GreyShuck

@[email protected]

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What do you all do on your phones that isn't doom-scrolling or mindless mini games?

I find myself checking out pretty often and just making myself feel bad about the state of the world, or killing half an hour on stupid games that I could 100% live without. This is probably pretty common, and I’m wondering what other people have found as a way to do more productive things with their phones in the downtime.

GreyShuck,

I read. I will typically have a ‘big read’, a couple of other novels, a non-fiction and maybe a short story anthology on the go at any one point.

GreyShuck,

For all the logical reasons - space, portability, seachability yada yada - ebooks win all the time.

However, if I am reading in comfort at home and have the option I will still go for a paperback every time. Paperback, mind. Not a hardback, which have never appealed to me.

Elephants give each other names — the 1st non-human animals to do so, study claims (www.livescience.com)

Name a famous elephant. Babar, perhaps? Or Dumbo? Memorable though these monikers may be to humans, they sound nothing like the names elephants give each other. If you’re an elephant, your name is something more like a low, rumbling sound, scientists say....

Examining the role wolves play in boreal forest dynamics as they constrain beaver movements (phys.org)

A team of land managers at the University of Minnesota, working with a colleague at the University of Manitoba, has learned more about the role wolves play in boreal forest dynamics as they prey on beavers. In their study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group used GPS trackers on wild wolves and cameras...

GreyShuck,

I don’t think that a pizza has ever survived long enough for this to come up for me, but Friday to Monday in the fridge would be fine, I’d have said.

GreyShuck,

Blake’s 7 - reimagining and The Middleman - revival are a couple of prime ones for me.

GreyShuck,

England: First recorded school c.600AD. First University 1096. Compulsory primary education through a series of acts in the 1870s & 1880s, compulsory secondary education 1918.

GreyShuck,

I do pretty much all the time. Why? Because I like to keep up with the latest posts - and so the news and stories they relate to. It seems a bit odd to ask ‘why’ really.

I always stick with ‘subscribed’, of course. I have no idea what ‘new’ and ‘all’ would look like.

GreyShuck,

If Fred & Bob are talking and 'he told him x and he responded with y" then that is also unclear. This is not a problem that is unique to the word ‘they’.

Of course, in either case, the answer to use phrase it so that you remove any ambiguity and communicate clearly: “Sam told them x and the board responded with y.”, “Bob told him x and Fred responded with y”.

Spines of a hedgehog, snout of an anteater: Indonesian mammal seen for first time in 60 years (www.theguardian.com)

Scientists have rediscovered a long-lost species of mammal described as having the spines of a hedgehog, the snout of an anteater and the feet of a mole, in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains more than 60 years after it was last recorded....

GreyShuck,

It would depend on the setting, I’d think.

In an SF setting, then maybe: it could be the chemical qualities of blood that they need.

In a fantasy setting, then probably not: what they need is life taken from another. Blood is simply the material component of that life force.

The world's boreal forests may be shrinking as climate change pushes them northward (phys.org)

Earth’s boreal forests circle our planet’s far northern reaches, just south of the Arctic’s treeless tundra. If the planet wears an Arctic ice cap, then the boreal forests are a loose-knit headband wrapped around its ears, covering large portions of Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia....

GreyShuck,

It is over on /r/TrueLit

The have been doing FW over this year - and they also vote for other, shorter, readalongs (just voting for another now, I think), but I have not joined any of those,

I don’t know whether it would work here. I feel that getting enough people interested in a particular title to make it viable would be the issue - since a lot of people will inevitably drop out for one reason or another over the course of the year.

With the other titles in previous years there were dedicated subreddits - but not private or anything.

GreyShuck,

It is the Federation’s we do not discuss it with outsiders thing. It confuses time travelling Klingons.

GreyShuck,

That’s an unusual take.

This is a cottage that I lived in about 20 years back. You can find where I posted it of Flickr back then if you look.

And I have only a passing interest in the Templars overall.

GreyShuck,

This was my very first experiment with HDR. That’s what you are seeing. I literally just shot what was in front of me at the time, but it came out surprisingly well.

GreyShuck,

Not exactly an original thought though. This had been a staple of SF writers for decades. E M Forster’s from 1909 being a fine example.

GreyShuck,

One of:

  • I, Claudius (1976)
  • Connections (1978)
  • Band of Brothers (2003)
  • Breaking Bad (2008)
  • Better Call Saul (2015)
GreyShuck,

As far as I am aware, Chronicle Audiobook Player is the only android one that works with Plex.

It does the trick, but I wouldn’t consider it a particularly outstanding audiobook player in general. I use Smart Audiobooks for non-Plex ones but Chronicle to play directly from my Plex server.

How did Celtic culture survive in Wales and Cornwall despite Roman invasion?

I understand that the Romans were unable to conquer Scotland so they build Hadrian’s Wall (which explains the survival of older cultures there). But as far as I know they occupied Wales and Cornwall, so how is it that the Celtic culture (language etc.) survived in those places?

GreyShuck,

The Romans had an impact to a greater or lesser degree across the whole of the area that they controlled in Great Britain, including Cornwall and Wales, but the Brythonic (Celtic) culture seems to survive for most ordinary people throughout that time. It was really only the arrival of the Germanic peoples - the Angles and Saxons - that seemed to displace the Brythonic language and culture from much of the lands that they went on to occupy, which was largely the land that was easier to work in the majority of England, but not the more difficult land in the West and North - including Cornwall and Wales.

