Gregarious Engineering

Hackles Feedback Hypothesis “The  facial feedback hypothesis , rooted in the conjectures of  Charles Darwin  and  William James , is that one's facial expression directly affects their  emotional  experience. Specifically, physiological activation of the facial regions associated with certain emotions holds a direct effect on the elicitation of such emotional states, and the lack of or inhibition of facial activation will result in the suppression (or absence altogether) of corresponding emotional states.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_feedback_hypothesis I ask, does smoothing or raising a dog’s hackles affect their emotional experience??

Change these “Off-Facebook” Facebook (and Instagram) Privacy Settings New Settings! OK, perhaps not new. It’s been many years since I checked any social media regularly and I should really just delete my accounts, but like many, I leave them collecting dust… But then, over the weekend I received a slew of recovery tokens for my Facebook account, which prompted me to head over to Settings to check activity and enable MFA. While there I noticed the new settings, buried deep as you’d expect. I am genuinely ecstatic about these settings. Their defaults leave nearly everyone open to widespread invasion of privacy, but they still have the settings available. I suspect we have the ever increasing barrage of new consumer privacy oriented laws from cities and states (e.g. California Consumer Privacy Act) to country unions (GDPR). Apply these in addition to standard privacy settings, as described well in Consumer Reports’ How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings . They also apply to connected Instag...

The Smartest “Dumb” Sprinkler on the Block! Options Galore There’s no shortage of smart sprinklers available—internet connected, Bluetooth enabled, learning, weather forecasting marvels!  They save water and for many they are probably just right.  But most are expensive, can be challenging to configure, may require an ongoing subscription, and might even collect your data! The Free (and Fun!) Option Moreover, I already have a sprinkler controller that works! It's just a difficult to use timer, but with plenty of tinkering it gets the job done. And importantly for this endeavor, it has a spot for you to wire in a Rain Sensor! They overpriced switches allow disabling scheduled waterings when recent rainfall is detected. I believe they are sold largely to meet regulations, are seemingly rarely functioning (case in point, my HOA sprinklers run in the rain despite having a sensor "installed"), and are at best reactive. Plus, my controller was in my basement so Rain Sensor inst...

"Real" Spinach & Arugula Part 2 - The Grow New Problems Root Sensitivity I knew spinach, arugula and the like don't transplant well and are recommended started in the ground, but regardless of technique, all plants experienced some stress and shock on moving to the aero  I ended up using two site for starting seeds right in the aero and two sites for mature plants. The plants grow so vigorously there wasn't room for four full grown plants anyhow Poor Choices? Rocky (Diplotaxis tenuifolia)  Has turned out to be sloooooooooooooooooooow growing. In picture below, the tiny plant closest is Rocky, which was started at the same time as the spinach (back) and Astros (left and right) Spinach and arugula preferences Arugula wants lots more ammonium than spinach, and making one happy caused the other issues Bad sensors I had a SparkFun Environmental Combo Breakout - CCS811/BME280 sensor that came with the Qwiic kit, but as other note, the CO2 sensor heater throws off the h...

"Real" Spinach & Arugula Part 1 - The Setup The Problem We're spoiled with dark, rich, fully savoyed spinaches and spicy, nutty, deeply lobbed arugulas from our organic, biodynamic Aspen Moon farm-share, except in winter! The smooth, mild spinach and lettuces we're able to get get at the grocery left me wondering if I could grow better in my closet?! The Plants   I decided to start seeds in 9 cubes and would select the best 4 at the end of germination. Bloomdale (Spinacia oleracea)  Heirloom from 1826! High in vitamins A and C, and iron! Rocky (Diplotaxis tenuifolia)  Fast growing, wild-type heirloom. Complex and nutty flavor. Astro (Eruca vesicaria)  Peppery. High-yield!  While I'm at, I'm going to start some microgreens in coconut coir! (Will add germinated photo!) The Aeroponic Setup For simplicity and (hopefully) fast, high yield I opted to create a small low pressure aeroponic (LPA) bucket. These are often used for cloning but it works equally well ...

How to quickly disable Face ID (until unlocked) Hold Volume Up + Side Button until Shutdown/SOS screen appears, then hit Cancel. “Your passcode is required to enable Face ID” Once you enter your passcode, Face ID is back to normal.