Dreamwidth and Icons
Mar. 20th, 2026 06:47 amOne of the things that has made Tumblr wildly popular with fandom is its unlimited image hosting capacity. Content, Tumblr eventually put limits on, but number of total images (rather than images per post) and size of images? Not so much.
Unfortunately, that's one of the big reasons why Tumblr is basically hemorrhaging money: Because data is expensive, and image data is much more so than text data, mainly because it's a lot more data. That number just goes up with gifs and videos, the former especially being a favorite on Tumblr.
The ways to get money to run a social media site on the internet are basically venture capitol (the investors will want their money back someday, somehow), selling user data (doesn't everyone love ads and hate privacy?), and users directly paying for services (in this economy?).
Dreamwidth started from a foundation of prioritizing privacy and user freedom, and that meant that they compromised on image hosting in order for their users to truly be the main focus of this site. A dedicated user base pays to keep Dreamwidth running, and while there's a price rise on the horizon, we've managed to keep Dreamwidth's doors open with just our own money for sixteen years now.
So what does this have to do with icons? Well, with the limited image hosting options in Dreamwidth's budget, they're one of the main ways we use images at all—and Dreamwidth users make the most of them!
( Hold up; what exactly IS an icon? And what do you mean by 'make the most of them'? )
( How do I get and upload icons? )
Is that it?
Well, it's everything I can think of, at any rate! But you might have questions that I haven't covered. This is a great place to ask them! I may not have the answers, but odds are decent that someone here will be able to point you in the right direction.
One last favor before I go...
Dreamwidth users, if you've got favorite icons, show them off in the comments! I think it would be great to be able to share examples of just how fun and creative we can get with this medium, and this seems like the perfect opportunity 😉 Reply to your own comment if you have more than one, or to other people if the icon fits, so it's not just a mass of top-level comments.
As for any newcomers, if this post gets enough comments, you may get a chance to try out another one of Dreamwidth's features; at 50 comments, comment threads will collapse to keep loading time down and limit data transfer costs. Towards the topmost comment, at the bottom of the comment below which everything gets folded up, there's a clickable option to Expand the thread. This will open up and display all of the comments below that for you! The thread will collapse back down if you click away, though.
If this post doesn't get that many comments but you still want to try it out, I'd recommend checking the latest post at
Thanks, everyone, and I hope this post was helpful! I'm going to go collapse for a while now 😅
Girl Genius for Friday, March 20, 2026
Mar. 20th, 2026 04:00 amBook Spine Poetry
Mar. 19th, 2026 10:31 pmAnd today, we trashed our room stacking books to make poems. We hope they amuse you!
Orchard Bees
Mar. 19th, 2026 04:02 pm
( Read more... )
Ask LLOG: "(The) OCCUPATION NAME"?
Mar. 19th, 2026 02:25 pmFrom Coby L:
I wonder if you can refer me to a discussion of the appropriateness of the very common omission of "the" when a person's name is preceded by their position or occupation and is not a title or rank (like Professor, Colonel or President). For example, linguist Mark Liberman, writer Stephen King and the like. (In The New Yorker it would almost certainly be "the linguist" etc.)
As regards titles, specifically relating to political positions and used as forms of address, the I have also wondered why some are usually preceded by Mr. or Madam (President, Speaker…) and others are not (Governor, Senator, Prime Minister…). Any insights?
I've got some thoughts and references, but I'll leave this for readers to answer first…
TIL: "Sealioning"
Mar. 19th, 2026 12:20 pmSealioning […] is a type of trolling or harassment that consists of pursuing people with relentless requests for evidence, often tangential or previously addressed, while maintaining a pretense of civility and sincerity ("I'm just trying to have a debate"), and feigning ignorance of the subject matter. It may take the form of "incessant, bad-faith invitations to engage in debate",[9] and has been likened to a denial-of-service attack targeted at human beings.[10] The term originated with a 2014 strip of the webcomic Wondermark by David Malki, which The Independent called "the most apt description of Twitter you'll ever see".
Although I'm a regular reader of David Malki's Wondermark, and interested in the taxonomy of trolling, I've somehow managed to miss this word. Here's the 9/19/2014 comic:
Wiktionary has an entry for sealioning. There's as yet no entry in Merriam-Webster's (though they list it among the Words We're Watching) or the OED.
There are more historical details in the Know Your Meme entry.
