just some guy

Memes, cute pets, and things I think are just kinda neat

[todays-xkcd]

The research was overseen by the Institutional Review Board, which is what I named my surfboard.

Planetary Science [Explained]

Transcript

[An article from a journal is shown.]

[Title of journal article:] Evidence for Liquid Water on the Surface of a Terrestrial Planet in the Habitable Zone

[Below the title are four lines of blurred text presumably representing the name of the author or authors and their affiliations. Below that, the text of the article is blurred, displayed in two columns. There are three sections of blurred text each with a blurred boldface heading. Two pictures are included amid the blurred text. The picture in the left column shows the sea running alongside a beach. The picture in the right column shows Jill and Kidball playing at the beach, with Jill running and Kidball building a sandcastle, while Cueball and Megan are sitting under a beach umbrella watching them.]

[Caption below the article:] Planetary science journals have asked astronomers to please stop submitting their vacation photos.

[todays-xkcd]

We definitely put the pool in a mine for shielding. It was absolutely not to hide it from the funding people.

Neutrino Project [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[There is a large pool with a curved edge at the bottom of the panel, with a diving board and several stickfigures in and around it. Ponytail and Cueball are talking in the pool; two characters with relatively indistinct hair are in the water either side of them, passing a beachball between themselves; a Cueball has somersaulted off the diving board in a 'cannonball'-like jump; a Danish and a Ponytail with a drink are walking along the outside of the pool.] Ponytail in pool: How much trouble do you think we'll be in when they find out we used the grant money to throw a huge pool party instead? Cueball: We could argue that we did build a neutrino detector. Cueball: There's a lot of water here. A solar neutrino will probably interact with it at some point. Ponytail: ...Wait. Actually, if we got some photomultiplier tubes... [Caption below comic:] How the neutrino detector was invented

[gremlininho]

then & now ♡

[amerlcanapparel-deactivated2020]

when she says she doesn’t send nudes

[straighthater]

when guys objectify women and expect them to send nudes

[timelordpillbug]

when someone asks you about your nuclear plans for russia

[hikingnerd]

When Russia sends you nudes

[dr-thackery]

[dismantlerepaired]

[ilovepretzelrods]

[thegingerbalrog]

[onwardwall]

[miss-jaxon-flaxon-waxon]

#what the fuck happened here

[her-eyes-dared-me-with-danger]

This is my favorite post in all of tumblr

[kyloschuyler]

reminder that this post is now illegal in Russia

[tree-of-blue-squirrel]

reblog it, because Russia can´t

[maradaisykat]

Thanks Obama 

[my-sisters-eyeball]

Wtf

[roomba-with-knives-taped-to-it]

When Russia makes this post illegal

[earthnicity]

I HAVE ONLY SEEN THIS IN SCREENSHOTS

[maryfitzroy]

[todays-xkcd]

Scientists occasionally invent alternative periodic table layouts, which is usually a sign that they don't have enough enrichment in their enclosures.

Aperiodic Table [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

The Aperiodic Table of the Elements

[Rectangles showing the atomic symbols and atomic numbers from H 1 through Og 118 are arranged in a serpentine chain. The color of each rectangle matches the the pattern of a standard periodic table. For example, the noble elements all have a red background.]

[gaudebo]

tip: if you wake up on time and then lie in bed unmoving for 20 minutes you will no longer be on time

[todays-xkcd]

Borat came out twenty years ago this year--closer to the breakup of the Soviet Union than to today--but it honestly feels like it's been even longer, somehow.

Husband and Wife [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Megan & Cueball talk.]

Megan: I still feel a little weird saying the phrase “my husband”. Megan: It makes me feel so traditional, like a Victorian gossip.

Cueball: Yeah, well, my plight isn’t much better. Megan: What do you mean? Cueball: What’s the most salient cultural reference for the phrase “my wife”?

[Cueball has his hands raised.] Megan: Ughhhh, true. Cueball: Even now, after two decades, when I speak of you I hear his voice, echoing through the halls of memory like a cringy ghost.

[echotunes]

(to the tone of creep by radiohead) but i'm asleep. on mypillow

[scottbaiowulf-deactivated201805]

Male writers writing female characters:

“Cassandra woke up to the rays of the sun streaming through the slats on her blinds, cascading over her naked chest. She stretched, her breasts lifting with her arms as she greeted the sun. She rolled out of bed and put on a shirt, her nipples prominently showing through the thin fabric. She breasted boobily to the stairs, and titted downwards.”

[m1ssc0mmun1cat10n]

‘ She breasted boobily to the stairs, and titted downwards’ is the greatest fucking sentence I have ever read.

