Everytime I write a line of dialogue i can hear a little voice going ermmmm it’s right behind me isn’t it but we persevere

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shark vs the universe
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I'd rather be in outer space 🛸

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@cuchanbutmarried
Everytime I write a line of dialogue i can hear a little voice going ermmmm it’s right behind me isn’t it but we persevere
I think about this like once a day
so i feel the urge to add a bit of context here because i find the vague on-screen text deeply underwhelming.
this is not just "a picture", it's Pale Blue Dot, one of the most famous works of astrophotography ever made public. and it was not just "a dying spacecraft", it was Voyager 1, a probe launched in 1977 to study the atmosphere and moons of Jupiter and Saturn, among other things. both Voyager probes carried on them a golden record meant as an introduction to humanity for any alien species that might discover them (if you saw Kane Parsons' Backrooms, you've heard the contents of that record coming out of a cardboard caveman standee). they did this because NASA planned to sundown these probes by letting them drift out of the solar system to parts unknown. Voyager 1 is currently 16 billion miles away, the farthest any manmade object has ever traveled from earth.
AND it's not even dead! despite supposedly being a "dying spacecraft" all the way back in 1990, Voyager 1 is not expected to be fully out of commission until 2036. to keep the probe alive they've switched off unneeded tools, adjusted its trajectory, even essentially updated the firmware, and through all that time it's basically never stopped sending back priceless data for scientists to analyze.
this is the original Pale Blue Dot, by the way:
it's relevant because "a single point of light smaller than one pixel" makes a lot more sense in the context of the original than it does in the heavily corrected version up top, where our pale blue dot looks more like a vibrant dwarf star. the difficulty of spotting earth in these waving curtains of space IS the entire impact of the picture! the blue dot is "pale" because it's hard to see! by making earth stand out so brilliantly, Terribly Interesting have inadvertently created the impression that earth is this vibrant glowing pearl, bright for all to see for billions of miles around. and it just isn't! the point is not that we can see earth from far away, but that we almost can't, because we aren't the center of the universe! when science educators past have used this image they often referred to one where the earth is circled in bright red, which only further emphasizes how small and fragile our home really is.
but hey, if you DO want an improved version of Pale Blue Dot you don't even need photoshop:
this is Pale Blue Dot Revisited, released by NASA in 2020. this is a reinterpretation of the original data using modern image processing techniques to create a more realistic or at least more high-definition rendering of the scene. it's important to understand that this is not the original image dropped into photoshop and airbrushed. strictly speaking, there isn't an "original" Pale Blue Dot the way there are negatives of traditional photography. astrophotography is almost always the product of raw data being deliberately interpreted by scientists, so the same data can produce many different images (ie if they want to emphasize the infrared spectrum vs visible light). similar work was done by Don P. Mitchell in ~2005 to enhance images taken by Soviet Venera probes of the surface of Venus to be less noisy.
here's an original:
and here's Mitchell's version:
i'm not here to argue which is "better" (and i highly recommend you read the source for this one because it's quite fascinating), just to give another example of the process in action and hopefully clarify how it's distinct from editing a jpeg in photoshop. also i just think it's neat!
which is the real reason i went to the trouble of making this post. Terribly Interesting may indeed find all of this to be terribly interesting, but it appears to be interest for the sake of a vague transient feeling of having been interested and little else. it doesn't name the probe, the photo in question, nor does it give historical context for the mission it was part of. the only substantial thing it says about the probe, that Voyager 1 is a "dying spacecraft", is so frustratingly oversimplified it may as well just be a lie.
so what's actually learned here, if you're someone who knows none of this history? that one time there was a thing and it did a thing? earth tiny from far away?? obviously it's just one image macro but i see this kind of thing making the rounds SO often, a screenshot with like two sentences on it explaining the image with as little descriptive text as possible. it's like there's a space-themed inspiration-posting rulebook that says you can't imply the existence of information not contained within the image. mention NASA? mention Voyager 1? mention Pale Blue Dot? nope! "a dying spacecraft" took "one last photograph", and here's a photoshopped version to make earth more visible.
and it might not even get to me nearly as much if this was any other space photo. i could accept that space stuff is complicated and this kind of fast-food image can only say so much if we were talking about Cassini or JWST's role in helping us find exoplanets. but this is Pale Blue Dot, the brainchild of arguably THE science communicator Carl Sagan! he wrote a book about Pale Blue Dot, he was on TV to announce the image personally! it's arguable that no astrophotograph exists whose context has been more digestibly packaged for laymen than Pale Blue Dot, which just makes it that much more egregious when someone doesn't go to the trouble.
so much of what i love about astronomy and studying the past & future of space travel is that everything you can learn is a doorway to learning more. you can't earnestly read about Voyager or Cassini or Venera or any other mission without finding some odd searchable detail and going "wait, what is that" and immediately falling down an hourslong rabbit hole to find an answer. and you'll never reach the bottom! i love reading articles about cutting edge astrophysics written for people in, like, early grad school, because i fully comprehend maybe 10% of it, vaguely understand 20% (on a good day), can kind of wrap my head around 30%, and find the rest totally inscrutable... but that's still a solid 60% scrutability rating even at the lowest-quality end of the spectrum! i'm no expert and i never will be, but in scouring the written expertise of others i almost always find one or two ideas that end up sticking with me forever. and it starts, every time, from questions about a photograph.
