Tootfinder

Excellent words from @…, shared here with permission:
❝My favorite piece of advice for protests has been, “accept side quests”. Sure, you can show up, shout a bit, and go home - there's value in just uncorking some frustration. But don't look past meeting your like-minded neighbors. If you're an introvert, like me, that may induce anxiety just thinking about it. But there's all sorts of easy conversation starters - people spent time on their signs, and chances are they would love to talk about them - how they made them or what they were inspired by. Viola! Now you're talking! Everybody at a protest is looking for something - whether it is a word of encouragement or witty comment, a pointer to a place to go or a thing to join, that something may be you!❞

I was cleaning up my desktop and I found this image. I had forgotten about it. It is a Brenna Quinlan image and comes from David Holmgren's 'Retrosuburbia'. I'm happy to see my position - towards the rational end of the rational/intuitive spectrum (I always think you need to thoroughly, skeptically question your own beliefs, lest you find wishful thinking or prejudices amongst them), and midway along the "leave nature do it's thing/use design to keep your elbows in&…

Good Morning #Canada
There are several important Archeology sites in Canada that contribute to our knowledge of how the Americas evolved and the early inhabitants. One site, the Bluefish Caves located in the Yukon, was the source of decades of acrimonious debate because it directly challenged mainstream scientific thinking. Jacques Cinq-Mars, curator of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, discovered bones of extinct horses and wooly mammoths bearing marks from human butchering and toolmaking. Radiocarbon test results dated the oldest finds to around 24,000 years ago. This directly challenged established science that humans first reached the Americas some 13,000 years ago, when Asian hunters crossed a now submerged landmass known as Beringia, which joined Siberia to Alaska during the last ice age. What followed was 40 years of dismissal and derision.
This excellent award winning article by Heather Pringle covers this story.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Archeology
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/vilified-vindicated-story-jacques-cinq-mars/#:~:text=In three hollows known as,24,000 years before the present.

ExpVid: A Benchmark for Experiment Video Understanding & Reasoning
Yicheng Xu, Yue Wu, Jiashuo Yu, Ziang Yan, Tianxiang Jiang, Yinan He, Qingsong Zhao, Kai Chen, Yu Qiao, Limin Wang, Manabu Okumura, Yi Wang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11606

ExpVid: A Benchmark for Experiment Video Understanding & Reasoning
Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) hold promise for accelerating scientific discovery by interpreting complex experimental procedures. However, their true capabilities are poorly understood, as existing benchmarks neglect the fine-grained and long-horizon nature of authentic laboratory work, especially in wet-lab settings. To bridge this gap, we introduce ExpVid, the first benchmark designed to systematically evaluate MLLMs on scientific experiment videos. Curated from peer-reviewed video…

Good Morning #Canada
I'm sitting my sunroom sipping coffee and contemplating the year that's past, and thinking about #NewYearsResolutions. I've never previously indulged in making promises to myself that I forget about in a few months, but I might make one for 2026. According to Narrative Research, 48% of Canadians made resolutions in 2025, with most setting goals related to health or finances. More than 71% are confident they’ll reach their 2025 goals. Quebec residents are more likely to have made a resolution for 2025, and resolutions are more likely for Canadians age 34 or younger, with the likelihood decreasing with age.
What about you? Please select an option from the survey below, and please boost for additional data collection. I've included a tune to set the mood.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Poll
Do you make New Years Resolutions?
Yes, and I always complete them.
Yes, but I don't remember any.
Maybe, but it's confidential and between me and my bathroom scale.
No, I prefer to enjoy life, one day at a time.
I only make resolutions for other people.