#Parallax Method

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: B’Elanna Torres

By Ames

Get ready to have an honorable day as we swivel our character spotlight over to the Voyager’s chief engineer this week on A Star to Steer Her By. Every day is an identity crisis for B’Elanna Torres, whose half-Klingon, half-human pedigree serves to frequently explore mixed heritages, familial disputes, and issues of self loathing as the series goes on. But mostly, Torres is just a wildly creative and intelligent character who is so frequently pushed to the brink, as is this show’s wont.

So grab a fork and dig into a whole freakin’ blood pie as we take a deep dive into Torres’s complex character and rich backstory. Read on below for some choice moments and listen to our recitation of the Klingon plea for the dead over on this week’s podcast episode (warp over to 54:21). Qapla’!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Did we just become best friends? Early in the series, Torres has a lot to prove, both as one of the Maquis terrorists that joins the integrated crew and as a character who clearly has a permanent chip on her shoulder about all things Starfleet. So it’s a wonderful moment of bonding with Janeway when they work together in “Parallax” to escape the event horizon of a quantum singularity using science!

Me, myself, and identity crisis It always amazes me that “Faces” is slotted in season one of Voyager because it is so successful at exploring the dual nature of Torres’s makeup while her character is still getting her footing. When she is split into her Klingon and human halves, she really gets to take a closer look at herself (literally!) and how her two identities make her whole (also literally!). Early character work for the win!

Nothing, just talking to myself For the first (but not last) time Roxann Dawson voices a homicidal computer, we are treated to Torres figuring out how to disarm the Dreadnought in “Dreadnought.” She’s prepared to sacrifice herself to stop this weapon from taking out a planet, but it’s a triumph to listen to her argue with herself until she succeeds, even if she did create the weapon in the first place…

Prototype Unit 0001 is ready to accept programming We totally missed mentioning this one on the podcast, so I’m squeezing it in now because it’s such good work from Dawson. In “Prototype,” she tries so hard to help the automated units find a way to reproduce, creating sentient life in Prototype Unit 001, which is impressive on its own! So that makes it all the more devastating when she has to deactivate him, her first child.

A more honorable Klingon than Worf We gave Worf some stink for refusing to donate blood to the dying Romulan in “The Enemy,” and in “Lifesigns,” Torres goes the other way. When Danara Pel needs some of her Klingon tissue, Torres looks past the trauma that Vidiians inflicted on her and sees that Danara is an individual. Lumping everyone of a species together is not the Starfleet way. Worf, take note.

Learn the truth for yourself There’s a lot that we like about “Remember,” and a lot of that comes down to some stellar acting from Roxann Dawson. Torres won��t stand by quietly as the Enarans sweep their problematic history under the rug and pretend they’ve been a moralistic society all along. She steps up for learning from the past, acknowledging where we’ve come from, and being better for it.

You’re not going to learn anything from being with these lollipops Another instance of Torres not letting someone take the easy way out comes when she meets the Doctor’s The Sims family in “Real Life.” She reprograms his bubblegum characters to have something closer to agency of their own, challenging the Doc to learn to compromise with and respect his fake wife and fake kids. Ya know, skills that he can use with his actual crew!

B’Elanna and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Honorless Day I’m a sucker for the quiet reflection and character study that we see in “Day of Honor” when Torres and Paris are on the brink of death, floating in space helplessly in EV suits. In confronting what could be her final moments, Torres finds some clarity in her existence. And it’s just a touching admission for her to voice her love for Tom, kicking off their romance arc.

I’m going to have to deactivate you It’s telegraphed from pretty early in the episode, but it’s still impressive when Torres takes out Dejaren with an isomimetic conduit in “Revulsion.” We do give her credit for trying to help the wayward hologram in the first place, but she’s also smart enough to see through his facade and keep herself alive when he predictably goes nuts and tries to kill her because she’s corporeal.

Where’s the boob tube? This is a smaller detail but it’s indicative of the Torres-Paris relationship. When Tom returns from a two-week away mission, B’Elanna surprises him with a classic TV set in “Memorial.” It’s surprising Tom didn’t already have one, so it’s a good touch to see that B’Elanna knows exactly the kind of thing that would make his day, like a loving and thoughtful partner would.

We’re still alive and I’m still asking Star Trek overall is hit or miss when it comes to character relationships (one day, we’ll cover them all!), but Tom and B’Elanna just work. Sure, they both do stupid things sometimes, and you’ll see them in our Worst Moments lists, but Torres marrying Paris in “Drive” is weirdly right. It’s a joy to see how much they complement and expand each other’s characters. <3

Not every Cardassian is arrogant and cruel Wow, Torres gets held hostage by holograms a lot, doesn’t she? The thing I like most about “Flesh and Blood” is Torres’s interaction with the Cardassian hologram engineer Kejal. As we’ll see below, Torres has a bit of a tiff with Cardassians, but like she did with Danara Pel in “Lifesigns,” she’s able to treat this one like an individual and work together to save the day!

—

Worst moments

I know this weapon very well You know I love it when the same episode pops up on two lists. Even though Torres did a great job disarming the Cardassian missile in “Dreadnought,” don’t forget that it was her fault that this thing was careening around in the Delta Quadrant in the first place. She knows this thing like the back of her hand because she was the one that reprogrammed it for the Maquis!

No means NO! I will shit on pon farr every opportunity I get, the same way I shit on oomox jokes. So even though Torres herself isn’t to blame for contracting pon farr in “Blood Fever,” it sure is the writers’ fault. It’s just so gross to watch this strong character lose her agency because of that creep Vorik, and it’s even worse that she tries to rape Tom even when he rightly tells her no.

