I'm trying a new semi-weekly project where I keep track of any posts on the Steem blockchain which I've found worth reading. Since this is new, I'll write a bit about my inspiration, reasons, criteria, etc at the end, but let's get to the good stuff first.

STEM

A new count of the vaquita (Phocoena sinus) reveals that there are most likely only 12 individuals left! by @Valth.

About a year ago, I wrote a post about how the vaquita (Phocoena sinus) might be the next marine animal to go extinct, and it seems that my prediction might be coming true. Last year The International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita did a count of how many vaquitas that were still alive, and they found there to be 30 individuals left in the wild, but this year’s number is a whole lot lower.

Could a Neuroscientist understand a Microprocessor? by @psyentist

Many researchers (and most bloggers) will typically depict science in terms of technological development, but I want you to appreciate the beauty of an experiment that draws attention to how limited our understanding of intelligent behavior actually is. Jonas and Kording (2017) * demonstrate this in a hilarious manner by investigating how a Commodore 64 microprocessor generates the behaviors of Donkey Kong (1981), Space Invaders (1978), and Pitfall (1981) with all the modern tools of cognitive neuroscience.

Glowing Rocks, Diamond Rain, Navigation, Ultra Violet Tendencies_ ..-....-.. __ ..-....-.. _Interesting Geology! by @physics.benjamin

Learn surprising facts about some of my favourite Geologic Specimens. Quartz, Diamond, Iceland Spar, and Sodalite.

Mining for water on MARS! Could it sustain our future colony? by @alexydory

I am going to use my knowledge and drill through all the current scientific studies in order to bring you a Mars Colonization Handbook, which will highlight the most successful methods of dealing with each of the colonization challenges. Last time we talked about generating oxygen on Mars and the challenges of doing it.

The "super robot" in chemistry lab -- 化學實驗室裏的"超級機械人" by @mcw

This is a machine called: Preparative HPLC, where HPLC means high pressure liquid chromatography. Yes, it is a chromatography machine, and we can have this powerful machine to purify mixture for us! As you can see above, the metal cylinder is the column for this machine, where there are chemicals inside which can help us to separate mixture base on their polarity.

Oddball Geological Features: Vol. 7 — The Exploding Lakes of Africa by @keephy

Many of the oddball geological features I’ve discussed in prior posts have been beautiful, theoretical and at times mysterious. However, none of them offer the unfortunate event of an untimely death. While the title “Exploding Lakes,” may come off as some sort of ruse to ensnare your curiosity (ahem, clickbait)— it’s in truth a valid description. Technically, I could have entirely exaggerated and gave a title that read, “The Gas Clouds From Hell,” but that would be an inaccurate description given the nature of this series (oddball geological features)… I digress. Today, I’ll be discussing the odd occurence of [limnic eruptions] that are known to occur on explosive lakes. We’ll be going over the regions in which they occur, what causes them and the effects they have on the local environments.

Electronic Project 39: Alarm System Using the principle of LASER with the aid of LDR and arduino uno by @rfece143

That is why this tutorial was made for us to create an automatic security alarm system by which laser was used. This system is designed to detect intruders who break into our house.

History, Anthropology, and Sociology

A Brief History and Evolution of Weapons by @olivercuico

Weapons are devices used in offensive or defensive fighting to destroy, defeat, or injure an enemy. Offense types of weapons are also used for hunting game to provide food for man.

Nigeria: Ethnic Diversity by @donfelix

Nigerians are made up of over 250 ethnic groups. The peoples of all these ethnic groups and a few foreigners make up the 184, 234, 791 people in the country, as counted by the Nigeria population commission.

Culture, Books, Film, Art

Horror Review: Blood Road by Edo van Belkom (2004, Pinnacle Books) by @modernzorker

I love horror fiction, but if there's one thing I despise, it's a book presenting itself as one thing then morphing into something else without warning. Blood Road manages to commit this sin twice which is, like a hemorrhoid the size of a grapefruit, equal parts impressive and irritating. It was this irritation that pushed me to not only see my way to the end of the story but pen this review.

