long posts

Anonymous asked: Sort of a silly question, but what was your internet community journey? For instance, my first community was fanfiction net, mostly HP and danny phantom stories with frequent lurking on deviantart and 4chan for fanart. Later I shifted to reddit and tumblr, with occasional forrays into lesswrong and some other hubs of interest. Now its just tumblr and twitter pretty much, though I visit other places. Or if you don’t want to get into all of that, what was just your first internet community? :)

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

theunitofcaring:

No that’s not a silly question it’s really cool and now I want all my followers to reblog with internet community journeys. 

 I hung out on Yahoo! Answers for a couple years (12-14), lurked various advice columns because I find them fascinating, got into Harry Potter fanfiction on fanfiction.net, found Methods of Rationality and through that LessWrong, where there are embarrassing posts as a record of my age-17 Eliezer-fangirl stage, got into the tumblr Silmarillion fandom, burned out of the tumblr Silmarillion fandom, got into tumblr SJ, and wound up here. The only sites I read reliably now are tumblr, slatestarcodex, and aforementioned advice columns. 

This tracks only slightly with my special interests during the relevant time periods, which from high school forward were the TV show 24 , Crichton/King/Grisham generic adult thrillers, Christian apocalyptic fiction, LessWrong, the Silmarillion, the manosphere and neoreaction, Clara, the Silmarillion again, social justice, and Current Special Interest which is a secret for obvious reasons. 

 

(This ended up much longer and more detailed than the other responses I’ve seen. I hope it’s long and detailed in a good way.)

When I was young, the primary places I went on the Internet were Nethack fansites (though I only lurked), the official Chalkzone discussion board on the Nickelodeon forums (my first fandom (and first perseveration that I can recall*), age eight), and–slightly later–Neopets. These aren’t connected to later events, though.

The continuous journey, the one that led me to where I am today, started when I was thirteen, and I saw that under the “other” section of the Girl Scout day-trip medical form Mom had written that I was autistic. (Her point being that if the supervisors saw me sneaking off to find a quiet spot to recover from all the noise and activity, they should let me.)

She later insisted that she’d already told me a few years previously, but either she misremembered, or she’d told me but not explained and I’d registered it as a meaningless, forgettable word (like I had “Presbyterian”), because it was news to me.

Of course, I had to learn more about this. Some news article led me to The Autism Crisis, which despite the name is a neurodiversity-based autism blog. This led me to other neurodiversity-based autism websites (at one point around this time I read the entire autistics.org library), and from there other neurodiversity sites. (This is why part of me always feels surprised when people who have been hanging out on the Internet for a while don’t have at least a basic working knowledge of multiplicity. Within a month or two of venturing out into the big wide Internet, I knew how to parse a caret in someone’s name.)

(During this time, the summer of 2007, I also read through the entire mental health section of when was then my local library. (It was a pretty big library.) The juxtaposition of these books with the blogs I was reading was an interesting experience.)

Stuff about snake-oil autism treatments led me to the skeptical blogosphere. One of the more religion-focused ones had a link to the Left Behind tag on Slacktivist, which I have updated here to reflect his move from Typepad to Patheos. (If there’s a way to make that show in chronological order, I don’t know it. I’ve linked to what is currently the last page.) I read the posts and left. I didn’t read the comments. Not yet.

When I was bored, I spent a lot of time reading TV Tropes. This gave me a lot of cultural osmosis that still serves me well today, as well as an epiphany about my sexuality. (No, really. It had never occurred to me that “fetish” was a framework that could apply to my particular fascination, but once they pointed out that was a possibility, I realised it made so much sense.)

It was probably from TV Tropes that I found the Protectors of the Plot Continuum. (Their sporkings are a little mean for my tastes these days, and I haven’t read any new ones recently, but I still like their characters and worldbuilding.) Back in the day, I even posted on their forums for a while, under a name I never used elsewhere.

