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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 15h

But Čapek gave his brother Josef credit for coming up with the word robot – his early drafts used the word "labor." Čapek's robots weren't metal mechanical devices, but rather artificial human-like biological organisms.

Black and white photo from a production of RUR. The set is a nicelymfurnished living room with paintings on the walls and a door and a large window at the back. In front of the door stands a three-legged, round table with a potted plant on it. To the left of the table are a man and a woman, both well-dressed. The man is standing, the woman is sitting in a n armchair. To the right of the table are three figures that appear to be robots. Two of them are wearing a sort of futuristic-looking uniform, and the third is wearing a suit and tie.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 15h

Karel Čapek's 1920 play "RUR" (Rossum's Universal Robots) introduced the word robot into the realm of science fiction. The word is derived from Czech words meaning "forced labor," or "slave."

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The "Tom Hanks – League of Their Own" award goes to a male tapir who was clocked at 59 seconds in a 2013 YouTube video. (Most of the measurements in this study came from YouTube videos – it seems that "animal pee tapes" are a thing.) youtu.be/H9ZK_NjBoJI?...

youtu.be

Bat Pees

YouTube video by Bill Sklar

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Smaller mammals, below around 3 kg (6.5 lbs.) don't follow the same pattern. Their short urethras and the effects of surface tension result in their passing urine as single drops, not a stream.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Law of urination Researchers at Georgia Inst. of Technology measured the duration of urination in mammals ranging in size from house cats to elephants, and found that they all emptied their bladders over a constant duration of 21 ± 13 seconds.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Kathryn Sullivan is the most vertical human of all time. One of the first six women astronauts at NASA, she was the first American woman to perform a spacewalk (1984) and was the first woman to reach the depths of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (2020)

Katherine Sullivan in her NASA space suit and headgear. (She is not wearing the full helmet.) She is looking directly at the camera with a sparkle in her eyes and just the hint of a smile.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

As American as ... The first known apple pie was baked in England in 1831. Photo credit: almanac.com

A baked apple pie with one slice missing sits in a glass bowl on a folded piece of burlap on a wooden table. The slice that was removed sits on a white plate just behind and to the side of the pie. Several whole apples sit on the table behind the pie, and several silver forks sit on the table next to the pie.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The stone had a reputation in Medieval times of having the power to prevent inebriation, perhaps because its pale purple color suggested watered-down wine. Folks out drinking would wear rings of amethyst in an attempt to avoid the effects of the alcohol.

An oval amethyst gemstone set in a simple, gold or bronze ring.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Amethyst, a purple-colored form of quartz, gets it name from the Latin "amethystus" which means "not drunk."

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The deepest dive on record, recorded by an electronic sensor attached to one individual, was more than 550 m (1,800 ft) and lasted over 30 minutes. 📷 : coolantarctica.com

Six emperor penguins swim just below the ice in the Southern Ocean. The water below the penguins is very dark but there is some light filtering through the ice , illuminating the penguins. Two large round holes in the ice provide additional light as well as allowing the penguins to surface to breathe.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Emperor penguins dive deeper in the ocean than any other bird. Chasing fish and krill in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, they commonly dive to depths of 100-200 m (330-650 ft) for an average of 3-6 minutes.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Unlike its name, the mountain beaver is not a true beaver. It is more closely related to squirrels. Photo credit: Merrill Peterson via nytimes.com

Closeup photo of a mountain beaver flea on a white background. Next to the flea is a pinned specimen of a cat flea for comparison. The mountain beaver flea is considerably larger than the cat flea, perhaps 5-6 times larger?

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The largest known flea in the world, the mountain beaver flea (Hystrichopsylla schefferi), can reach a length of 0.5 inch (12 mm). As the name suggests, it lives on the mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa) in the American northwest. The photo below shows a mountain beaver flea next to a cat flea.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Candy Land was so popular with the children that Abbot decided to pitch the game to the Milton Bradley company. It quickly became their biggest-selling board game.

Photograph of Eleanor Abbott as a young woman. Her wavy hair is cut short to around her jawline and she is looking towards the camera. She is wearing a black sweater with a white shirt beneath with the collars out.

