iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A few weeks ago I realized that it has been almost 29 years since I started the #fiddlercrab information webpages. This mind-blowing realization gave rise to some introspection about how/why the site was created, which I have now explained on a new About page: www.fiddlercrab.info/about.html 🦀🧪🦑

fiddlercrab.info

About fiddlercrab.info

Fiddler Crabs

1146

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 30/09/2026

BREAKING NEWS: “Do geese see God” is a palindrome

14780771987

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

TW @twesq.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

this is fantastic and I learned something new

563172434

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

JB @notjaredb.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Fiddler crabs. #photography #ctnaturefans

1132

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

Darren M. A. Calvert @dmacalvert.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I will almost certainly spot something I've missed but I think I'm finished with these crab studies. 🦀 #SciArt

Digital watercolour drawings of a blue fiddler crab (top) and a rainbow crab (bottom)

21950234

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

James McInerney @jomcinerney.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I’ve seen trees you people wouldn’t believe. Deep branches collapsing off the shoulder of a saturated site, unresolved. I watched long-branch attraction glitter in the dark near the root of the Archaea. All those topologies will be lost in time… like tips in a polytomy.

59014

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.

010

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

"You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here."

140

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Have to admit I can't be bothered any more which is probably why my photos aren't as great as those of the more dedicated

150

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Back in the day, I would take a cheap plastic table cloth and just set it on the mud to give me something to lie on (and set equipment I wasn't actively using). Also worked as a temp rain shield. Had a mini tripod I would sink into mud to put camera at ground level.

240

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Depending on where exactly you are, they're probably active year round as that species doesn't like anywhere particularly cold. That doesn't mean they aren't more active at some times than others, but generally any nice, warm-to-hot sunny day they should be out and about during low tide.

140

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Step 2. You should be able to get within 10-15 feet. They'll run and hide, but if you stay still they'll gradually come back out. Being lower to the ground likely helps. The ones closest to you will remain cautious, but those a bit farther away will ignore you as long as you don't make major motion.

150

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Snort! Step 1. Check the tide tables. No point going when it's high tide. You don't have to go at exactly low tide, just within a nice window surrounding it (anything within 3-5 hours on either side is likely fine).

140

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

If it's any consolation, your taxonomy would have been good up until about 2016 (even more recently, depending on how you talk to)

110

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Unfortunately, your community sighting is wrong. That is a ghost crab (genus Ocypode), not a fiddler crab.

000

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I love that! We should adopt an "orchestra of fiddler crabs" as the official group names, to go with a "murder of crows", a "parliament of owls", a "bevy of swans", and the like.

030

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Males of Afruca tangeri fiddler #crabs demonstrating to each other in a bit of stand-off in Rio Chara preserve at Tarifa, Southern Spain 🦀

Males of fiddler crabs waving enlarged claws at each other

Rio Chara estuary azure against blue sky, reaches the Straits of Gibraltar

Coastal marsh of Rio Chara, with cows grazing and cloud-covered los Alcornacales mountains at the background

0195

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Yup, definitely O. quadrata. Color also might be because it's a juvenile

020

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Start your day with a couple dozen fiddler crabs, and the crab feed 🦀 bsky.app/profile/did:...

36418

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

In the last six days, the @nytimes.com has sent me (identical email address) the same solicitation 5 times (but using 4 slightly different subject lines). SPAMing potential customers is always a great business strategy.

000

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

For those wondering, the environmental effect on handedness is that if you damage/remove a claw of a very small juvenile male, before handedness has been set, the claw that was not removed develops into the large claw and the one that was removed regenerates to a small claw.

110

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

But what is going on in all of the other species? Is handedness essentially random with the environmental contribution or is it genetic but balanced at 50:50? The former seems more likely, but the "simple" breeding experiment has never been done (because it would be really really hard to do!)

110

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

It's been shown that there can be an environmental effect on handedness, even in the predominantly right-handed genus. The assumption is that in that genus all individuals are genetically right-handed but in a small fraction the environment induces left-handedness instead.

