Latest Posts by orbital-mechanics - Page 2
The third photo from top is the Cave of the Crystals in the Naica mine. It's very hot and humid in there, so it's hard to go spelunking. But those same conditions are great for crystal formation!
Caves are weirder and more varied than you think
Spotify vocabulary
歌曲
gēqǔ
song
歌单
gēdān
playlist
队列
duìliè
queue
专辑
zhuānjí
album
艺人
yìrén
artist
随机播放
suíjī bōfàng
Shuffle
循环播放
xúnhuán bōfàng
Loop
转至播放队列
zhuàn zhì bōfàng duìliè
go to playback queue
点赞
diǎnzàn
to like
加入歌单
jiārù gēdān
add to playlist
加入播放队列
jiārù bōfàng duìliè
add to playback queue
查看专辑
chákàn zhuānjí
view album
查看艺人
chákàn yìrén
view artist
分享
fēnxiǎng
share
睡眠定时器
shuìmián dìngshíqì
sleep timer
转至歌曲电台
zhuàn zhì gēqǔ diàntái
go to song radio station
显示制作人
xiǎnshì zhìzuò rén
show producer
part 1, part 2
If you are a conlanger, a group from the University of Washington is looking for your input as they set about to create some conlanging software! The survey is fairly short (~5 minutes), and please feel free to share!
I remember reading in the linked article that this new methodology was based off of flawed research that basically emulated the way low-level readers read (e.g. compensating strategies) instead of how high-level readers did.
You know what was the craziest thing I learned from being married to a teacher? Not that the kids are watching porn and sexually harassing teachers and other students, though that's definitely bad. It's the fact that children cannot read anymore. And it's not like, some of them. 90% of her FIFTH GRADERS cannot read. She writes shit on the board but they can't fucking read it. They don't teach PHONICS anymore, they do this bullshit whole-word reading, and the result is that kids can't sound things out. They literally don't know how to read. This is horrifying to me. They also have no critical thinking abilities and don't even try to do any tasks before deciding they don't know how and it's too hard, like on a level incomprehensible to me. Like she tells me these things and it makes me think like, there's no way the general public is aware of this, right? If you aren't a teacher or a parent you must not know about this. So I am telling you. Watch some teacher tik toks. Read the teachers subreddit. Be aware. Because I'm genuinely very scared of what is going to happen over the next few years. This is fr not good.
This article is from 2019 but it talks about the issue, and touches on the two teaching methodologies
Here:
So Star Trek Prodigy is an absolutely excellent show full of heart, wonderful storytelling, endearing characters, beauitful art and music, and a great balance of episodic and overarching storytelling that many of us have wanted Star Trek to find! Also there are some fun throwbacks that feel mostly purposeful and thought out and not too gratuitous! Lovely season 1, highy recommend to any Trek fan and hoping there will be a season 2!
Good news: Prodigy season 2 was confirmed November 2021 and will also have 20 episodes! It will release later in 2023 and production is already underway.
So Star Trek Prodigy is an absolutely excellent show full of heart, wonderful storytelling, endearing characters, beauitful art and music, and a great balance of episodic and overarching storytelling that many of us have wanted Star Trek to find! Also there are some fun throwbacks that feel mostly purposeful and thought out and not too gratuitous! Lovely season 1, highy recommend to any Trek fan and hoping there will be a season 2!
That last image is like out of a painting!
This show is gorgeous, we all know this. But can we take a moment and appreciate how beautifully Starfleet Headquarters was rendered?
There's the wrong way, the right way, and the Janeway.
I'm sad but Holo Janeway finally did what all Janeway's want: explode with her ship
hey don’t cry. spiro the bald eagle failing at catching a crab, okay?
市场菜 Farmer's Market Foods
So the farmer's market levels are SO MUCH so I thought I would do a separate list of just the foods!
