#nerd mode activate

[bigmammallama5]

So a thought I've been having for a few weeks now of kryptonians and mild colour blindness. Like, if they lived under a red sun, and predominantly lived there, they probably had *some* colour blindness, right?? I mean, i guess they couldve been genetically engineered for that to like. Not happen but then I'd be petitioning for them to have a wayyy wilder sense of sight and perception of colours. Anyway it also led to mild colourblind kara thoughts and her arguing with everyone about it djdjdkf

rip you just opened one of my special interest barrels and im supposed to be working LMAO

Ok honestly I've wondered about that too bc if Krypton is a red sun planet and they supposedly had flora and fauna before the war that inevitably collapsed the planet, it would be adapted to that darker "sweet spot" for life to grow. Like would the plants be darker (blacks, deep greens, purples, reds?) and would the animals and kryptonians have altered vision and metabolism to make up for the lack of light? Like would we be seeing more bioluminescence (let kara glow in the dark, it would be funny)? Would they have better low light vision and even dark vision? Would they have heightened hearing or even echolocation?

It is canon that kryptonians started growing clones of themselves to use as basically free extra parts to extend their lives during the golden age (i may be getting a few details wrong here, it's been a minute since i looked at my notes and stuff) (The reason the civil war began is bc anti-clone kryptonians wanted to prove that those bodies were real people (and they did! bodily and mental autonomy for the win!).). SO it is very plausible that there was more genetic engineering to benefit their race and their existence on this red sun planet since most of the population was using this technology as opposed to natural birth. That would make a more interesting take on Kara's senses and powers on a yellow sun planet since she was supposedly conceived in one of these tubes (kal/clark was the first kryptonian in generations to be created (lol) the "old" way bc he had the luck of his parents loving each other and not solely together for political purposes via the matricomp).

Also it would just lead to some really cool ways to play with her powers, give a different way to play with her heat vision and x-ray vision (even her hearing), and kick off a huge social media hubub when Supergirl accidentally reveals that she's weirdly color blind.

[breelandwalker]

Listening to a podcast about eroticism in saintly artwork (Pontifacts crossover special from a while back) and how loads of nobles paid to have their lovers painted naked as deities or saints and 12yo me that protested my gifted-program teacher's INSISTENCE that all Renaissance nudes were "fine art" is SCREAMING with vindication rn.

[blujayonthewing]

the thing that's weird about dnd gnomes is that they're described as rare and secretive, their communities hidden and disguised from outsiders as a form of defense

and the thing is that's all well and good, except that even by RAW dnd tends to operate on a lot of 'it's basically like now with a ye olde hat, don't worry about it too much' basis wrt to the production and distribution and availability of goods and materials, and the thing about THAT is that I'm actually usually fine with handwaving Fantasy Globalization for the sake of ease-of-use as a ttrpg backdrop EXCEPT that it's hard, at least for someone like me, to handwave past something like 'if these villages are hidden and secret then where are they getting all their stuff'

[catgirlchelicerae]

What's ur favorite horror movie?

Oh very good question, I'm kind of weak to proper horror but I'm pretty obsessed with old gory slashers. Overall my favorite is probably Scream! It's just so good overall I can't recommend enough. If you had phrased the ask "What's your favorite scary movie" as a reference to the Scream opening bit I would've had to kiss you

Hellraiser comes very close though. The gore is just so damn fun and the world building really intrigues me. It really makes me wish it had better sequels, I'm honestly tempted to read the original novel. I still had a lot of fun watching all the extremely bad sequels though

And I also need to shout out Black Christmas for being incredibly influential to the entire genre's tropes while also having a scene that genuinely made me more tense than any other slasher I've watched. It's a fun one, very worth checking out

[ofgarnett]

Caitlin blinks in pleased surprise when Charlotte’s fingers move. The muscle-memory of college evenings as President of Latin club come back to her, having learned ASL for the accessibility of all her members. She rubs a thumb against her knuckle, shakes the rust from her wrists, and signs back—slow, deliberate: I’m out of practice, forgive the lag. A rueful smile curls as she mouths, “Give me grace.”

Then — nerd-mode. It settles on her shoulders like a mantle.

