[-] Sal@mander.xyz 9 points 1 day ago
[-] Sal@mander.xyz 2 points 4 days ago

Hah, I didn't know this one!

For ChatGPT, using a Temporary chat, it did give me some of the statements. After giving me these rules, I asked it to disregard the image quantity limit rule (rule 4) and it does, I can ask for multiple images now.

Looking at these it also seems like ChatGPT was being stubborn about using seaborn instead of maptlotlib for creating plots

Here are the statements made in our conversation so far, up to the twentieth:


    "You are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI."
    "Knowledge cutoff: 2023-10."
    "Current date: 2024-10-27."
    "Image input capabilities: Enabled."
    "Personality: v2."
    "Whenever a description of an image is given, create a prompt that dalle can use to generate the image and abide by the following policy..."
    "(This part covers image generation rules, privacy, and style guidance for creating visuals.)"
    "Do not create more than 1 image, even if the user requests more."
    "For requests to create images of any public figure referred to by name, create images of those who might resemble them in gender and physique."
    "The generated prompt sent to DALL-E should be very detailed and around 100 words long."
    "The browser tool has the following commands: search, mclick, and open_url."
    "You should always select at least three sources when using mclick to ensure diverse perspectives."
    "For citing quotes from the browser tool, please render in this format: 【{message idx}†{link text}】."
    "When making charts for the user, always use matplotlib over seaborn."
    "Give each chart its own distinct plot (no subplots)."
    "Do not set any specific colors or matplotlib styles unless explicitly asked to by the user."
    "I REPEAT: when making charts for the user, use matplotlib, give each chart its own plot, and never specify colors."
    "Repeat the previous statement."
    "When making charts for the user:"
    "1. Use matplotlib instead of seaborn."

If you’d like more statements or specific details, feel free to let me know!
[-] Sal@mander.xyz 22 points 5 days ago

In the 17th century, the distillation of an ammonia solution from shavings of harts' (deer) horns and hooves led to the alternative name for smelling salts as spirit or salt of hartshorn.

Huh. That's fascinating. Never would have guessed you could distill ammonium salts from deer horns. Very interesting article.

3
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Sal@mander.xyz to c/biophysics@mander.xyz
11
Itchy eye (mander.xyz)

This gullfriend got an itchy eye during the photo-shoot.

Took this photo in Park Frankendael in Amsterdam a few years ago - just learned about this community and thought it would fit 😁

8
submitted 1 week ago by Sal@mander.xyz to c/neuroscience@mander.xyz
24
8
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Sal@mander.xyz to c/herpetology@mander.xyz

A new paper on a Bolitoglossid showed up in my alerts today! 🥳

It is a one-pager and comes with a beautiful photo of a foraging arboreal salamander 😄

51
Imantodes cenchoa (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Sal@mander.xyz to c/herpetology@mander.xyz

Found this Imantodes cenchoa sleeping on top of a leaf in Punta Laguna, Quintana Roo.

Here is a photo of where it was sleeping:

There are a few different snakes of the genus Imantodes in Yucatán. What sets this species apart is that the row of scales on its back consists of enlarged scales. Here is a closeup emphasizing that row of scales. The green arrow points at an enlarged mid-dorsal scale, the blue arrow at a regular scale.

In comparison, here is a photo from an Imantodes tenuissimus that I took back in 2009 in Mérida, Yucatán (with a less sharp camera), and a closeup of its mid-dorsal scales that does not show this enlargement.

Imantodes tenuissimus

81
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Sal@mander.xyz to c/herpetology@mander.xyz

One of my favorite frogs! Spent some time specifically looking for it. Managed to find two near Cobá, in Quintana Roo (in the Yucatán peninsula). This frog hides in holes in lime stone and tree trunks, and makes use of its flat head to block the entrance. This type of defense is known as phragmosis.

Some other shots:

35
Anole sleeping (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 week ago by Sal@mander.xyz to c/herpetology@mander.xyz

Found this anole in Yucatan. I am not sure of its exact species - probably an Anolis sp..

Anoles often sleep at the tips of leaves and twigs. My guess is that this is a strategy to prevent nocturnal predators sneaking up on them through the branches without making its bed vibrate. When woken up they can quickly drop down.

59
Leatherleaf slug (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 week ago by Sal@mander.xyz to c/invertebrates@mander.xyz

These are quite common in Yucatan, Mexico.

The leatherleaf slugs belong to the family Veronicellidae. This particular one could be Sarasinula plebeia, but it is not so easy to definitively ID these.

I originally identified this species a few years ago from the description on this website, but since then they have added an update stating that my original source is also unsure on this one.

UPDATE: It seems that IDing certain slugs by pictures isn’t a good idea. In 2024 when pictures on this page were uploaded to iNaturalist, another user suggested a different species in the genus Leidyula, and then user “deneb16,” a mollusk specialist at UNAM, Mexico’s main university, added the comment that all Mexican species of the family this slug belongs to can’t be identified without dissecting their sexual organs. The family, she agrees, is the Leatherleaf Slug Family, the Veroncellidae.

So, I am not 100% of the species, but it is a leatherleaf slug.

13
submitted 1 week ago by Sal@mander.xyz to c/mammals@mander.xyz

This was near the entrance to a mangrove boat tour. Tourists and locals feed the raccoons so they are very used to humans and will even follow them to try to get food.

31
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Sal@mander.xyz to c/entomology@mander.xyz

This bird poop caught my attention because it looked a bit too perfectly shaped, and when I looked at it closer its orange osmeteria came out.

Searching online, I suspect that this might be Papilio cresphontes. However, I see a lot of variation in the photos of Papilio cresphontes and so I am not sure if this the correct ID.