No PDAs next to the warp core The Torres-Paris relationship is quite cute, as we stated up above, but their constant making out in the middle of engineering in “Scientific Method” is unprofessional. Guys, your coworkers on the first floor can totally see and hear everything, and we know how loud Klingon mating is, so keep it in your quarters when you’re off the clock before Tuvok writes you up.

If thoughts could kill… Even compared to other Klingons, Torres’s temper is substantial. The strength of the violent mental image she concocts in “Random Thoughts” pushes the Mari who experience it into committing murder. So really, how bad must it have been if it had such an exaggerated effect on people that their police force wanted to lobotomize her? Nightmare fuel, no doubt.

Try to remember that we are not just a bunch of drones Ever since Seven of Nine first joins the crew in “The Gift,” Torres is a major bitch to the former Borg. She’s opposed to working with her in “Day of Honor” because of her background even though Seven is recuperating, and it’s not until Chakotay orders her to chill out on the poor woman in “Message in a Bottle” that Torres shows her any respect at all.

Where’s Counselor Troi when you need her? We will say on the podcast that Voyager badly needed a counselor until the cows come home, and “Extreme Risk” is the perfect example of that. Torres is clearly coping with trauma, among a lot of other stressors, but instead of coping with it in a healthy way, she opts for the dangerous solution of getting herself injured in the holodeck all the time. At least program a Freud puppet!

As far as I’m concerned, they’re all cold-blooded killers Somehow, even though Torres was able to put racism aside in “Lifesigns” to help Danara Pel, she won’t give an inch to Cardassians in “Nothing Human” to save herself. And this Cardassian isn’t even real! It seems like a weird hill to literally die on for Torres to be so stubborn and willfully naive to refuse care. At least ask the Doc to reprogram Moset’s face first!

You must learn to master your emotions So most of “Juggernaut” is a Best Moment for B’Elanna but I ran out of slots above, so here we go. Even though she successfully figures out the whole Malon ship problem and discovers the true identity of the Vihaar, so much of the episode feels like a regression because Torres spends so much of it angry and violent – a backpedal for how far she’s come as a character.

Death becomes her Speaking of character regressions. This show can’t seem to decide where Torres ever stands in her relationship with her Klingon culture, and “Barge of Dead” goes all in on mystical claptrap. Despite five previous seasons of keeping her roots at an arm’s length, Torres uncharacteristically jumps into this dangerous death ritual with both feet. What the Gre’thor?

Such a Mary Sue It’s sweet that Torres is so nice to Kellis the playwright while he writes his Voyager fanfiction in “Muse.” But she crosses the line when she decides to improv an ending for Kellis’s play just because she’s so egotistical that she doesn’t want him to kill her character off, beaming out in front of the whole audience. It might be the most selfish reason for breaking the Prime Directive yet!

I’d say you’re capable of a lot more than delivering PADDs, if you know what I mean I blame this one more on the writers than on B’Elanna, but it still made me uncomfortable. Icheb gets it into his hormone-fueled head that Torres has taken a romantic interest in him in “Nightingale,” which is just peak adolescent boy fantasy. Unknowingly, she leads him on, and what I’m sure was supposed to be a joke just feels cringe. Really, she should’ve decked him.

Genetic modification is the treatment of choice Close to the end of the show, we’re back to Torres’s fraught view of her Klingon genes when she learns her unborn daughter will have head ridges in “Lineage.” Torres falls yet again into a spiral of self-loathing, assuming Tom will leave her the way her father did, and she tries to trick the EMH into surgically altering the fetus to remove any Klingon attributes. That is without honor!

—

Let’s restore some honor to this post before we move on to our next character spotlight. Keep watching here as we go through the whole Voyager crew and also keep following along as we’ve finally reached season 4 of Enterprise over on the watchalong podcast at SoundCloud or whatever listening app you like best. You can also bond with us about science over on Facebook and Twitter, and if you’ve got Klingon rage problems, maybe talk to the EMH about it.

[roostercrowedatmidnight]

my favourite voyager staff meetings

their first sad senior staff meeting in parallax when they barely have any of the senior officer positions filled and it's just janeway and a bunch of her sad guys

also parallax, when janeway and b'elanna have their first nerd moment together

when they land on the amelia earhart planet and they have their meeting and the room is filled with sunlight <3

janeway in scientific method leading the meeting but she's unhinged because she hasn't slept for a week and b'elanna and tom are terrified of getting yelled at for making out in engineering

night staff meeting. chakotay cannot boost morale. everyone is bored. they're all like 'where's janeway' and he's like 'none of your business okay?? if she wants to spend time in her room with all the lights turned off being sad that's up to her'

seven presenting her powerpoint about how shitty everyone is at staff management in good shepherd. first off why is she giving that presentation instead of chakotay, isn't he in charge of personnel? and second janeway must have greenlit that powerpoint presentation so is she just letting seven go off and do one of her little projects because she knows it brings her joy or what

year of hell senior staff meeting. depressing. eating neelix's spam and gravel soup. janeway is ready to lash out and kill

janeway plotting how to loot the borg and leaning dramatically against everyone's chairs and talking about heists and having the best time and everyone else has this subtle look in their eyes like bro what is wrong with her

tom explaining that they have to break into the fortress of doom to turn off the death ray

[liedownquisition]

Every time someone writes anything re: the Arrows (esp Ollie) and treat it like they have these like Bat-level strict morals or just otherwise being really "strictly principled"???? it drives me crazy. Like I don't wanna be "you haven't read the comics" but... They haven't.

