Not what I expected coming from John Green

I said what I said.

comm for @/NCSDndGuy on twitter

my latest cartoon for New Scientist.

@natalieironside

Going for a run is like this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to anyone ever I feel so much better

Clocked

Catholics are allowed pleasure, we just have to feel bad about overindulgence.

NASA Data Sonification: Black Hole Remix

In this sonification of Perseus. the sound waves astronomers previously identified were extracted and made audible for the first time. The sound waves were extracted outward from the center. (source)

No, thank you. I did not need to hear the souls of a universe calling to me from the afterlife.

Someone needs to make a space thriller/horror/whatever with this mixed into the music

why does it sound exactly like what it feels like a black hole should sound like

But wait, if you think that sounds terrifying:

The planet Saturn makes noise. The planet emits signals through plasma waves, which can be converted into sound.

So, in 2017, after recovering the Cassini spacecraft that literally fell through Saturn, scientists recovered the recordings the spacecraft made of the planet.

And you know what it sounds like?

@bimbomcgee this seems like something you would like (:

You mean to tell me Space actually sounds like the background sound in all those old "eerie space stuff" movies?

HOW DO I DOWNLOAD THIS AUDIO

I NEED IT FOR MY NOTIFICATION SOUND

Netflix and no chill.

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I don't know how to explain it, but star trek is a genre as well as a franchise.

It's contained within the science fiction genre and broadly overlaps with space opera, but, not every space opera is also an example of the 'star trek' genre. Star Wars, for example, is not star trek. Foundation is not star trek. The Expanse is not star trek.

But Babylon 5? Babylon 5 is an example of the star trek genre. The Orville is definitely star trek. Farscape? Star trek. You don't even really need to go to space; I think both Sea Quest and Sliders count as star trek, and they're set underwater and in parallel universes, respectively. If it was genre tv in the 90s (and it's not Buffy), it's probably Star Trek.

Other media too. Galaxy Quest? Star trek (obviously). Mass Effect? Clearly star trek. The novel Redshirts by John Scalzi? Do I even need to say it?

Even works that predate Star Trek can be star trek. Forbidden Planet (1956).

This whole thread. Voting is a chess move, not a Valentine.

When inventing a fantasy religion a lot of people a) make the mistake of assuming that everyone in fantasy world would worship the same gods and b) assume that polytheistic religions see all of their gods as morally good

Some types of religions for your world building (any of these ideas can stand alone or be combined with each other):

Unironically I think we might run into another video game crash like back in the day

Game creation has become another husk capitalism has its greedy little fingers in and its like. Its genuinely sucking the joy out of it all for more profit and more profit and even if it succeeds its not enough it needs to be more to the point there really isn't a reason to create games anymore if you're not an indie dev

And being an indie dev isn't easy because no one has the time anymore. Everyone is drowning in student loans and low wages. Capitalism is sucking the joy out of them and overworking them and ai art is taking away opportunities to be something unique

Games are $70 fucking dollars now. I can't afford that like. I just can't. Most of us are struggling with finances as is.

We're drowning and it's happening so fast there's not enough time to panic

This is what I mean. Games aren't enough to be good or creative or excellent or fun anymore.

Like. AAA games are unfinished tech demos with dlc tacked on that is mostly content that should have been in the base game at launch

You get an indie game with love put into it and it gets received insanely well and it's. Just. Not enough.

Its burnout waiting to happen. No fucking body who goes through the trials and hardship that is game dev wants to be laid off after finishing a game there fully put their chest into. Soon why even bother? It's just another dead end for most and the student loans from learning through school is insane and no one has the time or drive to learn through their own means because we're working two jobs to pay for necessities.

Shit sucks

absolute strongest possible agreement

10,000% exactly correct

i don’t really play much in the way of video games these days — as anyone who’s tried to discuss any game made or released after Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow with me can most certainly attest — but there was a time, many MANY years ago, when i was “the video game guy” in my school / grade / friend group

i was THAT nerd: i vividly remember rocking the original gold-cartridge Legend of Zelda on my olde-skool 8-bit Nes, i distinctly remember being the first dude I knew to own a SNES, and i remember very clearly that i was — FOR YEARS — the only guy i knew with a monthly subscription to both Nintendo Power AND to Electronic Gaming Monthly, which i personally think is absurd because how the fuck are you not gonna read both!?

at one point i very specifically owned three separate PlayStation 2 consoles, because that was the sort of thing it’s better to have three of than not

these did not to belong to my roommate or to my buddy or to my girlfriend or something; these three PS2s were mine (which I could choose to loan out or something if i wanted to) and i considered this a smart investment

shit i’ve even been lucky enough to work in video games for money which is the greatest feeling ever and i would go back to it in a heartbeat

ANYWAY

i have been very lucky to live though a truly amazing slice of history in terms of game history, development, and design; i don’t think it’s an absurd overstatement to say that more brilliant innovations in Games: The Abstract Concept have been made in the last 50 years than have occurred in any other epoch ever

but i feel like — from my safe vantage point way, WAY outside the industry — that the whole thing is just hollowed out and ready to collapse

i don’t know anyone who plays AAA games anymore

and i think maybe — just this once — it’s not just that i’m getting old

Corporate America Never Really Quit Forced Labor

Inmates do billions of dollars of work for companies and governments each year. A landmark lawsuit alleges many are being kept in prison because the business is just too good.

Important ideas to consider when creating characters who are black and indigenous people of color. (x)

In days of yore, a decree went out from my most Holy Patrocinadors, and so it was executed.

You are the adventurer who went on an epic quest and defeated the evil king, all to gain the sacred amulet and use its one wish to revive your sister. Now everyone expects you to accept her death and use the wish to undo the damage instead. You refuse.

Blood has stopped streaming from the wound bisecting your brow, but it still stings your eyes something fierce. You take your gauntlets off, grimacing as the grime and soot from battle tries to keep the metal welded to your skin. There’d been an explosion during the final fight with the king – no, the tyrant. Explosions, maybe. Your magic’s been erratic lately, the sudden growth of your mana pool far outpacing your control. You wipe your eyes with the back of your cleaner hand.

There’s pressure in your chest you’ve never felt before. You want to laugh. No, you want to scream. Your body is too tired to jump around like you did when you were a little girl, but you find yourself bouncing in place regardless. The thrill of battle and of escaping the castle as it collapsed is thrumming through your veins. You did it. You did it.

You are so happy, so devastatingly happy, that you can feel yourself shutting down. You need—you need rest. Food. Sleep.

Then you can save her. Then you can bring her back.

“Roksala,” Prince Eloyn says. You squint past the last rays of day to see him frowning at you. The ruins of the tyrant’s castle don’t appear to interest him. His eyes narrow. “Are you ignoring me?”