TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee")

New word for the day: neuston (or pleuston)

2026-04-30T12:43:00.003-05:00

Fascinating video, and IMHO worth the time expenditure to watch. As a child I was fascinated by the water striders and whirligigs in northern Minnesota lakes. These "ripple bugs" are similar inhabitants of fast-flowing streams. The role of hydrophobic legs has been documented long ago, but the details here re the fans and their deployment is awesome.

Now for the words and their etymology:

Neuston, also called pleuston, are organisms that live at the surface of a body of water, such as an ocean, estuary, lake, river, wetland or pond. Neuston can live on top of the water surface or submersed just below the water surface. In addition, microorganisms can exist in the surface microlayer that forms between the top- and the under-side of the water surface.

Neustons can be informally separated into two groups: the phytoneuston, which are autotrophs floating at the water surface including cyanobacteria, filamentous algae and free-floating aquatic plant (e.g. mosquito fern, duckweed and water lettuce); and the zooneuston, which are floating heterotrophs such as protists (e.g. ciliates) and metazoans (aquatic animals).

The word "neuston" comes from Greek neustos, meaning "swimming", and the noun suffix -on (as in "plankton"). This term first appears in the biological literature in 1917. The alternative term pleuston comes from the Greek plein, meaning "to sail or float". The first known use of this word was in 1909, before the first known use of neuston. In the past various authors have attempted distinctions between neuston and pleuston, but these distinctions have not been widely adopted. As of 2021, the two terms are usually used somewhat interchangeably, and neuston is used more often than pleuston.

Also interesting to note that "neuston" is both countable and uncountable, depending on usage.

Seeking address labels that support a charity

2026-04-29T14:19:00.006-05:00

Many years ago I used return address labels from the National Wildlife Federation and other nature- and medicine-based charities. Then I started printing my own labels using the Avery system of buying blank sticky labels and printing them at home with my name and address. The last time I tried that, the process was hellishly frustrating, ending with the paper jamming in my printer and the sticky labels tangled in the gears. I vowed in the future to buy directly from charities again.

But where? A quick search this morning wasn't productive. And my understanding of most label-printing services (like the Walmart pictured above) is that my $$ goes to Walmart or the check-printing company and not to the charity. My "support" for the charity thus becomes having their name or logo microprinted on the label.

I wonder if any readers are purchasing return address labels from charities.

Majestic irony indeed

2026-04-29T14:12:00.002-05:00

For background reading on the meeting of King Charles with Trump.

"86" explained

2026-04-29T14:07:00.001-05:00

This morning while doomscrolling I saw a headline indicating that the Department of Justice would be indicting former FBI Director James Comey "because he shared a photo of some seashells." They are alleging that the "86 47" in the photo is indicative of inciting violence against the president.

Any idiot could look up 86 in Wikipedia:

Eighty-six or 86 is American English slang, generally meaning to "get rid of" someone or something.

In the hospitality industry, it is used to indicate that an item is no longer available, traditionally from a food or drinks establishment, or referring to a person or people who are not welcome on the premises. Its etymology is unknown, but the term seems to have been coined in the 1920s or 1930s.

There are multiple theories re the etymology, which you can read at the link. Think of the countless hours expended by highly-paid attorneys on both sides, much of which comes at the expense of the public, and for no practical purpose. I'm so tired of this shit.

A curious landscape feature in Italy

2026-04-29T09:21:00.007-05:00

Explanation at the geography subreddit.

Iran's enriched uranium

2026-04-29T09:02:00.003-05:00

Embedded above is a screencap from an impressive New York Times article explaining how Iran accumulated 11 tons of nuclear material.

The graph depicts uranium at various "grades" from low-level (grayish) to enriched (darker) and weapons grade (blackish).

"As the stockpile kept growing, the Obama administration began talks to curb it. In 2015, Iran and six nations led by the United States reached an accord that limited the purity of its enriched uranium to 3.67 percent and the size of its stockpile until 2030... Iran lacked a single bomb’s worth of uranium in 2018, when Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the pact and reimposed a series of tough economic sanctions."

Continue reading at the link for more information.

The art of the deal...

