Sporadic Ramblings and Nerdery

Spirk confuses me.

In middle school biology, we did an experiment. We were given yams, which we would sprout in cups of water. We then had to make hypotheses about how the yams would grow, based on descriptions of yam plants in our books, and make notes of our observations as they grew.

Here’s what was supposed to happen: we were supposed to see that the actual growth of the plant did not resemble our hypotheses. We were then supposed to figure out that these were, in fact, sweet potatoes.

What actually happened was that every single student in every single class lied in their notes so that their observations perfectly matched their hypotheses. See, everyone assumed the mismatch meant they had done something wrong in the process of growing the plant or that they had misunderstood the dichotomous key or the plant identification terminology. And, thanks to the wonders of a public school education, everyone assumed the wrong results would get us a failing grade. We were trying to pass. We didn’t want to get bitched out by the teacher. Curiosity, learning, science - that had nothing to do with why we were sitting in that classroom. So we all lied.

The teacher was furious. She tried to fail every student, but the administration stepped in and told her she wasn’t allowed to because a 100% fail rate is recognized as a failure of the teacher, not the class. It wasn’t even her fault, really, though her being a notorious hard-ass didn’t help. It was a failure of the entire educational system.

Like Gastornis was thought to be a carnivore for decades and then carbon isotopes were like, "nah this thing was basically a giant goose honk honk".

Art by Ja Chirinos

Oviraptor was thought to be an egg eater, then much ink was spilled about whether it ate mollusks, and now it's thought to be an omnivore, but mostly a fruit/seed eater like a parrot.

Somehow this Adobe Stock image is the only art of an Oviraptor eating plants I can find. How is that?

And even birds with some teeth are getting in on these dietary mysteries.

Longipteryx was first thought to be a kingfisher-like hunter of aquatic prey, but it has since been found with seed contents in its guts, making it another surprise frugivore.

I'm looking at options for how to do magic in a "Science!" way. Of the various attempts to do that in fiction, these are the ones that caught my eye.

To explain further:

Magicules - From That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. This is magic as, well, a type of unique atom that is psychokinetic in nature. Meaning it responds to thoughts and wills. In a way, it acts like "Ether" just with a more defined origin.

Spirit Bacteria - From Delicious in Dungeon. Spirits in that series are similar to a type of Bacteria. They are simply called "Spirits" when they largely behave and act like Bacteria, except in the actual production of magical effects and elemental manipulation.

Alien Single-Celled Organisms - From Tales of Kaimere. They can also be bacterial in nature. Regardless, the native life of Kaimere is simply known as "Magic." The main ability that defines magic, used in the form of spellcasting, is a symbiotic organism that can replicate things it has consumed. Sort of like the transporter in Star Trek. Large colonies of Magic are often known as Spirits, Demons, or even Gods depending on their size and power. Because Magic is an Organism, it has a lot more explanations out there for it.

Nanomachines - From several series, despite citing Ventus in the post, my main exposure to Tech-as-Magic was the Technomancers of Babylon 5. Lost or forgotten technology as Magic is a fun concept to play with that I'm surprised isn't used that often.

To help create this year’s lineup of Soft Toys for Education, global retailer Ikea turned to crayon-wielding kids around the world. The 10 winning entries have been recreated in loving detail by Ikea’s toy designers, and the creations are now on sale as part of the chain’s annual fundraiser.

Since launching the charity effort in 2003, the Ikea Foundation has donated more than $90 million to global children’s causes.

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Always noted as an actor for his deep, strong voice, he has, more recently, also been known for using his singing ability, recording various opera and musical pieces between 1986 and 1998 and the symphonic metal album Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010 after having worked with several metal bands since 2005. The heavy metal follow-up titled Charlemagne: The Omens of Death was released on 27 May 2013. He was honored with the “Spirit of Metal” award in the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden God awards ceremony.

He has also been in over 200 movies and is one of the highest grossing actors of all time, having grossed $8,321,486,066 worldwide.

I don't want any of the kind of braindead oxygen thieving trash who support that repulsive nazi fuckwit Trump to have ANY form of power

Oh, he's WORRIED worried about them looking into his finances, isn't he?

But again, this is also the man who has dodged every direct attempt to ask him questions about where the money is coming from and his plans or the company, up to his just sending a written response when they were holding hearings back when Netflix were interested and they asked him to come to explain his counter-offer.

But the other 49% or whatever is coming from various oil-producing nations in the Middle East, who are also starting to withdraw their investments in stuff like golf and opera houses due to the Iran War both making them a target for Iranian missiles AND the conflict kicked off the transition to renewable energy sources in a big way.

Dubai’s largest coral reef, relocated by Nakheel Developers to The World Islands in an attempt to save it from infrastructure development, has since grown in size by about 20%.

“The technique used to transport the corals underwater was a world’s first. The move also bought additional benefits as the relocated area now has a diverse community of reef fish and rare species, unseen before.”

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