The Swift

Anything from ancient philosophy to futuristic technology

[eriktheswift]

Shantae; Scuttle Noir Chapter 1 (rough)

“The caves are no place for a person like me.”

Indeed, it was dank and dark. But what they didn’t tell her was that it was also smelly and slimy. Every other corridor, some unknown sludge would belch out a pipe above her, forcing her to frantically dodge away or just let her ponytail take the punishment. Once, she sidestepped an unusually large gurgle of black, only to step into an oil spill, spinning dangerously close to the sewer stream.

“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live down here,” Shantae said to herself. She wiped the tip of her hair with her fingerless gloves before resuming her trek of torment.

At last reaching the solid metal door, she breathed a sigh of relief. But upon pushing it, nothing happened. She stepped back for a roundhouse kick; ended up with a sore foot. Shantae crossed her arms, breathing steam out of her nostrils. “Long are the days of the elephant…” she muttered. Slowly, she picked the ooey gooey oil from her hair and swung it towards the keyhole. It was tedious work, but eventually her magical ponytail discovered something about the lock: It wasn’t locked. So she fingered the door cracks until she could get a good grasp and finally managed to pull it open.

There before her was what she was searching for. A long room led down to a shrine, where a single blue flame burned dimly on a pedestal. As she walked to it, a chorus of screeches echoed all around her. ‘Cacklebats!’ She ran over to the shrine and turned her back to it, crouched down low and ready. Sure enough, a swarm of dark purple bats came looming right at her. She whipped the first few with her slick hair, then kicked another. One came at her from behind, but before she could get to it, the blue flicker sharpened and glowed at it, turning the cacklebat into ashes mid-screech.

In the end, a few did bite her shoulders, but the flame really helped watch her back. Before her was corpses, quickly decomposing, and the shrine, back to as it has been. Recalling what she was told, Shantae composed herself and began a little dance, first slowly and ominously, but picking up speed as she went. At her climax, she yelled “O, Genie of the Shrine, I resurrect you!” and stopped. The flame turned red, flickered and died. Soon after, the whole room rumbled like a stampede of elephants. A lavender skinned serpent lady erupted from the hole where the flame was.

“Quickly!” the Serpent Genie cried. “You have awoken me and they come to get you. Dance with me!” And with that, she leaped up into the air and slithered down Shantae’s throat.

Next thing Shantae knew, she was dancing against her will in a style very foreign to her own. The powers sparked within her and she felt herself growing longer, yet shorter. After the initial dizzying effects, she looked around her, which was easier than before. The metal door had busted down on the ground and behind her was more Cacklebats but much worse, Nagas and Golems by the trove, with a stoic figure in the midst of them that she couldn’t quite make out. Shantae’s tail rattled impatiently and she began getting used to her new slithery form. ‘Been a while since I’ve shape shifted. I’m a little russty,’ she told herself, desperately looking for any means out.

Along the wall was an unused pipe that was just her size. Narrowly dodging a few of the Nagas’ sonic shrapnels, she slipped down it.

[by-grace-of-god]

“In the West, we have been withdrawing from our tradition-, religion- and even nation-centred cultures, partly to decrease the danger of group conflict. But we are increasingly falling prey to the desperation of meaninglessness, and that is no improvement at all.” - Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

[theemotionmachine]

3 Tiny Mental Habits I Practice Every Morning – In Less Than 5 Minutes

If you want to change your mindset, it’s often best to start as small as possible. Here are 3 tiny mental habits that I practice every morning – and they only take 5 minutes!

Click here to learn more!

[eriktheswift]

Hardest to start, so start small.

[theemotionmachine]

The Disintegration of the Community: Why We Feel Alone Even When Surrounded By People

Do you feel like you’re a part of your community? If your answer is “no,” you’re not alone or defective, this is actually how many people feel nowadays. Why has our sense of community disintegrated over the years?

Click here to learn more!

[eriktheswift]

Together alone... Let’s forget the trends and go back to 1 on 1!

[spaceexp]

NASA Names Companies to Develop Human Landers for Artemis Moon Missions

NASA - Artemis Program logo. April 30, 2020 NASA has selected three U.S. companies to design and develop human landing systems (HLS) for the agency’s Artemis program, one of which will land the first woman and next man on the surface of the Moon by 2024. NASA is on track for sustainable human exploration of the Moon for the first time in history.

