I wrote it about a very, very pretty girl who I like very, very much!
Shaleesh
joined 5 years ago
Image credit to Kevin Gill on Wikimedia Commons
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The planet Venus is the easiest of the planets to spot with the naked eye from here on earth. Due to her high albedo and proximity to the sun she will appear at dusk, heralding the appearance of the stars before disappearing through the night, only to return at dawn as the stars fade into the morning light.
She may also harbor life.
Conditions on her surface are rightly described as "hellish". The high temperatures, pressures, intense volcanism and presence of chemicals such as sulfuric acid are notorious for "killing" probes in a matter of minutes. Earthlings would probably not fare much better.
Phosphine is a gas produced by either volcanic or biological processes. In 2020, phosphine was detected in the upper atmosphere of Venus in concentrations higher than what could be accounted for by volcanic processes alone. Now, there have been published studies attempting to disprove these observations but, despite what the shitheads at Wikipedia say, the presence of phosphine has been validated by repeat observations.
This discovery has lead to some renewed interest in...
Fuck it, its not that serious, I can write this like I'm posting on hexbear, because I'm posting on hexbear.
Look at this picture okay?
Thats her, thats Venus, thats what she actually looks like to the naked eye. If you stood before her, in all her terror and glory, this is what you would see (more or less). Virtually every other picture you have ever seen of Venus has been some kind of false color image, usually in the ultraviolet spectrum, maybe in the infrared or really high or low ends of the visible spectrum with the contrast jacked way, way up.
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This is an image of Venus, taken by Mariner 10, in the ultraviolet range.
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The dark lines are areas where UV light is being absorbed. We don't know whats doing that. We call it the "unknown ultraviolet absorber" and we don't really know what it is. We have been staring at this thing for nearly a century and we don't know what it is. Its prevalent enough to impact Venus's weather cycle, its intensity waxes and wanes over time, it moves around, and best guesses have it absorbing about 50% of all UV light hitting Venus.
And we have no idea what it is.
The discovery of phosphine has lead to a reexamination of old data and... okay here's the arxiv link and here's the direct link to the pdf. If you have gotten this far and can parse astrobiological scientific journal articles you should read this because the argument it makes is rock-solid and very, very thoroughly detailed. If that's not your jam here's a youtube link to a lecture by Astrobiology rockstar Sara Seager about astrobiological study on Venus, it covers most of the same content.
Basically, there is a whole lot of really specific, really weird things going on in the atmosphere of Venus. No feasible combination of abiotic factors are able to form a model that explains all of them. Carl Sagan once proposed that the Unknown UV Absorber was microbial in nature and that seems to get more and more likely every day.
We won't know for sure until we get some in-situ studies going on. Thankfully there are a handful on the way, including one planning on launching either this or next year. Its not sexy, basically a probe will fall through the atmosphere and use a laser to check for organic molecules, but its going to be the first of many. And its lead by Sara Seager, the aformentioned astrobio rockstar.
I just think about this a lot. We may have been looking at life, elsewhere in the universe, since before we were even human.
and it will have been on Venus, marscucks btfo lmao
Join our public Matrix server!
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As a reminder, please do not discuss current struggle sessions in the mega. We want this to be a little oasis for all of us and the best way to do that is not to feed into existing conflict on the site.
Also, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.
Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.
spoiler
OH SHIT IM POSTIN THE MEGA THIS WEEK
hug
You too?
Im lucky enough to be in one of those troughs where its not so bad at the moment and it seems like its been getting better overall for a while now. Then Ill say that and remember the emotional flashbacks i was having 12 hours ago and the habits I still have despite all the counseling and strategies and progress.
Be strong!
I wish the article elaborated more on this but it appears that "Accuracy" in the exoskeleton industry tends to be a measure of:
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how long the device takes to start moving along with its wearer, measured in miliseconds
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where the device stops vs where it was meant to stop, i.e. if you lower your arm 45° but the exoskeleton follows along for 44°
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wether or not a "movement intention" is detected at all, the industry seems to have mastered this for a while now
If I had to guess, the "95%" probably refers to the second measure, which sounds pretty good for a device that helps with lifting, carrying, and gross motor skill stuff.
does trying to access the site when you get off the wheel count as strikebreaking?
a friend said that she sees me as a big sister figure, made me cry a little
transition goal achieved.
