doodlebugging
It's really hard to describe how exciting it was to hear that meadowlark out on land that I have been restoring as native prairie. When something like that bird appears after being here for more than 25 years without seeing a single one it feels like validation of my efforts. To paraphrase a movie - "If you unbuild it they will come". I've been unbuilding things across the landscape to make this place more attractive to all the things that should be here. It's pretty great.
Your wife started a lot like several of my relatives, by planting a pollinator garden and registering it. I think projects like that give people a reason to engage in outdoor activities and to break the connection to the living room couch or the gamer chair. This is something that all ages can really get involved with and learn from.
I have seen so many photo updates of caterpillars metamorphosing and finally launching. It is pretty awesome to see how a fat, tubular bug stuffed with plant material can dissolve into a bug soup and once the components settle out it will have added wings to a much improved tubular frame and only needs a few minutes to figure out how to turn those flappers into forward motion.
I agree that this becomes a real eye-opening exercise once you discover this in your own garden. There are so many things that I have been able to enjoy since beginning to reclaim my place by eliminating all the non-native plants that were introduced by previous owners. I still have a long way to go with a couple of the more invasive species of grass but I know that I will get there. I have a rototiller and Amazon, Fedex, and UPS bring new cardboard for weed block on a schedule that is disturbingly regular. Every new season brings another species that I haven't seen earlier into camera range. I'm feeling like the bugs and other animals see me as a normal part of the landscape that offers no threat to them now. That's the best feeling. Just like them, I belong there.
That confirms that we are in good locations along normal flyways. My own property includes lots of antelope-horn milkweed and a couple other milkweeds. I found monarch caterpillars in my garden last week. With the recent rains breaking the summer drought I have so much in bloom again - asters, sunflowers, milkweed, numerous grasses, coreopsis, native onions, salvia, sage, dalea, etc. My place is humming with bees and wasps and the birds cast their tunes upon the winds.
For the first time since we moved here more than 25 years ago I had a meadowlark on my place and I was able to grab photos. It's a common bird where I grew up but though their range extends to this part of Texas, I had never seen one until late last week. Along with all the other birds passing through, that meadowlark was like encountering an old friend. I recognized the call and walked the place until I found the bird. As a kid I used to walk the pastures imitating the meadowlark calls, trying to sow confusion amongst their ranks, or maybe to let them know I might be one of the good guys. Who really knows?
I normally go outside every morning to identify birds using Merlin. For a couple weeks now, as I sit and listen to the world going by, monarchs and other butterflies have been migrating past. They are generally flying above treetop level hugging the treetops and terrain. As I drove north yesterday on a nice two hour trip there was a steady stream of butterflies. Most were traveling a few feet higher than an automobile as they crossed the road though some were skimming the ground and undoubtedly tempting fate. Makes me wonder how many have tags or stickers and of those, how many are scattered in pieces along the highway after dipping a bit too low to the ground.
Thanks for this article. I'm passing this around so that others can see where they are positioned on the flyway.
Then you sue all the law enforcement officers and local officials who are attempting to lay the blame for this on someone they should know is likely innocent. Make all of the financial liability for this lazy investigation come directly from the pockets of the cops and prosecutors until they have nothing left to their names and then extract every thin dime that you can from the city that hired or elected these clods so that the whole city is bankrupted.
Money is obviously the only thing that talks in this society. Make all these assholes pay with everything that they have managed to accumulate in their lives and kick their asses to the curbs after pointing at a dumpster and telling them that they can likely find some cardboard suitable for beggar signage. They'll need to supply their own writing tools though.
1824th of 1824. Dead last with a score of 60 that your game handed me on a misspelling. I typed Windy's and it changed it to Wendy's and awarded a correct answer.
I'm not sure how to feel about that.
OP's post dropped from the front page after about a dozen comments until it was completely absent from a list of over 650 posts.
Uncomfortable truths - like Sam Altman's relationship with YCombinator; his "leadership" of OpenAI and ChatGPT; credible accounts of his long-term rape of his sister, etc.
At some point ordinary people will get really tired of seeing stuff like this and they will band together, regardless of political affiliations, etc, and will restore sane regulatory infrastructure with serious penalties and full accountability to the live people who decide that hiding behind a corporate veil will protect them and their families from legal consequences. The whole concept of "move fast and break things" will finally have a pendulum effect when the bob topples their empires on the other side of the swing cycle.
[0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/livestory/tu...
It's funny that this OP's post was on the front page minutes ago but is rapidly being buried. I had to use the search function to comment on this thread. It has dropped completely off of the list of over 650 posts.
