#data science project step by step

[analyticspursuit]

Stages of the Data Science Lifecycle: From Idea to Deployment

In this short video, we'll discuss the stages of the data science lifecycle, from idea to deployment. We'll cover the different stages of a data science project, from data collection to data analysis and finally, the presentation of the results.

If you're new to data science or you're looking for a better understanding of the life cycle of a data science project, then this video is for you!

By the end of this short video, you'll have a clearer understanding of the stages of the data science lifecycle, and you'll be able to move from idea to deployment with ease!

[nasa]

Student Experiments Soar!

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get a technology ready for space? The NASA TechRise Student Challenge gives middle and high school students a chance to do just that – team up with their classmates to design an original science or technology project and bring that idea to life as a payload on a suborbital vehicle.

Since March 2021, with the help of teachers and technical advisors, students across the country have dreamed up experiments with the potential to impact space exploration and collect data about our planet.

So far, more than 180 TechRise experiments have flown on suborbital vehicles that expose them to the conditions of space. Flight testing is a big step along the path of space technology development and scientific discovery.

The 2023-2024 TechRise Challenge flight tests took place this summer, with 60 student teams selected to fly their experiments on one of two commercial suborbital flight platforms: a high-altitude balloon operated by World View, or the Xodiac rocket-powered lander operated by Astrobotic. Xodiac flew over the company’s Lunar Surface Proving Ground — a test field designed to simulate the Moon’s surface — in Mojave, California, while World View’s high-altitude balloon launched out of Page, Arizona.

Here are four innovative TechRise experiments built by students and tested aboard NASA-supported flights this summer:

1. Oobleck Reaches the Skies

Oobleck, which gets its name from Dr. Seuss, is a mixture of cornstarch and water that behaves as both a liquid and a solid. Inspired by in-class science experiments, high school students at Colegio Otoqui in Bayomón, Puerto Rico, tested how Oobleck’s properties at 80,000 feet aboard a high-altitude balloon are different from those on Earth’s surface. Using sensors and the organic elements to create Oobleck, students aimed to collect data on the fluid under different conditions to determine if it could be used as a system for impact absorption.

2. Terrestrial Magnetic Field

Middle school students at Phillips Academy International Baccalaureate School in Birmingham, Alabama, tested the Earth’s magnetic field strength during the ascent, float, and descent of the high-altitude balloon. The team hypothesized the magnetic field strength decreases as the distance from Earth’s surface increases.

3. Rocket Lander Flame Experiment

To understand the impact of dust, rocks, and other materials kicked up by a rocket plume when landing on the Moon, middle school students at Cliff Valley School in Atlanta, Georgia, tested the vibrations of the Xodiac rocket-powered lander using CO2 and vibration sensors. The team also used infrared (thermal) and visual light cameras to attempt to detect the hazards produced by the rocket plume on the simulated lunar surface, which is important to ensure a safe landing.

4. Rocket Navigation

Middle and high school students at Tiospaye Topa School in LaPlant, South Dakota, developed an experiment to track motion data with the help of a GPS tracker and magnetic radar. Using data from the rocket-powered lander flight, the team will create a map of the flight path as well as the magnetic field of the terrain. The students plan to use their map to explore developing their own rocket navigation system.

The 2024-2025 TechRise Challenge is now accepting proposals for technology and science to be tested on a high-altitude balloon! Not only does TechRise offer hands-on experience in a live testing scenario, but it also provides an opportunity to learn about teamwork, project management, and other real-world skills.

“The TechRise Challenge was a truly remarkable journey for our team,” said Roshni Ismail, the team lead and educator at Cliff Valley School. “Watching them transform through the discovery of new skills, problem-solving together while being driven by the chance of flying their creation on a [rocket-powered lander] with NASA has been exhilarating. They challenged themselves to learn through trial and error and worked long hours to overcome every obstacle. We are very grateful for this opportunity.”

Are you ready to bring your experiment design to the launchpad? If you are a sixth to 12th grade student, you can make a team under the guidance of an educator and submit your experiment ideas by November 1. Get ready to create!

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

[inbabylontheywept]

"I will solve you if I must."

Arkinot knew what humans looked like. They were half his size, soft, pink, and easily bullied. He knew this because he’d spent the last two weeks terrifying a team of human diplomats sent to negotiate trade deals. It was something of a science to him at this point: Small but weak species sends in their diplomats, he spends a week or two terrifying them in close quarters, then he offers them some dogshit trade deals in exchange for getting to leave early. They take the deal, he gets richer, and in a manner of speaking, the universe becomes a better place. Being a coward was the kind of thing that really should be taxed, and he liked to think of his negotiation style as exactly that: A coward tax.

Still, that was far dominating his thoughts at the moment. The conundrum his brain was struggling to untangle was that he knew what a human looked like, and the thing in front of him was not a human. It wore human robes, but underneath the robes, it appeared to be a tank that someone had glued several monitors to. Maybe even an antennae of some kind. It was such a chaotic jumble that it was almost funny. The one part of it that really seemed to be going too far was the badge sewn into the front designating it as an official diplomat.

He stepped a few feet closer to inspect the possible art piece. He barely had begun to reach his hand forward to lift the tent sized robe when a mechanical claw pushed forward and clasped around his arm, painless but implacable.

“What the fuck-”

He didn’t hear the voice from the thing, nor did he hear it in his mind, as he’d felt with some of the telepathic races. The voice of this abomination felt like it was being physically projected directly inside his own ear, as if its mouth was just a fraction of a centimeter away from his ear drum.

“Arkinot.”

He threw up. The words weren’t loud but they seemed to have some kind of disproportionate effect on his balancing organs. The world was sent spinning and he could barely tell up from down. A second bolt of pain blossomed, this time from the back of his head. It took him a good moment to realize that he’d fallen flat on his back. He didn’t know a simple sound could cause so much damage.

And then it continued.

“You make threats you have no ability to back up. You will learn.”

Even with his senses scrambled, he could feel something cold and metallic pressed into his hand. He was too incoherent to guess what.

He wasn’t sure if the voice retracted from his ear out of pity, or because it knew that it had proved its point, but he was grateful to hear the rest of the message without feeling like someone was trying to jam stakes into his brain.

“A copy has already been sent to your high command. Your ‘diplomacy’ has already been bypassed. This is simply a personal education on the nature of human violence. Summon me when you understand.”

He rolled over to see the thing lurching down the hall. Even in his disoriented state, he could see something human in it, something imperceptibly satisfied with the message it had delivered. Part of him wondered if there was some small lump of flesh buried deep inside that horror, or if it was just mind made metal, an engram with form.

Perhaps sensing his gaze, it paused. It didn’t turn around, but he doubted that its vision was as limited as eyes were. The voice projected forward again, mercifully short of his ear, but still too close for comfort. He could almost imagine the hot breath of it bouncing off his face, mere millimeters away from his face.

“I will know when you are done. Do not make me find you.”

---

It had taken him half an hour to work up the will to pull himself up from his pool of stale vomit, and another ten minutes to stagger back to his cabin. He’d needed to lean against the wall for the entire walk back. He was genuinely concerned that his balance had been permanently damaged.

He did his first inspection of the object he’d been gifted. It was, technically, a data slate, but that was somewhat akin to calling a reactor a steam engine. The specs on it didn’t even make sense to him. What the hell was an exaHz? What was a Bekenstein limit? How could storage be at 137% of it? Couldn’t be much of a limit if it went over 100.

The device seemed to recognize it was being inspected and raised a query of its own.

User: Arkinot?

He nodded dumbly. The slate whirred for a few seconds, genuinely struggling to process what it was about to do.

And then it began.

---

Arkinot stumbled out of the room seventeen hours later. He wasn’t terrified. He’d run out of the emotional energy needed to feel fear after the first two hours of calm, methodical instruction presented to him by the dataslate.

He had learned about the nature of human violence. It was no hot blooded slaughter, no prayer of eternal vengeance. It was an industrial event to them, something to be mass produced until the market flooded over and peace became the new commodity of choice.

And they could do that. Easily. He’d seen blueprints for factories that built factories that built factories. Replicating swarms of mining bots.

The smallest time vs. production curve he’d seen was for their assault cruisers, and it was still a fourth order polynomial. If for some reason they needed to wage war for over a year, they could feasibly consume more than 30% of the mass of their first three industrial worlds.

And they had more than forty left in reserve.

He’d assume earlier that he was arguing from a position of strength because they didn’t have an active armada. He realized that the reason they hadn’t bothered was because they’d be able to produce one as large as his entire species fleet in under 48 hours.

His balance was back. He barely noticed. He followed the same path he had before, noticed in an offhanded way that the vomit had been cleaned. The human diplomat must have called that in. He certainly hadn’t.

He was now in the human section of the station, and while he could sense a wariness in the steps of the pink things around him, it was hardly the full blown fear he’d managed to instill just 24 hours before. They knew that they’d managed to summon a stronger predator than him.

He knew it too.

The door that he’d been summoned to was a repurposed garage. He supposed nothing else would fit someone so large. He knocked twice on the corrugated steel before it began to roll up.

The robes were gone. Still no visible flesh, but at least with all the machinery in sight he had a better idea of what he was looking at. He still didn't see any pink skin there, but he didn't have to when he could see rack after rack of eletroneural interfaces.

So there was a brain in there. A human brain. Probably very little else.

A faint twitch of its insectoid legs gave away its impatience. Ah. So it was waiting for him to speak.

“You didn’t need… Damn. How large was that presentation?”

The voice was almost offhanded in its response.

“208 yottabytes.”

Arkinot’s brain skipped over the scale of that number. It was absurdly massive. Apparently, everything that the humans really put their minds to turned absurdly massive.

“You didn’t need 208 yottabytes to say that you could kick our asses.”

The faint twitching gave away, replaced by an uncanny stillness. It wasn’t the frozen stiffness of a robot, it was the tense, rigid posture of someone showing a considerable amount of restraint.

“No. You certainly didn’t when you said that to us. What I needed 208 yottabytes for was showing you how I would ‘kick your asses.’ It is worth considering how much scarier that is than your empty words.”