2026-04-29T07:17:00.008-05:00

"Demand destruction" looms

2026-04-29T05:36:00.006-05:00

I don't know if this term will work its way from the business/economic community to the general press, but it is a useful term. Here's the Wiki:

In economics, demand destruction refers to a permanent or sustained decline in the demand for a certain good in response to persistent high prices or limited supply. Because of persistent high prices, consumers may decide that it is not worth purchasing as much of that good, or seek out alternatives as substitutes.

I've heard that phrase expressed in interviews on the Bloomberg channel and on Al Jazeera, but today I encountered the phrase in a Facebook post by Mohamed El-Erian:

I will reiterate my previously-expressed belief that the U.S. equity markets are trading at unsustainably high levels based on irrational expectations of a quick resolution to the current Gulf conflict (based on part on Trump's totally irrational claims of such), combined with positive economic news from the small sector of AI-related companies that are overweighted in equity indexes. The American consumer is hurting and is cutting back on spending; the fact that inflation is stable or rising indicates that companies are passing on their costs to consumers, not that consumers are buying more (as El-Erian notes). IMHO this is a good time to cash in on paper gains in stocks or to write covered calls when such are available.

Addendum: Here is a 6-month graph of an index representing the 500 largest companies in the U.S., with the onset of the war indicated by the red arrow:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has a similar shape. The S&P has overshot the war onset number because this is its composition:

The U.S. "economy" is increasingly being viewed as one based on information technology, and while artificial intelligence may hold enormous potential for increasing profitability of corporations through increaed efficiecy (and lower payrolls...), the underlying "boots on the ground" economy of agriculture and industry is suffering. Even if the war ends tomorrow morning, oil prices are going to remain high for a prolonged period.

Just my opinion. Do not make your investment decisions based on the rantings of an old English major with job skills in the biosciences. Consult your investment advisors and read widely.

Addendum: An Australian writing the I Fucking Love Australia substack puts the situation more bluntly:

Oxford Economics has it modelled. Oil at $150 plus for four months, global inflation back at 7.7 per cent close to the 2022 peak, world GDP growth slowing to 1.4 per cent for the year. Australian recession sharpest since the early nineties. None of this is fringe analysis. This is the orthodox economic forecasting houses now openly publishing recession scenarios with a straight face.

And the equity markets are still being held up by the AI fever dream. A handful of US tech billionaires playing a hyper-financialised game of chicken on multi-trillion dollar valuations underwritten by an artificial intelligence investment bubble that still has not delivered the productivity gains it promised, and is openly built on the premise of replacing every working person on the planet. When the energy shock fully filters through into demand destruction, into corporate earnings, into job losses across logistics, transport, agriculture and manufacturing, the unwind will not be gentle. Your super fund’s overweight position in Nasdaq tech is going to find out the same way it did in 2008.

The convergence is the real fucking story. Energy shock plus inflation shock plus AI bubble plus a US president actively breaking the global trade system with tariffs plus a global central banking response that has run out of room. We are looking at conditions that could make 2008 look like a kindergarten scuffle. It is not impossible to talk seriously now about Great Depression two point oh. The brokers laughing that off three months ago are now on speed dial to their compliance departments.

"Fake news you can trust"

2026-04-28T13:05:00.003-05:00

That seems to be the motto of the Babylon Bee, where I found this item.

LIHOP and MIHOP return from obscurity

2026-04-28T00:23:00.003-05:00

Raise your hand if you are old enough to remember the heyday of these terms:

LIHOP ("Let it happen on purpose") – suggests that key individuals within the government had at least some foreknowledge of the attacks and deliberately ignored it or actively weakened United States' defenses to ensure the hijacked flights were not intercepted. Similar allegations were made about Pearl Harbor.

MIHOP ("Make/Made it happen on purpose") – that key individuals within the government planned the attacks and collaborated with, or framed, al-Qaeda in carrying them out. There is a range of opinions about how this might have been achieved.

Those were the leading contenders in the conspiracy theories surrounding the events of 9/11. Now the terms return in discussions of the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting. I've heard various suggestions that the event was staged, and have read strong denials. Today I found this on Facebook:

If it's true that the police had been notified and that the shooter was on a watch list, then his being able to check into a D.C. hotel begins looking suspicious.