A vintage Candy Land board showing the bright color squares that make the paths and the brightly-colored drawings of various candy-themed places along the path, including Candy Hearts, Peppermint Stick Forest, Ginger Bread Plum Tree, Crooked Old Peanut Brittle House, Lollipop Woods, and Molasses Swamp. Two happy children, one boy and one girl, are seen at the Start ready to begin their adventure.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Children in polio wards had to endure grueling daily physical therapy and often had little contact with their families due to strict quarantine protocols. She drew the game on butcher paper using simple colored squares – no counting or reading required, just matching colors and symbols.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Eleanor Abbot invented the game Candy Land while she was in a polio ward during the 1948 polio epidemic. Most of the other patients on the ward were children and Abbot wanted to create a game for the children.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Named for the Roman god known for speed – thanks to his winged sandals and winged hat – the planet Mercury only takes 88 Earth days to orbit the Sun, the fastest of any planet in the solar system.

Painting of the Roman god Mercury flying through the clouds. He is wrapped loosely in a billowing, orange sheet or robe and is holding a caduceus in his left hand. The wings on his sandals/ankles and on his head/hat can be clearly seen.

Photograph of the planet Mercury with a background of stars. The surface of the planet is mostly brownish with some white spots and streaks and some areas that are faintly dark blue.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The first cards sent by Kodak featured a Kodak employee named Shirley Page and they quickly became known as Shirley cards. The name stuck, even in later years when other models were used.

A Shirley card from 1978. A portrait of a young woman wearing a white, off-the-shoulder dress and a white pearl necklace takes up the top left corner of the card. Below and next to the portrait are swatches of colors and grayscale that the print techs would use to calibrate their machines. Text at the bottom of the card tell them that this particular card is to be used for Vericolor II Type S prints.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The cards featured a portrait of a young woman along with color and greyscale swatches the techs could use to calibrate their machines.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Before the advent of digital photography and printing, photographers had to take exposed rolls of film to a lab for processing and printing. To maintain print quality, the labs calibrated the printers every day and the references they used were called "Shirley cards."

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

whether or not it will be successful. Albatross juveniles spend four years at sea before returning to land, and don't breed until their seventh year. Early reports suggest that a few individuals have returned, but unfortunately went back to the original colony. Photo credit: Thomas P. Peschak

A bare rock slope below a vertical rock cliff holds numerous nests of the Chatham albatross. Each of the unusual-looking nests resembles a clay pot with a single chick sitting in each one. The chicks are fluffy and grey and seem comically large for the size of the nest. They fit, but just barely. In the upper right of the photo, an adult is gliding with wings spread.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

To make matters worse, they only breed on a single small island – The Pyramid – in the Chatham Islands. A New Zealand conservation group, Taiko Trust, has attempted to develop a second colony by translocating chicks to a protected area on Chatham Island but it remains to be seen ...

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Chatham albatross (Thalassarche eremita) pairs use the same nest year after year, ending in a raised platform. And since they can live 40 years, the nests can become comically tall. The species is critically endangered, with only 11,000 individuals remaining.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Backpack got his name from his habit of riding on his mother's back as she waded across rivers. His mother, Holly, was herself a Fat Bear winner in 2019.

Backpack, the bear, standing in a river in fast-moving water that comes not quite up to his belly.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A chonky brown bear known as "Backpack" is the 2026 winner of the National Parks Service's "Fat Bear Week." He beat out 15 other contestants. (To be fair, the bears don't really know they are competing.)

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I’d like to thank my parents, Barack Obama and Beyoncé We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin. This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God. Among those interviewed were Merle Haggard's two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.

On commas that could have protected Nelson Mandela's reputation.

"Highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."

in a Times of London story about a documentary by Peter Ustinov

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The Oxford comma, also called the serial comma, is the comma placed before the final conjunction in a list of three or more items. Sometimes it's not really needed but in many cases omitting it can lead to confusion. Some examples:

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Austrian psychiatrist Julius Wagner-Jauregg won Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1927 for developing the treatment.

