Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • 2024 Recap - Surprisingly Eventful

    HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE! (or Summer if you're in the Southern hemisphere, and if you are, can you please give us back the Sun? It gets dark out too early...)

    I wrote one of these about this time last year, so I'm doing that again this year!

    Last year, I made some resolutions of sorts for 2024, which can be seen in the post below.

• Science

  • Solstice

    Today is solstice, so days will become longer again in the North. I think, this day is and has always been somewhat significant, although it is buried beneath commercials, LED lighting, business, christmas cards, presents, "Weihnachtsmarkt", and "Glühwein", at least around here.

  • Comparison of Mo et al. (2024) global wood density with plots in the seasonally dry tropics

    In the paper, the authors use plot data from 1.1 million forest plots, and wood density data from 10,703 tree species, to explore global patterns in wood density. They find that water availability, measured in their case by mean annual temperature and soil moisture, is correlated with wood density, globally. They suggest that the mechanism for this is that trees in "warm and dry regions are likely to develop denser wood to maintain xylem resistance against implosion and rupture".

    Notably, this study included hardly any plot data from the seasonally dry tropics, including tropical savannas and dry forests. There is a particular lack of data from southern Africa: [...]

• Technology and Free Software

  • A Brief History of My IDEs

    Based on Sean's list of IDEs/editors he's used or uses, here's mine (I'm excluding actual text editors, because that list would be largely be variants of vi): [...]

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Regenerating My Blog - A Fresh Start

      Hey there! Looks like I’m back to writing after some time away. Over the years, I’ve started many blogs and personal sites, experimenting with different technologies and styles. And here I am again, excited to share my thoughts with you.

      Even though I’ve never considered myself a great writer, the idea of having a blog to share my thoughts, experiences, and ideas has always been in the back of my mind. This time, I’m keeping it simple—sharing small bits whenever inspiration strikes.