#Positive Learning Environment

[reasonsforhope]

"The world's coral reefs are close to 25 percent larger than we thought. By using satellite images, machine learning and on-ground knowledge from a global network of people living and working on coral reefs, we found an extra 64,000 square kilometers (24,700 square miles) of coral reefs – an area the size of Ireland.

That brings the total size of the planet's shallow reefs (meaning 0-20 meters deep) to 348,000 square kilometers – the size of Germany. This figure represents whole coral reef ecosystems, ranging from sandy-bottomed lagoons with a little coral, to coral rubble flats, to living walls of coral.

Within this 348,000 km² of coral is 80,000 km² where there's a hard bottom – rocks rather than sand. These areas are likely to be home to significant amounts of coral – the places snorkelers and scuba divers most like to visit.

You might wonder why we're finding this out now. Didn't we already know where the world's reefs are?

Previously, we've had to pull data from many different sources, which made it harder to pin down the extent of coral reefs with certainty. But now we have high resolution satellite data covering the entire world – and are able to see reefs as deep as 30 meters down.

Pictured: Geomorphic mapping (left) compared to new reef extent (red shading, right image) in the northern Great Barrier Reef.

[AKA: All the stuff in red on that map is coral reef we did not realize existed!! Coral reefs cover so much more territory than we thought! And that's just one example. (From northern Queensland)]

We coupled this with direct observations and records of coral reefs from over 400 individuals and organizations in countries with coral reefs from all regions, such as the Maldives, Cuba, and Australia.

To produce the maps, we used machine learning techniques to chew through 100 trillion pixels from the Sentinel-2 and Planet Dove CubeSat satellites to make accurate predictions about where coral is – and is not. The team worked with almost 500 researchers and collaborators to make the maps.

The result: the world's first comprehensive map of coral reefs extent, and their composition, produced through the Allen Coral Atlas. [You can see the interactive maps yourself at the link!]

The maps are already proving their worth. Reef management agencies around the world are using them to plan and assess conservation work and threats to reefs."

-via ScienceDirect, February 15, 2024

[bearsinpotatosacks]

This might be a hot take but getting into the Bear and not really vibing with sycarmy has made me realise how much healthier the fandom is on ao3 and tiktok. There's no real arguing because it's just about posting content about your favourite characters and ships. There doesn't seem to be this massive group of people on tiktok that solely think of sydcarmy for the bear, i see edits for individual characters, richiemikey, sydrichie etc, just as much as i do for sydcarmy, even if i mostly scroll past. It's nice not to have half of my feed blocked by a tag that people misuse to make a post popular, so I have to gamble and unfilter posts then see more people arguing about why you should ship sydcarmy, how you're stupid or a hypocrite if you don't. The fandom spaces for richie, sydrichie and richiemikey are so small and inactive, and that I just don't see the point when I can focus my energy on writing stuff for ao3 where there's more of a community

Edit: wording was wrong. Also should've said this is more of a vent post than anything

[ennard-is-near]

Guys LISTEN

Michael and Elizabeth’s relationship

I think she’s the middle child, btw. Just for some context, I think it makes the most sense with the canon we have. I’ll say she’s ~8 during the bite of ‘83 and Michael is ~13. And I think that she doesn’t hate him any more than your average siblings do until after he kills Evan. And then she genuinely hates him with everything she has.

Before the Bite of ‘83, they have a pretty standard dynamic. Elizabeth is slightly favored by their parents over Michael, or at least they give her more positive attention, and some of this comes through in their dynamic. But really they’re the standard “Ughh my [older brother/little sister] is so annoyyyinngg!” thing that most people have with their siblings. But they love each other even if they’d never admit it.

She doesn’t really care that he harasses Evan the way he does. Occasionally, Elizabeth will tell Michael to “Lay off,” or whatever, but she’s not really passionate about defending her little brother. Evan is, in her opinion, a little annoying, but as long as they’re bothering each other then she is left alone. Elizabeth, of course, doesn’t see the appeal in making Evan cry, but she’ll never understand Michael and she’s come to accept that. Michael will never understand her either. They’re very fictional siblings archetype to me.

