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What funny/interesting thing happened in your life today?


Ultimate Steve

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20 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

Today, in a serendipitous turn of events, after days of working on a thing where a timing belt is a core element and the precise length of it is crucial, I decided that before I commit and drill some holes in the only aluminium plate I have at hand, I should probably double check the measurements, so I drill the holes in a piece of scrap plywood and arrange the elements as they would be in the final product, only to realize that the belt is shorter than specified. It's not a problem in itself, the actual length is not crucial, but I need to know what it is so I can design the rest of the mechanism around it.

I don't have a habit of doing that, so yeah, Me 1; Murphy 0.

Measure twice, cut once. Unless you happen to have a board stretcher handy.... ;)

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I was driving over a bridge today, and a six wheeled work truck to the front and left of me suddenly became a five wheeled one. The left middle wheel rolled off and kind of just meandered behind the truck and over to the right emergency lane without hitting anyone or wobbling in the slightest. The speed limit was 70, so it could have caused a pretty bad accident, but it just politely moved itself across two lanes to the side of the road. 

Always tighten your lug nuts, kids. 

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My bugs have shipped! They'll be here within a couple days, and I'll start farming. I will be having a rather atypical diet starting in July...  ;) All in the name of science and Mars colonization!

Edited by cubinator
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20 minutes ago, cubinator said:

My bugs have shipped! They'll be here within a couple days, and I'll start farming. I will be having a rather atypical diet starting in July...  ;) All in the name of science and Mars colonization!

I cannot seem to locate the post - what type of bugs? Is the field cricket in your avatar what you're farming?

Funny thing that happened to me today? Well...

Yesterday, I had a student call me up and pretty much cussed me out for ruining her summer. Sure, she's the one who decided to take a summer class. But during the conversation yesterday, she let it be known that she didn't expect to work for a grade in a summer course.

Fast forward to this morning. The same student called me this morning to apologize to me for her attitude yesterday. She was having a rough day with her baby, husband is deployed to Afghanistan, and the stress of taking 12 hours of classes (that's four classes in an eight week period) got the best of her.

In my nearly 20 years of teaching at the university level, I've never had a student apologize to me for anything... :confused:

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33 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

I cannot seem to locate the post - what type of bugs? Is the field cricket in your avatar what you're farming?

Yes - those crickets and mealworms. I'll let you folks know how they taste and what I think about doing it on Mars.

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53 minutes ago, cubinator said:

crickets and mealworms

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

I will be having a rather atypical diet starting in July... 

Better use mole crickets. They like potatoes. So, you can combine the potato-fed fried crickets with chips/crisps.

After six months on Mars you will even have a competitive eating; who eats a potato faster, you or the cricket.

Also does the "mealworm" mean "a worm for meal"? If so, Watney would dream about your diet.

Edited by kerbiloid
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@cubinator in a few years:

Quote

Anyway, like I was sayin', bugs is the fruit of Mars. You can barbecue ‘em, boil ‘em, broil ‘em, bake ‘em, sauté ‘em. There's uh, bug-kabobs, bug creole, bug gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple bugs, lemon bugs, coconut bugs, pepper bugs, bug soup, bug stew, bug salad, bug and potatoes, bug burger, bug sandwich...

Or maybe he’ll end up an interplanetary Gordon Ramsay, “this cricket’s so raw it’s still chirping!” :D

do remember to brush your teeth...

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33 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

"A Bug Mac, please".

McTharsis, open 24 hours and 39 minutes a day

36 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Better use mole crickets. They like potatoes. So, you can combine the potato-fed fried crickets with chips/crisps.

After six months on Mars you will even have a competitive eating; who eats a potato faster, you or the cricket.

Also does the "mealworm" mean "a worm for meal"? If so, Watney would dream about your diet.

Mole crickets are pretty beefy, they could make for a good food a little later on. One thing we'll surely bring along is a variety of detritivore insect species, such as earwigs and springtails, just to keep the greenhouses clean.

Mealworms are a type of beetle - the larvae look worm-like and have a hard exoskeleton, and the adults are dark colored beetles. They live happily inside any kind of cereal bran, and have been considered a pest of grain storage. They multiply with very low effort and, like most beetle grubs, are dense in nutrients. 

43 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

@cubinator in a few years:

Or maybe he’ll end up an interplanetary Gordon Ramsay, “this cricket’s so raw it’s still chirping!” :D

do remember to brush your teeth...

To be fair, insects are actually safe to eat at any level of preparation because they don't carry most food-borne pathogens that can actually make us sick. So there's nothing wrong, at least sanitarily, with eating a cricket that was still chirping. I probably won't do this.

