A NYC grad student working on food stamps for her thesis has released a free cookbook for those living on $4/day.

SIG NAL BOO OO OO OOOST

hello

oooooh this is so nice!

I believe it’s important to eat well, even when you’re strapped for cash. It’s good for your health and energy! This cookbook is full of delicious and healthy recipes, the ingredients of which are fairly inexpensive.

I ACKNOWLEDGE THIS WOMAN AS A FELLOW WARRIOR AND A FANTASTIC HUMAN BEING. 

Boost so hard. Feeding yourself well is a challenge when you”ve got little income

I HAVE BEEN USING THIS COOKBOOK FOR MONTHS AND IT’S AMAZING 100/10 RECOMMENDING EVERYWHERE

(just to give you an idea, my food budget is 30 euro/week at most [about $38] and I have to maintain a healthy diet due to weird medication side-effects and yeah, basically this book is a lifesaver if you’re broke but need to watch what you’re eating)

hi, a psa

if u are a fool like me and write in google docs (??? why. love your vision.), at some point you’ve probably shoved your face under a thick comforter into pitch darkness to allow your liquefied eyeballs to re-solidify since docs doesn’t provide any default tools to MURDER THAT HELLISH WHITE BACKGROUND with and f.lux only does so much. well if you’re younger you probably don’t give a shit but after you’ve set up your 401k and find yourself proud of matching your employer’s contributions, you’re probably at that age where u leo decaprio squint at your computer screen at all hours of the day whether it’s dark or not. anyway, this exists as an add-on:

BAM

and it has those diff options on the side to keep ur pastel aesthetic intact and it helps a little bit, enabling you to go blind slower wowe isn’t that wild

Hi! Sorry to hijack your post but I thought maybe I could help with this. I suffer from chronic migraines and use gdocs A LOT for my previous jobs and currently for writing. The white background is murder and your brightness levels can only provide so much mercy.

I wasn’t aware of this add-on and I do love me some pastels, but I found out about an add-on called Dark Reader for chrome. My previous job required a lot of excel and data crunching so WHITE EVERYWHERE PAIN AUGH.

I’ll be using the images from the add-on previews since my computer is hella slow.

Dark reader is basically a color inversion add-on, but a little smarter. Sometimes it inverts photos, sometimes it doesn’t.

What I really love it is how it’s customizable

You can turnit on or off easily and set the preferences to your liking.

Absolute FAVE thing about it is that you can assign urls or websites you want darkened or excluded. So, say, you’re okay with Tumblr’s default colors you can have that excluded. Inversely, you can just put in the url of your gdoc document so that it’s the only thing inverted.

It’s been a real wonder for me and my migraines. I use it in combination with f.lux and lowest brightness settings. Hope this helps, and again, sorry for the hijack!

Dark Reader show me the advanced levels of optical comfort

I don’t know what my drawings are anymore.

okay but what if angels are black holes and halos are just the light warping around them being pulled in by gravity 

WELL HERE IS THE THING, RIGHT? black holes you basically literally have to be in their gravity like pretty much on top of them to be sucked in. so that’s not really an issue. it’s TERRIFYING sure, but explains a few things which I will list:

Oooooh, nice. Now we have to account for all the wings and eyes too.

The hawking radiation that spews from the poles might look like wings… But that’s just two. Hmm…

well in fairness of this concept and Angels of the Old Testament – only some Angels specifically are mentioned to have wings. And for this theory to be in any way accurate, all black holes could be angelic, but not all Angels would be black holes. Because physically you cannot have a black hole on the planet earth their density of mass would destroy the planet. But you could have something ELSE. So still “more than one type”

That said, I point back to my concept of the Chariots, and Black holes being the center of galaxies (like the one at the center of ours)

There’s a black hole in the middle. Somewhere. 

I mean I can get “thousands of eyes and a lot of wings” from this. 

This convo is just…..wow

hesperos

Dennis Overbye on the exploration of Pluto:

What a sad, but beautiful way to put it. 