Ollie, very famously, killed not only Parallax (something which was very difficult for him bcs Hal was his friend, for all their fighting), but also the Electrocutioner (for killing Lian, maiming Roy, and destroying most of his city). There was that whole thing in Crossroads when he worked with Huntress, Catwoman, and Deathstroke, and was killing criminals with guns! Killed a man torturing Dinah! Hell, even further, at least once he helped someone who he considered to have been justified in killing someone escape the law!

I'm pretty sure literally all of his proteges have harder lines than he does (Jason criticizes Mia for limiting her angles to non-lethal in Seeing Red, Oliver being shown to use more brutal methods in a team up with Roy in comic I admittedly don't remember the exact name of & Connor disapproved of Ollie training with the guy who trained Deathstroke to learn the "killing arts" re: 1YL, tho idr if that was more of a killing disapproval or a "dad, really, this guy is awful tho???" kinda deal. Uhhh... Emiko might be an exception to this probably, at least inasmuch as you can consider those two his proteges given I don't think Ollie really trained them that much/they mostly came to him like that). Hell, when Mia killed someone he wasn't mad about her killing so much as that it was her (an innocent kid) that did it!

In the marriage comic, Dinah had apparently killed Ollie in self-defense! (Before concluding that it hadn't been him despite all evidence to the contrary, ect., ect., ect.)

Roy worked for the gov't and definitely killed for them when it was called for. Fell in love with an assassin and walked away instead of turning her in or killing her like he was probably supposed to do despite knowing she'd likely go on to keep killing more people (You could call this a statement on his love for her, which on some level, yeah, but on the other level shows that his lines aren't so well-defined.) The only reason he hadn't killed the Electrocutioner himself is bcs Ollie got there first. For all the complaints re: RHATO/RH&A they are still considered current canon (to an extent, I think some specific things around it might be retconned?) & he has killed in there too.

Emiko as a former assassin/being trained & raised to be a "perfect killer" by Shado I feel is rather self-explanatory.

There's probably more but I'm runnin' out of steam here. Anyways. My point is that while they're not exactly actively murderous vigilantes, they FAR from have some kind of no-kill rule. They'll typically try something else first, but when lines are crossed (like their family) or there doesn't appear to be a better solution that would actually work, they're plenty willing. They're not "Batfam 2.0 but lamer and not as powerful," which seems to be the predominant interpretation most of the time.

EDIT: I have a confession to make, I mis-cited who Ollie killed. I forgot there were TWO GUYS involved bcs it's been so long and it's not exactly a storyline I like revisiting, so they sort of blended in to my mind. The one who tore off Roy's arm, as well as sent the order to set off the bomb that killed Lian was Prometheus, and THAT'S the one who Ollie killed. Roy most definitely did in fact end up killing the Electrocutioner, who was the trigger man who pushed the actual button to set it off, and for a brief period did in fact go on to try and kill Deathstroke before he came to terms with Lian's death. Ollie did also have some regret for killing Prometheus and did try to stop Roy, because he felt that it was a pointless revenge which... tbh considering some of his other things I'm like "okay buddy, little hypocritical there but you are nothing if not a knowingly flawed man trying to do the best by those around him."

[mysticstronomy]

HOW DO WE KNOW HOW THE MILKY WAY LOOKS LIKE??

Blog#362

Saturday, December 30th, 2023

Welcome back,

This is the spiral galaxy NGC 2835, imaged by the impeccable, seemingly timeless Hubble Space Telescope.

And this is NGC 1132, an elliptical galaxy captured through the tandem efforts of Hubble and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

We know what both of these breathtakingly beautiful galaxies look like because we can see them from afar. How then do we know what our own Milky Way galaxy looks like, seeing as how we are inside it?

While we've never been able to zoom out and take a true galactic selfie, there are numerous observations that clue us in to the structure of our home galaxy. The greatest hint comes from looking at other galaxies. While there are perhaps two trillion in our observable universe, surprisingly, they only seem to come in three discernable varieties: spiral, elliptical, and irregular.

Spiral galaxies have a mostly flat disk with a bright central bulge and arms that swirl out from the middle. Elliptical galaxies tend to be round or oval with a uniform distribution of stars. Irregular galaxies are like stellar splotches in space, with little structure at all.

Gazing skyward from our vantage point on and around Earth, there are clear signs that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. You can see one sign with the naked eye! The Milky Way appears in our sky as a relatively flat disk.

Using more sophisticated methods, astrophysicists and astronomers have provided two more clues to the structure of the Milky Way.

"When we measure velocities of stars and gas in our galaxy, we see an overall rotational motion that differs from random motions," Sarah Slater, a graduate student in cosmology at Harvard University, wrote. "This is another characteristic of a spiral galaxy."

Moreover the gas proportions, colors, and dust content are similar to other spiral galaxies, she added.

Aside from these lines of evidence, astronomers are also using their tools in ingenious ways to map the structure of the Milky Way. Just this year, scientists used two radio astronomy projects from different parts of the globe to measure the parallaxes – differences in the apparent positions of objects viewed along two different lines of sight – from masers shooting off electromagnetic radiation in numerous massive star forming regions in our galaxy.

"These parallaxes allow us to directly measure the forms of spiral arms across roughly one-third of the Milky Way, and we have extended the spiral arm traces into the portion of the Milky Way seen from the Southern Hemisphere using tangencies along some arms based on carbon monoxide emission," the researchers explained. They coupled these observations with other gathered data points to construct a new image of the Milky Way. This is our home galaxy, in all its resplendant glory.

Originally published www-realclearscience-com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, January 3rd, 2024)

"WHAT IS QUARK MATTER??"