荔枝 / lì zhī / lychee
西红柿，西紅柿 / xī hóng shì / tomato
番茄 / fān qié / tomato
番茄酱，番茄醬 / fān qié jiàng / ketchup*
西红柿炒鸡蛋 / xī hóng shì chǎo jī dàn / tomato & scrabbled eggs
黄瓜， 黃瓜 / huáng guā / cucumber
南瓜 / nán guā / pumpkin
西瓜 / xī guā / watermelon
地瓜 / dì guā / yam, sweet potato
苦瓜 / kǔ guā / bitter melon
冬瓜 / dōng guā / winter melon
葡萄 / pú tao / grape
草莓 / cǎo méi / strawberry
排骨 / pái gǔ / ribs, cutlet (e.g. 猪排骨 pork ribs)
骨头汤 / gǔ tou tāng / bone soup
蘑菇 / mó gu / mushroom
木耳 / mù ěr / fungus
香菇 / xiāng gū / shiitake mushroom (fragrant)
金针菇 / jīn zhēng gū / enoki mushroom (golden needle)
剁 / duò / to chop or mince
炖 / dùn / to stew
Bonus:
傻瓜 / shǎ guā / silly melon, silly goose, idiot
*NOTE: Ketchup can only use 番茄！However 番茄/西红柿 are interchangeable for tomatoes in general
DS9 trivia from IMDB - Part 1
- Colm Meaney was initially reluctant about signing onto the series. Meaney was comfortable playing O'Brien on an episode by episode basis for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and at the time, was unsure if he wanted to play a full time television role.
- Although we only rarely see it, there is an ATM in Quark’s bar. It dispenses the various types of currency used by major races visiting the station: Federation credits, Bajoran litas, Cardassian leks, and Ferengi latinum.
- Constable Odo was originally envisioned as a young Clint Eastwood type. When Rene Auberjonois was called in for his audition, the casting director told him that none of the previous actors had been “grouchy enough”. So Auberjonois improvised his lines using his most gravelly voice, and secured the role. Odo’s scoff eventually became such a character trademark that the screenwriters would often script it into his lines (as “harrumph!”), much to Auberjonois’ annoyance.
- Michael Dorn did not want to reprise his role as Worf, since the daily make-up application was exhausting, and he was relieved to be able to move on. Dorn said that the salary he was offered made him reconsider.
- The Dominion storyline was originally only meant to span two episodes. Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr lobbied to make the storyline on-going, but met with resistance from Executive Producer Rick Berman, who wanted to maintain an episodic format to the series. After Berman left production to oversee the launch of Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Moore and Behr were given more creative control over this series, making the Dominion War the main plot of the show, and adopting a serialized format.
- Wolf 359, mentioned as the battle site between the Borg and the Federation where Sisko lost his wife, is a real star that is seven and a half light-years from Earth.
- In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Trials and Tribble-ations (1996) when Sisko and Dax see Kirk and Spock, Dax has the hots for Spock. In August 2017, Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) got engaged to Adam Nimoy, son of Leonard Nimoy (Spock).
- The jars of “pills” in Dr. Bashir’s office were filled with M&Ms. In many instances during the early episodes, the level of the pills would change between shots because crew members kept stealing them. The problem was solved by epoxying the lids in place.
- When Colm Meaney was fitted for his Deep Space Nine uniform, he made two requests of the costume designers. He explained that unlike the officers, the non-commissioned Chief O'Brien was a working man. So he needed to be able to roll up his sleeves, and he needed pockets for his tools. The costume department altered his uniform accordingly.
- The character of Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd), the Lurian bar patron who is always seen sitting at Quark’s bar, was written as a nod to the character of Norm Peterson, played by George Wendt on Cheers (1982). Morn is an anagram of Norm. The mask worn by Shepherd originally had no opening for the mouth, so make-up artist Michael Westmore gave him lips over the course of the series, in case the character needed to speak. Several lines for Morn were scripted over the years, but unfortunately for Shepherd, these were always written out at the last moment. So Morn never said one word during the entire run of the show, leading to a running gag where bar patrons, station crew members and civilian residents often mention that Morn is excessively talkative off-screen, and “never shuts up.”
This is possibly the most wrong thing I have seen on a click bait article ever. The more you look, the worse it gets.
It claims to be an X-ray of a pregnant horse.