So heavy, and so poetic. -Ariel

Lipstick: ADULT CRAYONS, FINALLY

so i get a lot of asks about lipstick, because i wear it a lot and talk about it a lot and tend to speak in declarative sentences. but since i usually end up saying basically the same thing, i figured i’d just put it all in one place. 

first of all let me say: i fucking love lipstick. if i had been consulted at the beginning of the world, my top contribution would have been, “make sure society is real chill about everyone wearing lipstick who wants to, regardless of gender. make that a priority. right after that we can address why you felt the need to create cockroaches.”

here are just a few reasons why lipstick is the bomb-dot-com:

anyway, the point is, wearing lipstick is the best. you should wear whatever color you want, whenever you want, but if you’re feeling ambivalent about it, here’s how i, personally, decide when to wear what.

TWO NOTES:

LIPSTICK: YOUR GUIDE TO PUTTING CRAYONS ALL OVER YOUR FACE.

REDS

there are two reasons to wear red lipstick. the first is that you want to be and feel so smokin hot that there is not a single person in the world who doesn’t look at you and go, “WHO THE FUCK IS THAT?”

the second is if you wake up and think to yourself, “i would like today to be that gif of obama kicking open a door. just the whole day. fuck you, doors.”

PINKS

pink is to red what a TV episode is to a whole season. pink is mr. darcy saying, “i love you, most ardently,” where red is that scene in brokeback mountain where they do it for the first time.

red hits you over the noggin. pink probably winks at you across the room from the party. you’re like, “WHAT DOES THAT WINK MEAN?”

pink shrugs. “idk,” says pink. “figure it out.”

my point here is that pink can have a hundred thousand different uses and applications, dependent on the shade. nicki minaj wears lots of different pinks. do you feel like you want to be gently pushed on a swing in a meadow by your doting lover, who calls you my sweet? that’s a desperately light pink. do you want to make a point about femininity not being a synonym for weakness? that’s a probably magenta. maybe pastel, but aggressive neon. probably, but not necessarily, matte.

pink is complicated. so are you. embrace pink.

PURPLES

wear purple when you want someone riding a bicycle to crash into a flower stand because they are distracted by your striking beauty while you walk down the street. for this particular feeling, the darker the purple, the better. like the dark purple skin of a perfect plum. nothing says “bored luxury” like plum lipstick.

lighter purples are trickier. lighter purples are great for Nighttime Parties, particularly Nighttime Parties Where You’re Going Out To A Space Designed For Copious Public Drinking. i personally only wear neon purples in clubs–which is to say, i never wear neon purples–but i have a friend who wears them to brunch, and to be honest she brings the hotness of the whole group up an entire level. if you’re wearing neon purple, you are immediately the most important person at the table, so wear it on days when you want to wield that power for good, not evil.

MAROONS

maroon is a Business Lipstick. a Workplace Lipstick. maroon says, “i’m hot as shit, but i’m also incredibly competent.” maroon lipstick says, “i’m not here to talk shit about nancy at the water cooler, todd. i’m here to do my job, and do it better than both of you.”

maroon lipstick says, “yes, you should promote me.”

maroon lipstick says, “I’M AN ADULT. I MIGHT OWN A TOASTER THAT BURNS THE PITTSBURGH PENGUINS LOGO INTO MY BREAD, BUT I SWEAR TO GOD I AM AN ADULT.”

maroon lipstick also goes with pretty much everything. i always keep a tube of maroon lipstick in my purse in case of emergency.

NUDES

“nude” is a complicated question, because it covers such a wide range of skin tones. like, lupita nyong’o and i have wildly different ideas of what color makes our lips “nude.” so this section isn’t really about a color, but more of whatever-color-nude-is-YOUR-color-nude. it’s a category, not a shade.

nudes are good for a lot of occasions. nudes are good for looking like a Hot Young Parent Whose Partner Took The Kids For The Day. nudes are good for “I Just Woke Up Like This.” nudes are good for Sunday Meal With Your Parents. nudes are good for that scene at climax of a romance movie where for some reason you, as the protagonist, are standing in the rain, and you are crying because you’re in love with somebody but something with a capital S has come between you. they’re also good for a montage about you getting shit done in your life, like cleaning your apartment or studying for an exam or packing to leave for a long trip abroad.

i recommend gentle music when you’re wearing nudes. really poetic, emotional shit. joni mitchell. the avett brothers. tracy chapman.

you know what? scratch that. just put on “fast car.” listen to “fast car” on repeat the whole time you’re wearing nudes.

ORANGES

look, i’ll be honest. i don’t know. i don’t trust orange. i’ve seen people look beautiful in orange lipstick but it makes me think they’re hiding something.

are you hiding something? wear orange.

BLUES/GREENS/ANYTHING “WILDLY OUTSIDE THE REALM OF HUMAN FACE COLORS”

there is no right time to wear these colors. there is also no wrong time.* a few examples:

*a small correction: maybe don’t wear these at funerals. i’d stick with neutrals or maroons at funerals.

A BRIEF ADDITIONAL NOTE

when it comes to applying lipstick in public (rather than, idk, excusing yourself to the bathroom or whatever), i’m of two minds. on the one hand, it pleases me to imagine that people just think that my mouth is always this color, even when there is no conceivable blend of genetics that could render me with a sparkly purple mouth.

on the other hand, like, fuck it, you know? whenever i catch someone watching me apply lipstick in public i kind of feel like that part in the “feeling myself” music video where beyoncé is wearing a chicago bulls one-piece and goes, “i stop the world! world, stop.”

carry on.

CHRIS HADFIELD An astronaut’s advice

Job Profile: What’s it like to be an astronomer?

Astronomers lead interesting and quite exciting, lives.

I frequently get questions regarding the work environments, job prospects and pay. If there’s any part of you that yearns for the night sky and if you want to know what’s out there… perhaps this post can help you figure out if this is the path for you.

Astronomers, as you may know, use science and mathematics to unwrap the mysteries of the cosmos.

Do we live in a multiverse?

Are we alone?

Where do we come from?

These are examples of some of the large problems astronomers slowly chip away at. The work is philosophically and intellectually rewarding.

So what exactly does this work entail? Where do astronomers actually work?

(Image credit: Department of Energy)

Lectures are a regular part of the job description for many astronomers.

It’s a constant battle to ensure that the next generation is educated in STEM fields to ensure a vibrant world.

Many astronomers teach things from basic physics classes (often to a diverse student body of engineering, physics and biology students as an example) to astrophysics classes. Being able to communicate and present to large groups of people is important.

Not everything these folk do is lecture though. Astronomers do research too though and this research can be quite involved:

(Image credit: Keith Vinderlande)

(Image credit: W.M. Keck Observatory)

The above two images show the South Pole Telescope and the Keck Observatory respectively.

If you want a job that involves travel and adventure, you’ll almost certainly get both in this field. You may find yourself living in Arctic conditions for months in a night that never ends (seemingly). Whenever you go outside you might look up to the Southern Lights or the Milky Way.

Perhaps you’ll find yourself climbing the largest volcano on Earth, Mauna Kea, on your way to the famous Keck observatory. When you’re not observing you’d be spending your days below in Hawaii (and who wouldn’t like that?).

Some lucky astronomers find jobs at places like research laboratories (like NASA Ames or ESTEC in the Netherlands for example) where they get to spend the vast majority of their time on research.

Sometimes these sorts of jobs can involve working on projects that ultimately forward the work of astronomy without directly being astronomy itself:

(Image credit: NASA)

Plenty of people get their education in astronomy but end up helping groups like NASA, ESA or SpaceX build future robots and spacecraft to explore the universe.

Excitingly, we now live in a time where small startups are being founded to further private enterprise in space: companies are looking into mining asteroids, building tourist spacecrafts and inflatable space stations. Anyone with the right knowledge and motivation can be a part of this amazing new space race.

So what exactly does this workload usually entail? Well typically astronomy work involves lots of math. This is our tool to unravel the mechanics of space and time.