[tvheadfalls]

Do you have any method you found regarding how to make assets/tiles in RPGmaker?? I had a few attempts at making a game but making them always made me quit. And you seem to be onto smth with sketching a room over a screenshot

yes!! im not touching tilesets they killed my family!!!! parallax is my new best friend. u can lit just Draw A Picture and use smth like the yanfly region restriction plugin to make them work as maps. guys u dont even need pixel art

https://youtu.be/mNwrFZdlW2E?si=PO5MdwjrmNwnZhsj

(jk tilesets absolutely have their uses for bigger maps or similar repeating environments. but, well. i am not doing thart)

i actually assembled a playlist for my friends so they dont have to sift thru all the battle mechanic tutorials etc if they ever wanna try. im still fiddling w it but if anyone else is interested!!

[spacetelescopescience]

In 2018, astronomers precisely measured the distance to globular star cluster NGC 6397 with Hubble with a method known as trigonometric parallax, which uses straightforward trigonometry, the same method used by surveyors: https://bit.ly/4fqTJs6

[klimkovsky]

Globular star cluster Messier 2

Messier 2 (M2), also known as NGC 7089, is a globular star cluster located in the constellation Aquarius. Here are some key details about M2:

Location: It is situated approximately 37,500 light-years away from Earth towards the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Discovery: M2 was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746, but it was Charles Messier who included it in his catalog in 1760 as the second entry (hence the designation M2).

Physical Characteristics:

Magnitude: M2 has an apparent visual magnitude of about 6.5, making it visible with binoculars under good conditions, though it appears as a faint smudge to the naked eye.

Size: It has an apparent diameter of about 16 arc minutes, but its true physical diameter is around 175 light-years.

Star Count: It contains hundreds of thousands of stars, with estimates suggesting around 150,000 to one million stars.

Age: Globular clusters like M2 are some of the oldest objects in the universe. M2 is estimated to be around 13 billion years old.

Composition: M2 is known for its high density of stars in the core, where stars are packed closely together. This cluster includes various types of stars, from red giants to blue stragglers, which are thought to be the result of stellar collisions or mergers within the dense environment.

Scientific Interest:

M2 has been studied extensively for insights into stellar evolution, particularly because of its variable stars like RR Lyrae variables, which are used as standard candles for measuring galactic distances.

Observations have included detailed studies with the Hubble Space Telescope, which has helped in understanding the dynamics of the stars within such densely packed regions.

Observation Tips: For those interested in observing M2:

Use a telescope with at least a 4-inch aperture for a better view; larger apertures will reveal more detail.

It's best seen in late summer or early autumn from the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, it's visible during winter months.

M2 is not only a beautiful object to observe but also a treasure trove for astronomers studying stellar populations, dynamics within globular clusters, and the history of our galaxy.

Grok AI

In addition to what the neural network has said, it should be added that astronomers have not yet come to a consensus regarding the distance to the M2 cluster. Along with the estimate of 37.5 thousand light years, another value is no less persistently mentioned on the network — 55 thousand light years. This disagreement looks very similar to a banal error in converting miles to kilometers, although this could not happen in astronomy. In fact, the difference in the distance estimate is due to the use of different methods. The method of direct parallax measurement gives a smaller result, but at such a distance, parallax measurements are extremely unreliable. The method associated with the Cepheids and RR-Lyrids gives a larger distance to the cluster, although it cannot take into account the absorption of star light by the interstellar medium, and as a consequence — a drop in their brightness with distance, which near the plane of our Galaxy no longer obeys the inverse square relationship.

Does the truth lie somewhere in the middle — at the level of 46 thousand light years? — in this case it is hardly correct to assume such a solution as the most probable.

In addition, the shape of the M2 cluster is noticeably flattened, which indicates a fairly rapid axial rotation. This gives rise to the assumption that the globular star cluster Messier 2 in its distant past is the core of a dwarf galaxy that merged with other similar galaxies, forming our Milky Way galaxy in the first few billion years of the Universe's existence.

There is also a clarification regarding the age of the cluster — it is most likely somewhat younger than the AI assumed — not 13, but about 12.5 billion years. But according to the results of some studies, the age of the M2 cluster is estimated to be less than 12 billion years.

Globular star cluster Messier 2 by Hubble Space Telescope

[thesleeptokenarchive]

On This Day: July 8 2017

On February 21 2017, it was announced that Sleep Token would be joining the line up for the 2017 edition of the UK Tech-Metal Fest. However, what was meant to be their second ritual ended up never happening as the collective found it necessary to cancel this appearance for unknown circumstances. Their spot was given to The Parallax Method and had Sleep Token performed, it would have been July 8 2017.

The collective had prepared some offerings to be obtained at this event but due to their impending absence, it was decided that the shirts would be still sold at the festival as well as a means of communicating with the band. This was a letter box, or 'dream' box, that was available at the same table as their t-shirts would be displayed.

The t-shirts that were made.

The UK Tech-Metal Fest 2017 poster prior to cancellation.

[thelongestway]

Travelling again, so formatting and posting from mobile, when I get the chance (ugh). I hate formatting from mobile, I don't know how people actually write like this.

More best laid plans - go time is next chapter. :)

Back to the Friend for now!

Chapter 10

Captain Reed had paused the implementation of kes verdict until the situation was deemed over, so Dandelion gave this Friend proper feed access and Iceblink came by to bring it a new terminal. The old one, as it turned out, was damaged by the EMP attack she had deployed. When the Friend inquired as to why she destroyed her own terminal, Iceblink just said, "Needed the scope, chose to burn it, too. You were so much faster than I am, it wasn't even funny."

Even now, Iceblink had made the Friend keep as much distance as she could between them as she quickly connected the cables.

"Your people have traded speed for security, so that is no surprise to this Friend. But with that said, why would you even have EMP attacks on hand? This is last resort weaponry."

