welcome to my brain

it's a bit of a mess○○○23 ○○○ they/them

[escuerzoresucitado]

Which vessel would your soul inhabit?

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Remaining time: 3 days 3 hours

[expressions-of-nature]

by Paul Lichtblau

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[hms-no-fun]

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:

----

[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]

[hms-no-fun]

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

Reblog by @katjohnadams · 1 image

💬 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

[stealingpotatoes]

I would give an arm and maybe a leg to see the PHM characters in your artstyle (no pressure)

PUT YOUR LIMBS BACK AND HOLD THIS INSTEAD

(links // tip jar!)

[elierlick]

Yet another new study debunked the basis for the anti-trans sports bans. It was never about sports but for creating legal avenues for exclusion and abjection. This is one of the largest analyses ever conducted, involving 52 studies and 6,485 trans people. Read the study here.

[lesbianxgalaxy]

fat butches, fat femmes, and fat everyone in between make the world go round

[fatliberation]

Happy Pride Month! Here’s a fat LGBTQ+ reading list I’ve compiled! 🏳️‍🌈💜🏳️‍⚧️

Books

Fat and Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives edited by Bruce Owens Grimm, Miguel M. Morales, and Tiff Joshua TJ Ferentini

What We Don’t Talk about When We Talk about Fat by Aubrey Gordon

Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma by Jason Whitesel

The Other F Word: A Celebration of the Fat & Fierce by Angie Manfredi

Nothing Is Okay Poems by Rachel Wiley

Catrachos by Roy G. Guzmán

Wow, No Thank You. Essays by Samantha Irby

Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers edited by Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton

Speaking Wiri Wiri by Dan Vera

Fiction

I’ll Be The One by Lyla Lee

Putting Makeup On The Fat Boy by Bil Wright

Soft On Soft by Em Ali

Faith: Taking Flight by Julie Murphy

If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann

Here The Whole Time by Vitor Martins

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Untouchable by Talia Hibbert

A Harvest Of Ripe Figs by Shira Glassman

Private Eye (The Spies Who Loved Her) by Katrina Jackson

Three romance/erotica novellas by Xan West:

Nine Of Swords, Reversed, Eight Kinky Nights: An F/f Chanukah Romance, Their Troublesome Crush

Xan’s work centers kinky, trans and non-binary, fat, disabled, queer trauma survivors. It leans more towards centering Jewish characters, ace and aro spec characters, autistic characters, and polyamorous networks.

Featured list from LGBTQ reads: Sapphic Plus-Size Protagonists!

The Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Bearly a Lady by Cassandra Khaw

The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember

Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman

Final Draft by Riley Redgate

Articles

Being Queer When You're Fat, Femme and Gaysian by Mark Mariano

Black, Fat Queer Bodies: Receiving Pleasure And Demanding Respect by Darian

Cool People I Know: Fat Folks in Kink on Fashion, Femme, and Community by Shaan Lashun

CLAIMING MY NON-BINARY IDENTITY by Madeleine

How I Navigate Masculinity as a Fat Queer Woman by Hannah Schneider

Proudly Black, Fat, Queer and Making a Home for Myself in Cosplay by Briana Lawrence

Interview: Out Of The Closet With ‘Plus Size Trans Guy’, Shane Stinson by DapperQ

What it’s like being Fat, Queer, and Asexual by Michael Paramo

How Being Plus Size Affects Presenting As Non-Binary by Gina Tonic

I Am The Plus-size Transfemme You Stared At For Too Long. by Rori Porter

Mixed-Race, Non-Binary, Queer Fat Femme: How I Fail and Succeed in Finding Liberation by Cicely Blain

I’m Fat and Gay. Here’s What I’ve Learned. by Sean Bennett

What It’s Like to Be A Fat Black Queer Femme— With Cancer by Taylor Crumpt

A Brief History Of The Gay Bears And Big Boys Scene by Gay Star News

The Fat, Black, Femme, Queer Chronicles by Tina Colleen

Dissertations

"Fat is a Queer Issue, Too": Complicating Queerness and Body Size in Women's Sexual Orientation and Identity by Hannah R. Long

