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Daniel Nidzgorski
@datasaurus@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06I'm a queer ecologist (he/him) living in Seattle, with my husband Casey (@gairdeachas@mastodon.social). Other passions include hiking, biking, D&D, partner acrobatics, crocheting, woodworking, and science fiction and fantasy.
228 Followers
79 Following
25 Posts
Joined February 14, 2023
US Independence Day: In which we reenact being shelled mercilessly by British warships and set on fire.
This is a beautiful rendition of Coldplay's song "Yellow." Dylan Holloway, a trans artist, recorded this song both before and after his transition and wove it together into a "duet with my past self." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojSmc7s1rgU
Yellow - Coldplay (Transgender Duet With My Past Self)
As I've been trying to cook and clean tonight, I keep stopping and staring off into space. Things clicked this evening on a work problem I'd been struggling with. Give the mind time to wander, and voila! And I'm enjoying thinking through how I want to proceed!
The problem, though, is that because of the data and statistics I'm working with, I'm staring off into logarithmic space.
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@catmisgivings @gairdeachas I'm picturing a pair of prim, elderly French grandmamas. At one point, our gay group apologizes for having said something risque a tad too loudly right as the grandmamas walked into the breakfast room. They just turn to each other with a raised eyebrow, a knowing look, and a witty comment about how things have gotten so much tamer - almost dull, ma cherie! - compared to their own fiery youth. And, of course, they revel in the stunned silence that follows...
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In Star Trek: Into Darkness, the Enterprise has lost all system power and is plummeting towards Earth. [let's overlook how they forgot to park in a halfway decent orbit...] Artificial gravity is off. As the ship tumbles, everyone and everything keeps falling "down" whichever way is towards Earth. Cue the dramatic scenes of tumbling off catwalks, plunging to one's doom, running along what's normally the wall. None of which would even remotely happen in freefall!
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I'm used to science-fiction writers screwing up orbital mechanics (sigh...). But seriously, people, even Wile E. Coyote had more realistic falling scenes!!
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The downside to this Amazon-free approach is that it requires a computer, both to download the Adobe Digital Editions and to convert it with Calibre. In contrast, using Amazon's servers makes it easy to log into the library on my phone, check out a new ebook, send it directly to my kindle account, tether my kindle to my phone, and download the ebook. Which I once did when I ran out of books on a beach in Mexico! 🌴😎🏖️
The upside is that EPUBs don't fund Amazon and DRM-free ones don't expire.
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I usually send my epubs to my kindle using the Send to Kindle app, or sometimes https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle/ Those use Amazon's servers and will soon stop working for older kindles, but sending files via USB will still work. @jonobie: Any good tips for using Calibre to manage files via USB?
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*phew!* The name was the same, but fortunately there was nothing about the nightmare-study that's anything like the real one.
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Once in a blue moon, special characters (e.g., apostrophes) will show up as gibberish on kindle. Fortunately, that's easy to fix.
In Calibre's preferences:
1) Common Options > Text and check "Smarten punctuation."
2) To make it happen automatically: Adding books > Adding actions and check "Automatically convert added books..." and "When auto-converting, convert even if the format being added..."
Now any time you add a book to Calibre, it gets converted to an epub with fixed punctuation.
I get mixing up hawks, eagles, and ospreys. A "sea hawk" is actually an osprey, after all (different family from hawks). But you'd think people would know what an *owl* looks like?
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@jvschrag That's a great story! And yes, it does sum up both halves of the question. My typical answer is that I love kids - and I love being able to give them back to their parents. The dosage really matters...
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Update: The Vulcan Science Council declined to comment on whether any of their members ever served as science advisors for any of the series or movies. But to our surprise, we received an official response from the Expeditionary Group! They reassured us -- at great length -- that they faithfully followed the non-interference guidelines before Earth achieved its own warp drive. Reading between the lines, I think there are some non-Star-Trek sci-fi they want to make sure they don't get blamed for?
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@jjhuff Yep, and whenever my kindle eventually dies, I'll look into the kobos for sure! But in the meantime, I don't want to junk a good, functional e-reader.
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@jvschrag@hachyderm.io No kidding! I'd even say they're not really Star Trek at all, just Trek-themed action films.
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@msbellows @gairdeachas @9eurosyltbesucher Yep, and these particulate-focused furnace filters (or HEPAs) don't really filter out the sulfur dioxide and VOCs and other gases in smoke. So we'll see what PM 2.5 concentration ends up corresponding to too-smoky air that we don't want to pull it in even through these filters. Test and adjust!
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@gairdeachas @9eurosyltbesucher These are MERV 13 filters (3M Filtrete 1900), not HEPA. With a single pass through the filter, they'll remove ~95% of the larger pollen particles but ~60% of the smaller smoke particles. The vent shuts off when the outdoor PM 2.5 concentration is twice as high as what we'd want in our house. You're right that HEPA would remove much more smoke (I think >99.9%?), but to pull the same >300 CFM airflow through a HEPA we'd need a *muchmuch* bigger and louder fan.
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@jvschrag @gairdeachas Second! The bedroom window was the first prototype, and I learned more for building this one :) I'm a bit tempted to re-do the one in the bedroom now... This living-room vent sits back far enough that we can easily close the window with the vent in place (just unplug it). Easy way to seal the house and prevent hot (or smoky) air from coming in. The bedroom CR box is pretty quick and easy to remove it to close the window -- but this setup is much better!
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@VulcanTourist They're 120mm CoolerMaster SickleFlow fans, at 1800 RPM on full speed. https://www.coolermaster.com/en-global/products/sickleflow-120/?tab=tech_spec I like the idea of larger fans that would be deeper/quieter! I have a five-fan unit in my bedroom window with a PWM controller so I can turn it up full blast to cool off the bedroom in the evening, and then crank it down low and quiet when I'm going to bed (also so I don't get too cold overnight).