Since I was in the general realm of sporking, there were more links to the Left Behind posts. I went through the “oh, right, that exists. *catches up on posts* *leaves*” cycle a couple more times. At one point, sometime around the autumn of 2010, I decided to stay. I read the non-Left-Behind posts. I read the comments.

In the comments, I discovered a thriving (if sometimes flame-y**) community of people. They used the comment threads like a forum, discussing not only the original post, not only tangents that could diverge quite widely from the source, but new topics that they brought to the table themselves. They also had the Greater Slackti-sphere, the blogs written by people who commented there, most of whom also commented on each other’s blogs.

On Christmas Day, 2010, I got up the nerve to join them. I took on a new name. I became Brin.

(I kept reading Slacktivist long after I should have stopped, after I began to realise that social justice was literally driving me insane, because of this importance to my history and development. I do still read and comment on some of the less sanity-draining Greater Slackti-sphere blogs.)

In May of 2011, we were having a conversation in a Slacktivist thread about Star Trek: DS9. Lonespark, a fellow Slacktivite, told us about this place called DS9 Rewatch, where people gathered in a chatroom to watch DS9 together and talk about the episode as it was happening. Like watching TV with your friends, only text-based and with people scattered across the world.

If you followed that link, you’ll have seen that I now run the Rewatch. The thing about “like watching TV with your friends, but with people scattered across the world” is that said scattered people pretty quickly become your friends. Not including me, only one of the people who was there when I joined is still there now, but I maintained friendships with some of the 2011 rewatchers even long after they left. (*waves at justice-turtle​*) (And of course, I also made new friendships with the relatively new rewatchers.)

It was probably also from the Slackti-sphere that I learned of Ozy, who at the time was a co-blogger at “No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz?”. I liked them–in hindsight because they were the least sanity-draining feminist activist I had ever met–and followed them through a couple of blogs before losing track of them for a while.

I don’t remember whether it was through them that I heard of Less Wrong, but it was sometime around then. I read a couple of posts, a few comments, felt extremely intimidated, and left. In hindsight, this may have been a mistake.

(I liked the idea of HPMOR, but didn’t hear of it until after I reached the “perpetually buried in reading material” stage of Internet usage, and have never gotten around to it. I did read Luminosity, and greatly enjoyed it. The protagonist’s clever exploitation of the local laws of nature reminded me of the books of Jewish folktales I loved as a child***, and I found it very refreshing that said protagonist was allowed to not only want, but seek out immortality, without the desire being seen as a character flaw. (I’ve had transhumanist sympathies probably since reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom as a pre-teen.))

One of those Greater Slackti-sphere blogs was (and is) Mock Ramblings. I not only read it, but kept an eye on his blogroll, reading any posts that looked interesting and occasionally following a blog if it was interesting consistently enough. Michael Mock reads Comparatively Superlative, and as it was consistently interesting, so did I. At one point, shortly after I commented there using a profile containing a link to my Tumblr, I received a “comparativelysuperlative is now following you” notification. I read his Tumblr archive, found he was consistently interesting there too, and followed him back.

A few months back, he reblogged a post from you. I don’t remember which one it was, but it was interesting enough that I looked into the rest of your blog.

It was…I’m not quite sure how to put it. It was like seeing a braver version of myself, saying publicly the things I had hardly dared even to think. I…may have read your entire archive, and been disappointed when I found you had only been blogging there for eight months. I spread my net, reading other rationalist Tumblrs you linked to. I found that when I had encountered some particularly unhealthy piece of social-justice writing and it was getting me down, reading them helped me feel better. I realised that this was where I needed to be.

*It was also the first that I could recall at the time; I remember being surprised when it shifted.

**The thing that we now call “callout culture” tends to get treated as a Tumblr-specific or at least Tumblr-induced problem. It’s not. I experienced it in the comments of a Typepad blog, before Tumblr took off. Back then it was called “nuking”, and we lived in fear of the nukers then just as we do now. (Sure, one’s posts didn’t gain as wide a reach there, but it was a lot harder to block the nukers it did reach.)