And the most recent Wondermark — "Limit Your Scream Time" — is again relevant to scrolling social media…
Interesting Links for 19-03-2026
Mar. 19th, 2026 12:00 pm- 1. Tech hobbyist makes shoulder-mounted guided missile prototype with $96 in parts and a 3D printer
- (tags:weaponry technology 3dprinting )
- 2. Kagi Translate's AI answers the question "What would horny Margaret Thatcher say?"
- (tags:language translation margaretthatcher wtf )
- 3. Ever wanted to be able to translate from English to LinkedIn? Now you can!
- (tags:language funny translation viaswampers )
- 4. Grok, explain Butlerian Jihad [ai]
- (tags:funny scifi )
- 5. Austin build new housing - rents came down
- (tags:economics housing usa )
home and energy thoughts
Mar. 19th, 2026 07:49 pm( thinky thoughts )
The (ir)reality of the MingKwai typewriter, part 2
Mar. 19th, 2026 06:03 amIn part 1 of this post, "The (ir)reality of the MingKwai typewriter" (10/17/25) and many preceding, related posts (see "Selected readings" and the links to which they lead), we saw what a boondoggle and fiasco the Chinese typewriter (especially Lin Yutang's MingKwai) was. Yet people are still glorifying and extolling the clumsy, clunky, cumbersome Chinese typewriter as though it were leading the IT revolution (when the reality is quite the contrary). So much hype and sensationalism about the retrograde Chinese typewriter!
The following bilibili video, although in Chinese, will show how complicated and expensive to replicate such a device is:
Remarks by Xinyi Ye:
I just saw this behind-the-scenes video of HTX Studio's Chinese typewriter production. In another interview video, HTX said their studio was experiencing a financial deficit last year [when they made the video attempting to replicate Lin Yutang's MingKwai]. Probably not as bad as what happened to Lin Yutang [who went bankrupt building the MingKwai], but again shows how much investment goes into doing something like this!
It behooves all those who preach the gospel of the MingKwai and related Chinese typewriters to read and take to heart the scholarly critiques in the bibliography below.
Selected readings
- "The (ir)reality of the MingKwai typewriter" (10/17/25)
- "Chinese Typewriter" (6/30/09)
- "Chinese typewriter, part 2" (4/17/11) — with memorable photos
- "The many myths about the Chinese typewriter" (9/7/25)
- "Chinese typewriter redux" (11/5/16) — this and the preceding two posts all talk about my favorite M. C. Hammer performance, "Chinese Typewriter Dance" ("U Can't Touch This")
- "Another chapter in the history of the Chinese typewriter" (8/14/21)
- "The many myths about the Chinese typewriter" (9/7/25)
- "The impact of phonetic inputting on Chinese languages" (12/9/19)
- "The Chinese Computer: Competition or Cooperation?" (3/1/26) — David Moser's lengthy critique of hypography, QWERTY, and other mistaken notions related to Chinese typing.
- "Triple review of books on characters and computers" (8/23/24) — by J. Marshall Unger
Finding Friends and Things to Do on Dreamwidth
Mar. 19th, 2026 04:35 amTogether with figuring out what to even post, one of the things that sucks about moving social media and/or blogging platforms is not knowing if there will be enough activity for you at the new place. Be it from old friends, new friends, or interactive communities, there’s a lot of ways you could find activity at a new place, but finding at least two of those categories can be tricky in itself.
Luckily, Dreamwidth has a few shortcuts for you already!
Adding new people to your reading page and finding new friends:
Newcomers' Introduction and Friending Meme: A very in-depth adding meme, hosted by
Getting started on Dreamwidth:
Things to do on Dreamwidth:
Fandom things to do on Dreamwidth:
Anything else?
Search Interests: Individuals and communities can have lists of things they’re “interested in”. If more than one person has that thing listed, it may turn into a hyperlink that you can click to find other accounts with! You can also use the Search Interests function pretty much the same way. Simply type “cats” into the search bar, hit enter, and a bunch of accounts that have “cats” listed as an interest will pop up! Click through the various tabs at the top to separate accounts out into individual users, communities, and more.
The Latest Things Page: Literally the latest things posted publicly anywhere on Dreamwidth. There’s a list of commonly used tags at the top, if you want to narrow things down at all, but in the mean time, it can be pretty neat to see what J. Random Dreamwidth User just posted about! This is about the closest Dreamwidth gets to surfing random tags on Tumblr.
The Explore Tab: Useful links for Dreamwidth in general. In addition to linking to the Latest Things Page, it can take you to a random account, the FAQ page, and more! Worth checking out if you’re feeling lost.