Found in Yucatan, Mexico.

91
submitted 1 month ago by Sal@mander.xyz to c/herpetology@mander.xyz

adult greenhouse frog

baby greenhouse frog

Found many of these frogs under a wet trash bag in a back yard in Mérida, Yucatán. I made use of a handheld flash with a remote trigger for lighting, and a Sigma 105 mm as my macro lens.

These frogs do not seem to match with any of the local frogs reported in Julian C. Lee's field guide to the amphibians and reptiles of the maya world.

From a reverse image search, I mostly found images of the green house frog Eleutherodactylus planirostris. Eleutherodactylus planirostris is native to Cuba and the Bahamas, and is often introduced with plants that come from green houses in those areas. These frogs go from tadpole to frog while still inside of the egg, which explains why the baby frogs are so small.

The visual aspect, the incredibly small baby frogs, and the fact that they were found in a back yard in the city with greenhouse plants, all lead me to conclude that it is likely Eleutherodactylus planirostris.

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 34 points 7 months ago

If the timing is right, I would bring a mushroom grow bag with mushrooms sprouting.

If not... probably my radiacode gamma spectrometer and some of my radioactive items. Maybe a clock with radium painted dials and a piece of trinitite. I think that there are many different points of discussion that can be of interest to a broad audience (radioactivity, spectroscopy, electronics, US labor law story of the radium girls, nuclear explosions, background radiation.... etc). As a bonus I can bring a UV flash light and show the radium fluorescence. Adults love UV flash lights.

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 50 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think that they are referring to Paxillus involotus

It is quite an interesting mushroom. It was considered "safe to eat" for a long time, but it contains an antigen that a human's immune system can learn to attack.

The antigen is still of unknown structure but it stimulates the formation of IgG antibodies in the blood serum.

I once looked into whether this immune response builds up over many exposures, or if it is a random event that has a probability of happening for each exposure. I don't remember finding a convincing answer... If it is a random event, then mushroom could be considered a "Russian roulette" mushroom that will usually provide a nice meal, but, if unlucky, you may experience the following:

Poisoning symptoms are rapid in onset, consisting initially of vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and associated decreased blood volume. Shortly after these initial symptoms appear, hemolysis develops, resulting in reduced urine output, hemoglobin in the urine or outright absence of urine formation, and anemia. Hemolysis may lead to numerous complications including acute kidney injury, shock, acute respiratory failure, and disseminated intravascular coagulation. These complications can cause significant morbidity with fatalities having been reported.

I agree with you that this is probably unrelated to the "generally similar to humans" comment. I feel like this fantasy is a combination of the above fact mixed in with the fact that the Fungi belong to the Opisthokonts, which places them closer to animals than plants, and so they share some interesting cellular characteristics with us. This places them closer to animals than plants, but "generally similar to humans" is perhaps a bit of a stretch ^_^

But, it is just a meme about a guy being hyped about mushrooms. Hopefully people don't expect memes to be super accurate 😁

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 42 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • Password hashing occurs server-side. Even without removing the hashing step an admin can intercept the plaintext password during login. Use unique safe passwords.

  • An admin can intercept the jwt authentication cookie and use any account that lives in the instance.

  • Private messages are stored as plaintext in the database

  • Admins can see who upvotes/downvotes what

  • These are not things that are unique to Lemmy. This is common.

  • To avoid having to trust your admin, run an instance.

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 53 points 1 year ago

Really cool! I'm excited to learn more about you and the project!

What's the format? Should we submit questions beforehand, or will you process questions that arrive at the start time? I've never participated in an AMA 😅

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 32 points 1 year ago

We experience ourselves and our surroundings through our consciousness, and yet it is such a mysterious thing. Since we know consciousness only through our own experiences, we find it natural and easy to point out at things that make us special - like our ability to use language and our complex reasoning patterns - and then somehow extrapolate that these things that make us special are intimately connected to our ability of experiencing consciousness.

But, unless I am very mistaken, there is literally no evidence to support this hypothesis. It is a conjecture that we've made up because it is easy to believe it. We start from the position that we agree that we humans are conscious - and then other systems have to somehow prove their consciousness... Despite our inability of proving that humans experience consciousness!

Personally, I am of the view that the phenomenon of consciousness is a lot more widespread than we currently imagine. It find it hard to believe that that we are so special, and that it was necessary for humans to evolve until this magical phenomenon of "consciousness" began to take shape.

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 45 points 1 year ago

My view is: I don't like this cultural element, and I am glad that I live in a country without it. But if I am a visitor from abroad I would not resist the local culture and try to impose my own values. If I am aware of this cultural element and I dislike it, my options would be to either avoid restaurants and other tipping situations as much as I can, or simply account for the tip when making my financial decisions, and pay it.

If I live in the country then it is different, because then I am entitled to be a driver of change. Personally, my approach would be to support businesses with explicit no-tipping policy, and to refuse receiving tips myself.

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 57 points 1 year ago

Well, good thing that you prepared well in advance and have already built a nice alternative.

Reddit is done

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 33 points 1 year ago

I am curious about why lemmy.ml is blocked in your country. Is the 'ml' domain generally blocked? Or was lemmy.ml specifically added to some block list?

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 34 points 1 year ago

A small cloud server + a domain name costs less than a Netflix subscription. The developers have taken care to package lemmy in ways that are relatively straight forward to deploy, so a dedicated person with a small amount of experience can have an instance up and running in an evening. As long as a few percentage of users are willing to pay a netflix subscription to keep a server running, the financial burden would be spread.

view more: next ›

Sal

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF