[accelerationist-king-piccolo]

Dope

[mourge]

talk about getting two birds stoned at once

[prokopetz]

Concept: a stage musical about a romance between a fishing boat and a lighthouse. The title characters are played by people in ordinary street clothes, except the actor playing the fishing boat has a model boat strapped to the top of their head, while the actor playing the lighthouse wears an enormous lighthouse-shaped hat. The plot revolves around the impending demise of both parties: the lighthouse is slated to be demolished and replaced with a modern automated tower, while the fishing boat will soon be decommissioned and sold for scrap as a consequence of its captain’s tax evasion. The resolution of these perils somehow involves aliens.

[prokopetz]

The fishing boat and the lighthouse are, of course, played by the same actors as the fishing captain and the lighthouse keeper, respectively, with which set of characters the audience is looking at distinguished by whether or not they’re wearing their headgear. At one point a dialogue occurs between the lighthouse keeper and the lighthouse, represented by a musical number in which the singular actor addresses themselves while rapidly donning and doffing the lighthouse hat. This may or may not be a metaphor.

[prokopetz]

The play’s thematic subtext is about the obsolescence of gender roles.

[prokopetz]

Every single person who reblogged this to suggest having it written by Andrew Lloyd Webber is getting blocked.

[back-then]

US Scientists study the phases of the moon on lunar models in preparation for an eventual manned flight to the moon 1962

[likeafieldmouse-deactivated2015]

[ficklefandoms]

Tim Hawkinson - Mobius Ship (2011)

oh this is neat

[numb3rth30ry]

A beautiful geometric visualization of positive-valued binomial expansions, the algebraic expressions produced by raising sums of variables (a, b) to natural-valued powers n. The algebraic structures and procedures of binomial expansion are described by the binomial theorem–which, in turn, is proved by the above figures. 

Given (a+b)^n, there will be (n+1)-many terms, c(a^(n-m))(b^m), where c is a constant, and a and b are variables. 

By tradition, these terms are arranged in descending order by powers of the leading term, a. Accordingly, the binomial expansion of (a+b)^n begins with the term having the highest power of a, which is a^n for all n. 

The remaining n-many terms are ordered such that the exponent of each successive a term (n-m) decreases by one. Correspondingly, the exponent of the b term (m) increases by one, such that (n-m)+m=n. 

The binomial coefficients c for each successive term c(a^(n-m))(b^m) are described by Pascal’s triangle. Given (a+b)^n, the nth row of Pascal’s triangle contains (n+1)-many numbers, which are the coefficients c, listed in the order described above.

Note that the exponent n is the dimension of the figures pictured above. This is no coincidence; the term (a+b)^n can be depicted geometrically by a figure whose measure (length, area, volume, hypervolume, etc.) is the quantity produced by multiplying (a+b), n-many times. 

Additionally, observe that the coefficients c give the quantity of n-dimensional figures required to fill in the missing bits of area, as illustrated by the figures. For example, in order to fill the volume (a+b)^3, we use two cubes of volume a^3 and b^3, and the remainder is filled by 3 “plate-like” figures and 3 “tube-like” figures (each of whose dimensions are (a^2)b and a(b^2), respectively).

Mathematics is beautiful. <3

[wave-on-seashell]

Stunning gardens

[desdemonical]

inspired by @prokopetz‘s post here

[fluffygif]

Kittens having fun with a disco ball.

(Via)

[enjoloras-deactivated20220821]

This man is trapped in his house with what's going to be like 1000 giant moths and it is somehow the funniest thing I have seen in days.

[sew-birb]

This guy could make a killing on Animal Crossing

[radicalgraff]

“We can’t return to normal, because the normal that we had was precisely the problem.”

See in Hong Kong

[napeedgesandhighcheekbonez1]

[inkedmyths]

I canNOT stop watching this so you all have to see it too

[quietpagan]

LIke the first six seconds get funnier every time I watch ittttttttt

[rqqu]

““The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,” an essay Le Guin wrote in 1986, disputes the idea that the spear was the earliest human tool, proposing that it was actually the receptacle. Questioning the spear’s phallic, murderous logic, instead Le Guin tells the story of the carrier bag, the sling, the shell, or the gourd. In this empty vessel, early humans could carry more than can be held in the hand and, therefore, gather food for later. Anyone who consistently forgets to bring their tote bag to the supermarket knows how significant this is. And besides, Le Guin writes, the idea that the spear came before the vessel doesn’t even make sense. “Sixty-five to eighty percent of what human beings ate in those regions in Paleolithic, Neolithic, and prehistoric times was gathered; only in the extreme Arctic was meat the staple food.” Not only is the carrier bag theory plausible, it also does meaningful ideological work — shifting the way we look at humanity’s foundations from a narrative of domination to one of gathering, holding, and sharing.”