You’ll be using calculus pretty regularly and your education will need to prepare you for it. Usually astronomers get their Bachelor’s degree in physics and then their PhD in astronomy. Some go slightly different routes but that’s the norm.

In addition to math, astronomers learn how to program so that they can send certain complicated problems to be crunched by the massively powerful capabilities of modern computers.

In fact, astronomers get so well-practiced in computer programming that if they were to ever get tired of the world of academia and research, it’s quite easy for an astronomer to get a relatively cushy position as a programmer (I love repping that some even get jobs as Disney animators).

Over all, if you want to be an astronomer expect to spend lots of time at a computer and working out math problems. Expect to stand in front of groups every now and then to present research or teach a class and lastly… be willing to get your hands dirty. You will almost certainly do some traveling. As you saw above, many observatories are located in exciting and exotic places.

What do astronomers make for money?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics in America shows that the median pay for an astronomer is about $105,000 but pay can go significantly higher than that (and can also be a bit lower).

When it comes to working from your computer (which you’ll be doing often as an astronomer) there’s the cushy fact that this can often be done wherever you get an internet signal.

If you decide to go for the (often better paying) work as a software engineer, the same often applies.

You’ll be able to make your own schedule more often than other jobs and you’ll see and learn more about the world and universe than almost any other job there is. Astronomy is a rewarding profession that demands quite a lot from you, but gives back in spades.

Good luck on your path to the stars!

(Top image credit: Alan L, Eric Hill and NASA respectively)

NASA Scientist Suggests Possible Link Between Primordial Black Holes and Dark Matter

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center logo. May 24, 2016 Dark matter is a mysterious substance composing most of the material universe, now widely thought to be some form of massive exotic particle. An intriguing alternative view is that dark matter is made of black holes formed during the first second of our universe’s existence, known as primordial black holes. Now a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, suggests that this interpretation aligns with our knowledge of cosmic infrared and X-ray background glows and may explain the unexpectedly high masses of merging black holes detected last year. “This study is an effort to bring together a broad set of ideas and observations to test how well they fit, and the fit is surprisingly good,” said Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard. “If this is correct, then all galaxies, including our own, are embedded within a vast sphere of black holes each about 30 times the sun’s mass."  In 2005, Kashlinsky led a team of astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to explore the background glow of infrared light in one part of the sky. The researchers reported excessive patchiness in the glow and concluded it was likely caused by the aggregate light of the first sources to illuminate the universe more than 13 billion years ago. Follow-up studies confirmed that this cosmic infrared background (CIB) showed similar unexpected structure in other parts of the sky.

 Fig-1

Fig-2

Image above: Fig-1 This image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows an infrared view of a sky area in the constellation Ursa Major. Fig-2: After masking out all known stars, galaxies and artifacts and enhancing what’s left, an irregular background glow appears. This is the cosmic infrared background (CIB); lighter colors indicate brighter areas. The CIB glow is more irregular than can be explained by distant unresolved galaxies, and this excess structure is thought to be light emitted when the universe was less than a billion years old. Scientists say it likely originated from the first luminous objects to form in the universe, which includes both the first stars and black holes. Images Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/A. Kashlinsky (Goddard). In 2013, another study compared how the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory compared to the CIB in the same area of the sky. The first stars emitted mainly optical and ultraviolet light, which today is stretched into the infrared by the expansion of space, so they should not contribute significantly to the CXB. Yet the irregular glow of low-energy X-rays in the CXB matched the patchiness of the CIB quite well. The only object we know of that can be sufficiently luminous across this wide an energy range is a black hole. The research team concluded that primordial black holes must have been abundant among the earliest stars, making up at least about one out of every five of the sources contributing to the CIB. The nature of dark matter remains one of the most important unresolved issues in astrophysics. Scientists currently favor theoretical models that explain dark matter as an exotic massive particle, but so far searches have failed to turn up evidence these hypothetical particles actually exist. NASA is currently investigating this issue as part of its Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope missions. "These studies are providing increasingly sensitive results, slowly shrinking the box of parameters where dark matter particles can hide,” Kashlinsky said. “The failure to find them has led to renewed interest in studying how well primordial black holes – black holes formed in the universe’s first fraction of a second – could work as dark matter.” Physicists have outlined several ways in which the hot, rapidly expanding universe could produce primordial black holes in the first thousandths of a second after the Big Bang. The older the universe is when these mechanisms take hold, the larger the black holes can be. And because the window for creating them lasts only a tiny fraction of the first second, scientists expect primordial black holes would exhibit a narrow range of masses. On Sept. 14, gravitational waves produced by a pair of merging black holes 1.3 billion light-years away were captured by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana. This event marked the first-ever detection of gravitational waves as well as the first direct detection of black holes. The signal provided LIGO scientists with information about the masses of the individual black holes, which were 29 and 36 times the sun’s mass, plus or minus about four solar masses. These values were both unexpectedly large and surprisingly similar. “Depending on the mechanism at work, primordial black holes could have properties very similar to what LIGO detected,” Kashlinsky explained. “If we assume this is the case, that LIGO caught a merger of black holes formed in the early universe, we can look at the consequences this has on our understanding of how the cosmos ultimately evolved.”