Most Useful Communities list, as curated by
The comments on the Newcomers' mirror of this post: People in both of these communities are pretty helpful, and that includes sharing their own suggestions in the comments! If you have something specific you're looking for, you might even ask for help here; who knows, we might just have a good lead for you! (Feel free to ask here as well!)
And that’s all I can think of at the moment! This should help you get started at least, and help fill out your reading page a bit.
Potential Future Projects We're Kicking Around
Mar. 18th, 2026 11:56 pm- Finally finishing the Reverend Alpert book, which has been stalled at around 80% completion for YEARS now
- Expanding Quick'n'Dirty Plural History into a proper paperback, because the zine sells shockingly well for such a niche subject, we have a lot more info now (though not on the newest slapfights, ha, no, we're talking older, cross-cultural stuff, and spirit marriage/headmate relationship stuff) (if you want us to wade into the hottest new plural communities on Discord or Bsky or what the fuck ever, you're going to have to pay us real money, and in ADVANCE)
- Finally kicking Rogan's ass into inking Loyal Forever, a comic that involves the muscle car beloved from Crazy Boys Get Money)
- Expanding Xenogals into a book-length thing, the Mori and Rawlin version of Alter Boys In Love (Xenogals in Love?)
Uploading Images to Dreamwidth
Mar. 19th, 2026 01:55 amDreamwidth has given all users a certain amount of image storage to use: Free users get 500 MB, Paid users get 1.5 GB, and Premium Paid users get 3 GB.
There's two ways to upload images directly to Dreamwidth.
The first option has a fair number of steps, but it's the one I know the most about and the one I'm best able to help with.
( Option One )
The second option is to post an image by email, which I have to admit I haven't tried myself yet.
For Option Two, the first thing you need to know here is that it's possible to post to Dreamwidth by email; IIRC, it was
And those are the basics of uploading images to Dreamwidth! Culturally, Dreamwidth users tend to either share larger images as a thumbnail, or to put them under a cut (Dreamwidth's "Read More"), but otherwise this should cover what you need to know.
But maybe I'm wrong about that! Feel free to ask any questions in the comments of this post, and I'll do my best to clear things up (and then edit the post to include the information). You can also check Dreamwidth's official Media FAQ and see if your question is answered there.
Books and Bytes
Mar. 18th, 2026 10:02 am( Read more... )
Interesting Links for 18-03-2026
Mar. 18th, 2026 12:00 pm- 1. Coming soon to Netflix... a movie that requires none of your attention!
- (tags:movies netflix attention video satire funny )
- 2. Everyone but Trump Understands What He's Done
- (tags:politics UK USA middle_east Ukraine Russia NATO )
- 3. Scotland's assisted dying bill rejected after emotional debate
- (tags:Scotland euthanasia )
- 4. More reports show that forcing people back to the office hurts productivity
- (tags:productivity office )
Girl Genius for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Mar. 18th, 2026 04:00 amquick hello-I'm-alive post
Mar. 17th, 2026 10:41 pmToday we went to Bright Water Bog, swung on a swing, ate some cranberries, and saw ice forming. It was sunny, but a cold wind was blowing, and a few flurries of snow came down.

(We also went to the Smith College Botanical Gardens, but this is a drive-by post! So there's only the one photo.)
(no subject)
Mar. 19th, 2026 12:29 pmMe: I take it you've never called ConEd on the phone in NYC? Because, whew, that'd disabuse you of this fiction pretty quick. Them and National Grid, wow. And I'm not even talking about their representatives, I'm talking about their recordings! Never heard such a thick NYC accent in my life, and I grew up here!
New revelations and declarations about dodecahedrons
Mar. 17th, 2026 02:09 pm[N.B.: The archeologically recovered objects, such as those described in this post, are still referred to as "Roman dodecahedron", but that is partly to distinguish them from the scientific study of such figures in chemistry, crystallography, geometry, mathematics, and so forth. Considering the most recent archeological discoveries and studies, we will have to stop calling them "Roman dodecahedron" and may well have to begin styling them "Gallo dodecahedron" or at least "Gallo-Roman dodecahedron" (see below for the reasoning).
In geometry, a dodecahedron or duodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the regular dodecahedron with regular pentagons as faces, which is a Platonic solid.
