Sometimes You Need To Read Something Twice To Get It. You Might Need To Watch A Movie Three Times To

I think one big reason why we don't consider the stars as important as before (not even pop-astrology anymore cares about the stars or the sky on itself, just the signs deprived of context) is because of light pollution.

For most of human history the sky looked between 1-3, 4 at most. And then all of a sudden with electrification it was gone (I'm lucky if I get 6 in my small city). The first time I saw the Milky Way fully as a kid was a spiritual experience, I was almost scared on how BRIGHT it was, it felt like someone was looking back at me. You don't get that at all with modern light pollution.

When most people talk about stargazing nowadays they think about watching about a couple of bright dots. The stars are really, really not like that. The unpolluted night sky is a festival of fireworks. There is nothing like it.

This Zenith Movie was taken on Sol 4001 (2023-11-07) at approximately 8:04 LTST and a solar longitude of 145.03°. (What is this?)

aaatttctga caaacgttac agggtgctgc tctgcaacgg tcaccagact cccgctctcc aacaaggtac tcacagcagt agacaggtca ctgcgttgtc cttgagatct aggagctcca cactcgataa gtaagttgcc ttctttactg cagtattctt tattctgctg gtctgttcct ttcgctttct cgatgtggca gcgggcacca aaataccact tcactttatt aaaagtttgc ttcttcacaa aattagcgaa cccctgtagg tggggtgttc ggccttcctc attaccctcc tcgccaacaa taaaataatc aaatagggag attgggagct cccgtatttt cttgcgctcg tcttcggaag gattattgag agtgaacacc caccttttat gtggttgggg tccgcttctt ccattcttct tactgggcat gttgctgctg aggtgctgcc gaggtgctgc cgctgccgaa gtgcgctggt aatacttaca gcgcacttct ttcgttttca gctatgacgt atccaaggag gcgtttccgc agacgaagac accgcccccg cagccatctt ggccagatcc tccgccgccg cccctggctc gtccaccccc gccaccgtta ccgctggaga aggaaaaatg gcatcttcaa cacccgcctc tcccgcacca tcggttatac tgtcaagaaa accacagtca gaacgccctc ctggaatgtg gacatgatga gatttaatat taatgatttt cttcccccag gagggggctc aaaccccctc actgtgccct ttgaatacta cagaataagg aaggttaagg ttgaattctg gccctgctcc ccaatcaccc agggtgacag gggagtgggc tccactgctg ttattctaga tgataacttt gtaacaaagg ccaatgccct aacctatgac ccctatgtaa actactcctc ccgccatacc ataacccagc ccttctccta ccactcccgg tactttaccc cgaaacctgt ccttgatggg acaatcgatt acttccaacc caataacaaa agaaatcaac tctggctgag actacaaact actggaaatg tagaccatgt aggcctcggc actgcgttcg aaaacagtat atacgaccag gactacaata tccgtataac catgtatgta caattcagag aatttaatct taaagacccc ccacttaacc ctaagtgaat aataaaaacc attacgaagt gataaaaaag actcagtaat ttatttcata tggaaattca gggcatgggg gggaaagggt gacgaactgg cccccttcct ccgtggattg ttctgtagca ttcttccaaa ataccaagga agtaatcctc cgatagagag cttctacagc taggacagca gttgaggagt accattccaa cggggtctga ttgctggtaa tcagaatact gcgggccaaa aaaggtacag ttccaccttt agtctctaca gtcaatggat atcgatcaca cagtctcagt agatcatccc acggcagcca accataaaag tcatcaataa caaccacttc ttcaccatgg taaccatccc accacttgtt tcgaggtggt ttccagtatg tggtttccgg gtctgcaaaa ttagcagccc atttgctttt accacaccca ggtggcccca caatgacgtg tacattggtc ttccaatcac gcttctgcat tttcccgctc actttcaaaa gttcagccag cccgcgg

I find this Antonov An-74 plane hilarious. Not just because of the weird engine placement, everyone finds that hilarious. This (and the related AN-72) are nicknamed "Cheburashka", after this cartoon character:

But no, the even funnier thing, to me, is how they've labeled this plane. Lemme zoom in:

THEY PUT THE PLANE'S FAX NUMBER ON IT

who sees a fucking plane and goes "hey, maybe I should send that plane a fax"?

phys.org

Dark matter could make our galaxy's innermost stars immortal

Stars near the center of our galaxy are acting kind of weird. Dark matter may be the explanation.