Around that time, there is evidence that some Brythonic speakers were moving into Wales - presumably from England - causing changes to the existing dialects there, also some Britons seem to have migrated to Brittany on the continent, and there was an outbreak of plague that affected much of the Roman lands and caused a population decline there - but less so among the Germanic people.

No matter which had more effect, it was the Germanic people and culture that displaced the existing one - not the Romans.

GreyShuck,

Whilst I am sympathetic to the overall aim of this, things like this:

She would have expected people to name figures such as Quintus Lollius Urbicus, who became governor of Roman Britain

…do stand out as being a a bit unrealisitic. I mean, how many governors of Roman Britain of any race or nationality can the typical Briton actually name? I’d be surprised if it was more than 1 and probably less than that.

And if the expectation is that anyone would know of this guy only because his chief contribution to history is “being black” then I am not sure what we are gaining here.

GreyShuck,

I’m much the same as @Zane - lots of bookcases, selection of prints and originals from artists and galleries here and there. We also have a couple of line and wash sketches of my own and several paintings by my SO, a mounted deer skull, a green man sculpture and a couple of landscape photos of mine. Neither of us do family photos.

In the past, I have had: a large mirror that I turned into a clock, a banner from a Greenpeace group that I was involved with, a tapestry that I friend made for us, a macramé owl that I inherited, a couple of film posters and a bicycle.

Exploring the history of the baboons of early Egypt (phys.org)

In ancient Egypt, various deities were portrayed as animals. Thoth, the god of learning and wisdom was represented by a hamadryas baboon. Baboons, probably held in captivity in Egypt, were mummified as votive offerings after their deaths. Today, no wild baboons live in Egypt, and there is no evidence to suggest that these...

Moon may be ‘40m years older’ than previously thought, researchers say (www.theguardian.com)

It has shone down upon the dinosaurs, inspired the greatest poets, and been explored by intrepid astronauts. But despite its enduring presence, quite when the moon came into being has remained a matter of debate. Now researchers say they have the answer, revealing the Earth’s satellite is 40m years older than previously...

Elusive Planet Nine could be an alternative form of gravity masquerading as a planet, study claims (www.livescience.com)

The elusive Planet Nine, which is theorized to be lurking somewhere in the outer reaches of the solar system, may not be a planet after all, a new study suggests. Instead, what we assumed to be a massive object could be evidence that gravity doesn’t work like we thought it does. But the new theory doesn’t sit well with...

Colourful beauty of Parthenon marbles revealed in scientific analysis (www.theguardian.com)

Though the Parthenon marbles were admired for centuries for their stark white brilliance, it has long been known that the sculptures were originally brightly painted, before millennia of weathering, cannon bombardment, rough handling and overenthusiastic cleaning scoured them clean....

‘Uncharted territory’: more than 2m fungi species yet to be discovered, scientists say (www.theguardian.com)

But researchers also warn that the vast majority of new plant discoveries are endangered species, which should be listed as threatened with extinction by default, warning that three-quarters of undescribed species are likely to be at risk of disappearing.

330-year-old coin hoard hidden in Scottish fireplace may have been buried moments before MacDonald clan massacre (www.livescience.com)

A cache of coins secreted away in a Scottish stone fireplace may have belonged to a clan chief killed in a 17th-century massacre, according to archaeologists excavating the remains of a hunting lodge in Glencoe. The diverse collection of coins was likely hidden by someone unable to return and retrieve them....

Will solar panels work at Proxima Centauri? (phys.org)

Modern solar panels can harness not just ultraviolet light, but also visible and in some cases infrared. But all of these designs are built to harness the sun, which gives off most of its light in the green range and emits plenty of ultraviolet light. But most exoplanets orbit red dwarf stars, which have a peak brightness in the...

‘Seismic night in Scotland’: Labour crushes SNP in Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection (www.theguardian.com)

Scottish Labour’s Michael Shanks has won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection in an overwhelming victory over the SNP that the party leadership declared “seismic”, and a clear demonstration that Scotland could lead the way in delivering a Labour government at Westminster at the coming general election....

GreyShuck,

I am fairly happy with mine. It varies across the week, since I work at a number of different sites each week. Shortest is 10 mins, longest 40 mins.

I live rurally, the sites are all rural and the drive takes me through some beautiful (officially beautiful: designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) countryside: woodland, heath, farms and villages. It is enjoyable no matter what the season.

I don’t think that hate anything about it. Getting stuck behind tractors is fairly common and is a bit of a slog sometimes, but it goes with the territory.

Sometimes I will have a podcast on (Philosophise This, In Our Time, Thinking Allowed etc) other times I am happy without.

Obviously it is driving. Usually just me in a car and there are all the pollution issues around that. The nature of the sites means that it is unlikely that there is going to be public transport at anything like the appropriate times anytime in the foreseeable future - there certainly isn’t now. I could, sometimes, cycle to the closest one. But both the public transport and cycling options then make if difficult if and when I am called to one of the other sites during the day - which doesn’t happen every day, but is unpredictable.

GreyShuck,

Is there anyone who can watch a show based on their own profession or area of expertise without finding it excruciating and cartoonish in how it represents it?

Regardless of the accuracy, however, FAM is very good storytelling and with some great cinematography.

GreyShuck,

It’s been a while since I read anything - in terms of comics - at all really. As it happens Giant Days was about the last that I binged through. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have just jumped back on to 2000AD this week and have been taken by Feral & Foe enough to go back and binge through the two earlier runs. It scratched a fantasty itch that I hadn’t really been aware of and I am looking forward to more.

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