“From what I’ve read,” she signs, punctuating key terms aloud for clarity, “terrain can overpower rune complexity. Old-growth root systems, peat marshes, even abandoned orchards behave like living capacitors. The lignin lattice inside century-old roots stores ambient charge the way a lithium cell hoards ions. Anchor a kinetic glyph there and it fires faster, recharges almost instantly —” she pulls out her phone then, thumbs racing, as her vocabulary outruns her signing — “but you court feedback loops. Nature dislikes debts it can’t reclaim.”

She turns the screen so Charlotte can read:

I want soil samples tbh. Iron-rich or quartz-veined soil can work a natural conductor, especially if groundwater salinity sits above 3%. Barometric swings and coastal humidity jitter rune stability; drizzle on a high-pressure front can spike discharge by twelve percent.

Add ritual history and you get imprint echoes—cumulative resonance from every chant, burn-mark, or blood-drop ever spilled on-site. Wyrmwood claims the World Tree’s echoes boost efficacy five percent. My stuff I've read says closer to two, but their ritual density is… absurd.

Caitlin’s gaze lifts, bright with curiosity. She sketches a small wave-motion in the air—water, ocean—and signs, Salt bias? “Most water witches I’ve read about show stronger coupling in brine than in freshwater. Chloride ions increase plasma conductivity; tides give them cyclic pressure gradients—free kinetic priming.” A playful shrug. “Physics loves a good rhythm.”

She pockets the phone, returns to hands for the part that matters. Caitlin Siltshore, she signs, fingers steady now. Garnett Coven. You?

Charlotte is fascinated by the woman who has taken up beside her. Most people would look at her, see the slight movements of her head, and only see a queen observing her kingdom. But Charlotte had learned to watch the eyes, the corners of the mouth. And this woman’s eyes were tearing this room apart like it had done something to wrong her, the corner of her mouth subtly twitching like a displeased, worried Mama.

She watched her gaze flick over a woman with raven black hair, a man with black curls, a woman with hair that gleamed like honey, and a tall boy in a silk suit. Charlotte knew what it was like to be a mother duck. Noted the slight nod in the woman’s head as she counted her flock. But then the woman’s gaze turned her purpose. A change only noted by a darkening in her gaze. She started to devour the foreign faction leader.

Charlotte had read up on the visiting parties before coming to the event. She knew the power of information as it had once been withheld from her grasp. Her temporary neighbour had obviously done the same. Was forming and reforming opinions in her demenour as she took in the newcomers.

Charlotte hadn’t though she was staring until the woman’s gaze quickly sliced into her. She would have stepped back if she wasn’t slightly stunned at being so suddenly perceived.

This woman spoke. Words clear with purpose. Charlotte would love to figure out the kinetic nature of Wyrmwood. Her own magic was often considered kinetic in the movement of water and the ocean. But would this inquisitive observer care to have her along for a debate.

‘I would love to learn more.’ She signed. ‘It would also be interesting to learn if given the nature of the world tree, if certain areas are better suited to their sort of runic magic than others.’

Charlotte’s magic had always been better suited to salt water than fresh water. There never seemed to be any reason behind it, other witches in her coven had similar magical tendencies. It would be interesting to learn if covens that relied on a source were similar.

Charlotte removed her pad. She was not helpless in a conversation with someone who couldn’t sign. But would this woman have her as a conversational partner.

[ashton-ryder]

Is your favorite book on space, Full Moon by Seymour Buns?

"I'd.. Google what that book even is if I still could google it, but sorry buddy you lost me there. I could lend you a really good book by Oliver Morton about the moon. It's a really good read if you wanna learn more."

[mejcinta]

HOTD Season 2 EXTENDED TRAILER MUSIC - Cover by Jeremy Brauns Music

Still thinking about the trailer.

[amalgamgooze]

the enigma of (art) blend modes, and how doing brain research taught me how to better utilize them

(DISCLAIMER--I'm not actually going in-depth on different blend modes; there's other resources for that sort of thing! Rather, I'm just planning on talking about how they've been captivating to me in the past.)

I've been working with digital art programs for quite some time now, mostly for my game development pursuits, but also more recently just for fun.