There was a brief noise, like rustling through the speaker, and he realized that the machine had done the purely auditory equivalent of taking a breath. The action was somehow more unsettling than the purely mechanical affect he’d seen before. It made him realize just how close any of the other soft pink things running around the halls were to becoming something like this, something that could crush him with a thought.

His thoughts were interrupted by the man-machine’s closing words, tired but dangerous.

“Do not threaten our diplomats again. It is their job to be patient. It is my job to solve problems. I will solve you if I must.”

That same tired voice spoke again, millimeters from his ear.

“Now, don't let me detain you.”

He did what any sane sapient would do.

He ran.

[fireflysummers]

Heroes, Gods, and the Invisible Narrator

Slay the Princess as a Framework for the Cyclical Reproduction of Colonialist Narratives in Data Science & Technology

An Essay by FireflySummers

All images are captioned.

Content Warnings: Body Horror, Discussion of Racism and Colonialism

Spoilers for Slay the Princess (2023) by @abby-howard and Black Tabby Games.

If you enjoy this article, consider reading my guide to arguing against the use of AI image generators or the academic article it's based on.

Introduction: The Hero and the Princess

You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess. You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.

Slay the Princess is a 2023 indie horror game by Abby Howard and published through Black Tabby Games, with voice talent by Jonathan Sims (yes, that one) and Nichole Goodnight.

The game starts with you dropped without context in the middle of the woods. But that’s alright. The Narrator is here to guide you. You are the hero, you have your weapon, and you have a monster to slay.

From there, it's the player's choice exactly how to proceed--whether that be listening to the voice of the narrator, or attempting to subvert him. You can kill her as instructed, or sit and chat, or even free her from her chains.

It doesn't matter.

Regardless of whether you are successful in your goal, you will inevitably (and often quite violently) die.

And then...

You are once again on a path in the woods.

The cycle repeats itself, the narrator seemingly none the wiser. But the woods are different, and so is the cabin. You're different, and worse... so is she.

Based on your actions in the previous loop, the princess has... changed. Distorted.

Had you attempted a daring rescue, she is now a damsel--sweet and submissive and already fallen in love with you.

Had you previously betrayed her, she has warped into something malicious and sinister, ready to repay your kindness in full.

But once again, it doesn't matter.

Because the no matter what you choose, no matter how the world around you contorts under the weight of repeated loops, it will always be you and the princess.

Why? Because that’s how the story goes.

So says the narrator.

So now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about data.

Chapter I: Echoes and Shattered Mirrors

The problem with "data" is that we don't really think too much about it anymore. Or, at least, we think about it in the same abstract way we think about "a billion people." It's gotten so big, so seemingly impersonal that it's easy to forget that contemporary concept of "data" in the west is a phenomenon only a couple centuries old [1].

This modern conception of the word describes the ways that we translate the world into words and numbers that can then be categorized and analyzed. As such, data has a lot of practical uses, whether that be putting a rover on mars or tracking the outbreak of a viral contagion. However, this functionality makes it all too easy to overlook the fact that data itself is not neutral. It is gathered by people, sorted into categories designed by people, and interpreted by people. At every step, there are people involved, such that contemporary technology is embedded with systemic injustices, and not always by accident.

The reproduction of systems of oppression are most obvious from the margins. In his 2019 article As If, Ramon Amaro describes the Aspire Mirror (2016): a speculative design project by by Joy Buolamwini that contended with the fact that the standard facial recognition algorithm library had been trained almost exclusively on white faces. The simplest solution was to artificially lighten darker skin-tones for the algorithm to recognize, which Amaro uses to illustrate the way that technology is developed with an assumption of whiteness [2].

This observation applies across other intersections as well, such as trans identity [3], which has been colloquially dubbed "The Misgendering Machine" [4] for its insistence on classifying people into a strict gender binary based only on physical appearance.

This has also popped up in my own research, brought to my attention by the artist @b4kuch1n who has spoken at length with me about the connection between their Vietnamese heritage and the clothing they design in their illustrative work [5]. They call out AI image generators for reinforcing colonialism by stripping art with significant personal and cultural meaning of their context and history, using them to produce a poor facsimile to sell to the highest bidder.

All this describes an iterative cycle which defines normalcy through a white, western lens, with a limited range of acceptable diversity. Within this cycle, AI feeds on data gathered under colonialist ideology, then producing an artifact that reinforces existing systemic bias. When this data is, in turn, once again fed to the machine, that bias becomes all the more severe, and the range of acceptability narrower [2, 6].

Luciana Parisi and Denise Ferreira da Silva touch on a similar point in their article Black Feminist Tools, Critique, and Techno-poethics but on a much broader scale. They call up the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was punished by the gods for his hubris for stealing fire to give to humanity. Parisi and Ferreira da Silva point to how this, and other parts of the “Western Cosmology” map to humanity’s relationship with technology [7].

However, while this story seems to celebrate the technological advancement of humanity, there are darker colonialist undertones. It frames the world in terms of the gods and man, the oppressor and the oppressed; but it provides no other way of being. So instead the story repeats itself, with so-called progress an inextricable part of these two classes of being. This doesn’t bode well for visions of the future, then–because surely, eventually, the oppressed will one day be the machines [7, 8].

It’s… depressing. But it’s only really true, if you assume that that’s the only way the story could go.

“Stories don't care who takes part in them. All that matters is that the story gets told, that the story repeats. Or, if you prefer to think of it like this: stories are a parasitical life form, warping lives in the service only of the story itself.” ― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

Chapter II: The Invisible Narrator

So why does the narrator get to call the shots on how a story might go? Who even are they? What do they want? How much power do they actually have?

With the exception of first person writing, a lot of the time the narrator is invisible. This is different from an unreliable narrator. With an unreliable narrator, at some point the audience becomes aware of their presence in order for the story to function as intended. An invisible narrator is never meant to be seen.

In Slay the Princess, the narrator would very much like to be invisible. Instead, he has been dragged out into the light, because you (and the inner voices you pick up along the way), are starting to argue with him. And he doesn’t like it.

Despite his claims that the princess will lie and cheat in order to escape, as the game progresses it’s clear that the narrator is every bit as manipulative–if not moreso, because he actually knows what’s going on. And, if the player tries to diverge from the path that he’s set before them, the correct path, then it rapidly becomes clear that he, at least to start, has the power to force that correct path.

While this is very much a narrative device, the act of calling attention to the narrator is important beyond that context. 

The Hero’s Journey is the true monomyth, something to which all stories can be reduced. It doesn’t matter that the author, Joseph Campbell, was a raging misogynist whose framework flattened cultures and stories to fit a western lens [9, 10]. It was used in Star Wars, so clearly it’s a universal framework.

The metaverse will soon replace the real world and crypto is the future of currency! Never mind that the organizations pushing it are suspiciously pyramid shaped. Get on board or be left behind.

Generative AI is pushed as the next big thing. The harms it inflicts on creatives and the harmful stereotypes it perpetuates are just bugs in the system. Never mind that the evangelists for this technology speak over the concerns of marginalized people [5]. That’s a skill issue, you gotta keep up.

Computers will eventually, likely soon, advance so far as to replace humans altogether. The robot uprising is on the horizon [8]. 

Who perpetuates these stories? What do they have to gain?

Why is the only story for the future replications of unjust systems of power? Why must the hero always slay the monster?

Because so says the narrator. And so long as they are invisible, it is simple to assume that this is simply the way things are.

Chapter III: The End...?

This is the part where Slay the Princess starts feeling like a stretch, but I’ve already killed the horse so I might as well beat it until the end too.

Because what is the end result here?

According to the game… collapse. A recursive story whose biases narrow the scope of each iteration ultimately collapses in on itself. The princess becomes so sharp that she is nothing but blades to eviscerate you. The princess becomes so perfect a damsel that she is a caricature of the trope. The story whittles itself away to nothing. And then the cycle begins anew.

There’s no climactic final battle with the narrator. He created this box, set things in motion, but he is beyond the player’s reach to confront directly. The only way out is to become aware of the box itself, and the agenda of the narrator. It requires acknowledgement of the artificiality of the roles thrust upon you and the Princess, the false dichotomy of hero or villain.

Slay the Princess doesn’t actually provide an answer to what lies outside of the box, merely acknowledges it as a limit that can be overcome. 

With regards to the less fanciful narratives that comprise our day-to-day lives, it’s difficult to see the boxes and dichotomies we’ve been forced into, let alone what might be beyond them. But if the limit placed is that there are no stories that can exist outside of capitalism, outside of colonialism, outside of rigid hierarchies and oppressive structures, then that limit can be broken [12].

Denouement: Doomed by the Narrative

Video games are an interesting artistic medium, due to their inherent interactivity. The commonly accepted mechanics of the medium, such as flavor text that provides in-game information and commentary, are an excellent example of an invisible narrator. Branching dialogue trees and multiple endings can help obscure this further, giving the player a sense of genuine agency… which provides an interesting opportunity to drag an invisible narrator into the light.

There are a number of games that have explored the power differential between the narrator and the player (The Stanley Parable, Little Misfortune, Undertale, Buddy.io, OneShot, etc…)

However, Slay the Princess works well here because it not only emphasizes the artificial limitations that the narrator sets on a story, but the way that these stories recursively loop in on themselves, reinforcing the fears and biases of previous iterations. 

Critical data theory probably had nothing to do with the game’s development (Abby Howard if you're reading this, lmk). However, it works as a surprisingly cohesive framework for illustrating the ways that we can become ensnared by a narrative, and the importance of knowing who, exactly, is narrating the story. Although it is difficult or impossible to conceptualize what might exist beyond the artificial limits placed by even a well-intentioned narrator, calling attention to them and the box they’ve constructed is the first step in breaking out of this cycle.

“You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage.” ― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

Epilogue

If you've read this far, thank you for your time! This was an adaptation of my final presentation for a Critical Data Studies course. Truthfully, this course posed quite a challenge--I found the readings of philosophers such as Kant, Adorno, Foucault, etc... difficult to parse. More contemporary scholars were significantly more accessible. My only hope is that I haven't gravely misinterpreted the scholars and researchers whose work inspired this piece.