—

Siobhan Leddy in The Outline. We should all be reading more Ursula Le Guin

Her novels imagine other worlds, but her theory of fiction can help us better live in this one.

There’s a link to a PDF of Le Guin’s essay here.

(via protoslacker)

[wellshitcaitlin]

I just want to point out that Le Guin’s parents were anthropologists, some of the top cultural anthropologists of the time actually, so she grew up surrounded in this science and learning these things, which is why her world’s were realistic–she knew how cultures worked. Le Guin knows her shit.

[systlin]

I actually didn’t know that, but now knowing it it makes perfect sense.

[robins-gay-suspenders]

[cumaeansibyl]

I’m the girl with the extremely knowing smile in the foreground

[dankmemeuniversity]

[iticaboopsyou]

This is hands down the best thing I've seen for this meme format😂

[birlinterrupted]

I think people need to really question how much they associate like certain “levels” of medical transition or transition behaviors w like an assumption of like what kind of binary or non-binary identity someone has. I feel like even when it comes to “how much [hormone]” someone is taking that people do this (associating less w a non-binary ID), let alone the way that bottom surgery for all kinds of trans people is assumed to be an inherently binary thing (and is voiced almost exclusively in those terms) — all of these assumptions have like reactionary bio-essentialist implications abt gender (ex: cis men w more T are somehow “more men” or more masculine than cis men w less T)

[whitepeopletwitter]

[gingersofficial]

[candiikismet]

Life path unlocked. He’s a scientist now.

[prolifeproliberty]

If your dad is telling you in great detail about something he’s passionate about, you’re going to be hooked even if you don’t understand a word.

[by-grace-of-god]

He tells us more…

So now I have to deliver a quiet lecture on the Standard Model every night. He loves lists of things, like all the streets home from daycare, or the train stations between here and Central, so he loves hearing the list of leptons and quarks and bosons.

Anyway, I made this poster for him, based on the CPEP ones we used to have at uni . 

Alas I ran out of room for antimatter, colour charge and confinement, but hey, maybe there can be a second poster later.

It’s funny though — on the surface of it, it seems like it must be far too advanced for a 3yo. But when you think about it, quarks and leptons are no more or less real to him than, say, dinosaurs or planets, and he loves those too. And he recognises the letters on the particles.

I am absolutely overwhelmed by the kind and sweet things people are saying about this, thanks everyone ❤️

Addendum: he has really grasped onto the “everything is made of atoms” part of this, so tonight he listed just about every object he could think of and asked if it was made of atoms.

“And my bed?” Yes, and your bed. “And that wall?” Yep. “And the armchair?” Yes, the armchair too. … … “And… the book case?” Y—

“And my home?” Yep, the whole apartment block. “And your home? Oh wait, your home is my home.” Haha, it is. … … “But is it made of atoms?” Yep. “And… [best friend]’s home?” Yes, it is. And [other friend]’s home, and [third friend]’s home.

“Is [yet another friend]’s home?”

Update from the other night:

“Is my… is… [extremely long pause] is my atoms poster made up of atoms?” —Yes! Yes it is.

I have never heard such a contemplative silence. I think the next poster will have to be on the philosophy of referential language.

Update from this morning: after listing everything in sight (mummy? daddy? fridge? milk? cereal? table? etc.) he asks “is [baby sister] made up of atoms?”

yep!

*runs over to her on the floor* *puts face up real close to hers* “HI! YOU’RE MADE UP OF LOTS OF ATOMS! DID YOU KNOW?”

[arcticfoxbear]

@radioactivepeasant @themagdalenwriting @iusedtohaveanaccount

“HI! YOU’RE MADE UP OF LOTS OF ATOMS! DID YOU KNOW?”

[whitepeopletwitter]