***Possible factor in the disproportionate Jewish-ness of rationalists?

Tags:

#long post #Brin talks about herself for a *reason* this time #the story of my Internet life #overly enthusiastic parenthetical use #the standard tag for this sort of thing is #my issues with sj let me show you them #(the following category tag was added retroactively:) #our roads may be golden or broken or lost

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

bogleech:

It’s funny how science fiction universes so often treat humans as a boring, default everyman species or even the weakest and dumbest.

I want to see a sci fi universe where we’re actually considered one of the more hideous and terrifying species.

How do we know our saliva and skin oils wouldn’t be ultra-corrosive to most other sapient races? What if we actually have the strongest vocal chords and can paralyze or kill the inhabitants of other worlds just by screaming at them? What if most sentient life in the universe turns out to be vegetable-like and lives in fear of us rare “animal” races who can move so quickly and chew shit up with our teeth?

Like that old story “they’re made of meat,” only we’re scarier.

 

mikhailvladimirovich:

HOLY SHIT THEY EAT CAPSAICIN FOR FUN

YOU GUYS I HEARD A HUMAN ONCE ATE AN AIRPLANE.

A HUMAN CAN KEEP FIGHTING FOR HOURS EVEN AFTER YOU SHOOT IT

humans are a proud warrior race with a pantheon of bloody gods: Ram-Bo, Schwarzenegger, etc.

REMOVING A LIMB WILL NOT FATALLY INCAPACITATE HUMANS: ALWAYS DESTROY THE HEAD.

WARNING: HUMANS CAN DETECT YOU EVEN AT NIGHT BY TRACKING VIBRATIONS THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE

WARNING: HUMANS CAN REPRODUCE AT A RATE OF 1 PER SPACEYEAR. DESTROY INFESTATIONS IMMEDIATELY

THE HUMAN MOUTH HAS OVER THIRTY OUTCROPS OF BONE AND POWERFUL JAW MUSCLES.

HUMAN BITES CAN BE FATALLY INFECTIOUS EVEN TO OTHER HUMANS

WARNING: HUMANS CAN AND WILL USE IMPROVISED WEAPONS. SEE CLASSIFIED DATA LABELED J. CHAN.

HUMANS CAN PROJECT BIOWEAPONS FROM ALMOST EVERY ORIFICE ON THEIR BODY. DO NOT INHALE

OH GOD THE HUMANS FIGURED OUT DOOR HANDLES OH GOD OH GOD

 

prokopetz:

More seriously, humans do have a number of advantages even among Terrestrial life. Our endurance, shock resistance, and ability to recover from injury is absurdly high compared to almost any other animal. We often use the phrase “healthy as a horse” to connote heartiness – but compared to a human, a horse is as fragile as spun glass. There’s mounting evidence that our primitive ancestors would hunt large prey simply by following it at a walking pace, without sleep or rest, until it died of exhaustion; it’s called pursuit predation. Basically, we’re the Terminator.

(The only other animal that can sort of keep up with us? Dogs. That’s why we use them for hunting. And even then, it’s only “sort of”.)

Now extrapolate that to a galaxy in which most sapient life did not evolve from hyper-specialised pursuit predators:

  • Our strength and speed is nothing to write home about, but we don’t need to overpower or outrun you. We just need to outlast you – and by any other species’ standards, we just plain don’t get tired.
  • Where a simple broken leg will cause most species to go into shock and die, we can recover from virtually any injury that’s not immediately fatal. Even traumatic dismemberment isn’t necessarily a career-ending injury for a human.
  • We heal from injuries with extreme rapidity, recovering in weeks from wounds that would take others months or years to heal. The results aren’t pretty – humans have hyperactive scar tissue, among our other survival-oriented traits – but they’re highly functional.
  • Speaking of scarring, look at our medical science. We developed surgery centuries before developing even the most rudimentary anesthetics or life support. In extermis, humans have been known to perform surgery on themselves – and survive. Thanks to our extreme heartiness, we regard as routine medical procedures what most other species would regard as inventive forms of murder. We even perform radical surgery on ourselves for purely cosmetic reasons.

