iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 13/08/2026

We also switched litter, “Dr. Ridley’s Cat Attract,” got a low entry box, 8 cm on the entry side, and plugged in a Feliway atomizer (not sure if it helped). We concluded that spending a little money and doing research made it easier to love a pet we already love!

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 09/06/2026

The Aristotelian would like to know what ends this form supposes.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 22/04/2026

It's Earth Day! Enjoy Alfred Wegener's 1929 illustrations of Pangaea and continental drift, from the 4th ed. of Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane, catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/00200... #histsci #earthday

Abb. 4, Rekonstruktionen der Erdkarte nach der Verschiebungstheorie
für drei Zeiten: Jung-Karbon, Eozn, Alt-Quartär

Dieselben Rekonstruktionen wie in Abb. 1, in anderer Projektion

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 30/03/2026

We’ll never forget 🥹

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 02/03/2026

Diese 4TB SSD-Festplatte habe ich letztes Jahr für €250 gekauft, und jetzt kostet sie in den USA $680–700 🤷‍♂️

Grafik der Preissteigerung fur Samsung 4TB SSD von 3.25 bis 3.26, Idealo

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 23/02/2026

This reminds me of the time I almost won a Darwin Award by trying to cross Lake Mendota when it was frozen over on 700x35c studded tires…

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 16/01/2026

You say that, and yet high fiber soda had (has?) its moment:

A bottle of diet high fiber Sprite held by a human hand

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 09/12/2025

The grim cherry on top of the grim heap of this science journal chum is that Nature Scientific Reports claims to be the "3rd most cited journal in the world," driven in part from publishing over 43,500 articles in 2025, a rate of about 125 per day. (Screenshot 9 Dec 2025)

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 25/07/2025

I suspect it was the woman in this carpet business ad who done it.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 05/07/2025

Apparently a very big electrical defect. Was this you? gruene.social/@jon/1148010...

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 26/06/2025

New life goal is to get published in AARP Magazine.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 19/05/2025

Sometimes I wish we lived in a world where DjVu was common for book scans and we didn't have to deal with buggy and bloated PDFs. Instead I get to use this slick piece of 2006 vintage software with this incredible splash screen maybe 2–4 times a month.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 17/05/2025

These are the brown marmorated shield bug eggs that hatched on my ficus last year. The eggs were hauntingly pearl white.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 15/05/2025

I feel like a lot of philosophy of biology could be avoided if we just gave this diagram out on an index card in intro #philbio.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 14/05/2025

French physiologist Claude Bernard goes on a low nitrogen diet on June 6, 1846 and examines his urine. (From Olmsted's Claude Bernard & The Experimental Method in Medicine, 1952, archive.org/details/clau..., #histsci 🌱🧪)

Bernard was also at this time working at his experiments every available moment of the day, even upon occasion impersonating the experimental animal. Here is the time-table of one day.
On the 6th of June, 1846, I submitted myself to a diet with as restricted a nitrogen content as possible in order to vary the reaction of my urine. The night before, I had eaten for dinner pigeon, green peas, milk soup, cheese and coffee. Urine was acid. ... On the 6th at 8 a.m. I ate two large plates of potato starch boiled with water and butter. Urine examined at 10 and 11.45 was acid. ... At noon I ate cauliflower with an oil dressing, carrots fried in butter, lettuce salad, wine and sugar, but no bread. Urine at 2 and 4 p.m. acid. ...
At 6 p.m. I ate two plates of soup with vegetables, fried potatoes, buttered peas, boiled potatoes instead of bread, a salad of oranges in brandy and coffee. Urine acid at 10 p.m. ... To bed at mid-night, urine less pronouncedly acid. . . . Rose at 6 next day, urine alkaline. Breakfasted at 8 a.m. on café au lait and bread.14
An obliging cook seems to be implied in the background.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 09/05/2025

Current mood: (Odilon Redon, "L'oeuf," Hommage à Goya, 1885, gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...)