I honestly feel like this might have worked best as a video essay, but I don't know how to do those, and don't have the time to learn or the money to outsource.

Slay the Princess is available for purchase now on Steam.

Screencaps from ManBadassHero Let's Plays: [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]

Post Dividers by @cafekitsune

Citations:

Rosenberg, D. (2018). Data as word. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 48(5), 557-567.

Amaro, Ramon. (2019). As If. e-flux Architecture. Becoming Digital. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/becoming-digital/248073/as-if/

What Ethical AI Really Means by PhilosophyTube

Keyes, O. (2018). The misgendering machines: Trans/HCI implications of automatic gender recognition. Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction, 2(CSCW), 1-22.

Allred, A.M., Aragon, C. (2023). Art in the Machine: Value Misalignment and AI “Art”. In: Luo, Y. (eds) Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering. CDVE 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14166. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43815-8_4

Amaro, R. (2019). Artificial Intelligence: warped, colorful forms and their unclear geometries.

Parisisi, L., Ferreira da Silva, D. Black Feminist Tools, Critique, and Techno-poethics. e-flux. Issue #123. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/123/436929/black-feminist-tools-critique-and-techno-poethics/

AI - Our Shiny New Robot King | Sophie from Mars by Sophie From Mars

Joseph Campbell and the Myth of the Monomyth | Part 1 by Maggie Mae Fish

Joseph Campbell and the N@zis | Part 2 by Maggie Mae Fish

How Barbie Cis-ified the Matrix by Jessie Gender

[i-will-physically-fight-you]

I think something that's fascinating in the AI discussion is how non-creatives perceive AI versus how many creatives perceive AI.

For example, years before AI was a thing--I spoke with someone about my creative writing projects and they expressed to me how they found it unfathomable that I could just make up entire worlds far removed from our reality of existence. To them, it was like magic.

To me, it was the culmination of countless hours spent playing with words until they flowed into semi-coherent lines of thought and emotion. I remember being ten years old and laboring away on my "biggest" novel project ever--it was 5k words full of singular sentence-long paragraphs and garbled heaps of grammar atrocities to the English language.

If I hadn't written it, I wouldn't have come to learn how to create the basic foundations of a story.

But I do get the "it's magic" sentiment a bit--I'm that way with music. Theoretically, I understand the components of a music composition but it feels like magic to see a musician that can listen to a tune for the first time and play it perfectly due to years of honing in their craft.

That's the premise of that quote from Arthur C. Clarke: "Magic's just science we don't understand yet."

When it comes to anything we don't have countless hours of experience with, it feels like magic. It feels like something that's outside of our feeble human capabilities. It's not until we start to put in the time to learn a skill that it becomes more attainable inside our heads.

Generative AI presents a proposition to the non-creative: "What if you could skip past the 'learning process' and immediately create whatever art of your choosing?"

It's instant dopamine. In a world that preys upon our ever-decreasing attention spans and ways of farming short spikes of dopamine, was it ever a surprise that generative ai would be capitalized in this fashion?

So for the non-creative, when they use generative AI and see something resembling their prompt, it feels good. They are "writing" stories, they are "making" art in ways they could never do with their lack of skills.

(It is, in fact, really cool that we have technology that can do this. It's just incredibly shitty that it's exploitative of the human artists whose works were taken without permission as well as its existence threatening their livelihoods.)

What I think is equally concerning as the data scraping of generative ai is the threat that AI imposes on the education of the arts. More and more, you see an idea being pushed that you don't need knowledge/experience in how to create art, all you need to do is feed prompts into generative ai and let it do the "work" for you.

Generative AI pushes the idea that all art should be pristine, sleek and ready for capitalism consumption. There is no room for amateur artists struggling like foals to take their first steps in their creative journeys. We live in a world where time is money and why "waste" time learning when you can have instant success?

It's a dangerous concept because presents a potential loss in true understanding of how art works. It obscures it and makes it seem "impossible" to the average person, when art is one of the freest forms of expressions out there.

It's already happening--Nanowrimo, the writing challenge where the entire point was writing 50k original words in a single month regardless of how pretty it looked--coming out and saying that it is ableist and classist to be opposed to AI is the canary in the coalmine of what's to come.

For the non-creatives who enjoy the generative ai, it feels like a power fantasy come to life. But for creatives concerned about generative ai?

We're living in a horror movie.

[fossilprep]

There's a lot this article touches on, but the parts about fossil preparation are kind of in poor taste. I'll go over some of it under the cut.

There's a reason we usually don't publish on things we prepare. They say it right here - we can literally, whether purposeful or accidental, modify fossils as we see fit. We could imitate pathologies or create marks with air scribes or picks that are misinterpreted as pathologies, remove or obscure parts of a fossil that may be diagnostic, etc. (Of course we don't endear to do these things, they're just possible).

Whether through inexperience or poor dexterity some budding preparators can cause damage that only someone with a trained eye could notice. Preparators aren't always required to be trained in the sciences or have thorough anatomical knowledge, and thus can reconstruct things wrong, without scientific guidance. Like filling holes where there's supposed to be… holes! Like a fenestrum or foramen, for example. This is why we have references, but more importantly, we do the minimum unless instructed to do otherwise by a supervisor or exhibits team - one of a few scenarios where a curator can rightfully step in.

This is why we're trained to preserve almost any bone we see. Often there are small isolated bone chunks hovering in matrix that are thrown in a box with the specimen. A lot of pieces can't be reattached because they're too weathered or of indeterminate origins (“IBF’s” for short).

"Creating" something "artistic" is another way of implying we're making it up as we go.

If someone hands me a fossil and tells me to look at this "multimedia sculpture", I'd be confused. It's a fossil, not an art project.

Academic fossil preparation is fundamentally a scientific endeavor that also requires artistic abilities, but not creativity. We use various methods that are tried and true (and sometimes experiment with new ones) to expose an element from matrix.

The act of preparing a fossil is not providing new data. The fossil itself is the data. We just make it available. That being said, if we provide measurements, take and analyze samples of the matrix for various analyses, then that's providing valuable data. Would that warrant an authorship? Maybe.

This raises another question though. If anyone who worked on a fossil gets an authorship, then can authorship compound?

The person who found the fossil but didn't do anything with it afterwards - just dug it up and sent it to the lab, for example. Do they get to be an author? On our field crews we have up to 30 people over the whole season. 30 coauthors and 99% of them are not scientists.

The collections manager who just painted a number on it, catalogued it, and put it away?

How about the curator who allowed a researcher access to the collection who didn't collect any data but just answered some emails and opened the drawer for it to be studied?

The land owner who gave you permission to dig?

Finally, the preparator who just exposed it from the rock. They do more science inherently than the others, but if no parts of the scientific method were conducted and no data was produced (save for the fossil simply being brought back into the world), do they get an authorship?

tl;dr We don't need authorships for the act of preparing fossils unless we provide data and go through the scientific process (like what's usually required for any authorship). Many parts of the process is not science. Just acknowledge our work in your paper and we'll be more than happy.

[shortfeather]

22 "…in a rush of adrenaline." with Zed/&Tango for the ask game iyw??

Sorry this is nearly three months later I had to give my writing muscles a break! But here they are... the dorks of all time...

(send me a ship and a number and i'll write a kiss)

“This is an insane way to start a season, Zed!”

Either Tango had a very impressive set of lungs—true, but perhaps not “bedrock to build height” true—or the voice in Zedaph’s head that sounded rather a lot like his best friend was speaking up. Either way, it wouldn’t be enough to dissuade him from attempting Caves and Cliffs. He’d already gotten all dressed up for it; it would be a crime to waste a costume this good! A crime, seriously.

“Ready?!” he shouted down the massive tower of scaffolding, as loud as he could. The sound didn’t echo; he was too high above the nearest surface for that.

There was no answer. Another point to the prior Tango being brain-Tango. Braingo? Sounded more like a game of some—

Oh. He’d apparently stepped off while lost in thought about Tango and brains, and now he was falling rapidly towards a hole that ran all the way down to bedrock, where his best friend was waiting with a water bucket.

The idea was simple: the ultimate trust fall tied into a rather impressive achievement. Who did Zedaph trust to do the clutch part of a water bucket clutch for him? Well, honestly, a few people. Impulse, definitely… Skizz if he was here… really, most of the Hermits, although everyone except perhaps Skizz would let him go splat a couple times first for comedic effect. But one person had been on Zedaph’s mind lately, to the point of distraction, as evidenced by him absentmindedly walking off his tower of scaffolding a few moments ago.

As the wind rushed around his ears (and face, and body in general), Zedaph considered Braingo, and then sans the brain bit. Tango had really been on his mind lately, which maybe wasn’t such a weird thing considering they were best friends, but Zed didn’t tend to focus like this. Sure, he had projects, and a season-long goal, but he tended to flit between tasks unless they were particular brain-teasers.

So maybe Tango was a brain-teaser, then. But how? After so long, Zedaph felt he had a pretty good handle on the guy. He was goofy, and liked to skirt the edge of immature jokes, and had big ideas with even bigger outcomes. Snarky, silly—oops, there went the trees, he was officially underground now—and he constantly sounded like he needed a cough drop. Yes, Zedaph knew him well, and yet he apparently didn’t know him enough.

Science time, then. What didn’t he know about Tango? What study could be conducted outside the area constrained by their friendship—

“Shit!”

Zed heard the yelp briefly, and then went splat, and woke up back in the forest. Ah, damn. That would be a long climb back up. 

“—pid idiot!” came Tango’s voice, very faintly, and very wetly. Zedaph slid out of the bed to peek into the hole to bedrock, and yep, there was Tango swimming up the waterfall with a frown. “You can’t just jump, you have to tell me when you’re going so I’m ready!”

“I did yell,” Zed called to him. “I just didn’t really consider the ramifications of you not being able to hear me.”

Tango paused, then swam harder, scowling even as his eyebrows danced in a way Zed knew meant he was trying desperately not to laugh. “Of course I couldn’t hear you! You were hundreds of blocks away from me!”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re not the one who went splat.”