As if we hadn't spoken enough about dodecahedrons in the last few years! Problem is, most of what we said was speculation, albeit interesting and ingenious, based on little other than the objects themselves — their odd shape, the locations where they were found, etc. — but there were no contemporary texts or associated artifacts / materials that would help us understand the purpose / use of these extraordinary, uniquely shaped objects.
But now we have a truly unprecedented discovery of a dodecahedron from a secure, sealed context.
"The Norton Disney Dodecahedron" (NDD) — with close-up photographs of the object. The large, opening photograph, makes the front of the dodecahedron look like a face, with two holes for eyes on top, a knob for the nose in the middle, and one hole for the mouth at the bottom, though I'm not asserting that the makers of the NDD had that as one of their intentions.
The Norton Disney Dodecahedron
From the Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group:
We found a fantastic example of a “Gallo Roman Dodecahedron” in June 2023 One of archaeology’s great enigmas. It was found in trench 4 on our 2023 “dig” by one of our volunteers. Trench 4 had only been opened in the last few days of the excavation. No metal detector was used when it was found. As we had to close the trench shortly afterwards we needed to return in 2024 to better understand the context of this find.
There are about 32 known examples, either whole or in parts in Roman Britain. The Norton Disney example now makes 33. There are roughly 130 known examples across the Roman world. All of which are found in north west Roman provinces. The Norton Disney dodecahedron is the only example found in the Midlands and is a particularly fine example. It is well cast, complete with no damage and in an excellent condition. It is an example of very fine craftsmanship, finished to a high standard.
After it’s [recte its] discovery the dodecahedron subsequently underwent XRF analysis by leading archaeo-mettallurgist [recte metallurgist] Gerry McDonnell which revealed it is a copper alloy object. 75% copper, 7% tin and 18% lead.
It is also an important find in that it was found “in situ”, where it was deliberately placed some 1700 years before with 4th century Roman pottery in some sort of excavated hole or quarry pit. The context of which will need more archaeological excavation to clarify in 2025.
There are no known descriptions of dodecahedra in Roman literature and therefore their purpose remains extremely unclear. They are not of a standard size, so will not be measuring devices. They don’t show signs of wear, so they are not a tool. Nor are they devices for knitting. A huge amount of time, energy and skill was taken to create our dodecahedron, so it was not used for mundane purposes, especially when alternative materials are available that would achieve the same purpose. The most likely use we think is for ritual and religious purposes.
According to the Lincolnshire County Council, the Norton Disney dodecahedron, a 1,700-year-old Roman* artifact discovered in 2023, measures approximately 8 cm (3 inches) in height and is about 8.6 cm wide. It is considered one of the largest examples found, roughly the size of a grapefruit, and weighs 245–254 grams.
*VHM: The Norton Disney dodecahedron may be said to be a Roman-era artifact, but technically it is not a Roman artifact, nor are any of the known 130 +/- archeologically recovered dodecahedra Roman artifacts because such objects are not described in Roman texts and have not been found in Roman territory proper (i.e., senatorial provinces), only in the outlying provinces / colonies to the north: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, but not in the Roman heartland in Italy. They were mostly made in Gaul between the second and fourth centuries AD.
Considering all the above, it would seem that the dodecahedra were a token of Celtic culture (religion / ritual) in northwest Europe during the Late Iron Age.
At their peak in the 3rd c. BC, the Celts expanded as far east as central Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), where they settled and established the region of Galatia (the Galatians of the New Testament). They also reached the Carpathian Basin, the Danube region, Greece, the Balkans, and the Black Sea.
After its discovery in 2023, word of the NDD's discovery leaked to the public, and it was put on exhibition in a succession of local and regional museums during 2024 and up till today. Of course, the news was quite sensational, and a flood of videos (dozens that I have seen) began to emerge. Most of them were of poor quality. They would get one or two experts to say a few words about how important the NDD was, but usually nothing substantial or reliable. They were full of speculation, including the earlier claims that dodecahedra were for surveying and knitting gloves, etc., which they would splice together with stock footage of archeologists digging at the site and lots of imaginative drawings and historical illustrations that cannot realistically be linked to Gallo-Roman dodecahedra, NDD or otherwise. attendees at conferences, curators in storerooms, etc.), a few shots of reputable scientists discussing the results of their research, but mostly they had nothing directly to do with the NDD and shamelessly cribbed from each other. They were pastiches of speculation and imagination.
Here's the best of this recent spate of videos inspired by the NDD that I have seen by now (probably at least two dozen):
"Scientists Finally Solved the Roman Dodecahedron Mystery… And It Defies Human Origin" (beginning of February, 2026).