The tornado in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

2026-04-27T15:14:00.004-05:00

The depiction of the tornado in the 1939 film was intense and remarkably well-executed, even by modern standards. I found a relevant Instagram post (which I don't know how to embed) that describes the basic technology used.

The tornado isalso discussed at some length in an article at the Oz Museum. English majors and other wordsmiths will appreciate this aspect:

“Cyclone” is the word L. Frank Baum chose to describe the Kansas storm in his story, although he clearly meant “tornado.” Shortly after THE WIZARD OF OZ book first appeared in 1900, Professor Willis L. Moore, then Chief of the United States Weather Bureau, wrote Baum’s publishers to urge them to correct the inaccurate usage. He received a response from Frank K. Reilly of The George M. Hill Company, offering that the change would be made in the next edition. This, however, was never done, and any who purchase a copy of THE WIZARD OF OZ reprinting Baum’s original language will find that “cyclone” remains, again and again – as colloquial and as factually incorrect as ever. (MGM got around the issue in the movie by having Bert Lahr exclaim, in idiomatic fright, “It’s a twister! It’s a twister!” Later on, however, the screenwriters were loyal to Baum, and Judy Garland’s Dorothy explains to Toto, “We must be up inside the cyclone!”)

The article goes on to discuss the various static artistic depictions of the tornado in different publications of The Wizard of Oz, including this one -

- in which the tornado is still present in Munchkinland. The Oz Museum article is nicely illustrated, but for explication of the movie technique, see the Instagram account.

Manes

2026-04-27T14:52:00.003-05:00

This image of Icelandic horses at play in Germany was one of the Photos of the Week at The Atlantic. It got me wondering whether horses' manes provided evolutionary advantages that might have led to selection pressures affecting their size. I'm not a "horse person," so there is a fuckton of stuff I didn't know, nicely summarized at the relevant Wikipedia page.

"Radiator thing on a basement pipe"

2026-04-27T14:16:00.002-05:00

A curiosity posted in the whatisthisthing subreddit by someone who saw it while visiting an open house. Informed discussion thread at the link indicates that this is in fact a "radiator thing" (properly termed "hydronic heater") in a "fin tube" style, and similar in intended function to a baseboard heater.

I agree with this comment that it looks like an amateur hack:

That's not going to do much to heat the space because a slant fin radiator is meant to move air by convection. The normal installation is down low near the floor, not up high. Also usually below a window. They work by heating the cool air that's coming off the window and falling down on them.

And I find it curious that traversing the same room is what appears to be a hot water pipe wrapped to prevent heat escaping into the basement.

Re the shooting incident yesterday...

2026-04-27T13:57:00.001-05:00

"Meghan McCain bleated out, “I don’t want to hear one more fucking criticism of Trump’s new ballroom at the White House,” which — briefly — seemed likely to be the most vacuous comment of the evening. Even by Meghan’s increasingly wooly standards, using the shooting at the DC Hilton as a pretext for building the $400 million ballroom seemed like a non-sequitur.
But it was quickly followed by what I am sure was a completely spontaneous and not at all coordinated flood of almost identical comments from the MAGA toady gallery, which didn’t feel the need to change the wording or the message.

One does not have to be a member of the august punditocracy to note that MAGA reacted this way because MAGA was told to react this way..."

Text and image excerpted from the Charles Sykes substack To the Contrary. I'll append Trump's own tweet at 05:46 this morning about his "Militarily Top Secret Ballroom" -

- which has been demanded by every President for the last 150 years. For fox ache.

Fake invitation phishing scam

2026-04-27T09:31:00.005-05:00

The invitation was addressed from a high school classmate and sent to me personally and not to a group. Note that it requires not just a reply, but the downloading and installation of a program in order to validate the invite.

A dangerous scam, which was recently featured in a NYT article about fake invitations:

Phishing scams involve “two distinct paths,” Ms. Tobac added. In one, the recipient is served a link that turns out to be dead, or so it seems. A click activates malware that runs silently as it gleans passwords and other bits of personal information. In all likelihood, this is what happened when Mr. Lantigua clicked on the ersatz invitation link.

