my posts reveal that I understand a little bit about the scholarly method. -- see Wikipedia "Scholarly method" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholarly_method

No, the superficial strategy in each of my short posts is not focused on academic rigor. Instead, my objectives are speculative, provocative, catalytic and/or responsive. For example,

A. I posted an image and wrote a few words about an 1850 cat because your avatar is a cat and I've noticed others writing about cats an posting cat images -- see https://qoto.org/@chikara/103281471775508141

B. When I created a post about traditional pigments used in Japanese woodblock prints, I had three ideas in mind -- none "scholarly"

• to establish a STEM-focused context for other ukiyo-e images of cats

• to establish a STEM-focused context for a projected post about Prussian blue

• to spark further questions and research about related topics I hadn't thought about before -- and maybe my work would spark unanticipated consequences

RESTATEMENT: The structure of what I want to do is too fragile, It can't support the burden of a "scholarly" label. And worse, it may inhibit responsive posts.
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QUESTION: Is QOTO flexible enough to allow me to define what I want and what I do not want to do?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

• to inspire responses like yours

#art #ukiyo-e #pigment #volcanology #volcanologie #sky

WHY IS THE SKY PINK IN 'THE GREAT WAVE"?

Although the color has now faded in many of the woodblock prints Hokusai made and sold in the 1830s, art historians confirm that the sky was originally pink in initial prints of "The Great Wave."

We can't know why the artist selected pink, but we do know that Hokusai researched available literature and illustrations before working on his own pictures. -- see "Rare Hokusai woodblock is themed on 1707 Mt. Fuji eruption" (Akihiro Tanaka & Yoshito Watari). Asahi Shimbun. May 6, 2019. http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201905060011.html

The pink sky may be intended to suggest dawn. -- see Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Dawn at Isawa in Kai Province," 1930-32. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/56349

Or maybe science provides another valid explanation?

VOLCANIC ASH IN ATMOSPHERE. In 1829, Klyuchevskaya Sopka erupted on the Kamchatka peninsula. -- see Wikipedia "List of large volcanic eruptions in the 19th century" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_large_volcanic_eruptions_of_the_19th_century; and see "Volcanos of Kamchatka"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanoes_of_Kamchatka

The magnitude of this Klyuchevskaya eruption was much like the 2011 eruption of Grímsvötn in Iceland. -- see "List of large volcanic eruptions in the 21st century" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_large_volcanic_eruptions_in_the_21st_century

Like the paintings of J.M.W. Turner after the 1815 eruption of Mt. Tambora, Hokusai's pink skies may simply depict the presence of volcanic ash and dust in the atmosphere. -- see "How Paintings of Sunsets Immortalize Past Volcanic Eruptions" (Sarah Zielinski). Smithsonian. March 25, 2014. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-paintings-sunsets-immortalize-past-volcanic-eruptions-180950254/

Skies more polluted by volcanic ash scatter sunlight more, so they appear redder. -- see "How 19th century art is painting a picture of Earth's polluted past: Turner's sunsets reveal volcanic ash and gas in the sky" (Sarah Griffiths). Daily Mail. 25 March 2014. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2588838/How-19th-century-art-painting-picture-Earths-polluted-past-Turners-sunsets-reveal-volcanic-ash-gas-sky.html

WHAT A GREAT ARTIST SEES? Red-to-green ratios measured in paintings by great masters correlate well with the amount of volcanic aerosols in the atmosphere, regardless of the painters and of the school of painting. -- see Zerefos, C.S. et al. "Further evidence of important environmental information content in red-to-green ratios as depicted in paintings by great masters," Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2014 14:6, 2016, pp. 2987-3015. https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/2987/2014/,
DOI = 10.5194/acp-14-2987-2014; and see below, compare Hokusai with J.M.W. Turner's "Sea and Sky," c.1820–30. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-sea-and-sky-d25433
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QUESTION: Does the pink sky of Hokusai suggest plausibly accurate and useful environmental observation?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

@skyofmywindow

#art #ukiyo-e #pigment #sky

I wonder if this may interest you?

There was a pink sky in the original impression of Hokusai's woodblock print "Great wave off Kanagawa." It’s just faded in so many copies that we don’t think of The Great Wave as having a pink sky. -- see Art Institute of Chicago, "Seeing Triple: The Great Wave by Hokusai," April 3, 2019. https://www.artic.edu/articles/743/seeing-triple-the-great-wave-by-hokusai

Before now, frankly, I didn't give any thought to "the atmospheric pink and grey in the sky" -- see "Hokusai: the Great Wave that swept the world" (John-Paul Stonard). The Guardian. 19 May 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/19/hokusai-japanese-artist-late-blossoming-great-wave-mount-fuji

According to Tim Clark of the British Museum, "the pink in the sky was from a vegetable dye." -- see "This Might Be Your Last Chance to See 'The Great Wave' in Person" (Nathaniel Ainley). Vice. May 9, 2017. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8qwqe3/last-chance-to-see-hokusai-great-wave-in-person

Maybe Hokusai's fugitive pink sky comes from a pigment made from safflowers? -- see see JAANUS (Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System), "beni"紅http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/b/beni.htm

@Fabrice_tual Peut-être que cela vous intéressera?