Among others, it features Marcus Webb, lead archeometallurgist at Oxford University (7:10). The narrator summarizes what Webb says (e.g., that the NDD is not Roman, but more importantly that chemical analysis points to the presence of cremated human bones in the context of calcium phosphate, amber, and rendered animal fat [a combination characteristic of funerary practices and necromantic rites in Iron Age Europe]), but we don't hear Webb himself speaking.
Yet even this relatively good documentary commits some howlers. For instance, at 10:26, Isabelle Moreau, a paleographer specializing in medieval Latin, is said to have been examining a forgotten Latin ms in a Swiss monastic archives, Codex 134 Mistair Delore (supposedly dating to the 12th century), which has a description that eerily resembles the construction and possible use of a bronze object with twelve perforated sides…. Before you jump to any conclusions, be aware that the "Latin ms" Codex 134 Mistair Delore is actually an Old Armenian Bible translation Codex Etschmiadzin held in the Cambridge University Library. I doubt that Dr. Isabelle Moreau is saying all those things about the bronze object with twelve perforated sides, and so forth, but rather that the videographer and narrator are attributing these words to her.
——–
This one is relatively decent too.
It's not worth my time or yours to mention the dozens of other videos on the dodecahedron that have popped up like mushrooms in recent months. Sooner or later, someone or some responsible group of scholars are going to have to carry out a comprehensive study of the art, archeology, history, metallurgy, and other aspects of these enchanting objects.
Meanwhile, I myself am not finished with dodecahedrons (including especially the NDD) — e.g., miniature dodecadrons strung on a necklace in Han period Southeast Asia and South China, and I will delve deeper into their association with Celtic expansion to the east in future posts.
Also, I will explore their relationship to the zodiac and the calendar (12 astronomical signs and 12 months); agriculture — when to plant; the cycle of 60 (called to my attention by Brian Pellar). A Gallo-Roman dodecahedron found in London with 3 balls per vertex means that there were 60 of them (20 x 3).
I eagerly await a proper, full, scientific, scholarly report on the WDD.
Selected readings
- "Roman dodecahedron" — WP
- "Dallas Dodecahedron Daze Days" (1/28/26) — with many references to previous posts on dodecahedra
- "Amber in the east" (1/2/26) — with lengthy bibliography
———–
I have included the following article to show just how productive the idea of a dodecahedron is, how far it reaches.
"Acetylcholine-binding protein in the hemolymph of the planorbid snail Biomphalaria glabrata is a pentagonal dodecahedron (60 subunits)"
Michael Saur 1 , Vanessa Moeller, Katharina Kapetanopoulos, Sandra Braukmann, Wolfgang Gebauer, Stefan Tenzer, Jürgen Markl
PMID: 22916297 PMCID: PMC3423370 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043685
PubMed
PLoS One
National Library of Medicine
. 2012;7(8):e43685.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043685. Epub 2012 Aug 20.
Abstract
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) play important neurophysiological roles and are of considerable medical relevance. They have been studied extensively, greatly facilitated by the gastropod acetylcholine-binding proteins (AChBP) which represent soluble structural and functional homologues of the ligand-binding domain of nAChR. All these proteins are ring-like pentamers. Here we report that AChBP exists in the hemolymph of the planorbid snail Biomphalaria glabrata (vector of the schistosomiasis parasite) as a regular pentagonal dodecahedron, 22 nm in diameter (12 pentamers, 60 active sites). We sequenced and recombinantly expressed two ∼25 kDa polypeptides (BgAChBP1 and BgAChBP2) with a specific active site, N-glycan site and disulfide bridge variation. We also provide the exon/intron structures. Recombinant BgAChBP1 formed pentamers and dodecahedra, recombinant BgAChBP2 formed pentamers and probably disulfide-bridged di-pentamers, but not dodecahedra. Three-dimensional electron cryo-microscopy (3D-EM) yielded a 3D reconstruction of the dodecahedron with a resolution of 6 Å. Homology models of the pentamers docked to the 6 Å structure revealed opportunities for chemical bonding at the inter-pentamer interfaces. Definition of the ligand-binding pocket and the gating C-loop in the 6 Å structure suggests that 3D-EM might lead to the identification of functional states in the BgAChBP dodecahedron.
[Thanks to JP Mallory, Timothy Glover, and Lucas Christopoulos]
