Aint That Just The Way

Retired illustrator getting back into my love of it, without the capitalist hustle

[tworiverswoolhead]

Posting some old work of mine on my new Tumblr; really proud of this one of my Circle of the Moon Druid, Tyto.

[tworiverswoolhead]

Reading Wheel of Time, you have to imagine a 90's-anime-magical-girl-transformation scene every time Rand channels as Jordan intended.

[plumslices]

If we don’t microdose delusion we won’t make it through this reality babe….

[leebrontide]

So I remember reading about this study in grad school where they have a bunch of clinically depressed people and a bunch of non-clinically-depressed people a game that was partially chance and partially skill, and asked them to estimate how much control they had over the outcome.

The depressed people were far more accurate in estimating how much influence their actions had on the outcome of the game compared to their nondepressed counterparts, who consistently overestimated the effects of their own choices on their chances of winning.

Then I remember this other study (CW animal testing) where they put rats in a bucket of water that they couldn’t get out of, so they’d have to swim. There was a fairly consistent point at which the swimming rat would falter, and stop swimming, fated to drown.

Except that that’s when the researchers would pull the rat out of the bucket, give it a nice rest warmth and a meal.

When those SAME rats who had been rescued before were put in the same situation again, they swam much LONGER than they had before.

Why? The risk was the same either way- drowning. You’d have thought that the fear of drowning would keep them swimming to their maximum length no matter what.

The researchers conclusion was that the rescued rats had something they hadn’t had the first time- they had more hope. A miraculous rescue could come, and that let them swim for longer, just in case.

I think we do microdose delusion because sometimes that little overestimation of our chances, of our luck, keeps us swimming that little bit longer, just in case something good happens. And sometimes, that little margin really does make the difference. 

[vanwolffen]

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

-Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.

[syn0vial]

hey, don't just leave the quote there! the last line is what MAKES it!

"YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE.  HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?"

[random-brushstrokes]

Leonid Pasternak  (Ukrainian, 1862–1945) - The Torments of Creative Work

[caressthosecheekbones]

oh leonid, we're really in it now

[wintersmitth]

Leonid, you really understand it.

[alexaloraetheris]

Save me Leonid, from my empty Word document

[elodieunderglass]

Leonid what should I do about the emails

[letitrainathousandflames]

Babe are you okay? you reblogged Leonid Pasternak's Torments of Creative Work again

[banchie]

i've been phasing the phrase 'google it' out of my vocabulary and going back to 'look it up'. fuck you youve lost your generic trademark privileges

[stahsm]

Overlock Stitch by @clothes_reetzy

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

we gotta get back into revolving bookcases i'm begging

truly we allow the pinnacles of human achievement to wither and collapse into ashes in the wind

[anablepsian]

These are the most fuckable bookshelves I’ve ever seen

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

[scorchroots]

I've never loved anyone as much as I love Ursula Le Guin

[twistedingenue]

Not to be former Catholic-blogging on main but Chicago Pope can WRITE, y'all

Breaking the chains of new forms of slavery 173. This distorted view of the human person is reflected today in various forms of servitude directly linked to the digital economy. Nothing in the world of AI is immaterial or magical. Every seemingly immediate and flawless response is the result of a long chain of mediation, involving vast networks of natural resources, energy infrastructure and, above all, people. A significant part of the digital economy’s functioning relies on the silent work of millions of people engaged in essential yet largely unseen activities, such as data labeling, model training and content moderation, often involving disturbing material. In many cases, these workers are young people, predominantly women, working under demanding conditions for minimal wages. Added to this invisible labor is the even harsher work of extracting the resources required for the production of the devices and microprocessors on which AI depends. In some regions of the world, children and adolescents work in dangerous conditions, crushing the materials from which rare earth elements are extracted. The bodies of these people are scarred, injured and worn down so that computational flow may continue uninterruptedly. Furthermore, criminal networks use online platforms, messaging systems, anonymous payment methods and profiling techniques in order to recruit, control and transport victims of trafficking — very often minors — reducing men and women to “data” to be tracked and “packages” to be moved around within the same digital circuits that support much of the global economy. This reality deeply challenges the moral conscience of our time. It is not enough to invoke efficiency, nor to celebrate the benefits of innovation, if they are built on a chain of exploitation that remains deliberately hidden. If technology promises emancipation, yet produces new forms of global subordination, it stands in contradiction to the fundamental principle of human dignity.

MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

[unifixation]

This reality deeply challenges the moral conscience of our time. It is not enough to invoke efficiency, nor to celebrate the benefits of innovation, if they are built on a chain of exploitation that remains deliberately hidden. If technology promises emancipation, yet produces new forms of global subordination, it stands in contradiction to the fundamental principle of human dignity.

i went and read/skimmed through the encyclical and damn. bangers all around:

[screechfoxes]

CRITICAL ROLE 4.26 Council of Heroes

[the-cuix]

So, what do you say? Why not help one another on this lonely journey?

[megacarapa]

ok so this is another long shot but a few years ago there was a twitter post (in japanese i think?) that had measurememts for how to make this book stand thing out of cardboard that you could use to double up books and use up more space on shelves

back then i made a bunch of these but by now i lost the pic and dont know how to find the original post anymore

if it comes down to it i can just take one apart and get the measurements from there but i would be very grateful if anyone happens to have the original post or something similar??

[megacarapa]

don't mind how long it's been since i made this post, anyway i realized that i don't even need to take one apart to get the measurements when i can literally just unfold it and refold it /FACEPALM

so anyway here is the diagram for anyone else who is interested!!

this requires pretty big carboard pieces, if you have a really big box or something you can make it from one piece, but if you don't, you can also just make each of the pieces individually and then tape them together

and then in the end you put it together like this!!

and then when you make a bunch you can put them all next to each other and stack your books like crazy

EVERYONE START GETTING MORE USE OUT OF YOUR SPACE NOW!!!!

[dogwise]

PRACTICE URGE SURFING

[dogwise]

[teumessianandlaelaps]

Huh, didn't know there was a term for it. This explains why I haven't been drinking as much lately.

[help-me-yes]

yes... ha ha ha... yes!

[logically-devonian-blog]

How the Geneva Drive (the mechanical step that makes the second hand on a clock work by turning constant rotation into intermittent motion) works.

[thelynnfiles]

Oh snap!

[cutlerish]

As an engineer, this makes me happy.

[thefurrynerd]

If only one loop of this gif were equal to one second…

[endoshan]

easy peasy

[aibohphobia]

watching this while listening to a clock ticking is the best decision i have ever made

[puppybeargf]

[sonbr]

You may like this amazing web page then: https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/ It’s a full break down of how a mechanical watch works, every single part including a complication. Every diagram is interactive and beautifully put together. It’s a fantastic read, fun to play with and really informative.

[eightyonekilograms]

Seconding this recommendation, and in fact this person’s entire blog: he has multiple of these explainers and they’re all good.

In particular, if you’re a programmer who finds floating point numbers to be exotic dark magic, I strongly recommend his Exposing Floating Point post. There are many guides/tutorials on floating point arithmetic out there but IMO this is the best one and makes them really not seem so difficult by the end of it (or at least, all their counterintuitive behavior now makes sense).

[enchantedbook]

The Mermaid (c. 1910) by Howard Pyle

[byjove]

I hate adaptions that try to add a romantic angle to the Sherlock Holmes/Irene Adler relationship, partially because he is gay, mostly because she is massively out of his league.

[byjove]

IT IS SO FUNNY, SHE REALLY DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT HIM, at best she finds him mildly amusing. I wrote that I think she’d call him ‘little buddy’ in a modern AU and I’m rightttttt.

[byjove]

[byjove]

EXACTLYYYYYY