Wybe.us

So what do you get when you flip over a piece of old plywood and find two scorpions and a black widow together underneath? You get an awesome photo opportunity!

In the last pic, both scorpions are still there; the big one is right on top of the little one.

There was another black widow, but she scurried away before I could take a pic. I do need to be more careful though. Where I put my hand to flip over the plywood was just a few inches away from these critters. They’re not deadly, but I hear they hurt like hell if you’re stung or bitten.

On 2 March 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico.

The Burnet Flag was the first official flag of the Republic of Texas.

I’m such a bad Texan. Every year I forget about it, but I remembered this year. By the way, my friend Jamie wanted me to translate Happy Texas Independence Day into Satchian so here it is…

Vittaju riśas zos trozajun Texasi!

^_^

Here’s something you don’t see very often: snow in Texas!

It’s official: Element 112 is named Copernicium (symbol Cn), which is named after Nicolaus Copernicus. The IUPAC approved the new name on the 19th of February, Copernicus’s birthday.

I’ve been learning how to do gradients…

I did not create the actual unit circle used in these pictures–I modified it and created everything else. The original unit circle I used was created by Gustavb (I wish people would list their full names!) and published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. So that means all my unit circle art pictures posted here and on Flickr are licensed under the same license. I think.

^_^

I’ve always been interested in the transuranium elements–the elements after uranium on the periodic table. All of the transuranium elements, except neptunium and plutonium, do not occur naturally on Earth, which is what makes them interesting. They are produced synthetically, in minute amounts, in nuclear reactors. For some of these elements, only a few atoms have been produced. Most of these elements have no uses–we don’t even know what a lot of them look like. One transuranium element, americium, does have a use, and it’s found its way into our homes. An isotope of americium, americium-241, is used in smoke detectors. Here’s what it looks like…

Image by Andrew Magill

Americium is radioactive, but it’s only dangerous if you ingest it. I’m actually considering buying one of these smoke detectors that use americium just to take it apart and see it for myself. ^_^

My friend Alex just translated the Lord’s Prayer into his conlang Vresk…

Iren vaþja, ers vo ym hymyl
Gehilyt ert dai imja
Dai halycja komst
Dai osja vadi ert
On juryl hverf ym hymyl
Hrofænt dí ams cá iren hvlæn
Øþ ver iren scodmál hrofænt dí al vil
Øþ furænt dí haite al in krádizé
Æt fur dí al scus lacyl.

Pretty cool, huh? Alex even borrowed a couple words from Satchian into his conlang: krádizé, temptation is based on crædissa and scus, from is based on zos.