Magic Rocks
Magic Rocks
65 comments
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My library doesn't have it :(
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I missed the colon in that book title at first and was very confused about a book for their mother entitled "on looking eleven..."
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Rocks aren't magic but if you dig into the subject you'll find that rocks are incredibly diverse and form in a number of different ways. Many are also found located hundreds/thousands of miles away from where they were formed, meaning they somehow moved.
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Are you suggesting
coconutsrocks migrate? -
gneiss story that was some wild schist
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I'm just beginning to read up on geology. It's wild, invisibly slow change. You may like this short film "Das Rad" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOPwXNFU7oU
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Thanks! I reallly enjoyed that video.
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Being an expert in software has gotta be the most boring version of this.
“Oh that point of sale system? It’s running Android 11. I can tell from the status bar at the top. That’s probably because the SOC in it was cheap in bulk and supported Android 11.”
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There's probably some history there still too.
"Pos systems used to only run this specific kernel that had very limited memory because this buttface company lobbied themselves into a monopoly in the industry and we were stuck with 50yo tech until only very recently, which is how we got problems like that credit card input fiasco - this lady could never get her credit card to work because every time she leaned over to swipe, as she was swiping, her belly would nudge the keypad somehow and introduce an extra digit! We couldn't even separate inputs whilst we were streaming movies off the internet, it was so backward. Now we've got a new monopoly with apple and android, it's all held together by this dude in a basement somewhere. I met him once. He's not a guy you can forget easily, even though everyone wants to. Also, he has eight fingers. But one of his hands only has two."
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Right, but you can also explain vulnerabilities and speak on topics like AI at a higher level and about that time that guy put in lines that worked like a kill switch if he ever was fired, and he was fired.
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I’m an expert on capitalism and everywhere I look I just see pain and ecological destruction.
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Some girl called me cheap today because I'm learning to sharpen my knives instead of just buying new ones. Consumerism is a cancer.
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I know, right? I make our own fruit soda (kombucha), and my very boomer mom thinks it's silly because Coke tastes so great! I need my daily Coke!
Bitch, right now we have raspberry lemonade, blackberry pop, apple and cinnamon ice tea, and fizzy mint ice tea. With extra vitamins and no added sugar.
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This blows my mind. I'm that guy who lives rurally and has been poor for a good portion of my life. I make, build and fix pretty much everything we have because we could never afford another one and it's stupid to not do that anyway. It hurts my brain to think people live like that.
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That's only logical. You should have become a taco expert instead.
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Taco experts looks at the aftermath of a Taco Bell meal, “I just see pain and ecological destruction”
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Makes sense.
When I spend a lot of time doing 3D design work I find myself looking at the world afterwards in terms of underlying mathematics, angles and shapes. Like I'll look at a cabinet and see rectangles and cylindrical cuts that could reproduce it in 3d, or a lamp-post as a circle extruded along a path.
People who are really into rocks probably notice more about that stuff because their brains are hyper-focused on such
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Well that can be less of a wonder and more of a curse. I have a very huge phobia of earthworms, and I can see them very well. People who know me well go outside and are like "it's all clear, I checked!" and then I go outside and I see them everywhere.
I also get "Oh just don't look down" by people who I tell this to all the time. Like, sure, stepping on that will totally be ok as long as I don't see it? That's not how this works.
Same goes for these stupid tiny green caterpillars hanging from trees. You wear hats to protect yourself from the sun. I wear them as head condoms against these fuckers. But the truth is I see them from miles away. Miss me with that shit.
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Learning to ID plants is a curse too because you see so many invasive monocultures everywhere.
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That sucks cuz I've heard earthworms are so crucial to soil health and the entire ecosystem within for plants to thrive.
Sucky phobia to live with but at least it is regional. Move to a city or desert and you won't have to worry about those slimy snakes.
