iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 8h

Gone Insane with the Wind

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 9h

Jars of pickled Ukrainian beets must’ve been delicious

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 10h

Also at this guy’s backyard music thing I had my first ever “walking taco.”

Single size bag of Fritos, corn chips, open at the top with various fillings inside most of which are not really visible, it’s kind of a crappy picture of a walking Taco

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 11h

I mean, it just looks like frank rectal bleeding. But I’ve had beets many times in my life before and a few times since, and that was the only time. I wonder if there is some transient alterations in human physiology and/or particular varieties of beets that result in a perfect storm of anxiety

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 12h

but it took me two or three years to finally feel ok to eat beets again.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 12h

also depressed. But also something didn’t seem correct about it. And then I remembered the night before having had the delicious beets salad at this place called il corso, and I put it together that it was the fucking beets that caused such false sorrow. Of course I was relieved and overjoyed,

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 12h

As long as we are among friends, beets almost ruined a vacation in Palm Springs about four years ago. Second day of the trip, there were “beets” but I didn’t know that’s what it was, and grimly assumed I had a villous adenoma, didn’t tell anyone, spent the rest of the day feeling both anxious and

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 13h

I am the same way about pizza cut like a multi-hashtag. Which I’m generally not a big fan of anyway, but if they’re going to do it that way, I’ll be damned if I’m gonna accept a piece without any crust.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 13h

“Fall colors” hasn’t really started here in earnest, but there are a few early outliers.

Rectangular 4 x 3 ratio photo showing numerous trees in Lombard, Illinois, most of the trees are deciduous trees I think a few pine trees, but anyway most of everything is green, except for a couple of nearby trees that have a reddish orange color to the leaves

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 14h

This looks like a very effective material at keeping from overheating while outside during the day, I can imagine esp in equatorial areas of the world

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 14h

Haha yes that infamous pan.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 15h

Yeah. They always say no red or orange Jell-0.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 15h

Tray of brownies at this guy’s backyard music festival. There’s only one piece left and I’m gonna grab it.

One of those aluminum baking trays with brownies, cut approximately into squares, many of the brownies have already been taken, but many are left

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 17h

heat, and if so how hot, how often you wash it, how often you wear it, how you wear it / what activities you do while wearing, maybe even your own body chemistry, and probably other things that I can’t think of

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 17h

Well, so much variability. What is the base thread for the t-shirt, details about the particular knit and thickness, what detergent, temperature, and type & length of wash cycle you use, front load versus top load, maybe even the washer brand, line dry vs tumble dry, and if tumble is it air temp vs

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 17h

Passed by this house again, I didn’t look for all 25 of them, but my favorite one is the one clutching the booze and wearing a mini red Solo party cup.

One of those ubiquitous plastic skeletons people put outside around Halloween, this one is attached to a black rot iron fence and under the right arm armpit is a bottle of Malört liqueur and a skeleton is wearing the classic red party cup, but a really small version

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 18h

Actually, it seems like after 500 friction cycles and 50 detergent washes, the results are excellent

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Reposted by Alan

Fred BOURSIER @boursier.bsky.social · 18h

Still my favorite of the series. That clock is exactly how everything felt.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 18h

I’m not sure they said that it lost its properties after 50 washes, but that it maintained its properties through 50 washes. As in “at least 50 washes,” possibly more.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 18h

“The depths of the coronavirus pandemic and America’s response to it, emotionally represented in a clockface.”

Same photo of Fred’s clock with drowning numerals struggling to stay afloat

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 19h

It’s a stolen images from @boursier.bsky.social’s Instagram, the first of five photos, and therefore 1/5

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

When I first saw this clock dial it immediately struck me as a visual metaphor for how the world is kind of struggling right now.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

excellent. I'd love to see it with this clock dial, designed and printed by @boursier.bsky.social with "drowning" numerals, to add to the dramtic sense of movement. adds to the chaos.

fred's masterful cock design, the numerals that make up the clock dial are partially visible, partially "sunken" ito the eial, like they are flowing in soup. black andred hands

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

thing if it's not already clear, this fiber developed by the scientists in Shanghai is NOT the same that went into the fabric of Trump's boring blue suit, but I mentioned/acknowledged that what made me curious about this material was Derek's post about it.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

are available, but it would be nice to have a few base layer shirts and see how they perform. Oh, this is just how adding ethanol to their preparation seems to improve the fiber by "reducing aggregation of molecular chains, which leads to easier molecular movement and orientation." Oh, one more

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

body-textile microclimate is formed between the clothing and the human skin." These drawings show heat transfer pathways in the fiber and the "sweat pipe." This stuff seems really interesting. The paper was recent, about a year old, and I'm not sure if any garments with their material

