Imminently Distractable @ksmithsf - Tumblr Blog

Reading for the Hugo Awards? Try the short story "I Will Have This Diamond for a Heart" by Carlos Hernandez! It's a Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards finalist! @writeteachplay https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/i-will-have-this-diamond-for-a-heart/!

[ID: Cover art of Uncanny Magazine Issue 45 by Paul Lewin of a Black person with green eyes wearing an environmental suit in swirls of red, orange, turquoise, and brown. Their helmet has flowers, small trees, bushes, and orange fruits. They stand in front of a bright orange background, and the quote says: "When time was reborn, Sol asked, 'Where am I?' 'You’re in the idea,' said Sol. Now that time existed again, Sol could take a moment before replying. “'Which idea?'” ]

ksmithsf

#HugoAwards #SFMagazines #UncannyMag

sakura-haruka

#protect him at all cost

nellyfg

They’re taking the Hobbits to Isengard by the Dread Crew of Oddwood

This is possibly the best thing on youtube! It made my day … hell, it made my week ! So much awsome in those 2 minutes!!

gmsguild

@wearebard

gaslightgallows

I’ve seen these guys play before but I NEVER KNEW

ksmithsf

This is the best thing ever

foodffs

[Source: Sarah’s Scribbles | Like “Sarah’s Scribbles” on Facebook | Follow “Sarah’s Scribbles” on Twitter]

ksmithsf

itsfullofstars

ONLY BUY NASA APPROVED ECLIPSE GLASSES

We’ve been doing some research, and looked at a bunch of glasses on Amazon.

Be VERY cautious when buying eclipse glasses on Amazon. Read the reviews. A lot of people are complaining about fake / knockoff glasses - even from what appear to be legit vendors. If they say they’re from China, DO NOT BUY.

The American Astronomical Society has a list of NASA approved eclipse glasses vendors here.

The page also lists brick-and-mortar retailers, but check the manufacturer name before buying.

And apparently there are FREE eclipse glasses being distributed to libraries nationwide and via school science programs.

We ordered ours directly from one of the approved manufacturer sites to be absolutely certain. There are several options, though clearly many of these are already selling out.

If you have any desire to see the eclipse, get your glasses now and get the right kind. You may not go blind, but it can seriously damage your eyes.

dailyotter

Human Listens to What Sea Otter Has to Say

Via hitorium

me: wonders if we're really supposed to buy that all the guests at Felix's art opening just accepted that each new 'sister' was the same person dressed up in a different costume

me, twelve hours later: remembers that each of the sisters actually IS the same person dressed up in a different costume

byjove

New subculture:

Cowgoth. We dress like cowboys but in all black and we don’t listen to anything but classic country songs about murder.

flimflamberge

This is just the Johnny Cash fandom.

mountainmavensandmuses

penthesilea1623

“Gallos” by Rubin Eynon

currentsinbiology

Protein found in hookworm ‘soup’ could fight asthma, other autoimmune diseases

Hookworms are among the oldest life forms on Earth, and when they sink their teeth into our blood vessels, they cause nausea, anemia, cramping, and more. Ancient Egyptians referred to the symptoms in a 3500-year-old papyrus, and Hippocrates may have described miners infected by them. In the early 1900s, an intensive campaign eliminated the worms from the intestines of U.S. schoolchildren and spawned the formation of the U.S. Public Health Service.

Now, after years of viewing hookworms as the enemy, scientists are beginning to wonder whether these tiny critters, shorter than the width of a human fingernail, could also be an ally. Buried in the creatures, many believe, are molecules with healing powers. Scattered studies in diseases like Crohn’s and celiac, as well as self-treatment by patients, suggest the worms might alleviate symptoms of autoimmune conditions—the exact ailments that have become more and more prevalent as hookworms have faded from our lives and general cleanliness has prevailed.

