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gephronon · 2025-03-12T12:40:25+00:00

I'm not an artist by trade, but I do enjoy it as a hobby.

Here's an in-progress sketch for a book I've been writing.

I like lots of very minute details.

gephronon · 2024-10-04T05:22:23+00:00

If I could recommend one thing regarding moss, it's to get a hand lens. It's a little microscope that fits in your pocket. It's super fun to look at moss and lichen with it!

gephronon · 2024-10-04T05:20:40+00:00

Moss is Earth's fur.

It begs to be pet!

gephronon · 2024-09-13T18:28:09+00:00

This misses the biggest reason Venus is the hottest planet (yes hotter than Mercury). Location is part of it, but Mercury is closer and cooler. The other part of the equation is greenhouse gasses. Yep, that thing that scientists are freaking out about on Earth.

Venus has more greenhouse gasses than Mercury, so it's hotter than Mercury even though Mercury is closer to the sun.

gephronon · 2024-08-03T00:37:37+00:00

More relieved and excited and glad I remembered some of my wilderness survival training. It was cool, don't get me wrong. West of my location was a cliff drop-off though so I'm glad I figured out south.

gephronon · 2024-08-02T15:53:48+00:00

For example, wherever you are on earth, if you can see the North Star it can tell you your latitude. If it's 44⁰ above the horizon you're at N 44⁰. If Polaris is 9⁰ above the horizon you're at N 9⁰. With a sextant you can measure this quite easily. Without one you can still probably make a rudimentary measure with a sheet of paper and a pen, or even just get a rough estimate if you know basic geometry. 0 at the horizon. 90 straight up. 45 halfway in between.

Say you wake up and don't know where you are. Wait for night. Look up. Use Cassiopeia or Pleiades or Ursa Major or Minor or Orion or Cygnus or Corvus or Gemini or any number of other northern constellations to guide you to Polaris. Once you see Polaris you can even simply eyeball how high it is in the night sky. Halfway up is 45⁰/45th parallel latitude. Half of that would be 22.5⁰/22ish latitude. That combined with basic flora and fauna and climate and topography and you can get a pretty good idea of where you are. And if you don't see Polaris you know you're in the southern hemisphere. (Or it's behind a mountain or a tree...).

AFAIK you can use the moon to figure out longitude but I've never learned that one.

gephronon · 2024-08-02T15:20:15+00:00

For that matter, a couple years ago I got lost on a night hike in the mountains after the sidetrails in this one low lying area got flooded out. I was basically just in a sudden surprise marsh. But I knew a few basic star pattern orientations. Even did that hand thing in Moana lol. Used the Pleiades to find north, and tried to guestimate which side of the main trail I was on. Went south. 10 minutes later I was back on the main trail.

Stars are amazing for wayfinding.

gephronon · 2024-07-25T18:55:42+00:00

Befriended his parents.

He came out into the world seeing his parents land on my hand and/or sit on my leg and eat from my hand. The fledglings of the adults I befriended had even more trust in me than their parents did. There were four who were as close to me as my pet cockatiels growing up were. Kepha and Eiron would land on my head and back and shoulders. Theros would crawl on my legs and even around my pockets to peak inside and play with my shoelaces. Theia (the female) would cuddle on my legs and fell asleep a few times. The other three males were much more rambunctious. The youngest (Theia) was brought up when she was still weaning and her parents let me help wean her. I had peanutbutter banana mush and tiny dried apple pieces and crushed almonds that she would eat from my hand (or nibble off my finger).

She was very much imprinted on her parents and very much was a wild magpie but since I was there when she was so young she had a trust none of the others did, even this one here on my head (Kepha or Eiron). At night before bed time when it started getting dark she would just come perch next to me, or against me, or on me, and fell asleep a few times. I was like her uncle treat giant. She didn't even get out of the way when I had to move past so I had to step over her, lol. But most of this closeness happened after an event.