Another scam offers a working link. Potential victims who click on it are asked to provide a password. Those who take that next step are a boon to hackers.

“They have complete control of your email and, in turn, your entire digital life,” Ms. Tobac said. “They can reset your password for your dog’s Instagram account. They can take over your bank account. Change your health insurance.”

Me at age 4 months

2026-04-24T19:39:00.002-05:00

Photo taken in the front yard of our post-wartime (1946) government housing in Arlington, Virginia. The address was 3422 A South Utah, which I see on Google maps is still a housing complex (our unit was under the red dot).

I'm held by my mom, who had to retire from her career as an American Airlines stewardess when she became pregnant with me. Dad was a Navy lieutenant stationed stateside. Mom's sister Ona, on the right, was in the WAVES.

Posted to share with family and as a relief from doomscrolling.

Washington D.C. turning blue - updated

2026-04-24T19:01:41.852-05:00

I found this on Facebook, but also found confirmation at Northern Virginia magazine.

The color is "American flag blue. That’s the color of the industrial-grade pool topping that is going to applied to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as part of renovations on the century-old monument."

Here's another photo of the resurfacing, submitted by a frequent reader of TYWKIWDBI

Here's how the reflecting pool used to look:

In any case, the discussion thread at the source immediately focused on how this foreshadows the "blue wave" coming in the mid-terms.

Addendum: An anonymous reader offers the following information, which may greatly change the interpretation of this event:

Umm.. this part of the approved restoration of the reflecting pool, kicked off in 2010 [Obama administration] and again in 2023. The reflecting pool was built on marshland that had been drained and supplemented with dredged material from the Potomac River. Constructed without an underlying support structure, the pool sat directly on this soft ground. And filled with over 6 million gallons of water it, it started sinking into the ground and leaking. In the 1980s' they poured concrete into the pool to try to stablize the pool. But by 1986 it was losing 500,000 gallons of water per week. Between 2010-2012 they did major repairs, but the repairs havent held.

A plan was proposed in 2023 to tear out the reflecting pool and totally replace it for $301 M. However, an alternative plan to coat the bottom of the pool with a standard industrial pool coating to seal it was devised. That is estimated to come out to $2-8 M total, and save up to $1 M in annual costs to repair and refill the reflecting pool. And that's where the blue color comes from -- standard pool bottom sealant color, and picked to reflect the sky since its a reflecting pool.

https://www.history.com/articles/lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-restoration-sinking
https://nypost.com/2026/04/25/us-news/crews-roll-out-blue-coating-on-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool/
https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/fy2023-nps-greenbook.pdf

My first hospital bill

2026-04-24T18:58:00.001-05:00

When I was two years old I fell ill while my family was visiting relatives in the small town of Ada, MN (west of Leech Lake and Itasca, near the ND border). I was hospitalized for four days. Above is the complete hospital bill (I've photoshopped out my mom's name, but the rest is undoctored). How things have changed, not just re pricing, but in terms of the complexity of billing.....

Reposted from 2007, because the more I think about this, the staggering change is in the complexity of billing.

Addendum: I may have posted this one before as well. It's from 13 years later (1961) for orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic to correct some of my polio deformities:

Surgeons fees $375. Three xrays $54. Seven blood tests $29. Grand total $648. Balance due after Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance: $75. How things have changed...

Patches in plywood - Dutchmen or biscuits?

2026-04-24T18:20:00.006-05:00

Image edited for size, color, brightness, and contrast from a garish photo at the whatisgthisthing subreddit. The discussion thread is reasonably focused and includes an explanation of termionology:

"They’re called Dutchmen, they’re shaped like footballs to cover long knots or splits.... That’s not a Dutchman. Dutchmen are also called bow ties because that’s what they are shaped like. This is a biscuit.... No. It’s a Dutchman. A Dutchman can be any shape and is used to hide blemishes. A bow tie is a Dutchman key and is used either for decoration or to stop cracking. This may be the same shape as a biscuit but it’s not a biscuit because of how it’s used. Biscuits are for joining wood... Can confirm, I work maintenance at a fulfillment center and if a conveyor belt suffers damage one of the options is to cut out the damaged section across its entire width and then lace in a length of new belt to fill the gap. We commonly do 8 ft Dutchmans to allow the entirely of the patch to be inside the pulleys of the main drive and still have both lacing visible and accessible, should the lacing fail then the Dutchman isn't all wadded up in the drive..."

