thequeenwanderer

[thequeenwanderer]

@mikimeiko is doing a photography project where you take the same picture every month (introduction/explanation here) and I promised I'd join in. And wouldn't you know, I discovered that one of the old pollard willows down by the creek is freshly trimmed! That should make for an interesting subject.

09.01.24, 16:41

[thequeenwanderer]

[thequeenwanderer]

Could you personally forgive someone who had a neo-Nazi “phase” as an adult? Assuming they’re trying to make amends for their past behavior/beliefs

[thequeenwanderer]

Professor and students prototype machine to unravel textiles for re-use rather than cutting them

University of Minnesota Duluth associate professor Abbie Clarke-Sather, Ph.D., envisions a world where textile recycling is commonplace. Where thrift stores, recycling facilities and clothing brands can manage their own textile waste, turning it back into fibers that can be reused instead of going to landfills by the literal millions of tons. She and her team have been developing the Fiber Shredder for the past six years. It’s a little bit of a misnomer, as the machine pulls apart textiles rather than cutting them, leaving the fibers longer and more usable for re-spinning. It does the job in about 90 seconds.

photo: Hira Durrani (left), who is working toward her master’s in applied material science at the University of Minnesota Duluth, has developed nonwovens from recycled cotton. Paulo Alves graduated with a master’s in mechanical engineering and is working with associate professor Abbie Clarke-Sather, Ph.D., at Waypoint Forward LLC to commercialize the machine.

[thequeenwanderer]

saddest thing ever is seeing new 18-22 year olds talk about how Christmas doesn't feel magical anymore during their transition from it being a super special day of the year to kinda just another average day of the year. I remember that feeling well, and I just want to say to those young people specifically: if you want the magic back you have to create it yourself now, the way you want to. it's your magic now

[thequeenwanderer]

one lucky fan will be receiving an authentic blood transfusion that will ideally be compatible, although we did not check

[thequeenwanderer]

"One of the least respected but most important ecosystems on Earth are seagrass meadows, and a pioneering robotic solution is helping marine scientists restore these underwater gardens.

The ReefGen Grasshopper can plant dozens of seagrass seeds per minute. Not only is this faster than a human diver, but much safer as well.

It works by injecting a tiny slurry of sediment wrapped around the seagrass seed into the seafloor. After covering a growing plot of four seeds, the robot ‘hops’ about 30 centimeters away and starts again.

Despite covering a minuscule portion of the seafloor, seagrass meadows are estimated to hold 35-times more carbon than terrestrial forests—amounting to around 18% of the total carbon stock of the world’s oceans.

ReefGen’s founder Tom Chi dreamed up the idea after watching the degradation of coral reefs on his home island in Hawaii. The first iteration of the robot set coral ‘plugs’ onto existing reefs to help regrow them, but the technology was prohibitively expensive for wide-scale use.

Now however, broader selections of off-the-shelf parts have driven down the costs of manufacturing and maintaining underwater robots, according to Chris Oakes, CEO of ReefGen.

“Manual planting works, but robots are really good when things are dull, dirty, dangerous, or distant—the four Ds,” Oakes told CNN, adding that at the moment, Grasshopper is piloted with a controller by a human on the surface.

“Right now, we’re focused on the planting, the biology, and the mechanical aspects, once we’re confident that that’s all designed the right way, we will overlay more semi-autonomous features like navigation, so you don’t actually have to pilot it,” he said.

ReefGen has been able to not only expand into restoration of seagrass meadows, but also see its robots used in oceans around the world. This July, Grasshopper planted 25,000 seeds in Wales. In October, ReefGen teamed up with the University of North Carolina (UNC) Institute of Marine Sciences to test various seed replanting methods out on the state’s declining seagrass meadows.

Oakes says that as cool and “flashy” as a robotic solution might seem, the most important factor in its success will be the long-term monitoring of the fields it’s replanting. Are they growing to maturity, are the seedlings dying off before then, will they live long enough to seed and germinate fields of their own, how do fields it plants compare to fields planted by hand??"

-via Good News Network, December 24, 2024

[thequeenwanderer]

SO! For some reason (my guess is Bernie Su antics but who knows), the entire The Lydia Bennet channel has been deleted from YouTube. But once again, the Internet Archive has come in clutch! I've downloaded every archived episode and made them available here. I also added some notes about video quality issues and how there's one missing video.

Remember folks, media preservation is so so so so important!!!

[thequeenwanderer]

Someone on Reddit keeps getting recommended the Jane Austen subreddit despite knowing nothing about Jane Austen, so they posted an Ask Me Anything. Best response so far:

Sorry JA, no longer a truth universally acknowledged.

[thequeenwanderer]

It was an evening of grey fog that had crept in from the gulf, swathed the harbor, filled the glens and valleys, and clung heavily to the autumnal meadows. Through it the sea sobbed and shuddered.

period drama + fog/mist

THE SECRET GARDEN (1993)

JANE EYRE (2011)

EMMA. (2020)

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005)

ANNE WITH AN E (2017 - 2019)

THE HANDMAIDEN (2016)

THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012)

BRIDGERTON (2020 - )

[thequeenwanderer]

[thequeenwanderer]

A bit of Moby-Dick oceanography context:

Up until the mid 1870s, it was generally accepted that life could not exist below a depth of 550 meters. This is why some of Ishmael's whale theories are so off and why Ahab pictures the sea floor as a vast wasteland of bones and shipwrecks. 🌊

[thequeenwanderer]

Love ships where its like some guy with autism and his special interest is his wife

[thequeenwanderer]

[thequeenwanderer]

"FREE LUIGI

Deny Defend Depose

EAT THE CEOs"

Sticker spotted in Portland, Oregon

[thequeenwanderer]

All the torso animated studies.

[thequeenwanderer]

Last week, it emerged that health insurance leaders pressured the DOJ to bring federal charges against Luigi Mangione. This week, I discovered the top 3 officials at DOJ all collected paychecks from healthcare companies before serving in government: shorturl.at/lgLIU