Month: January 2016

brin-bellway asked: (1/2) Re “why do I follow you”: you were part of the amorphous collection of rationalist blogs I poke at sometimes to see if they’ve said anything interesting. This is how my following-new-Tumblrs process tends to work in general:

~ Brin ~ 2 Comments

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sdhs-rationalist:

brin-bellway:

sdhs-rationalist:

(2/2) I start off by checking in manually every so often, and if I find myself checking frequently enough (and don’t have any particular desire to save their posts for when I feel like reading them specifically), I eventually figure I might as well just follow them. Your process was a little bit accelerated because I responded to your post asking for new people to talk to, which prompted the same “well, if I’m going to do that, I’ve clearly reached the point where I should follow them” reaction.

Interesting, and good to know.

What first brought this blog to your notice?

Your interactions with other rationalist-sphere people that I already followed. Probably Alison was the plurality of it, but she was definitely not the only contributor.

Ok.

(That was what I assumed, but it doesn’t have good implications for future expansion unless I’ve already hit a critical mass)

Why does it have bad implications? Is the implication that pretty much everyone who was going to encounter your posts already has?

If so, bear in mind that not all blogs are firmly associated with a single community. I count about half a dozen recognisable blogospheres represented among my <150 followers. I’ve definitely ended up introducing things and people to spheres that wouldn’t have encountered them otherwise, even when I wasn’t intentionally trying to spread the word. I doubt I’m the only one, either.

Tags:

#reply via reblog

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brin-bellway asked: (1/2) Re “why do I follow you”: you were part of the amorphous collection of rationalist blogs I poke at sometimes to see if they’ve said anything interesting. This is how my following-new-Tumblrs process tends to work in general:

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

sdhs-rationalist:

(2/2) I start off by checking in manually every so often, and if I find myself checking frequently enough (and don’t have any particular desire to save their posts for when I feel like reading them specifically), I eventually figure I might as well just follow them. Your process was a little bit accelerated because I responded to your post asking for new people to talk to, which prompted the same “well, if I’m going to do that, I’ve clearly reached the point where I should follow them” reaction.

Interesting, and good to know.

What first brought this blog to your notice?

Your interactions with other rationalist-sphere people that I already followed. Probably Alison was the plurality of it, but she was definitely not the only contributor.

Tags:

#reply via reblog

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~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

support:

Site status: January 25, 2016, 2:20PM (Eastern)

There’s an issue affecting rendering images in the dashboard for a small number of users. Should be resolved shortly.

Tags:

#The Great Tumblr Apocalypse #that might explain those absences that were supposed to be pictures of moths #but the moths have loaded now #(I recommend following @support if you haven’t already) #(it helps shorten those moments like ‘wtf what is this new airplane button for’)

What You Didn’t Know About Scott Kelly and Living in Space (Floating Urine is Involved)

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

jtotheizzoe:

sciencefriday:

kpcc:

nasa:

First Ever NASA Reddit AMA from Space Recap

Space AMA 1

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly hosted a Reddit Ask Me Anything on Jan. 23 where people, well, asked him anything.

Kelly answered a range of questions from whether the crew members play space pranks on one another (“Occasionally…” Kelly said without elaboration.) to whether Kelly’s recovery plan will be different than normal (“I think my rehab plan is the same as if I were here for 6 months, but I’m not positive.”).

To start off, here are a few quick facts we learned about Kelly during the AMA:

  • The advice he would’ve given himself before going into space on day 1 would be to pack lighter.
  • His favorite David Bowie song is “Modern Love,” and his favorite non-space related movie is “The Godfather.“ 
  • He uses a Nikon D4 when taking pictures (camera settings and lenses vary).
  • He thought it was cool to watch the movie “Gravity” while he was on the space station, because that’s where the movie took place.
  • Once he lands, Kelly will miss the challenge of being aboard the space station the most.

Here are a few fun questions that astronaut Scott Kelly answered:

What’s the creepiest thing you’ve encountered while on the job?

Space AMA 2

Could a rogue spaceship sneak up on the space station?

Space AMA 3

We finally got an answer for one thing so many of you have been curious about…why does Scott Kelly always fold his arms?

Space AMA 4
Space AMA 5

When astronauts go up to space, they experience something very few others have and see Earth from a very unique perspective. What’s one thing Kelly will do differently once he returns home?

Space AMA 6

Kelly also told one user something unusual about being in space that people normally don’t think about: feet calluses.

Space AMA 7

Another user wanted to know what the largest societal misconception about space/space travel is. According to Kelly, it has nothing to do with science.

Space AMA 8
Space AMA 9
Space AMA 10

To read the entire Reddit AMA with Kelly, visit his IAmA thread.

Kelly’s #YearInSpace ends Mar. 2. Follow him until the end of the journey (and beyond) on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

The very first Reddit AMA from space! 