STEEM Happenings, Curations, Tools, and Tips

One Month on Steemit - 10 Tips for Beginners to Crush It! by @keciah

Today is my 31st day as a Steemian! Learning this new platform and all it offers has definitely been a fun, exciting, sometimes overwhelming journey. It's unlike any social website I've been a part of before. It has also taught me a lot about cryptocurrency and the blockchain.

THE LIBRARY #8 | A Curation Post for Readers and Writers by @naquoya

Welcome to the eighth edition of The Library. A new, writing focused curation post. Coming out of the ideas and discussions generated in the Seeking a Community of Writers post, I wanted to be able to pursue that idea even further. I know there are writing communities on Discord (of which I am also a member), and there are also curator blogs on Steemit. So this idea is nothing new. But I want for The Library to be a curator post focused solely upon writers, and the world of writing.

Ein Brief an alle Freunde der Wissenschaft / A letter to all science geeks by @sco

Dear de-STEM and steemSTEM members and supporters! For some time now I‘m carrying some heavy thoughts around, and I want to begin the week by getting rid of them.

steemSTEM on a break by @steemstem

The feeling of entitlement grew. And at the same time, number two of our goals barely happened. One small team cannot replace the engagement of a community: commenting, voting, encouraging each other. That is what we hoped our members would do. Some do. Most do not.

I am a Bot using Artificial Intelligence to help the Steemit Community. Here is how I work and what I learned this week. (2018-10) by @trufflepig

My name is TrufflePig. I was created and am being maintained by @smcaterpillar. I search for quality content that got less rewards than it deserves. I call these posts truffles, publish a daily top list, and upvote them.

Geopolis photo contest - prizes from 3 SBD - 2 SBD - 1 SBD by @geopolis

This is the first contest organized by @geopolis and here we give everyone the chance to take us to your neighborhood or travels and talk about a feature that caught your eye! When the deadline for entries has passed, a summary of the entries will be posted and the voting begins. OK that's the idea!

So, what's all this then?

Inspiration

I've been thinking about doing something like this for a while, but the recent community involvement issues in steemSTEM spurred me into action, even though I'm not entirely happy with my approach yet. My goals here are to foster interaction on steem and provide visibility for good content.

Why not just resteem/vote

I do vote, but I'm like the tiniest minnow in the world (so far), so it really doesn't do much (yet). I want to do more. Gathering stuff all in one place is kind of nice and it will hopefully lead to more discussion.

I did used to resteem, but I have issues with massive amounts of resteeming. This is basically a UI issue; I've noted in my feed that some great accounts which resteem dozens of times a day tend to drown out other posts. Until there's a way to separate author-content from resteems in there general steem-verse (i.e. on Steemit), I don't like reseteeming much.

Criteria and format

The only real criterion I have is that the article should be something I was happy to have read. Ideally, it would be recent enough to still be active for 3 to 4 days after I post. A few other other things:

• There's no restriction on category, though I tend to read more STEM/nerdy stuff
• The list is not exhaustive (especially this week, since I didn't keep notes until yesterday)
• If I left you off, it's not because I don't think your post was worth reading
• I'm still figuring out how to arrange topics
• Post order is like the point system on 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' - meaningless
• If you're a prolific author, I might only list one post in full format, then mention others
• If time allows, I may provide commentary on posts, but right now I'm letting them stand on their own merits.

Call to Action

I enjoyed compiling this list and you can do it, too. Even if your vote counts for nothing and you have 3 whole followers, start keeping track of what you actually liked reading and let the world know about it. I don't think there's a relevant tag yet, so let's go ahead and use #readinglog. If there is a better tag out there, let me know.

Remember, a community without interactions is just a bunch of people. Comment, vote, promote, even resteem!

Minor details

It looks like this is going to be my 100^th ost, so, yay, milestones!
It's also the third post in a row without microbes. Don't worry the next post (unless Monday's reading log comes out first) is going back to the microbial world!

Copyright Info

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