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I live in Germany so they are even in cities :(
Yeah the soil thing is difficult for me. I just wish there was a healthy world without any kind of ~ thing. I love the idea of gardening, planting my own food and stuff, but it takes about 20 minutes in nature for me to realize that is a fantasy self. I like nature, I just don't want to be around it. At all.
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I've got to ask, what is it about earthworms that scares you? Are you genuinely afraid of being hurt by one or is it something else? Do you yourself see the fear as something perfectly rational that you don't understand how others aren't aren't afraid, or do you often feel silly, but you just can't help how you feel? No shade, feel free to tell me to shove off, I'm just genuinely interested in what that looks like from your POV.
Your comment made me think about how I haven't even seen an earthworm in years that I didn't go out of my way to see. I'd love to take a walk with you so you can point out all the earthworms I'm missing in my day to day.
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Here's an anecdote: When I studied abroad, I met a guy who was in his master's program for psychology, and he wasn't convinced that phobias were a real thing and not something else. Some day, we tried to get home to the dorm through the rain in the dark, and he eventually ended up carrying me home. Before we said good night, he told me that he now has finally seen someone with a phobia, and now believes they are a real thing.
I am actually scared of all wormy creatures, ie long, no vertebrate, no legs or more than 10. That also means I am scared of bugs and flies, not because I am scared of them - I am scared of their kids. (I haven't taken the trash out in 8 years or so.)
And to me it makes only sense. I cannot understand how others aren't scared to death. I cannot explain what it is, I can tell you this: it is not just disgust. It is not just their form or smth. It's a genuine fear. I get tense just writing about this. I would never do therapy because to me the thought of being ok with it is not appealing. I don't want to be ok with it. Fuck that. Y'all should do therapy to realize that you're crazy for being ok with it. (I'm joking, I know that's wrong, but this is 100% how it feels.) I would rather chop off my arm than touch it. I would, and I mean this, rather let my mother die, than touch it. I regularly reevaluate these statements and they are still true.
I am fine with snakes and spiders tho lol.
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Not OP but I have the same phobia of earthworms and hanging green caterpillars (and millipedes to a lesser extent) - I just involuntarily feel that lines that squiggle on their own are creepy. Now if those lines had distinguishable eyes then I'm not as creeped out (i.e. snakes)
I also don't like broken rubber bands (the red and yellow kinds)
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Walk? In this suburban hell?
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Ignorance might be bliss, but knowledge is joy.
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Eh. More often than not knowledge is suffering as well.
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This is basically the entire concept of the podcast 99 Percent Invisible
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Hot damn is that a good book recommendation!
on second look it seems its somewhat sloppily misrepresented. Apparently the book is not actually structured around the same walk taken 11 different times with different perspectives. some of the walks are the same, but others are in completely different locations. There also are reviews complaining about an excess of filler content.
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Over the last few years I have been working on getting into botany, herbalism and urban foraging. Basically I am working on trying to identify every plant I see in my neighborhood and finding what their uses are. So in my yard and walk around the neighborhood I look at every plant and try to see if I can identify it. Since its easiest to identify while flowering I guess for weeks and months until then to determine if I am right. As the seasons change I get better and better at identifying things after or before a bloom. It really brings magic and interest as I move around the world
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Oh my gosh this is so me! I started by trying to figure out what our lawn was made of and now I'm seeing NPFs (Noxious Plant Fuckers) all over the place! I've gone through my states Noxious Plant list and I'm obliterating giant ragweed as we speak.
I've found so many cool facts about the history of plants in my neighbors garden, too! I'm just starting, but plants are so cool! There's a type of invasive honeysuckle that whitetail deer love, and it tends to choke out all other plant life around it. One day, we might have whole forests of deer and honeysuckle, with not a predator in sight. Whoops, haha!
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Its nice to be able to see what you should remove. I have defeating the Creeping Bellflower in my new wildflower section of my yard. (The thin strip between my fence and the alley sometimes called the Hell Strip). If you are like me and want to know what is good to have in your yard I would recommend Prairie Moon Nursery if you live in North America. The shop sells native plants and lets you filter by location, bloom season etc. in case you need to buy plants or seeds. It also has a great range map, great pictures and good descriptions in case you are interested. I highly recommend looking at the website to get plants to names
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Me too! I prune my yard of invasives and let the natives grow, cataloging with iNaturalist as I see new species. My yard was a dirt slope last summer, this summer it is full of a wonderful variety of plants! My crotchety gardener mother and aunt keep trying to offer me non-natives to transplant -- I tell them I've got plants growing already but thank you -- they say, "yeah, weeds."
Funnily enough, my yard with milkweed, primrose, violets, tickseed flowers, black-eyed susans, a walnut sapling, pepperweed, and st johns wort (not actually native here but not as invasive as some other plants) looks better than theirs and probably requires way less maintenance.
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This "magic" requires a certain dose of privilege to be enjoyed. Fairly certain nearly everyone has the cognitive potential to do so, but unless we tax the rich, not the potential privilege.
✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.
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Dang, I'm reading that next. That sounds fascinating
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I’m always noticing things. Interesting things, weird things, funny things. My mom has asked me multiple times, “How do you find so much interesting stuff?”
All I’ve ever be able to respond with is, “I look around.” She misses a lot around her, my brothers and I even mess with her sometimes by “hiding” things in plain sight around my parents’ house and waiting until she says something.
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Lead poisoning is a hell of a thing
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This is my answer to people who are sad that FTL space travel is probably impossible. There are wonders right around you that you don't even know about. Space will always be there for humanity to explore. We don't have to be in a rush. Tons to learn about right here. It's not worth going to space if we leave a burnt cinder of a planet behind us.
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Or even people who insist on going to other countries for their holidays. For most of us using Lemmy, there will be so much in a 200 mile radius of us that is wonderful but we will never see because we insist on holidays going even further afield.
Unless you live in the Midwest, in which case I don't blame you for going further.
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My colleague insists on always flying abroad "tickets are so cheap!" When we live in one of the most scenic country on the planet.
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Im from the Midwest but moved in my twenties. Rediscovering the Midwest when I travel home to visit has been great.
Last time I was there I ate my first mayapple. They just grow there and are a tasty fruit you cant buy in the store. Most locals haven't even ate one because of it isnt in the grocery store it might as well not exist for most people.
Next up is a pawpaw. I can't wait. I've already been watching tree identification guides.
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I have been doing a lot of vacationing "at home" this year and it's been a blast. Helps that it's been the warmest summer in recorded history (as long as I don't think about it too hard).
Going abroad and discover other cultures and climates is great and all, but it's so easy to miss how great it can be close to home or just a few hours by train.
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When I started paying closer attention to all the small insects around me, I felt like I was in an alien world. There are so many otherworldly and bizarre looking creatures just outside your door, you just have to get used to looking for them :)
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There are truly alien things on our planet of we just look at the edges.
Life seems to spring up everywhere.
Also the upcoming field of plant intelligence is so interesting.
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For me it is magical when I see some people who know how to walk and chewing gum at the same time
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There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see
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... But if you're bored, then you're boring.
The agony and the irony, they're killing me!
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what's that feynman quote about science making things more beautiful?
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You’re likely thinking of this quote from a 1981 BBC interview in the series The Pleasure of Finding Things Out:
“I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say, ‘Look how beautiful it is,’ and I’ll agree. Then he says, ‘I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing.’
I think he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is … I can appreciate the beauty of a flower.
At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there’s also beauty at a smaller dimension.
The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting — it means that insects can see the color.
It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds.
I don’t understand how it subtracts.”
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That book has been on my list for too long!
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That book sounds wonderful. My local library has it through Libby
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That book sounds pretty neat
65 comments
I loved hanging out with an entomologist during the brief time xkcd's geohashing was popular. Just sharing the love of the insect world they had
They also taught me how to make a drosophila (fruit fly) trap (cut the to off a soft drink bottle, flip it, tape the two parts together, bait it with wine)