(Vehicle IDs for the image above, from left to right: Marder IFV, Bradley IFV, M1 Abrams, behind the Abrams is a British MXT-MV, VAB wheeled APC, and Leopard 2A4)
(Vehicle IDs from left to right: M1 Abrams, Leopard 2A4, Marder IFV)
(Vehicle IDs from left to right: I'm 99% sure the woodland camouflaged vehicle in the background with the Finnish flag is a Patria Pasi 6x6 wheeled APC, in front of that is an MXT-MV, Leopard 2A4, and a Turkish BMC KIrpi MRAP)
(MXT-MV, this appears to be the most heavily damaged vehicle on display)
The Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at Overseas Military Operations in Pyongyang opened on April 27th and amongst many other things the museum has an outdoor display for captured western armored vehicles. If I have misidentified anything feel free to correct me.
Today marks three years nicotine-free.
Never thought I'd get this far.
To build off of what TerminalEncounter was saying, I can personally attest that the atmosphere isn't accepting but it can often be permissive environment for trans people.
Most of these people have a wildly innacurate stereotype of transfeminine people in their head, something more "Rocky Horror meets Fox and Friends" than anything resembling reality. Many have never met a trans person before at all unless they have a transgender relative. By and large these people can't clock because they don't know what to look for.
Theres been a couple of times where someone has said incredibly transphobic things because they thought I was cis and wanted to talk mad shit about "those [Slur] in the schools these days" or something. It is profoundly satisfying to go "Sir/Ma'am, I am transgender." Bigots are by and large cowards who will only try shit if they feel they are coming from a position of total superiority, which they often are not.
Now, obviously you are in a more reactionary environment in these places, so its not 100% safe but you're going to be safer than you might expect.
Spoilered for appearance shaming
Ok so this is like, really really mean but people out here tend to be... not as hot as their urbanite counterparts. I think this helps with passing quite a bit.
yay! thank you!
raises hand
I wanna go again! 11/3 - 11-9 please!
Y'know, when I signed up for this back in June I had grand plans for some grand writeup on the domestically produced unmagnified gunsights of Cuba. I had collected images and info and sources but I lost sight of it as life stuff happened and my time for the trans mega snuck up on me.
Que sera sera.
Anyways, today felt like the first whisper (you have no idea how hard I just thought about the ideal word for this metaphor) of autumn and that put me in the mood for one of my favorite autumnal albums. More Constant Than the Gods by SubRosa is a really lovely doom? sludge? metal album. I like how big it sounds. The lead vocalist is a really talented lady, and its got violins, also the lyrics talk about dying and stuff and I'm into that. Its very fall-y to me, as is Standard Time Volume 1 by Wynton Marsalis, but for extremely different reasons.
The funny thing is that, like the poster of the previous mega it is also my 5th transiversary, I started HRT half a decade ago today (ok technically it was the 17th but I'm gonna count it since thats when I started writing this). Now, I don't think that taking HRT was what made me "officially trans", rather it was the degree of self acceptance required to get to that point. It's a long story, and one I prefer to share privately, but it took a very, very long time before my fear and desperation gave me the strength to allow myself to have this. I think it all turned out pretty well, I experience existence in much higher fidelity, I'm this whole person, along with everything that entails.
I feel very blessed to be transgender.
I hope you all stay safe and have a good, or atleast tolerable week.
Join our public Matrix server!
https://rentry.co/tracha#tracha-rooms
As a reminder, please do not discuss current struggle sessions in the mega. We want this to be a little oasis for all of us and the best way to do that is not to feed into existing conflict on the site.
Also, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.
Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.
Timothee Chalamet was a surprisingly good Paul Atreides but WTF happened to Zendaya? She looked nothing like this in Spiderman. The end of the movie wrapped things up pretty good so is part 2 an adaptation of Dune Messiah or something?
Pic related.
Shoutout to Tervell for keeping this comm active. If it weren't for him this place would be SPARSE but instead we've got multiple posts a day of interesting gun pictures. He's pretty cool for doing that.
Thanks dude!
Pic unrelated, it's a Cuban soldier, the optic on the AKM is the domestically produced Visor Patria.
Wall Street Journal Article archive.ph link
Boeing has been awarded the contract for the NGAD program, and will produce the next generation of fighter jets used by the United States. The aircraft is said to be the first 6th generation fighter, said to employ novel technologies such as AI assistance. It will be part of a new "family of systems" that will include unmanned "loyal wingman" fighter aircraft . The designation F-47 appears to pay homage to Donald Trump, the 47th president.
The Wall Street Journal says that the price tag per aircraft will be "several hundred million each", for reference, the final cost per F-35 is around $80 million.
This feels like a story from The Onion ngl.
Audibly cackled when I saw this one today, it's got about 32 hours of relevance left lmao
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Shes amazing and I love her.