@eka-mark said: tell us more! what’s so cool about Saturn?
:^)
Saturn has atmospheric helium-3, a relatively light gravity well for a gas giant, and an excellent system of moons. And pretty rings, just as a bonus.
Jupiter has none of these things, except for helium-3, and it’s horrifically radioactive.
Europa is the much-vaunted reason to go to Jupiter, but it’s really overrated, especially as a colonization candidate. If you could dig all the way through its ten miles of ice to get to the ocean, you could set up an underwater base hanging from the ice plate that is the surface, which would be cool as shit, and ten miles of ice would be a radiation shield impervious to anything short of the sun going supernova.
Which is good, because standing on the surface of Europa is approximately the radiation equivalent of standing in the immediate vicinity of the Fukushima reactor during its meltdown incident. Do not go to Io.
Europa’s hardly the only moon with a subsurface water ocean anyway. Callisto, which is a further (and therefore less radioactive) moon of Jupiter, might have one. Ganymede too. It kind of seems to be a theme with jovian moons, really.
It’s not just the Jovian moons, though. Guess who else has a moon with a probable subsurface ocean? Saturn. Enceladus has cryovolcanoes and an icy surface and recent data suggests there’s an ocean that spans the whole thing under there.
Like Jupiter, most of Saturn’s moons are tiny rocks that are only called “moons” rather than “asteroids” because they’re orbiting saturn instead of the sun. That’s a good thing- it’s also the case with mars’s moons. All of the handy things about asteroids apply to those too. Having lots of moons is good in general, really, because it means you have lots of objects very “nearby” to one another in space, so each one is easy to reach from the others.
But the real reason to go to saturn is, of course, Titan.
Titan is probably the most habitable place in the solar system, aside from Earth. It has an atmosphere made of 99% nitrogen! 1.5 atm of pressure would take a some getting used to for an earthling, but you can live in 1.5 atmospheres. It’s cold, cold enough for liquid methane, so you have to wear a really warm coat, but barring significant advancements in spacesuit technology, that’s a lot less encumbering than a full pressure EVA suit. The thick atmosphere and shielding thanks to saturn’s magnetosphere mean low surface radiation. As a bonus, the low gravity and high pressure mean you can fly just by strapping wings to your arms.
From a terraforming perspective, it’s way easier than mars. You’d just have to warm it up (which the convenient sort of terraforming problem, the sort that can be solved by using lots of nuclear fire) and add oxygen in order to get an earth-like atmosphere. The surface is covered in ice, so you’d even have water oceans! It’s like friggin’ Earth Lite.
They make coats that warm?
> As a bonus, the low gravity and high pressure mean you can fly just by strapping wings to your arms.
Hey spouse look
Tags:
#space #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #(”hey spouse look”) #(everyone knows Alicorn’s fetish) #but in all seriousness this is a neat post
2/2 so I was wondering if large birds just hate human transportation or something haha. Thanks for your post, very interesting.
(In reference to a comment I made about kayaks being incredibly rude in Swan Culture)
I’ve been looking at my inbox like “I am not some kind of ECCENTRIC BIRD WHISPERER,” but I actually know the answer to this one, and it’s hilarious.
Large birds don’t have a particular hateboner for human transportation, but wild turkeys have two unique properties that make them behave ridiculously when they collide with human populations. For those who aren’t familiar with them, wild turkeys are large, boisterous birds that tend to interact with humans most frequently around the autumn which is convenient for Thanksgiving and mating season in early spring. Most of the time, they live peaceable lives in the woods, but around November they run around in flocks bothering innocent citizens and picking fights with vending machines, and then they usually go away again.
The toms, or dominant males, can stand up to 4 feet tall and weigh up to 24 pounds. They’re the ones that do the fancy displays:
The First Unique Turkey Property: Now, wild turkeys are a little bit like betta fish, in that they perceive any shiny/reflective surface that shows them a reflection as actually containing Another Turkey, and they react accordingly. When they react to the Other Turkey – usually by posturing aggressively and flaring their fins feathers majestically – the Other Turkey ESCALATES THE SITUATION by posturing as well. At some point the real turkey loses its temper and attacks, pecking and scratching and trying to take the fucker apart, only to find that the Other Turkey has protected itself with some kind of force field.
So to a wild turkey that has encountered enough autumnal car-related psychic battles, the completely logical conclusion to take away from them is that cars contain demonic spiritsthat must be subdued. Other examples of things that wild turkeys are compelled to vanquish include… well, other reflective things.
To address this, cover reflective things (you can rub soap on your car to make it less reflective) and frighten off the turkey if it’s keeping you from leaving your car.
The Second Unique Turkey Property: This is a little bit embarrassing for all concerned, but you have to think about it like a turkey would. You see, humans are oddly compelling creatures to a hormonal turkey. We have bare faces with interestingly positioned lumps of flesh, we gobble our speech in a way that almost sounds like Turkey, we strut about on two feet showing off our long sexy legs, we strut about in family groups, we often have access to really good food, our clothing is big and bright and colorful. Turkey faces change color with their mood; human faces are all kinds of fascinating colors, plus additional fantastic decorations. To wild turkeys, humans are a type of turkey, and further: many humans are either Intimidating Sexual Threats, or Exciting Sexual Beings.