Awesome!

I think my favorite part of Commander Kelly’s AMA was realizing that NASA had to ship up the printed Reddit logo for his AMA verification on one of its cargo flights. 

It currently costs about $10,000 to send a pound of cargo to low-Earth orbit. There’s about 100 sheets of paper in a pound, so that was a $100 sheet of paper. Maybe the most expensive single Reddit logo on or off this planet.

Tags:

#space #the brightest star in our sky #the more you know #long post

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

ceramicsun:

I, a cold and callous millennial, have no interest in face to face conversations, because i am constantl jacked into the information supersoupway, i ride the pale lightning, my body is a conduit for an unending stream of html

Tags:

#anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #my past self has good taste

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER 2 ANNOUNCED

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

slatestarscratchpad:

slatestarscratchpad:

bowtochris:

dongstomper:

THE ALBATROSS IS BACK………. AND HES FUCKING PISSED

<3 RotAM

The sky turned black, the sea turned black
The moon was lost in mist
The goddamn albatross was back
And he was fucking pissed.

“I asked ‘How are you hale and well?
And from the sky descending?”
Said it: ‘I am a shade from Hell
And come in search of vengeance.’

And then it raised a ghostly wing
The sky was lost in shadow
And from the sea, all glistening
Rose a goddamn sharknado.”

The Wedding-Guest, he rolled his eyes
So strange a tale to hear
But still spoke on that ancient man
The wild Mariner:

“I ran like heck across the deck
But the sharks were many and fast
I tripped and fell into the sea
And there I breathed my last.”

“Hold on now,” said the Wedding-Guest
Amidst the festive cheer
“If perished ye upon that sea
How came you to be here?

How came you to be here with me?
O, answer that, I ask!”
The Mariner removed his face
As if it were a mask

Inside there was an Albatross
It gave an awful shriek
It slammed into the Wedding-Guest
And slew him with its beak.

Farewell, farewell, but this I tell
I tell it to thee plain
Do not fuck with an albatross
Those fuckers are insane.

Tags:

#poetry #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #death tw

Anonymous asked: is this your first time watching star wars?

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sinesalvatorem:

Yep! Due to generally low levels of exposure to American media, plus ADHDish issues that prevent me from focusing on a film unless I’m watching it with someone, I had not seen any of the Star Wars movies until yesterday.

However, yesterday, @rusalkii and I scheduled some time together (because we are girlfriends) and watched A New Hope (because we are nerds) and bitched about it the whole time (because we are Jews).

*late Star Wars watching fistbump*

I watched it for the first time about a month ago. It didn’t live up to the hype, but really, nothing could.

(I did find out that Toy Story (and especially its spinoff series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) contains even more Star Wars references than I thought it did. Clearly, then, I did level up in cultural literacy, which is the primary thing I wanted out of watching A New Hope, so in that respect it succeeded.)

(Personally, I only bitch about videos the whole time if I’m re-watching them or if I actually hate them. If I don’t hate it and haven’t seen it before, I stay quiet while the video’s on. After all, if I talk during the video, I’ll miss even more of it than I normally would.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #Star Wars #I have an unfortunate tendency to treat TV and movies like audioplays with a *bit* of visual enhancement #I’ll get the broad outline of the visuals and miss most of the details #ask me how many times someone I was watching with said ‘Oh my god the look on his face!’ while I was completely ignoring the guy’s face #(if you ask me I can’t actually answer because I have long since lost count) #(relatedly I would never have guessed that people hate on Keanu Reeves if I hadn’t been told) #(I can fairly often tell when someone is a *bad* actor) #(but the difference between a good actor and an aggressively mediocre one is pretty much all in things I don’t notice anyway)

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

responsible-reanimation:

As president, my first executive order will be to make it a felony to use popular messaging programs’ notification chimes in techno songs.

I suppose that might reduce the number of incidents of mistaking music for being called (though I have never encountered your specific variation of the problem myself), but your brain would still find something to latch onto sometimes. There’s a bit in the background of a Florence and the Machine song that coincidentally resembles the sound of my mother distantly calling my name. It’s the exact right amount of distant for her being in her bedroom and me being in the living room wearing earbuds. (Guess what the most common circumstances are for me listening to that song.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #music

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~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sdhs-rationalist:

disneysmermaids:

cherribalm:

site that you can type in the definition of a word and get the word

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition 

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word

site that gives you synonyms and antonyms

THAT FIRST SITE IS EVERY WRITER’S DREAM DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’VE TRIED WRITING SOMETHING AND THOUGHT GOD DAMN IS THERE A SPECIFIC WORD FOR WHAT I’M USING TWO SENTENCES TO DESCRIBE AND JUST GETTING A BUNCH OF SHIT GOOGLE RESULTS

i cannot overstate how much i need this

Tags:

#useful things #writing