Title : [L'oeuf] : [estampe] / Odilon Redon
Author : Redon, Odilon (1840-1916). Lithographe
Publisher : [s.n.] (Paris)
Publication date : 1885
Relationship : Notice de recueil : http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb403446531
Relation : Appartient à : [Recueil. Oeuvre d'Odilon Redon. Oeuvre de Réserve]
Relation : Extrait de : Hommage à Goya
Relationship : http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb41472270z
Type : image
Type : still image
Type : engraving
Language : Sans contenu linguistique
Format : 1 est. sur Chine appliqué : lithographie ; 29,7 x 22,7 cm (le motif) ; 45,1 x 31,3 cm (la feuille) Continuation of text 22,7 cm (le motif) ; 45,1 x 31,3 cm (la feuille)
Format : image/jpeg
Format : Nombre total de vues : 1
Description : Référence bibliographique : Mellerio, 2001, 60
Description : Référence bibliographique : Werner, 1969, 35
Rights : Public domain
Identifier : ark:/12148/btv1b6951014k
Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, RESERVE DC- 354 (4) -BOITE FOL
Provenance : Bibliothèque nationale de France
Online date : 01/12/2010

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 06/05/2025

At least this contraption from Brazil is above where the water comes out. The first time I saw a tankless electric hot shower unit in the UK I was shocked (figuratively) that it was mounted a shoulder height.

Britische Duschkabine mit Durchlauferhitzer

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 05/05/2025

My vaguely informative Google Ngram of the day, Zellbiologie vs. Zellphysiologie #histsci 🌱 🧪

Google Books Ngram for Zellbiologie vs. Zellphsyiologie 1900–2000

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 29/04/2025

"Walpole is memorable for inventing a new policy of letting dogs go to sleep."

Cartoon of Walpole and a sleeping dog, with the caption "Policy"

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 27/04/2025

Omg I’m so here for this diagram, “Distribution of subject focus at 40 German materials science and engineering adjacent institutions” between Werkstoffwissenschaft (materials science), mechanical/electrical engineering, and physics/chemistry in 1994: link.springer.com/article/10.1... #histsci

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 26/04/2025

Poking around the the term "scientific consensus" means different things in different periods. In the 19th c. the phrase "consensus of opinion" is more common, by the 1940s it's a term of art about public testimony, eg in court or to Congress. books.google.com/ngrams/graph...

google books ngram chart of the relative use of the phrase "scientific consensus" from 1920 to 2000

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 22/04/2025

Most days I study the history of microscopy, and some days I feel like the microscope studies me. (Fig. 353 from Péterfi’s Methodik der wissenschaftlichen Biologie, vol. 1, 1928) #histsci

1928 diagram of a microscope fitted with a perpendicular illuminator with a whole live frog under the objective.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 09/04/2025

The US isn't just a very different country, Trump's approval rating was like a flat line ca. 40% through all of 2017-2020, unlike every other president. (Screenshot from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...)

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 08/04/2025

Since "whipsaw" has become a trending word, I looked it up: figuratively it either means "victimize in two opposite ways at once" or by two causes (i.e., two people holding a saw; MW+OED) or "characterized by rapid fluctuation" (i.e., the saw is moving up and down; OED). These are very different!

Photograph of two men sawing lumber with a whipsaw or pitsaw.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 07/01/2025

Testing to see if pics of big cats get shared through the Cat Pics feed.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 23/12/2024

Santa's two-wheeled sleigh was spotted today in Berlin.

Motorcycle decorated with Santas, Christmas wreaths, and a stag head.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 11/12/2024

Milieus of Minutiae from UVA Press is out, and I got my copy! This began as a workshop on details and small things in literature, philosophy, and science. My chapter, "Confronting the Limits of Optical Interpretation," is my new take on the history of the microscope. DM me if you want a scan! 🧪 🗃️ 🐋🌱

Cover of the book Milieus of Minutiae: Contextualizing the Small in Literature, Philosophy, and Science. University of Virginia Press, 2024.

First pages of my (Daniel Liu's) chapter in Milieus of Minutiae, "Confronting the Limits of Optical Interpretation: Some Philosophical Considerations of Microscopic Details"

Table of contents of the book Milieus of Minutiae: Contextualizing the Small in Literature, Philosophy, and Science. University of Virginia Press, 2024.

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Daniel Liu 🍜 @dan-liu.net · 04/11/2024

I’m going to Uxmal on Wednesday and Chichén Itzá on Sunday! As a US citizen I’m treating this trip as opportunity to contemplate the nature of political display, collapse of civilization, etc.

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