And then Tango was climbing out of the waterfall with Zed’s help, except he kept getting closer, his face in Zed’s, and oh! That was new! That was definitely something not in the usual friendship, which meant Zed needed to really pay attention—

“Oh man.” Tango abruptly broke the kiss, and Zed wrinkled his nose in annoyance. “Wait, no, Zed, I’m sorry—”

Zed flapped his hand to get him to shut up, and leaned in and kissed him again. Tango’s face was still wet from the waterfall, which was definitely skewing the data, but his lips were chapped and even at the very beginning of a new season he smelled like redstone. Despite the chill of being down by the void and then swimming over a hundred blocks upwards, he felt very warm, although that also may have been Braingo internally overheating Zed by making various screeching noises. Good kind of screeching, thankfully, because otherwise the kiss would have been really awkward.

“Zed.” Tango pulled away again, but not so far. “What’re you doing.”

“Kissing?” Tango raised an eyebrow, so Zedaph elaborated. “Studying the sensations, really. The you in my head seems very happy about it, so I’m trying to figure out why.”

Tango stared, which wasn’t unusual, and then burst into laughter. “Y’know what? Sure. I don’t know why I expected anything else.” He sat down on the bed, immediately soaking the blanket, and then made grabby hands towards Zedaph. “Come here and kiss me some more, then, we’ll see how happy other-me gets. And me-me, for good measure.”

And, well, he did have a world-spanning trust fall to complete, but he could wait a bit for some other science first.

[tornado1992]

Sonic is fighting Eggman on one of his evil lairs, nothing new. Tails helped him wreck some badniks but Sonic said he wanted to annoy Eggman by himself for a little bit, so the little fox wanders around the base, maybe he can collect some data to outpace Eggman before his next scheme, the control room is in the same place almost every time so he confidently enters the room after six seconds of hacking through the lock, a semi solid hologram of a girl with crimson eyes turns to him as he steps inside.

Sage, right, he remembers her, he suddenly also remembers that the “Chaos Energy Use Effects On Non Organic Beings” conference he wanted to see was airing live just at that time, but that was only because could see the program starting and being projected on the multiple screens of the room behind Sage. He keeps looking at them for a whole 10 seconds, then remembers where he is, and as he quickly returns his attention to the A.I. girl while he positions himself to fight, he notices she hasn’t displayed any security measures against him, he also noticed that while he was looking at the screens she only looked at him without stopping, not until now, as he can see how she turns her sight back to the biggest screen of the room without saying anything. He doesn’t say anything either.

He opted to watch the same screen as Sage, getting closer to her, apparently she didn’t mind him being here, if the fact that she didn’t stopped him when he sat on the floor just beside her said anything. He doesn’t remember how long was it since he sat down with her, he doesn’t remember when the yelling and fighting from the lair’s entrance stopped, but that’s good to him, at least now they can hear clearly the presenter’s q&a section.

The fight between hedgehog and madman stopped by the scientist request, as apparently he promised his daughter he would keep quiet that evening so she could enjoy her favorite talk show, a science one of course. The speedster agreed without much convincing, as he also remembered his little brother wanted to go home as early as they could to watch some investigator’s interview thingy.

They walked at a fast pace through the base looking for the fox kit so the old Egghead could kick them out of his house as soon as possible, the control room was the obvious answer for both of them if they wanted to find a curious boy on an evil lair, they didn’t expect to find said boy sitting on the ground smiling and talking energetically with with the translucent hologram A. I. Eggman called his daughter.

Sonic was no scientist, but he knew when someone was talking science, just as he knew how happy his little brother got anytime someone could keep up with him over physics, engineering, mechanics or anything of sorts kind of conversation, but the girl in front of Tails was speaking non-stop, loudly and expertly over some complicated calculations, and the kid’s twin tails wouldn’t stop wagging as he listened. Sonic grinned, he didn’t understand what they were really talking about, but the scene in front of his eyes screamed chemistry.

Even if Eggman could understand what they were talking about, he paid no attention to their voices, nor the motion of the fox’s tails, or how they both turned repeatedly to the screen behind them and then back to each other; focusing only on how his daughter’s eyes glimmered when she listened to the fox’s long answer to her comment, and the smile that they both offered each other when the screens turned off when the show finished. He never saw such smile on his daughter’s face before.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

DUNE scientists observe first neutrinos with prototype detector at Fermilab

Symmetry magazine,

The prototype of a novel particle detection system for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment successfully recorded its first accelerator neutrinos.

In a major step for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, scientists have detected the first neutrinos using a DUNE prototype particle detector at the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

DUNE, currently under construction, will be the most comprehensive neutrino experiment in the world. It will bring scientists closer to solving some of the biggest physics mysteries in the universe, including searching for the origin of matter and learning more about supernovae and black hole formation.

Display of a candidate neutrino interaction recorded by the 2×2 detector highlighting the four internal detector modules and native 3D imaging capability. The bottom image additionally shows the detectors surrounding the 2×2 for further tracking of incoming and exiting particles. The DUNE Near Detector will similarly consist of a modular liquid argon detector along with a muon tracker.

Courtesy of DUNE Collaboration

Since DUNE will feature new designs and technology, scientists are testing prototype equipment and components in preparation for the final detector installation. In February, the DUNE team finished the installation of their latest prototype detector in the path of an existing neutrino beamline at Fermilab. On July 10, the team announced that they successfully recorded their first accelerator-produced neutrinos in the prototype detector, a step toward validating the design.

“This is a truly momentous milestone demonstrating the potential of this technology,” says Louise Suter, a Fermilab scientist who coordinated the module installation. “It is fantastic to see this validation of the hard work put into designing, building and installing the detector.”

The new neutrino detection system is part of the plan for DUNE’s near detector complex that will be built on the Fermilab site. Its prototype—known as the 2×2 prototype because it has four modules arranged in a square—records particle tracks with liquid argon time projection chambers. The final version of the DUNE near detector will feature 35 liquid argon modules, each larger than those in the prototype. The modules will help navigate the enormous flux of neutrinos expected at the near site.

The 2×2 prototype implements novel technologies that enable a new regime of detailed, cutting-edge neutrino imaging to handle the unique conditions in DUNE. It has a millimeter-sized pixel readout system, developed by a team at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that allows for high-precision 3D imaging on a large scale. This, coupled with its modular design, sets the prototype apart from previous neutrino detectors like ICARUS and MicroBooNE.

Now, the 2×2  prototype provides the first accelerator-neutrino data to be analyzed by the DUNE collaboration. 

DUNE is split between two locations hundreds of miles apart: a beam of neutrinos originating at Fermilab, close to Chicago, will pass through a particle detector located on the Fermilab site, then travel 800 miles through the ground to huge detectors at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.

The DUNE detector at Fermilab will analyze the neutrino beam close to its origin, where the beam is extremely intense. Collaborators expect this near detector to record about 50 interactions per pulse, which will come every second, amounting to hundreds of millions of neutrino detections over DUNE’s many expected years of operation. Scientists will also use DUNE to study neutrinos’ antimatter counterpart, antineutrinos.

This unprecedented flux of accelerator-made neutrinos and antineutrinos will enable DUNE’s ambitious science goals: Physicists will study the particles with DUNE’s near and far detectors to learn more about how they change type as they travel, a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation. By looking for differences between neutrino oscillations and antineutrino oscillations, physicists will seek evidence for a broken symmetry known as CP violation to determine whether neutrinos might be responsible for the prevalence of matter in our universe.

The DUNE collaboration is made up of more than 1,400 scientists and engineers from over 200 research institutions. Nearly 40 of these institutions work on the near detector. Specifically, hardware development of the 2×2 prototype was led by the University of Bern in Switzerland, DOE’s Fermilab, Berkeley Lab and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, with significant contributions from many universities.

“It is wonderful to see the success of the technology we developed to measure neutrinos in such a high-intensity beam,” says Michele Weber, a professor at the University of Bern—where the concept of the modular design was born and where the four modules were assembled and tested—who leads the effort behind the new particle detection system. “A successful demonstration of this technology’s ability to record multiple neutrino interactions simultaneously will pave the way for the construction of the DUNE liquid argon near detector.”

Next steps

Testing the 2×2 prototype is necessary to demonstrate that the innovative design and technology are effective on a large scale to meet the near detector’s requirements. A modular liquid-argon detector capable of detecting high rates of neutrinos and antineutrinos has never been built or tested before. 

The existing Fermilab beamline is an ideal place for testing and presents an exciting opportunity for the researchers to measure these mysterious particles. It is currently running in “antineutrino mode,” so DUNE scientists will use the 2×2 prototype to study the interactions between antineutrinos and argon. When antineutrinos hit argon atoms, as they will in the argon-filled near detector, they interact and produce other particles. The prototype will observe what kinds of particles are produced and how often. Studying these antineutrino interactions will prepare scientists to compare neutrino and antineutrino oscillations with DUNE. 
“Analyzing this data is a great opportunity for our early-career scientists to gain experience,” says Kevin Wood, the first run coordinator for the 2×2 prototype and a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab, where the prototype’s novel readout system was developed. “The neutrino interactions imaged by the 2×2 prototype will provide a highly anticipated dataset for our graduate students, postdocs and other young collaborators to analyze as we continue to prepare to bring DUNE online.” 
The DUNE collaboration plans to bombard the 2×2 prototype with antineutrinos from the Fermilab beam for several months.

“This is an exciting milestone for the 2×2 team and the entire DUNE collaboration,” says Sergio Bertolucci, professor of physics at the University of Bologna in Italy and co-spokesperson of DUNE with Mary Bishai of Brookhaven National Laboratory. “Let this be the first of many neutrino interactions for DUNE!”

w

[predakings-den]

Chapter 1: The Lab-grown Experiments

Word count: [1426]

Content Warning: [None]

He had revealed his form, a choice he believed wise in order to be taken seriously by these Decepticons. No longer is he stuck as a draconic being of metal and circuits, shrieking with his mandibles outstretched and large wings reeled back as a means to threaten. His new form is just as formidable, with a crown of horns protruding from his helm and a sharp, weary faceplate that made him come across as older than he felt. Predaking was met with surprised expressions from his superiors, crippling trepidation and dread from that pathetic Air Commander, and a sudden new sense of commitment as he realized the intention of this specific site.