What the first LIGO detection would look like up close

Video above: Primordial black holes, if they exist, could be similar to the merging black holes detected by the LIGO team in 2014. This computer simulation shows in slow motion what this merger would have looked like up close. The ring around the black holes, called an Einstein ring, arises from all the stars in a small region directly behind the holes whose light is distorted by gravitational lensing. The gravitational waves detected by LIGO are not shown in this video, although their effects can be seen in the Einstein ring. Gravitational waves traveling out behind the black holes disturb stellar images comprising the Einstein ring, causing them to slosh around in the ring even long after the merger is complete. Gravitational waves traveling in other directions cause weaker, shorter-lived sloshing everywhere outside the Einstein ring. If played back in real time, the movie would last about a third of a second. Video Credit: SXS Lensing. In his new paper, published May 24 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Kashlinsky analyzes what might have happened if dark matter consisted of a population of black holes similar to those detected by LIGO. The black holes distort the distribution of mass in the early universe, adding a small fluctuation that has consequences hundreds of millions of years later, when the first stars begin to form. For much of the universe’s first 500 million years, normal matter remained too hot to coalesce into the first stars. Dark matter was unaffected by the high temperature because, whatever its nature, it primarily interacts through gravity. Aggregating by mutual attraction, dark matter first collapsed into clumps called minihaloes, which provided a gravitational seed enabling normal matter to accumulate. Hot gas collapsed toward the minihaloes, resulting in pockets of gas dense enough to further collapse on their own into the first stars. Kashlinsky shows that if black holes play the part of dark matter, this process occurs more rapidly and easily produces the lumpiness of the CIB detected in Spitzer data even if only a small fraction of minihaloes manage to produce stars. As cosmic gas fell into the minihaloes, their constituent black holes would naturally capture some of it too. Matter falling toward a black hole heats up and ultimately produces X-rays. Together, infrared light from the first stars and X-rays from gas falling into dark matter black holes can account for the observed agreement between the patchiness of the CIB and the CXB. Occasionally, some primordial black holes will pass close enough to be gravitationally captured into binary systems. The black holes in each of these binaries will, over eons,  emit gravitational radiation, lose orbital energy and spiral inward, ultimately merging into a larger black hole like the event LIGO observed. “Future LIGO observing runs will tell us much more about the universe’s population of black holes, and it won’t be long before we’ll know if the scenario I outline is either supported or ruled out,” Kashlinsky said. Kashlinsky leads science team centered at Goddard that is participating in the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission, which is currently scheduled to launch in 2020. The project, named LIBRAE, will enable the observatory to probe source populations in the CIB with high precision and determine what portion was produced by black holes. Related article: Fermi data tantalize with new clues to dark matter http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2014/04/fermi-data-tantalize-with-new-clues-to.html Related links: Chandra X-ray Observatory: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/main/index.html Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer: http://www.nasa.gov/content/researchers-make-progress-in-the-hunt-for-dark-matter-through-space-station-particle Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope: http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ The Astrophysical Journal Letters: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8205/823/2/L25 The project LIBRAE: http://www.euclid.caltech.edu/page/Kashlinsky%20Team European Space Agency’s Euclid mission: http://sci.esa.int/euclid/ NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Francis Reddy/Ashley Morrow. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

