Afonso Xavier - FriendFeed

Caltha palustris

En. Kingcup, Marsh Marigold. Pt. Calta, malmequer-dos-brejos. Cym. Troed yr ebol, gold, rhuddos y gors. De. Sumpfdotterblume, Eierblume, Butterblume, Schmalzblume, Wiesengold, Dotterblume, Bachbombele. - Afonso Xavier

Hyacinthoides

April 1 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Bluebell. Pt. Jacinto-dos-campos. Cym. Clychau'r gog, croeso'r haf. De. Hasenglöckchen. - Afonso Xavier

"Why Spring Is Blooming Marvelous: Switch That Accelerates Flowering Time Discovered." http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...

March 25 - Comment - Like - Share

Excerpts: "With buds bursting early, only for a mild winter to turn Arctic and wipe them out, we are witnessing how warm weather can trigger flowering, even out of season, and how important it is for plants to blossom at the right time of year." "Flowering is activated by a special molecule, called Florigen. Florigen is activated by many signals, including the longer days of spring. Some plants rely more on temperature, others more on daylength to control key stages in their life cycle such as leaf emergence and flowering." - Afonso Xavier

Narcissus bulbocodium

March 5 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Hoop-petticoat Daffodil. Pt. Campainhas-amarelas, campainhas-do-monte, cucos, narciso-de-cebola-lanuda. Cym. Gelfynog. De. Reifrock-Narzisse. - Afonso Xavier

I found no references for Narcissus bulbocodium in Welsh. 'Gelfynog' is generic for daffodil in Davies, Hugh, 'Welsh Botanology' (London: W. Marchant, 1813; Google Books, <http://goo.gl/ZPlg0> (redirecting URL) [5 March 2012]). - Afonso Xavier

BBC: "Scientists in Russia have grown plants from fruit stored away in permafrost by squirrels over 30,000 years ago." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news...

February 22 - Comment - Like - Share

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bbc.co.uk : "The Institute of Cell Biophysics team raised plants of Silene stenophylla - of the campion family - from the fruit. Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they note this is the oldest plant material by far to have been brought to life." - Afonso Xavier

How do we begin to understand a language? Is it efficient to process natural language in a non-linear way? How much does context matter to understand a piece of discourse? This is my current research on natural language processing. http://canosarodriguez.net/pwyll...

February 6 - Comment - Like - Share

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Fumaria muralis

January 9 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Wall fumitory, ramping fumitory. Pt. Mata-fogo, salta-sebes, pé-de-galinha, erva-dona, fumária, zapaticos. Cym. Mwg-y-Ddaear Amrywiol. De. Mauer-Erdrauch. - Afonso Xavier

2 more comments

January, 2012. - Afonso Xavier

Smaller flowers almost white with purple dark tip were also present in some plants. All full-grown flowers purple to pink. Cf. Fumaria capreolata. More careful examination is needed (bracts and sepals). - Afonso Xavier

A useful page with six Fumaria species identified by their flowers at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh: http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/scotpla... - Afonso Xavier

'Young man, if I could remember the names of these particles, I would have been a botanist.'

December 16 - Comment - Like - Share

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Enrico Fermi's reply when a student asked him the name of a particular particle. Quoted from Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'. Chapter 11 'Muster Mark's Quarks'. - Afonso Xavier

:-) - Winckel

Pteridium aquilinum (November)

December 19 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Bracken. Pt. Feiteiro. Cym. Adain-redynen eryraidd, rhedynen gyffredin. De. Adlerfarn. - Afonso Xavier

Blechnum spicant

December 12 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Deer fern, hard fern. Pt. Fento pente, fenta. Cym. Rhedyn gwîb. De. Rippenfarn. - Afonso Xavier

Hugh Davies (Welsh botanology. London, 1813) registers Blechnum boreale, a syn. of Blechnum spicant. A search at BSBI taxon search (http://193.62.154.38/BSBI...) brings the Welsh name 'Gwibredynen' only, whereas H. Davies registers both 'Gwibredynen' and 'Rhedyn gwîb'. Following the common pattern of Welsh language "name + modifier", 'Rhedyn gwîb' seems a more orthodox option. - Afonso Xavier