And as to why one would cut knots our of plywood:

"Knots in wood are much more dense than the stringy, normal wood. When they make plywood, they layer thin strips (plys) of wood together and glue them to one another like a wood-and-glue sandwich. The problem arises when there is a dense, brittle knot on either of the two exposed plys on the plywood sheet. Shaving a slice of a dense knot gives you a super brittle portion that often ends up crumbling out in crumbs.

Think of it like having a sheet of paper with a small section of equally as thin glass embedded into the paper. You can bend the paper portion, cut the paper portion easily with scissors, but the little glass portion has different properties. It's more dense, but you can't bend it or stress it or else it will shatter."

Hat tips to the commenters. More at the link. I know this is TMI, but I'm desperately trying to keep my mind off that clusterfuck of the U.S./Israel/Iran war ruining the world economy.

Addendum: As I continued on this topic, I found an entire Wikipedia page on Dutchmen. Evidently the term is used regarding replacement/repair material in a wide array of otherwise unrelated professions: woodworking, masonry, shipbuilding, railroading, theater, boilermaking. The etymology and connection to the Netherlands remains unexplained in what I've read (maybe it's an allusion to putting a finger in a leaking dike).

A longwatch about cybersecurity

2026-04-24T08:25:00.004-05:00

A link to this video was sent to me this morning by a reader in response to my post yesterday about an online extortion attempt. I've only watched part of it so far, but I think it's worth reposting, especially in light of recent information regarding Anthropic and its Mythos AI model.

Over-the-top online extortion

2026-04-23T10:04:00.006-05:00

Here's the text of an email I found today in my spam folder:

Call was lost, as usual.
Ok. I don't have much time, so let's get straight to the point.
I want to make you an offer that you can refuse, but only once.

Here's what I have:
Your complete personal information: full name, date of birth, home address.
Your social security number and driver's license details.
All your email account login credentials, including this account.
Other login details and your private messages.
A multitude of files found on your devices.
Access to your bank accounts.
The details of your credit cards: number, expiry date, and cvv.

I have compiled this entire package into a single folder. I can and intend to do two things with it. It is up to you to decide which one:

I will send this entire package to darknet markets, where other criminals will buy it.
It is unknown how they will use this information. They may purchase something illegal in your name, or they may not, but you will definitely not like it.

Or you can buy it from me for a small fee of 600 usd.
Changing the entire package of documents and data is very expensive, very time-consuming, and unsafe.

I already know that you have just read this text. Do not try to ignore this.

I only accept payment in bitcoins at the exchange rate at the time of transfer.
Transfer money here: [redacted for posting]

After payment, I will delete the folder containing your data, and you can continue living as before or, if you don't trust me, take your time changing all your data. It's more profitable for me if you pay me. It's easier and better for everyone.

This is a unique offer. Take advantage of it. I will wait for 1 day.

The "from" address was one of my own email addresses.

The south celestial pole

2026-04-21T09:02:00.006-05:00

This was the Astronomy Photo of the Day, showing a time-lapse image of the sky as seen in the Southern Hemisphere, looking toward the south celestial pole. Discussion at the link.

Very interesting

2026-04-20T01:51:48.390-05:00

Copied from Facebook. I hope I or a reader can find reliable documentation online.

Just realized it gives new meaning to the old phrase "you can't step into the same river twice" previously meaning the river changes. But now it also means "the you changes..."

1987 cartoon. And the "Strait of Schrödinger."

2026-04-20T00:20:00.004-05:00

Credit Chris Clarke for finding this old Gary Larsen premonitory cartoon and posting it on Facebook.

Addendum: I can't resist adding this "dad joke" I also found on Facebook.

I'll see myself out...

A Brief History of Kinetic Sculpture Racing

2026-04-17T14:34:00.003-05:00

Found by reader smittypap, who posted the link in a comment at my previous post about art cars.

Another example of people having fun. No war posts today.