Things destroyed by massive bursts could not be salvaged, their contents could not be traced. So even most corporations preferred subtler methods, if for largely pragmatic reasons.

"I dunno. To me, black ice is pretty standard practice. That's why we don't do this," Iceblink pointed at a spot on her temple where some people would have their most visible data jacks.

"How many terminals do you go through?"

"As ol' Maize used to say, always keep burnables on hand," a ghost of a smile flitted on the feedhound's face as she plugged the last cables in. "And everything's a burnable until it's only your meat remaining."

The Friend could appreciate that, even if didn't agree on the meat part.

It got to work.

Navigator Brisote had plotted a complicated course. The five day jump to Parallax became twelve hours, and then Dandelion would do another six-hour jump away immediately, so she could change transponder ID before arriving at a third site. Then she would go back to Parallax, with approximately two cycles remaining before the transport carrying the information request could even get to Parallax from Preservation. She would let this Friend and the SecUnit disembark, then do another jump and id change onto a second transit network. Then she would wait as we did our jobs.

It was this Friend's job to get the transponder spoofs ready, and it was having a lot of trouble. The living nature of the ship made her signals read as erratic, bleeding through the masks it created. This Friend's current work would fool cursory checks, but they needed to be far more careful now.

It was going through its third attempt at fixing the protocols, swearing profusely, when a feed workspace suddenly opened and it was pulled in. There were four presences--Dandelion, of course, and Iceblink, now at her own terminal, but most importantly...

Don't fucking stare at me again, the SecUnit said as it made itself comfortable in the space, lightning flickering over the churning waters.

The Friend gave a ping of acknowledgement and moved the problem it was working on into the space.

TheSecUnit asssesed it at an impossible speed. It was to the Friend as the Friend itself was to Iceblink; and Dandelion was again as much to the SecUnit. Beside it, on the shore, Iceblink gave what amounted to a low whistle.

O__________o. SecUnit, if you ever do come to play, I'm fucked unless I figure something interesting out.

Humans are always too slow at hacking, it said dismissively, but the Friend noticed its first attempt to adjust the protocol wasn't going much better. Lightning flashed angrily over the depths. Can you stop having so many emotions, dumbass research transport?

They are a processing mechanism, security consultant SecUnit, the same as for all living minds. Including yours.

Fuck you, thunder clapped back.

walk the very slow human through this, Iceblink said. why exactly aren't we giving station systems dummy variables that just say everything is fine no matter what we do?

Station systems conduct a dynamic assesment, multiple checks every second. Returning the same answer each time wouldn't work. Is THAT how you got here? Because we might as well just go give up if you did. Because you're fucked.

we pretended to be the poorest slowest transport in the galaxy, with really old protocols. we didn't talk much. the only thing modern we used was a rim currency terminal to pay passage, and banks have their own lines.

Chuck it now, the Friend said at the same time as the SecUnit said, I've got spares, and immediately sent a query to someone on Preservation.

not 'it'. we had a few. did you not hear me about always keeping burnables at hand? but we are running low. need a good source in the rim and we don't have that yet. but anyway. so one dummy variable doesn't work. what about copying another ship's signature outright.

That is what this Friend has been trying to do. The problem is that Dandelion is a lot more complex than most bot pilots, so the shells keep failing intermediate checks. And she is strange enough that we couldn't even cut a bot pilot out of another ship and set it into her systems as a front.

The flashes of lightning died down, almost suspiciously so. Then the SecUnit said, What if you used records from another complex bot pilot as a base?

That could work. But I've never seen one quite like her before.

A moment of hesitation--no, work, like it was editing something--and then the feed bloomed with data, and the lightning sparkled threateningly all around the Friend and Iceblink.

You've never seen one like this either. I've redacted the id, but modify as much fingerprint as possible. This is from a friend.

XOXO, now we're cooking! Iceblink started drafting a transposition of the different architectures. Friend, come help me out with this!

It did.

[rorytunes]

how do you come up with lyrics when you're writing a song?

Oh I love this ask so much. This will be a rambly and long response with a lot of examples. I have many thoughts. I'll preface this by saying I'm really weird about my lyrics so this might not work for you. Plus I'm not actually very good. But hopefully something is helpful!

For me, lyrics are devices for storytelling most of the time. It's different from writing prose in that you have to be conscious of how the whole line sounds as well as your idea.

I try to make a habit of studying other people's lyrics, both the masters, and just people I really look up to. This is my biggest piece of advice. Study!!!!

For example, I like the twisting wittiness of Alex Turner and Pete Wentz's lyrics, so I'll try to pop that into a mix, or the subtle irony in The Smiths' work. I'm a HUGE nerd, and by proxy a huge fan of the very nervy and dense lyrical style in the things Ryan Ross writes, hence I follow some of those patterns as I see them in my work and find ways to enhance them. I did the same for the imagery in David Bowie's work, Leonard Cohen's poetic devices, Bruce Springsteen's storytelling. I take inspiration and figure out why I like them and why I might not like my own work.

Easy way to write a song, I find, is to twist a whole bunch of sayings, pop culture references, or similar:

From I'm So Tired by Fugazi:

From Fluorescent Adolescent by Arctic Monkeys (if you haven't heard this song, take a look at the other lyrics. This is a really snappy song with some very clever twists)

Here's The Nerve by the Brobecks, presenting an idiom, and then twisting it into something attention grabbing:

Some of my favourite lyrics use similar sounds and rhymes within themselves. Alliteration works really well. Here's a lyric from Zealots by the Fugees:

They keep the interesting sounds with a subtle inner rhyme on that first line, close it out on the second. They do the second with raps/format/parallax, and they also use alliteration. It makes for a VERY satisfying rhyme scheme that's also fun to sing.

