#umakshually

[unfathomablenihlist]

I think this design is really cool and visually striking! But as a bio girlie, I have some design notes that might help with future fauna concepts.

The dorsal fins are noted above as aiding in collecting heat and sunlight (specifically UV), but everything about their design prevents this! Thin fans with high ratios of surface area to volume absolutely tank attempts to conserve heat. Structures like that exist in desert fauna to do precisely the opposite of what's intended here: radiating as much heat as possible to keep the animal cool. You can see this when you compare foxes that live in the arctic to desert dwellers. The Fennec fox lives in the sahara and has got these big adorable bunny ears, while their arctic fox counterparts have these tiny little nubs. If the helioceros is at all concerned with maintaining body temperature, you would expect nature to strongly select against structures like those fins.

Further, the fins and skin tone are entirely the wrong color for light collection! The pine trees in the background are that striking dark color for good reason! Chlorophyll on earth looks green because it absorbs lots of blue and red light and reflects a lot of yellow and green. The color of an object depends mostly on all the wavelengths of light its not absorbing. Black objects absorb just about everything, while white and transparent objects absorb just about nothing. If a major source of calories for the helioceros is photosynthesis, you would expect it to be the same color as the trees behind it. You would also expect it's main light collection organs to look a lot like the pine needles on those trees: small, dark and waxy. Those pine needles are specialized to trap water, resist cold temperatures and absorb as much of the sparing arctic sunlight as possible!

White coloration like that is an expensive adaptation! Especially in cold climates where every bit of sunlight is precious. Looking like the winter snow is only useful for animals who need to hide from predators or unsuspecting prey. In tundra biomes, you'll often see seasonal changes in coat coloration specifically for this reason! The arctic fox is once again a great example of this.

If I were visiting an alien planet and I saw the sight you've drawn, I would assume that this animal was a large male herbivore who's primary concern was reaching nutritious nuts/leaves in a taiga that experiences big seasonal changes in temperature. I would think that the helioceros' coat coloration and fins served only as a mating display, as they'd make winter survival harder. Maybe when the snow starts to fall, all the veins running through the fans close up and they become something akin to big flexible horns or finger nails. Females shed them early and the males keep them in this colorful dead state to show how healthy and breedable they are. When mating season ends, the fans fall off and then regrow in the hot season to help with regulating body temperature. I wouldn't expect this guy to photosynthesize, not only because he'd be hard pressed to get enough nutrition to support a big moving body, but also because the coloration doesn't support it. If he was an autotroph, or not a male-esque reproductive variant, and DID use those fans to conserve heat, I'd probably sue the UT bio department for educating me wrong as a joke.

In any respect, this critter looks really cool and you have a lot of technical ability for spec bio illustration! Thank you for sharing this big cool fellah.~

Here's my entry for the spectacular #Refugium2024 contest, arranged by @simon-roy on the occasion of his comic Kickstarter!

Because there were five different clades to choose from, I ultimately picked the photosynthetic "pentaped". It wasn't my first choice, though, as I love the idea of the crustacean-like "skilloids", but the five-legged plant animals seemed like they could be a hell of a challenge. So here is the Helioceros (aka Cherubic Pentaped), an alpine species that stores and uses sunlight as an energy source and for displaying behavior.

Hope you like it! And hey, do not forget to support the Refugium comic! Not every day do we come across projects as cool as this!

[petit-papillion]

https://x.com/umakshually/status/1805276456630600069?t=jTDvNxv2CitinNWi_-8KhA&s=19

It seems like there was some damage of charles front wing after all

Even if it's minor, people are accusing charles of lying when he's not

It is just a winglet from the endplate, and he drove Silverstone 2022 without the entire endplate, so not sure whether it made the difference or not, but he did indeed not lie about it.

Charles did acknowledge to Sky Sports that the damage was minor, but also pointed out that every bit matters when you end up finishing so close to the driver in front of you.

Brookes [Sky F1]: "Early on in the race, you were with Carlos, you didn't see that track. Were you happy?"

Charles: "No, no, I wasn't, and I'm not, but it's okay. I mean, we'll have a discussion, obviously. We discussed before the race that it was the part of the race where we had to both manage the tyres as much as possible. We know how much turn 14 is important to do that, so I did, but frankly Carlos wasn’t [managing the tyres] in the last corner and took that opportunity to overtake which is a shame, because that puts us on the back foot and it damaged my front wing for the rest of the race. It was a small damage, but everything makes a difference, and when you see how close we are from George at the end, it’s a shame, but it’s like this. We’ll have a discussion inside the team, and I’m sure that it will be fine for the next race.”

Transcription: JunaidSamodien_ / CLeclercFansUK

It seems that now there is more finger-pointing at Charles that he should've known better than to fight Carlos, that he should just have gotten out of Carlos's way, and oh yeah, we also have the return of the old favourite that Charles is "emotional" (this time courtesy of Peter Windsor)...

[charles-leclerc-official]

https://x.com/umakshually/status/1835334373895291182

i will not rest until those illegal orange cars are laid to rest

In 2008 Ferrari should have pushed for a higher penalizing fine to bankrupt the whole team.

[petit-papillion]

I'm legitimately confused about the Carlos tires post. I don't have a dog the fight, I'm just trying to understand it from a technical protective. People in the tags are saying that the graph makes it so obvious that Carlos not gradually wearing in his tires at the beginning of the stint cost him at the end of the stint. All I see though is that the lap times for both Charles and Carlos get slightly higher as the stint progresses at a pretty similar rate. What am I missing? Does Carlos' line end because he pitted (I don't remember how that played out)? Even if that's the case, his lap times didn't seem much slower than Charles' at that time, so it seems like there's something I don't understand. Am I having a moment and missing something obvious? Thanks in advance for any insight you or any or your followers can provide!

Hi Dancing-on-inters!

Here is the graph in question (by umakshually) for reference:

You can see in Lap 2 that LEC is lapping slower (red line above the 1:21:250 mark), while SAI is pushing (white line just below 1:20 mark). Zach Brown was pointing out that the tyres need to be gently brought up to temperature or they will not last long, and that SAI was pushing hard in the last turn (T14) on Lap 2 to set up his overtake on LEC on Lap 3.

Brandon (@brakeboosted) posted a graph of Lap 3 Turn 14 and it shows LEC (red) using less throttle and racing at a slower speed than SAI (white):

Back to the first graph: Compare the white straight line (SAI) to the red line (LEC). The steeper white line shows how SAI dropped off a lot quicker than LEC. SAI: 0:01:00 over 13 laps, vs. LEC: 0:00:45 over 22 laps.

The hard push SAI did in those initial stages led to his tyres degrading faster, and him having to pit a lot sooner (after 15 laps, versus LEC after 24).

Note: only Alex Albon did a longer stint on Soft tyres (26 vs. Charles's 24), but with a lower fuel load as it was his middle stint.

📷umakshually / brakeboosted / pirellisport