Rebuilding journal search again

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:18 pm
alierak: (Default)
[personal profile] alierak posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.
beavertech: (Default)
[personal profile] beavertech posting in [community profile] science
Let's make a list of multimedia resources! News websites, journals, and publications can be separate.


One of the oldest netcasts out there! Live every Wednesday night (US timezones). Check them out on YT or subscribe via Antennapod or any other podcatcher. Subscribe to their newsletter. Weekly news by Dr. Kiki, Blair Baz The Zoologist who has her Animal Corner segment, and Justin Jackson who's a science writer and funny dude. They also broadcast on FM radio in California from UC Davis.

Since 2006, the weekly Skeptoid podcast has been taking on all the most popular urban legends and revealing the true science, true history, and true lessons we can learn from each. Skeptoid is a listener supported501(c)(3) nonprofit. Learn moreAnother one of the oldest netcasts out there on critical thinking and science. Featuring Dr. Steven Novella, Dr. Cara Santa Maria, and a few others. Tune in for the weekly "Who's That Noisy?", "Science or Fiction?", and other segments.
Conversations with interesting people about interesting topics.Hosted by Rod Pyle, Tariq Malik
The new space age is upon us, and This Week in Space leaves no topic untouched. Every Friday, join Editor-in-Chief of Ad Astra magazine, Rod Pyle and Managing Editor of Space.com, Tariq Malik as they explore everything related to the cosmos.
Join Club TWiT to remove ads. New episodes every Friday.
Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday is the source for entertaining and educational stories about science, technology, and other cool stuff. Also on most public radio stations in the US.
Hosted by Dr. Jessica Steier and Dr. Sarah Scheinman. Together they debunk health science myths and break down complex topics - without oversimplifying them. Combating disinformation with expert discussion.Based at Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), the Naked Scientists are a team of scientists, doctors and communicators whose passion is to help the general public to understand and engage with the worlds of science, technology and medicine.
They have a whole bunch of netcasts!
We're making a podcast about engineering disasters and systemic failures, from a leftist perspective.
Brought to you by the BBC every week covering the latest science news.
The world's first podcast dedicated to exploring AI and the technological singularity. Dive into thought-provoking interviews where cutting-edge technology meets deep ethical discussions. We focus on exponential tech, accelerating change, and the critical choices shaping our future. Our mission is to uncover unprecedented dangers and opportunities, empowering you to create a better future and a better you.They host a bunch of weekly science news netcasts on microbology, viruology, and others. They're blocking my VPN IP currently so I can't really get ya any more info right now! Search in your podcatcher.



What do you guys listen to that's science-y. 

NASA APOD 25/06/28 - Lunar Farside

Jun. 27th, 2025 11:27 pm
beavertech: (Default)
[personal profile] beavertech posting in [community profile] science
far side of the moon

Image Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State Univ. / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Explanation: Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. A likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form dark, smooth maria.



NASA APOD 25/06/27 - Messier 109

Jun. 27th, 2025 11:25 pm
beavertech: (Default)
[personal profile] beavertech posting in [community profile] science
galaxy

Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Eder

Explanation: Big beautiful barred spiral galaxy Messier 109 is the 109th entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog of bright Nebulae and Star Clusters. You can find it just below the Big Dipper's bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In fact, bright dipper star Phecda, Gamma Ursa Majoris, produces the glare at the upper right corner of this telescopic frame. M109's prominent central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the Greek letter "theta", θ, a common mathematical symbol representing an angle. M109 spans a very small angle in planet Earth's sky though, about 7 arcminutes or 0.12 degrees. But that small angle corresponds to an enormous 120,000 light-year diameter at the galaxy's estimated 60 million light-year distance. The brightest member of the now recognized Ursa Major galaxy cluster, M109 (aka NGC 3992) is joined by spiky foreground stars. Three small, fuzzy bluish galaxies also on the scene, identified (top to bottom) as UGC 6969, UGC 6940 and UGC 6923, are possibly satellite galaxies of the larger barred spiral galaxy Messier 109.



beavertech: (Default)
[personal profile] beavertech posting in [community profile] science
Wyoming’s Grand Tetons and Jackson Lake

Photographer: Ray Boren
Summary Author: Ray Boren

Under a big blue sky, the morning sun illuminates a central portion of Wyoming’s majestic Teton Range, which is mirrored via specular reflection in a calm and equally blue bay of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park. In this photograph, taken on May 23, 2025, the park’s namesake Grand Teton peak, topping out at 13,775 feet (4,199 meters) above sea level, is on the far-left side of the image, to the south. Blocky Mount Moran (12,610 feet; 3,840 m) rises prominently just left of center. 

