Void

OPTIONAL: fry some bacon pieces till cooked to your liking then remove from pan and set aside

Put 1-2 tablespoons salted butter in saucepan and melt

Add garlic (LOTS) probably like 3-5 cloves depending on taste and size of clove

1/4 cup uncooked white rice, stir until combined

1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock. (If using bacon stir it back in now)

Transfer into baking dish (unless you have a saucepan or skillet that can go in the oven in which case use that)

Bake at 200c for around 30 minutes

and my research brought me to (gross photos warning!) Kismai's post on the very topic. apparently this stuff is called "scrud," and it's basically a residue that forms over time inside the nooks and crannies of a washing machine - leftover detergent reacting with mineral traces in tapwater to form a buildup that also traps dyes, grease, and other dirt, which bacteria then feeds on, because it wasn't already gross enough. it forms faster if you have hard water, use too much detergent (which most people do), use fabric softener, wash only on cold and the list goes on and on - point is, scrud is the reason that you have to actually clean your washing machine, or be super fastidious about how you do laundry.

(I'll take "things I wish school/my parents actually taught me" for 800)

it turns out that laundry sucks significantly less when your clothes and sheets and etc actually come out of the machine looking, feeling, and smelling clean, rather than looking, feeling, and smelling like despair dipped in slime

Mymaridae is a diverse family of wasps that contains more than 1,400 known species, and they're often described as fairy wasps (or "fairy flies") because they are so incredibly tiny. In fact, these are some of the smallest multicellular animals ever described, with most fairy wasps measuring less than 1mm long.

Above: a species of fairy wasp, Lymaenon aureus, depicted on a lime

One species of fairy wasp, Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, is regarded as the world's smallest known insect, measuring as little as 0.139mm (139 microns) long, which is roughly the size of a single human egg.

Above: Anagrus fairy wasp

As this article explains:

Fairyflies are not actual flies at all, but chalcid wasps; they get their name because of their fairy-like wings, and for being tiny and "invisible" like the mythical fairies. Fairyflies have the smallest known adult form of any insect: wingless and blind males of the species Dicopomorpha echmepterygis have a body length of just 0.139 mm, about the average width of a human hair. The fairyfly family Mymaridae consists of many species, including Tinkerbella nana and Kikiki huna, the smallest known flying insect species with a body length of 0.16 mm.

Above: the photo at the top shows a fairy wasp of the genus Anagrus, while the photo on the bottom shows another species from genus Polynema

Most fairy wasps have fully-functional wings that are lined with long, feathery bristles:

Fairyfly wings are not only small, but their structure is comb-like and made of several bristles instead of a planar sheet. Their very small size means that the air around them is more viscous than it would be for larger insects. At such small scale, the ratio of inertia to viscosity, the Reynolds number, is so low that any movement provided to an air packet quickly dampens out. It also means that a single wing bristle drags along with it a boundary layer of a comparable size. Thus, if the bristles are sufficiently close, the comb-like wing can act as a paddle to generate the requisite aerodynamic forces, while reducing the overall mass of the wing.

Above: a fairy wasp depicted beneath a push-pin

All of the wasps in this family are parasitoids, and they lay their own eggs within the eggs of other insects. They often parasitize the eggs of booklice, aphids, scale insects, thrips, water beetles, and other tiny arthropods. The female fairy wasp inserts her ovipositor into the host egg, depositing her own offspring within, and the process is then repeated many more times as she parasitizes as many eggs as possible.

Above: this composite image shows male and female fairy wasps of the genus Polynema standing on a pinhead

This seems like a good time to point out that fairy wasps do not parasitize mammalian ova, nor do they parasitize the eggs of any other vertebrates, and they are completely harmless to humans. In fact, they're actually beneficial, since they often parasitize agricultural pests.

Above: a fairy wasp trapped in a tiny guttation drop produced by a fungus

I posted some information about fairy bees a few weeks ago, so I figured that I should share these little fairy wasps, too.

Above: a Mymar fairy wasp with an aphid standing nearby

Sources & More Info:

Current Biology: Fairyflies

Annual Review of Entomology: Small is Beautiful: Features of the Smallest Insects and Limits to Miniaturization (PDF)

Journal of Hymenoptera Research: A New Genus and Species of Fairyfly, Tinkerbella nana, with Comments on its Sister Genus Kikiki, and Discussion on Small Size Limits in Arthropods (PDF)

Other useful AI Removal/Detection links

How to spot AI Hallucinations like a Reference Librarian (originally on Substack)

The familiar, hierarchical sequence of math instruction starts with counting, followed by addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division. The computational set expands to include bigger and bigger numbers, and at some point, fractions enter the picture, too. Then in early adolescence, students are introduced to patterns of numbers and letters, in the entirely new subject of algebra. A minority of students then wend their way through geometry, trigonometry and, finally, calculus, which is considered the pinnacle of high-school-level math.

But this progression actually “has nothing to do with how people think, how children grow and learn, or how mathematics is built,” says pioneering math educator and curriculum designer Maria Droujkova. She echoes a number of voices from around the world that want to revolutionize the way math is taught, bringing it more in line with these principles.

The current sequence is merely an entrenched historical accident that strips much of the fun out of what she describes as the “playful universe” of mathematics, with its more than 60 top-level disciplines, and its manifestations in everything from weaving to building, nature, music and art. Worse, the standard curriculum starts with arithmetic, which Droujkova says is much harder for young children than playful activities based on supposedly more advanced fields of mathematics.