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ATTENTION there are hummingbird species called pufflegs and they are all wearing very silly pants and that’s their defining trait

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There's this sort of anthropomorphizing that inherently happens in language that really gets me sometimes. I'm still not over the terminology of "gravity assist," the technique where we launch satellites into the orbit of other planets so that we can build momentum via the astounding and literally astronomical strength of their gravitational forces, to "slingshot" them into the direction we need with a speed that we could never, ever, ever create ourselves. I mean, some of these slingshots easily get probes hurtling through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Wikipedia has a handy diagram of the Voyager 1 satellite doing such a thing.

"Gravity assist." "Slingshot." Of course, on a very basic and objective level, yes, we are taking advantage of forces generated by outside objects to specifically help in our goals. We're getting help from objects in the same way a river can power a mill. And of course we call it a "slingshot," because the motion is very similar (mentally at least; I can't be sure about the exact physics).

Plus, especially compared to the other sciences, the terminology for astrophysics is like, really straightforward. "Black hole?" Damn yeah it sure is. "Big bang?" It sure was. "Galactic cluster?" Buddy you're never gonna guess what this is. I think it's an effect of the fact that language is generally developed for life on earth and all the strange variances that happen on its surface, that applying it to something as alien and vast as space, general terms tend to suffice very well in a lot more places than, like... idk, botany.

But, like. "Gravity assist." I still can't get the notion out of my head that such language implies us receiving active help from our celestial neighbors. They come to our aid. We are working together. We are assisted. Jupiter and the other planets saw our little messengers coming from its pale blue molecular cousin, and we set up the physics just right, so that they could help us send them out to far stranger places than this, to tell us all about what they find out there.

We are assisted.

And there is no better way to illustrate my feelings on the matter than to just show you guys one of my favorite paintings, this 1973 NASA art by Rick Guidice to show the Pioneer probe doing this exact thing:

"... You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. ..."

Gravity assist.

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i started a comic yesterday for bad comics day and then didn't finish it. in the spirit of bad comics day i'm posting it unfinished anyway

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This remains, to me, the most poignant Les Misérables quote

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absolutely delighted by the vision of Leslie as an old guard Catholic Worker-style pacifist. I know my girl had to attach about 30 extra pages of character testimonies when she went up for her medical license because she had a felony conviction for chaining herself to the gates of an air force base in the 60s. every six months she has a crisis of faith about whether she's enabling violence by continuing to serve as Bruce's doctor but also who else is going to tell him off? in my beautiful dream she lives in a brownstone with five other middle-aged to elderly activists one of whom is really dedicated to protest puppetry.

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leslie and alfred are united in guilt but i think they also should have a beef of the kind only a catholic pacifist anarchocommunist and an old conservative protestant british monarchist who used to serve in MI6 can have

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For all your heatwave needs

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(absolute martian manhunter #4)

this is in fact how it feels the past few days yes

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remembered we have absolute martian manhunter today

(photo by bigwavephoto)

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Hi! I'm sorry for using your reaction image without crediting you. I read the post where you shared it and thought it was hysterical and saved it and couldn't remember your url. In any case, thanks for making that image it fucks severely

oh absolutely do not worry about it it made my night to see it living free range out in the wild! I made that thing seven years ago using a free image macro program whose name I've entirely forgotten. I don't even know who the woman is (people on that post keep saying someone from gossip girl? sure I'll believe that.) use it wherever you want!

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Everytime I see people ask stuff that's in the faq this image pops up in my head

god.....this is going through my head constantly.....

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My manager was like. "I found the best video on YouTube" and I said "oh?" And he said it's called "one hour of silence periodically interrupted by the sound of a metal pole clanking" and proceeded to play it

Every time the pole clanks he spooks like a wild horse and keeps getting more and more frustrated

We are about 20 minutes in and he's like "god I can't wait for this to be over" refusing to turn it off

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happy terrible comic day to us all. our little cat is SO warm and so am I. come draw a comic on your phone with me

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my entry to terrible comics day. i drew this with my finger on my laptop trackpad

obviously inspired by tumblr user teaboots' post which i consider a piece of performance art tbh

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Thomas Blackshear II (African American, b.1955)

"Dance of the Wind and the Storm," 1996

Lithograph 24 x 31.5 in