Black and white photograph of Julius Wagner-Jauregg looking intently directly at the camera. He is seen from the shoulders up wearing a black hat and black coat with the collar turned up partially covering his chin. His trademark bushy, dark mustache can be seen.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

During the early years of the 1900s, before the advent of penicillin, patients with syphilis were sometimes treated by infecting them with malaria. The high fever caused by the malaria parasite eliminated the bacteria that causes syphilis and then the malaria could be treated with quinine.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

His advocacy led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 (aka the Wiley Act) “preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors ...” Photo credit: fda.gov

Twelve young men, of college age or a bit older, sit at two tables covered with a formal, white tablecloth. The men are neatly dressed in white shirts and dark suits, ties, and shoes. Although there are dishes and glassware on the table, it is difficult to tell if they are eating at the moment. Most appear to be talking and relaxing in their chairs.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Wiley's original goal was simply to show that these chemicals should be labeled, but following the results of the table trials, he concluded that they should be banned entirely.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"hygienic table trials" became known in the media as "The Poison Squad." In these trials, “twelve young clerks, vigorous and voracious” were fed meals laced with chemicals commonly used at the time in foods as preservatives, such as borax and formaldehyde. They were paid $5 a week.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The food safety regulations that keep our food safe today, are a direct result of the work of Dr. Harvey Wiley and his "Poison Squad." In his role as Chief Chemist at the USDA, Wiley undertook research to establish federal standards for food and beverages. One study, which Wiley described as

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Some time later, attending a production of Macbeth at the same theater, Dennis heard the sound of his thunder effect and reportedly exclaimed: “Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!”

A sheet of metal hangs from a sturdy wooden frame.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

But as part of the production, Dennis had created a new method of simulating the sound of thunder – a sheet of metal hanging from a frame that made a realistic thunder sound when struck in a certain way.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The phrase "stealing my thunder" is thought to have come from a petulant outburst by English dramatist John Dennis while attending a play at London's Theatre Royal. Dennis had staged a play "Appius and Virginia" at the theater but it was not well received and closed after a short run.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Mammals are the only animals with external ears. Photo credit: kentbatgroup.uk

A bat with very long ears peering down at the camera from a wooden rafter. The bat's head and neck are covered in fuzzy, soft-looking greyish-brown fur.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The entire film is apparently available on YouTube, as a 100+ part playlist.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Logistics" (aka "Logistics Art Project") was conceived and created by Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson. The film follows the production journey of a pedometer in reverse, from a store in Sweden, through a series of ships, trucks, and factories back to a factory in China. In real time.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A Swedish experimental film made in 2012 is the longest film ever made, clocking in at 857 hours (35 days, 17 hours).

Poster for the movie "Logistics." In the foreground is the front end of a large container ship, stacked high with shipping containers. In front of the ship, a calm ocean fades into the far distance. Text at the top of the image: Logistics. Video installation tracking the global flow of products.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

One entire floor of her 40-room Victorian mansion was dedicated to the cats, and they had their own servants. The dark cat with a white bib in the center of the painting is Sultan, reportedly Mrs. Johnson's favorite.

"My Wife's Lovers" painted in 1891 by Carl Kahler depicting 42 cats of various colors.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Kahler was commissioned by San Francisco millionaire Kate Birdsall Johnson to create a painting of some of her cats. (Various sources say she had between 50 and 350 – there are 42 in this painting.)

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

At 6 feet x 8.5 feet, "My Wife's Lovers" by Carl Kahler (1891) is quite likely the largest cat painting in the world.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Their success comes from a combination of speed, maneuverability, and massive compound eyes that give them near–360 degree vision. Photo credit: pixnio.com

A green and black dragonfly sitting on a weathered board with its wings spread out to either side.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Dragonflies are one of nature's most efficient hunters – they have been shown to have a capture rate of 95–97%. By contrast, peregrine falcons, also agile aerial hunters, have a success rate of only 47%. Lions only 25%.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

given off by an estimated 20,000 burning cigarettes. (This was in the 1940's when smoking was much more prevalent than today.) Photo credit: bugguide.net

Closeup of a fire beetle standing on a flat yellowish surface. The beetles' body, head, antennae, and legs are all black. Its body seems somewhat flat, likely an adaptation to living underneath the bark of the burned trees.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The beetles sometimes swarm to other heat sources, such as smelting operations, sugar refineries, and one time a burning oil spill. There are reports of a swarm descending on a football game at Berkeley, CA, and it was concluded that the beetles were attracted by the heat ...

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Fire beetles lay their eggs in freshly burnt wood – sometimes even while the wood is still smoldering. The beetles are especially resistant to extreme heat because of a unique copper compound incorporated into the structure of their exoskeleton – like a suit of armor.

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Schrödinger's bat @euderma44.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Jewel beetles in the genus Melanophila, also known as fire beetles, possess sensitive infrared (IR)detectors on their thorax that can detect forest fires from distances of more than 100 km (62 miles). Large, or long-burning, fires will attract huge swarms of fire beetles to mate and lay eggs.

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