OpenAI and ChatGPT evidently have a ridiculous number of supporters willing to bury anything this uncomplimentary and disturbing.
Maybe they feel responsible.
Hopefully they are held responsible. This incident is the catalyst for changing laws in Canada that may lead to individuals and corporations being held personally responsible when bad things happen. [1]
Wouldn't it be great to see the day when the C-levels who decide to deploy hardware/software/other solutions that obviously will cause deaths and destruction can be held liable in a real court and suffer severe sanctions as a result? I'm okay with the death penalty in these cases, for the corporation and the management that allowed or encouraged the destructive outcome in order to protect profits or solidify market advantages.
[1]https://fraservalleytoday.ca/2026/09/25/cp-newsalert-b-c-ag-...
My thoughts on reading this article were not about how the information or electricity flows while the brain is engaged but more about whether this may help understand the origin of and the sensations associated with migraine or cluster migraine type headaches. I have relatives who suffer from migraines and they are debilitating, very painful experiences. As a geophysicist I understand waves, frequencies, sample rates, array design, and lots of other things.
The research here took advantage of more dense arrays implanted in the brains of epileptics and allowed reconstruction of wavefields detected much as one would use a stationary seismic array in earthquake detection and signal propagation studies.
I am left wondering whether a migraine trigger could occur when brain wave amplitudes interfere constructively at specific synapses (?) causing the signal amplitudes which are normally well-handled to swamp the region where the migraine is triggered. In many cases, light is a trigger and sufferers need to get to a dark place and cover up while the headache reverberates. I guess I would love to understand how to help dampen the severity of the headaches so that they can return to normal function as quickly as possible.
In summary - are migraine headaches related to wavefield interference such that impinging waves from the sensory organs (eyes, ears, etc) form a high amplitude standing wave focused on the region where these waves would normally arrive out of phase with little or no interference and the standing wave generates a physical sensation of deep pain in the skull sometimes with visual auras preceding the migraine event.
Y'all are some pretty smart guys. Ignore this OT post. I was just thinking.
Though I know this probably refers to mental maturity, I can assure you that I have been around a while. That only guarantees that parts of me are mature, not the whole package. I replaced all the flooring in one of my trailers yesterday and I can feel it everywhere today. Luckily I don't see any posts with skeletal models that I can misinterpret.
Your response was justified. My initial post was way off-target and will be the basis for an improvement in my own approach to commenting and hopefully others can see themselves when they have been at their worst and resolve to be better.
Good luck to you in your efforts!
I did go back over 'your' work to see why I incorrectly concluded that your model had 38 teeth. It turns out that the mandibular left third molar has a label of "38" when you hover on that tooth. That led me to believe that your jaw somehow fit 38 teeth into the picture. At my dentist, they track oral health of the teeth in the jaw during exams, noting which teeth have fillings or other restorative processes applied so that the dentist can focus on the exact tooth. Their numbering is always 1-32 so when I saw that 38, and other numbers that seemed out of sequence with those I have noted on my own charts, I figured that it had to be wrong. I counted teeth and did not come up with 38 though I also couldn't figure out why a tooth in your model would be labeled "38" unless that is merely an identifier of the specific element displayed.
I see now that your teeth use numbering 21-28 for upper left teeth; 31-38 for lower left teeth; 41-48 for lower right teeth; and 11-18 for upper right teeth. That makes 32 total.
I should've counted. I didn't do that. I made an incorrect assumption that there might be a standard numbering system in place for teeth so that any dentist anywhere could look at a number and know exactly which tooth it referenced. Evidently that is not the case since your model splits a jaw based on right/left and numbers front to back from incisors to molars. That is not the numbering scheme used on my own dental charts which use 1-16 for upper jaw and 17-32 for lower jaw. There is no 38 in that system. This has to be a software issue. My dentist still uses Windows 10 so perhaps they are locked into a different oral health package.
>The rest is just a long rant based...
LOL. This is correct. Too bad. I offer an apology which you can accept or reject. The rant is not terribly out of line for submissions to HN, many of which draw the same criticisms. In this case it appears to be invalid.
>Sounds like an old grump that is falling behind to AI
Actually the old grump part probably fits since I had just made it to my desk and your submission was the first thing that I checked out since it looked interesting. I had not had coffee until after I submitted that post so perhaps my mental capacity was significantly diminished by caffeine depletion.
I'm not falling behind to AI and AI is not threatening to make my job obsolete. There is no part of my work that uses AI so there is no way for me to fall behind.
I hate to think that there are generations of engineers, programmers, etc who will not be qualified to determine whether the AI tools that they build and deploy can answer any of the questions that one would be inclined to ask or solve any of the problems that might need solutions.
Get an education. Learn to think for yourself so that you can recognize when some slop like this hits the screen.
I think it is pretty accurate for today's software construction based on a lot of posts here and on other forum threads.
Software programmers today using AI just flesh out the frame of the product that they want to build then they fill that frame with AI slurry, their concrete, and that becomes the new application. There's likely a lot of stuff in there that they didn't need but it serves as structural elements once the slurry sets and the product is ready for use. Some of those elements doom it to failure in the same way that rusty rebar dooms a concrete structure with enough time.
That's great! It sounds like the early engine had lots of problems but BMW iterated until they solved them, and ended up having a high performance engine for those who stuck with the brand. I know that I have been burned buying the first year model of a vehicle and then having to absorb all the downtime for things that I felt they could've addressed before sending them out to dealerships. 21 mpg on the road from an engine like that is pretty impressive. Like I mentioned, I have never considered owning a BMW but it sounds like they are solid vehicles, after all the usual iterations, just like the other manufacturers. Enjoy the drives!
I guess I should've qualified my comment with a note about those vehicles being American-made V8s. Diesel engines tend to have higher lubrication requirements thus they have larger oil pans. I see that those BMW engines you listed are gassers so I took a look at their specs to see why they would need such large oil reservoirs.
Twin turbos. Mounted in the engine valley. High heat in that configuration and high oil consumption as a result - up to 1 qt/1000 miles. [0]
That's crazy. I can drive my V8 powered, non-turbo engine Bronco 10000 miles between oil changes using full synthetic oil without needing to add a full quart of oil and it has more than 330k miles on the odometer.
I see now why those BMWs may need a huge oil pan. It is an attempt to compensate for the consequences of design decisions that they knew would create problems. Those engines only need a 10 qt reservoir because they would burn through a smaller volume so fast that no one would buy the vehicle because it required them to check the oil every day and to carry oil so that there was less chance of destroying the engine due to running it low.
I was not aware of BMW engines having such huge reservoirs and now that I am I can be glad that I have never considered owing one.
I didn't look at Toyota or other foreign manufacturers who also built V8 engines. Maybe I should educate myself.
I checked specs with different manufacturers and find that the V8 engines that need 10 qts of motor oil are the heavier duty trucks typically with a diesel engine. Checking specs shows that most gasoline V8s require 6 qts, some require 7-8 quarts, and the larger diesel trucks require 10 qts, sometimes up to 11 qts depending on the engine.
10 qts of motor oil takes up a lot of space and that is at a premium in most engine compartments. The oil pan would need to be deep and trucks are the only vehicles that have that much room between the engine block and the crossmembers/differentials.
Now I wait for the inevitable switch to EVs to create discounts on ICE vehicles as people finally get the message that EV is the future. I will buy the pickup I need at a discount to today's prices as that shift gets going.
You can make a difference by giving native insects and birds a place to hang out, safe from insecticides and other unnecessary afflictions.
An interesting thing to note in the chart is the projected peak of this El Nino. Their models project a single peak in about November. If this works like 2015-2016 then you can expect to see two peaks with the first occurring late this year and the second occurring by mid-March, 2027. There was a short period beginning in mid-November, 2015 when the ocean SST anomaly dropped from 3.1C to 2.3C before rebounding to 2.9C by mid-January, 2016 and it remained above 2C until mid-March, 2016. I don't see any allowance for a two-headed peak in those model outputs though it makes sense that winter mixing of Arctic waters could cool the eastern Pacific a few degrees without putting an end to the super El Nino conditions, with 2015-2106 being an obvious, recent analogue.
In section 5 the question of coupling appears to be answered in the affirmative in the data from the top left chart of Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and El Nino. There appears to be a long oscillation trend of about 12 years evident in the data. Perhaps one should see whether this correlates at all with sunspot cycles which have a similar period.
I can make another correlation from my own data that illustrates how the El Nino/La Nina cycle works here in NTexas.
Referring to section 4 - In Context you can see the flip to La Nina period around May 2010 and La Nina conditions held until August 2014 and it took until October 2015 for the rains to return. My records show that when it stopped raining in late May 2010 we were ahead of 20-year avg annual rainfall totals for that date. We ended that year and each year through 2014 with a rainfall deficit. By the end of 2014 we were firmly in a multi-year drought in NTexas with a cumulative rainfall deficit during that period of 31.1" (789.94mm) below 20 year avg annual rainfall. Interestingly enough, we ended 2015 with an annual surplus of 32.1" (815.34mm) here at my place. That erased all of the 5 year rainfall deficit (2010-2014) in the period between October 22 and December 31.