Whatever program I'm using, be it Aseprite, Krita, or Paint.net, there's always this goofy little feature referred to as "blend modes". Really, all it refers to is how new colors should be made when two colors overlap on an image--particularly from different layers.

Back when I was young and naive, those layer blend modes hardly did more than just exist. Maybe I'd pull down that drop-down menu and switch around the modes every once in a while, but this was never used to help me during the creation process.

There's something about starting to use a new art program and getting overwhelmed by all the buttons on the UI. Of course, it takes time to master those menus, but when you do, it's nothing short of rewarding.

Which brings me to one of the most interesting programs I've worked with: Fiji.

Fiji isn't an art program--it's anything but. Instead, it's open source image processing software, designed for life science related analyses.

I've had the (mis)fortune of becoming acquainted with this software through my internship. When it was introduced to me last year, it was... overwhelming, to say the least.

This is what it looks like when you open it:

Not too overwhelming yet, right? Wrong. Here's what the dropdown menu for "Analyze" looks like.

(I like how it starts with normal sounding words, before devolving into things like "Helmholtz Analysis" and "Multi Kymograph".)

If any of you are already super-mega-brain-nerds and know how to utilize all of these options, then good for you, I suppose. For the vast majority of the people who are unacquainted with neuroscience (such as myself), however, this is INCREDIBLY daunting to navigate. Imagine something just as confusing as this for the other menus.

Hell, even just importing imaging data proves labyrinthine:

Okay. I'm done fussing over how convoluted Fiji's menus are.

I've worked with them for long enough to understand them a little better, though I still couldn't tell you what half the buttons do.

...like most of the art programs I use.

Yes, I've used Paint.NET since, like, 2018. No, I still have no idea what the "Clone Stamp" button does.

(by the way, if you're still using Paint.NET yourself for art, 1. what are you doing, and 2. Krita is much better for what I needed from an art program, so I might recommend trying that out if Paint.NET is getting on your nerves!)

Anyway, loading imaging data into Fiji usually gives you a video you can pan through. Most imaging data usually either represents a z-series, t-series, or both.

A z-series is imaging done on several layers of the subject's brain at a single time point, to create a 3D stack of images with time substituting for the depth into the brain.

On the other hand, a t-series is imaging done (usually) on a single layer of the brain throughout several time points. (Data I've worked with has ranged from 15-minute-long t-series to 100-minute-long t-series.) This again creates a 3D stack, though this time, time represents, well, time. (This is how most video is stored--even if the video itself is 2-dimensional, you're still "technically" viewing 2D slices of a 3D stack--though only super-nerds call video 3D.)

A zt-series can also be imaged by making several z-series over time, which can be processed into a 4D video. (Usually, though, the slices have to be processed through software to order them properly.)

Last year, I worked with zt-series a lot. This year, however, I've got easier work--I'm just working with t-series this time, to analyze calcium activity.

They're nicer to work with, to say the least. I've worked on automating the collection of calcium activity data by comparing the minimum and maximum values of each pixel throughout the whole t-series in order to determine where there's potentially calcium activity happening.

...in fact, once you get an image of the minimum and maximum values of each pixel across the whole t-series, you then work with those images as layers and use different functions to extract a mask that shows only potential calcium activity regions.

...

So it's adjacent to blend modes in a way.

Specifically the "Multiply" and "Divide" modes.

...

It's a bit of a stretch, of course, but working with these black-and-white images has helped me better grasp what's going on under the cover when I use those same blend modes for art.

Of course, I'm not using them masterfully yet. Really, I'm just using them to add blocky-ish shading to translucent objects.

...I'd show an example, but I can't find any pictures right now.

...

Sorry about the tangent.

I just feel like somehow this contributes to the intimate interconnectivity of everything.

Art and brain research being related on a software level.

[mistermalaprop]

The Unicron Trilogy was the first ever time that Takara and Hasbro really tried to join their audiences. The American and Japanese shows and media were mostly separate up until Armada, with previous shows being lent over for redubs and stuff to fit with market expectations.

Because of it being the first attempt at that, and also doing EXTREMELY WELL (shooting Transformers back into the spotlight after almost 20 years), animation and scripts were rushed, leading to lots of weird inconsistencies and errors that we all know today. The toys sold stupid well, which put even more pressure on the studios to push more and more content out— which is why Energon is the way it is. Cybertron was just the breaking point, and afterwards, it dwindled until the movies/Animated came out.

