Tag Archives: Open thread

Open thread: hyperbolic crochet

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Apparently we’ve never had a hyperbolic crochet thread before. Criminal, I say. Here’s an example:

A close-up of a very multi-coloured crochet item, with many curves folding in on itself
Image description: a close-up of a very multi-coloured crochet item, with many curves folding in on itself. Image credit: Michael Wade, CC BY-SA.

Two of the major things brought widespread awareness to hyperbolic crochet were Margaret Wertheim’s TED talk on the beautiful math of coral and the Hyperbolic Crochet Reef exhibitions. Here’s a picture of one the latter:

hyperbolic crocheted coral reef
Image description: a shot of many crochet items forming a coral reef sculpture. Image credit: Steve Jurvetson.

There’s a book on getting started on your own creations and there’s Flickr groups to admire the work of others: Hyperbolic Crochet and Hyperbolic Crochet Taxonomic Gallery sharing details of the models too!

Note: this is an open thread, and comments can be on any topic as long as they are otherwise ok with our policy. An increasing number of commenters are posting apologies for off-topicness on the open thread. Nothing is off-topic on the open thread! We promise! Hyperbolic crochets are only the start of what you could talk about!

Open Thread: Bangable Dudes in History

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You know, I’m not sure I can think of any commentary that would really enhance this link: Bangable Dudes in History.

So instead, I’m going to tell you that this is an open thread. We have open threads because comments close after two weeks, and sometimes you’ll want to say something about a story here that’s older than that. Or maybe you just have something else on your mind and think maybe it should be on ours too. By which I mean, you don’t have to talk about Bangable Dudes in History; you can talk about anything you want as long as it fits our comment guidelines.

And here’s a picture of Tesla so you know what you’re missing if you don’t click that link:

The graph tells you why Tesla was a lot hotter than Edison

Open thread: parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons

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A baby Komodo dragon born by parthenogenesis, photographed at Chester Zoo (CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia user Neil)

A baby Komodo dragon born by parthenogenesis, photographed at Chester Zoo (CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia user Neil)

What the hell. It’s geeky. And this is a fairly new (published 2006) finding about komodo dragons. To quote from Wikipedia:

On December 20, 2006, it was reported that Flora, a captive Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo in England, was the second known Komodo dragon to have laid unfertilized eggs: she laid 11 eggs, and 7 of them hatched, all of them male. Scientists at Liverpool University in England performed genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being moved to an incubator, and verified that Flora had never been in physical contact with a male dragon. After Flora’s eggs’ condition had been discovered, testing showed that [London Zoo dragon] Sungai’s eggs were also produced without outside fertilization…

Komodo dragons have the ZW chromosomal sex-determination system, as opposed to the mammalian XY system. Male progeny prove that Flora’s unfertilized eggs were haploid (n) and doubled their chromosomes later to become diploid (2n) (by being fertilized by a polar body, or by chromosome duplication without cell division), rather than by her laying diploid eggs by one of the meiosis reduction-divisions in her ovaries failing. When a female Komodo dragon (with ZW sex chromosomes) reproduces in this manner, she provides her progeny with only one chromosome from each of her pairs of chromosomes, including only one of her two sex chromosomes. This single set of chromosomes is duplicated in the egg, which develops parthenogenetically. Eggs receiving a Z chromosome become ZZ (male); those receiving a W chromosome become WW and fail to develop.

The Nature article is Phillip C. Watts et al (2006) Parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons, Nature 444, 1021–1022 (21 December 2006), doi:10.1038/4441021a.

This is an open thread, for a discussion of biology geeking, great nerdy events and, of course, anything else you want to discuss!

The Overdue Open Thread: Pi Day, March 14.

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Sorry folks, we forgot to put up a new open thread so here’s one now.

Things I found out today: Monday week is Pi Day. And apparently some people like to make a fuss over it. For example. below is a screenshot of some rather awesome Pi themed shoes on the Zazzle store. After a quick browse, these ones are my fave.

A scuff style sand shoe in blue and grey. The toe of the shoe is mostly grey and has "Pi" in big letters. The sides are blue and have a large portion of the pi value.

A scuff style sand shoe in blue and grey. The toe of the shoe is mostly grey and has "Pi" in big letters. The sides are blue and have a large portion of the pi value.