There are several faults with that assumption:
It is an old school film X-ray, about the size of an A4. It is no way big enough to X-ray an entire horse.
An X-ray machine big enough to X-ray an entire horse does not exist, and would pump out obscene amounts of radiation if it did.
That ‘horse’ is lying down. Good luck with that.
Something very creative is happening with its front legs, feet, hocks and skeleton in general.
It has no internal organs.
The thing it is ‘pregnant’ with is mostly situated within the thorax.
The thing it is ‘pregnant’ with appears to be a dog.
The ‘dog’ appears to be ‘pregnant’ with a cat.
The ‘cat’ appears to be ‘pregnant’ with… possibly a rat?
It occurs to me that as much as “humans are the scary ones” fits sometimes, if you look at it another way, humans might seem like the absurdly friendly or curious ones.
I mean, who looked at an elephant, gigantic creature thoroughly capable of killing someone if it has to, and thought “I’m gonna ride on that thing!”?
And put a human near any canine predator and there’s a strong chance of said human yelling “PUPPY!” and initiating playful interaction with it.
And what about the people who look at whales, bigger than basically everything else, and decide “I’m gonna swim with our splashy danger friends!”
Heck, for all we know, humans might run into the scariest, toughest aliens out there and say “Heck with it. I’m gonna hug ‘em.”
“Why?!”
“I dunno. I gotta hug ‘em.”
And it’s like the first friendly interaction the species has had in forever so suddenly humanity has a bunch of big scary friends.
Yes, even in Star Trek the most famous machines have been essentially human in appearance (Data in TNG, the Doctor in Voyager) which IMO has always bugged me.
I will note that there have also been the exocomps and recently some other non-humanoid ones, but there aren't any individuals that are nearly as popular as those mentioned before.
I was chatting with my mom today about how unique Knight Rider is as a show for one reason only- having a character that's honestly, genuinely, and truly a car.
(Yeah, sure, there's Transformers, but watch any Transformers show and you'll see that they rarely keep the robots in car mode for any scenes. The car modes are almost exclusively used for scene transitions or for action set pieces.)
Knight Rider is different in that it challenges the viewer to imagine a character who is a car. This character is Kitt. There is no way for him to stop being a car, even when it's inconvenient for him, or even when it's inconvenient for the plot. Kitt, as a concept, asks the viewer to empathize- what would being a car genuinely be like? What challenges would that present? What advantages?
This is where most robots in fiction, and fiction that claims to analyze humanity through the lens of robot characters, ultimately fail. I'm hard-pressed to find another work of sci-fi with a lead character in such a genuinely divorced role from humanity. Most fictional robots have:
Hands, to physically interact with a human-scaled world in the way that humans do,
Faces, for humans to relate to, and
Eyes, for humans to look at, and tell where the robot is looking.
Kitt has none of these. He never gets any of these at any point. The show even reflects on this in episode 22 of season 1, where he projects eyes onto his screen for the little girl who's trying to understand him. Yet even this is temporary- he gets rid of them after only a minute, and the girl gets used to the real him accordingly. It's never portrayed that these attributes (of hands, a face, and eyes) are some kind of upgrade that Kitt is missing.
However, Kitt is still undeniably 'human', and this is the most important part. Kitt's way of thinking isn't alien just because his body is different. It's what he is thinking about that's been altered from the traditional human experience. This leads to a fascinating exploration of topics such as:
Accessibility. Kitt is constantly analyzing where his body can go and to what places he has access to. Even Michael Knight learns to start thinking this way as he grows closer with Kitt, to the benefit of them both. The question of what Kitt can do vs what he can't do given his body is at the core of Michael's problem solving when the show is at its best.
Priorities. What does Kitt care about? Again, it's deeply important that the first answer to this is "his friends", but barring that, what else? Things like a good road or the polish of bodywork become elevated in importance through his perspective.
Prejudice. A lot of science fiction has the trope of "robot racism", or the idea that there's a portion of humans who actively believe that sentient robots are not equal to humans. Knight Rider, however, never takes this easy drama. Humans treat Kitt differently, and sometimes with a shocking amount of disrespect (even after he's revealed himself to be a person,) but it's never out of malice. It's out of ignorance. The bulk of these humans have only the best intentions. This presentation reflects upon real-world prejudices through a different lens than the aforementioned trope, which has, by now, been thoroughly beaten to death.