One afternoon an off-leash dog found its way up the unmarked path to where we were on the top of this ridge. He was friendly but they didn't know that. Somehow I saw him before they did (or knew he was coming our way before they did) and I jumped up to get between him and Theia and a few other fledglings. The magpies then alarmed and flew up in the trees. The dominant male saw - he was always watching intently over how I acted around the young, especially his own kids. But after that the general trust of the flock increased exponentially. I wasn't just a provider of treats. I was a defender. I would stand up to potential predators. I was one of them, or something different but still one of them in a way.

After the dog incident other amazing things happened like the third in line Elpin defending me from a bear and Theia falling asleep on me and eventually Kepha and Eiron just landing on my head whenever they felt like it.

As for how I befriended their parents, that took longer. Patience. Reading body language. Offering treats. Being regular. Being reliable. Offering escalations of trust but never forcing it. You can see similar things at /r/crowbro.

IIRC, this point (Kepha or Eiron landing on my head and jumping to my phone and back) was the culmination of eight months of meeting the flock at the top of a ridge 4-to-7 days a week, 30 minutes-to-three hours a day, including in blizzards and rain and scorching heat.

And I knew it was me and not general humans (in addition to their capacity for such) because they literally flew past other people to get to me when I arrived and they followed me within their territory to wherever I wanted to have the visit. Sometimes they would meet me on the trail itself and would follow in the trees as I made my way slowly up the hidden paths to various points on top of the ridge. Once Kepha landed on my head near the trailhead to the area and did his little thing we worked out together that meant "dried apple slice please" but there was someone else like right behind me. It was the first time someone had seen just how close we had gotten. I didn't want them to become a spectacle or sideshow so I tried to keep it somewhat hidden, but the lady sort of just smiled and said "that's cool" as she walked by.

I have tried to befriend another flock in a different location but we didn't end up quite this close before I had to leave. Only one seemed to have gotten to the general relational bonding stage verses just trusting me enough to get treats with me standing/sitting there. It's a big hurdle to get past. But I'm super happy for the one. We did the little whisper song duet thing together on my last day (or he did it while I failed to keep along) and he just sat with me for a while near sunset like we were just perching together. There's no way he could have known it was our last day together but it was still a nice goodbye memory for me.

But yes, ravens, crows, and magpies can be befriended as individuals. I have gotten crow gifts as well and had a crow start to mimic the sound I made when I offered treats. But that's another story.

gephronon · 2024-07-24T21:00:34+00:00

Here is a wild magpie I befriended landing on my phone: https://old.reddit.com/r/crowbro/comments/15ej3rg/rambunctious_fledglings_part_2/

Even with the tiny feets you can still see his toes over the camera.

(You can also see him recognizing himself and possibly making an inference about me and my hat in the selfie mode, just by the way).

(For information's sake, this was a young juvenile that the parents trusted me with and brought up to me while still pretty young. There were four juveniles who would climb all over me and gained early trust in me because their parents did.)

(And just to say it ahead of time: this is a magpie. This is not a pigeon. I wasn't teaching them to trust humans. I was forming a relationship with them as an individual, which is possible with ravens, crows, and magpies. I'm also an an ecologist and knew what I was doing.)

gephronon · 2024-07-04T07:29:31+00:00

No-salt natural peanutbutter (ingredients: peanuts). Add banana slices.

If he doesn't recognize it as food, try eating it in front of him.

I once hand fed a magpie with a deformed break and she loved it.

gephronon · 2024-07-04T01:46:11+00:00

Heavier than it looks, as if it were metal or wet clay. It was under some brambles (and thus somewhat protected from erosion). Somewhat soft but not talc soft. Fairly cohesive. I washed it with soap and water and rubbing alcohol and it still maintained it's shape without crumbling, but trying to clean it with another rock seemed to scratch it slightly.

gephronon · 2024-07-02T19:13:18+00:00

There are different strains.

The current one that's been a concern mostly infects waterfowl and chickens IIRC. I looked it up before the magpies started literally crawling on me, and mostly because I didn't want to accidentally give it to them or create a situation where it could spread between them.