This next one is from Piledriver Waltz by Alex Turner:

The alliteration creates an interesting soundscape, with the imagery and the reference to the Heartbreak Hotel. Also note how "back booth" rhymes with "how to lose". He follows these "ooze" sounds in the rest of the verse as well

My favourite subject was (kind of still is, I only just graduated) literature. This has given me a very sound-focused angle to my lyrics, and as such, I'm never satisfied unless the sounds in my work carry the right emotion. This is why different methods rhyming can give work a really interesting angle.

On that note, I use unexpected twists to create an effect. Take a look at Sugar We're Going Down:

There's no rhyme here and it creates an anxious tension that fits the song. Love that unresolved feeling a lot

Reading a lot, both prose and poetry, REALLY helps with finding imagery and vocabulary inspiration. I like Rimbaud, Emily Dickinson, Gabriel García Márquez, Kafka, and Yeats at the moment.

One thing I've been doing that helps me a lot is spending 10mins or so before bed filling up a page in my notebook with everything that comes to my mind. I'll read over it in the morning at take it all in. Usually it's a bunch of random crap but sometimes I'm a bit clever with it.

If you don't have a plan, lyricism is going to be a bit tricky. One of my main issues is that I run out of ideas a lot, and this gives me disjointed lyrics. This is can be fixed (albeit frustratingly at times) if you plan out what you want to say, and have a clear idea of your message/story/whatever. Of course if you're just being abstract you can disregard the main throughline a bit but I'd still recommend a general plan.

Hope something here helps. I pressed the post button too early so this is an edit, and I didn't get to say everything I wanted. Feel free to ask questions!

[xyymath]

Math and Space: How We Use Numbers to Navigate the Universe

Space exploration is often touted as a marvel of human ingenuity—but at its core, it’s also a triumph of mathematics. To journey to the Moon, track distant stars, or predict the flight paths of comets, we rely heavily on advanced mathematical concepts and models that shape our understanding of the universe.

1. Orbital Mechanics: The Art of Getting to Space

Orbital mechanics, often referred to as celestial mechanics, governs the motion of objects in space. It’s the reason why rockets can reach the Moon, planets orbit the Sun, and satellites stay in place above Earth. These calculations are deeply rooted in Newtonian mechanics, where we apply Kepler’s Laws and Newton’s Law of Gravitation to predict the orbits of objects.

Kepler’s First Law states that the orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci. This is crucial in calculating not only planetary orbits but also trajectories for spacecraft. For example, the path taken by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft was calculated using these principles, sending it on a trajectory through the outer planets and into interstellar space.

The Hohmann Transfer Orbit, a highly efficient elliptical orbit used to transfer a spacecraft between two orbits, is calculated using conic sections, a branch of geometry. This method helped NASA navigate missions like the Apollo Moon landings. The exact timings, speeds, and launch windows had to be computed with such precision that they had to account for not just gravity, but also the gravitational effects of planets, orbital perturbations, and even relativistic effects.

2. Tracking Stars: The Geometry of the Cosmos

The distances between stars and other celestial bodies are mind-bogglingly vast, yet we use a variety of trigonometric methods and geometrical models to map them. Parallax, for example, is one of the oldest and most fundamental methods used to measure stellar distances. When we observe a star from Earth, it appears to shift position against the more distant background stars as Earth moves along its orbit. This shift, known as stellar parallax, forms the basis of triangulation, and with basic geometry, we can calculate how far away stars are.

But when dealing with objects too far to measure via parallax (like distant galaxies), we turn to more complex methods like spectroscopic parallax and redshift. Redshift—the shifting of light to longer wavelengths as objects move away from us—is directly linked to Doppler effect equations and relativity. The cosmological redshift of light from galaxies tells us not just their distance but also their velocity, which is critical for mapping the expanding universe.

3. Predicting Comet Trajectories: The Math of Chaos

Predicting the trajectory of comets and asteroids involves a fascinating application of both dynamical systems and chaos theory. Comets, with their highly elliptical orbits, move through the solar system in ways that seem unpredictable over long periods, but their motions can still be calculated with impressive accuracy over short timescales.

The mathematics of orbital perturbations—the small forces from planets that alter the trajectory of an object—becomes crucial. N-body simulations, which solve the equations of motion for multiple celestial bodies interacting under gravity, are used to calculate the future positions of comets. However, these systems are nonlinear, meaning small differences in initial conditions can lead to wildly different outcomes. This is the essence of chaos theory in action, where small errors or uncertainties accumulate, making long-term predictions impossible without ever-increasing precision.

Yet, this doesn’t mean we’re helpless. For instance, the predicted path of Comet NEOWISE was traced years before it appeared in the night sky in 2020, showcasing the power of modern numerical methods and supercomputing in celestial prediction.

4. The Math Behind Space-Time and Black Holes

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is one of the most profound mathematical models in physics, describing how space and time interact with mass and energy. The core of general relativity involves tensor calculus—a higher-level form of calculus that allows us to model the curvature of space-time caused by massive objects like stars, planets, and black holes.

The most famous prediction of general relativity is the existence of black holes. These objects have such intense gravitational fields that not even light can escape them. The mathematics behind black holes involves solving the Einstein field equations, a set of 10 interrelated partial differential equations. These equations describe how mass and energy curve space-time and determine how objects move in this curved space. The Schwarzschild radius—the radius of the event horizon of a black hole—can be derived from these equations, and it’s this formula that explains the boundary beyond which nothing can escape the gravitational pull of a black hole.

5. Navigating the Solar System: Calculus in Action

When it comes to space navigation, differential equations become indispensable. Calculus, particularly vector calculus, is used to compute the velocities and accelerations of spacecraft, planets, and other celestial bodies. The path a spacecraft takes through the solar system—whether it’s a flyby of a planet, an orbital insertion, or a gravity assist—involves solving complex multivariable calculus problems.