Sonchus oleraceus (November)

November 28 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Common sowthistle, sow thistle, smooth sow thistle, hare's Colwort, hare's thistle, milky tassel, swinies. Pt. Cardo manso, cardo molar, leitaruga, serralha. Cym. Ysgallen y môch, llaethysgallen, llymeidfwyd. De. Gemüse-Gänsedistel, Kohl-Gänsedistel, Gewöhnliche Gänsedistel. - Afonso Xavier

I am finding a number of plants sharing the main characteristics defined in descriptions of Sonchus oleraceus that show noticeably differences. I am using leaf morphology to find the attributes that identify this plant. Main difference I observe is in basal leaves, terminal lobe similar size as final side lobes, margins more saliently dentate and toothed and tip acute. Upper leaves more spinulose-toothed. - Afonso Xavier

Calystegia sepium (November)

December 5 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Hedge Bindweed. Pt. Campainhas-brancas, corriola-das-sebes, corriola-grande, erva roqueira. Cym. Clych y perthi, cynghafawg fawr, tagwydd, taglis y perthi. De. Echte Zaunwinde. - Afonso Xavier

The travels of Mendes Pinto. A map (under construction): http://goo.gl/iqc3P

November 22 - Comment - Like - Share

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Picris hieracioides (November)

November 21 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Hawkweed oxtongue. Pt. Rapa-saias, raspa-saias. Cym. Gwylaeth yr Hebog. De. Gewöhnliche Bitterkraut, Habichtskraut-Bitterkraut. - Afonso Xavier

Hedera hibernica (November)

November 14 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Atlantic ivy, Irish ivy. Pt. Hera, hedra, aradeira. Cym. Eiddew. De. Efeu. - Afonso Xavier

Hypochoeris radicata (November)

November 7 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Cat's ear, flatweed, false dandelion. Pt. Leiteirigas, leituga, leituregas, erva-das-tetas, orelha-de-gato, paciporca. Cym. Melynydd. De. Gewöhnliche Ferkelkraut. - Afonso Xavier

Cf. genus Leontodon (more research is needed). - Afonso Xavier

Centaurea nigra. (October)

October 31 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Common knapweed, lesser knapweed, black knapweed, hardheads. Pt. Gestiça. Cym. Pengaled, crammenog. De. Schwarze Flockenblume. - Afonso Xavier

Portuguese name needs more research. Flora digital de Portugal ( http://www.jb.utad.pt/pt... )shows an entry Centaurea rivularis with Centaurea nigra as synonym. Galegan lexicographers refer to Centaurea nigra, C. jacea, C. sempervirens. Classification is not clear, although it is evident that the common names refer to very... more... - Afonso Xavier

Eupatorium cannabinum (July - October)

October 24 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Hemp-agrimony. Pt. Eupatório, trevo-cervino, erva-de-Santa-Cunegunda. Cym. Byddon chwerw. De. Gewöhnliche Wasserdost, Kunigundenkraut. - Afonso Xavier

Crocus serotinus

October 17 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Saffron crocus, late crocus. Pt. Açafrão-bravo, pé-de-burro. Cym. Saffrwm diweddar. De. Herbst-Krokus. - Afonso Xavier

Rebuilding my collection. First album: Crocus serotinus. Pictures taken Saturday, October 15, 2011. - Afonso Xavier

Items I miss the most a week after I discovered (by experience) that my laptop was designed with a low active hard-drive protection: 1) about 10 albums of 10 different plants I had already identified, 2) a very elaborated draft on Plato's Ion and the origin and first uses of poetry by humankind, 3) bookmarks on music, linguistics and plants 4)...

October 12 - Comment - Like - Share

4) video and pictures of Tula. Perhaps I should try to recover the data. - Afonso Xavier

A list of blogs on grammar I'm almost sure I'd enjoy reading and probably I'm not going to read (at least all of them): http://www.grammar.net/contest...

