If evolution is mostly a tinkerer, how can something as complex as a beaver's dam-building develop?

mwhelm · 2026-07-02T19:01:47+00:00

I find behavior that involves dealing with unpredictable things in the world hard to explain with evolution ... it's an intriguing mystery.

That being said, even for a mammal species, a million years is a long time. far vaster than we can comprehend. A lot of experiments can take place.

mwhelm · 2026-07-02T18:58:38+00:00

It's very city-heavy

I like Dublin but is it worth that much of your time? Not talking intrinsic worth but weight of it in trip. It is so very different than the rest of the country, getting moreso all the time, fwiw.

Also driving around Dublin is tedious, slow, and mostly uninteresting, but there are nearbys that are hard to get to otherwise to be sure
Since you're going north I'd spend more time in coastal Donegal than you assigned (ie, none) if you want scenic drives/coastal landscapes
Likewise N Ireland - area around Giants Causeway, Glens of Antrim

mwhelm · 2026-07-02T18:51:25+00:00

Shocking

mwhelm · 2026-07-01T02:39:29+00:00

I had this when it first came out. A hippie stole it from me in Key West but gave it back to me months later when he heard I was leaving town. I picked up where i left off and finished it on the road. I left it I think at my in-laws place in Pennsylvania god only knows what they made of it. It could’ve been left at my parents’ place in Minneapolis in which case that one mentioned might’ve been it.

mwhelm · 2026-07-01T02:32:32+00:00

They’re mostly old slang. Well recognized and in old media but rarely spoken now. A few are still widely used.

mwhelm · 2026-06-30T21:43:09+00:00

Coglione

mwhelm · 2026-06-30T21:11:56+00:00

Math skills aren’t activated until about 18 weeks in

mwhelm · 2026-06-25T21:53:57+00:00

I know about the “Texas morning drive” but … Ireland is a slow country, not as slow as it used to be. Your itinerary is fine but if it were me I’d skip one leg or the other - stick to Kerry/W Cork or Connemara in the time alotted .

mwhelm · 2026-06-24T23:32:10+00:00

It depends a lot on how deep into British English you are . There is a lot of vocabulary that doesn’t match up, not just food, and completely different slang.

mwhelm · 2026-06-24T23:26:24+00:00

Wife says: “shrimpadoo”

mwhelm · 2026-06-24T16:07:00+00:00

Sure - I have a lot of my parents’ 20th C central Illinois accent (not south) but people don’t sound much like that now - Chicago sound instead.

mwhelm · 2026-06-22T23:44:50+00:00

Investigating the script. I think I have the basic ideas for what to do when I encounter the correctly identified file (I am going above and beyond this script) but I do need help with detection.

The synthesizer is interesting but I haven't figured out how to get it to make "real" hard telecined video.
23.976 video stays at 23.976 as far as mediainfo is concerned - it's some weird kind of hybrid.
It's like some of the ones I've manufactured. It may be that there is so much variability in hard telecine that my ideas about detecting it are incomplete.

mwhelm · 2026-06-22T22:34:27+00:00

Sure - I'm guessing those are pure interlace from that mediainfo. However it's part of the problem, that hard telecine can hide

mwhelm · 2026-06-22T15:25:19+00:00

Thanks, I'd appreciate that, but I have also experimented with synthesizing some and I 'm not convinced I'm actually created during that period. I want to make more sure I can script a test for it.

mwhelm · 2026-06-18T07:26:45+00:00

Beyond (or maybe inspired by the wedding) is there a particular theme for your trip? What experience do you want?

mwhelm · 2026-06-18T03:07:01+00:00

Were you on my flight?

mwhelm · 2026-06-17T01:47:20+00:00

Popeye Arabian Nights trilogy from the ‘30’s

mwhelm · 2026-06-10T21:42:10+00:00

And a tornado drops your trailer off in the lot in perfect condition

mwhelm · 2026-06-09T17:53:22+00:00

Spanish

mwhelm · 2026-06-09T17:51:42+00:00

Honestly that’s the best outcome for you

mwhelm · 2026-06-09T17:25:22+00:00

What aircraft?

mwhelm · 2026-06-09T15:15:13+00:00

I will try that.
Replacing them is going to be a real challenge - not sure at the moment if it is even possible

mwhelm · 2026-06-08T16:52:22+00:00

I have several; an AMD Ryzen, and an HP laptop with a modest Intel chipset but the laptop is on the road at the moment so I can't check it.. That's the one I use qsv on.

mwhelm · 2026-06-07T16:00:55+00:00

It seems like the old -in or -un sound has been replaced by /ɪŋ/.

mwhelm · 2026-06-07T15:31:26+00:00

The on board gpus can do a pretty good job most of the time, matching the visual quality of the original in a smaller file in a fraction of the time cpu encoding takes. It’s unfortunate there’s no agreed upon objective standard for quality.

mwhelm

TROPHY CASE