Image above: Illustration of Artemis astronauts on the Moon. Image Credit: NASA. The human landing system awards under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-2) Appendix H Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) are firm-fixed price, milestone-based contracts. The total combined value for all awarded contracts is $967 million for the 10-month base period. The following companies were selected to design and build human landing systems: - Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, is developing the Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV) – a three-stage lander to be launched on its own New Glenn Rocket System and ULA Vulcan launch system. - Dynetics (a Leidos company) of Huntsville, Alabama, is developing the Dynetics Human Landing System (DHLS) – a single structure providing the ascent and descent capabilities that will launch on the ULA Vulcan launch system. - SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, is developing the Starship – a fully integrated lander that will use the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket. “With these contract awards, America is moving forward with the final step needed to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024, including the incredible moment when we will see the first woman set foot on the lunar surface,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “This is the first time since the Apollo era that NASA has direct funding for a human landing system, and now we have companies on contract to do the work for the Artemis program.”

Artemis Announcement: NASA Selects Human Landing Systems

Video above: NASA has selected three American companies – Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX – to design and develop human landing systems for the Artemis program. With these awards, NASA is on track to land the next astronauts on the lunar surface by 2024, and establish sustainable human exploration of the Moon by the end of the decade. Video Credit: NASA. Fifty years ago, NASA’s Apollo Program proved it is possible to land humans on the Moon and return them safely to Earth. When NASA returns to the Moon in four years with the Artemis program, it will go in a way that reflects the world today – with government, industry, and international partners in a global effort to build and test the systems needed for challenging missions to Mars and beyond. “We are on our way.” said Douglas Loverro, NASA’s associate administrator for Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. “With these awards we begin an exciting partnership with the best of industry to accomplish the nation’s goals. We have much work ahead, especially over these next critical 10 months. I have high confidence that working with these teammates, we will succeed.”  NASA’s commercial partners will refine their lander concepts through the contract base period ending in February 2021. During that time, the agency will evaluate which of the contractors will perform initial demonstration missions. NASA will later select firms for development and maturation of sustainable lander systems followed by sustainable demonstration missions. NASA intends to procure transportation to the lunar surface as commercial space transportation services after these demonstrations are complete. During each phase of development, NASA and its partners will use critical lessons from earlier phases to hone the final concepts that will be used for future lunar commercial services.

Blue Origin - Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV). Image Credit: Blue Origin

“I am confident in NASA’s partnership with these companies to help achieve the Artemis mission and develop the human landing system returning us to the Moon” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, HLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “We have a history of proven lunar technical expertise and capabilities at Marshall and across NASA that will pave the way for our efforts to quickly and safely land humans on the Moon in 2024.” NASA experts will work closely with the commercial partners building the next human landing systems, leveraging decades of human spaceflight experience and the speed of the commercial sector to achieve a Moon landing in 2024.   The HLS program manager will assign NASA personnel to support the work of each contractor, providing direct, in-line expertise to the companies as requested in their proposals (e.g., design support, analysis, testing). The HLS program will also perform advanced development and risk reduction activities, working in parallel to better inform the approach for the 2024 mission and the necessary maturation of systems for the future sustaining architecture. Charged with returning to the Moon in the next four years, NASA’s Artemis program will reveal new knowledge about the Moon, Earth, and our origins in the solar system. The human landing system is a vital part of NASA’s deep space exploration plans, along with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, Orion spacecraft, and Gateway. NASA is returning to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation. Working with its partners throughout the Artemis program, the agency will fine-tune precision landing technologies and develop new mobility capabilities that allow robots and crew to travel greater distances and explore new regions of the Moon. On the surface, the agency has proposed building a new habitat and rovers, testing new power systems and much more to get ready for human exploration of Mars. Learn more about each HLS concept: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-selects-blue-origin-dynetics-spacex-for-artemis-human-landers​ Learn more about America’s Moon to Mars exploration approach at: https://www.nasa.gov/moontomars Artemis: https://www.nasa.gov/artemisprogram Space Launch System (SLS): https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html Commercial Space: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/index.html Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-2): https://www.nasa.gov/nextstep/humanlander2 Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Sean Potter/Gina Anderson/Matthew Rydin/Marshall Space Flight Center/Jena Rowe. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[eriktheswift]

NASA is Mooning it’s previous setbacks. Government and corporations working together again.