Shockwave’s secondary laboratory, nestled in the caverns, now harbors the latest “pet project” as the others had liked to call it behind his back, or even in front of him, believing his intelligence to be that of a primitive creature. Predaking gazes upon the rows of test tubes decorating the underground lab in a hue of green lighting, with large cables connecting the tanks to a generator and a control panel where data is monitored, collected, and stored for Shockwave’s use.

Inside each containment chamber is a curled-up Predacon, growing and alive in their slumber. There’s a variety of what humans may recognize as mythical creatures thought to be in myths and legends. A plethora of beaks, wings, claws, and maws can be seen.

His large claws press gently against the warm glass. There was no outward response, but he could feel it, a pull on his EM field, albeit faint. The thought has crossed his processor every now and then when he was but a warhorse with no real designation. A question lingered: where were the rest of his people? And that knowledge has had the time to settle in his tanks like an endless pit. They were offline, decimated by either the radiation that had plagued Cybertron’s surface long ago in the Great Cataclysm where they starved underneath the shelter of dirt and rock, or driven mad stellar cycles ago.

Even now, these caverns strike a quiet unease with the Predacon, a fear of some sort or… Perhaps a memory from long ago, etched deep into the bones that Shockwave had cloned him from.

He could hardly believe such little beings, so vulnerable and exposed, can evolve to one of Cybertron’s greatest beasts of the past. How? They’re practically tiny bits of soft metal and exposed biolights, still developing their tough exterior.

He could be always be patient, until Shockwave's process is complete. He doesn't understand the exact science behind it, the cloning and accelerated growth procedure, but he trusted the Decepticon scientist to continue his work with the same chilling dedication.

"Would you like to feed them?"

Predaking perks up as he hears Shockwave's monotone vocalizer ending the silence between him and the Predacon pups. He takes a lingering glance at the science officer. "How so? Are they not sleeping?" It sure seems to be the case, as they have been quite unresponsive to the vast world around them. In Shockwave’s optic, Predaking taps the glass as if he were a youngling curious, although much larger in stature.

Shockwave walks over to a large crate of yellow vials. He hands him a few and Predaking cautiously sniffs. There appears to be no scent to this so-called meal that Shockwave is implying them to be. Regardless, the scientist continues droning on. "They absorb nutrients through the liquid they lie in, and every spark needs a certain amount to maintain a healthy core. It didn't take too long to develop a concoction similarly to the nutrients sparklings are provided naturally. All I needed were the correct ingredients, procured by those willing to aid in my research."

“I only considered the next logical step was to add… supplements of a sort. After all, I strive to improve in reference to previous works.”

Predaking chuffs and avoids his blaring optic. As if the ultimate being had imperfections. He is powerful in strength, his size indomitable, a Predacon in his prime and yet Shockwave finds flaws in his making?

He almost thinks to ask for the specifics, but Shockwave ignores his questions and leads him to the control panel, finding his personal inquiries asked to be of unimportance in the current moment or at any time really. "Now, insert five vials into these slots.”

The Predacon stares at the yellow vials, small in their little glass containers, so he feels fit to comment. “Five hardly seems enough for ten little ones.” And he nearly shrinks at the scientist’s stare. There is no emotion that can be read, but the feeling of… inadequacy stings at his spark for asking what the officer appears to see as menial queries.

Again, the scientist pays no mind to his observation and gestures to the control panel. “Each individual button is a labeled tank. The gray button is for fueling, the red is the release.”

Predaking follows along, inserting the vials, and then slowly presses the gray buttons with one large claw. In a few seconds, the green containment chambers turn a more vibrant yellow as nutrients start filtering inside.

The inhabitants do not move, but he understood that somehow, they are being properly cared and fed, even if it didn't seem as traditional as simply hunting and providing the meals for them.

And with feeding time underway, Predaking notices that many of the tanks do not have… names. Instead, there are numbers. It’s not entirely surprising when even Predaking had nothing, and sought to find him his own name. “Do they carry any designation? Like this one?” He gestures to a Predacon pup who is a mixture of yellow, teal, and purple, with two draconic helms and tails to match.

“#SW81617 is quite sufficient for the level of organization I require to properly assess Project Predacon. I do not plan on developing such a … familial connection with my experiments, that which I am starting to notice that you are starting to seek out. You yearn for something more than what I choose to provide.”

It renders the large Predacon quiet. Before anything more could be spoken between the two, the science officer gets a ping in his system. His red optic dims as he reads the short notification, Soundwave calling for his presence onboard the Nemesis warship. “It appears I have a meeting that I must tend to. I will reconvene with you later, but for now, you are granted a privilege of staying. Only, do not touch any of the mechanics until I arrive back onto the site.”

Shockwave could logically assume what this particular meeting could consist of. He wasn’t the only one who noticed how… fearful Megatron almost seemed, a mixture of that and shock, is not an acceptable state that their leader would approve being rendered to. Megatron has already shown his bouts of irrational, impulsive, and paranoid tendencies when confronted with something much grander than him… and the dangerous, chaotic beauty of Predacons is grand indeed.

Shockwave did not exhibit any signs of nervousness. His EM field of wall of cold indifference as usual. And Predaking didn’t question the sudden call away from the lab. Perhaps he should have at the time. Maybe it could have prevented… well, everything, but the Predacon who had only recently gained sentience did not yet know how to become a bit more astute in his observations.

Instead, he allows the officer to call for a ground bridge and thinks nothing of it. The large beast curls up next to the tanks, with a soft rumble sounding close to a yawn exiting his maw as he hunkers down for the evening.

He’s not that attached... he was simply curious at the prospect of new life, of not being alone anymore, of reviving his species once more. Everything… that was now his duty to protect and see through.

His moments spent in the lab were coming to an end though, and soon he’d be unable to look upon the tanks of Predacon pups as if he were stargazing at the brightest of constellations with such… completion in his spark. He would never have thought that displaying sentient thought and behavior would write their end, that despite any signs of loyalty towards the Decepticon cause, that Megatron was never going to allow them to simply exist.

It happened then, and it will once again.

Predacons cannot just exist…

A Cybertronian will not allow that to be the case, Decepticon or Autobot otherwise.

[fatfables]

I found this undergrad project online looking into the growth of adipophilia (fat fetishism).

Well worth a read as the guy gets kinda carried away!

It's reproduced here in full.

Adipophilia 

How do cultural, societal, and technological factors intersect to shape the emergence and growth of adipophilia among young male adults in the digital age?

Shane Tjock

(Bachelor of Science student)

University of Michigan

Department of Environmental Philosophy

Obesity Studies

Abstract

This research project outlines a comprehensive approach to studying the growth of adipophilia (a sexual attraction to fat or overweight people) among young male adults online, integrating observational and experimental methods as well as qualitative and quantitative analyses to provide a holistic understanding of the phenomenon. Adipophilic tendencies have been on the rise in the United States and other western countries in recent years amongst young males and in particular within the homosexual population. The occurrence of sexual attraction to big, round, bloated bellies and buttocks, as well as thick thighs and swollen man breasts is clearly visible through social media platforms, forums, and so called ‘gainer’ dedicated websites. The rise of ‘gainer societies’ at colleges and universities, including the University of Michigan, evidences that the growth of gainerism is not limited to online spaces. Gainerism and feederism are linked sexual proclivities where people actively participate in a concerted effort to make themselves and or someone else fatter. Sexual arousal is often achieved through the act of binge eating or ‘stuffing’ until the stomach is stretched to the max after the consumption of excessive amounts of food and drink. Adipophiliacs like to rub their own and other people’s swollen bellies and elicit pleasure from the effects of purposeful weight gain, such as; out growing clothing, button popping, the appearance of stretch marks, and watching big bellies bounce. Pride is taken in calorie counting, measuring growth, and regular weigh-ins. As well as a personal increase in laziness, selfishness, and greed. The growth of gainerism amongst young LGBTQ+ males is multifaceted and has been caused by the normalisation of obesity in society, the overabundance and marketing of cheap unhealthy foodstuffs, a move towards body positivity, an increased awareness and openness to kink lifestyles, and the fact that it is sexy and fun.

Introduction

The rise of adipophilia as a cultural phenomenon is of interest to psychologists, sociologists, and fat fetishists. The question of why young men chose to over-inflate and swell their bodies with fat until their abdomens are abnormally round and swollen, like water balloons about to pop, is the key question of this study. What is it about huge, heavy, rounded-out bellies, that evidence the greed of the young male overconsumer, that is so deliciously desirable?

This study seeks to answer this question through a mix of observational and experimental techniques that provide both qualitative and quantitative evidence that the results of purposeful weight gain are hot as hell. Observations of publicly posted photos, videos, and conversations of male gainers will be carefully considered and analysed in order to identify common themes and factors related to stuffing your belly so full that it strains and stretches out inches over your belt, jiggling with every step you take. Due to the doubtful efficacy of feeding healthy participants up to the point of morbid obesity, the author has decided to partake in several gainer related activities himself and will rate them on a likert scale, from 1: Not at all arousing, to 5: Extremely arousing, in order to gather real world data into the immense joy of feeling oneself grow bigger and bigger everyday. As a voluntary participant the author will also undergo a regular testing and measurement routine in order to ascertain the effectiveness of various weight gain diets and to see if the experience of having one’s growth recorded is as hot as other gainers say it is.

