KelsonV @KelsonV@wandering.shop

minecraft is so funny because it's like "here's a literal hell dimension where the laws of space and time are broken" and the players go "oh, how practical!"

deadass, xkcd's presentation of the idea of the "lucky 10,000" (and, more generally, the framing of how cool it is to be able to introduce people to exciting ideas) is an immensely valuable contribution to our culture.

Once I gave a presentation on Mars Robots to 6 years and heavily anthropomorphized the robots. Then one of them asked when the robots would come home.

As the shock and horror spread across their faces, I realized that I had not adequately prepared for this lesson.

Elevator pitch: Longest running elevator experiment in history

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02/pfizer-vaccine-rollout-might-get-a-lot-easier-ultra-cold-storage-not-required/

Pfizer and BioNTech have done more studies and found their vaccine does NOT need to be stored nearly as cold as they initially thought: It can survive for up to TWO WEEKS at -25°C to -15°C (-13°F to 5°F) (aka standard freezer temperature), and FIVE DAYS at 2⁰C to 8⁰C (Standard fridge temperature).

They initially thought it needed -80°C and -60°C (-112°F to ‑76°F) but could take fridge temperatures for five days, and put a LOT of time and money into buying up dry ice and freezers. This will make distributing that vaccine a LOT easier and will also make the supply chains for it and the other vaccines more similar, which again, makes things easier.

“Why do we have a space program when X is going on?”
Listen, the NASA budget is not a problem, DoD paid Lockheed Martin over $400 BILLION for the F-35, a fighter jet so bad they have to rig the field tests in its favor. That program started in 2001, so roughly $25 billion per year of existence. NASAs budget for 2020 was $22 Billion, and its average budget per year over its 63 years of existence was $19 billion. The ENTIRE APOLLO PROJECT cost, adjusted for inflation, $156 billion. Yeah, going to the moon cost us less than a shitty airplane. Amazon could buy multiple Apollo projects per year.

We have military contractors committing literal theft of our tax dollars, and you’re worried about NASA? What’s your next worry, the less than half a billion that goes to public television?

theory: the respective front desks of heaven and hell are staffed by whichever human has the current high score in terms of being directly responsible for most lives saved/ended. so by my estimation, heaven is currently being manned by Stanislav Petrov and hell has Thomas Midgley Jr.

1974, Joni Mitchell stops in the middle of performing "Both Sides Now" to talk about Star Trek:

"Did you ever used to watch that show called Star Trek? (cheers from crowd) Oh... I just had a flash of this show, that I saw while I was singing this tune. It was the only show where Dr. Spock ever got any emotion, right? You remember that one? It was really great because... " (https://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=83, she goes on to talk about Spock and clouds, just amazing)

Swiss Alps, Martian Sky

Image Credit & Copyright: Jens Bydal

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210218.html #APoD

Gave a neural net some examples from @mondomascots and it responded with some deeply weird mascots.

The Brando, a guesthouse in Tokyo, is represented by Garapon-kun, a shy yet terrifying Jack-in-the-box that likes to play with balloons.

Makuo, a sea anemone from Kagoshima, can see the future. His antennae are mittens, but he has eight toes on each hand.
https://janellecshane.substack.com/p/the-mascot-of-ai-weirdness-is-a-cyborg?r=1lic4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=twitter

Imagine throwing away a stack of your old kid drawings and someone finds them 700 or so years later, and they're able to identify them as all belonging to you because you signed it and because of your specific drawing style, I'm never getting over this

..There was a reason people used four poster beds. It creates a small microclimate you heat with your body. This really works! In some tipi using cultures a bed tent was called an ozan.

-Buddy system. Two or more bodies in a bed will keep hypothermia away and allow for a good nights sleep.

- Dress in layers! Wool is great! Layer your bedding, too, this traps more air, which is insulating. Don't forget your sleeping cap!

Sun Pillar with Upper Tangent Arc

Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Cohea

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210217.html #APoD

It's that kind of weather when I find myself wanting to proclaim:

Why would you say ridiculous things like 'Coldmageddon', 'Snowpocalypse', 'Disemblizzardment', 'Asnowdeus'', 'Yog-Snowthoth', ''Coldthulhu', and the like when we have the word…

FIMBULVINTER.

You want a word that means, "Heck, it's so cold it feels like the world is ending!"?

FIMBULVINTER.

"Goodness, it feels like the cold is an active, malevolent force reaching in from outside the world to snuff out all life and civilization!"

FIMBULVINTER.

"If only I had a word that captured the feeling of ice wreathing all of existence to the point of destroying our infrastructure and social fabric, virtue evaporating from the world, and plagues sweeping the land…"

FIMBULVINTER.

Hi, yes, in case anyone still needs the warning, if you're new to defrosting a windshield, please resist the urge to pour boiling water on it. It will only work once.

#ghibligif #ghibli #studioghibli #bot