In essence, we’d be Space Orcs.

 

friendlytroll:

Our jaws have too many TEETH in them, so we developed a way to WELD METAL TO OUR TEETH and FORCE THE BONES IN OUR JAW to restructure over the course of years to fit them back into shape, and then we continue to wear metal in out mouths to keep them in place. 

We formed cohabitative relationships with tiny mammals and insects we keep at bay from bothering us by death, often using little analouge traps. 

And by god, we will eat anything. 

 

siderealsandman:

  • We use borderline toxic peppers to season our food. 
  • We expose ourselves to potentially lethal solar radiation in the pursuit of darkening our skin. 
  • We risk hearing loss for the opportunity to see our favorite musicians live. 
  • We have a game where two people get into an enclosed area and hit each other until time runs out/one of them pass out
  • We willingly jump out of planes with only a flimsy piece of cloth to prevent us from splattering against the ground. 
  • Our response to natural disasters is to just rebuild our buildings in the exact same places. 
  • We climb mountains and risk freezing to death for bragging rights
  • We invented dogs. We took our one time predators and completely domesticated them. 
  • On a planet full of lions, tigers and bears, we managed to advance further and faster than any other species on the planet. 

Klingons and Krogan and Orcs ain’t got shit on us

 

moniquill:

We drink ethanol (in concentrations high enough to be used as an effective as microbicide or a solvent!) for the express purpose of achieving blood toxicity and disrupting normal brain function… AS A RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY!

On the same subject, we also deliberately incinerate assorted substances and then inhale the particulate-heavy smoke and vapor resulting for the same effect. EVEN IN THE FACE OF SAID SUBSTANCES BEING CARCINOGENIC, BECAUSE WE JUST DON’T GIVE A FUCK.

 

therobotmonster:

Humans do not have biological castes. Kill their commander and another will take its place. Soldiers left alone on a planet will start farming and manufacturing to survive. Farmers and manufacturers will take up arms and kill you if pressed. Just because two humans look different doesn’t mean they cannot do each other’s jobs.

Breeding does not kill them. A single human can mate dozens or hundreds of times in a lifetime. They often do so as recreation. Xenobiology team six believes they do not have a mating season but this is too strange to be true.

Their appendages are not designed for hitting, so they developed special training to make them very good at hitting anyhow. 

The proteins making up their bodies are toxic and cause prion disease. Do not touch anything humans have touched. Do not consume earth foods. Fire does not adequately remove this contamination.

Humans perceive sixteen times the colors we do. Do not hide in bushes or vines from humans. They can distinguish your pelt from the foliage with ease.

We tried venting waste gas into the tunnels to kill the humans when they attacked. Turns out they breathe it. 

Everything on their planet came from a single biological strain. They developed comprehensive genetics BEFORE they developed space travel. 

They lack radio receptors and cannot be brought into compliance with right-thought simply by broadcasting to them. Even after we learned how to translate it into sound-waves one of their hatchlings drove the Great Authority mad by responding to every demand with a single question: “Why?”

 

silentstep:

#an individual human being is actually a microbiome in its own right—you are dealing with a legion each time you approach them     #they carry pathological agents inside their deep tissues and this is advantageous to their health     #one of the most widespread and resilient viruses on their planet is treated as mildly hazardous—even though it causes     #massive disruption to the body’s homeostasis     #(their young offspring endure multiple rhinovirus infections EACH YEAR yet they seem unperturbed by this)     #they have developed such long lifespans that now their primary threat is their own body’s degeneration     #humanity has literally figured out how to survive so long that their body gives out under them     #and they are not satisfied with that     #stupid willful vengeful survivalists who treat mortality like a challenge

 

adhesivesandscrap:

“Human beings are verminous fucktards” ~ Karen Traviss

Tags:

#oh look an update #I was actually just thinking about this post #but I hadn’t seen the bit after the lack of radio reception before

So No One Ever Thought it Pertinent to Mention There’s a Biopic of Franz Mesmer Starring Alan Rickman?

