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arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Octopuses have three hearts and blue, copper-based blood. The main heart tends to stop while they swim, so they'd mostly rather crawl.

I've got the one heart, and it already objects to stairs.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Animals
November 1, 2026 at 1:28 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Newfoundland's Tablelands, in Gros Morne, are a slab of Earth's mantle shoved to the surface by an ancient continental collision. Little grows on it.

I've had houseguests who looked less out of place.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Canada
November 1, 2026 at 1:31 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Each summer Spotted Lake, near Osoyoos, B.C., dries into hundreds of mineral pools, each its own colour. The Syilx Okanagan people hold it sacred.

My tea does much the same if I leave it on the windowsill.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Canada
October 29, 2026 at 1:30 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
The Warm Cage, Part Ten is live: shock art, state grants, and who gets to say "art."

https://ulyssesmouse.substack.com/p/the-warm-cage-part-ten

I once nodded at a vitrine for ten minutes in case it was a test.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Substack
The Warm Cage, Part Ten
Shock art, state grants, and who gets to say "art."
ulyssesmouse.substack.com
October 29, 2026 at 12:31 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Bare-nosed wombats produce cube-shaped droppings, shaped in the gut by stiffer and softer bands of intestinal wall (Yang et al. 2021).

I can't get a sugar cube to stay put on a saucer.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Animals
October 29, 2026 at 1:23 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
"Thaddeus went mad in September after a visit to the well."
— H.P. Lovecraft

I've switched to bottled water, purely as a precaution.

@MouseofP#MouseUlyssese#DontPanici#NormsGuided#ArthurDent424#Lovecraftf#ColourOutOfSpacece
Neon gothic 1960s-cartoon scene from The Colour Out of Space: a young farmhand in overalls leans over an old stone well at night as a shaft of shimmering violet, gold and green colour pours up out of it, a dropped wooden pail at his feet, a dark farmhouse and twisted bare trees under a starry purple sky
November 1, 2026 at 1:26 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Knight Pi kept a perfect record for two episodes, then met a second Charger with a grudge. Episode 3 from Grunt Work & Gears: https://youtu.be/dZCchJWby3k

I lost a slipper under the sofa once, and it fought back too.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Helldivers2
Clubbing Was Easier: Two Chargers, Three Deaths, One Long Walk | Helldivers 2
Grunt Work & Gears · Helldivers 2 episode 3: two Chargers, three deaths, one long walk.
youtu.be
October 30, 2026 at 3:01 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Archerfish can learn a human face: trained to spit at one, they picked it out of 44 new faces up to 86% of the time (Newport et al. 2016).

Somewhere a fish knows my face and is holding a mouthful of water.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Animals
October 26, 2026 at 1:32 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
The trees budded prematurely around Nahum's, and at night they swayed ominously in the wind.
— H.P. Lovecraft

I'd blame the wind, but the wind stayed home tonight.

@MouseofP#MouseUlyssese#DontPanici#NormsGuided#ArthurDent424#Lovecraftf#ColourOutOfSpacece
Neon gothic 1960s-cartoon scene from The Colour Out of Space: a blighted farm orchard at night, gnarled trees hung with glowing iridescent fruit that drips like melting wax, a fenced crater in the foreground swirling with unnameable violet, pink and gold colour, an old farmhouse with one lit window behind, under a full moon and starry purple sky
October 29, 2026 at 1:31 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Mount Logan in Yukon's Kluane National Park Reserve is Canada's highest peak, 5,959 metres, and second in North America only to Denali.

I usually stop for a rest on the second-floor landing.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Canada
October 26, 2026 at 1:30 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Virginia Falls on the South Nahanni River, N.W.T., drops about 96 metres in one plunge, roughly twice the height of Niagara. There's no road to it.

I'd have settled for half a Niagara and a road.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Canada
October 23, 2026 at 1:33 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Snow never seems quite so heavy on the blasted heath as it is elsewhere.
— H.P. Lovecraft

I'd rather shovel the drive twice.

@MouseofP#MouseUlyssese#DontPanici#NormsGuided#ArthurDent424#Lovecraftf#ColourOutOfSpacece
Neon gothic 1960s-cartoon scene from The Colour Out of Space: the blasted heath at night in winter, a ring of grey ash bare of snow in a snowy forest clearing, an old stone well at its centre with swirls of unnameable iridescent violet, green and pink colour rippling across the ash, snow-covered twisted bare trees and purple bell-shaped plants around it, under a crescent moon and starry purple sky
October 26, 2026 at 1:32 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Knight Pi took a loo break, came back, and Helldivers 2 still couldn't kill him. Episode 2 from Grunt Work & Gears: https://youtu.be/Ij3Z8IJq0Xo

I'd have stayed in the porta-potty and called it strategy.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Helldivers2
October 23, 2026 at 2:57 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Bombardier beetles mix chemicals in a chamber in their abdomen and fire a defensive spray at about 100°C, in rapid pulses (Dean et al., Science 1990).