The snow still covering the Tetons on this spring day makes it easy to envision the Pleistocene ice-age glaciers that helped carve the mountains’ jagged summits, cirques, and U-shaped drainages. The Park Service explains that the Teton Fault began tilting the range’s primarily granite mountain block upward about 10 million years ago while also dropping the valley of Jackson Hole. Although masked by snow in the photograph, almost a dozen glaciers remain in the park today, some moving and some mere remnants. They, and erosion from water, wind and gravity, continue to shape the dramatic terrain.

 

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming Coordinates: 43.7904, -110.6818

Related Links:
Sunset and Specular Reflection at Great Salt Lake
Davey Jackson’s Valley in Winter
The Tetons, from the Idaho Side

permalink

idle contemplations

Jun. 27th, 2025 12:56 pm
watersword: Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann from the epilogue of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, & the word "elizabeth" (Pirates of the Caribbean: epilogue)
[personal profile] watersword

Very pleased at how fast my ankle's been healing; it barely hurts at all except when I flex my toes, and I assume that will get better next week. Ice and rest doing their job as advertised! The knee is — I don't want to say getting worse, that's not true, but as the scab gets thicker and more attached to the skin, it feels more uncomfortable to move my knee through flexion/extension, and that is not fun. Botheration.

I have a dark feeling I should get PT after this; I can feel my gait getting fucked up by having both legs injured in different ways. A new adulting experience, and I already do not like it because it will involve insurance. Maybe I'll call the EAP and make them give me a to-do list or something.

While lying in bed and icing my ankle, I have re-read Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy and Fledgling; I know we've talked about it before, but wow it gets more and more noticeable how she just doesn't think of queerness as related to desire. The stuff she's interested in about gender and sexuality forces her to acknowledge the existence of same-sex sexual interactions, but nothing about them is ever anyone's first choice or pleasurable except in the ways her worldbuilding allows her to impose on the characters.

I am idly fantasizing about a shopping app that lets me:

  1. manually add items from a variety of independent vendors (i.e., not Amazon);
  2. once a month (or whatever time period I set), checks if any of the items on the list are on sale;
  3. if it finds an item on sale, it stops going through the list and purchases that item, removing it from the list;
  4. if nothing is on sale, it picks a random item from the list, purchases it, and removes it from the list;
  5. repeat next month.

Note: steps 2-5 do not involve me making decisions or receiving alerts.

Things to Get Me [referral link] is perfect at #1. Google Shopping kind of does #2 but only kind of. The rest of it, I'm fairly sure it doesn't exist and I understand why, I can easily see where this could go very wrong, but I want it for myself and I'm mad that either I gotta build it (no) or outsource to a human. Further botheration.

beavertech: (Default)
[personal profile] beavertech posting in [community profile] science
small building with a tower beside it, stars are visible
same as the other but with multiple space objects labeled


Photographer: Rui Santos
Summary Author: Rui Santos

The night sky and planetary alignment featured above was captured from Pinhal de Leiria, Portugal on February 28, 2025. I decided to view the alignment from here because I knew I'd have a clear view of the horizon. Since the planets were stretched out across the sky, I had to do a panorama and try to avoid light pollution (lower left and lower right) from surrounding cities and towns. Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Uranus are included above, but because I wasn't able to arrive as the Sun was setting, Saturn, Neptune and Mercury aren't in the frame.

At bottom center is the Crastinha Lookout Point, one of several watchtowers in the Forest of Leiria. The building to its right is the reconstruction of what used to be the guard's house, dating from 1883. This tower is still in use today.

Photo Details: Panorama of 4 panels x 10 photos on each panel; Sony A6000 camera; Samyang 12mm F2; 40 x 20 seconds exposure; 6400 ISO; F2.8; 8:16 pm local time. Tripod: Geekoto AT24Pro Dreamer + Andoer Q08S Rotating Head. Processing: PTGUI, Lightroom, Photoshop, RCplugins, Luminar.

 
 
Pinhal de Leiria, Portugal Coordinates: 39.8317, -8.9703
 
Related Links:
Planetary Alignment of April 27, 2022
Planetary Alignments and Planet Parades

Original:
https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2025/06/planetary-alingment-observed-from-pinhal-de-leiria-portugal.html
beavertech: (Default)
[personal profile] beavertech posting in [community profile] science
closeup of a crystal

Kunzite is the pink to light purple gem variety of the mineral Spodumene. Spodumene is a common mineral, but only in several localities does it occur in transparent gem form. The main gem form of Spodumene is Kunzite, the other is the rarer Hiddenite. Yellow and colorless gem forms of Spodumene also exist, but are not commonly faceted as gemstones. Kunzite has a lovely pink color and is becoming increasingly popular in the gemstone market.

