#science ramblings

[logorrhea5mip]

I will be the last to deny the coolness of high-tech astronomy, don't get me wrong, but,

There is a certain charm, a certain allure to going as low tech as you can, and yet still enjoying the beauty of the universe.

Because even if your equipment is an upside down mouse pad for stability, a small 40yo soviet military telescope, and some biscuits for moral support, you can still touch the cosmos, and partake, at least as an observer, in the motions of its spheres.

On a completely unrelated note, guess what i did at 2am last night

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

putting in my will that i want my autopsy performed by the guy who's weirdest about the sexual connotations of surgery

[youhavethewrong]

It's not the sun's fault!! She doesn't hate you!! It's not her fault our ozone layer is fucked and oil executives created a greenhouse effect in our atmosphere the sun is doing the same thing she's always done!!! she's just shining bright the same as always in order to give us life and plants to eat and happy days to play outside she doesn't know it's fucked up down here she doesn't know leave her alone!!!!!!!

[philsmeatylegss]

If I were Dan and Phil I would never hard launch because it’s so embarrassing that we were right. Like what do you mean you were so in love a bunch of thirteen year old’s clocked it? I would never give that satisfaction.

[polyphonetic]

Yes but what if the Torment Nexus has a like, really hot deep robot woman voice while she tries to murder you and the puzzles are really fun

[psystirene]

i've been thinking about this reddit comment ever since i read it. the sheer rage. almost tearful i think. the horrendous take. underestimating the ability of sapphics to find sickly little leech women irresistible.

[internetskiff]

The most powerful ability exclusive to humanity in the Half Life/Portal shared universe is our ability to just throw bullshit at the wall and see what sticks. Aperture "OSHA are the devil" Science have managed to create completely safe interconnected points in space. The same company that turns people's blood into gasoline and shoves lions and humans into the same enclosed space for the vague concept of "Science". Meanwhile Black Mesa still has to use Xen as a crossing and their teleportation device requires an entire reactor with a village's worth of staff constantly maintaining it, just to end up having most of said staff abducted by onion-headed aliens. Even the resistance hasn't managed to create completely stable teleporters with a compressed Xen relay, meanwhile Aperture just went "oh dude let's shove a black hole into a non-waterproof gun" and have just created a teleportation method that just removes Xen from the equation entirely. Doesn't change the fact they bullshat so bad they basically got themselves gassed to death, but still.

The Resistance are a good example of this too. The Combine seem to have a complete set-in-stone thought process and understanding of science which meant they didn't even begin to explore local teleportation via Xen, meanwhile a group of random human mechanics and scientists have managed to cobble together at least two semi-functional local teleporters out of scrap metal and stolen Combine tech, to the point the All-Consuming Interdimensional Empire had to straight up copy their homework. And that isn't even the only time they seem to be taking human shit to just copy the blueprints.

They 100% just yoinked the entire damn car out of that garage just to take a crack at reverse-engineering the Tau Cannon attached to it. Even Resistance weaponry somehow manages to rival or at least stand equal to Combine tech - and we're talking improvised crossbows that shoot superheated rods of rebar at the target compared to high-tech rifles that can discharge orbs of pure dark energy. The collapse of the entire Citadel is basically set into motion as a result of a cobbled together Rebel device placed into extremely capable hands.

The events of the Portal games are a case of extremely elaborate machinelike planning versus pure human improvisation, with Chell's entire escape in the first game involving her simply weaseling her way through small cracks that GLaDOS missed while setting up her ambushes, eventually turning her own rocket turret against her to destroy her.

I suppose you could argue this falls flat in Portal 2 with Wheatley, but it's important to remember he's designed to be an utter idiot, so it's safe to say he wouldn't obsess over the larger picture like GLaDOS to the point where he fails to see the cracks. Yes, he's the one that breaks Chell out of the test chambers again, and yes, he's the one that came up with the sabotage plot - but it's important to note while he knows what to target in the sabotage, when we actually get there he doesn't quite know how to sabotage it, leaving Chell to figure it out on her own. She botches the Turret Quality Control Line with some minor guidance, but it's basically completely up to her to figure out how to cut off the Neurotoxin Supply. It's through her improvisation that Wheatley even manages to get into GLaDOS' chamber, tumbling through her neurotoxin vent and shattering the glass cage she trapped Chell inside of. It's through Chell's improvisation that the Core Transfer even occurs in the first place.

The script is flipped specifically when Wheatley takes charge, because oops - turns out a mind capable of focusing on the bigger picture might be pretty important when it comes to running an entire facility powered by it's own Reactor. Wheatley just completely zeroes in on his own personal pleasure, hacking up test chambers and the objects within them to try and figure out the easiest way to get his solution euphoria as quick as possible.

