#blue-stemmed

[slanecc]

study date (ft. just me)

[astrantiia]

31.08.23 // Blue Supermoon and Saturn

Tonight is the second Full Moon of the calendar month, which is often called the Blue Moon, although it doesn’t actually turn blue.

Tonight is also a Supermoon - Full Moon at the moment of maximum or almost maximum approach of the Moon to the Earth - making this the largest and brightest Full Moon in 2023.

In addition, Saturn is now next to the Moon.

[thenicestthingiveseen]

I’m very excited for Nora to roll up to the White House after spending 48 hours hacking an email server off 8 Red Bull and a weed gummy.

[pyromanicfool]

Sobbing so hard bc even as wifey, Mizu wore pants, didn't want to wear that pretty kimono and makeup except for the wedding ceremony itself because I'm sure her "mother" made her or to try and soften his heart after their spar. She was her tomboy self, you know? And people are out here putting her in hyper feminine stuff like NO THIS ISN'T BUTCH DEATH THIS IS BUTCH MURDER.

You can be a butch/tomboy and be pretty or have long hair, I do, but like, oooof. It's like when people made Tigress all girly pop like NO. STOP IT PLEASE. LET BUTCHES BE I BEG. She's clearly into utility over anything else, I mean, she wears her stitched up kimono even though she clearly has the means to buy a new one, her tattered, mud soaked little cape thing, etc. The pants she wore horseriding with Mikio even looked like her pants she wore as a man.

[mindblowingscience]

Plastic waste breaks down over time into nanoplastics (<0.1 μm). Microplastics smaller than 20 μm cannot be removed in currently operating water treatment plants and must be agglomerated to a larger size and then removed. Iron (Fe) or aluminum (Al) based flocculants are used for this purpose, but they are not the ultimate solution as they remain in the water and cause severe toxicity to humans, requiring a separate treatment process. Dr. Jae-Woo Choi of the Center for Water Cycle Research at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed an eco-friendly metal-organic skeleton-based solid flocculant that can effectively aggregate nanoplastics under visible light irradiation. The research was published in Water Research. Prussian blue, a metal-organic frameworks-based substance made by adding iron (III) chloride to a potassium ferrocyanide solution, is the first synthetic pigment used to dye jeans a deep blue color and has recently been used to adsorb cesium, a radioactive element, from Japanese nuclear plant wastewater.

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[bienditt]

week 6

A late start is better than not starting.

[urbvncoffee]

"Changing" means that nothing new will happen until you destroy the person you've been.

I read this sentence in a manga I'm a big fan of, and maybe they've exaggerated it a bit with the "destroy" part, but I think the point they want to make is understood anyway, so I'll leave it here, as a reminder that If I want something to change, that change has to start with me.

[high-voltage-rat]

Actually I'm still thinking about it. Another interesting way in which RvB is anti-war is the way that the Director fills the role of a villain and antagonist (especially in the Recollections trilogy, where he's a faceless villain we never see but is responsible for everything that happens).

In his memos to the Chairman, the Director emphasizes his sense of duty and obligation to the military- he becomes irate for the first time when he feels that it's being implied that he was derelict in his duty... or that the work he did out of that duty is being criticized for being against the military's interests. He also talks about Allison's death in a way I find... interesting.

"You see; I never had the chance to serve in battle. Nor did fate provide me the opportunity to sacrifice myself for humanity as it did for so many others in the Great War. Someone extremely dear to me was lost very early in my life. My mind has always plagued me with the question: If the choice had been placed in my hands, could I have saved her? [...] But, given the events of these past few weeks, I feel confident that had I been given the chance, I would have made those sacrifices myself... Had I only the chance."

The idea of sacrifice is central to the way he talks about his wife's loss, to the way he talks about the war in general. He talks of sacrifice with a sense of veneration- that it's something he aspires to do, that he longs for. There's a few ways we can interpret "I would have made those sacrifices myself"...

-That in Allison's place, he thinks he would have laid down his life too.

-That if given the chance, he would have given his life to save hers.

But most interestingly...

-That he would have sacrificed Allison's life for the continued survival of humanity, if that was what duty called for.

...And personally, I think all 3 are true.

In most war media, the Director's perspective on sacrifice is very common. Sacrifice is glorious and heroic- to die in battle is an honour- and it's the only way to ensure the group you serve survives. This is a tool of propaganda- nobody wants to go to war just for the sake of it, you have to give them a reason that the risk of dying or being permanently disabled isn't just acceptable, but desirable. Beyond that, most people don't want to do things they think are immoral- you have to convince them it's important, a necessary lesser evil. You teach them to sacrifice their morals, too.

The way they train soldiers to follow orders and to kill, is to convince them that they, and the people around them, and the people they care about, will all die if they don't. It's drilled into your head from day one. It's the way they ensure their commanding officers won't shy away from sending their men off to die. The message is constant- sacrifice is your duty, and duty ensures your people's survival.

In the Director's eyes, the damage Project Freelancer caused was his sacrifice. He never got the opportunity to sacrifice himself during the war- so he sacrificed others, as military brass do. The Freelancers- including his daughter. The countless sim troopers. Any people he considered "collateral damage" on missions. And when the opportunity to do so presented itself, he sacrificed a copy of himself- Alpha- and he sacrificed a copy of Allison- Tex.