Literature Review

There is a very limited amount of scientific literature on this topic, I have chosen therefore to give a brief overview of adipophilia in popular culture. The most commonly cited adipophilic book is Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, (Dahl, 1964), in which an extremely fat German boy wins a trip to a chocolate factory by eating an obscene amount of chocolate. His wonderfully greedy guts are then sucked up a pipe while he attempts to drink an entire chocolate river. A disappointing failure. It also includes a girl who inflates like a giant blueberry, but this study is not interested in girls. A recent prequel film, Willy Wonka (2023), features a heavy-set policeman who is fed chocolate bribes by chocolatier gangsters until he almost triples in size. A life goal for many. The Fattest Man in America (Nicholson, 2005) is a novel about a thousand pound man who eats himself up to a glorious size in order to become a tourist attraction. Alternatively The Fattest Man in Britain (2009) is a TV Movie (freely available on YouTube) starring Timothy Spall about a man who gets into an eating contest in order to prove that he is in fact the fattest. Heavyweights (1995) is a Disney film featuring the fat kids from The Mighty Ducks and a young Ben Stiller. It is set in a summer weight loss camp. The storyline features a lot of alarming similar events to the story of my friend Shawn when he went to fat camp. Life imitates art. The Simpsons (1989-Present) features several episodes in which characters gain weight, and I also used to fancy Kenen from Kenan & Kel (1996).

Research Objectives

To observe online gainer content in order to identify and analyse themes and factors that turn me on.

To experience the pleasure of gaining an insanely unhealthy amount of weight within a very short period in order to discover just how sexually gratifying it is.

To promote adipophilia as a lifestyle amongst other young gay men.

Observational Study

Design:

Conduct a systematic observation of online communities, forums, and platforms known for adipophilic content. Utilize qualitative methods to analyze discussions, interactions, and content shared within these communities.

Sample:

Select a diverse range of online platforms catering to a single interest and demographic.

Collect data over a specified time period to capture variations in content and user engagement.

Data Collection:

Employ data scraping techniques to collect publicly available content.

Record observations, noting patterns, themes, and prevalent attitudes towards adipophilia.

Analysis:

I have spent the last four months observing several online gainer platforms and websites. I have viewed thousands of photos and videos of fat growing men of all ages, from 18 years and up. Though I have a few doubts about all of them being at least 18 and for some reason I couldn’t really find any gainers much older than about 65. I am unsure as to why this is.

Common themes and factors that I have identified are; huge round bloated bellies, ball bellies, balloon bellies, and beer bellies. Some bellies hang low while others stick out really far. Some look soft and squishy while others look hard and round - as if the guy has swallowed a basketball whole. They are my favourite. All of them are wide, swollen, and beautiful. Gainers often eat in their videos and stuff themselves stupid on takeaways. They like to watch each other over-eat and encourage each other to eat even more. I often did this whilst being sure to maintain my distance as an observer. Other factors were; soft flabby love handles and muffin tops that overhang tight shorts and boxers. These were lush fat rolls that I watched grow fuller and thicker on many sweet boys. Moobs, man breasts, and titties are also very popular. Fat boys tend to get big flat nipples that accentuate their doughy chests. I like how once you’re fat enough your tits rest on top of the dome of your distended over-ripe belly.

In many videos boys play with their fat tits, they squeeze and caress them, while teasing the viewer to suck on them like they were a woman. They also like to rub and pat their bloated bellies. I would eat tacos and rub mine while watching them. Some guys burp really loudly after downing fizzy drinks. It makes them seem so wonderfully greedy. One guy on Tumblr did this in only his boxers and I swear I saw his dick twitch.

I didn’t do all of the data collection I was supposed to due to becoming distracted by all the sexy fat men, especially the comparison pictures that show you how they used to look when they were thin compared to now. Other reasons for this weakness in my study design will become obvious when I explain the experimental study.

My prevalent attitude towards adipophilia is very positive as is that of all the gainers I spoke to online. They love getting fatter, telling me about it, and sharing private pics with me via DM’s.

Below is a list of all the fat factors that I identified, my rating for how sexy they are, and my explanation of why they are so fucking hot.

Trying on old clothes - Level 4 - Super Hot - Because I love how it demonstrates just how much they must have eaten. Watching a fat young guy struggle to fit into a XXL shirt makes me super hard.

Button popping - Level 5 - Dick Burstingly Hot - As above, only better! Boys suck their bellies in to try and look as thin as they can and they breathe out. Their bulging bellies overwhelm their shirts or pants as they expand, sending buttons flying off as fast as it makes me cum.

Burping - Level 3 - Sexy - Burping due to overconsumption is cool. I think I prefer it when I do it myself compared to watching others. I love how the escaping gas creates extra space in my belly for even more food!

Shaking/Jiggling - Super Hot - Big bouncing ball bellies and just the best! They make me want to grab them and smash my face into them.

Trying to exercise - Level 2 - Kinda Hot - This one I don’t get so much. Why would anyone want to exercise? It goes against all of the glory or adipophilia. It is though kinda cool to see sweaty fat boys struggle on the floor.

Belly measuring and weigh-ins - Level 6 - Super Dick Burstingly Hot!! - Videos and photos where boys measure their belly circumference and stand on scales cause me to nut directly. I love how happy they seem when they see the benefits of all their gorging. It makes me so proud of them.

Experimental Study

Design:

Spend three months eating as much as humanly possible in order to see just how fat I can get with the help of my friends in the gainer society.

Sample:

Me!

Data Collection:

Quantitative data: Weekly weigh-ins and belly measurements.

Qualitative data: Personal record of how turned on I get by my gains.

Analysis:

I first decided to gain when a friend of mine told me about the new gainer society that meets every week at KFC. I had always found fat boys attractive and was overweight myself. My starting weight was 193 lbs. My friend knew that I liked being fat so he suggested that we go together. There was a guy there called Shawn, he was the fattest kid I’d ever seen. He was so cool! He ate like three family buckets to himself. I wanted to be able to do that. Shawn said that I had a good attitude and welcomed me to the group. I ate eight pieces of chicken, a burger with extra cheese, and three corn on the cobs. I felt so full and my belly ached as I walked home. I knew I needed more. That’s when I decided to do this study for my end of year project.

My friends in the UMGS thought that the project was a great idea and helped me to write a plan and food diary to ensure that I ate an extra 500 calories every day in order to expand my capacity and ensure growth. I stuck to it for the first week and then couldn’t be bothered any more so I just ate as much as I wanted. The plan was too restrictive and writing everything down all the time became a fucking ball ache. I just wanted to eat!

After two weeks I was noticeably fatter. My pants felt tighter and my t-shirt began to ride up my belly. Danni one day even pointed out that one of my love handles was on display in class. I started eating all the time and always snacked on Doritos and Snickers during lectures. I started to go topless in my room so that I could see and play with my fat while I did my observation study and snacked. I started jerking off more often. Gaining is definitely arousing.

After a month I needed bigger clothes and went to TJ Maxx to buy cheap shorts and t-shirts. I knew they wouldn’t last long! In the lunch hall my favourites were chilli dogs and fries, with chocolate fudge cake for dessert. I ate so much of it that my friends started to call me ‘Fudge’, I’d never had a nickname before!

My belly was now noticeably bigger. It protruded out and the front and felt heavy due to the fact that I kept it constantly stuffed to the brim. I could now cup my hand under it and lift it up. I love doing that. The fat feels so smooth and luxurious. My Mom even mentioned to me on a Zoom call that I looked like I’d gained weight. I told her that it was normal for guys at college. I was so impressed that I even looked fatter through a screen!

I kept eating and soon I could manage a family bucket at KFC with ease. I would drown the chicken in gravy, which Shawn said they make out of the fat scrapped from the bottom of the fryer. I so hope that this is true. I also started drinking nothing but Cola and Fanta and Beer. If it ain’t carbonated keep it the hell away from me! Brrruuurrrrppp!

From my observational study I learnt that some gainers like to rest their full bellies on a sink. I thought at first that this was just a bit weird and silly but then I tried it! I was amazed by how fat I felt resting my gorgeous growling gluttonous gut on top of the cold service. I spent ten minutes lifting and fondling it while I jerked off to my own reflection in the bathroom mirror.

By the end of the second month I felt massive! My dick was constantly as hard as my tightly packed stomach. Adipophilia is so sexy. I bought new clothes again and they already felt restrictive. My tits became more sensitive and I was overcome with pleasure when Danni sucked on them. They didn’t quite rest on top of my belly yet but I knew it wouldn’t be long.

In the lunch hall I turned to pizza and pasta and all the carbs. It was like the Atkins diet but in reverse. ‘Fudge’ was turning into a real fat boy. My thighs were thicker and began to chaff in the heat. At first this annoyed me but Shawn said that it was a sign of my progress and kindly offered to rub vaseline onto my groin for me. He said that my thighs were soft like two tubes of thick cookie dough. That made it feel much better.

With all the extra weight I was carrying I felt myself become more lethargic and lazy. I spent even more time in my room alone doing my observational study but lost the urge to continue with the boring data collection. All I wanted to do was eat, watch videos, and jack off. My gut is now so big that I really have to stretch to reach my dick when I’m sitting. When I lie down it still rises up into the air, whereas before it splayed out wide and flat while I slept. I guess it’s because I always have a pre-sleep meal of filling chow-mein and dumplings every night.

On the very last day of this study I returned to KFC by myself and ate three family buckets! I knew that I could do it! I was so proud of myself that I had to go into their bathroom and jack it while I farted ferociously on the toilet!

I would never have behaved like that before I got into adipophilia. I feel now like a much happier, sexier, more fun, and adventurous guy. I’m sad that this study is over, but I know that my adventure with gaining is only just beginning. I’m now 286 lbs and am determined to gain my first hundred. I am so close and just typing this makes me deliriously hungry. I’m gonna go stuff myself with a mountain of McDonalds before I write out my results which are summarised below.

Results

Month One:

Starting weight 193 lbs, Waist size 36 inches.

Main foods consumed: KFC, Chilli Dogs, Chocolate Fudge Cake.

End weight 216 lbs, Waist size 38 inches.

Turn ons: Outgrowing my pants, feeling my belly swell, burping.

Month Two:

Starting weight 216 lbs, Waist size 38 inches.

Main foods consumed: KFC, Chilli Dogs, Fries, Pasta, Pizza, Chocolate Fudge Cake, Doritos, Snickers.

End weight 245 lbs, Waist size 40 inches.

Turn ons: My fast ass ripping my boxers, eating so much that I actually puked, abdominal pains, lifting and massaging my soft silky overhang, my love handles spilling out in class.

Month Three:

Starting weight 245 lbs, Waist size 40 inches.