Still, something that's pretty interesting is that only Wheatley has ever managed to create a trap that's impossible to foresee and avoid, something GLaDOS has repeatedly failed to do to the point she ends up commending him. I believe this is because his way of thinking is a lot closer to Chell's compared to GLaDOS'. He puts up way more of a fight as the two run through the facility trying to get to him, seemingly improvising on the spot just like Chell has been over the course of the two games. Even his lair would be impossible to survive if it weren't for a single Conversion Gel pipe he somehow failed to notice and remove.

Whether in a laboratory deep beneath the soil or an alien tower tall enough to split the clouds, the ingenuity of even a single person is enough to topple a tower or destroy a supercomputer 3 times over.

Marc Laidlaw put what I'm trying to say into a single sentence when writing for the BreenGrub twitter account:

"The superstructure is riddled with cracks."

[pyjamacryptid]

Feeling like the ultimate nerd niche right now. I’m studying information science, specifically cataloguing, while in a library. Immersive experience. Like a 4D movie.

Self-portrait on Lined Notebook Paper, c. 2023

[thefake-red]

I think I've sorta figured out why it bothers me so much when people simplify Harlan Ellison to just being a very hateful man or say that he's "rolling in his grave" about every dumb fandom behaviour (he would not care about you shipping the characters, be serious) or compare him to AM/say he's his self-insert.

lt's bcs this language does not allow him to be viewed as the complex person that he, and every person to exist, is.

I think it's good to criticise creators and Ellison was VERY worthy of criticism, but he's not some being running on hatred and hatred alone as so many "fans", primarily the ones who discovered he existed less than a year ago on tik tok, seem to describe him. Criticise him on his stubbornness to accept his wrongdoings, his underlying misogyny and racism in his writing, his defence of Ed Kramer, etc.

In the same breath, I'd also like to say I think, when it comes to someone as complicated as Ellison, it's also worth noting the good deeds he did alongside his wrongful behaviour.

Ellison, as he would frequently mention, was outspoken about his political beliefs and was a part of many movements. He protested the Vietnam War, he was a part of the civil rights movement, he joined the writers strike, and was passionate about the rights of creators.

He was also a major hypocrite and always believed he was right, and no one was worth listening to even if they had more experience than him in that topic. He was especially reluctant of listening to people's criticisms of his work and it's depiction of minorities.

He was complicated. He was not an especially just or kind person, but he was passionate and outspoken and more than just an angry little man.

[starsinmylatte]

This man is giving me terminal brain rot, istg.

There are so many blurbs and fics about Veritas being rude to an "inferior" significant other, but please think about him with a significant other who is just as smart in an opposite way.

Aka, I want to lovingly bicker with him about our respective areas of medicine and science SO BADLY

Veritas Ratio x GN reader married science bickering and fluff

"Veri, dearest...... Can you explain that theorem one more time? I'm still slightly confused," you sigh, tracing your fingers along the side of the spiral notebook you'd been using to take notes.

As always, your notebook is filled with page after page of scrawled formulas, stray doodles, and hastily added mnemonics. To almost anyone else, they'd be illegible, but to you, they were perfect.

Ratio sighed, resting his chin atop his hand in mild exasperation as he leaned over your shoulder and checked your work. "We should come back to this later if you don't understand it by now. As you well know, beating the information into your brain does not lead to true mastery of the subject."

Your husband certainly had a fearsome reputation as a pedagogue, with some of his students even going so far as to add his name to the word's adjective list in the Intelligentsia Guild Databank, but you knew better. Veritas Ratio could certainly be vitriolic at times, but his actions were always used to benefit as many people as possible. At first, his heart seemed cold and stoney, but there was actually gold hidden underneath the rough surface.

"I didn't say that to you the last time the tables were turned," You pointed out with a softly admonishing smile. "I seem to remember spending all night in the library to help a certain someone finally understand oxidation-reduction reactions."

Veritas scoffed derisively. "You're right, but I do feel the need to point out that you had fallen asleep at the table and were drooling onto my textbook when it finally clicked."

"So..... you're going to deny that my many patient explanations helped?" You looked at him with vague amusement, remembering the way he'd launched a piece of chalk across the room after incorrectly identifying the electrophile in one of the practice problems.

"No, no. Just food for thought." His face softened, and a small, indulgent smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Although, I am afraid that I'll have to insist we at least get something to eat after this attempt. You, of all people, should know that your neurons need proper fuel to work at optimum levels."