The very thing that derailed his life- the loss of his wife- he made it happen again. He put her copy in dangerous situations, let her exist in the position of constant repeated failure, created the circumstances that would eventually lead to her death. He put their daughter in deadly situations that nearly killed her repeatedly, provided her with impossible expectations leading to self-destructive behaviours in the name of duty, implanted her with two AI knowing they could cause her permanent harm. He was confident he "would have made those sacrifices himself" because he did.

The Director is the embodiment of the military war machine. As an antagonist, he is a warning against buying into the glorification of sacrifice. He's a condemnation of the idea that one should be willing to do anything to win a war- that duty to the military is the thing that ensures survival... All the messages that are pushed to ensure recruitment and obedience of soldiers.

He's a reminder that swallowing the propaganda leads to you doing terrible things... and in the end, you're a broken man left mourning the losses that you suffered even as you repeated them, convinced that it was all necessary.

[twocoffeedraws]

Combining some of my interests, finishing off Funguary 2024 with some mushroom mafia folk

[vandaliatraveler]

Bickle Knob is the high point on Forest Road 91 in the Monongahela National Forest, which traverses some of the wildest and most beautiful areas of the Allegheny Mountains. Depending on which end you enter, the gravel road starts or finishes with the Stuart Recreation Area and the Otter Creek Wilderness. Bickle Knob rises roughly halfway between the two, with Bear Heaven Campground squeezed into a sharp bend on the descent from the top of the mountain. Bickle Knob is most notable for hosting one of the few remaining forest service fire towers in West Virginia, which is accessible to the public. The original cab has been removed and replaced with an open viewing platform. Views are breathtaking in all directions. The tower and other facilities in the area were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the early days of the national forest system. The most evident artifact, aside from the fire tower, is the gorgeous stonework of an historic water well located along the road, a memorable legacy from a day and an age when hand-carved and constructed edifices were both a necessity and an artform; they need to be restored and protected for future generations.

[2001hz]

Dale Chihuly: Persian Set (2001)

fluted bowl and central flower stem, yellow and blue bands with thin aubergine veins and applied with red rim, with perspex display box and cover.

[nenelonomh]

blue light

blue light is a type of visible light with short, high-energy waves. its wavelength ranges from approximately 380 nanometers (violet light) to 700 nanometers (red light). blue light waves are only slightly longer and less powerful than ultraviolet (UV) waves, which are invisible to the naked eye.

blue light is encountered from various sources, including the sun, fluorescent bulbs, incandescent lights and digital screens.

when sunlight enters the atmosphere, blue light waves scatter off nitrogen and oxygen particles. these particles are perfectly suited to deflect blue light, giving the sky its characteristic blue hue. during sunset, the longer path of sunlight allows more blue light to dissipate, revealing the warm red and gold tones we associate with a gorgeous sunset.

blue light penetrates our eyes and reaches the retina at the back of the eye. while the cornea and lens protect us from harmful UV rays, they don't block out blue light. approximately one-third of visible light is considered high-energy visible (HEV) or blue light. some experts believe that prolonged exposure to blue light from screens may contribute to digital eyestrain and affect our sleep cycles.

blue light exposure during the day helps to regulate our circadian rhythm, keeping us alert and awake.

excessive blue light exposure, especially at night, can interfere with sleep patterns. some studies suggest that chronic exposure to blue light may contribute to macular degeneration (a condition affecting central vision). however, conclusive evidence is still lacking.

to reduce blue light exposure, : ̗̀➛ use blue light filters on screens or wear blue light-blocking glasses : ̗̀➛ limit screen time before bedtime : ̗̀➛ consider using warm-toned lighting in the evening

for further exploration on the topic of blue light: healthline sleep foundation all about vision vision centre web md

[nashvillethotchicken]

I wish there were more black people who were into iwtv so I can talk about how Louis's class and race interests intersected

[falloutnewnobody]

old world blues is exactly how it feels to be a research assistant in academia.

like the whole plot is going somewhere to learn more about a cool mystery and being essentially held hostage by a team of petty egomanics (PIs/professors) that force you to bust your ass 25/8 with litle to no assistance along the way, just so they can one up their equally petty narcissist of a rival

the only difference is that the sink is twice the size of the average grad student's apartment.

[mindblowingscience]

A mysterious cosmic explosion created a brilliant flash of light in the space between two galaxies over 3 billion light-years away. The optical flash, which was one of the brightest bursts of blue light in the universe but lasted only a few days, is the latest example of a rare breed of brief astronomical event called a luminous fast blue optical transient (LFBOT). LFBOTs are a complete mystery. The first one to be discovered wasn't observed until 2018. Designated AT2018cow, it was positioned in the spiral arm of its galaxy 200 million light-years away. Nicknamed "the Cow," it was up to 100 times brighter than an ordinary supernova, and was also bright in radio waves, ultraviolet and X-rays. If it was a supernova, it behaved very oddly. Usually, a supernova stays bright for weeks, or even months, and has a recognizable spectrum. Yet the Cow faded after a few days.

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