Again, it's the fact that the show actively goes out of its way to tell the audience that Kitt has a soul (season 2, the episode literally titled "Soul Survivor"), yet doesn't shy away from the genuine differences he faces from being nonhuman, that makes it so damn compelling to me.
(Mind you, the way the show usually "explores" these themes is through the lens of comedy that relies on Kitt's differences being the butt of the joke. . . and that the inclusion of these deeper themes definitely do NOT cancel out the show's genuine problems with sexism/racism! But-)
I really do consider Knight Rider to be science fiction at (or at least close to) its finest. Which is an insane statement out of context, I realize, but I hope after reading this post you might be able to understand why. Knight Rider set the bar for robots in fiction for me and nothing has been able to compare since.
TL;DR: Kitt is a car. This is deeply profound.
so roman gladiators endorsed products just like celebrities today. where is the gladiator backstory for megatron where he bests his opponent and goes “THIS BATTLE IS SPONSORED BY NORDVPN”
How much love does the new Transformers show have?
Well, lets just say they included the animation errors in a frame redraw from the first Transformers intro.
G1
Earthspark
(The animators even went above and beyond by not drawing Soundwave's insignia.)
nah man you know what
enough with the 'uwu humans are fragile' in the transformers fandoms
gimme humans that are FERAL and are literal space orcs on a hell planet that tries every day to kill them even when its a nice day!
our games as children teach us hunting/evading/pursuit skills. Hide and Seek anyone? we learn to hide from enemies, how to track them down, and how to run them down if playing hide and seek: tag edition.
lets take Earthspark for example.
yes the cybertronians are Much Larger than us and that's Scary bc we're just a Little Guy but also once we get over that fear they become jungle gyms. you literally cannot tell me that (willing) autobots would not have at least 20 soldiers climbing all over their frames, using them as a the 'quick route' to get onto tall walkaways instead of having to go down the hall a quarter of a mile, take a left, take an elevator, and then climb stairs to reach the correct catwalk.
Wheeljack introduces a new weapon? the humans go "ooooo NICE but add a flame thrower."
"Why"
"bc i want to be able to toast marshmallows while i shoot shit with this thing"
just humans being their little weird humans selves and giving cybertronians on both sides heart attacks with the stupid shit we do
I love the tf fandom and everyone in it so fucking much I can’t fucking stand it. If there was ever a solid argument for trapping yourself in a flesh prison to slowly die over the next 100 years, it’s being able to exist on the same planet as you people.
Thank you for being alive you brilliant insane assholes
‘Arrival to Earth’ but it’s a family road-trip.
Chinese Time of Day Vocabulary
I’ve been keeping a list of words/characters related to times of day since last year. You probably know basic words like 早上, 上午, 晚上, etc. But there are so many other words and characters you may encounter in your language journey! Note: this list isn’t meant to be complete.
Sunset (I think) by Tian’anmen Square about 3 years ago.
Dawn/early morning
天亮 tiānliàng - dawn / daybreak
日出 rìchū - sunrise
早 zǎo - early / morning / Good morning! / long ago / prematurely 一大早 yīdàzǎo - at dawn / at first light / first thing in the morning 早上 zǎoshang - early morning
旭 xù - dawn / rising sun
昕 xīn - dawn
晓 xiǎo - dawn / daybreak / to know / to let sb know / to make explicit 破晓 pòxiǎo - daybreak / dawn
晗 hán - before daybreak / dawn about to break
晞 xī - dawn / to dry in the sun
晨 chén - morning / dawn / daybreak 凌晨 língchén - very early in the morning / in the wee hours 早晨 zǎochén - early morning 晨曦 chénxī - first rays of morning sun / first glimmer of dawn 清晨 qīngchén - early morning
朝 zhāo - morning 朝阳 zhāoyáng - the morning sun
黎明 límíng - dawn / daybreak
The single characters above can be found in Chinese names. Some are quite common.