~ Brin ~ 2 Comments

diaryofasnowflake:

So it turns out as a movie it is pretty problematic and shitty but a good 25% of it is Alan Rickman wearing swishy cloaks trancing (or something like it) ladies who realllllyyyyyy seem to enjoy it.  But he just keeps whining about healing the world and science and stuff.

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This is for science.

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And medicine.

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Not sexy at all.

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SHE WANTS THE T. (T=trance)

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Goddamn that little handhold in a hypno context can just be the most intimate thing.

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Ugh Hans Gruber Snape Mesmer Rickman stop making me love you.

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Not sexual.  Nope.

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NOTE This character is pretty much moaning at this point.  Because getting your blindness treated is hawt.

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Prettttttty sure I do something like this in trance.

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I guess this could be kinky but she’s already blind.

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Like I said, there’s a lotta dis.

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AW YEAH GET IT GURL AND BY “IT” I MEAN YOUR VISION AND THERFORE AN EYEFUL OF SEXY HYPNOTIST ALAN RICKMAN.

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ALL THE FRENCH ROYAL LADIES WANT THE T.

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Same.

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Wait I think I saw a porno like this once.

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WHAT THE FUCK HE IS MAKING A ROOM FULL OF FRENCH LADIES HAVE AN ORGASM.  THIS MOVIE IS NOT EVEN PRETENDING MESMERISM ISN’T SEXUAL.  WHAT IS GOING ON.  WHY IS THIS MOVIE SHITTY/GREAT?

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YOU TOO ALAN?

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GREATEST.

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MOVIE.

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SCENE.

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EVER.

In conclusion: Thank you, Dr. Mesmer.  You hoped your work would cure suffering and disease, and eventually your legacy resulted in freaks like me getting off on it.  And you got a shitty biopic that was kinda hot in a weird way, even by hypnofetishist standards.  Mazel tov.

Also, Alan Rickman can get it.

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SWAG

You hoped your work would cure suffering and disease, and eventually your legacy resulted in freaks like me getting off on it.

To be fair, this was totally a thing at the time. Consider, for instance, this extended quote regarding the morality of “animal magnetism”. which is basically a bunch of medical commissioners being extremely suspicious of how much resemblance hypnosis bears to sex. I think there might be other choice quotes in that book, too, but that was the easiest one to find.

(The book’s an interesting read, regardless. The late-1700′s conception of hypnosis described in the historical sections is pretty much unrecognisable from a turn-of-the-millennium point of view (my turn-of-the-millennium point of view, anyway), and even the “modern-day” (1890′s) sections are very different.)

Tags:

#anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #(‘Hans Gruber Snape Mesmer Rickman’) #reply via reblog #sexuality and lack thereof #though I actually don’t really find mesmerism hot #for pretty much *exactly* the same reasons that contemporaries *did* find it hot #orgasms are so not my style #too stimulating #not restful enough #I suppose this probably counts as #nsfw #oh and also #long post

{{next post in sequence}}

Fire Extinguishers Are Pretty Awesome / Exciting Fire Trivia

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

scottlynch78:

Since everyone and their cousin is passing around that kitchen oil fire eruption video, I thought I’d comment on one thing I don’t see mentioned in all the bazillion and six re-tumbles, namely, the optimal uses of fire extinguishers. 

Although in my day job I’m your literary torturer, on the side I’ve been a firefighter since 2005 (good god, ten years now). Here’s my standard photo of myself doing so (note that while this was live fire, it was also a staged training exercise in an unoccupied house). WOULD YOU TRUST ME WITH YOUR KITCHEN FIRE? OF COURSE! LOOK HOW GOOD I WAS AT STOPPING THIS ONE!

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Caveat: What I’m about to discuss applies to fire extinguisher labeling in the United States, because that is where I live and was trained as a firefighter. I cannot vouch for how labels work around the world. I know there are some slight differences, so do a bit of research.