Stars near the center of our galaxy are acting kind of weird. Dark matter may be the explanation. A team of scientific detectives (so to speak) have discovered a potential new class of stars that could exist within a light-year of the Milky Way's center that could be operating according to an unusual mechanism: dark matter annihilation. This process would produce an outward pressure on the stars other than hydrogen fusion, keeping them from gravitationally collapsing—and making them essentially immortal, their youth being refreshed constantly. The findings are published on the arXiv preprint server. Collectively, the dark matter–powered stars would inhabit a new region of a long-established diagram that classifies stars by their temperature and luminosity, placing them away from the so-called main sequence where the vast majority of stars exist.

Continue Reading.

Notes for drawing (and writing) insects

I do something like this almost yearly and it feels like it gets a little longer every time!

Personally I draw either cartoony stuff or hybrid monsters where none of this is mandatory, but here are some of the things I sometimes see missing or inaccurate in insect artwork that was meant to be lifelike, and even if you only do alien, monster or cartoon arthropods, or you don’t make art at all, you might still like to know some of these things!

First off, an insect leg pretty much always has 9 segments. #1, the coxa, is what attaches it to the body and can be a short little “ball” or a whole long piece, but almost always bends DOWN. The last five segments are almost always very short, forming a super flexible “foot” or “tarsus” ending in a set of claws and sticky pads. All spiders have this “foot” as well!

The foot is even still present on the claws of a preying mantis - growing right out of the “sickle” like this, and still used as feet when the mantis walks around or climbs. Basically ONLY CRABS have limbs ending in simple points!

Insects don’t just have side-to-side mandibles at all, but an upper and lower set of “lips” like a duck bill! In some, however, these parts can be very small or even fused solid.

Insects also typically have four “palps” on their head, an upper and lower pair, which evolved from legs and are used to handle food!

Most *FLYING* insects have ocelli, single-lens eyes in addition to their multi-faceted compound eyes! Some flightless insects can also have them but it depends on the species.

All legs and wings are always attached to the thorax!

Caterpillars still have six legs! They’re very small and up near the head. All the other “legs” are actually just suckers on its underbelly.

You will be forgiven for never drawing this but this is how many parts a mosquito’s mouth actually has. Every piece you can find in another insect’s mouth - the “upper lip,” the mandibles, the palps, etc. - are all present as different needles and blades!

The word “bug” originally referred only to one group of insects, the hemiptera, including stink bugs, assassin bugs, aphids, cicadas, bed bugs and water striders to name a few. One distinguishing feature of this group is that it did away with all those separate mouth parts - all “bugs” have just a single, hollow “beak” or “proboscis” to feed through!

The vast majority of insect groups have wings or at least members with wings, and all insects with wings have  FOUR of them…..except that in beetles, the front wings evolved into solid, protective shields for the hind wings, and in true flies (which includes mosquitoes!) the hind wings evolved into tiny little knobs with weights on the end, called halteres, which the fly’s fast-paced brain uses to feel its orientation, altitude, speed, surrounding air pressure and other fine data making them quite possibly the most advanced aerial navigators on the planet. OTHER NOTES THAT DON’T NEED ILLUSTRATION:

Insects and other arthropods HAVE TRUE BRAINS in their heads, made of brain cells like ours. They can learn, memorize, and make decisions.

Insects do have males and females and obviously only females lay eggs. Fiction is always getting this wrong, but I guess it also does so with birds so whatever.

Of insects, only termites, ants, some bees and some wasps have fully evolved a eusocial colony structure with “queens” as we think of them. Of these, the termites are actually highly specialized cockroaches, and the rest (bees, ants, wasps) are the same exact group.

The scrabbling, clicking noise associated with insects is usually added artificially in nature footage for dramatic effect. While their movements likely emit some sort of sound, it’s probably no “louder” proportionately than, say, the sound of a cat’s fur as it walks. In other words it should not be noticeable; what kind of animal survives as a species if it clatters with every step??

Compound eyes do not see a bunch of identical little images. There is no advantage to any organism seeing that way. An insect sees one big picture just like you do.

Only some insect groups have “larvae.” Others have “nymphs” which resemble fully grown but wingless insects.

The only insects with a venomous bite are some true bugs and some flies. There are no beetles or roaches or wasps or anything else that inject offensive toxins through their mouth parts, as far as I know!

The only insects that lay eggs inside other insects parasitically are certain wasps and flies. There are also NO arachnids that do this.

Only certain bees, wasps and ants have stingers on their abdomens. These are modified from egg laying appendages, so it’s also only ever the females.

The only other kind of “sting” in any insect is a venomous hair or spine, mostly seen in caterpillars.

Absolutely beautiful! I hope everyone took this in! Makes you think just how small we are. A moment the world comes together as one! That’s true humanity . We will be uploading more amazing photos to this same post. So come back later on and check out our 2024 once in a lifetime eclipse photos.

another paper I love is about how play behaviour, not tool use, is related to brain mass in birds, and how we draw false conclusions about tool use and cognitive ability when we should be considering play behaviour…i just love that and it’s implications actually