[aspiritualwarrior]

“Silence is never-ending speech. Vocal speech obstructs the other speech of silence. In silence one is in intimate contact with the surroundings. Language is only a medium for communicating one’s thoughts to another. Silence is ever speaking.”

— Sri Ramana Maharshi

[eriktheswift]

Went to work today listening to the entire Stunt Race FX soundtrack. What?

[toptopz]

The Lost Vikings

[eriktheswift]

“Pop trivia: I do NOT like vegetables, ESPECIALLY tomatoes! They remind me too much of our abductor. Gimme a steak or something that bleeds.”

~ Erik the Swift

[spaceexp]

A simple fusion recipe

Nuclear Fusion Energy logo. 19 March 2020 Permanent magnets could help to optimize the geometry of a future fusion reactor.

Image above: Visualization of how a stellarator’s plasma (orange) can be manipulated using a combination of permanent magnets (red and blue) and superconducting coils (grey rings). Image Credits: C. Zhu/PPPL. Researchers have proposed a simplified design for nuclear-fusion reactors, based on powerful permanent magnets. Fusion reactors are still at the prototype stage. They confine plasma inside a doughnut-shaped magnetic field and heat it to millions of degrees, with the goal of fusing light atomic nuclei into heavier ones and releasing vast amounts of energy. One promising design, called a stellarator, normally requires sophisticated superconducting coils to make the plasma twist as it moves inside the doughnut. While helping his son with a science-fair project, Michael Zarnstorff at the Max Planck Princeton Research Center for Plasma Physics in New Jersey realized that neodymium–boron permanent magnets had become powerful enough to help. His team’s conceptual design combines simpler, ring-shaped superconducting coils with pancake-shaped magnets attached outside the plasma’s vacuum vessel. Like refrigerator magnets — which stick on only one side — these would produce their magnetic field mainly inside the vessel.

Animation above:Nuclear fusion is the process that allows our Sun to be the ultimate source of energy. Animation Credit: UK ST40 Fusion Reactor. The superconducting coils would be easier to make and would leave more space around the vacuum vessel for other key components of a future fusion reactor, the scientists say. Read more: Phys. Rev. Lett. (2020): https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.095001 Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: Nature/Physical Review Letter/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[eriktheswift]

Magnet Fusion! Here’s an attractive article. I just hope the idea sticks. We just have to remain positive to this polar idea.

[aspiritualwarrior]

“The joke of it all is that you are looking from your true nature right now without knowing it. If you would stop being fascinated with the contents of your mind, you would experience what I am saying. Feel your way into what I am saying rather than thinking about it. Only a self-concept looks and longs for God. Drop your self-concept and there is only God meeting God. Enlightenment is the restoration of cosmic humour.”

— Adyashanti

[eriktheswift]

[spaceexp]

NASA's Mars InSight Lander to Push on Top of the 'Mole'

NASA - InSight Mission patch. Feb. 21, 2020 After nearly a year of trying to dig into the Martian surface, the heat probe belonging to NASA’s InSight lander is about to get a push. The mission team plans to command the scoop on InSight’s robotic arm to press down on the “mole,” the mini pile driver designed to hammer itself as much as 16 feet (5 meters) down. They hope that pushing down on the mole’s top, also called the back cap, will keep it from backing out of its hole on Mars, as it did twice in recent months after nearly burying itself.

Animation above: NASA InSight recently moved its robotic arm closer to its digging device, called the “mole,” in preparation to push on its top, or back cap. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Part of an instrument called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, or HP3, the mole is a 16-inch-long (40-centimeter-long) spike equipped with an internal hammering mechanism. While burrowing into the soil, it is designed to drag with it a ribbonlike tether that extends from the spacecraft. Temperature sensors are embedded along the tether to measure heat coming deep from within the planet’s interior to reveal important scientific details about the formation of Mars and all rocky planets, including Earth. HP3 was provided to NASA by the German Aerospace Center, or DLR. The team has avoided pushing on the back cap until now to avoid any potential damage to the tether.