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

maintain a comfortable and safe balance. "Clothing, as an indispensable barrier between the skin and the environment, is critical in regulating the wearing comfort of the human body in daily life. By exchanging heat and moisture with the outside environment through the medium of textiles, the

drawing showiing how it works wtih heatring and cooling

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

a shirt with four fabric patches, one being ther BI-DTF material, though I'm having a hard time interpreting the IR images even with their legend. The next in the thread is a schematic showing the thermoregulation of their fabric in both hot and cold enviroments, showing its ability to

3 picis with shirt with 4 patches of fabric and IR iimages

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

looked this up after a post by @dieworkwear.bsky.social (bsky.app/profile/diew...) about Trump's off-the-rack Jos. A. Bank Suit that had some fabric they were calling 37.5. Here is the fiber, able to lift a 2 kg weight, equivalent to ~1100 times its mass. The next photos are of a voluteer wearing

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

novel techniques to embed nanoparticles in polyurethane fibers, resulting in a fabric with a maximum thermal temperature difference of that "microclimate" of only 2.3 °C, durable over at least 50 washes, and with superior strenth. Here is a SEM of the fibers, with the nanoparticles visible. I only

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 20h

The "body-textile microclimate." "Maintaining the balance of clothing microclimate is critical for human health management" esp in an era of changing climate. Scientists in Shanghai develop durable, moisture-permeable bi-directional thermoregulation fabric using pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

drawings of the molecules and shirt with the four patches

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I know. But it is honestly the best I could do. The design was clearly to stretch out the lettering as far apart as possible to cover the entire length of the very long building. Impossible to photograph!

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Fake sign, real sign. Not bad.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Here is the little yard. Mercifully I didn’t encounter any poop.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Poop where you picnic. This is a bit funny mostly because they went through the effort to make a fake Chicago Parks District sign for their little private yard, a sign that looks very faithful to the real ones.

Rectangular sign, mostly green and cream color with slightly angled red stripe it says race Trax Park not a Chicago Park District and it has a white circle with a picnic table and a white circle showing a dog pooping. Neither of the circles has a red line through it, and the sign is applied to an old brick wall.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Nice. I found the rest of them. This one called “Bang, Bang.” alumni.gobelins.fr/fr/news/alie...

Shows a bedroom with a sliding glass door and a cactus and inside the bedroom soda to the edge of the curtain is a woman wearing a white dress holding a rifle or some other type of elongated gun. Outside in like a courtyard or driveway is an alien with a white jumpsuit and green head.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Taking out the color I find it a little easier to appreciate the modern lines. I have long wanted to take a good photo of the entire building, but it’s just too big for my skills.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Vertical slit windows so characteristic of many of these post WW II era industrial buildings. Not much, but probably allows in a little natural lighting into the maintenance areas. The lettering isn’t neon, but each letter has a small light at the base. Perfect spacing. This pic was around dawn

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Impossible to adequately photograph the entirety of this midcentury beauty, here’s a bit of the Chicago Transit Authority subway repair facility directly facing the Eisenhower Expressway. A very long building, almost like a massive billboard for the CTA. Perfect green letters cream-colored brick.

Photo of a portion of this building, in green block letters it says Chicago, but without the H sitting at top a ledge that is immediately above a horizontal row of windows lit from inside. Above the letters set back a little bit is a large wall that has much much wider than it is tall, cream colored glaze brick with multiple equally spaced, narrow, vertical window columns

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

They called it Bohemian Raspberry. (This was not Chicago).

Photo of a glass bottle with an orange plastic cap held in a hand with background sidewalk, pavement, and green painted curb, the drink inside is colored sort of a light purple

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

King Henry IV of France administering the “royal touch” to a patient suffering from scrofula, while dozens of others wait for their turn. 1609. RFK wants a return to 1609. All Mycobacterial species love the idea of raw milk.

Black-and-white, drawing or painting of the king standing, laying his hand on the head of a kneeling person, suffer suffering from the disease, well many other others are around this

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Mycobacterium bovis (similar to tuberculosis) loves this. Raw milk historically associated with scrofula. I won’t show any actual photos of scrofula, they are very unpleasant, big holes in your neck , but here’s an artwork of a family caring for a child.

Color, painting, or drawing a child on her knees and three adults in the scene attending to the child

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Don’t miss the leap into the bushes

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Reposted by Alan

Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

In Chicago O'Hare (cursed) on my way to New York City for a panel at #nycc tonight! See you there for the third stop on my book tour! Next week: Boston and Burlington VT!

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