After The Bite of ‘83, For a couple days, Elizabeth is just sort of in shock about the whole thing. She didn’t see it happen, but once it sets in Elizabeth gets furious. Her mom is depressed, William is off doing you know what, and Elizabeth is full of rage that she takes out on Michael. And in my opinion it’s, if not justified, then at least valid of her to do.

Because when things start getting worse, Elizabeth blames Michael. Her mom leaves, Charlie dies, the restaurants close, and none of it would have happened if he hadn’t done that. Everything goes to shit around her, and she knows it’s not her fault, and it couldn’t be her dad’s fault, so it must be Michael’s. And Elizabeth hates him even more for that.

I think she genuinely would be really mean about it, too. Like she’d harass him, and tell him that she and everyone else hates him and wishes he was dead. People don’t like it when you characterize Elizabeth as a brat but I don’t think that’s fair, because I think for her the behavior comes from a very personal and justified place. She’s a kid, all she knows is that everything was fine one second, then Michael killed Evan, and now everything is terrible. But she’s not mature enough to express her anger in a way other than being awful to him. I think it’s understandable from a character perspective.

I don’t think Michael would be mad at her for this, though. I think he sort of views her in the same perspective he always did: That she’s annoying, but that he loves her because she’s his sister. He’s pretty tolerant of her behavior, because he probably understands where she’s coming from (and to some extent, knows that she’s right)

I think that when Elizabeth “goes missing,” Michael knows that she’s dead, and he really does miss her.

[1sugnru]

two words: teacher geto

[artemx746]

Do people not realise that a person doesn't suddenly gain full maturity and knowledge of everything when they turn 18?

[trixstriforce]

botw was a good story about coping w/ tragedy, the dangers of expectations and pedestals, and how to live after disaster

totk could have been such a good story about generational trauma, coming to terms w/ grief, and how to really on others after a life time of being alone but it just...wasnt. it had so much potential to build on the themes of botw and give a good thematic close to zelda and link's archs and it set all that up but just...did not

[the-potato-beeper]

i've got an interview today! it's just to see if i'll do this job as an undergrad baby-TA again next semester, so i'm not too worried. it'll only be 15 minutes, and i've been fine with the job this semester

[marscellaneous]

drawing people sitting at a table in perspective is hell i think the medieval times artists were onto something by just ignoring it

[casual-eumetazoa]

I feel like people have also pushed the social model of disability as the only valid model for explaining autism so much that it became just straight up misinformation. Like, listening to some autistic people on tiktok, it's like you can accommodate autism to such an extent that it stops being a disability or even a problem whatsoever. And maybe for some specific combination of traits this is true, but my guess is that it's quite rare. For most people who meet the current diagnostic criteria, autism would disable them in any context, especially since it is almost always comorbid with at least one other thing if not multiple, such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, connective tissue disorders, epilepsy, ADHD, intellectual disability, dyslexia/dyscalculia/dyspraxia, auditory processing disorder... the list goes on.

Point is, of course accommodations, support, and a good environment can eliminate a lot of negative aspects of autism - but most autistic people are disabled by our neurotype and it cannot be accommodated out of existence. Accommodations can drastically improve our quality of life, but not make us function on the exact same level as neurotypical people. And because activist circles and tiktok and so on have an overrepresentation of people whose combination of traits allows them to function on a relatively normative level, people forget just how many struggles you can have, even as a low support person. Like some people think that needing help with filing paperwork or keeping your house clean is high support. That's not even mid support imho, that's something the vast majority of low support autistic people would benefit from. I'm mid support and I need help with tying my shoelaces and preparing simple meals - and I have a master's degree and no learning/intellectual disabilities.

