futurebird

[futurebird]

Is iNaturalist collaborating with google to put AI in our favorite bug site????

There is an important post over on Mastodon about this, but I wanted to pass this along to the bug fans on tumblr too. It sounds like they want to use AI to "improve" species suggestions, but is also sounds like google is trying to datamine iNaturalist.

Everyone is a little alarmed by this for OBVIOUS reasons. AI has made learning about insects online so much more awful and iNaturalist is an island of sanity in a sea of slop. I don't want that to change at all.

iNaturalist has said they will make a "blog post" to explain due to the concerns this has raised. And they should. This isn't the community that wants this kind of change.

I hope that they will be reasonable and the alarm is just overblown, but I do think it's justified.

When you search for "ants" on google you get nonsense like this labeled as a macrophoto:

There is NO ANT with mouthparts like that. This is made up. It makes learning about bugs harder and I hate the haphazard and chaotic way this tech has ruined so many sources. So, it should be treated with extreme caution as far as I'm concerned. Even if we are just talking about "suggestions for species ID" this isn't something I really think we need.

[futurebird]

"would miss like a little AI on her pasta?"

This whole AI thing is like being in a restaurant with a fancy waiter who has one of those giant pepper shakers, only it's full of bird poop and anthrax and he keeps asking "would miss like a little AI on her pasta?" with every dish that comes out... and when you say "NO" he starts grinding anyway and won't stop until you physically knock him over.

[futurebird]

“I was captured by a human but I got away. They chased me!”
“what nonsense why would a big creature like a human even notice you? Or want to chase you?”
“They did! They tried to put me in pod.”
“Oh yeah sure they did. And I bet they took photos of you and named you too. 🙄”
“What is photos? They didn’t take anything from me. I defeated them and escaped.”
What I imagine the ants I encounter end up saying.

[futurebird]

A HUMAN MIND IS A COMPLEXITY. IT IS A COLONY. IT IS A LOCAL RESOURCE LIKE THE APHID. LIKE THE LICHEN. HUMAN COMPLEXITY BENEFITS THE COLONY, AS DOES ALL DIVERSITY. WE DIRECT YOU TO PRESERVE HUMAN COMPLEXITY. YOU MAY HOWEVER REDUCE THE RESOURCE CONSUMPTION OF THE HUMAN MINDS.

[futurebird]

Kate Moss looking ant

[futurebird]

[futurebird]

Ready to wear was a mistake.

When it comes to spending money on clothes, getting something tailored is the best way to get bang for your buck. Especially if you are:

*short *tall *round *pencil shaped *any shape that isn't a mannequin.

In films, ads and TV people always wear clothes that fit, and designers design clothes with a fit in mind. Many of these people aren't mannequin shaped. Their clothes are altered.

If you try on clothes in a store and hate them all it may be because none of them fit.

When you get them fitted suddenly you look amazing. Ready to wear was a mistake.

Buy a cheap blazer at the thrift shop and get it fitted. You suddenly look like some kind of genius about fashion.

I get a lot of compliments and it's really because everything I have has been fitted. I don't have any other bright ideas.

[futurebird]

comprehensive list of mourning dove thoughts

1. We live here! Go Away other doves! I will sing a terrifying song to scare my enemies. (sings sad cute song) 2. I like seeds and grubs ... and seeds. (soft coos) 3. I love my spouse. Perfect Dove. 4. How to "make nest?" stick? Deep confusion. (furtive coos) 5. Oh No! Oh No! Everyone run! Something LARGE has MOVED. (adorable rapid cooing)

I think that's all of them?

[futurebird]

If you’re european and can vote please sign!

In any case, share as much as you can

[futurebird]

[Image Description: A drawing as if for submission of a patent in black and white of a clock where the minute and second hand are little "iron bugs" moved around the clock face by hidden magnets. The clock is labeled "bug time" in two places, because this is such an exciting idea.]

Source details and larger version.

Timely: from cursed clocks to wind-up dresses, clock imps to clocks with faces, here’s my collection of vintage timepieces.

[futurebird]

If you live in the US.

If you live in US you can submit a quick (or long) comment about how this bill that makes firing non-partisan public servants easier is a bad idea that will make government services less effective. The point of this bill is just so "DOGE" and Trump can fire people for no reason. It's a power grab and will make everything from your library to water treatment plant objectively worse.

Takes 1.5 min to do the minimum. Just say they shouldn't do it. (If you have an essay on this topic paste it in.) Volume of comments matters.

Here is a direct link to the public comment:

You have until 05/23/2025 at 11:59 pm EST to add your comment.

[futurebird]

One Hour Long Lecture of Parasitoids

It's a great introduction! Not overly technical, but packed with interesting information.

[futurebird]

prim numbers

"That number, 19, is a prim. You can only factor it as 1 times itself." "Don't you mean it's a prime?" "No, it's prim, just not comfortable with any other factors but itself and 1. And there's nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn't look down on other numbers for having so many factorizations."

19: "30 is such a ho. Disgusting."

"wow... so much for that."

[futurebird]

[Image Descriptions:

In gray tiny gravel, rather like coarse sand a US penny. The entire plant is smaller than the penny. It has a round white blossom like a balloon when it is closed. The leaves are pale jade green and chubby like those found on desert succulents. The stems of the flowers are thread-like.

Later photos show what the plant looks like when the blossoms open. They have yellow pollen inside and are very much like miniture versions of the larger poppies.

The last photo shows a human finger gently touching the tiny plant.]

Ok this isn't a bug but I need to share - LOOK at these absolutely minuscule precious little poppies

White pygmy-poppy, Canbya candida, found in Southern California

Photos by keirmorse, mojavedon, and pokemon_master

[futurebird]

Listen if your kid wants to raise humans, you need to understand they live in large groups. You can’t just plop a few thousand in a habitat and expect them to thrive — most kids get a small solar system or even a galaxy arm. Then your humans will make their little civilizations and wars and cultures it’s such a fascinating hobby! … one planet? well that ought to do. (I guess.)

---

I'm a little worried about the humans the next door neighbor's kid keeps. Maybe I'm just being nosey, but I know that they only set up one planet for them (in an otherwise barren solar system designed to contain them.) I suppose it's easier if you just suppress space development. Saves you the trouble of using radiation zones to keep them contained-

They originally had 3 planets, but two were 2nd hand and their plate tectonics and atmospheres broke before the humans even got established.

From what I hear their civilizations are a little on the brutal side and I can't help but wonder if this kid's stingy set-up is in part to blame. Every human keeper enjoys watching war behaviors natural disaster response, but there is a fine line between observing nature, and putting creatures in a limited environment where suffering and disasters are inevitable.

The whole population is bottlenecked from some long ago event, but the kid says they don't even know what it was!

I remember some of the kits for keeping humans they sold when I was young. We knew a lot less about how they worked back then.

You'd just try to keep several thousand in bio box, and inevitably, if they didn't all kill each other they would find the borders of the box and focus all their energy on escape.

Human intelligence is remarkable for their size. Not saying they can think like we do exactly, but I often wonder if they are conscious like we are. It's possible in some rudimentary way.

[futurebird]

Pope Smoke

Remember

Black smoke means they didn't manage to pick a pope.

White smoke means they did.

Blue smoke means they put the capacitor in backwards.

[futurebird]

Whenever I read "the police gave him a polygraph and he passed" in some crime history story I think "The police asked a magic 8 ball if he was telling the truth and it said 'signs point to yes'"