Steve

Sometimes I hate #micropython on the Pi Pico. I have one sensor working and one that simply refuses with errors in the code. It’s scannable on the i2c bus but the code supplied with the library won’t run.

Now it’s 02:30 in the morning and I have posted it on Stack Overflow.

Brandy and bed!

Such a great gallery.

My favourites are “Two harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex rugosus) from adjacent nests engaging in ritual warfare” and “A native harvester ant fights with introduced Argentine ants”.

Nah… heading further East now!

a person is typing on an old typewriter with a piece of paper on top ALT: a person is typing on an old typewriter with a piece of paper on top

Your typewriter has a furry carriage return bar!

Ants with attitude! 🐜 🐜 🐜

Is that linear image a ship or something like a harbour wall/breakwater?

Nice paper and use of #deeplabcut.

Interesting results in terms of the recovery from CO2 anaesthesia which seems to be different to the results seen in ants.

It happened again. I swear I'm not even trying to study them right now

Kessler syndrome - Wikipedia

I’ll just leave the Kessler syndrome, Kessler effect,collisional cascading, or ablation cascade here.

In other news Spain just lost a satellite due to something like a speck of paint as orbital debris.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler...

To be fair I go to crowded bars less than I used to but it was a British birthright that you could go to a bar, stand behind some bloke ordering five pints and a Babysham and wave your fiver at eye level, hoping the bar staff would notice.

Oh yes I would…

Massive, fuel drinking aircraft designed to carry nuclear bombs… and yet one one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built!

Elon Musk for the most damage done by one member.

What an aircraft.

As a cadet we got to visit them at a Lincolnshire base pre decom.

Scary part was the crew escape. I think pilot could eject, others had to drop through a hatch in the floor. If the undercarriage was down the instructions were “Remember to swing yourself around the nose wheel”

Volunteers wanted to live on Skomer Island and count puffins Successful applicants will spend several months helping conservation efforts on Skomer Island, off the Pembrokeshire coast.

There are always the puffins…

Stay on this stunning island for free... if you're willing to count puffins www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In addition to all the other things Greenland is facing, the climate has changed enough that they've now got invasive social wasps.

resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I would go for a raspberry Pi.

If in a lab then Pi4/5 + a cheap camera is OK or the HQ camera for about £50.

If in the field then maybe a Pi Zero with power saving options (same camera options) + a big phone battery pack.

Day/night options with IR camera.

Simple Python code to capture clips.

#ElkeDagEenInsect

"Pop van jou, pop van mij, maar gekregen van mijn moeder, dus..." 
Tja, deze bloedrode roofmier (Formica sanguinea) wilt graag deze pop roven om van haar arbeid gebruik te maken...

#Entomologie #Entomology🐜

My wife and I have annual passes to the cinema, so it costs us no more to see an advert for a dodgy looking film and say “Shall we give it a go anyway?”

Even for free, we won’t be bothering with this one! 🤣

Well it’s not on my 2026 bingo card but most of the spaces are blank to fill in as you go, ‘cos in 2026 who knows?

Two small linocuts showing a ship split in two by tentacles emerging from the sea under a starry sky.

Prediction for 2026: The Kraken emerges and immediately launches a podcast.

#linocut #artsky #art #crafts #traditionalart #prints #blockprint #ink #printmaking #printsky

It was declined in England because of the ‘cost’ to developers. Against the cost of building a house? Bah!

Macro photo in side view of a slender, leggy orange ant with a translucent pale green abdomen, slighly glowing with backlighting, standing alert on a leaf with body and antennae raised. The backdrop is dark.

A green tree ant stands guard on a leaf nest. Oecophylla smaragdina. These little guys are everywhere in the humid tropics of southeast Asia and Australia and have a lemony flavor. Cairns.

There’s always a fly!🪰

It’s actually very interesting as there is a fly that rears its young in the pitcher!

Some separate it by time, e.g. the Sarracenia flower while their winter non-carnivorous leave are showing.

Other carnivorous plants, like Drosera, often have long flower stems with showy flowers so the pollinators get to do their job away from danger.

You’d think as an entomologist that I’d hate pitcher plants considering their diet. But there are some mosquitoes that have learnt to live in them - feeding on/breaking down large prey thus providing plant food

We had a lovely tour of @uniofreading.bsky.social greenhouse

@unirdgento.bsky.social

Cephalotus follicular is about to flower.

Drosera binata, a massive dangle of fly trapping sticky trichomes.

Is that Alistair’s collection? I haven’t visited those for many years.

My own greenhouse is also very welcoming to insects of all kinds! The drosera really like flies!

In the UK:
* ‘Black Ants’ (Lasius niger)
* ‘Yellow Meadow Ants’ (Lasius flavus)
* ‘Red Ants’ (any Myrmica spp.)
I’m sure all regions have their own versions.

Others eg. ‘Shining Guest Ant’ (Formicoxenus nitidulus) but I can pretty much guarantee that no member of the public knows the ‘common’ name!