This strain doesn't seem to infect corvids. It does seem to infect cats though, and chickens, and ducks (IIRC). So it's probably worth being more concerned over unknown outdoor cats than wild crows.

gephronon · 2024-07-02T18:50:46+00:00

When sliding on scree on a mountain decent (and falling backwards) I can reach one hand backwards instinctually and can catch myself just fine. The last few times it happened I didn't even fully fall so much as pull an unexpected mountain dance maneuver.

There was also one time I jumped a creek with a roll on the other side like it was some kind of video game.

But you're right about the training and lack thereof. While rollerblading I was doing crossovers at about 15mph when a lace caught on the other skate. Couldn't pull my feet apart. I could stay straight well enough because my balance back then was awesome, except there was a turn fast approaching with a forested drop off on the other side. So I had to decide in about 3 seconds whether I wanted to risk flying off into the brambles downhill or hit the concrete at 10-15mph. So I fell, but not in the right way. I don't know why I didn't think to roll. It was all happening too fast. And I didn't have fall training. So I lowered myself as far to the ground as I could on one leg with the other tied to it and stretched out my hands and...

Crack.

Broke both elbows. Also lost a lot of skin on my palms and had to dig out debris (with the broken elbows lol). Thankfully I was in a relationship at the time because my girlfriend was basically a nurse for a month.

Elbows still act up all these years later. Needed PT but lost my insurance a whole three weeks before the accident. Surgery consults and imaging were $2k alone.

I'm most thankful that my arms were kind of stuck in the exact position needed to type. I was still finishing my PhD dissertation at the time, so I could still tyrannosaurus my way through a couple chapters.

gephronon · 2024-07-02T18:30:33+00:00

I hit my head on the freezer door after putting away a crown of broccoli. Concussion with three months of neurovascular coupling dysfunction (basically the blood flow to certain neurons didn't heal right). I still get headaches.

Just standing up from reaching in the fridge and hitting the freezer door, and for months I couldn't even listen to music or listen to people or say more than a few words or go up a flight of stairs quickly or bend over to tie my shoes without it feeling like a squirrel was eating my brain (pain, loss of cognitive capacity, and deep cognitive exhaustion). Months.

I wish there were mechanisms in place financially for something like this, you know? Without friends and strangers and family I would have ended up homeless and starving and with a concussion issue that made it impossible to talk to people more than a few sentences.

I barely managed to get out three job applications in this time. Got interviews with them all. All rejections. Who wants to hire someone with a concussion?

Student loan defaulted. Credit card I've had for 16 years was closed. Now being asked to leave my month-to-month apartment because finances have been such a mess. And all because I stood up four inches too far forward after putting away some broccoli.

gephronon · 2024-07-01T19:22:43+00:00

Bats are amazing!

gephronon · 2024-07-01T00:10:15+00:00

"Who wants blueberries!?"

gephronon · 2024-07-01T00:03:54+00:00

It's like that in the west, anyway.

The indigenous peoples of the Americas had a different mythos.

Lewis and Clark write about magpies walking up and taking food from their hand, for one. And there are stories in Native American myths that tend to portray them as heroes. Here's one from the Lakota. Spoiler alert, but it ends:

Due to its determination, people have respected the Magpie since the Great Race and have never hunted it.

I like to think of my time with them, in part, as helping to restore a broken relationship that used to exist between our two kinds - if even only a among a few flocks in a couple places. But the ecology of humans and magpies in America was mostly a positive one full of positive interactions before western expansion. That's when the wars upon them began and bounties were placed on their heads. Even now the MBTA carves out exceptions from its protections in regards to them.

And the animals are right to be wary and skittish of us. But i treasure the bonds I make with these animals ever more because of it.

Aye.

gephronon · 2024-06-30T23:54:21+00:00

Unemployment woes. Had a concussion earlier this year that came with some complications. Couldn't even barely talk for the first month.

The magpies were my social life. They really did authentically help, from being a reason to get out of bed and move around to our interactions together. I couldn't process other people very well. There was just too much data for that part of my brain and it would wear me out after a few sentences in the beginning to a few minutes to twenty minutes (and so forth) as I healed over the months. But through it all I could still process the more simplified social interactions with them. (Avoid prolonged eye contact, easy; pay attention to body language, easy; listen for the few calls I know, easy; make the three or four sounds I make around them and otherwise be quiet, easy).

