Gleanings October '20

The tree, falling in the forest: Listen....

Oct 15, 2020

Please indulge me from time to time, sharing some small bit from my journal or more formal items from my packrat-collecting of interesting-to-me web articles—maybe once a week. Maybe less. I’m still feeling my way forward here. — Fred

✒️ JOURNAL: I'm realizing the fact just now that my last 20 years of images no longer place me in the world I live in. I can view them objectively, but when I would use them in a way to represent me, something is wrong.

Having moved away from the place that was home for so long, the photos from there and then not OURS in the same way, but THEIRS. The snapshots of creeks, ridges, forests, spiderwebs in the pasture BELONG with that place, are part of another’s environment and habitat and daily space.

The color and form are still lovely to view, but no longer mine in a possessive sense. I just realized this, and it has hit me harder than I would have thought. But there’s no going back, even in my 40k image archives.

And so now to begin, painting the world I live in today, in words and pixels. #ff

🏺 ROBO-WORLD

US Army trials augmented reality goggles for dogs - BBC News - link

All’s fair in love and—Future wars: robot dogs and drones--the stuff of science-fiction terror. Implants, visors and chips, OH MY! First dogs, then rats and roaches, spider monkeys and cats? What’s left of the animal kingdom goes to war to save the master of BizarroWorld. #ff

Treeswift's autonomous robots take flight to save forests - link

Forest-data by drone. Makes sense. Knowledge is power, but…

“Of the variety of applications this data has, Treeswift is focused on three main targets: calculating inventory for the timber industry, mapping forests for preservation, and measuring forest biomass and fuel to prevent the spread of wildfires. The collected data can be used by researchers in a variety of industries to assess the health of forests and build predictive models that can aid in climate change action initiatives.”
So the deciding factor if these forest-bots are good or evil is WHO gets the data and how is it used? If for maximum extraction and profit: BAD. If to measure carbon capture towards forest-owner tax credits: GOOD. #ff

🦇 COVID

Covid reinfection: Man gets Covid twice and second hit 'more severe' - BBC News - link

“Our findings signal that a previous infection may not necessarily protect against future infection," said Dr Mark Pandori, from the University of Nevada.”
If this is the rule rather than the exception, then is future planning for “herd immunity” is out the window? And what about the efficacy for more than te very short term for any “successful” vaccines? This is really bad news about our common enemy, Covid19. #ff

The Coronavirus Unveiled: Microscopic Images of SARS-CoV-2 - The New York Times - link

The push to defeat pathogens in the era of Covid has vastly expanded the limits of our ability to not just detect the presence of impossibly small viral “bodies” but to see in detail at the atomic level how they are put together, and function follows form. This is powerful knowledge, and hope for finding a chink in the armor. #ff

🦑 OCTOPI

To tell the truth, I have not done right by the plylum Molluska (the second largest invertebrate phylum after the Arthropods) having thus far ignored the fact that World Octopus Day was October 8. I plan to put this right.

I rather imagine this creature feature will get its own post here soon. Until then, make progress towards embracing all eight legs of this most remarkable fellow creature sans backbone.