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maijasauna.bsky.social
Maija
@maijasauna.bsky.social
440 followers 250 following 2.5K posts
sculptor, info sponge, organism, she/her
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maijasauna.bsky.social
Maija @maijasauna.bsky.social · Jan 25
I made LOTH-BISCUITS IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY because these critters are from my one of my most favourite star warses (REBELS) and also because they're great at completely ruining a stormtrooper's day.
A small (coffee-cup-size) sculpture of an star wars cat creature kneading the fur of a snoozing wolf creature both from the Star Wars world of Lothal. The white Loth-wolf is curled up into a sleepy doughnut with its floofy tail over its nose. Loth-cat is doing a Big Stretch. The cat has a goofy ball of a head with two conical ears, skinny stick legs, and its puffy tail stands straight up with happiness. The same sculpture as in the previous image turned to the left to better show the Loth-cat's Big Stretch and happy tail. The Loth-cat's eyes are closed and its wide mouth is in a beatific smile. The wolf's eye is closed and its paw is curled under its jowl. The wolf has patterned lines of raised leathery strips like pieces of corduroy on its paw and snout behind the nose, and little knobby plates near the tips of its ears. Loth-cat and Loth-wolf are on top of a dome-shaped rock surrounded by grasses. The rock is painted to look like it is glowing under the wolf as if touched by the light of a setting sun. The same sculpture as the previous, turned to the right to reveal that the Loth-wolf is gazing up at the Loth-cat with one burning bright eye. The wolf has a line of raised, chevron-shaped plates running down the lower spine, widening into more of a hexagon shape at the wolf's hips, then narrowing and getting smaller and more square towards the tail. The cat is marked with softly geometric stripes and spots that distantly echo the wolf's back plates.
Reposted by Maija
thatheatherc.bsky.social
In Calgary, a city with the largest population of engineers in Canada, finally discusses engineer and innovator Elijah McCoy at the Black History Month gala dinner. ✊🏾

thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/e...
Elijah McCoy
Elijah McCoy, engineer, inventor (born 2 May 1843 or 1844 in Colchester, Canada West; died 10 October 1929 in Wayne County, Michigan.) McCoy was an African-Cana...
thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
February 14, 2026 at 2:34 AM
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whysharksmatter.bsky.social
Girls don’t want flowers for Valentine’s Day.

They want you to book them a shark research experience that raises money for science outreach!

I can help. Let’s chat.
February 13, 2026 at 5:50 PM
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internethippo.bsky.social
They taught Al how to talk like a corporate middle manager and thought this meant the Al was conscious instead of realizing that corporate middle managers aren't
February 13, 2026 at 3:30 PM
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bitterscriptreader.bsky.social
Ten years ago today, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, kicking off one of the greatest crimes committed against democracy when Mitch McConnell invented a pretense to deny President Obama a nominee, and everyone in power and media just shrugged and acted like he could do that.
February 13, 2026 at 6:18 PM
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melwoods.me
I wanted to say that I really appreciate all of the kind words, support and shares around this story and this week in general ❤️

Covering this stuff is heavy, and it means a lot!

xtramagazine.com/power/tumble...
The Tumbler Ridge shooting is already fuelling anti-trans hate in Canada | Xtra Magazine
Bad actors on the right are leaping to connect the shooter’s trans identity to the violence
xtramagazine.com
February 12, 2026 at 9:20 PM
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nikostratis.com
Something I've seen in reporting on Tumbler Ridge that I hope sparks a bigger conversation is residents saying loudly "there is a very present mental health crisis here", which has long been a problem in isolated, northern, and remote parts of the country, where support is so urgently needed.
February 13, 2026 at 6:38 PM
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skyladawn.ca
A 3-D framed picture of the Mona Lisa that is actually a cat house. When the cat sits in it, it looks like it’s resting in her arms. A beautiful long-haired black cat with green eyes sitting in his new framed Mona Lisa cat scratcher. He immediately went in it like he knows it’s his. The view from a few feet, back of the long haired black cat with green eyes sitting in his framed Mona Lisa cat scratcher. It looks like the Mona Lisa is holding him in her arms. Around him, our various other cat houses, including a café and a retro TV. Long-haired black cat sits in his framed Mona Lisa cat scratcher, looking to the side. It’s a profile view, and his eyes are bright green in the sunlight.
February 13, 2026 at 4:27 PM
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hypervisible.blacksky.app
Dudes have been fantasizing about a computer friend in their glasses for a long time. This is 1959! www.wired.com/story/secret...
The beauty of the n-tuple method was that it could recognize many variants of the same character: Most Qs tended to score pretty close to other Qs. Better yet, the process worked with any pattern, not just text. According to an essay coauthored by Robert S. Boyer, a mathematician and longtime friend of Woody's, the n-tuple method helped define the field of pattern recognition; it was among the early set of efforts to ask, "How can we make a machine do something like what people do?" Around the time when he was devising the n-tuple method, Woody had his first daydream about building the machine that he called a "computer person." Years later, he would recall the "wild excitement" he felt as he conjured up a list of skills for the artificial consciousness: "I wanted it to read printed characters on a page and handwritten script as well. I could see it, or a part of it, in a small camera that would fit on my glasses, with an attached earplug that would whisper into my ear the names of my friends and acquaintances as I met them on the street... For you see, my computer friend had the ability to recognize faces."
October 5, 2025 at 8:54 PM
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hypervisible.blacksky.app
Ooop.
And in a sense, they had. By this point, Woody had grown tired of hustling for new contracts for Panoramic and finding himself "in the ridiculous position of either having too many jobs or not enough." He was constantly pitching new ideas to his funders, some treading into territory that would now be considered ethically dubious. In March 1965—some 50 years before China would begin using facial pattern-matching to identify ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang Province-Woody had proposed to the Defense Department Advanced Research Projects Agency, then known as Arpa, that it should support Panoramic to study the feasibility of using facial characteristics to determine a person's racial background. "There exists a very large number of anthropological measurements which have been made on people throughout the world from a variety of racial and environmental backgrounds," he wrote. "This extensive and valuable store of data, collected over the years at considerable expense and effort, has not been properly exploited." It is unclear whether Arpa agreed to fund the project.
October 5, 2025 at 9:37 PM
maijasauna.bsky.social
Extra points for correctly identifying Handsome Ron as a European Robin in the alt text. Also for IDing them as Handsome Ron.
cpsc.gov U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission @cpsc.gov · 14h
This is what it feels like to know things.
Handsome Ron, a European Robin in a purple sun hat, is riding Pegasus through a lightning storm. The clouds are illuminated yellow. The text reads: The power of knowledge. Subscribe for recall emails on CPSC.gov
February 13, 2026 at 3:16 PM
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calgarytransit.com
#CTRiders, we will be operating buses, CTrains, and On Demand on a Sunday level of service on Family Day - Monday, February 16. Find more details at calgarytransit.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Maija
markhisted.org
In terms of what cures are being lost:

- Epstein-Barr virus is perhaps the major trigger for multiple sclerosis
- herpes simplex virus causes cold sores, genital herpes, infections in babies, deadly meningitis
- shingles virus causes an intensely painful disease
"Moderna's CEO announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases: 'You cannot make a return on investment if you don't have access to the U.S. market. Vaccines for Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and shingles have been shelved.” 9:12 AM Feb 12, 2026 604.8K Views
February 13, 2026 at 5:44 AM
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seamus.bsky.social
When I was a GS at Fermilab, the goat who lived next door to us (best friends with a diabetic horse!) would regularly get out of the fence then eventually return. One day he found a watch and brought it to me. It was so nice and wonderful and genuine. I wore that watch for years. The goat watch.
February 13, 2026 at 6:26 AM
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hypervisible.blacksky.app
I keep bringing up Googleglass because it’s a reminder that widespread opprobrium is still a useful tool. If your friend says he plans on buying them, tell him they are for creeps. If someone shows up to your party with them, ask them to leave. Brand these as a product for losers and pervs.
February 13, 2026 at 2:11 PM
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hypervisible.blacksky.app
Disaster capitalism.

“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns…”
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 2:02 PM
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caglecats.bsky.social
Give me your keys, You're both drunk
Foster kittens Bao and Gyoza lying in a slovenly manner
February 10, 2026 at 9:23 AM
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misterabk.bsky.social
Chat, is this real? (But I'm asking a French cat and it pretends not to understand with Gallic insouciance.)
February 13, 2026 at 10:57 AM
maijasauna.bsky.social
... and you can follow this ramp up to the Entwined exhibition featuring many excellent works
February 13, 2026 at 2:41 PM
maijasauna.bsky.social
I did also look at art! The Exposure Photography Festival has a show in this space where you can also admire ducts...
February 13, 2026 at 2:39 PM
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astrokatie.com
You can't... repeal... a scientific finding. At that point it's just called lying about it.
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1d
Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu
February 12, 2026 at 8:38 PM
maijasauna.bsky.social
I'm glad Contemporary Calgary exists to preserve this brutalist wonder and its magnificent ductwork.
A ceiling filled with an orderly-ish tangled of all manner of ducts and pipes, all painted white, converging on a more brightly lit inner space just off the lower edge of the photo.
February 12, 2026 at 11:12 PM
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lycomorpha.bsky.social
If you mix quinacridone magenta PR122 with PY150 you can get a range of oranges and reds.

Like this - a somewhat alizarine PR83/madder sorta red, but more light-fast than PR83. It's got more PR122 than PY150 to pull it away from orange.
Swatch of a bright, very slightly blue leaning red watercolour paint on a circle of paper. My red-stained paintmaking plate is in the background.
February 12, 2026 at 1:42 PM
maijasauna.bsky.social
If these are self-sealing I'm gonna get myself seven tessipates of land on Bajor.
A grubby plastic bin on a workshop shelf labelled "stem bolts"
February 12, 2026 at 2:49 PM
maijasauna.bsky.social
As a kid doing Nancy Green racing in the 80s we did "carb loading" with spaghetti the night before a race and apparently this idea goes back to the 1920s? I can't say if it worked or not because I type to you now from an armchair and not Stelvio Ski Centre, Italy.
sillyrookie.bsky.social Silly Rookie @sillyrookie.bsky.social · 2d
Max Kade Institute has a paper that brings this brand up in regards to German-American relations in the early 20th century, but the researchers found a dead end.

mki.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...
German ad for "Faust Brand Nudels" We believe the Maull Brothers advertisements were originally written in English, and then translated for the German-American market. one indi- cation of this is the failure to place the verb at the end of the clause in the first sentence. We don’t know if Maull chose the name Faust to appeal to German-speaking customers, but if he did, was he referring to the strength indicated by a fist, or perhaps infusing his product with mephistophelian en- ergy? If you have any information on Maull Brothers and their products, we’d like to hear from you!
February 12, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Maija
americanbeetles.bsky.social
CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER
Figure from American Beetles vol. 2 with habitus illustrations of six nearly identical corylophid genera. No color is needed, for they are all equally brown. A used strip of point-punching cardstock has been used to bookmark a later chapter, probably weevils
February 11, 2026 at 11:47 PM