Hoist the Colours

"Every day the world finds new and exciting way to kill a man - let's tread lightly, shall we?" Indie Role-Play account for the character Balthier from Final Fantasy XII, FFXII: Revenant Wings and FFT: War of the Lions. Open to multifandom rp and OC's. Please read rules before engaging.

[michizzletee]

Even on the cloudiest of days the sun is always just above the clouds.

[joshbyard]

New Chip Design Fuses Electronics and Photonics By Combining Silicon and Graphene

Physicist Swastik Kar and mechanical engineer Yung Joon Jung lay belts of carbon nanotubes on top of a silicon wafer. The junction created by the intersection of the two materials proved to be highly sensitive to light; shining a laser spot on it caused a sharp rise in the light-induced current. That allowed the pair to build logic circuits that could be manipulated both electrically and optically.

“What we’ve done is built a tiny device where one input can be a voltage and the other input can be light,” Kar says. The researchers built an optoelectronic AND gate and a two-bit optoelectronic ADDER/OR gate. They also built a four-bit digital-to-analog converter. Shining spots of light onto an array of these junctions converts the digital signal of the laser into an analog current, with the strength of the current depending on the on/off pattern of the laser.

Jung creates the nanotubes in solution, and they can then be placed on a patterned silicon/silicon oxide substrate, so the technology should be compatible with existing CMOS processes, he says. The process should also be reproducible and scalable to large numbers of junctions.

Using light to both move data around a chip and perform some of the logic operations should save time and make the chip work faster, according to the pair. Just how much faster they can’t say yet, as this is only an early step toward an actual chip.

(via Nanotubes Make Logic Circuits that Use Both Light and Current - IEEE Spectrum)

[cinniminni888]

Sky | via Facebook on We Heart It.

[alexob-deactivated20170220]

Green energy from the bottom of the sea

First we got wind turbines to generate energy and now it seems scientists have found a way to tap the energy force of waves….

The device, pictured above, involves two air chambers: as a wave passes over the top of the first chamber, the pressure inside increases, forcing air through a passageway to the second chamber. Inside the passageway is a turbine, so the passing air is actually what generates the electricity. As the wave continues on, it raises the pressure inside the second chamber, pushing the air back through the turbine — importantly, it is a bidirectional turbine — and back into the first chamber. Another wave, another cycle. Repeat.

Find out here how powerful this device can be.

[ladyashj]

Because Vaan is really a terrible flier (I should’ve just put pilot damnit) amiright? Fantastic idea Balthier, lets teach Vaan how to fly the Strahl, genius. Whelp say goodbye to your possessions everyone, you won’t need them where you’re going.

[armesan]

General Celes Chere by Armesan

So explaination time.

Recently the insanely talented Shoomlah posted a huuuuuuuge list of historical clothing resources on her blog. Lately we’ve been replaying the old Final Fantasy games in our household, and that blog post got me thinking about how a lot of the female characters’ aren’t really wearing armor so much as a costume. This has always bothered me on characters that are supposed to be in any sort of combat, male or female, so I decided to do some redesigns trying to keep with the setting and original costumes, but adjusting it to have actual armor (ceremonial or otherwise). Really this was to scratch an itch I have about female warrior characters and impractical armor, as well as an exercise in keeping things simple coloring/shading wise.

And quite honestly, the early Final Fantasies were such a huge influence on me as a child (almost as much as Disney) that it’s about time I did some fanart of it. Celes was always one of my favorite characters in 6.

[finalfantasysquared-blog]

You’re as foolhardy as your sister.

[gamescenery]

The Ancient City of Giruvegan

[kinardstits]

'Princess…! No need to worry. I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story… I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man…

He never dies.’

[lifeunderasummersky]

sigh…

[kinardstits]

Favorite Final Fantasy Characters (In No Particular Order): Balthier Bunansa, Final Fantasy XII/XII: Revenant Wings

“Making himself known as a chivalrous thief, this sky pirate travels the skies in his beloved Strahl. When he sneaks into the Royal Palace of Rabanastre in pursuit of treasure, he stumbles across both Vaan and Ashe, and the strange pair joins him and his partner Fran in their travels. Yet when he realizes the part that his brilliant father Cid has played in the Archadian Empire’s expansion, he will have to take action if he is to be a true leading man.”

[video-game-heroines]

セリス by S.wakisaka

[miss-ada-blog]

Final Fantasy XII

[kinardstits]

Final Fantasy Meme | Two Outfits: Balthier (XIII) [1/2]

[mucholderthen]

The Phytoplankton Emiliania huxleyi Coccospheres up close and personal IMAGES: Natural History Museum, BBC, Rutgers/Woods Hole

Like other coccolithophores, Emiliania huxleyi is a single-celled phytoplankton covered with uniquely ornamented calcite disks called coccoliths (also informally known as liths or scales).  [WP]

It is one of the youngest species on Earth, appearing only around 250,000 years ago, about the same time as Homo sapiens.

E. huxleyi has a global population of about 7 x 1022 cells scattered across the world ocean and adapted to a wide range of environments.

It can grow explosively to produce massive blooms of milky water detectable from space.

It has a Cheshire Cat-like ability to escape from trouble by changing form. [Source: Natural History Museum, London]

BOTTOM IMAGE: Scanning electron microscope image of a partially dissolved Emiliania huxleyi coccosphere

Ocean acidification poses a potential threat to all marine organisms which produce calcareous skeletons.

Burning of fossil fuels and deforestation is releasing immense volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and around 25% is then dissolved into the sea. This is shifting the chemistry of sea water, making it slightly more acidic and making calcification more difficult. [NHM]

[iamfangu]

Did anyone else besides me develop a serious crush on Balthier’s nose during their XII playthrough?

[asttrorum]