As the title of the post suggest, this is an open thread. Chatter about shoes, Pi, pie, Pi pie, or anything else that abides by our comment policy!

Open thread: an extremely important question

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Submitted to Ask a Geek Feminist, I think this question deserves your silliest answers:

What are [Geek Feminism blog]’s thoughts on morphing males into females via using the XX chromosome and simulating as sperm, injecting it to eggs to create better humans (especially those that are into life extension-ism?)

Source: http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pellissier20110202

Science, it is coming for your Y chromosones, folks.

Inside the Atomium 3
Image description: a tall, steep set of stairs painted red leads up a large closed metal tunnel illuminated in unnatural lighting colours. Image by O Palsson.

This is also an open thread, for unicorns, sparkles, better humans, discussion of older posts, and anything else that takes your fancy. Questions for ask a geek feminist are still open.

Open thread: geek clothes, current and rejected

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Last year, Brianna Laugher did a visual review of her geek shirts, those currently in active use and those consigned to the crinkle-heap.

Here are her current faves, there are notes on the Flickr page:

Geek t-shirts I still know & love
Image description: nine tshirts folded flat and arranged in a square. (Image by Brianna Laugher, CC BY-SA).

Of these, she writes:

Only 3 (maybe 4) of these are men’s cut. In a giant not-coincidence, they are also the shirts I wear while exercising or bumming around the house, as opposed to when I go out.

Women geeks, including fat women geeks, like nice t-shirts too!

See also the retired shirts, of which fewer have good cuts for her.

Question: which geeky events, groups or organisations have produced clothing you are still wearing, if any?

This post is also an open thread for discussion of any topic of interest, including older posts.

Open thread: 2010, new and improved

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Our last open thread of the year!

Eternal clock

Image description: an analogue clock face, distorted so that instead of being circular, it spirals into the centre of the picture, with the numbers repeating. Image by Robbert van der Steeg, Creative Commons BY-SA.

A question for you: what would have improved your geek life in 2010? What would be the one change that would have improved your geek year?

This is an open thread, thus, you are also welcome to discuss other topics, including but not limited to older posts.

Open Thread: Don’t ever wear artistic jewelry…

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Have any of you noticed the amount of fun geeky jewelery around at the moment? I for one have pink laptop earrings which I got from Claire’s in the US last month, HTML head tag earrings from Etsy, and today I picked up a pacman and ghost necklace pair from Diva in Australia.

Oh. And then there is my small army of robot necklaces.

Flickr / elkbuntu / creative commons attribution 2.o

Robots 1 “Lanky”, 3 “Pinky” and 4 “Brain” are from Diva in Australia. Robot 2 “Steamy” was from Bling in New Zealand last week. The 2, 3 and 4 should still be available, and in fact today I saw a ‘Best Friends’ version of Pinky, where he’s with an inversed black-with-pink-eyes friend.

I’m sure Colette would forgive me for this collection.

As this is an Open Thread, you’re welcome to post links to things you’ve found (…like moar robots for me?) and discuss issues other than geeky jewelry. It’s up to you!

Open thread: penguins descending a hill

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Even if you are the geek who geeks Linux the least, I think you can fully appreciate that penguins descending a hill are awesome:

Six penguins are seen from slightly below, walking down a groove in an icy slope
see more Daily Squee

Takes me back to my youth, playing Tux Racer. For nostalgic folk, or for people who have never yet controlled a penguin sliding down ice on its round belly while cheesy music plays, the version of the Tux Racer game that seems to be still actively developed is Extreme Tux Racer, versions available for Linux, MacOS and Windows. What other freely available games do you play in nostalgic moments?

If you have something to talk about other than penguins changing altitude, or game nostalgia, feel free. This is an open thread for discussion of anything of interest, including older posts, winter plans, summer days, and geek feminist rallying.

Open thread: this unicorn is srs bizns. Chase this unicorn at your own peril.

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Sean Bonner has realised a very important dream:

A purple My Little Pony figurine with a fuchsia mane. A soldering iron emerges from its forehead, pointing just to the right of the camera.

IMG_0858.JPG by CRASHspace on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

(via Leigh via Adafruit via BoingBoing)

What else have unicorns been up to? Where else have unicorns been a critical technological tool?

This is an open thread, for discussion of older posts, news, interesting tidbits and anything else that takes your fancy.