asakiyume | Network

A friend and I got to talking about bean and pea sprouts. If you can't garden outside, just want to save money, or wish for more variety, then check out these resources...

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Current Mood: busy

yourlibrarian posting in

tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk

In an interview, Seth MacFarlane said that he created The Orville because “the dishes that we are serving up are so dystopian and so pessimistic.”

Do we need hopeful television? Can dystopian television be hopeful? Which shows are hopeful to you?

damninteresting_link_feed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxobPzkE4r0&utm_source=DamnInteresting

Video: Whoops. Another Forbes 30u30 Facing Prison [14:17] (from youtube.com)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxobPzkE4r0&utm_source=DamnInteresting

damninteresting_link_feed

https://theconversation.com/how-dolphins-communicate-new-discoveries-from-a-long-term-study-in-sarasota-florida-271276?utm_source=DamnInteresting

How dolphins communicate – new discoveries from a long‑term study in Sarasota, Florida (from theconversation.com)

https://theconversation.com/how-dolphins-communicate-new-discoveries-from-a-long-term-study-in-sarasota-florida-271276?utm_source=DamnInteresting

damninteresting_link_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-nasa-hubble-unexpectedly-comet.html?utm_source=DamnInteresting

NASA's Hubble unexpectedly catches comet breaking up (from phys.org)

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-nasa-hubble-unexpectedly-comet.html?utm_source=DamnInteresting

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-sunken-soviet-submarine-ongoing-radioactive.html

In 1989, the Soviet nuclear-powered attack submarine Komsomolets sank to the bottom of the Norwegian Sea, along with its nuclear reactor and two nuclear warheads onboard. Komsomolets was constructed with a titanium alloy exterior that allowed it to reach far greater depths than any other submarine at the time. Now, it has stayed at these depths for over 30 years, slowly leaking radioactive materials and creating ongoing concerns about radioactive contamination.

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-sunken-soviet-submarine-ongoing-radioactive.html

capri0mni

Something I've not even talked about on Tumblr, I don't think: I've started (obliquely) following the manga One Piece through watching review / discussion channels on YouTube. I totally avoided being intimidated by the length, by not giving a flying whatsit about starting at the beginning. I got into it when my one of my favorite sea shanty / folk bands did a cover of the English translation of Bink no Sake, and I wanted some context for the madness. So I just dove into the fan wiki, and, out of curiosity, looked to see what the current manga chapter/anime episode was at the time. And I've been following along from that point on ever since. I don't have to worry about missing necessary context or plot developments from the beginning, because for the fans who make the videos, drawing connections between almost 30 years of story details is their favorite hobby.
A deepening pet peeve: Foods being sold as "Healthy Substitutes for [X]," for whatever the health kick trend of the day is, instead of just being celebrated in their own right. It leads people to expect a different flavor / texture than what they get, which leads them to decide that a food tastes disgusting, but if it were in a different context, it would be delicious. And then, worst of all, when that particular trend is no longer trendy, that perfectly good food practically disappears from store shelves, and the price skyrockets.
A case in point: I've recently discovered nutritional yeast. It's sold and promoted as "A Parmesan Alternative for Vegans." It's good. But it's not Parmesan. I'd say, if I were to put in in a family tree of flavors, that it's a first cousin to Parmesan cheese (rather than its twin) on one side, and, on the other side, a cousin to those instant Raman noodle flavor packets (with a lot less sodium than either). It doesn't work at all as a binding agent the way the cheese does, though. I like to sprinkle it on salads already tossed in dressing (so that it will stick), to add some protein and umami.
Lately, I've been haunted by a Grimm's fairy tale that I've tried (three or four times) to rewrite / fix during my NaNoWriMo Days (which I have since disavowed completely, due to that organization's embrace of generative A.I.), and been thoroughly demoralized by each time, at the end. I don't know if I'm really drawn to try again, though, or if my mind is just retreating back to it as a distraction from other, real-world stressors I'd rather not think about.
At the end of last year, and the start of this one, I decided to get back to my love for the character, and murder mystery stories of, Lord Peter Wimsey. I'd watched the 1970 TV adaptations by the BBC on Masterpiece Theater as teen, and subsequently read a bunch of short stories. But there's a whole lot I never read. Back in January, I started reading the third novel, Unnatural Death, over at Project Gutenberg. But real life rudely interrupted me in the middle of Chapter Two. And I'm just now getting bak to it. Anyone want to join me in a read-along?

james_davis_nicoll

Telling the truth can make you unpopular... or put you into real peril.