Main foods consumed: KFC, Chilli Dogs, Fries, Pasta, Pizza, Chocolate Fudge Cake, Doritos, Snickers, McDonalds, Chinese, Cheesecakes, Profiteroles, Tacos, Ice Cream, Chicken Wings, Candy. So much candy!

End weight 286 lbs, Waist size 42 inches (and feeling tight AF!!)

Turn ons: Red raw stretch marks that circle my deep belly button like a whirlpool sucking me deeper in to the world of gaining, my fat heavy circular tits that feel soft and squishy, eating despite the fact that my stomach is howling in pain due to being stuffed with delicious high calorie junk foods, licking Shawn’s ass out while he farts, knowing that I’m already a huge fat gluttonous pig that’s only going to grow rounder and fatter with every greedy day that passes.

Implications and Recommendations

I recommend everybody to get into adipophilia. Fat is not only beautiful, it is tantalising, addictive, and highly erotic. Fat boys are the epitome of sexual desire and the most lush and lavish example of the human form. Big, round, heavy, ball bellies are the most attractive and every gay boy needs to have one. Social media and other online forums are a great way to get into adipophilia and the gainer/feeder scenes but nothing is better than doing it for real. Growing as fat as you can with the help of friends who want nothing more than to see you bulk out and grow into the fattest, roundest, blob of lard possible is unbeatable. Especially when they are more than happy to beat and suck you off while you gorge yourself on heavy milkshakes.

The personal implications for my belly and ass have been massive. They have both grown and swollen out immensely. Other gay boys love to watch and grope my fat ass as it bulges out of my straining gym shorts. It’s so soft and wide and round now, more of a balloon butt than bubble butt! The belly is so much bigger than it was. It loves what I have done to it and only wants more. It speaks to me now and says “Feed me!” all of the time. I have forgotten what it feels like to be hungry. A sensation that I never want to feel again. Being constantly full is the only way to be. The only way to ensure that I keep expanding.

Societal implications are also hugely positive. The more young guys who get into gaining then the more sexy fatties there will be for me to look at, encourage, play with, and fuck. Boys deserve to be fed to the brim with everything that they could ever desire and more. I want everyone to experience the advantages of the fat, lazy, and greedy lifestyle of a true glutton.

Conclusion

Adipophilia is on the rise and we should all welcome it with open arms and a tray of twenty four chocolate cream donuts! Through my observational and experimental studies I have discovered just how thrilling purposeful weight gain can be, both for the gainer and the people encouraging them. Online adipophilic content is growing every day, like my waistline, and I predict that it will continue to do so. I sincerely hope that adipophilia continues to develop into the mainstream and recommend any young male researchers interested in the topic to repeat and expand upon my study in order to help validate the scene. I promise that you will have a whale of a time!

[samueldays]

Plagiarist's Cant, and Plagiarists Can't.

"This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society."

-Claudine Gay, NYT, 2024.

That's four metaphors combined in one sentence: military, fabric, religion, architecture.

"The Ogre does what ogres can, Deeds quite impossible for Man, But one prize is beyond his reach, The Ogre cannot master Speech. About a subjugated plain, Among its desperate and slain, The Ogre stalks with hands on hips While drivel gushes from his lips."

-W.H. Auden, 1968, originally about Soviet cant.

The Gay affair (thank you English phraseology) has gotten headlines with Claudine Gay, plagiarism and antisemitism, but my interest in it is more about the entire class of people eagerly telling lies and talking cant. Lying is wrong. Cant is ogrish.

Gay lied, and the Harvard board lied to back her up, and an entire class of allegedly truth-seeking, fact-checking journalists lied some more. Several "professional" people who are well paid to be well informed were revealed as aggressively ignorant and less informed than I was after an hour with Sci-Hub and Google Scholar. I already felt cynical and jaded beforehand, and I nonetheless kept being disappointed by the sheer torrent of lies in the Gay affair.

I say "lies" because the alternative is that they are delusional imbeciles who genuinely believe that this canting midwit is a groundbreaking scholar. Look at her. Look at her and laugh.

Given a NYT column and a last word of sorts, she delivers neither competent workmanlike prose, nor literary excellence, but instead a grab bag of cant and overused metaphor and pompous self-importance.

My hope is that by stepping down I will deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency in their campaign to undermine the ideals animating Harvard since its founding: excellence, openness, independence, truth.

She did not bring excellence, nor openness, nor truth, and I'm skeptical about the independence. She is at best spouting cant, at worst lying again. She communicates in emotive connotations, unfitting of a Harvard scholar.

It is not lost on me that I make an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety about the generational and demographic changes unfolding on American campuses: a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution. Someone who views diversity as a source of institutional strength and dynamism. Someone who has advocated a modern curriculum that spans from the frontier of quantum science to the long-neglected history of Asian Americans. Someone who believes that a daughter of Haitian immigrants has something to offer to the nation’s oldest university.

What a lot of blather. "Diversity" in particular is a bait-and-switch word that changes between meaning "More black people" and "Variety of opinions" depending on whether the speaker is engaged in rhetorical attack or defense. The four sentences of this paragraph could be reduced with little loss to the four words "Black. Race. Asian. Black." and in the process constitute evidence that the anxiety about changes on American campus is justified - the campus is becoming race-obsessed to the detriment of everything else. It's race-cant, similar in spirit to plagiarism, and to Orwell's complaint: "his brain is not involved as it would be if he were choosing his words for himself."

The plagiarism is not the only problem. Even the broader issue that she writes and talks sloppily is not the only problem. Her papers were bad as scientific papers. Her p-values were absurd, her statistical analysis was confounded, she dropped an inconvenient data point, she failed to distinguish correlation with causation, she asserted overly strong conclusions from tiny sample sizes processed through interpolative models, et cetera. I've got Tumblr mutuals who write better and more factful analysis.

There is nothing inherently wrong with plagiarism as such: for example engineering approaches to the same problem, studies of the same object, or entertainment in the same genre ought to be similar to one another with good reason.

Much like Van Halen's famous "remove the brown M&Ms from the bowl" contract, though, a ban on close plagiarism can serve as a simple and visible test of someone's ability to follow correct procedure. Hence the pun: plagiarists can't. Claudine Gay is a serial plagiarist who sucks at expressing herself, so she copies, and she cants.

[driftward]

Title: FFXIV Write 2024 - 4. Reticent Characters: Aemilia sas Valentina, Valens sas Varro, Nyx Blackmoon Rating: Teen Summary: Message sent and received. Notes: None

"Sir?"

Valens rem Varro did not look up from his paperwork. "What."

"You have a delivery, sir."

"Fine. Leave it."

"The courier has very specific instructions to deliver it to you in person... sir."

"Fine, fine. Show them in."

Valens frowned, looking up, as the soldier saluted him, and disappeared out the door. He reappeared a moment later, a small Miqo'te woman following behind him.

Well, Miqo'te-looking thing, anyroad.

Valens knew what it was, and he smiled broadly to himself. Maybe the officer he had sent over on exchange had been far more successful than he had assumed he would be. Maybe said officer had managed to get the Frumentarium to finally see the light and decide to turn over their little toy to proper magitek engineers who would truly be able to finally make maximum use of the thing.

Not bad, for a man who was just supposed to try to sneak a few secrets out from under their nose while forwarding their work.

In his mind's eye, he could already see the grand strides his own magitek projects could undergo after fully examining the thing. A few days of destructive testing, perhaps. Pull its myomar fibers apart, rebraid them. Stress tests, impact testing, ductile and brittle failure tests. The thing supposedly had an impressive capacity for self repair and regeneration. He could do so many tests finding those limits, letting it return to baseline, then pulling it apart again. And then the material science data he could get by going right past those limits, why, he wasn't sure he'd been this excited since he was a teenager.

But, he was getting ahead of himself. He watched as the project 'Nyx' prototype walked in, and presented him with a folder. The soldier who had brought her in saluted, and excused himself. Valens paid him no mind as he took the folder, recognizing the type immediately.

A Frumentarium report, written by Aemilia sas Valentina herself. Nominally the woman in charge of the Nyx project, but she had temporarily turned it over to Semon while she visited the capital with her pet head scientist. All part of the officer exchange.

Interesting. It was a report on the officer he had sent over, Semon oen Moruntarium. Interesting. Perhaps they just wanted him to know what Semon had been up to, though he wondered why they hadn't just let the man make the report himself.

He leafed through the first few couple of pages. He was pleased at what he read. Semon had been allowed to be temporarily in charge of the Nyx project, as agreed, and he had used his authority to perform a few tests of the kind Valens himself wanted to perform. Strangely, though, the results had been redacted. Well, no matter. He'd have to give the man credit for trying.

On the next few pages, another report. Semon had used Nyx as part of a mission to foment a little dissent in one of the colonies. A simple in and out job. Apparently he had modified the original mission profile which was meant to just be simple observation, and almost caused a rebellion.

Valens remembered talking to Semon about such things, about how Semon felt that the best way to bring a populace to heel was to drive them to open defiance, so as to justify the eventual crackdown. That way, there would always be a few of the savages who would blame their would-be revolters for their lot in life, for daring to step out of line. Bold. Valens himself preferred more direct methods, but he had to admire Semon's initiative in carrying out his own vision.

Aemilia took a somewhat dimmer view of the situation, judging from the language she was using. Valens chuckled to himself. Well, observation, dissent, whatever, it all forwarded the goals of the Empire, and as far as he was concerned, all was well that ended well. Having to redirect a few units to crack a few savage skulls was hardly any cost at all in the grand scheme of things, and Semon now had some practice at doing that sort of thing. Good for him. Valens continued on.

The next part was just a note on an injury the man had maintained attempting to fight Nyx. Valens glanced up at Nyx at that part, but it was staring off into nowhere, same as it always was. He harrumphed, and returned his attention back to the report. Semon had apparently wished to test its combat capabilities, and had overrode one of the scientist's recommendations to impose certain limits. He had been armed and armored, Nyx had been neither, and it had taken no damage while breaking his arm.

Well, fine. He would have to talk to Semon about that one. There were reasons he wanted to study Nyx, and it was known to be a more than capable combatant.

