Peter Drake HAS MOVED @peterdrake@qoto.org

In 2017, I crocheted myself a solar system costume. The headpiece is mounted on a bike helmet for stability (I got that tip from some folks who build showgirl costumes). The tunic is made from fine black linen yarn, very matte, very tedious, much like I imagine space is most of the time. The planets are made using an online sphere pattern generator, so that I could vary the sizes in a predictable way; they are strung on a fishing line with beads, and suspended from an elastic collar, also crocheted. They are also kept in place with a beaded "asteroid belt", located between Mars and Jupiter, of course. Photographed at Manhattan Beach Pier. All second-hand yarns, though I had to ask around for enough yellow to make the sun so large. #solarsystem #crochet #costume #planets #sun #astronomy #planetary #yesplutotoo

Texas Superintendent Defends Suspending Black Student Over Locs Hairstyle in Full-Page Ad: ‘Being American Requires Conformity’
Darryl George's family has filed suit claiming the hair policy violates state law
https://themessenger.com/news/texas-superintendent-black-student-locs-hair-punishment-lawsuit

you have one job

#Caturday

What's large, grey, and doesn't matter?
An irrelephant.

Big news in bug math. This is the first year since 1803 when both 13-year cicadas and 17-year cicadas will emerge from the ground simultaneously in the US!

13 and 17 are both prime. It's believed cicadas evolved to have prime-number life cycles to avoid predators that emerge more frequently, like once every 4 years or 5 years or... whatever. By showing up infrequently, with a prime number life cycle, they can starve out those predators.

And since 13 and 17 are both prime and 13 × 17 = 221, both kinds of cicadas emerge simultaneously only once every 221 years. And

1803 + 221 = 2024

so now they'll both emerge simultaneously and we'll have 𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑠 of cicadas!

Also, this year the two kinds can interbreed!

The last time the Northern Illinois Brood’s 17-year cycle aligned with the Great Southern Brood’s 13-year cycle, Thomas Jefferson was president.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/19/science/cicadas-emergence-broods.html

Count the limbs. Centaurs are insects.

The worst thing about talking on the phone is not being able to use the phone to look at other things so you can ignore whatever is being said on the phone.

It's probably a case of confirmation bias, but I had to impulse-buy this (comic) book on how the many ways in which the vision of space colonization makes no practical sense. After reading @pluralistic 's review:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead