"Day Light" - my oil painting
@thebiologistisn on various other systems. PhD Genetics, UMN. I do bioinformatics/genomics with a university lab. I work unofficially to make new interesting varieties of food plants. I've made distinctly blue colored dry beans. I make/sell art, too.
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"Day Light" - my oil painting
Why didn’t some of the Epstein survivors speak out earlier? “I thought someone was going to kill me,” one explained. As another asked, “Why did the government work so hard to protect Jeffrey Epstein and not victims like me?”
I think folks need to understand that Disabled people who pay attention to accessibility (and the lack of it) in multiple areas of life already know where it goes when we're not supposed to ask for better accessibility from folks who "mean well".
This was the first year blooming for this variety. I wouldn't be surprised if it had an even longer bloom period next year.
From August 10 to September 1, almost every bloom was after the end of the typical daylily season for MN.
The final bloom on this plant was at its peak yesterday. A daylily blooming into the start of September is definitely something.
I ended up making 3.5 gallons of pasta sauce yesterday. We already used one jar, and another didn't seal properly, so it's in the fridge for use soon. I still have more tomatoes, but this got me mostly caught up with them.
Also, the color distribution of "bicolor" varieties doesn't really seem to line up with the color distribution of my beefsteak variety. So... this may be one of those surprises I mentioned earlier. We can still do some calculations based on what we've observed.
PS is earlier in the carotenoid pathway than tangerine, so the combination should produce mostly prolycopene instead of lycopene.
After reading up on the bicolor trait, I don't think it's what is involved in this story. It is described as a more recessive allele of the same gene that drives differences between red, yellow, and white tomatoes: Phytoene Synthase (PS).
That is a very good thing to have pointed out. Thanks.
I'll do some calculations to predict what I'll see next year.
The hybrid ends up with one normal copy of Phytoene Synthase and the dominant normal allele for the bicolor trait, leading to full color with a normal distribution (more or less).
After thinking about it some more, I think this cross indicates my white variety also has the tangerine mutation, even though it is normally hidden.
Seeing where the different mutations impact the pathway can help make it more clear how they produce the colors they're known for. However, there are potentially many other interesting mutations not discussed. Breed your own, and you'll soon find surprises.
The blog post I keep referencing (the-biologist-is-in.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-...) is a summary of a lot of published research into the carotenoid pigment pathway responsible for most of the colors of tomato (and many other) fruit.
It took forever but I finally got a photo of the pink dandelion which I started from seed in bloom!
They are so lovely! I've tried to grow them a few times, but they're far less robust than their common yellow cousin.
Tangerine is typically considered a recessive trait, so it being visible in the hybrid may seem kind of strange. It just happens to be that the mutation responsible for the "white" color of one parent is even more recessive, so tangerine looks dominant in this context.
The same central red blush is seen more strongly in the beefsteak tomato cross-sections at the start of this thread. The cross tells me there's a recessive trait that works with tangerine to produce that pattern. It might be the "bicolor" mutation. the-biologist-is-in.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-...
The tangerine mutation is somewhat leaky, so some of the red lycopene is produced in the center of the fruit as they mature.
The orange color is due to a mutation called "tangerine". This is a recessive trait that leads to the accumulation of prolycopene, an orange pigment one step before lycopene in the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway. the-biologist-is-in.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-...
The plant that produced these was supposed to have smaller white fruit. Thus, this is a new hybrid! It has the thick fruit wall and mild flavor of the white fruited parent variety, with the fasciated fruit trait of the beefsteak variety above that it crossed with.
My first beefsteak tomato variety stands out for having very few seeds and a very thick flesh, making it great for slicing in pizzas and other dishes. These are going into a batch of pasta sauce.
We have the tech to make lifesaving vaccines for you annually We just… don’t want to anymors
If we are now basing public health recommendations on their popularity with the general public, I’d like to know what the cutoff is. These people are all a danger to every person in the United States.
Marty Makary, head of the FDA, said this yesterday: “most Americans, who are voting with their feet (or their upper arms) [are] against an eternal annual [COVID19] booster campaign”. His agency just approved a yearly flu shot for everyone. Only half of Americans got it last year.
This species is not in any way without a taste of its own.
Last days of summer scenes, Kenai River Alaska.
Passenger Pigeon bones from Minnesota, from Otter Tail County (ca. 1000 years old) and 19th century Fort Snelling, posted in memory of Martha, the last of her species who died on September 1, 1914.
Ummm... Use your words? I have no idea what you were trying to communicate.
Graham Greene has sadly passed away at the age of 73. He played Skully in ‘Echo’
A sea turtle surfacing by a MASSIVE school of rays near Clearwater, Florida a couple days ago. Another post into the BluSky void. Maybe 2 or 3 people will see this one and my time won't have been wasted. I'll keep trying a little longer. #nature #animals #amazing #wildlife #awesome #ocean
RFK jr's cult beliefs in no way supersedes anyone's right to prevent death or disease in their self or their family. Full Stop.
RIP Graham Greene. Every time he popped up on screen when I was a kid, my mom would excitedly point him out for being an actual Native on the screen. Able to be deadly serious and infinitely hilarious (even in smaller roles like Last of Us), he ate up the screen. Nʌki’wah brother.
Here are the two parent plants about this time last year. I expect plants with black stems and white fruit will look very striking in the garden and in summer/fall florist displays.
I went down a brief rabbithole of reading on Solanums (how did we end up with some of the most wildly consumed veggies in the midst of all of the toxic species?!). I answered none of my questions, and probably have five more. but I did learn about the existence of nipplefruit!
That's one I want to learn more about. Like... What is the toxic agent? Is it really toxic, or just inedible? Could I maybe breed up an edible version?
In the sense that this is a vegetable that I and other people eat, sure.
Why the French don’t even have a word for «conquer»
Yeah. Though, even the ones that are actually inedible are often really neat plants.
I can select for dark stems when they're tiny seedlings, then for spinelessness when they have a few leaves. I'll select for fruit color as soon as the first fruit appears. By culling at each stage, I'll avoid any new hybrids with traits I don't want in the next year.
I have coworkers who grow varieties in their gardens. They say they use them in stews, which is similar to how bitter melon is used in Vietnamese cuisine. I'll be saving every fruit this year for seeds, but I'll have culls to cook with next year.
The dark/black stems are a must for me either way.
Exactly. It kinda surprises me that there weren't already different color forms available. I can imagine one that matures to yellow as well, though I may have to do some searching to find the right genetics for that.
But as soon as I had the idea, I immediately ordered the normal PoaS seeds I'd need and began planning the process to make my goal.
I had been growing my white fruited variety for a few years before it occurred to me that a white PoaS might do well, just like the white pumpkins people sell beside the orange ones.
The trick is that you can never know what variety will kick off or not in any given year. You can't breed to the trends because trends move much faster than breeding can.
It's the one I can imagine might make some money too. Florists are big business.
They are technically edible. Varieties are grown by many Asian and African derived communities. They're a bit too bitter for the typical American diet.
The white fruit will eventually mature to the same scarlet red color, but the plant can be harvested a little early to show a mix of white and red fruit.
In the next generation, I'll select for dark stems (a dominant trait), white fruit and spinelessness (recessive traits), and larger fruit size (a mix of dominant and recessive traits).
My hybrid scarlet eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum) is doing great. Plants that look like this are sold as "Pumpkin-on-a-stick" for fall florist uses. The goal of this project is to make a variety with the dark stems and fruit shape, but with the fruit being white.
The lima beans are starting to ripen. The pink ones mature a bit earlier than the yellow ones. I'm still hoping to find a hybrid this year, but I may have to take more direct action to make the hybrid next year.
"literally the only people who uphold any conservative principles are liberals" is a huge part of the story of how we got here, too — because they'd constantly do it *even at the expense of liberal principles*
Read this, read it again, breath the words into your lungs, and then go live them. This is our mission. www.thenation.com/article/acti...
A Labor Day reminder: today there isn't a single city, metro area, or state in the U.S. where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a modest 2-bedroom apartment. Millions of people with jobs—even multiple jobs—aren't safe from homelessness in this country.
The problem with the modern engagement ring is that there's been a whole ass psyop campaign that pushes the message that Since the ring is only for YOU to wear, it's a symbol of how YOU are valued. It is for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE and aren't YOU worth a big ole rock. And that's so sad.
People literally bled & died fighting against corporate interests, robber barons, corrupt local & state politicians, cops & hired killers, & the federal government & US military for better working conditions for the rest of us so reflect on that today for just a bit while you're doing whatever else.
9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
People are melting down at a Tribune article about CHSD 230 considering adding Arabic to its language learning electives. I wasted time in the comments, which I normally avoid doing since it's useless and awful, but it led to possibly the funniest thing anybody's ever said to me about France.
Thrilled that my article with @markpmckenna.bsky.social on "Amazon's Quiet Overhaul of the Trademark System" is now out in the California Law Review @califlrev.bsky.social
"The straw man being put forward is that it's either we have the military or we're going to get our throats cut at night in DC. Is there no middle ground? Do local law enforcement account for nothing? We've got the National Guard GARDENING right now in DC. Is that an efficient use of our resources?"
Believe me, I would *love* to have civilized political debates with people whose views opposed mine, if we could scare up any opposing views that are actually civilized. But my opposition is unhinged stuff like "Whites only" and "vaccines are a conspiracy," so yeah, weirdly, I'm not up for a chat.
It’s Wattle Day! Here’s one of my faves. The Sandpaper Wattle Acacia denticulosa is one I was lucky to see in the wild before knowing they were in cultivation. They are threatened and restricted to a small number of granite outcrops in the WA wheatbelt. They have big flowers and rough leaves.
The eugenics plan for MH in the USA, is literally Kennedy wanting to take away medications and send us all to work farms. I wish this were a snide joke, but it ain't.
For the #showmeyourknits sweater prompt this week: The Imagine Pullover I knitted for my mother as a Christmas present a couple of years ago. 🧶 #knitsky #knitting
no joke one of my favorite paleontology youtubers is about to drop a feature-length nerdout about the Triassic at 9am tomorrow and I'm so pumped youtu.be/b9Hh9_aIU9I
The fruit clusters are pretty small and easily hidden among the leaves. It took me a few years to identify the fruiting ones on my property.
It would have been possible, but I'm expecting the plant to regrow from the roots in spring.
This is the first year I've been able to get enough of a fruit crop on them to do anything, so at least there's that.
I got the seeds from a Frontenac Gris vine we were fostering for a short time before it went to its final home. The fruit had large seeds but tasted wonderful in a way you just don't see with dessert grapes from the geocery store, so I decided to try my luck with growing them.
I have several seed-grown wine grape vines, but they're still too young to fruit. They have some wild ancestry to give them the cold resistance they need to survive in MN, so they may develop more like wild or domesticated types with regards to their flower/fruit production.
It's wild grapes specifically that come in male and female versions. The domesticated grapes from Europe all have complete flowers with both male and female parts.
I expect some new vines will grow from the stump next spring, but it'll take a few years before they can fruit again.
Considering it takes several years to get a grape vine to mature enough to produce fruit, and you won't know if you have a male or female plant until that time, it is quite irritating when someone goes and kills a fruiting vine.
Fortunately, the berries were able to ripen anyhow. They'll make a nice batch of jelly.
A utility crew killed one of my grape vines the other day. It wasn't even in their way. The dude cut it just in case it might be in their way. The vine was full of fruit, but I caught him after he'd cut the vine, so there wasn't any point in getting on his case about it.
Even at the end of his life, he acknowledged no acceptance of fault for all the people his policies killed. He was a truly evil man. But enough about RFKjr.
bsky.app/profile/theb...
You want to know what happens when government cabinet positions are filled based on loyalty (as the current US cabinet was filled) instead of qualifications? Trofim Lysenko. Use your preferred search engine to look him up.
RFK defunding mRNA tech and declaring they'll make a "universal vaccine" from actual virus is VERY soviet agriculture energy
11. Pseudoscience Stalin boosted odd farm theories of Trofim Lysenko that worsened famines, according to writer Sam Kean. Lysenko tried "to ‘educate’ Soviet crops to sprout at different times of year by soaking them in freezing water.” Trump promoted death by naming anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. as HHS chief.
Trofim Lysenko starved millions because he couldn’t handle being told he was wrong by more learned colleagues in genetics. So he denounced them and Stalin had them executed.
RFKjr is following in the pattern of Trofim Lysenko, one of history's most notorious mass murderers. Shutting down evidence-based policies in favor of pseudoscience quackery will always kill people.
It is impossible to overstate how destructive and irresponsible RFK Jr has been as HHS Secretary. defector.com/rfk-jr-is-ma...
They're not caving. They're intentionally being destroyed.
COVID vaccine update: Pharmacies in these states won't give you a shot unless you have a prescription. CVS: CO, FL, GA, KY, LA , ME, NY, NC, PA, UT, VA, WV, DC Walgreens: AZ, CO, GA, IN, LA, MO, MT, NM, NY, OR, SC, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI CVS is not yet offering COVID shots at all in MA, NV, and MN.
Racism and sexism are when the black lady tells you exactly what the white guy psycho is going to do and the white guy psycho ALSO tells you exactly what he is going to do and you decide the woman is lying and the man is just joking.
like I get that it is reasonable to be initially skeptical that someone is actually evil and insane enough to want to bring back a huge number of wholly preventable infectious diseases in order to cleanse the population of the genetically weak but he’s actually doing it now so it’s time to wake up
so many people are going to die because not enough people were willing to believe that RFK jr would actually try to do exactly what he has said for decades that he wanted to do
Reagan v Carter 1980 was my first time voting. My entire political experience has been Republicans fucking stuff up and then the Democrats getting in and fixing it as best they can, before the Republicans lie and cheat their way back into office. Repeat.
NE blue states coalition (Atlantica) and West coast blue states coalition (Pacifica) should formulate their own recommendations since Centers for Disease recommendations are essentially useless. 🙄
Good.
there is no question in my mind that rfk jr is the most dangerous person in this administration and that his eugenicist ideology threatens the lives of millions of people www.advocate.com/politics/dem...
That has value, but people in general do respond to being publicly shamed and deplatformed, even when they don't respond to reasoned education.
Unfortunately, they're living, breathing people. The problem is they're not thinking.