lyorn | Reading

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/24/its-new-toy-day-for-sea-otters

Via Oregon Coast Aquarium, which writes, “A special thanks to the donor who shopped our wishlist! It’s safe to say that the otters are thoroughly enjoying their new enrichment items!”

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/24/its-new-toy-day-for-sea-otters

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Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/23/why-is-the-fur-of-sea-otter-pups-so-different

Via Alaska SeaLife Center, which writes:

Look closely. Can you see the differences between the pup coat and adult coat of a northern sea otter?

Sea otters have a different coat for the first three months of their life, with a longer loft and longer guard hairs than an adult coat. The pup coat keeps pups afloat on top of the water, just like a lifejacket.

Our rehab team has described it like “a cotton ball in water.”

Here’s a close-up look at Un’a’s coat when she was first admitted at about 2 months old, and at her coat again 6 weeks later after she molted. Notice the reduction of the lighter colored guard hairs.

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/23/why-is-the-fur-of-sea-otter-pups-so-different

siderea

Boston locals! Blue Heron, an acapella early music ensemble, is throwing a three-day shindig to celebrate Guillaume de Machaut (died 1377), May 1-3, mostly involving talks about Machaut's works, talks about his lyrics, talks about the illuminations in the manuscripts his works come from, concerts of his music, and also a little ars subtilior tacked on the end just because.

More info https://www.blueheron.org/machaut-weekend/

Affordability note: They have a free ticket option as part of the "Card to Culture program" for people with EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare(!) cards*, and a discounted "low cost" option.

Of note, the "Opening Festivities: Keynote, Performance & Sing-Along" on Friday night includes (emphasis mine):

a keynote talk by one of the world’s leading scholars of 14th-century music, Anne Stone (CUNY Graduate Center), performances of pieces in several of the genres represented in Machaut’s oeuvre, and a sing-along of the Kyrie from the Messe de Nostre Dame.

Which: huh. Huh. The Kyrie, huh? Wow. Now that is certainly a choice. I commend their bravery. Were I in better health, I would consider showing up just to be in on the shenanigans.

If you're curious what the Kyrie from Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame sounds and looks like, here you go.

* There is no separate ConnectorCare card like there is for MassHealth. They mean your regular insurance card, which if it's a ConnectorCare plan should say so on it, or so the Mass Cultural Council, whose program it is, thinks.

siderea

The YouTube algorithm pseudorandomly served me this, thereby answering the question I'd had on a distant back burner forever, "Hey, didn't I hear something about colored cotton cultivars once upon a time? Cotton that you didn't need to dye? Like back in the 90s?"

If you are a fellow fiber freak or interested in agriculture or organic crops or the underappreciated problem of sustainable clothing production, you may find this as fascinating as I did:

2026 Mar 7: Good Yarn Bad Knits [goodyarnbadknits YT]: "The Yarn That Almost Saved The World"

Watch on YouTube

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/22/disaster-otter

You can’t tell me this doesn’t have the same energy as this old meme - and more so when you know the mischief behind it! Via MTSOfan:

Piper was torn. As I squatted on the other side of the window, she wanted to interact with me. On the other hand, she'd had a quarrel with her roommate, Luani. She wanted to watch what he was doing.

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/22/disaster-otter

siderea

[requires both audio and video]

Jonasquin on YT (previously) has written a wholly original motet in the 16th century style after Desprez upon the cantus firmus "Seven Nations Army", for the words of Psalm 10, verses 2, 3, 7-11.

Comment would be superfluous.

2026 Mar 20: Jonasquin YT: "A 16th century motet for the US President"

Watch on YouTube

Click through to the video on YT to see the translation in the description.

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/21/otter-really-doesnt-care-for-close-talkers

Via MTSOfan

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/21/otter-really-doesnt-care-for-close-talkers

siderea

I knew that other contemporaneous cultures than those of Europe had unfathomably higher numbers of books than Europeans did, but I didn't know about this in retrospect obvious reason why:

2026 Mar 19: Dwarkesh Patel feat. Ada Palmer [DwarkeshPatel YT]: "Why Medieval Books Cost as Much as a House" (1 min, 7 sec):

Watch on YouTube

Without papyrus, what you're writing on is a dead sheep. And if you think of the price of a head of lettuce and the price of a leather jacket, you're understanding the difference between a sheet of papyrus and writing on a dead sheep. So every page of a medieval book is as expensive as that much of a leather jacket. And a medieval book hand written costs as much as a house.

And so to have a library is to be not just rich but mega rich. So only the wealthiest cities contain anybody who has a library. The great library of the University of Paris, the library from Europe's perspective, has 600 books.

There's definitely more than 600 books in this room. Every kiosk at an airport selling Dan Brown novels has more than 600 books. This is nothing.

And at the same time as that, in the Middle East, sultans have libraries of over a thousand books or 5,000 books. There are libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa with thousands of books.* There are libraries in China with thousands of books. Because they in China have cheap paper and rice paper. The Middle East has papyrus.

Europe, and only Europe, is writing on a leather jacket.

* Three hundred thousand. It's been thirteen years and I am still not remotely over that fact. Every time I encounter it anew, my SCA persona gets acrophobic trying to imagine a library that big and has to sit down and put her head between her knees so she doesn't pass out.

siderea

The previously expected ICE enforcement surge never materialized. Curious.

I wonder if this just means they're short-staffed. Or perhaps distracted.

(I also wonder if somebody made a judgment call not to try what they did in MN in MA, but have largely rejected the notion. It would not be to anybody's advantage if they did, on either side, but I'm not seeing a lot of good judgment in evidence anywhere.)

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/20/you-love-me-you-really-love-me

Via Seattle Aquarium, which writes:

Thank you for sending Mishka so much love and support! 💙

ICYMI: Mishka underwent a sedated procedure [yesterday] morning to assess and fully remove a plaque (a thickened, fur-less patch) on her hind flipper. We are delighted to report that the procedure went smoothly and Mishka is recovering wonderfully! She is already back in her habitat and behaving just like the sea otter we know and love—grooming appropriately and sharing her beautiful (and very loud!) singing voice with us. Mishka's team will continue to monitor her behavior and her flipper closely as she heals. 🩹

We are grateful to our veterinary and care teams—and the Board-certified surgeon from Summit Veterinary Referral Center who joined them—for ensuring that Mishka's procedure went smoothly. ✨

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/20/you-love-me-you-really-love-me

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/19/ohhh-biiig-stretch-and-such-a-yawn

Via uso_otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/19/ohhh-biiig-stretch-and-such-a-yawn

siderea

Just hit play.

(All about the sound, but visuals also nice.)

2026 Mar 18: Benn Jordan [BennJordan YT]: "I'm here to disrupt the finance synthesizer scene."

Watch on YouTube

siderea

Screenshot of two comments on X. One says, "Reading Dune. Frank Herbert was cooking." and shows a section of a photo of a book page reading, "'Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.' '"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind,"' Paul quoted." Below that someone replied, paging Grok, X's resident AI, "please explain this post and the quote in in, what should I understand about it?"

Debate is raging on BSky if this is deliberate wit or accidental idiocy.

(h/t user mlyp.bsky.social)

lexin

For some reason I’m not sure about I watched “Scarpetta” - the whole series.

I still have no clue what was happening most of the time. I actually prefer “Silent Witness” and that show is beginning to annoy me.

Now, I have read about half of Patricia Cornwell’s books, and I don’t remember any of them being as gloopy as the TV series. Nor do I remember them as being quite so full of horrible characters. Kay’s sister in particular I wanted to die a death. Kay herself was annoying and Lucy nearly as much. The only character I liked was the dead wife.

I also struggled with telling current events from flashbacks. They could at least have given Kay different hairstyles.

All in all, a waste of my time.

Current Location: Bangor, Gwynedd
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/334619.html

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/18/mother-otter-takes-her-pup-for-a-romp

Photo by Helen Pinchin via New Forest Wildlife Park

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/18/mother-otter-takes-her-pup-for-a-romp

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/17/absolute-oyster-experts

Via Oregon Zoo

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/17/absolute-oyster-experts

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/16/im-sorry-sea-otter-i-dont-have-any-fish-on-me-okay-let-me-go-to-the-kitchen-you-know-what-ill-just-run-to-the-store

Via Vancouver Aquarium

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/16/im-sorry-sea-otter-i-dont-have-any-fish-on-me-okay-let-me-go-to-the-kitchen-you-know-what-ill-just-run-to-the-store

voidbeetles posting in

little_details

Hi!

I have a character in a sci-fi universe who ends up "shipwrecked" alone on a completely uninhabited planet for two years. The planet, and the specific environment he lands in, are perfectly habitable by humans (we are in soft scifi territory here, very Star Trek inspired) and he's able to survive with some effort. (The details of how are not really important to the story - I know at least that he's the kind of guy who'd be able to salvage some tech and emergency supplies from his wrecked ship, and I'm comfortable with brushing past the details of what exactly he brought with him - but if anyone's really interested in coming at it from that logistical angle, I won't stop you!)

What is more relevant to the story is how this experience would continue to affect him by the time he's back home safely. I think there are a bunch of possible avenues here and I'd love to see people's takes on how they would approach this or approach researching it. For example, here are some of my cursory thoughts:

PTSD is certainly a likely long-term complication
It's implied that his shipwrecking was not an accident/was engineered maliciously - I imagine this is something he has dwelt on heavily throughout the two years and will affect his ability to trust people (and to visit other uninhabited planets in the future!). Seems like it would be easy to get caught in delusional spirals in a situation like that.
I know that prolonged isolation can cause hallucination/psychosis in some cases, especially in solitary confinement, sensory deprivation contexts, etc. Is that as much of a risk in this case? And if so, do you think he'd still be experiencing psychotic symptoms after the fact?
One of his personality traits is that he's fairly attention-seeking - I think it's likely this incident will exacerbate that and make him more desperate for connection
It'll probably alter how he approaches social situations in the future in general; that's something I'll definitely be thinking about
Perhaps he got into the habit of talking to himself on the planet, and this never went away

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/15/of-all-the-animals-that-might-float-like-this-id-be-happiest-to-see-it-was-an-otter

Via Cloudtail the Jaguar

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/15/of-all-the-animals-that-might-float-like-this-id-be-happiest-to-see-it-was-an-otter

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

The Lyorn's Den

It's New Toy Day for Sea Otters

Why Is the Fur of Sea Otter Pups So Different?

Syncopated tritone hockets for everybody! [early music, MA]

Foxfibre [text/ag]

Disaster Otter

"Dum superbit impius" [music, pols]

Otter Really Doesnt Care for Close Talkers

The cost of literacy [medieval hist]

Massachusetts not the next? [Ω, MA/US]

You Love Me, You Really Love Me!

Ohhh, Biiig Stretch! And Such a Yawn!

Benn Jordan plays the stock market [econ, tech, dataviz, music]

Grok, explain Butlerian Jihad [ai]

Watching TV

Mother Otter Takes Her Pup for a Romp

Absolute Oyster Experts

I'm Sorry, Sea Otter, I Don't Have Any Fish on Me... Okay, Let Me Go to the Kitchen... You Know What

Long-term psychological effects of physical isolation

Of All the Animals That Might Float Like This, I'd Be Happiest to See It Was an Otter

Performing some traffic maintenance today

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January 2026

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