General Discussion Thread

[Jitter]

Here’s a fascinating article about a dolphin “speaking” wit porpoises in the wild.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/dolphin-speaks-porpoise-communicates-with-other-species

Cetaceans have been known to mimic each other’s sounds in captivity, but in this case these are wild animals apparently interacting voluntarily.

[thorny]

Jitter, that does look fascinating. Thanks for posting it. Unfortunately, I got about a paragraph and a half in and at that point the site demanded my email (and who knows what else) as a condition for reading anything more.

I can't afford to subscribe to everything; and don't really want to hand out email, even one kept for that purpose, to dozens or hundreds of sites in order to read an article or two, even if it's free.

[Jitter]

That’s weird, I got no such demand. Try a different browser maybe?

[Jitter]

Thorny, here is the actual paper (which also opens without need to register for anything for me, bu I didn’t read it through) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09524622.2021.1982005

[thorny]

Thorny, here is the actual paper

Thanks! that worked.

(I wonder whether it depends on where you are? Pretty sure I tried to open a National Geographic link last night on a different device and with a different browser and got the same result.)

[Róisín]

Jitter, thanks for the link, that second one worked. And certainly I have known people both here in Australia as well as in the Isles, New Zealand and Polynesia who communicated with whales and dolphins.

[Yastreb]

Yesterday just gone was Anzac Day, when Australians and New Zealanders gather to commemorate those who died in the wars we've been caught up in, to consider the cost, to think about how all that shaped us... and to despair at how far we have to go to put aside war forever and find peace between all peoples.

We're better than this. We have to be better than this.

"We must love one another or die."

[Yuuago]

Hi everyone! I'm promoting a multifandom charity auction event in support of the people of Ukraine. Info is posted at both Tumblr and Dreamwidth:

https://sunflower-auction.tumblr.com/
https://sunflower-auction.dreamwidth.org/

This one works in a similar way to previous fandom charity auctions like Fandom Trumps Hate - people sign up with offers to do art/fic/beta reading, others bid on their offers, and the money is donated directly to charity.
Signups for offers are open from NOW until May 10!

Spreading the word via reblogs or linking in other communities would be very appreciated!
I know I don't post here much these days, but I'm always lurking and will definitely be able respond to any questions about this (and will forward to the main mod if I don't know the answer).

[Róisín]

Hi Yuuago! A couple of questions, if I may ask:

 is the Médecins sans Frontieres effort in Ukraine an acceptable charity to nominate? Can I specify that one?

And also, given the amount of internet garbage going on with Russian attacks on internet accounts in any way connected to Ukraine, is it acceptable to use an expendable throwaway internet account rather than my main one in case the auction gets hit by a DOS attack, as seems to be happening to a few sites recently?

[Yuuago]

- MSF isn't on the list. I will bring it up with the mod and see what she says. (I'm not the decision-maker here.)

- Make sure to use an email account that you check regularly.

[Róisín]

Did anyone look at the sky and see the Planetary Parade? I got to see it for a few minutes before the storm clouds closed over again and it was beautiful! I have seen planetary alignments before but never a Jupiter/Venus/Mars/Saturn one. I think the last 4 planet one was well over a thousand years ago?

[dmeck7755]

here is a link about the "parade"

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/skills/planetary-parade-spring/

unfortunately it is northern hemisphere specific. 

I will look and see if I can find a Southern Hemisphere one

[dmeck7755]

here is a link about the "parade"

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/skills/planetary-parade-spring/

unfortunately it is northern hemisphere specific. 

I will look and see if I can find a Southern Hemisphere one

For the Southern Hemisphere
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2022/04/planetary-parade-one-in-1000-year-event/
and
https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/how-to-view-rare-1000year-planet-parade-over-aussie-skies-this-weekend/news-story/e065d08a16152f51fba393af3a352005

[dmeck7755]

By the way

 May the 4th be with you

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/zweibrucken-r2-d2-observatory?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=75548a5d3c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_05_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-75548a5d3c-63479941&mc_cid=75548a5d3c&mc_eid=76db88f14c

[Jitter]

The Eurovision song contest finals is tonight. Last year we had a watch party on the irc channel #ssss on https://webchat.quakenet.org/ and it was fun!

How about this year? @Lenny ?

Windy is on the channel now so maybe we can get something up and running!

Joining is easy, just go to the link and write whichever nickname you want and #ssss in the boxes. The broadcast starts at 10 pm Finnish so 8 pm UK time tonight (Saturday 14th)