Mark McClelland / is on Nostr

Newness erupts around us, ebullient, dangerous, exciting. I look in earnest today for the lessons we'll be in need of tomorrow. Software developer and writer. I live in Chicago and Yucatán.

Favorite recently watched movie: Milk.

Last Notes

2025-03-21 04:16:12

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@nprofile…fynq @nprofile…ey0w Me too. I chatted with their chatbot about specifics I haven't seen mentioned in reviews or academic papers, and the answers were... revealing.

2025-03-12 02:49:49

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@nprofile…args Your comment about social carrying makes me think the ants so efficiently moving the fallen filament of a lily in this music video I made for a friend are also Paratrechina longicornis. I took the footage in a different house, also in Mérida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJCu-4dXerY

2025-03-12 02:12:43

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@nprofile…args The ants are in Mérida, Yucatán. A little larger than the ants I'm most familiar with from growing up in the Midwest.

2025-03-12 01:51:49

Sadly, our cat caught an anole today. It shed its tail, but Kitty Lenore was focused on her quarry and walked off with the tailless lizard in her mouth. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to know she can eat a lizard. She dropped it, it shot off, and it escaped under the door to our laundry room -- to live on, I hope.
Not long thereafter, I found that ants were carrying the tail up a nearby wall!
https://sb-bigshoulders.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/146/953/284/388/056/original/c1a8cf73f6b13f4d.jpg

2025-03-12 01:51:49

2024-12-13 11:54:03

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@nprofile…0w49 My wife's grandfather assisted Salk with development of the polio vaccine while working for Eli Lilly. His eldest son, my wife's uncle, had polio and was disabled for life. This is horrific, and suggests a variety of ignorance possible only through magical thinking and a related obsession with imagined conspiracies.

2024-07-02 15:22:49

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@npub1ahq…wjwd It seems to me there's a decent chance the entire trial could be thrown out on the basis that it included "official acts" evidence.

2024-04-08 18:04:17

A 12-hole pinhole camera.
#Eclipse #Eclipse2024
https://sb-bigshoulders.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/236/908/699/305/296/original/f4355d976bedfdd2.jpg

2024-03-02 23:31:04

Not good.
"A study of people with mild to moderate COVID-19 showed significant prolonged inflammation of the brain and changes that are commensurate with *seven years of brain aging*.
"Severe COVID-19 that requires hospitalization or intensive care may result in cognitive deficits and other brain damage that are equivalent to *20 years of aging*. "
Emphasis mine.
https://theconversation.com/mounting-research-shows-that-covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-including-with-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-224216
#Covid #MentalHealth

2024-02-26 14:24:48

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@npub1ahq…wjwd Definitely!
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/nyregion/albert-einstein-college-medicine-bronx-donation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.YU0.xHcm.KGd5ffmXFPes&smid=url-share
#GiftLink

2024-02-22 18:42:22

"Tax records reveal the lucrative world of covid misinformation"
https://wapo.st/49on7f5
I love it when journalists shine the light that's needed to follow the money.
#GiftLink

2024-01-27 17:47:52

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@npub1j46…3gm7 @npub154l…xxnh Great term for a great concept. I'm gonna use that!

2024-01-27 16:54:14

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@npub1j46…3gm7 @npub154l…xxnh I feel like UX design is generally drifting toward one of two extremes.
https://sb-bigshoulders.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/828/947/259/495/678/original/e76e84b89b2dab7e.png
https://sb-bigshoulders.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/828/947/909/272/682/original/9450e601bc783679.png

2023-12-27 05:47:25

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@npub1j46…3gm7 @npub1y6d…0yy4 I did an undergrad independent study that was centered on the Newton, using it with high-schoolers to collect water quality data. I was so disappointed when I started using later mobile devices and they didn't have SOUP-style access to all of the essential data on the device.

2023-11-11 00:11:09

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@npub1ahq…wjwd @npub1nuw…pzfl @npub1ln2…sqhk @npub1r73…llcm @npub1fql…nma7 @npub13lv…a2u4 @npub1zdg…xg5r @npub1mch…gych @npub1v3l…wweh @npub14pe…9j04 @npub1cax…rldl Much appreciated! I love your twice-weekly reminders, and was thinking just the other day that it's people like you who keep me checking my Mastodon feed

2023-08-11 05:23:54

A juvenile robin hit the window of our back balcony today and dropped to the decking in a stunned state. Our cat, Lenore, who was lying underneath a chair on said balcony at the time, STAYED WHERE SHE WAS AND WATCHED THE BIRD. She showed nothing more than mild interest. I'm baffled as to why, but also immensely grateful. I was able to tempt Lenore inside with some kibbles and close the door to the balcony, and off flew the robin several minutes later.
#CatsOfMastodon #Birds

2023-08-05 02:11:26

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@npub1mus…lhp7 Le Sucrier Velours is an all-time favorite of mine. Absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for sharing this performance! It was via a performance of The Queen's Suite broadcast on PBS that I first discovered jazz I loved.

2023-08-02 16:27:07

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@npub1xpc…3t05 I overheard a conversation between two lifetime Republicans the other day, weighing whether or not they would vote for Trump again. The one argument against voting for him that I heard was that he "said he built the wall, but only finished like 40 miles of it". That this is the best argument they could provide — or even just the most ready-to-mind — is very telling.