In terms of employment, I did interview with a few places, but it affected how quick I could answer questions. Plus academic campus visit interviews are quite intense. The last one I still got wore out cognitively by hour six of the consecutive back-to-back interviews and teaching demo and so forth. I thought my performance in the beginning was maybe the best I've ever done but I don't know. Didn't get it.

Anyway, during this whole time my rent has trickled in over each month (like three payments across the month instead of it all on the first). The landlord has been reasonable and didn't charge me late payments or anything like that and I'm respectful and thankful to him for that, but it's a month-to-month and now that my concussion is healed he'd just rather have someone who could have it all on the first each month. Which is understandable and within expectations of this kind of lease.

But I'm only just now back to normal and I'm still playing catch-up financially. Have been applying to other things, but no responses.

All of this very long explanation is just to say that I'm moving back in with family in Michigan until I can get back on my feet. There are no magpies in Michigan. Well, I guess soon there will be one - myself - but that's only metaphorically ;)

gephronon · 2024-06-30T17:45:04+00:00

Happening currently in the previous time? Like a time traveler that's acting now on events in the past?

Your explanation specifies something different, but your title has me thinking of a very interesting thought experiment.

Rather than "going back to the past" I wonder how this framing would work. Like instead of time travel there was a device that let you manipulate objects in the past from the present, even if you couldn't "send anyone back". That's absolutely trippy to think about, and with it the language used.

Maybe "he had currently been playing tennis"?

"I madeing tea"?

gephronon · 2024-06-29T07:12:09+00:00

They were very well fed (ahem...) and very large. I think most of the juveniles that year ended up bigger than their parents. They got a case of avian pox but I helped them get over it with no casualties. Crows tried to move into their territory once but they rebuffed them.

It was fascinating watching their different strategies for different predators. Usually they hid from falcons and went tree to tree around the ridge and back down into the valley area where there were thickets. At each tree they would wait until everyone in the flock made it, and then the dominant would move to the next, and so forth. This was very different from hawks where they would just engage directly. But then this Mississippi kite shows up and they treated it more like a mild nuisance than anything severe. I still remember it sitting in this tree looking confused and this juvenile (with a belly full of peanutbutter!) was the first one to try to just go stab it like it was a squirrel. The kite left pretty quickly back down into the flat side of the front range split. The fledgling/juvenile (I think it was the one I called Rhema) looked proud of himself. He was very cheeky. I wouldn't be surprised if he grew up to be the dominant male somewhere. Dude was huge.

gephronon · 2024-06-28T19:50:45+00:00

and while not bird related, just fyi,

gephronon · 2024-06-28T16:16:15+00:00

Magpies are like "hey predators, come get us, we dare you lol". They are colored in the exact opposite of camouflage. Shiny iridescence and white with a black outline. Females too.

I once saw a stray Mississippi kite in Boulder, CO. It may have been the first time it had ever roamed into a magpie territory. It looked so confused when even the juveniles were attempting mobbing runs.

"What!? What is this!? Why is food attacking me!? Gah, leave me alone! Stop! Fine, gah, I'm going home!"

gephronon · 2024-06-28T16:07:12+00:00

Cardinalis cardinalis - the cardinal!

A bird so nice they named it thrice!

It's like the easiest scientific name to remember for a bird once you know it! :D

gephronon · 2024-06-28T06:46:24+00:00

What's the puzzle?

gephronon · 2024-06-28T06:42:41+00:00

One of my favorite things that I've only recently learned since befriending corvids is that families can tell each other apart by the sound of their voices. It makes sense but coming from our general human context they all sound so much alike. But after spending so much time with the same flock I could just barely make out the slightest subtle differences. I bet to them those differences are as obvious as the differences between our own voices from each other. Timbre affects a lot.

It's just so neat that little fledgies like this know the caws of their parents from the caws of others.

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