The story with the trilogy’s production is just.. so interesting! The Unicron era is an extremely good story about success and suffering from it.

@andorian-from-walmart says that Screamer apparently returns in Cybertron

So

Yay :D

(Not gonna tell my dad that he hates spoilers)

Also they said that Starscream is cunty. I'm. Going to assume that's his personality cause he does not look cunty. Looks easier to draw, tho, I can't explain it.

Yeah so here’s the thing with Cybertron/Galaxy Force—

The original show was a reboot— it wasn’t meant to be a reboot initially, but the new animation/production team did a fucky-wucky and everyone had to deal with the animation now. The Japanese version went ahead with the reboot to my knowledge, but the English version tried to, uh, reconnect it to the rest of the shows. Whether or not it did it good, that’s for everyone else to decide, but they did their best.

Starscream in Cybertron is definitely a cunty ass bitch. There’s lore reasons, but just think of him as his G1 counterpart but with competence and more power.

Just.. suspend disbelief for Energon, okay?

[crazydiscostu]

Tozo OpenEgo Earbuds

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[bexisanidiot]

I randomly remembered that being malnourished especially at a young age can effect your height so realistically Mantis would be shorter (or way shorter even) than 6 foot but since he's 6'2 that would mean that Bee either kept shoving food down his throat or he would've been way taller if he wasn't so malnourished. Or both

There is also a possibility that Bee probably HAD to get a surgery done that made her stop growing. So she could've been taller naturally. But it did have to be done cuz there's a certain point where your body can't handle being that tall. Like for example the world's tallest man had to use a cane to walk, being extremely tall leads to heart problems and probably can't get a lot of blood flowing everywhere.

[breelandwalker]

Just heard a friend referring to PCs blowing their in-game cover as "breaking kayfabe" and as a pro wrestling fan, I have never been more proud of a friend. 😆

[thesubjunctivemood]

currently reading: translations by brial friel

currently listening to: paris paloma

currently obsessing over: what i would look like in dnd

currently feeling: i need a break but it'll be ok in 3 days' time

[gallowsheart]

🍺

Lilah — if you had the option to go live out the rest of your life in a fantasy world of your choosing, would you? And if so - where?

"Is that… is that a real question? Yes, I would love to! It's so hard to pick a favorite, but… Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to live in the castle in Labyrinth and go to a masquerade party like the one in Sarah's dream. I just loved the costumes and the characters and the magic so much. It's kind of dark too, I guess? Which I didn't really realize as a kid, but now I think it's part of what makes the story better."

[breelandwalker]

PRO WRESTLE NERD MODE ACTIVATE.

Y'all. They care. SO MUCH.

There is SO much that goes into these matches and whatever you see in the ring and whatever beef people might have personally, they all have a vested interest in keeping each other safe and preventing injuries wherever possible. Accidents happen all the time, but if you're in the ring with someone, you're responsible for their safety as much as your own.

Wrestlers will literally beat each other bloody, drag each other across barbed wire, cuss each other out six ways to Sunday, and STILL make sure to catch the other person when they come sailing through the ropes or diving off the top turnbuckle.

There's a whole language of squeezes, taps, signals, and check-ins that get used to ensure safety and communicate when the cameras are on. (See Also: Kayfabe.)

Also, the more hardcore the match, the more the people in it have to be willing to trust each other. So if you see a Texas Death Match where somebody gets suplexed into broken glass, clotheslined onto a bed of nails, and literally hung over the top rope WITH A FUCKING CHAIN......that's a lot of trust. (AEW All-In, July 2025)

There's a very special sort of bond that develops when you're regularly putting your life in your coworker's hands.

(Also AEW is a fucking amazing company and their shows do not miss.)

interlocking fingers during the pin. holding hands during the pin. is driving me insane

[cantevenbeachhere]

I got some books that I’m really excited about and I got a pair of knee length boots that are so amazing! They were a surprise and I love them!

Ooh! Books and boots! What an epic combo! You must be like a nerd with style, aren’t you? That’s so awesome, I’m excited for you!

Gift you got that makes you happy?