Now, I am very sorry about this, but not only can wild turkeys be kind of reverse furries, they also have unexpected ideas about gender and sexuality. So to some female turkeys, “male” humans are excitingly sexy and they will follow one around for embarrassingly long periods of time, cooing attractively – meanwhile, the tom turkey and the subordinate males will be OUTRAGED by the COMPETITION presented by the interloper, and will attempt to subdue “him.” And “female” humans are likewise at risk of being passionately seduced by the dominant toms, or quietly propositioned by subordinate males – or the females may attempt to recruit you into their existing social system – as a junior member, of course. They have a strict pecking order.
Unfortunately for humans, your preferred gender may not necessarily actually translate to the gender that turkeys decide you are. And some turkeys may decide you’re “male” while others will decide that you’re “female,” so that will be confusing, and some dominant female turkeys have “male” sexual traits – like beards and tail fans – anyway. They recognize and remember humans, so if you had a particularly exciting encounter with a specific turkey, it will probably remember you.
Also unfortunately for humans, the fine distinctions between Turkey Seduction, Turkey Competition, and Turkey Networking are usually a little bit lost, and all of this behavior seems to be the same thing – it mostly consists of a large dinosaur-like bird trotting at you, possibly screaming and pecking and flapping, and can be worrying. If you are in the car and the turkey can see you, and it wishes to continue a previous encounter, it may well insist upon this in a frightening way.
Turkeys don’t give a shit about human “gender” and “authority,” as the many available videos on the internet of turkeys attacking police officers, reporters and mailmen will assure you. They just make logical decisions that are perfectly natural and reasonable to turkeys, and humans react by running away.
So what do you do about this? Well, DO NOT RUN AWAY, this means you that you are a Submissive Turkey and their behavior will escalate. Turkeys can learn the meaning of “no,” and you don’t have to be bullied by them.
And the Massachusetts Fish and Game website has a huge resource explaining all the subtleties of wild turkey behavior and how to combat the nuisances. Essentially, you must not attempt to make friends with them or attract them; once they arrive, you must “be bold” and establish Dominance, and encourage everyone to do the same.
If the turkeys are aggressive around children and the elderly, all sources agree that if they become a danger, you can contact the relevant authorities and have the turkeys removed or destroyed.
Anyway, that’s why turkeys attack cars. The take-home message is: the cars are too shiny and you are possibly a sexy turkey.
#art #pretty things #the person I reblogged this from tagged it #Overwatch #a game I have not played #(at first I thought it was Jasmine from Aladdin) #(also a thing I have not watched) #anyway I just thought it was pretty
#…who’s giving my name to ship memes? #and why? #it’s not that I mind I’m just confused #I mean at least Adam has vaguely compatible kinks so that kind of made sense #I have no idea where me/Nate comes from #reply via reblog
#sinesalvatorem #fun wif forn fronting #although to be fair it’s not like it’s actually an *accent* issue #(hell for all I know I might have pronounced it right by accident)
(I was going to submit this to @justice-turtle, but it looks like they don’t have a submit option? I’ll ping them instead.)
Happy birthday! Just because I’m not nearby doesn’t mean I can’t sing to you. I don’t think I could manage voice chat (tbh, I barely managed this), but I did some asynchronous singing for you.
(I’m so terrible at breaking silences that I recorded this in my shed, so that the complete isolation could take the edge off the stifling. But hey, I got there in the end!)
*birthday hugs*
Tags:
#and many moooore #justice turtle #oh look an original post #that excuse for communication called speech #birthday #(so I was looking at the public birthday tag to see if I should avoid being in it) #(and apparently it’s also Mickey Mouse’s birthday) #(it’s the anniversary of the premiere of Steamboat Willie)
The United States is about to elect a new president. I’ve previously polled UK Grindr users on Scottish independence, the 2015 generalelection, and Brexit. This time, I decided to poll US Grindr users on who they think should be leading their country.
The following is a representative sample of the replies.
(Identifiable faces have been censored.)
For every state, I aimed for a number of responses equivalent to each state’s number of presidential electors – from 55 for California to 3 for Delaware, Vermont, Alaska etc. A few fell a little short as I was banned (my 10th Grindr ban to date) just before I could finish, though most matched or exceeded the target. The number next to each state is the number of responses I received, though the percentages are only taken from the responses that can reasonably be interpreted as a decisive answer – undecided voters, non-voters, and evasive responses are listed separately. Major candidates who received 0 votes are also listed.