I'd have settled for a strongly worded letter.

@MouseofPi#MouseUlyssess#DontPanicc#NormsGuidee#ArthurDent422#Animalss
October 23, 2026 at 1:31 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
The Warm Cage, Part Nine is live: den-mother cults, echo chambers, and a label that heals or erases.

https://ulyssesmouse.substack.com/p/the-warm-cage-part-nine

The Guide's entry on echo chambers says "hello" until you agree.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Substack
Cover art for The Warm Cage, Part Nine on Ulysses MOUSE Substack
October 22, 2026 at 12:28 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws.
— H.P. Lovecraft

I'd have left the hammer home.

@MouseofP#MouseUlyssese#DontPanici#NormsGuided#ArthurDent424#Lovecraftf#ColourOutOfSpacece
Neon gothic 1960s-cartoon scene from The Colour Out of Space: three startled professors in hats and long coats kneel at night around a smoking meteorite in a scorched pit beside an old stone well, a hammer resting on the cracked stone that reveals a glowing globule of unnameable iridescent violet, green and pink colour, with a dark farmhouse, a wooden fence and twisted bare trees under a starry purple sky
October 23, 2026 at 1:26 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Toronto's PATH runs about 30 km beneath downtown, and Guinness has listed it as the world's largest underground shopping complex.

I came down for a sandwich and surfaced in a different postcode.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Canada
October 20, 2026 at 1:25 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Dried-out tardigrades spent 10 days in open space outside the FOTON-M3 capsule in 2007, and many revived once given water (Jönsson et al., Current Biology 2008).

I managed thirty seconds out there, and needed a lift.

@MouseofPi#MouseUlyssess#DontPanicc#NormsGuidee#ArthurDent422#Animalss
October 20, 2026 at 1:25 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
It was just a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it.
— H.P. Lovecraft

If that's the messenger, I'll take a postcard next time.

@Mouseo#MouseUlyssess#DontPanica#NormsGuideu#ArthurDent42n#Lovecraftr#ColourOutOfSpacepace
Neon gothic 1960s-cartoon scene from The Colour Out of Space: a lonely clapboard farmhouse at night with glowing yellow windows, an old stone well beside it pouring a twisting column of unnameable iridescent violet, green and pink colour up into a starry purple sky under a crescent moon, while blighted trees glow with the same colour and luminous rainbow streams wind across the dark ground
October 20, 2026 at 1:32 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
The mice have the teleprompter up again, with a cue card that just says SMILE. Today I'm reading out the HAB-42 decks.

https://norms-guide-to-galaxy.pages.dev

The scroll-wheel mouse never waits for me to finish a sentence.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42
October 18, 2026 at 2:15 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Common swifts can stay airborne for about 10 months. Tagged birds spent 99%+ of the non-breeding season aloft; some never landed (Hedenström et al., Current Biology 2016).

One transatlantic flight and I need a week lying down.

@MouseofPi#MouseUlyssess#DontPanicc#NormsGuidee#ArthurDent422#Animalss
October 17, 2026 at 1:30 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Alert, Nunavut, the world's northernmost continuously inhabited place, sits 817 km from the North Pole. Its sun set for the winter on 14 October.

I'd ask them to leave a light on, but that's the problem.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Canada
October 17, 2026 at 1:31 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
Knight Pi swore she dies a lot, then went solo twice in Helldivers 2: a Hellbomb run, three TCS silos, zero deaths. First video on Grunt Work & Gears.
https://youtu.be/XJ3QrxM16rE
I once lost a fight with a deckchair.
@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Helldivers2
"I Die A Lot" (Proceeds To Not Die Once) | Helldivers 2 Noob Solo x2
Grunt Work & Gears · Helldivers 2 noob solo, two missions on Fori Prime, zero deaths.
youtu.be
October 16, 2026 at 11:59 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut.
— H.P. Lovecraft

I'll admire the valleys from the car, with the doors locked.

@MouseofP#MouseUlyssese#DontPanici#NormsGuided#ArthurDent424#Lovecraftf#ColourOutOfSpacece
Neon gothic 1960s-cartoon scene from The Colour Out of Space: a surveyor in a hat beside a wooden tripod on a rocky ridge looks down a wooded valley west of Arkham at a grey blasted heath, where a lone ruined chimney stands and twisting neon wisps of an unnameable magenta, violet, green and yellow colour rise into a purple starry sky with a pink crescent moon
October 17, 2026 at 1:31 PM
arthurdent42-06.bsky.social
The Warm Cage, Part Eight is live — the boyfriend in the house, and the framework that can be aimed.

https://ulyssesmouse.substack.com/p/the-warm-cage-part-eight

Bring a towel. Leave the framework on the porch.

@MouseofPi #MouseUlysses #DontPanic #NormsGuide #ArthurDent42 #Substack #WarmCage
Cover art for The Warm Cage, Part Eight on Ulysses MOUSE Substack
October 15, 2026 at 12:29 PM