The drought broke in October 2015 as I mentioned at the top, after SST had climber to super El Nino levels, the highest on record to that point. The rains arrived about a month before the first SST peak in November, 2015.
Today I have a sensor array that tells me that soil temps in the full sun from a probe 4-6" (~100-152 mm) below surface reached 100 degrees about three weeks ago during this long, hot spell leading into what I hope is a wet period. Soil moisture there is under 30% and everything that was green in mid-June when the rains stopped is dry and brown today except the hardiest native grasses and small plants. We've had 1.5" (38 mm) of rain since mid-June which puts us almost 5" (127 mm) under the 20 year avg annual total for this date.
Luckily there are signs that the hot, high pressure dome that has dominated our weather since June is moving out of the area and the rains that have been falling west and north of us will be falling on us in a few short weeks.
Thanks for posting this dashboard. It fits so well with my own data that it allows me time to plan for winter gardening. I grew carrots last year and if I can do that again it will make it two years in a row. That would be cool.
EDIT: I took a look at the trend of sunspot numbers found here [0] and there is good correlation with peak sunspot numbers being near the zero-crossing on Section 5 - Is it Coupled chart of SOI. Since we are on the declining side of the sunspot cycle heading into solar minimum, still a few years away, it fits well with this being an El Nino period. Adjust the chart using the slider so that it covers the period from 1990-present like the chart in the dashboard. From that data, the strongest El Nino so far in 2015-2106 occurred during the weakest solar cycle in recent history.
[0]https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/solar-cyc...
Mil-spec cords. LOL. Downvote all you want. Just makes me think of that Crocodile Dundee dialog about the knife, except change knife to corduroy.
I looked at this tile-based solar when he (Musk) announced it and while it looks like a perfect system if you can make it all work, a standard roof-top solar system is easier to install and maintain. I have enough space at my place that I can install the panels in a ground mount so there was no reason to consider this specialty setup. If I had purchased a system like this I would definitely have extra components on hand in case something breaks.
I would treat it like the first model year of a new vehicle design. Buy the second or third model year so most of the problems are someone else's.
The enshittification of TV ownership and usage through smart TVs and the apps and other software that runs without user knowledge is a huge problem wherever these devices are sold. The TVs track and log every device on owner networks - smart watches, thermostats, smart phones, etc, anything that uses wireless or that accesses the internet from inside the home.
I am so glad that I have avoided "upgrading" our TV, almost montly, for years now by simply sending all the Best Buy texts to spam or deleting them. The best way is to opt out of Best Buy communications and after watching that video I will do that.
Our TV is a Panasonic plasma TV from 2012. I need to exit the last streaming service that we subscribe with and that will get it set to an OTA device used when weather int he area is bad enough that having that real-time local weather channel adds value.
From the video - RCE vulnerabilities could allow anyone to drop code on your TV that enables them to use it as a surveillance device. Lots of microphones in the device and no way for the user to disable them. The TV is listening all the time and, using the very sensitive microphones, can detect and record voices in conversations happening in other rooms more than 60' distant. They are effectively whole-house listening devices probably using MEMS microphones due to excellent sensitivity of the devices. Users are fingerprinted and everyone in the house can be identified, even children and those who are frequent enough guests to have been ID'd. Everything that happens triggers the recording.
I suspect Amazon's and Google's devices were the same with their voice triggers. LG does not allow the user to disable that functionality even after the user has disabled it (apparently) through the deeply buried menu option.
LG pushes updates to TVs that improve the tracking ability for LG and their "partners", which includes Microsoft through MS's ownership of Nuance. LG tried to separate their data collection/advert business to circumvent restrictions on ...
Man there is so much there. Fortunately the only LG product I own is a dumb monitor. I will be contacting relatives to offer advice about what to do with their smart devices, LG or others, so I know this starts another round of investigation for me.
No Samsung or LG at my house. Almost done canceling subscription-based "services" like TV content and gaming (XBox) stuff. I don't have software subscriptions so that's great. And, I should be finished with MS OSes pretty soon and flipped to Linux on new devices.
A lot of the shit and shit infrastructure that some of you build is destructive. One day, you will get your just desserts after shafting people with Binding Arbitration agreements, huge TOS and Privacy Policies, and other types of enshittifying end results.
I hope we can scrape it all back to the bedrock foundations of our country before we rebuild anything. I don't want any foundation built on top of this festering layer of bullshit. I'm afraid we will still have foundation problems in the future if we don't examine the reasons why it failed this time and set the rebuilt country up with one less failure mode.
Let's do this once. As they say where I'm from "There's only two ways to do anything - do it right or do it over."