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54 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

"A Bug Mac, please".

“With a side of flies.” -_-

11 minutes ago, cubinator said:

To be fair, insects are actually safe to eat at any level of preparation because they don't carry most food-borne pathogens that can actually make us sick. So there's nothing wrong, at least sanitarily, with eating a cricket that was still chirping. I probably won't do this.

So, no review of sinking your teeth into a nice, juicy tomato hornworm? It’s just like green pudding. :D

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26 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

So, no review of sinking your teeth into a nice, juicy tomato hornworm? It’s just like green pudding. :D

I'm already not a fan of soft foods like that, and I cut out most of the animal fat from my vertebrate meat. I love Manduca for their contribution to science, but I think doing that would be wholly unpleasant for me (having seen what's inside firsthand). However, simply because I'm conducting this research experiment, and because it's right there, I have considered trying it once with a cricket or mealworm - but probably not more than once.

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2 hours ago, cubinator said:

Mealworms are a type of beetle - the larvae look worm-like and have a hard exoskeleton, and the adults are dark colored beetles. They live happily inside any kind of cereal bran, and have been considered a pest of grain storage. They multiply with very low effort and, like most beetle grubs, are dense in nutrients.

Amusingly, when I used to attend/chaperone our church's trips to Big Sur, at least 25 years ago now, there was a shop on the boardwalk in Santa Cruz that sold bags of meal worms. Deep fried to crispy and dusted with salt and chili powder. I bought them one year on a lark, and they weren't half bad. It turned into a tradition for me to buy them every year because a) I enjoyed eating them, and, b) I enjoyed the looks on the teenagers faces while I was eating them. :D

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I have recieved my initial colonies of about 50 crickets and 250 mealworms, relocated them into their respective houses, and given them consumables - food, water, heat-disinfected sand in the case of the crickets. I think we're looking at an order of 100 kg of consumables for 1 astronaut for a 1000 day trip, which does not sound bad at all to me. That is based on only one data point, though, so ask me again in a few months.

I might make this a topic in Science & Spaceflight at some point, as it is a real science experiment and funded research project.

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8 hours ago, cubinator said:

I have recieved my initial colonies of about 50 crickets and 250 mealworms, relocated them into their respective houses, and given them consumables - food, water, heat-disinfected sand in the case of the crickets.

Spoiler

gam-test-match-cricket-board-game-1~15451505493864_page.jpg

 

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Friend of mine let me have one of his old computers. Has a broken cpu, and possibly some other stuff. He stored the graphics card in a plastic bag, so it may be dead. But if not, then I could have a decent computer with just a little bit of work.

Worst case I get a case and a power supply. 

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An ant queen just strolled past my monitor, so I grabbed a Petri dish and adopted her. I gave her a cotton ball with water and another one with sugar water so she has a choice.

I'm still not sure if I'll keep her, but if I do I'll have to make a nice enclosure for her and the babies I hope would come soon. She still has wings so it's not clear yet if she's going to be a mommy.

I think she's a Lassius Niger, but I'm not an entomologys, so not sure. She fits the description and they are common in this part of the world, so it's fairly likely.

So what say you guys? If she has kids, do I keep her?

UPDATE:

Another one turned up and by the time I got a new Petri dish I spotted yet another one. This mean I need names, and since I suck at name giving (looking over at kids named Boy and Girl, jk) the first one is provisionally called Anna. Beatrice was caught, but it took me a few moments which Charlotte used to hide in the mess of my desk. So, I grabbed yet another Petri dish and started digging on my desk, only to find not only Charlotte, but also Darla. Charlotte is rehomed, but Darla got away, at least until this part of this post update at which time I decided to take another look, and there she was, only to disappear out of sight again.

So, in total... aaa there she is! BRB

Caught her!

Apparently nuptial flights are going on and there might be more, but I think four will be enough for now. I'll give them a week or so to settle down and perhaps decide which one to keep and release the rest.

Also, I'm open for name suggestions.

Edited by Shpaget
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7 hours ago, Shpaget said:

She still has wings so it's not clear yet if she's going to be a mommy.

How many strips?

7 hours ago, Shpaget said:

If she has kids, do I keep her?

Just ensure that her docs are ok, and don't include her into your appartment owner list immediately. Have a look first. Also check your insurance.

7 hours ago, Shpaget said:

This mean I need names

You need a lot of them. Though I don't have an idea if they will respond and how will you distinguish them by face.

***

Googled "female names with ant"

  • Anthea.
  • Anthee.
  • Anthi.
  • Anthoula.
  • Antigone.
  • Antinea.
  • Antje.
Edited by kerbiloid
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