Image above: This test using an engineering model of the InSight lander here on Earth shows how the spacecraft on Mars will use its robotic arm to press on a digging device, called the “mole.” Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. The mole found itself stuck on Feb. 28, 2019, the first day of hammering. The InSight team has since determined that the soil here is different than what has been encountered on other parts of Mars. InSight landed in an area with an unusually thick duricrust, or a layer of cemented soil. Rather than being loose and sandlike, as expected, the dirt granules stick together. The mole needs friction from soil in order to travel downward; without it, recoil from its self-hammering action causes it to simply bounce in place. Ironically, loose soil, not duricrust, provides that friction as it falls around the mole. This past summer, the InSight team started using the robotic arm’s scoop to press on the side of the mole, a technique called “pinning” that added just enough friction to help it dig without coming in contact with the fragile science tether connected to the mole’s back cap.   While pinning helped, the mole popped back out of the Martian soil on two occasions, possibly from soil building up from beneath. With few alternatives left, the team has decided to try helping the mole dig by carefully pressing on its back cap while attempting to avoid the tether.

Mars InSight lander & logo. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL

It might take several tries to perfect the back-cap push, just as pinning did. Throughout late February and early March, InSight’s arm will be maneuvered into position so that the team can test what happens as the mole briefly hammers. Meanwhile, the team is also considering using the scoop to move more soil into the hole that has formed around the mole. This could add more pressure and friction, allowing it to finally dig down. Whether they pursue this route depends on how deep the mole is able to travel after the back-cap push. About InSight: JPL manages InSight for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission. A number of European partners, including France’s Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the temperature and wind sensors. Related articles: Mars InSight’s Mole Has Partially Backed Out of Its Hole https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/10/mars-insights-mole-has-partially-backed.html Mars InSight’s ‘Mole’ Is Moving Again https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/10/mars-insights-mole-is-moving-again.html NASA’s Push to Save the Mars InSight Lander’s Heat Probe https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/10/nasas-push-to-save-mars-insight-landers.html For more about InSight, read here: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/ https://www.nasa.gov/insight/ Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS): https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/instruments/seis/ Image (mentioned), Animations (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/Alana Johnson/JPL/Andrew Good. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[eriktheswift]

Insight’s finally getting some action!

[aspiritualwarrior]

“Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.”

— Eckhart Tolle

[eriktheswift]

Less is more

[did-you-know]

You don’t swallow 8 spiders a year  in your sleep. It’s so unlikely for a  spider to crawl into your mouth at  night that there’s no formal medical  or scientific record of it ever actually  happening. Spiders get most of the  information about their surroundings  through vibrations - so your snoring, breathing, and heartbeat usually  scares them away. 

(Source, Source 2, Source 3)

[eriktheswift]

All those little lives that were saved thanks to SCIENCE!

[justdave-deactivated20211107]

Know how to take care of yourself, until there is no self there to take care of. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5XfPaBnaYY/?igshid=ku7d13ygk3tv

[eriktheswift]

Tis the balance of life

[utwo]

Castle Neuschwanstein

© g.groebert

[eriktheswift]

How would you like to spend your Christmas holidays here?

[brimstonewitch]

Spent the morning creating the latest page for my grimoire! This is my personal interpretations from my research, and anyone is welcome to use it provided you give me credit! Also please forgive my awful handwriting!

[eriktheswift]

If you know where you’re from, you know where you’re headed.

[shinonart]

Old Gods: Day 28 - Black Woodpecker

In many stories the black woodpecker used to be a person who was turned into a bird after doing something bad or through an unfortunate event. Many of the beliefs about this bird have darker tones and so the black woodpecker is often associated with death and ill fate. If a black woodpecker appeared near human settlements, or even worse, started pecking on the houses it meant a very grave situation. If you walk in the forest and follow a black woodpecker you will be led astray. If the bird flew in front of you someone close to you would die soon, but if it flew behind you it meant your end was near. The black woodpecker predicted a lot of things, such as fire, famine or other disasters. However, if you listened to the bird’s warnings these disasters would be possible to prevent. People also believed that a straw from a black woodpecker’s nest would be a magical key or a lock pick that was able to open any lock in the world.