Keep reading
the food situation on voyager is so fucking dire compared to every other star trek series like their chef is cooking for a bunch of alien species he’s never encountered before and has no idea what their palates are like so he’s just throwing shit at a wall and hoping it sticks, they can barely use the replicators, and they can’t even go over to the captain’s quarters for a nice homecooked crew meal because unlike every other starfleet captain she’s so bad at cooking she can burn replicated water. that’s the real horror of the show tbh
Can you imagine just how loud Cybertron is.
The amount of noise pollution on the planet from the amount of engines, ground mode and aerial mode adding to the chaotic noise of the city-states. The fact that hearing planes take flight outside of my room would be a constant as there are seekers and other aerial frames flying about in the sky. Silence is practically impossible unless it’s by some type of noise cancelling device which itself is artificial to help those who don’t want to deal with all the noise or how they would be used to the sounds.
And then how JARRING it is when they land on Earth and it’s SO quiet. Cities such as New York and Chicago don’t compare to the noise on Cybertron and it is so weird to get used to for Transformers. There’s places where there’s no sound, where the sound of cars going down the freeway and the electric hum is practically nonexistent in the mountains where there’s no civilisation. And then going back to Cybertron and realising just how LOUD it all is. Man. MAN.
Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?
This is a good point. I think it can also be applied to marine environments (it's not just the coral reefs that need saving)
something i've noticed. people seem to think the most nature-y nature is forests. so forests are always prioritized for conservation, and planting trees is synonymous with ecological activism. my state was largely prairies and wetlands before colonization. those ecosystems are important too. trees aren't the end-all be-all of environmentalism. plant native grasses. protect your wetlands.
I find community everywhere I go and I love and value that so much about my life, and as I have gotten older I have realized that this is not because I am the greatest con artist master manipulator alive hiding my evil heart and corrupted soul from everyone and coercing them through subterfuge into caring about me. Actually all I am is lovely
Yup, all the weather is shifted - rainy season, first snows, etc. Even some of the wildlife has disappeared in my lifetime (fireflies, some songbirds)!
Something deeply painful is the fact that seasons, especially fall, dont feel the same. Not because of individual maturity but because climate change has impacted the weather patterns so so so much that we cant even experience the same annual shifts that our ancestors have for centuries
I feel displaced, i yearn for the spring, summer, fall, and winter that i can barely remember experiencing
Best language learning tips & masterlists from other bloggers I’ve come across
(these posts are not my own!)
THE HOLY GRAIL of language learning (-> seriously tho, this is the BEST thing I’ve ever come across)
Tips:
Some language learning exercises and tips
20 Favorite Language Learning Tips
what should you be reading to maximize your language learning?
tips for learning a language (things i wish i knew before i started)
language learning and langblr tips
Tips on how to read in your target language for longer periods of time
Tips and inspiration from Fluent in 3 months by Benny Lewis
Tips for learning a sign language
Tips for relearning your second first language
How to:
how to self teach a new language
learning a language: how to
learning languages and how to make it fun
how to study languages
how to practice speaking in a foreign language
how to learn a language when you don’t know where to start
how to make a schedule for language learning
How to keep track of learning more than one language at the same time
Masterposts:
Language Study Master Post
Swedish Resources Masterpost
French Resouces Masterpost
Italian Resources Masterpost
Resource List for Learning German
Challenges:
Language-Sanctuary Langblr Challenge
language learning checkerboard challenge
Word lists:
2+ months of language learning prompts
list of words you need to know in your target language, in 3 levels
Other stuff:
bullet journal dedicated to language learning
over 400 language related youtube channels in 50+ languages
TED talks about language (learning)
Learning the Alien Languages of Star Trek
.
Feel free to reblog and add your own lists / masterlists!
Whoever decided to have Bee doing what appears to be Cybertronian yoga in the background of this scene deserves everything good in this world I literally cannot thank you enough
Earthspark continues to amaze me on every level and so does this Bumblebee someone help me.
Can someone please explain to me what evaporated milk is? Wouldn’t that just be gas by definition? I live in constant fear