boldly going

Welcome to the blog of a twentysomething who wants to change the world and watches a little too much television. at this point this blog is basically space, dogs, and whatever tv show I'm currently watching the kirk to my bones

[justbowiethings]

you: ice ice baby

me, an intellectual: under pressure

[icarusandstardust]

luke skywalker: hi i'm luke skywalker i'm here to rescue you! And this is my friend Han, he's amazing and He DROVE Me Here

[amazingmars]

self care is breaking into nasa and launching yourself directly into the Fucking void

[the-official-nasa]

May we suggest a Soothing Bath™ instead

[hayao-miyazaki]

Sophie, the girl, is given a spell and transformed into an old woman. It would be a lie to say that turning young again would mean living happily ever after. I didn’t want to say that. I didn’t want to make it seem like turning old was such a bad thing — the idea was that maybe she’ll have learned something by being old for a while, and, when she is actually old, make a better grandma. Anyway, as Sophie gets older, she gets more pep. And she says what’s on her mind. She is transformed from a shy, mousy little girl to a blunt, honest woman. It’s not a motif you see often, and, especially with an old woman taking up the whole screen, it’s a big theatrical risk. But it’s a delusion that being young means you’re happy.

Hayao Miyazaki, on what attracted him to Howl’s Moving Castle

The Auteur of Anime by Margaret Talbot: “The New Yorker” (January 17th, 2005) 

(via isolement)

[bopeep]

[nasa]

The Start of Cassini’s Grand Finale

Cue drumroll…

For the first time ever, our Cassini spacecraft dove through the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings on April 26. At 5 a.m. EDT, Cassini crossed the ring plane with its science instruments turned on and collecting data. 

During this dive, the spacecraft was not in contact with Earth. The first opportunity to regain contact with the spacecraft is expected around 3 a.m. EDT on April 27.

This area between Saturn and its rings has never been explored by a spacecraft before. What we learn from these daring final orbits will further our understanding of how giant planets, and planetary systems everywhere, form and evolve.

So, you might be asking…how did this spacecraft maneuver its orbit between Saturn and its rings? Well…let us explain!

On April 22, Cassini made its 127th and final close approach to Saturn’s moon Titan. The flyby put the spacecraft on course for its dramatic last act, known as the Grand Finale. 

As the spacecraft passed over Titan, the moon’s gravity bent its path, reshaping the robotic probe’s orbit slightly so that instead of passing just outside Saturn’s main rings, Cassini would begin a series of 22 dives between the rings and the planet.

With this assist, Cassini received a large increase in velocity of approximately 1,925 mph with respect to Saturn.

This final chapter of exploration and discovery is in many ways like a brand-new mission. Twenty-two times, the Cassini spacecraft will dive through the unexplored space between Saturn and its rings. What we learn from these ultra-close passes over the planet could be some of the most exciting revelations ever returned by the long-lived spacecraft.

Throughout these daring maneuvers, updates will be posted on social media at:

@CassiniSaturn on Twitter @NASAJPL on Twitter

Updates will also be available online at: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/milestones/ 

Follow along with us during this mission’s Grand Finale!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[thealogie]

where do I see myself in five years? hopefully replying to multi-paragraph work emails with: cool! thanks.-Sent From My iPhone

[npr]

If all goes to plan, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will beam new images of Saturn and its rings to Earth early Thursday, sharing data collected Wednesday from its first dive through the gap between the planet and its striped belt of ice and rock particles.

Today’s dive also marks the start of the final phase in the craft’s 13-year visit to Saturn. Days ago, it used the gravity of Saturn’s moon Titan to bend its path toward its eventual destruction on the planet.

Cassini descended below the ring plane around 5 a.m. ET Wednesday, but the antenna it would normally use to send images is instead being used to deflect potentially harmful objects away from its instruments. As it performed the move, the craft’s Twitter feed announced, “Shields Up!”

Cassini Spacecraft Starts Weaving Between Saturn And Its Rings

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

[jedusaur]

why you should not dismiss research unless you rly truly mean it

Internet, I am a queer researcher of queer health and I have something to say.

A few weeks back, a study went viral about the relationship between marriage equality policy and queer teen suicide rates, and a lot of people reacted thusly: “queer mental health is better when we’re not discriminated against! BREAKING: SKY IS BLUE, WATER IS WET”

This happens a lot. People see research about a thing ~Everyone Already Knows~ and they mock it. Now I want to make two things really clear:

1. Everyone does not already know.

2. This shit can lose these projects their funding.

Did you know that media coverage is a crucial factor in funding allocation? When we submit our application for grant renewal, we have to provide a list of news articles about our research so they can decide whether the public cares enough about us to let us keep doing our work. And most research doesn’t get all that much coverage, so individual reactions can really matter. If the primary reaction to our publications is eyerolling, we legitimately might not be able to continue.

