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sagetoko.bsky.social
Sage
@sagetoko.bsky.social
1K followers 740 following 1.4K posts
Applied Physics PhD working in industry. Chronically ill maker of things. Fiber arts, cooking, dogs. she/her. Exceedingly fond of heffalumps. 🐘❤️

#LongCovid #MECFS #EDS #POTS
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sagetoko.bsky.social
The one referencing potato slices in socks? Yes, absolutely.
November 19, 2025 at 7:38 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
I’ll look forward to their truffle! 😸🐘
November 19, 2025 at 3:57 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
I’m glad you’ll be enjoying it!
November 19, 2025 at 6:16 AM
sagetoko.bsky.social
I’m happy to know you’re excited to follow along! 😸🐘❤️
November 19, 2025 at 6:16 AM
sagetoko.bsky.social
Aw, I’m glad I can share for you, Kate! Now that I know you’re enjoying that aspect I’ll be sure to include the astro facts every day. 😸🐘❤️
November 19, 2025 at 6:14 AM
sagetoko.bsky.social
Oh yay! Which one?
November 19, 2025 at 6:13 AM
sagetoko.bsky.social
It helps me want to do it to know I’m bringing you and others a bit of joy/respite/distraction! 😸🐘❤️
November 18, 2025 at 11:50 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
Absolutely agreed! (and I’m one of those scientists, seeing how extremely lacking my education was in that regard)
November 18, 2025 at 11:47 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
Key reading on the topic, in the context of covid but clearly applicable to other viruses as well:

(I’m sure many folks here have already read this/know about it, but leaving it for anyone looking for solid references on the topic.)
The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill
All pandemic long, scientists brawled over how the virus spreads. Droplets! No, aerosols! At the heart of the fight was a teensy error with huge consequences.
www.wired.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:44 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
Okay Claire I am doing my best to share the little bit of joy of the calendar!
sagetoko.bsky.social Sage @sagetoko.bsky.social · 1d
My mom ordered us the Dandelion Chocolate advent calendar after I got a targeted ad for it and showed her the gorgeous packaging. At the request of the lovely @clairewillett.bsky.social, I am sharing as we go through it, aiming to share small joys in this rough time.

#SageDandelionAdventIsh
The Dandelion Chocolate 2025 Advent Calendar. A large round chocolate box is sitting inside a red-lined square box. There is a silver drawing of a cocoa bean on the inside of the box lid. Below it, the round chocolate box is nestled between red triangular holders at the four corners, and is wrapped up in a gold ribbon with a large bow at the center. Beneath the ribbon is a round black tag printed in gold with “Advent Calendar 2025.” The chocolate box itself is decorated in black, red, white, and gold swirling patterns.
November 18, 2025 at 9:39 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
Day 1 of #SageDandelionAdventIsh: Today’s moon is Hydra, one of Pluto’s moon. The chocolate was a pistachio knafeh truffle, and it was so tasty. Somehow the filling was both smooth and crunchy, with a creamy pistachio flavor, all surrounded by excellent dark chocolate.
Advent calendar info booklet: DECEMBER 1 | HYDRA (PLUTO) We begin our journey at the far edge of our solar system, where dwarf planet Pluto is circled by its outermost moon, Hydra. Shrouded in ice and mystery, Hydra marks the silent boundary of our cosmic neighborhood. It's named for the many-headed serpent slain by Greck mythical hero Hercules, following a tradition of naming Pluto's moons after figures from the Underworld. Hydra has a notably bright surface, reflecting about eighty-three percent of incident sunlight — unusual for such a distant, icy body. This reflectivity suggests a coating of clean-water ice, possibly maintained by micrometeorite impacts that strip away darker material. Hydra, at just 51 kilometers (32 miles) across, is smaller than some Earth mountains. Discovered in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope, Hydra is an ancient relic of the early solar system, estimated to be as old as nearly four billion years, based on the number of craters on its surface. In 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured the first close-up images of the moon's irregular, cratered, frozen surface. Hydra spins rapidly and chaotically through space — like a glittering ornament drifting at the edge of our solar system. A NOTE FROM LINA Hydra is a creature of seven heads — it has some mystery. I looked for a natural hydra in the world, and there is an insect called a hydra that has seven legs; it's very beautiful. I also looked at different inspirations and illustrations from Greek mythology, and considered what kind of image might look good within a circle. I did not want to be too literal with this lumpy moon. Day 1 chocolate and Hydra moon box. The chocolate is a pistachio knafeh by Annie Rupani of Cacao & Cardamom Chocolatier. It’s a half-dome truffle with a green and yellow surface, topped with a small gold leaf leaf. The box art is of gold tentacles against a grey background. A white person’s hand holding a half-eaten pistachio knafeh truffle in front of the Dandelion Chocolate advent calendar packaging. The inside of the truffle is a slightly greenish golden color.
November 18, 2025 at 9:37 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
Day 1 of #SageDandelionAdventIsh continued, looking at the chocolate boxes. Each box has stylized art representative of a moon. They’re all cylinders, and when you pick them up they have a small ribbon attached. It took me a moment to realize that they’re for hanging on a Christmas tree!
25 cylindrical chocolate boxes arranged concentrically inside the larger advent calendar packaging. Each box has stylized abstract art on the lid in shades of red, white, grey, black, gold and silver.
November 18, 2025 at 9:29 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
So for Day 1 of #SageDandelionAdventIsh, opening up the packaging for the first time. Wow. The calendar is moon-themed, and it turns out it’s all actual moons of the solar system! There’s a moon map and a daily info packet.
The lid of the 2025 Dandelion Chocolate advent calendar chocolate box. A round box is decorated with white, red, black, and gold swirling patterns, accented with stars. The center of the decoration is a gold stylized moon. Inside the box is a black sheet decorated with small gold stars, with cutouts in the shape of a crescent moon and a full circle revealing the gold covers of the moon map and the advent calendar information booklet. The gold covers of the moon map and the Advent Calendar 2025 information booklet, laying on top of the aforementioned packaging. The unfolded moon map, showing miniature versions of the art for all 25 moons represented in the chocolate advent calendar.
November 18, 2025 at 9:25 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
I also want to acknowledge how lucky I am to have my mom be able to buy this box of extremely fancy chocolate for us to enjoy.
November 18, 2025 at 9:17 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
We don’t celebrate Christmas, I’m extremely bad at habits, and I also suck at sharing things online, so this will be somewhat haphazard and happening not-daily and not from December 1st to 25th. I hope Dandelion won’t be too mad at me for preempting their daily follow-along content.
November 18, 2025 at 9:17 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
And could every chapter and every book maybe not end in a cliffhanger along the way?!?

I’ve learned I have to stop mid-chapter when I’m reading them or else I don’t get any sleep.
November 18, 2025 at 7:34 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
(I am not saying research is more important than teaching in my view - but to the university, that’s a fairly key differentiation between adjuncts and profs.)
November 14, 2025 at 5:43 PM
sagetoko.bsky.social
In a world with little to no research funding available, what’s the difference between a science/engineering/other research field professor and an adjunct teacher? If the professor can’t bring in research money, can’t pay grad students to do research, they’re reduced to being only a teacher.
November 14, 2025 at 5:43 PM