Five Stories About the Dangerous Business of Truth-Telling

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-subsurface-triggered-antarctica-sudden-sea.html

In 2016, Antarctic sea ice, which had previously shown record expansion, shifted rapidly toward unusually low levels. This abrupt shift left scientists scratching their heads, wondering why it had vanished so quickly despite years of growth. A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences may finally have the answer.

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-subsurface-triggered-antarctica-sudden-sea.html

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-sensitive-fentanyl-physics.html

Following the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, lateral flow assays (LFAs)—the category of test strips in which the presence or lack of a pink line indicates whether a specific molecule, like a drug or a virus, has been detected—became household items. Yet despite their ubiquity and decades of development, there has not been a quantitative, physics-grounded method for explaining the sensitivity and limits of LFAs to help guide their design.

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-sensitive-fentanyl-physics.html

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-flies-proteins.html

In a new study, Northwestern University scientists explored how snow flies—small, wingless insects that crawl across snow to find mates and lay eggs—survive in freezing cold temperatures. They discovered this snow-dwelling fly uses a surprising combination of strategies: it generates its own body heat like a mammal and produces antifreeze proteins like an Arctic fish.

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-flies-proteins.html

jo posting in

tv_talk

For All Mankind's fifth season starts on Friday, March 27. Just announced is that the show has been renewed for a 6th and final season. This will allow it to catch up to its version of the present day.

Info from Reactor Magazine

Note -- the article says the 5th season lands on March 29. That is incorrect -- it's the 27th.

aurumcalendula

I finally watched the scene this this fanvid was inspired by with the original audio and as a result I've started watching Wiseguy.

I'm boggled by the apparently unintentional queer subtext (or at least no one seems to be admitting if it was on purpose) between Vinnie and Sonny. I guess they were aiming for platonic love (although citing Butch and Sundance and Gilgamesh as influences is making me a tad skeptical about that), but it doesn't read that way to me.

And that's not even getting into dialogue choices that are making me go '...did the writers mean to imply the main character is bi?'

( examples under the cut )

I suspect some of it's the result of the writers trying to be edgy, but still... Apparently some reviewers picked up on it at the time, so it's not just a matter of stuff aging oddly.

( grumbling about music on the home media releases )

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-pandemic-scientists-class-influenza-antivirals.html

Researchers from Leiden University, University of York, University of Barcelona/IQTCUB/ICREA and The Francis Crick Institute report a new class of experimental compounds that powerfully block influenza viruses. The findings offer a potential new strategy for treating flu infections and preparing for future pandemics. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes a family of molecules known as "sugar aziridines." These compounds are inspired by the widely used flu drug Oseltamivir (Tamiflu), but are designed to act in a fundamentally different way.

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-pandemic-scientists-class-influenza-antivirals.html

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-geneva-cern-hails-delicate-antimatter.html

Scientists in Geneva took some antiprotons out for a spin—a very delicate one—in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive that has been deemed a success.

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-geneva-cern-hails-delicate-antimatter.html

phys_breaking_feed

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-complicated-future-methane-cleansing-molecule.html

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that is second only to carbon dioxide in driving up global temperatures. But it doesn't linger in the atmosphere for long thanks to molecules called hydroxyl radicals, which are known as the "atmosphere's detergent" for their ability to break down methane. As the planet warms, however, it's unclear how the air-cleaning agents will respond.

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-complicated-future-methane-cleansing-molecule.html

languagelog_feed

Posted by Mark Liberman

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=73130&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=73130

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=73130

Tao Lin et al., "The audience shapes the information content of the honey bee waggle dance", PNAS 3/23/2026:

We show that the honey bee waggle dance changes depending on how many followers a dancer has and how many appropriately aged bees are available to follow it. When followers were scarce, dancers became less precise, even if the dance floor was crowded with young bees that do not follow dances. These declines in precision appear to arise because dancers search more widely for an audience, increasing their movement during the return run. The results suggest that dancers use simple social cues, such as tactile contacts, to sense follower availability. Thus, waggle dancing is not a one-way signal but a socially responsive behavior shaped by feedback from followers.

The biologists behind this paper don't reference the sociolinguistic concept of audience design — though the motivation attributed to the bees ("decline in precision […] because dancers search more widely for an audience") is a bit different from the usual list of sociolingusitic goals.

The UCSD press release of course aims at a different audience from the PNAS paper: "Bee Dancing is Better with the Right Audience", thus illustrating the point.

A bee dancing video:

Watch on YouTube

For another angle on why linguists should care, see "Straw men and Bee Science", 6/4/2011.

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=73130&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=73130

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=73130