Chemical Formula: LiAlSi2O6
Color: Pink, Purple
Hardness: 6.5 - 7
Crystal System: Monoclinic
Refractive Index: 1.66 - 1.68
SG: 3.1 - 3.2
Transparency: Transparent
Double Refraction: .015
Luster: Vitreous
Cleavage: 1,2 - prismatic
Mineral Class: Spodumene

All About:
Kunzite is a relatively recent gemstone, having been first discovered in the 20th century. It was first found in the pegmatites of Pala, California, in 1902, and is named after the famous mineralogist George F. Kunz who first identified it. Though it wasn't until the 1990's that this gemstone became a more mainstream gemstone, having been used only as a collectors gemstone prior to that time.

Kunzite is a very attractive pink gem, but is notorious for its habit of color fading in prolonged exposure to strong light. Although the color-fading effect is very slow, most people still prefer to wear Kunzite jewelery in the evening to avoid sunlight exposure. Kunzite is regarded as an evening stone for this reason.

Kunzite deposits are quite extensive and yield large amounts of this gemstone, thus making it very affordable. Extremely large and flawless crystals of Kunzite have been found, and these can yield very large and flawless faceted gemstones.

The perfect cleavage and splintery fracture of Kunzite makes it a difficult gemstone to facet. It is very sensitive to knocks and will chip if hit too hard. Kunzite is known for its strong pleochroism, showing lighter and more intense coloring when viewed at different angles. For this reason, it is always cut to show the deepest pink color through the top of the gem. The deeper pink the Kunzite, the more valuable it generally is.


Uses:
Although Kunzite is a relatively soft and delicate gem, and can fade after prolonged exposure to light, its appealing color makes it a popular gem. Small gems are not commonly cut from Kunzite because of its cleavage and strong pleochroism. It is most often used as a pendant stone and as a large decorating stone on ornamental objects. It is less commonly used in rings, necklaces, or other jewelry items where small stones are required. Less transparent stones are sometimes cut into cabochons and beads.

Varieties:
Blue Kunzite - Light blue to bluish green transparent form of Spodumene.
Yellow Kunzite - Yellow transparent form of Spodumene.



History and Introduction:
Kunzite is the pale pink to light-violet gem-quality variety of the pyroxene mineral spodumene, a lithium aluminum inosilicate. Kunzite was first discovered in Connecticut, USA, and was named after George Frederick Kunz (1856 - 1932), an American mineralogist and the former vice president and buyer for Tiffany & Company. Kunz was a legendary New York jeweler and colored stone specialist, and he was the first to comprehensively describe the stone in 1902.

Although it was first discovered in the USA, most of the current supply of kunzite is found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kunzite is closely related to hiddenite, the yellow-green member of the spodumene gemstone family which was also discovered and named after an American mineralogist, W. E. Hidden; as well as the classic golden to yellow color gem-quality spodumene. Kunzite is known to produce gemstones of great size. In fact, it's not uncommon to find fine quality stones weighing 20 carats or more. Kunzite and the entire spodumene group are important industrial sources of lithium, which is used for the making of medicines, ceramics, mobile phones and automotive batteries.

Sources:
https://www.minerals.net/gemstone/kunzite_gemstone.aspx
https://www.gemselect.com/gem-info/kunzite/kunzite-info.php

lolsob

Jun. 23rd, 2025 08:16 pm
watersword: Parker running across a roof with the words "tick tick tick (boom)" (Leverage: tick tick tick (boom))
[personal profile] watersword

I tripped coming back from the garden after watering and skinned the hell out my left knee and twisted my right ankle, plus minor scrapes on my palms. Ow.

Hobbled home, rinsed everything off (because of course I had some dirt on me from wrestling the garden hose and whatnot), smeared on antibacterial ointment, iced both joints (not super successfully), taped bandaids to my knee, and ordered delivery of a bento box. Now I need to put on enough clothes to get downstairs to receive said delivery, and get back up the stairs to eat. Ow ow OW.

This was a perfectly pleasant heatwave until then! I got the window unit into my bedroom window yesterday, have been eating popsicles and drinking various flavored waters, and made summer rolls last night. I was going to make peanut noodles. But no. Did I mention OW?

patience in a garden plot

Jun. 21st, 2025 11:01 pm
watersword: A steel bridge and a wooden pier near turquoise water. (Stock: pier and bridge)
[personal profile] watersword

Got a Cake Batter cone (working my way through the non-coffee-flavors at my local ice cream shop) and walked over to the garden; I am very pleased to report that the rhubarb has come up, and so has the parsley and the cosmos and the sweet alyssum! Could there be 100% more of all of these plants, considering how many seeds I put in? Yes. But: I created plants! The basil is going to be so happy over the next week of heatwave. The peas are doing great and I am going nuts over the lack of watermelon, hopefully they will also rejoice in the heat.

And then I stuck a couple of coreopsis in the front garden, which I impulse-bought this morning at the farmer's market, not even a little sorry. Other impulse purchases today included a bag of basil (PESTO) and a container of corn salsa, which I will add to fish-stick tacos.