A spacecraft’s velocity vector is continuously adjusted by thrusters to keep it on course. The calculations for these adjustments are based on Newton’s Laws of Motion and the principle of least action—a variational principle that states that the path taken by a system will minimize the action (a quantity dependent on energy and time). These calculations ensure that every spacecraft launched into space stays on course, from the Mars rovers to interstellar probes like Voyager.

[britneyparallax]

i have a question: i just saw your art and i went “wow that is pretty.” i’m not sure what a parallax is (so im gonna google it) but when did u start making this kinda art!!!! it’s pretty!!! i would gnaw on it like a baby with a teething to y !!

Thank You so much! ^_^ The Parallax in my user name/artist handle refers specifically to stellar parallax, a method in astronomy for determining the distance of stars. I thought it would be fitting for a space themed account. I also just wanted a name that felt themed sort of like Jimmy Neutron. LOL I started really leaning into doing space art back in 2020, when like most people, I suddenly found a lot more time on my hands. I’ve been meaning to post more of my art, but I have a bad habit of getting stuck building new ships in blender and new outfit pieces in Inkscape instead of finishing up individual pictures and getting them uploaded. I’m very glad you like my art! I take being gnaw worth as very high praise. To thank you for reaching out, here’s a piece that’s been waiting to be seen for awhile.

[emin-folly]

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title(s) that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! (then tag as many people as you have WIPs.)

Tagged by @ceeloilights~

I'll just doing my DC folder since I have way WAY too many WIPs for a normal person lol (long ass list is LONG, you've been warned~)

My DC art WIPs in alphabetical order:

Ace and Batman

Alan and Thomas

Alan n Hal

Alan

Allen fam

Armless

Auction

Awkward

Bar Spo (yeah I don't blame you for not understanding this one lol I sometimes like to abbreviate the names of the characters)

Bargain

Bard

Barry and Wally

Barry and Wally 2

Barry horse

Barry Iris

Barry Iris 2

Barry Iris date

Barry Jesse

Barry out of time

Barry possessed

Barry sketchdump

Barry study

Barry suit

Barry Superman 2

Barry

Bart the Menace

Batman and Riddler

Batman needing help

Battle of the Fashion Tastes

Bby Eo and Barry

Beach

Bringing Barry to life

Carrying Barry 1

Carrying Barry 2

Carrying Wonderflash

Cats

Cheetah

Choices

Clark reading Cinderella

Compromise

Consequence

Cover Flash

Cover mockup

Cover redraw fem

Crackship doodles

Creature Eo

Crossdressing Barry

CW Flash

CW Flash 2

Dark Flashpoint Eo Supes

Dark Flashpoint Eo ivy

DC Aftermath

DC Barry and Kitty

DC Barry vs Slade

DC Barry's obsession

DC Barry's weird fears

DC Bruce's Farm Madness

DC Dad brawl

DC Eo styles

DC Flash and Thawne

DC drawpile 1

DC drawpile 2

DC Fashion Tastes

DC Food Cramps

DC Hal's Stripper Discovery

DC Hole in the Ground

DC Human Disaster

DC Human

DC Interviews

DC Justice League Civilian

DC Mer Spell Gone Wrong

DC My Hero

DC Nobody wants to save Thawne

DC Off Worlding

DC Plan Backfire

DC Slade's new pet

DC SonicFlash

DC Speedster Realities

DC Speedsters and Bug

DC The No Speed Force Race

DC Welcoming Barry back

DC Bleached

DC Furries

DC Mer Funny

DC OC

DC pile

DC things

DC vampires au

DC vs vampires 2

Deer style

Flash AU doodles

Flash AU

Flash

Flashfam fluff

Doting

Dress up

Drunk Barry

Eo and Croc

Eo Barry civilian

EoHal

Eo medieval

Eo meme

Eo needs help

Eo outfit

Eo panel practice

Eo torn up

Eo vs Batman

Eo wants commitment

Eobard AU

Eobard AU 2

Eobard Ivy doodles

Eobard

EoBarry transformers

EoBarry

EoBeth

Eo Carol

EoHarlIvy

EoIvy

EoIvy 2

EoIvy Genderbend

EoIvy meeting

EoIvy talk

Eo's Coping Methods

Eo and Paradox

Eo mini Barry

Eo's verbal mess-ups

Eostar pickup

Fem Bard full body

Fem Eo

Fem Eo 2

Fem EoBarry

Fem Thawne

Flamboyant

Flirting

Funny Silver Age

Genderbend Eo

Gertrude

GL headaches

GL Human infestation

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Gotham

Hal in Thawne's body

Hal suspects faves

Hamlet

Hamlet 2

Hamlet 3

Hamlet 4

Hand

Heels

Horse

Hug

Injustice Eo

Injustice Eo dump

Injustice EoIvy

Iris gets powers

Iris holding a grudge

Ivy about Eo

JL silly faces

Justice

Linda and Barry

Manga Eo

Menace

Mer AU

Mer AU 2

Mer design concept

Mer Reverses

Mom J'onn

Monophobia

Monster Supes

Muzzle Barry

New suit

No speed

Obsessive Eo

OT3

Panel redraw Barry

Panic induced Rogues

Parallax Eo

Parody

Pathetic

Personal boundaries

Pet

Plaything

Poses

Pre new 52 memories

Prop up

Protect

Random doodles

Reverse fam

Rogues and Barry

Role reversal

Roy and Ralph

Sacred

Scarlet Speedster

Secret

Shibari

Shift

Ship comic

Ship

Sin

Sleep

Sleepover

Speed dancing

Speed Force and Eo

StarFlash

Swan Thawne

Symbolism

Teacher

Team up Thomas and Baby Bruce

Thomas and Barry

Touchy feely

Vampire Barry

Wally Shayera AU

Wally talks to Barry

What Eo eats

Wipeout

Women

Wonderflash doodles

Wonderflash 2

xxx

xxx 2

Zoom prodigy

As for who I'm tagging, I don't really know who to pick specifically so the person reading this, boop you're it! :>

[crunchyfield]

How tall is Link in Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom ?

