Elektrine
EN
Log in Register
Paige Chat Timeline Communities Gallery Videos Email DNS VPN Uptime Kairo
Back to Timeline
Remote

CynthesisToday

@CynthesisToday@sfba.social
mastodon 4.6.5
  • Open on sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve.

Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes".

Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve"

Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking
#UnitarianUniversalist

0 Followers
0 Following
12 Posts
Joined May 21, 2023

Posts

Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Apr 27, 2026
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social

Absolutely loving "A Half-Built Garden" by Ruthanna Emrys. The first of probably many syopses of important power* ideas:

"Were they more likely to recognize a government built on laws, on paper-and-pixel boundaries? Or a network defined by measurable flows of matter and energy and obligation?"

The 2nd part, "measurable flows of matter and energy", helps with an idea for creating a "Brewster to the Bay Catchment" instead of (?on top of?) city defined Neighborhood Associations. The City's reasons for the boundaries are "natural community boundaries and neighborhood characteristics". The reality of the extreme weather of winter '22/'23 showed the band of the city between the top of Brewster through to the SF Bay via both electric power transmission and storm water flow are a contiguous flow of matter (water) and energy (both electric power and the physical force of water flow).

Another great book recommendation from @pluralistic@mamot.fr

*"power" as in "The ability or capacity to act or do something effectively."

mamot.fr

Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr) - Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net

3
0
5
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Apr 22, 2026
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @mhoye@cosocial.ca
@mhoye Had numerous "discussions" with a finance friend of mine about the impossibility of the generative LLM version of "artificial intelligence". Prompted by his statement that his field had lots of experience with "milking" the run up, I gave up when this quote popped into mind: "It is useless to argue with a man whose opinion is based upon a personal or pecuniary interest; the only way to deal with him is to outvote him." OTOH, the world models approach combining the tools of neural networks with physical models (and their pesky matrices of partial differential equations) is really exciting even if it doesn't meet the "bosses" goals of work force reduction. https://news.mit.edu/2024/peds-technique-could-efficiently-solve-partial-differential-equations-0108
0
0
0
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Apr 06, 2026
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @mrundkvist@archaeo.social
@mrundkvist @juliette This takes on so many more nuances after reading the Wiki article for henbane... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscyamus_niger
1
0
0
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Mar 29, 2026
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @AlsoPaisleyCat@tenforward.social
@AlsoPaisleyCat @kagan Goodness... why the insult? Sure you guess what? I'm not a scientist, but I am an engineer who reads research papers and PhD theses for the thrill since retiring from chemical process development. There is some amazing science happening with the application of the sciences of interconnectedness. Bear, Benford, and Brin, The Killer B's, all great SF writers. Tiptree (nom de plume of Alice Sheldon) had no science background, but wrote very imaginative speculative fiction. Sheffield was a mathematician and physicist. How wonderful to find writers like Weir who write as well as old school SF writers. I loved Ann Leckie's Ancillary Series (mid-2010s). Can you recommend some post-2020s hard SF writers?
0
1
0
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Mar 28, 2026
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @kagan@wandering.shop
@kagan Some alternatives takes other than from a white male vlogger milking The Algorithm: https://ffrf.org/publications/day/andy-weir/ https://www.wired.com/story/social-nuance-of-artemis/ https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/why-project-hail-mary-ignited-230056768.html https://www.nae.edu/19579/31222/20054/311408/316925/The-Bridge-An-Interview-with-Andy-Weir For me, Project Hail Mary is definitely in my top 5 SF books of my long life so far. His descriptions of Rocky's perspectives rival Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree, Jr. His wielding the proximity to real science is in the same category as Charles Sheffield. I couldn't read it fast enough for wanting to know what happened next.
2
3
1
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Mar 03, 2026
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @lenaschimmel@chaos.social
@lenaschimmel @csk This one has a lot of optional ways to destabilize the system. Pick up a tiny block from the top, don't drop it, and watch the instability move through the carefully balanced system-- over and over.
1
0
0
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Jan 27, 2026
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @jonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz
@jonmsterling Thank you very much for sharing this perspective. I'm going to take this perspective, add it to the graphic from this article on stereographs to update my baseline worldview. https://www.chartography.net/p/the-stereogram-strikes-back
0
0
1
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Jan 25, 2026
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @Sheril@mastodon.social
@Sheril@mastodon.social I'm having trouble tracking down the source for this. When I duckduckgo search "did amanda gorman write a poem about alex pretti" the top return is a facebook post. There is also a very very recent youtube video. Both the FB post and the YT post are the same person giving the same spiel. Otherwise, nothing in particular I checked theamandagorman.com website (purportedly her official website). Maybe she posted it on FB. How did you find it?
0
0
0
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Dec 01, 2025
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @eliasp@mastodon.social
@eliasp@mastodon.social @jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net Experimental results on test species such as mice and in field exposures that farmworkers experience chronically are happening. The experimental chronic exposures are at levels established by the EPA as "safe", but when exposed over relative life cycles or in adolescent/young adult life phases, have negative effect. The farmworker exposures are the reality of diverse farm environments and fear in farmworkers. Scholar.google search terms: chronic glyphosate exposure or chronic GBH exposure. "GBH"== glyphosate-based herbicides which include Roundup and Rodeo. I think to the point of the OP and especially to the fact of the October 2026 "decision" of the US 47th administration's EPA regarding glyphosate-based herbicides, the possibility of increased population-wide chronic exposure is frightening. My hope is that Europe and Asia will continue their work on chronic exposure to allow for rebuttal of US research capture by US industry.
2
0
2
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Dec 01, 2025
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @eliasp@mastodon.social
@eliasp@mastodon.social @jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net Very true that mammals, including humans, don't have the Shikimate pathway in their intrinsic biology, but you know what does?-- Microbes such as some of the 100 trillion ones in the human gastrointestinal tract. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11043010/pdf/nihms-1957405.pdf
3
2
0
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Dec 01, 2025
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @j0seph@mastodon.social
@j0seph@mastodon.social @smoltron@syvyys.top @jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net This popular science version supports the after September 2025 assessment: https://undark.org/2025/08/15/opinion-ghostwritten-paper-glyphosate/ The authors of this paper (and the linked sciencedirect paper) submitted the request to retract and, as of August 2025, had only received notice of review by Elsevier.
11
0
5
0
Open post
CynthesisToday
CynthesisToday @CynthesisToday@sfba.social · Jun 30, 2023
CynthesisToday
@CynthesisToday@sfba.social