currentsinbiology

‘Thinking soil’ made of bacteria could keep buildings from collapsing

It can be quite costly, even catastrophic, when the land under a building subsides. But genetically engineered microbes may one day keep that from happening if researchers in the United Kingdom are successful. Inspired by undergraduates who made a concrete-repairing bacterium—dubbed BacillaFilla—for a synthetic biology competition, a biodesigner and his colleagues have been pushing hard to develop biocement, a material that custom-built soil microbes would produce in response to the changing pressures in soil to help shore up the ground under foundations. Toward that end, the team grew a common gut bacterium in surrogate soil—a “hydrogel” shaped into a cylinder. They subjected the bacteria-laden hydrogel to pressures up to 10 times that experienced at sea level. They identified 122 bacterial genes that increased their activity by at least threefold by the pressure change. The team then modified the bacterial genome so that the regulatory DNA responsible for activating one of these genes was attached to a gene for a protein that glows when produced. The more pressure exerted on the microbe, the more intensely it glows, the scientists will report 29 October at the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

natureconservancy-deactivated20

After years of negotiations, delegates from 24 countries and the European Union meeting in Hobart, Australia have agreed that the Ross Sea in Antarctica will become the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA). Hard work certainly pays off and this week’s victory will hopefully set a precedent for other high seas negotiations around the world—photo by Eric Guth. #climatechange #protectpreserve #nature #antarctica #livenature

#penguins #ross sea #antarctica

maudelynn

Something familiar" by Peter de Sève

via http://peterdeseve.blogspot.com

gothicprep

well this is awkward

queerlyexhausted

So this reminds me of the awkward situation Amber and I ran into when we started printing t-shirts for Unicorn Empire.

We wanted to avoid the whole gendered clothing issue, so we referred to our shirts as “Classic” and “Fitted”. “Classic” meaning the regular style t-shirts that just about everyone wears, and “Fitted” meaning the style that curves in at the waist and has a little more room in the hips & chest.

We immediately ran into problems. Every day I’d answer half a dozen e-mails asking “which one is for women?”. We had male customers ordering the fitted sizes and then getting furious when they discovered that it was a “woman’s style”.

The other problem is that men’s sizes and women’s sizes are different. And when people are shopping online it’s already so hard to pick the right size. Ultimately we ended up calling them “Classic Unisex” and “Women’s Fitted” just to cut down on confusion and angry customers, but it’s not an ideal solution. I just want a way to describe the products that we are selling. I don’t want to have to tell people who can or can’t wear them!

unicornempire

I still remember this one guy in France who wanted me to refund him his shipping charge (and shipping to France is like $12) and then ALSO pay to ship him a new shirt because he’d chosen to buy a fitted shirt, and was then mad when he got a women’s fitted shirt, even though it said in the text of the listing that it was a women’s fitted shirt.

There’s even confusion between the women’s fitted shirts we sell, because many mainstream companies like JCPenny, American Eagle, Old Navy etc. often sell junior’s fitted shirts as women’s fitted shirts, so they’re regularly much smaller in a brick and mortar shop than they should be.

And this is why it can be hard to change the norm = /

bolt-bunny

Wait… Really? They sell the junior sizes as regular sizes? Is that why when I ordered a 2xl “women’s fitted” shirt from an online store (TeeFury? I think?) it came and was like maybe a large if I was being nice?

If I think about it… Yeah, it would totally fit my tween niece and maybe be a little big on her. It doesn’t go over my boobs, though. I was so disappointed. This would explain the crazy size difference, though.

Thanks for sharing that snippet of info! I had no idea and now it makes me feel less like a fatty who can’t even wear t-shirts.

unicornempire

Yes! I was shocked when I found out, too. The things I’ve learned about clothes in this business, really!

Many people know that sizes aren’t ‘standard’, but they don’t realize just what a range there is and how huge it can be- or that many manufacturers sell junior’s sizes as ‘young adult’, misses or even just women’s clothes when in reality they were originally sized for tweens.

Trust me, the tags on clothes in stores is meaningless, each brand decides what their sizes are and that’s it, there’s zero regulation or formula for the madness that is women’s clothes.

ksmithsf

I have pants hanging in my closet that range from size 10 to size 16. They all fit.

Clothing sizes are useless. Just make sure whatever it is fits properly--that’s a challenge all in itself--and go with it.

#clothing