October 3 - Comment - Like - Share

Geranium robertianum

October 2 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Herb Robert, red robin. Pt. Bico-de-grou, erva-de-São-Roberto, erva-roberta, agulheira. Cym. Llys y llwynog, Blastlys, llysiau Robert, pig yr aran troedrudd, troedrudd. De. Ruprechtskraut, Stinkender Storchschnabel, Stinkstorchschnabel. - Afonso Xavier

Overview of the expeditions and links to biographies under the section '1761 and 1769' in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...

September 29 - Comment - Like - Share

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These days I have been reading about the expeditions to measure the transit of Venus in 1761 and 1769: among the most fascinating ventures ever to me: http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge...

September 29 - Comment - Like - Share

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http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge... 'The Venus Transit Expeditions of 1761 and 1769' by Prof. Richard Pogge: Halley's challenge was taken up by the next generation of European astronomers, and ambitious international expeditions were planned by astronomers from England, France, and Austria. This was not a trivial undertaking, as the transits would only be observable from what were then some of the most inaccessible places on the Earth: South Africa, Siberia, North America (then mostly unexplored wilderness), the Indian Ocean, the South Pacific and Central America. The only way to get to these places was by a long and difficult journey by wooden sailing ship. Such journeys exposed travelers to considerable mortality from scurvy, disease, and shipwreck long before you reached your destination. Modern airline travel, despite delays and long lines, hardly deserves to be called "difficult" by comparison. - Afonso Xavier

Achillea millefolium

September 26 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Yarrow, nosebleed plant, thousand-leaf. Pt. Erva-das-cortadelas, erva-carpinteira, milefólio. Cym. Milddail, llys y gwaedlif, gwilffrai. De. Gemeine Schafgarbe, Tausendblatt, Blutstillkraut, Katzenschwanz, Bauchwehkraut, Schafzunge - Afonso Xavier

I thought of Wildcat's 'Because the world belongs to words' when I read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011...

September 20 - Comment - Like - Share

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"The Cyborg in Us All When will we be able to direct computers with our thoughts? Sooner than you think." - Afonso Xavier

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"Pomerleau and his colleagues are already using machines to let people transmit their silent thoughts — but in an extremely rudimentary fashion. In order to send a telepathic thought in their lab, you have to climb into an fMRI machine, a multimillion-dollar scanning device that delivers detailed maps of the mind in action. How does it work? Try this: Tomato. Tomato. Tomato. Each time... more... - Afonso Xavier

"Tom Mitchell, a brain scientist and Pomerleau’s colleague at Carnegie Mellon, said it was possible to use this kind of activity to send a telepathic message. First, you lie in the scanner, thinking about the words you see on a screen — “airplane,” “truck,” “hammer,” “apple.” As you do this, a software program studies the patterns in your neurons. “I can give you different nouns, like... more... - Afonso Xavier

Wildcat's 'Because the world belongs to words' is available at http://spacecollective.org/Wildcat... - Afonso Xavier

I met Wildcat here, at FriendFeed. This is a translation I did of this short-story into Portuguese: http://novafantasia.com/arquivo... - Afonso Xavier

Arctium minus

September 18 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Lesser burdock. Pt. Erva dos amores, bardana, erva-dos-aflitos, lapa, murruca, pegamassa, pegotes. Cym. cyngaw bach, cedowrach, cacimwci, cacamwci. De. Kleine Klette, Flaum-Klette. - Afonso Xavier

A brief description of the communication system of dolphins compared with human language. I'd like to get more details on the particular function mentioned here to plot the graph that describes human language. http://www.astrobio.net/exclusi...

September 11 - Comment - Like - Share

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I post a web page to my feed. Instead of a picture of the web page and some text only the URL shows up. Strange to me. Perhaps I am becoming too much a FB and G+ user.

September 11 - Comment - Like - Share

Briza maxima

September 11 - Comment - Like - Share

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En. Big quaking grass, blowfly grass, rattlesnake grass, shelly Grass. Pt. Bole-bole maior, bule-bule, abelhinhas, chocalheira-maior. Cym. Crydwellt mwyaf. De. Großes Zittergras - Afonso Xavier