This topic is always what most players wonder when playing a (new) Zelda game especially when Link looks shorter than almost every NPCs and entities.

But what surprises me the most is that many people in the community assume he is the same height as in ZBOTW or claim to have figured out his height based off of ZBOTW without elaborating much somehow which isn't satisfying at all.

We want to know Link's height in ZTOTK based off of ZTOTK information and tools.

What we want to be looking into at first is Link's canon height.Unfortunately, speaking to NPCs/reading diaries/looking for something's or someone's canon height didn't provide any type of canon reference to figure out Link's canon height (unlike in Breath of the Wild where a gerudo named Deltan stated she was 8 feet tall).

As a result we are going to work out Link's height using in-game measurements, to do so we'll manipulate the in-game coordinates :

These are important to calculate distances as well as measuring Link in those distance units.

It has been established for a while now that one distance unit displayed in the coordinates is equivalent to one meter.It is quite difficult to back up this statement but when talking to NPCs, those who quantify distances generally come up with the metric unit (I don't have a screenshot for proving it but if you talk to a brown skin traveler with an afro haircut and a rabbit shield in the French version of the game, he comes up with the metric unit at some point).

With that assumption in mind let's start off by looking for a reference (i.e: an object or something which will be used to determine Link's height), a wooden crate seems to be good one as we can approach its model with a cube on top of being experimentable on flat surfaces.

Now the idea is to approximate a wooden crate's height and to do it we have to measure many crates on top of each other with the altitude coordinate :

We could've measured 100 crates merged all together but the game reFUSEs to fuse more than 21 items together (I learnt it the hard way after spending around 600-ish zonaites to make sure the tests go right in any case) :

Ultimately 20 blocks were measured successfully on a flat surface in a maze so here are the altitude coordinate values at the surface level and at the 20th wooden crate level respectively :

Subtracting both coordinate values (111-71) we find out 20 crates are about 40 meters tall meaning that a crate is about 2 meters tall.

Then we can figure out Link's height by measuring him next to a crate.However in order to avoid any parallax issue we are going to locate a specific part of the wooden crate the top of Link's head reaches with a sample of screenshots from different angles :

(I took many more angles but to not overload this post we'll keep these 6 photos as a simple sample)

Thereafter, we can figure out the specific crate's portion the top of Link's head reaches (blue line) :

Finally we can calculate Link's height using some proportionality and pixel measurements :

Therefore Link is roughly 1.73 (5'8")meters tall, he is actually taller than 5'2" (1.58 m), still not surprising.

I smell sussy bakas coming up with Bread pirate's video from miles away so let me explain why the 5'2" is sort of wrong when it comes to Link's height in BOTW :

If we take a close look at where link is placed next to the metal box, we can see there is a parallax issue (i.e: the change in the apparent position of the metal box relative to Link being more distant, caused by the change in the picture's line of sight towards both Link and the metal box) which means Link is taller than what he was measured previously in BOTW :

Hereafter seem to be the specific part of the metal box the top of Link's head reaches in BOTW :

Thus recalculating Link's height in BOTW following Bread Pirate's method without the parallax issue suggests that Link is around 1.78 meters (5'10") :

Basically BOTW Link & TOTK Link are practically about the same height (5 centimeters are a little negligible in the game) empirically which in some way confirm "the not changed height" and why we could feel like Link is as tall in TOTK as in BOTW.

Now for more interpretations regarding other entities/NPCs in comparison to Link, I advice you to see this post :

Sidenote: Furthermore, taking errors and uncertainties into account we can find a range in which Link's true height in Tears of the Kingdom is included.

About the altitude coordinates we measured, those values are rounded up without shown decimal places which means that the first 71 altitude coordinate value actually ranges from 70.5 to 71.4 and that the second 111 altitude coordinate value ranges from 110.5 to 111.4 :

Besides, to find the uncertainty related to a wooden crate's height we determine the difference between the minimum gap/maximum gap and the rounded value found.Knowing that rounded value was 40 m then we get a 0.9 m variation from that value for the height of 20 crates implying the uncertainty of a single wooden crate's height would be 2 m ± 0.045 m.

As for the pixel measurements, it is generally one pixel variation for a numerical measurement tool such as in image editors.

So calculating the overall uncertainty for TOTK Link's height gives a height value ranging from 1.67 m (5'6") to 1.78 m (5'10"):

Link's height = 1.73 m ± 0.06 m

[teatitty]

So we move on to Guy Gardner: Warrior #17 - numbered this way since it's technically just a rebrand of 'Guy Gardner' but is treated as it's own thing for some reason. Anyway we are also officially in 1994 now which means!!! While all of this Guy stuff is happening on Earth, Hal's Parallax era is taking place off world and Guy will be mostly uninvolved save for the immediate fallout. We'll get to that later though

Returning home to try and get closure :) Isn't this so neat to see :) How afraid he is of his dad even now as an adult hero :)

BUT IF YOU THINK HE WAS GONNA GET IT HAHA DING DONG YOU WERE WRONG [sidenote: a really good look at what his mother is like as well - you can get a very good feel for what her coping methods were in this house]