iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 1h

I got an early copy of Children of Owl by @littlebadger.bsky.social and I can’t put it down. The desert landscape is so vivid and Maisie just will not quit (complimentary). I also didn’t know the occasional illustrations are graphic novel style which is extra fun! Highly recommend.

Cover of Children of Owl by Darcie Little Badger, with a Kirkus star and a review from kirkus saying “a magical story that both haunts and enchants”. Release date Oct 6 2026

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 28/09/2026

I feel like I'll finally be a real writer once I learn how to type all the em-dashes.

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 25/09/2026

After making my definitive laser-based ranking of Steven Universe gems, I have one question: Is writer Rebecca Sugar into lasers? Because if not, it's a helluva coincidence. www.aiweirdness.com/do-they-even...

aiweirdness.com

Do they even lase? Definitive ranking of Steven Universe gems by a laser scientist

Do they even lase? A laser scientist ranks Steven Universe characters, from D-tier all the way to S-tier, and proposes a few more characters and fusions.

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 15/09/2026

Laser-making scrap material turned into gems? A+ recycling concept, precision targeted to appeal to me www.aiweirdness.com/laser-gems/

aiweirdness.com

Laser gems

So apparently laser crystals that are rejected from laser-making can end up in the gem trade and they look amazing!

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 14/09/2026

This is SO cool! Ben found that as he was making patterns on the surface of steel with a pulsed laser, at certain pulse rates he was getting iridescent colors. As the laser scanned, the pulses were lining up to make tiny stripes that acted like the tiny pits that give a CD its rainbow colors.

Screenshot of Applied science video showing a moving laser beam writing a pattern on the steel surface. The pattern has colors all the way from blue through green and bronze, and if you look even closer, you can see that the pixels of the pattern are made of tiny stripes.

@benkrasnow.bsky.social@benkrasnow.bsky.social

New Video: Optical diffraction patterns and almost-holograms made with a MOPA laser engraving machine www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsGH...

youtube.com

Optical diffraction patterns and almost-holograms made with a MOPA laser engraving machine

YouTube video by Applied Science

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 14/09/2026

The laser choice is #Gadolinite, which contains erbium, neodymium, and ytterbium (among other rare earth elements), all important in laser making. Not that people DO get these laser materials from gadolinite as far as I can tell but at least you could, and that's better than riebeckite.

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup@mineralcup.bsky.social

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 14 Average hardness and dark colours are camouflage for crystalline oddness lurking within blue asbestos #Riebeckite vs rare earth element #Gadolinite-(Y). VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 10/09/2026

I'm team #gypsum! It has a form called selenite that consists of long bundles of clear fibers, kind of like a natural form of fiber optics. The fibers can transport an image from the back to the front of the rock, giving it (and ulexite) the nickname TV Rock.

The cover of You Look Like a Thing and I Love You (by Janelle Shane) with the robot drawing on the front cover looking like it's popping out of the book.

View of the book at a slightly different angle showing that sitting on top of the robot box's face is a three inch polished rod of selenite

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup@mineralcup.bsky.social

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 10: It’s a pair of soft minerals that form near the surface as heavyweight #pyromorphite is up against evaporate #gypsum. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 09/09/2026

As far as I can tell, neither #MinCup26 material has been directly made into a laser. But if we accept that we're destroying the crystals to extract their components, let's grab the chromium from the #Putnisite and infuse it into a yttrium aluminum garnet. Cr:YAG is a good high-power laser material.

A green gem with a spooky red glow to it, almost like an afterimage. It's strong red fluorescence caused by the regular daylight illumination around it.

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup@mineralcup.bsky.social

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 9: It’s a pair of tiny minerals with unusual chemistry as hafnium-containing #Hafnon battles with strontium/chromium-containing #Putnisite. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 08/09/2026

Learned recently that they used real argon ion lasers for the god beams in Clash of the Titans (1981). I don't care what you say about the rest of the movie, the lasers are doing great. www.aiweirdness.com/thasers-in-c...

Zeus (Lawrence Olivier) sits on his throne with rays of brilliant green and blue fanning out behind his head.

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 08/09/2026

They're soft and lovely... and not promising as laser materials. Maybe someday someone will synthesize a nanostructure with a bit of stichtite or talc structure in the layers, and then use it for something lasery. It's a long shot. Laser verdict for #MinCup26: vote for whatever. They're nice rocks.

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup@mineralcup.bsky.social

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 8: It’s a pair of soft and lovely minerals as Stichtite and Talc compete for your votes. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 04/09/2026

I wasn't able to find direct evidence of people using either of today's minerals in a laser, but #Vesuvianite is slightly more promising. It's sometimes fluorescent, and there's plenty of ways to mess with its composition. Other sorosilicates can be laser materials, so there's hope. #MinCup26

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup@mineralcup.bsky.social

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 4: Cogwheels of #Bournonite are up against colourful #Vesuvianite in a battle of unexpected chemical compositions. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 04/09/2026

So delighted for you to hear my conversation with @drmlharris.bsky.social !

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 03/09/2026

#Sphalerite is the mineral of choice according to my laser-focused #MinCup26 voting guide! Sphalerite is a zinc sulfide with varying amounts of iron in it, and although I don't know of anyone directly making a laser from it, ZnS is phosphorescent AND a semiconductor AND makes good infrared lenses.

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 03/09/2026

I will certainly be thinking of this image next time I get one of those LLM-generated scam “message from a reader” emails

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 02/09/2026

Following my policy of choosing the best laser material each time, I'm voting #skutterudite in #MinCup26. The 2018 paper "Femtosecond mode-locking of a fiber laser using a CoSb3-skutterudite-based saturable absorber" describes a custom skutterudite that can help make short laser pulses.

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 01/09/2026

How could I not impulse buy?

A bag of coffee beans called “hologram” from counter culture coffee

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 01/09/2026

Voting #smithsonite in #MinCup26 because of the two it seems the most laseable. Ordered crystals, sometimes clearish, fluoresces under UV? There's a remote chance one could turn it into a laser.

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 01/09/2026

Didn't know till recently they can use lasers to break in jeans instead of stonewashing them, and in addition to it looking absolutely rad in videos and cutting down on chemical use, you can ALSO use them to make intricate bleached patterns. www.aiweirdness.com/laser-jeans/

aiweirdness.com

Laser Jeans

Apparently they use lasers to put the wear marks in jeans now? Amazing.

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 27/08/2026

Today I learned Canadian Froot Loops are fluorescent! Biologists are asking what evolutionary purpose the fluorescence serves

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 24/08/2026

I made some holograms at home from an antique mall kit! According to the kit, I shouldn't bother trying to make holograms of plants because they move too much during the 5-minute exposures. www.aiweirdness.com/i-made-a-hol...

Cartoon laser angrily telling a plant to stop moving so fast

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 21/08/2026

The biologist’s expressions are what really make this

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 18/08/2026

There are now two signed copies of my AI book at the Terminal B Tattered Cover in the Denver airport! They even had a green marker for me to sign with.

Two copies of You Look Like a Thing and I Love You, signed by me. I also added a drawing of a robot box, and a sketch fo a giraffe on the facing page. The robot is reporting the presence of the giraffe!

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 18/08/2026

I can’t think of a time I’ve been annoyed by an author mentioning their books, but I can think of multiple times when one of my favorite authors had a new book out and I didn’t even know about it, which means everyone should be mentioning their books MORE

@erikahall.bsky.social@erikahall.bsky.social

why would someone do this? authors should be mentioning their books

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 07/08/2026

A+ helpful use of googly eyes

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janelleshane.com @janelleshane.com · 07/08/2026