I’ve seen some frustration from people who believe this research funding would be better put to use “actually helping” the affected populations instead of–I don’t know, pinning them under microscopes or whatever it is they think we do. But funding for policy initiatives is driven by research. I know you wish politicians would listen to individual voices telling them where the problems are, but that’s honestly not a smart way to direct limited resources. We need solid evidence. And a lot of the areas that need the most attention aren’t obvious–who knew bisexual people are at a much higher risk for physical and mental health disparities than gay and lesbian people? Who would have guessed that transgender folks are more likely than any other group (including straight people) to be military veterans, but overwhelmingly don’t claim their benefits? I’m sure some people noticed these patterns, but they definitely weren’t common knowledge within the queer communities I’ve grown up around, and those findings are leading to direct action as we speak.

I get that it can be frustrating to feel like your identity is being reduced to facts and figures for the benefit of red tape. But trust me, the researchers aren’t your enemy here. Most of us are queer too. All of us are just as frustrated by this crap as you are. We are doing our best, and I swear to you this work really is making a difference. Please don’t sabotage it.

[tvatemybrain]

I’m reblogging this because it only has 9 notes, and it should really, REALLY have a lot more.

[sidereanuncia-blog-deactivated2]

Also, given the current US administration’s plan to stop collecting data on LGBTQ identities as part of the census, we are in need of accurate, useful data now more than ever.

[downtroddendeity]

Plus the ability to cite peer-reviewed evidence of these sorts of things and quantify the extent of “obvious” effects can be pretty important to researchers who are working in adjacent fields that don’t produce the sorts of headline soundbites that get mocked on social media.

And often headlines and summaries are misleading and reductive- a study about wage gaps across a variety of demographics might get headlined “Women Still Make Less Than Men, New Study Shows” when the bulk of the paper is about the intersection of race and gender identity, and I’ve seen people on Tumblr mocking a study about the flavor compounds in food across the Indian subcontinent, conducted by Indian scientists at an Indian university, as “LOL white people don’t know how to cook.”

[thefunkyweapon]

From the science march in Boston

[neenajaydon]

Okay, I’ve held back on reblogging all the great signs I’ve seen from various science marches because there are just too many … but must reblog clever Princess Bride references!

[accras]

A woodpecker hitched a ride on the side of this man’s car during a rainy day in Chicago.

[uniquely-khaotic-deactivated201]

Cute but I woulda lost it 😂

[lazysundrops]

Lmfaooooo the way the bird closed its eyes when he said “you’re beautiful” had me weak.

[smokingpixie]

I would have felt so blessed if was chilling on my arm

[ororomunroedontpullout]

*in a thick Chicago accent* “Welcome to Chicago”

[rrachelinthewildd]

We tried to get a nice scenic shot but she does what she wants.

[knot-ur-babe]

This is the most scenic thing I’ve ever seen

[nathanielthecurious]

linguistics is political

linguistics is believing that everyone’s ways of talking are cognitively equal and are worthy of study linguistics is accepting language change, accepting slang, accepting stigmatized groups of people linguistics is caring scientifically about all the peoples of the world enough to want to document them but caring emotionally about them enough to know when they want to be left alone linguistics is trying to communicate, trying to learn how we communicate linguistics is understanding that across languages and cultures, our surface structure might be different but a lot of our deep structure is the same linguistics is documenting the amazing ways the deaf/hard of hearing community has come together linguistics is helping kids with learning disabilities figure out how to learn language skills in ways that work for them linguistics is figuring out how to learn second languages better to bridge cultural gaps linguistics is political.

[black-to-the-bones-deactivated2]

I’m the birb that gets embarrassed by her man

[worldofthecutestcuties]

[expressions-of-nature]

Lupins, New Zealand by Michael Button

[lampblack-deactivated20170504]

i love old science fiction because it’s all like “IT’S THE DISTANT YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND THREE AND MAN IS EXPLORING THE DEEP CORNERS OF THE UNIVERSE” like god bless you old sci-fi you had such high hopes for us

[island-delver-go]

And then there’s The Running Man which starts with:

[gaymerlvl-pharmercy]

Oh fuq