#art #ukiyo-e #pigment #chemie #metallurgie

Le bleu de Prusse ou le bleu de Berlin est la plus ancienne couleur synthétique moderne. Il est utilisé depuis sa découverte à Berlin en 1704. Le pigment est fabriqué à partir de ferrocyanure ferrique. -- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleu_de_Prusse

ÉTUDE DE CAS. L'histoire de l'utilisation du bleu de Prusse au Japon est un exemple illustratif d'un processus d'acceptation rapide. Les effets de l'utilisation de ce pigment synthétique au Japon est une étude de cas dans l'histoire de la technologie.

UNE "NOUVELLE" COULEUR. Ce "nouveau" pigment en poudre a été importé au Japon de Hollande au XVIIIe siècle. -- JAANUS (Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System), "Beronin-ai" ベロリン藍http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/b/berorinai.htm

Cette teinte de bleu a été utilisée par Katsushika Hokusai en 1831 dans sa gravure Sous la Grande Vague de Kanagawa. L'œuvre d'art populaire de Hokusai a été la première à exploiter le pigment, qui était récemment devenu bon marché en Chine. -- British Museum, "Making Waves" https://blog.britishmuseum.org/making-waves/; aussi https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grande_Vague_de_Kanagawa

Au Japon, le succès du bleu de Prusse a provoqué une vogue pour les couleurs bleues dans les tirages ukiyo-e de la fin des années 1820 et 1830. -- JAANUS, "Azuri" 藍摺
http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/a/aizuri.htm; aussi https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizuri-e
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#art #ukiyo-e #pigment #chemistry #chemie #metallurgy #metallurgie

HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY IN JAPAN -- PRUSSIAN BLUE

Prussian blue or Berlin blue is the oldest modern synthetic color. It has been in use since its discovery in Berlin in 1704. The pigment is made from ferric ferrocyanide. -- see ColourLex "Prussian blue" https://colourlex.com/project/prussian-blue/; and see Wikipedia "Prussian blue" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_blue

CASE STUDY. The history of the use of Prussian blue in Japan is an illustrative example of a process of rapid acceptance. The effects of the use of this synthetic pigment in Japan is a case study in the history of technology.

A "NEW" COLOR. This "new" powdered pigment was imported to Japan from Holland in the 18th century. -- see JAANUS (Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System), "Beronin-ai" ベロリン藍http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/b/berorinai.htm

This hue of blue was used by Katsushika Hokusai in 1831 in his most famous woodblock print, "Under the Wave, off Kanagawa," also known as "The Great Wave." Hokusai's popular artwork was the first to exploit the pigment, which had recently become cheaply available from China. -- see British Museum, "Making Waves" https://blog.britishmuseum.org/making-waves/; and see Wikipedia "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa; see Prussian Blue in a close-up detail of Hokusai’s Great Wave below

In Japan, the success of Prussian blue caused a vogue for blue colors in ukiyo-e prints of the late 1820s and 1830s. -- see Wikipedia "Aizuri-e" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizuri-e; and see JAANUS, "Azuri" 藍摺
http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/a/aizuri.htm
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QUESTION: Does the story of the introduction and expanding use of Prussian blue provide a good example of STEM-focused evolution? Is it possible that this could become a teaching tool?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

HISTORY OF TECHNOLGOY = COLORS OF PROGRESS?

After 1860, Japan opened its doors to Western imports, and "new" analine dye colors became available for use. -- see "150-Year-Old Woodblock Prints Keep Japanese History Alive in New York" (Mike Steyels). Vice. October 19, 2016. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gvwa87/150-year-old-japanese-prints-ronin-gallery; see "new" red and purple colors in the 1888 woodblock print below

A descriptive label for these "new" colors was "kakushin no iro" (革新の色) or "colors of progress." -- see "Aniline Dyes in Meiji Nishiki-e
Toyohara Kunichika (John Fiorillo) https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/topics_faq/anilinedyes.html;

Google's online translation of the phrase is successful enough -- the Japanese to English meaning is not unclear:

革新の = innovative
色 = color

COLORS OF PROGRESS. I think the English phrase "colors of progress" works better. But I've only seen the phrase two or three times, so I don't know how to assess it. Has the use of this phrase become a convention? Maybe not.

The difference between "innovative color" and "colors of progress" could be like the difference between "litharge" and "massicot." -- see CAMEO (Conservation and At Materials Online), "Litharge" http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Litharge

Or "colors of progress" may be a kind of history trope I just don't recognize yet.

Words matter, but this is is not a STEM topic. Or is it?

The focus on color and an awareness of seasonal change is not an uncommon topic in Japan. -- see "Autumn Reds and Yellows: Japan’s 2019 Foliage Forecast"
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00550/autumn-reds-and-yellows-japan%E2%80%99s-2019-foliage-forecast.html

QUESTION: Without knowing more, does it matter how this late-19th century Japanese phrase is translated into English or any other language?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?