ubi

ubi, 7 months ago to solarpunk

A lot of newer #solarpunk art is made with AI. I wonder if this is a useful practice. A lot of this art is randomly green stuff on lots of circular modern style buildings and lots of solar panels.

One thing that living systems have is a functional purpose. We see a lot of that in vernacular architecture too. I wonder if it's good to imagine a future that is based on random probabilities and not on context.

It's fast and good looking results, but the lack of thought behind it concerns me.

ubi, 6 months ago to random

It's really weird seeing USAians say that "girls are bad at math" like it's some sort of universal experience.

In Asia there's the expectation that girls are more diligent and therefore stereotyped to be good at math, and they regularly outperform the boys.

ubi, 1 year ago to random

In the interest of adding diversity to Mastodon, let's peek at Southeast Asian e-commerce with #weirdStuffIFindOnShopee

Anything posted here is not an ad or an endorsement. It's just weird stuff that my broken Shopee algorithm delivers me.

This is a "Elephant Sperm Stone that moves in vinegar". The description says that it is fossilised elephant sperm and it has mystical powers.

#MYtoots

ubi, 8 months ago to random

Instead of being intimidated by a dauntingly large project, try breaking it up into small tasks and being totally overwhelmed by them.

ubi, 8 months ago to random

Why do plant based meats only make mock versions of pork, beef and chicken? There is no limit to our creativity, we shouldn't be shackled to common meats. Why can't we have plant based T rex burgers or mammoth steaks?

I'd be all in for artificial Anomalocaris fingers.

ubi, 11 months ago to random

I really don't understand it when managers are firing writers and replacing them with people editing LLM generated text with a KPI of hundreds of articles a month.

Who has the time to read through hundreds of generic articles? Who exactly is their target customer here? Isn't creating a ton of articles that are exactly the same as your competitors (because they are also using the same models) a really bad business decision?

ubi, 4 months ago to magASEAN

Roti kahwin (married roti) is a pair of roti canai, one with eggs and one without.

In Malay:
Roti Kahwin: roti canai satu ada telur, satu takde telur.

The meaning of the explanation in English is the same, but the the gender implied by the eggs* gets flipped.

*egg = telur = euphemism for balls

#makanApaToday

ubi, 11 months ago to random

I always assumed that ecoevo.social was a small instance because I only see a few regular active accounts on the local feed. To my surprise there are 1.6k of us on here.

ubi, 10 months ago to random

A book about the current prime minister of Malaysia, presented without context.

ubi, 9 months ago to random

The largest firefly in the world, Lamprigera, can grow pretty big. A shot from some citizen science field work I did last night.

ubi, 8 months ago to random

Cement company wins appeal against a century old monastery in a lime stone hill in Malaysia.

I did part of a biodiversity survey on the hill. It's the home to several endemic species (and likely more that we haven't even described). That and a whole lot of paleontological deposits (as well as evidence of prehistoric human habitation) are going to be flattened to make cheap cement.

Working in conservation in Malaysia is just depressing.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2023/09/08/cement-company-wins-appeal-to-evict-century-old-perak-monastery/

ubi, 6 months ago to magASEAN

Mystical Malay paddy planting practices look like they would make a really cool magic system for a TTRPG.

#myToots

@hishgraphics

A diagram in Malay categorising rituals that can be done for paddy
A diagram in Malay categorising non human beings that can aid or ail paddy

ubi, 6 months ago to magASEAN

Breakfast today. Nasi Lemuni, which uses the Lemuni leaf for flavour and colour. It makes the rice a bit grey and adds a spice to it.

Very common in Northern Peninsular Malaysia, but quite hard to find in KL.

#makanApaToday

ubi, 5 months ago to magASEAN

Today's unconventional pizza: the tandoori naan pizza. Basically naan and tandoori chicken rearranged into a pizza shape.

But you cant go wrong with tandoori chicken and naan, so it tastes pretty good.

#makanApaToday

ubi, 7 months ago to SciComm

Working on some watercolours for a Malaysian wildflower workshop. #sciComm #natureJournal #watercolor

ubi, 3 months ago to random

My scientific notes must look like insane rambling to anyone without context.

Actually even with context it's pretty insane.
#taxonomy

ubi, 10 months ago to SciComm

The current state of #sciComm and #paleoart on X.

#palaeoart

ubi, 8 months ago to random

Helo.

Spotted this strangling fig growing out of an old phone booth. These figs get into the strangest places. Looks a bit like an altar to some sort of urban regeneration. #urbanFicus

ubi, 8 months ago to random

Holy fuck you can get liquid mercury shipped with absolutely no protection whatsoever on Shopee. This is such a OSHA and environmental disaster waiting to happen...
#weirdStuffIFindOnShopee

ubi, 11 months ago to random

I'm reading about the Cambrian explosion and Burgess Shale animals, and one very important question comes to mind:
How would all the fantastic invertebrates taste in a hotpot?

Would lobopods have a squid like taste? Or would they be more like soft crustaceans?

Trilobites and Marella look pretty inedible, but I suppose they can be boiled for soup stock. Maybe their roe can be eaten like horseshoe crabs?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgess_Shale-type_fauna

ubi, 10 months ago to magASEAN

I need to take a friend that's visiting KL to get durian. Any recommendations? Where can I get some good deals? Is SS2 still worth it?
#MYToots

ubi, 6 months ago to random

Processing a Makhkota Dewa fruit. The fruit is medicinal but the flesh is poisonous because the dosage is too high. So the skin of the fruit is sliced off and dried to make medicine while the rest is discarded. The dried skin is then steeped to make a herbal tea.

I learned this from Indonesian friends, but Malaysians also use it in a similar way. It's this knowledge of the land that still ties us together.

#kearifanLokal #indigenousKnowledge

A tray with a pale fruit that has been skinned and the fragments of its skin, placed out to dry.

ubi, 4 months ago to random

The R vs Python argument is really niche nerd bickering.

ubi, 6 months ago to foss

What's a good FOSS app for reading ebooks and pdfs on android? #foss

ubi, 2 months ago to random

Let's be positive about the climate for once. I'm sure the monitor lizards are enjoying all this global warming.