the sin of the above image is that it's solipsistic. it doesn't give you anywhere to put your curiosity or interest, doesn't invite you to leave their website and learn more than they have space to share, it doesn't even tell you anything useful about its subject! it reduces the entire history of Pale Blue Dot down to a vague and nondescript wonder that's just a pale imitation of the highly specific and ideologically driven wonder that Carl Sagan wanted us to feel.
here, feel it for yourself:
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[P.S.: before you lament that this is an "AI" problem, while yes "AI" has radically increased the volume of low-value (often negative-value) inspiration bait like this, know that this has been a problem in online science education for a LOT longer than chatgpt's been around. this example isn't extraordinary, just close to my heart. nothing new under the sun and all that]
lmao someone else got their knocks in on this post before i could finish writing mine. clearly we are hand in hand re: Talk About How Cool Voyager 1 Is You Fucks
💬 0 🔁 109 ❤️ 245 · Okay, I need to add some clarification and correction to this. This photo is known as The Pale Blue Dot. It was take
homunculus let out into the yard for a few minutes of recreational getting thrown from the roof time
Miraculous Coccinella
Lady WiFi, pt. 19
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Master Post
I just remembered that this was a thing that was HILARIOUS in 2006 and apparently that was ten years ago now.
Old people: join with me in remembering how funny we found this on LiveJournal.
Young people: look at this lolrus, it’s so happy, it has a bucket.
And then they stealed away the bucket and we realised we had fucked up a perfectly good elephant seal and given it anxiety.
listen this vintage meme is high quality and i will hear nothing said against it
20 years. I am not happy about this.
I’m delighted at the bucket reappearing but dismayed at the passage of time
Happy 20 years to Lolrus and his bucket!
Lady in drive through had a bearded dragon sitting on her boobs and she held it up and let me pet it. killing myself canceled
art is not my strong suit but this is my best recreation of what i saw when i opened the window. i have to emphasize that she was supermodel levels of gorgeous
Mugger: Give me all your money.
Danny: Dude, I'm walking around with a cane. I have obvious medical issues. You think I have money?
Mugger: Shut up! If you don't do what I say, I'll sell your organs!
Danny: Again, medical issues. Who would buy organs that were already failing?
Mugger: Fine! This death is on you-
Batman: *dropping onto the mugger and beating him to pulp*
Danny: Ancients beyond! *pick up dropped gun* Sir. Sir, he's unarmed now.
Batman: Drop that or you get what he's having.
Danny: Oh. *puts gun down slowly* Thanks for saving me. I'm just gonna-
Mugger: HELP ME
Danny: What you want me to do? Fight Batman? I have serious medical issues! I can't beat him.
Batman: Go home.
Danny: I'm going home.
Mugger: No! DON'T LEAVE ME! WHAT ABOUT GOTHAM UNITY!?
Danny wobbling away rapidly: I'm sorry! I have to put myself first! I only moved to this city because of Wayne's medical forgiveness program.
Batman: Is that so?
Danny: *wobbles faster* Please dont take a interest in me, sir! I have enough problems as it is!
Batman: ....
Danny rounds the corner as the screams of the mugger increase: I have to put myself first. Don't look back. He belongs to the Dark Knight now. There was nothing I could do.
Three days later:
Jazz: Danny! This is a miracle!All of your medical bills were paid!
Danny: What!? By who!?
Jazz: Bruce Wayne! Apparently, Batman told him about you.
Danny, in a low whisper of terror: Give back the money.
Jazz: What?
Danny: Give it back. I do not want Batman's attention. He's a menace. Im unarmed 90% of the time, and he will not care.
Jazz: What?????
Danny, closing the blinds: Do you think he knows where we live!?
Jazz: Are you scared of Batman?
Danny: You would be too if you saw the man burst from the shadows and beat brain damage into someone!
Not book smart or street smart but a secret third thing.
supid
supid.
Passenger trains in US vs Europe (image is making the rounds among U.S. transit advocates today)
High speed rail in China on 2008 VS 2020
imo pyroar was done really dirty in za so i wanted to try redesigning her mega evolution, would you use this over the original?
She’s baby she’s life
“Commission open? Dm me” - commission scam
“I have something important to tell you but can’t message u pls message me ” - accidentally reported you scam
“I love your story and want to illustrate it dm me at discord” - commissioner scam
“I saw your post looking for artists to draw (x) and would love to draw it it sounds like a lovely idea and im an artist” - commissioner scammer who DM’d you when you didn’t ask
“Did you send me this link for free tumblr premium?” - accidentally reported you scam
“ your account is limited please kindly verify at (scam link)” - verification scam
Thinking about an AU where Master Fu was more cautious/more paranoid and didn’t put the Ladybug and Black Cat into circulation because that’s obviously what the butterfly user wants, that’s what they always want. Instead he decides to subscribe to the school of close enough and gives Marinette the Goat and Adrien the Tiger with the possibility of using the rooster (either one of them/whichever he can reach first) for repairs and Miraculous Cure esq effects.
Dude bruh I would read the heck out of that