More Fats, More Femmes, And No Whites: A Critical Examination Of Fatphobia, Femmephobia And Racism On Grindr by Matthew Conte

Fat Activism: A Queer Autoethnography by Charlotte Cooper

Spatial Awarishness: Queer Women And The Politics Of Fat Embodiment by Adrienne C. Hill

Fat Mutha: Hip Hop’s Queer Corpulent Poetics by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

Other

A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline by Charlotte Cooper

Transcript: Fat & Queer Intersections Webinar by NAAFA

[feriowind]

walkin on the beach

[izu]

pay my respects to grace & virtue, send my condolences to good

[spielzeugkaiser]

From the rolling-with-the-punches perspective sending a teacher to space was actually a good decision

[fighting-tardigrade]

Some practice with lighting and our favorite cornered fox & alien engineer

Project Hail Mary has me in a choke-hold lately - have you seen or read it yet?

Answer.the.Sphynx is my art insta if you wondered about the watermark

[ptr-sqloint]

through the window

[pronouncingitwang]

at some point in your life you will be boiling fruit, water, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot to make a syrup or jam. the instructions will tell you to simmer for a certain amt of time. your timer will go off and you will look at the pot and go, "hm, this doesn't look thick enough. maybe i'll let it go for another 10 minutes." this is the devil speaking. it's only so liquid right now because it is at boiling point. it will thicken when it cools down. learn from the follies of my youth and do not let this happen to you

[yokowan]

at some point in your life you will be making a sauce or a stew in which you need to add cornstarch to thicken it. and you will prepare a slurry of starch in cold water and think "this looks like way too little starch to thicken this amount of liquid." this is the devil speaking. cornstarch instantly polymerizes at 95°C and if you add too much it will turn into an impossibly thick goop.

[le-jardin-inculte]

at some point in your life you will be making some sort of cream based dessert that requires gelatin to thicken it. and you will soak some gelatin sheets in water and think "this is too few gelatin sheets for this amount of cream." this is the devil speaking. it will thicken in the fridge and if you add too much you will end up with milk jelly

[shithowdy]

at some point in your life you will be baking cookies. you will take the sheet out after twelve minutes as the recipe instructs and the cookies will still be glistening and soft. "these don't seem cooked enough," you will think to yourself, "i should place them back into the oven until their edges are nice and golden." this is the devil talking. this is how you get dry, overdone cookies. the cookies will continue to bake on the warm sheet for several more minutes and then harden up after sitting on a rack for a while. trust the process. trust the process.

[whitachi]

at some point in your life you will be adding a small pasta to a soup and you will think "that is not enough small pasta." this is the devil talking. the pasta will absorb the stock and expand. this is how you end up with a soup that is a solid mass of soggy ditalini.

[1000-life-hacks]

[archeologist-prophet]

Lovely to see we have spaces where you can gain access to so much literature!

[bitchesgetriches]

The Library Is a Magical Place and You Should Fucking Go There

[juney-blues]

sentence a lot of you could say more

[faux-friend]

When a black person states that something you did was racist, chill the fuck out. Its annoying dealing with you panicking trying to dissociate yourself from racism. If you're not black, black people already assume youve said nigga or its variant at least once in your life. If they're interacting with you and bringing something up, its because they want you to stop doing that so they can still interact with you(if ur already friends)

You WILL be racist. You WILL do racist things. You have ALREADY done both. Learn and move on. There's no ideological purity you can hold on to, i promise. Proving you can take the criticism without making it a big deal and practice what you preach is better than any clean slate.

Be the kind of person black people don't have to gamble on. Shut up and lock in

[sharkfiinn]

🐈🐈🐈