Like the Stars and the Moons by starit featuring nars cosmetics

I made a new blog

@capricorn-nail-polish, for all kinds of space, science, makeup/fashion, Art Deco, cool shit, and fine quality shitposts and cringe. Check it out and follow if you’re interested; I’m debating on letting this acenebula blog go inactive and making the new one my main. I’ll post an announcement if/when I decide to close down; I need a fresh tumblr start and it’s too much hassle to clean this one out.

Follow your dream

this is the most weirdly specific relatable comic I have ever seen

so here are the majority of the slides from the presentation on The Great Meme Thesis, plus some of the main survey results

DISCLAIMER: please keep in mind that this was meant to explain a 60+ page study in 5-8 minutes, so obviously, i didn’t go into detail on a lot of things here that i expanded upon in the final essay. 

it also comes off as more reductionist than the essay, because it posits these opinions as coming from “4chan” and “tumblr” as if they are monolithic entities–something i address and complicate in the essay. most of the political opinions from “4chan” came from /pol/, because /pol/ was the most interested in the subject matter of the survey (for obvious reasons.) so keep that in mind. 

4chan is not a monolith any more than tumblr is a monolith.

bonus meme slides:

(i basically couldn’t find any 4chan ted cruz memes except some early off-hand jokes about him being the zodiac killer on like /b/ and shit so i admittedly pulled that one out of my ass lbh)

DOUBLE BONUS:

(obviously “donald trump’s existence” content warning on the video–which is actually how i introduced 4chan trump memes)

‘Jewelry for scientists, nerds and geeks of all kinds’ - including the Evolution Tree, Oxytocin and Solar System necklaces - by Delftia on Etsy

• So Super Awesome is also on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest •

hi, a psa

if u are a fool like me and write in google docs (??? why. love your vision.), at some point you’ve probably shoved your face under a thick comforter into pitch darkness to allow your liquefied eyeballs to re-solidify since docs doesn’t provide any default tools to MURDER THAT HELLISH WHITE BACKGROUND with and f.lux only does so much. well if you’re younger you probably don’t give a shit but after you’ve set up your 401k and find yourself proud of matching your employer’s contributions, you’re probably at that age where u leo decaprio squint at your computer screen at all hours of the day whether it’s dark or not. anyway, this exists as an add-on:

BAM

and it has those diff options on the side to keep ur pastel aesthetic intact and it helps a little bit, enabling you to go blind slower wowe isn’t that wild

Hi! Sorry to hijack your post but I thought maybe I could help with this. I suffer from chronic migraines and use gdocs A LOT for my previous jobs and currently for writing. The white background is murder and your brightness levels can only provide so much mercy.

I wasn’t aware of this add-on and I do love me some pastels, but I found out about an add-on called Dark Reader for chrome. My previous job required a lot of excel and data crunching so WHITE EVERYWHERE PAIN AUGH.

I’ll be using the images from the add-on previews since my computer is hella slow.

Dark reader is basically a color inversion add-on, but a little smarter. Sometimes it inverts photos, sometimes it doesn’t.

What I really love it is how it’s customizable

You can turnit on or off easily and set the preferences to your liking.

Absolute FAVE thing about it is that you can assign urls or websites you want darkened or excluded. So, say, you’re okay with Tumblr’s default colors you can have that excluded. Inversely, you can just put in the url of your gdoc document so that it’s the only thing inverted.

It’s been a real wonder for me and my migraines. I use it in combination with f.lux and lowest brightness settings. Hope this helps, and again, sorry for the hijack!

Dark Reader show me the advanced levels of optical comfort