Two things can be true at once. Yes, autism is a natural variation of brain types and we deserve the same rights and dignity as everyone else. Many of us would not want to be "cured" of autism and it is a part of us. Also, yes, it disables us, and limits our functioning, and can be (and is, for many people), a very negative experience, especially in the current world. It's not either or, it's not black or white. It is a complex neurodevelopmental difference that doesn't just boil down to being sensitive and passionate. And it does suck sometimes, maybe even a lot of times. Abled people should learn to respect us and our wishes and needs without either comparing autism to cancer or sugarcoating our experiences.

the way people online talk about autism is getting really weird, like do they know that neurotypicals still have interests? that someone being passionate about a hobby doesn't mean they're autistic? you guys know that right

[kamalkafir-blog]

San Francisco families outraged to learn $3.8M in donations meant to build playgrounds were allegedly misused

The San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA) — a nonprofit foundation established to “create, sustain and advocate for parks” — has abruptly shuttered amid a media and legal firestorm over alleged mismanagement involving at least $3.8 million in donations. That leaves donors like Nicola Miner — whose Baker Street Foundation donated $3 million to the SFPA several years ago — “speechless.” She gave the…

[pier-carlo-universe]

Uzbekistan: Motivazione ed efficacia didattica nella psicologia pedagogica"

Abstract. Questo articolo studia la motivazione interna ed esterna degli studenti nel processo educativo, il loro atteggiamento verso le loro attività educative e il loro impatto sui loro risultati. Evidenzia inoltre l’impatto delle moderne tecnologie educative sulla motivazione e il ruolo degli insegnanti in questo processo. Introduzione Innanzitutto, è opportuno comprendere il concetto di…

[miscflick]

nah I'm still mad that through twelve years of school, I was never actually TAUGHT in gym class. you were simply told "warm up," "run" or "ski" and if you somehow just didn't know how to do these things correctly, you were left behind instead of anyone showing you how or teaching you to do these things. I was always the physically weakest, slowest and second shortest for 9 years, it was humiliating for me and a pathetic sight for everyone else.

this is just my personal experience though, I wouldn't project this onto everyone or insist that gym and exercise is pointless. I learned exercise and stretching all by myself as an adult because it IS important.

I remember skipping my 4th hour class nearly every day for the second semester one year because my 4th hour was gym first semester and I could go there and play and run and have fun because the teachers thought I was still in the class.

I loved gym class so much, more than any other class, including art class.

[nasa]

Seeing the Invisible Universe

This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole’s event horizon, beyond which no light can escape the massive object’s gravitational grip. The black hole’s powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as it skims by the black hole. You might wonder — if this Tumblr post is about invisible things, what’s with all the pictures? Even though we can’t see these things with our eyes or even our telescopes, we can still learn about them by studying how they affect their surroundings. Then, we can use what we know to make visualizations that represent our understanding.

When you think of the invisible, you might first picture something fantastical like a magic Ring or Wonder Woman’s airplane, but invisible things surround us every day. Read on to learn about seven of our favorite invisible things in the universe!

1. Black Holes

This animation illustrates what happens when an unlucky star strays too close to a monster black hole. Gravitational forces create intense tides that break the star apart into a stream of gas. The trailing part of the stream escapes the system, while the leading part swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. A powerful jet can also form. This cataclysmic phenomenon is called a tidal disruption event.

You know ‘em, and we love ‘em. Black holes are balls of matter packed so tight that their gravity allows nothing — not even light — to escape. Most black holes form when heavy stars collapse under their own weight, crushing their mass to a theoretical singular point of infinite density.

Although they don’t reflect or emit light, we know black holes exist because they influence the environment around them — like tugging on star orbits. Black holes distort space-time, warping the path light travels through, so scientists can also identify black holes by noticing tiny changes in star brightness or position.

2. Dark Matter

A simulation of dark matter forming large-scale structure due to gravity.

What do you call something that doesn’t interact with light, has a gravitational pull, and outnumbers all the visible stuff in the universe by five times? Scientists went with “dark matter,” and they think it's the backbone of our universe’s large-scale structure. We don’t know what dark matter is — we just know it's nothing we already understand.

We know about dark matter because of its gravitational effects on galaxies and galaxy clusters — observations of how they move tell us there must be something there that we can’t see. Like black holes, we can also see light bend as dark matter’s mass warps space-time.

3. Dark Energy

Animation showing a graph of the universe’s expansion over time. While cosmic expansion slowed following the end of inflation, it began picking up the pace around 5 billion years ago. Scientists still aren’t sure why.