Retired chemical engineer. Currently feeding my intellect with mammalian #biology and #microbiology, the network and complex system aspects of biology, and the brain/body mechanisms via the vagus nerve. Recent-ish love of "The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health" and "I Contain Multitudes". Profile picture from Figure 27.1 of "Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve" Activities: #weightlifting and #hiking #UnitarianUniversalist

sfba.social
Replying to @cyberlyra@mastodon.social
@cyberlyra @inquiline What does "STS" mean? I found "Society of Thoracic Surgeons" and "Software Testing Solutions" as possibilities. The comment "someone outside the field and/or academia" suggests it might be ok for someone "outside" to ask.
2
1
0
0

Remote instance

sfba.social
Open on original server
313k7r1n3
Elektrine

Tor hidden service

elekhj7afj4qnrr4yd3bkzslsyo5jgfxw3orgjkhlcxifueodybyiiad.onion

Platform

  • Email
  • Chat
  • Timeline
  • Communities
  • VPN
  • DNS

Company

  • About
  • Contact
  • FAQ

Legal

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Warrant Canary
  • Lite (no JS)
  • VPN Policy
  • Source code

Support

  • support@elektrine.com
  • Report Security Issue
Mail client setup IMAP mail.elektrine.com:993 POP3 mail.elektrine.com:995 SMTP mail.elektrine.com:465
© 2026 Elektrine. All rights reserved. Server: 04:51:33 UTC