He turned to the last section.

Here, he slowed, reading carefully.

Semon had apparently taken some materials out of the Nyx project building. A major breach of confidentiality. Valens had no idea what the files were, as that information had been redacted, but there was a note of plans to place a rebuke in Semon's file.

Said rebuke would not be coming. The Frumentarium had fortunately managed to recover the files.

From his corpse.

Valens studied the last page of the report very carefully. It was a picture of Semon, on an empty train car. Unquestionably on his way back to Valens' castrum, in fact, judging from the timestamps that Aemilia had carefully placed on each of the lithographs. He had been stabbed straight through the head, apparently, by a Mark 8 type 'S' gunblade.

He recognized the type. As a magitek engineer, he was intimately familiar with a fair amount of the Empire's armaments, and that was one in particular was an uncommon one.

Generally it was issued to, and only used by, Frumentarium agents, in fact.

Valen's gaze drifted up to Nyx's hip, and his lips thinned.

Nyx noticed, and spoke the only words it had said so far.

"Aemilia sas Valentina sends her regrets."

Valens looked back down at the report. Investigation into the death was ongoing. But apparently the current best guess was that Semon had met his demise at the hands of a disgruntled former agent who perhaps had some grudge against him, of a personal nature.

He closed the report, and set it down, and looked at Nyx.

"Dismissed," he said brusquely, though he hated that even he could hear the slightest unsteadiness in his voice. Nyx, without another word, turned and left.

Valens decided that perhaps... this was not worth his further curiosity.

[nerves-nebula]

hi. Here’s the promised suicide fic. It’s about the reasoning of the process, not the actual act of committing suicide itself, just as a heads up.

He realizes he wants to die early along the line – it’s very hard not to. It’s a wonderful daydream, one where he won’t have to feel quite as tired. An endless sleep, soft and gentle and merciful; everything life isn’t. 

The next step is planning. He spends hours constructing his family’s faces in his mind when they find out  – weeping, enraged, resigned, indifferent. Imagining their judgement leaves him almost embarrassed. It is an inevitability, but it still leaves him wrong-footed. The worst thing about all of it is the thought of his body, limp and bloated, being found and dragged around most of all. He contemplates methods too – most of them seem terribly slow, and therefore get discarded as possibilities. He doesn’t have the guts for it, quite frankly, doesn’t want to flail around or panic when it’s already too late. He’s never quite been as good at handling pain as any of his siblings.

Would he even want to be found at all? There’s ways to mitigate that, he knows. He’s the smart one, he could figure it out. Even a pathetic genius has his uses. Which would be worse for them? 

His reflection period ends slowly. The realization trickles in slowly, until it’s inescapable. It’s quite simple; he is living on borrowed time. He lets life push him along only when he needs to. The others are moving. 

Life slips through his fingers, in an endless blur. He is just waiting for the right moment now. 

His heart stops beating the moment failure becomes more frightening than success. He imagines it. Imagines his weeping brothers by his bedside. The very notion is exhausting. Maybe that’ll be the final straw to get him shipped off to a psychiatrist, wether he wants to or not. He imagines the gossip and wants to claw his ears from out of his skull. It’s a feeling he is utterly tired of, add this to the list of reasons. He’s got more than thirteen, now. It’s not going to be as neat as that either. He isn’t one of those pretty girls and he won’t leave a body like a fallen angel either. Graceful, tragic, beautifully sad. The kind of body he has is far more suited to be found face-down and bloated in the sewers he grew up in, or in pieces on some weirdo biologist’s counter. 

He has a body that gets picked apart and torn through and bloated and stained and smeared on the walls. He’s tired of that one too, tired of being not-quite human or animal or yokai. There is only one great majority he could possibly qualify for, and maybe this is all he’s ever been meant to be. Draxum’s not a bad scientist, but everyone has failed projects. It’s better to catch it early and build it new from ground up, but sometimes you just need to let go. 

It’s alright. He’s always known he wasn’t meant to live. Every litter needs a runt. Every family has black sheep. Soon enough he’ll be gone, and all of that will die with him and it will hurt like hell, but it will be mercy. 

Firstly: AUGHHH yeah that hits the spppot. That’s the good shit. Especially the parts about it feeling inevitable, and feeling like you weren’t meant to live. Like. Yeaghhhh.

Secondly: for some reason this made me think of a scenario where he plans to kill himself and sets up for Bishop to receive his body, since bishop always did wanna dissect him. It’d be kinda funny cuz the turtles would be freaking out and then bishop would show up like “hey guys what’s up”

Or like, Donnie would try to kill himself in a New York alley and Bishop would show up early like “yo it’s cool u wanna donate yourself to science but I’d get better data if you were alive” that’s just sooo funny to me.

Anyway point is: AAAAAAAA thank YOUUU

[super-ion]

Aug-UST Day 18 - But We're Coworkers

Original fiction based on a prompt from @thepromptfoundry

---

"... but we mustn't ascribe milestones in the arc of human history to non-human civilizations. While the artefacts we have uncovered indicate a technological level similar to bronze age civilizations on earth, we cannot assume that the spire builders..."

The food kiosk pinged, dragging Melissa Harkness's attention away from Fredericks' animated lecture about the latest findings. She plucked the tray and it's steaming contents from the receptacle and half floated, half fell to one of the open spots on the bench in the mess hall.

Yue briefly made eye contact, a slightly pained expression on his face. He had apparently made the mistake of getting cornered by Fredericks this meal cycle. The scientist was pleasant enough, but he did tend to be a bit long winded.

But in all fairness, evidence of an extrasolar civilization was something incredible, even if that civilization had apparently vanished millions of years ago.

She absently absorbed the conversation as she gazed at the viewsceen that dominated the far wall and the twice magnified projection of Demeter glittering below them. The sun would be rising over the reefs off the shores of the southern continent soon and it would be time for Melissa to get to work. Of all the environments they had surveyed so far, the reefs were the most amazing. There was something new and strange every single day, it was like stepping into one of those dioramas of Cambrian seas at the museum that Melissa had dragged her family to every chance she could as a child.

"Boo!"

A finger jabbed into her side, breaking her reverie and causing her to jump in surprise.

Sanchez slid onto the seat next to her, bumping hips in that overly familiar way that she did. The other woman was gorgeous as usual and Melissa found ever more desperate to get through the day's shift.

Sanchez was one of the mission's molecular biologists and Melissa piloted the assorted remote vehicles that collected data. Unfortunately, the science and ops crew shift schedules were entirely incompatible, and it was only once a fortnight that the two of them had any time to themselves.

They had become fast friends on the voyage out to Demeter... But then two weeks ago, that friendship had unexpectedly morphed into something else.

The sex was great, but beyond that, just being able to be that close to another being, to feel them... It was enough to make the work shifts since then agonizingly slow.

Melissa liked her job, she was good at her job, she wouldn't be aboard this ship, taking part in the discovery of the century if she wasn't. But, oh... Oh, it had been so hard to maintain an air of professionalism since then, especially since they had been working so closely the past few days, as the reefs were of partial interest to Sanchez.

Melissa glanced up to see Yue staring at the two of them with the tiniest smirk. Melissa flushed in embarrassment. Like he hadn't done his share of sleeping around.

Sanchez apparently didn't notice that look. She just ate her breakfast, alternately engrossed in Fredericks' lecture and the experiment schedule on her tablet.

"Ready for some sample return?" Sanchez asked finally with a grin.

"Yyyyep," Melissa replied, forcing as much nonchalant cheer as she could into her voice.

Yep... just gotta make it through the next 12 hours, she added silently.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

AI helps distinguish dark matter from cosmic noise

Dark matter is the invisible force holding the universe together – or so we think. It makes up around 85% of all matter and around 27% of the universe’s contents, but since we can’t see it directly, we have to study its gravitational effects on galaxies and other cosmic structures. Despite decades of research, the true nature of dark matter remains one of science’s most elusive questions.

According to a leading theory, dark matter might be a type of particle that barely interacts with anything else, except through gravity. But some scientists believe these particles could occasionally interact with each other, a phenomenon known as self-interaction. Detecting such interactions would offer crucial clues about dark matter’s properties.

However, distinguishing the subtle signs of dark matter self-interactions from other cosmic effects, like those caused by active galactic nuclei (AGN) – the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies – has been a major challenge. AGN feedback can push matter around in ways that are similar to the effects of dark matter, making it difficult to tell the two apart.

In a significant step forward, astronomer David Harvey at EPFL’s  Laboratory of Astrophysics has developed a deep-learning algorithm that can untangle these complex signals. Their AI-based method is designed to differentiate between the effects of dark matter self-interactions and those of AGN feedback by analyzing images of galaxy clusters – vast collections of galaxies bound together by gravity. The innovation promises to greatly enhance the precision of dark matter studies.

Harvey trained a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) – a type of AI that is particularly good at recognizing patterns in images – with images from the BAHAMAS-SIDM project, which models galaxy clusters under different dark matter and AGN feedback scenarios. By being fed thousands of simulated galaxy cluster images, the CNN learned to distinguish between the signals caused by dark matter self-interactions and those caused by AGN feedback.

Among the various CNN architectures tested, the most complex - dubbed “Inception” – proved to also be the most accurate. The AI was trained on two primary dark matter scenarios, featuring different levels of self-interaction, and validated on additional models, including a more complex, velocity-dependent dark matter model.

Inceptionachieved an impressive accuracy of 80% under ideal conditions, effectively identifying whether galaxy clusters were influenced by self-interacting dark matter or AGN feedback. It maintained is high performance even when the researchers introduced realistic observational noise that mimics the kind of data we expect from future telescopes like Euclid.

What this means is that Inception – and the AI approach more generally – could prove incredibly useful for analyzing the massive amounts of data we collect from space. Moreover, the AI’s ability to handle unseen data indicates that it’s adaptable and reliable, making it a promising tool for future dark matter research.

AI-based approaches like Inception could significantly impact our understanding of what dark matter actually is. As new telescopes gather unprecedented amounts of data, this method will help scientists sift through it quickly and accurately, potentially revealing the true nature of dark matter.