No one knows what dark energy is either — just that it’s pushing our universe to expand faster and faster. Some potential theories include an ever-present energy, a defect in the universe’s fabric, or a flaw in our understanding of gravity.

Scientists previously thought that all the universe’s mass would gravitationally attract, slowing its expansion over time. But when they noticed distant galaxies moving away from us faster than expected, researchers knew something was beating gravity on cosmic scales. After further investigation, scientists found traces of dark energy’s influence everywhere — from large-scale structure to the background radiation that permeates the universe.

4. Gravitational Waves

Two black holes orbit each other and generate space-time ripples called gravitational waves in this animation.

Like the ripples in a pond, the most extreme events in the universe — such as black hole mergers — send waves through the fabric of space-time. All moving masses can create gravitational waves, but they are usually so small and weak that we can only detect those caused by massive collisions.  Even then they only cause infinitesimal changes in space-time by the time they reach us. Scientists use lasers, like the ground-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) to detect this precise change. They also watch pulsar timing, like cosmic clocks, to catch tiny timing differences caused by gravitational waves.

This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.

5. Neutrinos

This animation shows gamma rays (magenta), the most energetic form of light, and elusive particles called neutrinos (gray) formed in the jet of an active galaxy far, far away. The emission traveled for about 4 billion years before reaching Earth. On Sept. 22, 2017, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected the arrival of a single high-energy neutrino. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed that the source was a black-hole-powered galaxy named TXS 0506+056, which at the time of the detection was producing the strongest gamma-ray activity Fermi had seen from it in a decade of observations.

Because only gravity and the weak force affect neutrinos, they don’t easily interact with other matter — hundreds of trillions of these tiny, uncharged particles pass through you every second! Neutrinos come from unstable atom decay all around us, from nuclear reactions in the Sun to exploding stars, black holes, and even bananas.

Scientists theoretically predicted neutrinos, but we know they actually exist because, like black holes, they sometimes influence their surroundings. The National Science Foundation’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects when neutrinos interact with other subatomic particles in ice via the weak force.

6. Cosmic Rays

This animation illustrates cosmic ray particles striking Earth's atmosphere and creating showers of particles.

Every day, trillions of cosmic rays pelt Earth’s atmosphere, careening in at nearly light-speed — mostly from outside our solar system. Magnetic fields knock these tiny charged particles around space until we can hardly tell where they came from, but we think high energy events like supernovae can accelerate them. Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from cosmic rays, meaning few actually make it to the ground.

Though we don’t see the cosmic rays that make it to the ground, they tamper with equipment, showing up as radiation or as “bright” dots that come and go between pictures on some digital cameras. Cosmic rays can harm astronauts in space, so there are plenty of precautions to protect and monitor them.

7. (Most) Electromagnetic Radiation

The electromagnetic spectrum is the name we use when we talk about different types of light as a group. The parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, arranged from highest to lowest energy are: gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves. All the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are the same thing — radiation. Radiation is made up of a stream of photons — particles without mass that move in a wave pattern all at the same speed, the speed of light. Each photon contains a certain amount of energy.

The light that we see is a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, which spans many wavelengths. We frequently use different wavelengths of light — from radios to airport security scanners and telescopes.

Visible light makes it possible for many of us to perceive the universe every day, but this range of light is just 0.0035 percent of the entire spectrum. With this in mind, it seems that we live in a universe that’s more invisible than not! NASA missions like NASA's Fermi, James Webb, and Nancy Grace Roman  space telescopes will continue to uncloak the cosmos and answer some of science’s most mysterious questions.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[ourstarsystem]

i take what i learn from my psychology classes with a grain of salt (I am very disappointed with the cross cultural psychology class I'm taking) but learning that realistic optimism* is important to physical health explained how I managed to recovery with vulvodynia as well as I have. the brain and body works in weird ways with each other

*What this means is that typically, the most optimistic people regarding their own illnesses also tend to have a far greater understanding of the setbacks and what is or isn't possible in terms of their recovery. You could think of optimism as active hope in this case. I knew it wasn't realistic to go back to how I was before vulvodynia, but my hope was to be able to enjoy sexual experiences again and Ive reached that goal! but I'm still striving for improvement and hopeful I can make it