[worldheritagepostorganization]

World Heritage Post

[todays-xkcd]

I can't believe Candles of Vienna caved to commercial pressure and added the Goku expansion.

Types of Board Game [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

Types of Board Game

[Under this header text, the comic contains 8 panels. Each of them is labeled at the top with a short description of the board game being played and features (from left to right) Cueball, Ponytail, Megan, and White Hat sitting on chairs around a table trying to play it.]

Boring Megan: Each turn, roll a die and move your token. Turns proceed clockwise around the table until we get bored and go home.

Abstract Cueball: Each turn, you can place any number of red triangles or blue squares on a hexagon, or move any hexagon to a...

Hyperspecific Theme Ponytail: It's October 2, 1814. The Congress of Vienna convenes. You are each in charge of distributing and lighting candles for the opening ball, which was held at these three locations...

Overcomplicated White Hat: It's a cross between *Twilight Imperium* and *Cones of Dunshire,* but implemented entirely in category theory. Every cone is a monad, and...

Cooperative Megan: We're working together to sort these decks of cards using only hand gestures. After that, we'll silently organize my junk drawer.

Branded Cueball: You can play as Phoebe, Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Joey, or, due to an ill-advised tie-in, Goku.

Party Ponytail: Each of the cards in your hand has a bad word on it. On the count of three, yell the...

Social Deduction Megan: Remember, per our *Find the Secret Murderer* house rules from last week, discovering that a player had committed a real-life murder does *not* count.

[str-ngeloop]

i actually like the new reblog graph more. it's more legible

[no-sharks-on-the-sun]

oh my god this is infinitely better than it used to be, holy shit

[todays-xkcd]

Thanks to differences in logging regulations, the messages actually turned out to be visible from the air.

Border Message [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[A section of a map showing the border between the geographic areas East Valley and Southlake. The border is shown as a dotted line, and it spells out a message:]

WE HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYING THIS MAP

[Caption below comic:] When local legislators get bored

[ristay]

Sorry if it’s a little cramped- had to make this all fit in ten photos. Hope you guys like it….. and again…. sorry Andrew

Follow me on Webtoons

[ruby-white-rabbit]

The window visual did me in I’m wheezing

[floralpopie]

NO

[greatmountainfloofsquatch]

WELP

[doctor-seamonster]

I haven’t seen this in years and yet it is burned into my memory forever.

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

This is on the short list of Eternal Reblog because it’s fucking legendary.

[magrowette]

An honourable candidate for the @hellsite-hall-of-fame

[melongifts]

Hey anyone notice how google translate is being pretty liberal with their translations as of late? Takin some real liberties to infer tone.

[melongifts]

ask and ye shall receive: When I write in Japanese I usually also throw it in google translate to double check that I'm not using the wrong kanji by mistake, and two years ago it gave me very dry and literal translations.

I was doing it today and noticed it had a pretty strong voice added to the output

For reference, to give a dry translation I would put: Lately I'm into in Hanafuda. Nobody seems to know anything about it here, so they probably wouldn't understand my brilliant jokes. I guess you guys will never be able to understand "Mister November and the Scary Cave".

I have a fluent friend who is able to check my work for me and give me tips on hitting the correct tone (I was going for a comically casual feeling), so I'm confident that I'm expressing the feeling I'm intending. While Google is also hitting the same emotion, I really don't like knowing that it's assigning tone in the first place.

To check if it was editorializing based on informal grammatical choices, I formal'd up the writing to be more polite and remove any non-standard vocabulary.

I'm just like... what is anyone who is translating what I'm thinking into their own language going to think when a translation app decides that it knows my intended tone? When online communication is already so complicated and nuanced? I'm a non-native so I'm spending ages agonizing over 117 characters, but when I'm chatting in English I'm not being so deliberate. How likely is it that tools that 'naturalize' are going to make choices that don't reflect reality and lead to insulting misunderstandings? I spoke with an English learner just yesterday who thought they were being bullied (they were not, the commenter in question was just excitedly infodumping about sociology) because something was lost in translation, and I wonder if it's because of tools making choices like this. I'm just a luddite I don't trust stuff like this. stinks of ai asking me if it can rerwrite my email in a more quirky style.

[melongifts]

What do you mean I'm just using the browser versi-

I AM SO SICK OF DEFAULT AI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nasa]

This view from the Artemis II Orion spacecraft reveals a heavily cratered portion of the far side of the Moon. They vary in size, and in some areas, there are even craters within craters. The lighting here enhances contrast across the terrain, highlighting differences in surface features and giving insight into the Moon’s geologic history.

For more imagery from the mission, visit our Artemis II Multimedia Page.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[vanityplatesofmi]

[massachusetts-official]

Official Post of Massachusetts

[sub-par-mariner]

#mycaa