CALIFORNIA: 53
68% (21) Hillary Clinton 6% (2) Donald Trump 6% (2) Bernie Sanders 6% (2) “Yo momma” 3% (1) Gary Johnson 3% (1) Barack Obama 3% (1) John F. Kennedy 3% (1) “Myself”
0% (0) Jill Stein
2 Undecided 4 None of the above 3 Not eligible to vote 13 Evasive or unclear responses
0% (0) Donald Trump 0% (0) Jill Stein 0% (0) Gary Johnson
1 Evasive or unclear responses
0 Did not respond
SOUTH DAKOTA: 3
100% (2) Hillary Clinton
0% (0) Donald Trump 0% (0) Jill Stein 0% (0) Gary Johnson
1 None of the above
1 Did not respond
NORTH DAKOTA: 2
100% (2) Hillary Clinton
0% (0) Donald Trump 0% (0) Jill Stein 0% (0) Gary Johnson
1 Did not respond
WYOMING: 2
100% (2) Donald Trump
0% (0) Hillary Clinton 0% (0) Jill Stein 0% (0) Gary Johnson
1 Did not respond
MONTANA: 1
100% (1) Donald Trump
0% (0) Hillary Clinton 0% (0) Jill Stein 0% (0) Gary Johnson
8 Did not respond
WASHINGTON, D.C.: 2
100% (1) Hillary Clinton
0% (0) Donald Trump 0% (0) Jill Stein 0% (0) Gary Johnson
1 Evasive or unclear responses
3 Did not respond
The overall US-wide vote is as follows.
63.25% (191) Hillary Clinton 17.88% (54) Donald Trump 3.31% (10) Jill Stein 1.99% (6) Gary Johnson 1.99% (6) Bernie Sanders 0.99% (3) “Yo momma” 0.66% (2) Deez Nuts 0.66% (2) Cthulhu 0.66% (2) Mickey Mouse 0.33% (1) Evan McMullin 0.33% (1) Vermin Supreme 0.33% (1) Don Bacon 0.33% (1) Barack Obama 0.33% (1) John F. Kennedy 0.33% (1) Ronald Reagan 0.33% (1) Vladimir Putin 0.33% (1) Eric Andre 0.33% (1) Beyoncé 0.33% (1) Harambe 0.33% (1) Mighty Mouse 0.33% (1) Patti LuPone 0.33% (1) Prince 0.33% (1) Cardi B from Love & Hip Hop 0.33% (1) Jesus 0.33% (1) Katya 0.33% (1) “Space raptors” 0.33% (1) “A giant meteor”
In addition, 1.99% (6) voted for “Myself”, although these aren’t lumped together as they refer to separate individuals – namely, “WOOF!”, “MiamiLatino”, “nICE GUY!!!!!”, “2017 ready now”, “no pic don’t”, and “DatFckboi”. 0.66% (2) also voted for their own penis – 4 if we count pictures of a respondent’s penis as an actual answer to the poll.
Not counted towards the percentage are the following responses:
19 Undecided 60 None of the above 9 Not eligible to vote 181 Evasive or unclear responses
“Evasive or unclear responses” can be roughly divided as follows:
55 Miscellaneous evasion 41 Explicitly declined to answer, “none of your business” etc 25 Irrelevant or incomprehensible 18 Too horny to engage politically 13 Total bewilderment 12 “Anyone but…” (10 Trump, 2 Clinton, 1 Johnson, 1 Stein) 7 Overt hostility 3 Nudes
Here are the number of states candidates win when only Grindr votes.
Hillary Clinton: 42 (6 as part of a tie) Donald Trump: 13 (7 as part of a tie) Bernie Sanders: 3 (3 as part of a tie) Jill Stein: 1 (1 as part of a tie) Evan McMullin: 1 (1 as part of a tie) Deez Nuts: 1 (1 as part of a tie) Beyoncé: 1 (1 as part of a tie) Ronald Reagan: 1 (1 as part of a tie) ″A giant meteor”: 1 (1 as part of a tie) ″My big fat cock”: 1 (1 as part of a tie) Gary Johnson: 0
In the electoral college, this should translate into the following numbers of electoral votes. When dealing with ties, electors are divided evenly between candidates.
Finally, here is the electoral map, according to Grindr.
Hillary Clinton comfortably clears her target of 270 electoral votes, and the Democrats are re-elected. Grindr is, for once, with her.
Tags:
#long post #nsfw text #nsfw image #Grindr #oh my god they’re doing a series of these #I remember seeing one of the previous ones #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #election 2016
Daniel Kahn (of Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird) performing a Yiddish translation of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”.
Tags:
#music #interesting #Leonard Cohen #so I went and looked up Hallelujah on Youtube #like you do #and…look #my parents had a set of three mix CDs they played a zillion times in the car when I was growing up #one of the tracks was ”Hallelujah” #and that track is How Hallelujah Sounds as far as my brain is concerned #I’m beginning to suspect it was a cover #because the two Leonard Cohen versions I tried were so Wrong I couldn’t bear to finish them #it may have been from the Shrek soundtrack #apparently there were two versions involved with the Shrek soundtrack #and I listened to both of them and they both sound Correct in a way that the Leonard Cohen versions very much did not #I don’t know #I get the impression from looking around that Leonard Cohen did a lot of versions of Hallelujah #was there a Correct one at some point and it’s just not what comes up first on Youtube? #because it’s kind of awkward to see all these people mourning Cohen and gradually realise you may have never actually heard a Cohen song #and your brain is in fact rebelling at having to listen to a Cohen version of the archetypical Cohen song? #anyway this one is neat as long as I don’t think of it in terms of Correctness #tag rambles
Brinens and Things 