[notebookpapers]

I see your “Cecil could survive TMA but Jon couldn’t survive Night Vale” posts and I raise you: Carlos (the dad, the myth, the legend) could survive both easily

[logorrhea5mip]

We don't appreciate Mars enough for being not that horrible.

Every other place in the Solar system except Mars and Earth is a literal hellhole, while our lil red boye is just very unpleasant.

For example:

Radiation on Mars is a problem, but not die-in-an-hour problem, more of a die-decades-later problem ("only" 4 times higher than the levels shown to be harmful)

The temperature varies between pleasant and slightly worse than Antarctica, but we have thousands of people on Antarctica! And most other places are either permanently 3 digits in the negative or hot enough to melt some metals.

The gravity is only 38% of Earths, but except Venus(i hate Venus, check the tags) and Saturn(literally a ball of gas, nowhere to live or even stand on) it's the best we've got.

The atmosphere is barely there, but it's potentially a resource from which oxygen can be made.

And water, Mars is the king of water. There is ice at the poles, there is maybe water beneath those ice sheets, there is permafrost all over it, and there might, in some deep holes, in the hotter parts of summer, even be mud!! Mud!!! That's basically just very dirty liquid water.

Tl;dr, it's by far the least worst place after Earth, and we don't give it the praise it deserves for that.

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

No it's not that I don't appreciate the flirting, I just wish you wouldn't do it while I'm in the middle of vivisecting you. Yes I know that it's really hot when I'm covered in your blood elbow deep in your chest cavity that's why I keep vivisecting you. But I keep getting flustered and dropping your liver and its really slippery so I keep dropping it over and over again leading to very comedic slapstick comedy where I slip on your blood and fall over really funny

[bloodborne-on-pc]

I've been trying to think of the best way to articulate this for a long time, but I think something that maybe influences many outdoor cat owners to be adamantly against the idea of the idea of their pet being an invasive species, is the way we talk and think about invasive species.

If you see any post on social media talking about an invasive species, people in the comments tend to talk about "destroying" them with a sort of gleeful malice. Essentially, invasives are acceptable targets for cruelty. They are considered "evil", making it okay to hate them and inflict violence upon them, and to revel in that violence.

So, if a person has this viewpoint, consciously or not, and sees someone claim their beloved pet is invasive, they will probably balk at the idea and reject it. Their cat isn't evil! That's absurd! How could you say that?

And that is completely true. The domestic cat isn't evil. Neither is the spotted lanternfly, common buckthorn, or any other invasive species. They are harmful to the environments they are introduced into, but they don't cause that harm because they are malevolent. They're doing the exact same things they would be in their original environment. Those things are just bad for their non-native one. In some situations, removing invasive species may involve killing the organism, but we shouldn't relish in the suffering this will cause them.

Obviously, there are lot of factors influencing why people refuse to keep their cats inside. But I can't help but wonder if this kind of attitude might exacerbate it - and if changing the way we talk about invasive species might help a little. Even if not, we should do it anyway - all living things deserve respect.

[polyphonetic]

You are:

[internetskiff]

The panels are definitely sentient but I believe it's less in a "each panel has a seperate consciousness" manner and more in a "this is a collonial organism with the Cental Core acting as the central intelligence" manner. Y'know? It's also a funny look at the mental state of whoever is occupying the Central Core, I think. After her awakening, GLaDOS makes them sweep up messes, shove rubble away into crevices where it won't be seen, she's using them as brooms n whatnot.

But what's a little interesting to me is that sometimes they seem to just be hitting things for no reason. Just violently slamming into the walls, their indicators having turned red. While it could 100% just be a malfunction, I do wonder if this could be GLaDOS trying to vent her frustration by hitting the walls instead of, y'know, just letting it out by violently crushing Chell?

Does this count as hitting yourself if you've become the building? I don't know. What's interesting is a similar red coloration comes through when Wheatley takes charge, and these panels don't show any sign of malfunctioning - which makes it seem as though the red indicators aren't a distress signal, they're a sign of rage. Maybe at one point they DID signify that something's wrong - but now it's just a way of telling that you've angered the entire structure.

The way the panels in the Central AI Chamber behave is extremely fascinating too. They lock up and get caught on eachother as GLaDOS' head is ripped from her body, they bob up and down to match Wheatley's laughter, and during his breakdown they flare up and stare right at Chell like dozens upon dozens of eyes - he's staring her down from every possible angle to try and make her feel as small as he can. He even sticks them onto the chassis which, while yes, do serve as shields, they're also almost certainly also his attempt of making himself look even larger.

It's pretty funny how from that perspective the panels become sort of a window into the mental state of whoever is currently in the chassis. Eyes are the window to the soul, and luckily, Aperture's walls are lined with thousands of them! :D