110

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Interesting. The other interesting question, to me, is handedness. Almost all fiddler species are 50:50 right:left but one genus (not at base of tree) is almost entirely right handed. What happened with this genus?

220

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Sexual dimorphism in fiddlers evolved a single time, not independently. Re: Ocypode nested within fiddlers and subsequently losing the sexual dimorphism is quite a controversial result within the fiddler community, although there isn't any competing data at this time to counter it.

120

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

If you had a ResearchGate profile you now have a sciprofiles dot com profile, whether you want one or not.

000

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

So apparently one of MDPI's latest scam schemes has been to create a "networking" site, which they did by (as far as one can tell) scraping/copying everything off of ResearchGate and other science social media into their own version (possibly even BlueSky profiles).

100

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I've spent many years thinking it was all just some fever dream from the fall of 1992

000

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I'm pretty sure I only saw one, but not the first. I think it made it something like 5? before cancellation

010

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

today I discovered this incredible story of a minor league pitcher who is 6'4 wears glasses and a ginger beard who hurt his elbow and went to the doc for Tommy John surgery and was mistaken for a pitcher from a diff team who was also there for TJ surgery on same day anyway heres their pics and names

Two dudes who were formed from the same mould in consecutive batches at the factory and are somehow completely unrelated

21877761728

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Back in April I commented about the number of class-action lawsuits for which I seemed to be a party of, counting at least 11 new ones in the 12 preceding months. In the two months since, I've been notified of 3 more, so I am now averaging more than 1 per month.

000

Reposted by Michael Rosenberg

michaeledward @michaeledward.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Scientists have discovered a tiny blue octopus lurking beneath the waters near the Galápagos Islands. About the size of a golf ball, the newly identified deep-sea species was found nearly 1,800 meters below the surface during an expedition in the Pacific Ocean.

27866241379

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

TFW you log into a meeting only to discover that you royally screwed up the time zone it was scheduled for and missed it by n hours

010

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I missed a few...make it at least **eleven** different class action lawsuits in the last 12 months.

000

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

In addition, almost every class-action notification goes straight to Spam because they are always sent with shady-looking links and weird addresses which get auto-flagged as suspicious.

000

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I got curious and did a search through email...over the past 12 months I've been a member of at least **eight** different class action lawsuits. I feel like this says something about society, but I'm not sure what. I suspect it says a lot less about me, beyond being an active member of said society.

220

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

We may not technically be kittens anymore, but we can still snuggle when we want to #cats

Two long-haired cats, one gray and one black sitting on a chair together, with the black one half on top of the gray one, but with heads in opposite directions

061

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

For those interested in a non basketball bracket this March, I direct you to the #FiddlerCrabBracket I posted 2 years ago, memorialized in order in this Google doc docs.google.com/document/d/1... I'll be out of touch for a week, but will happily answer questions when I return #FiddlerCrab 🦀🦑🧪

docs.google.com

Fiddler Crab Tournament Archive

Fiddler Crab Tournament Bluesky Posts Introduction March 29, 2024 Inspired by March Madness (and not at all influenced by March Mammal Madness), I've decided to run a #FiddlerCrab tournament brack...

093

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I challenged my collaborator to try a different genAI: they got the exact same formula and a completely different wrong answer. Turns out the genAI cannot handle the large integer math, but rather than admit it cannot, it just reports some answer that is orders of magnitude incorrect.

000

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

When we discussed it, we confirmed the formula was right, but whose numbers were correct, mine or theirs? (Mine obviously). I had calculated the values in Python, but then showed that I got the same values out if I plugged them into a website combinatorics calculator.

100

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I mangled my explanation slightly. My collaborator dumped the problem into genAI and got a formula and numbers out that did not match mine. They tested the formula by hand for small values (literally writing out every possible combination and counting them), so they knew the formula was correct.

100

Michael Rosenberg @mrosenberg.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I was exchanging notes with one about a project and I outlined that one element was essentially a simple combinatorics problem (n choose r) and listed the very large number of possible outcomes in a table.

100