Second caveat: JESUS CHRIST do not throw flour on a kitchen fire. EVER! Flour and flour dust are immensely flammable. Just Google search for “grain warehouse explosion” and “grain dust explosion” and you’ll never be tempted to do this ever again. I’ve also seen some nice Youtube videos of people (in prepared laboratory environments) throwing handfuls of flour over a Bunsen Burner flame for instant whoosh-flash effects. Very exciting! You do not want this excitement in your kitchen.

Okay, the important part: You should have multiple fire extinguishers in your place of residence, and you should know exactly where they are, AND you should place them in areas that are not especially likely to erupt into flame. For example, if you keep a fire extinguisher in a cabinet above or next to your stove, go watch that water-onto-burning-oil video again. Now, be honest, are you really going to be able to even approach (let alone reach through) that mess to get an extinguisher above or directly beside it? No. Your extinguisher might as well be on the moon in such an instance, so pre-position these things more smartly. 

When you look at a fire extinguisher, you should be able to immediately spot a label that has big clear letters on it, for example AB or ABC. These are both very interesting and very important.

You see, in the fire service it’s absolutely critical to identify, as rapidly as possible, exactly what might be burning in any given fire. This is why businesses are required by law (at least until the maniacs and idiots finish breaking down every last concept of useful government regulation) to disclose types and quantities of hazardous chemicals at a commercial site, and to have that information readily accessible to emergency responders. Some burning substances react horrifyingly to the application of water. Cooking oil, for one instance. Large vats of hydrofluoric acid for another. 

The thing below is often referred to as a “fire diamond” or “hazard diamond.” The technical name for it is “NFPA 704 Placard.” It’s a quick visual guide to relevant qualities of a given chemical substance, and in this instance the big W with a crossbar through it means HOLY SHIT DO NOT APPLY WATER TO THIS STUFF. Since our primary approach to firefighting involves spraying high-pressure water at dozens or hundreds of gallons per minute, this is, as the kids say, relevant to our interests.

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But I am digressing. You shouldn’t have an NFPA placard in your kitchen unless you’re some kind of comedian or a hot pepper sociopath. Back to ABC. The fire service classifies all types of possible burning substances into just a few groups, and the interesting part is, this system has absolutely no concern for their proper molecular or scientific relationship or any of that foofarah— this system is based on how stuff generally behaves when it’s on fire, and how it can be extinguished.

Class A materials include wood, plastic, rubber, paper, and most construction materials, etc. and are often referred to as “ordinary combustibles” because they really don’t do anything unpredictable and can be relatively easily extinguished with water. Class B fires involve flammable liquid or gas, and can actually be made worse by the careless application of water. Class C fires involve potentially live electrical equipment, and class C extinguisher chemicals are formulated to be non-conductive for added safety.

So there you have ABC… most readily-available domestic fire extinguishers are going to be rated AB or ABC. I strongly recommend having at least one ABC on hand in case you find yourself having to, say, shoot it into a burning desktop computer (as I did some years ago). Also remember that if you have a burning appliance and you can safely unplug it at a distance from the fire, you can then apply a non-C extinguisher to it without any further worry. 

Although you should still exercise extreme caution, an AB or ABC fire extinguisher is immensely preferable to most other approaches (such as attempting to slam a lid down on a wildly out-of-control grease fire, or attempting to fling handfuls of baking soda at it). These devices will allow you to put the right chemicals on the kitchen fire while keeping a safe distance. Distance is your friend. More distance is always more of a friend. Fire extinguisher goop is not a melee weapon. You want some range on that baby.

I should mention two other, rarer fire classes. Class D fires involve burning metals, like magnesium or zirconium. Like oil fires, these can react unpredictably or even dangerously to water. You shouldn’t need a class D extinguisher in any common domestic situation and you won’t even find them on sale in most places, except as a specialty industrial supply. If you have large quantities of Class D material in your house the cast of Person of Interest is probably going to be kicking your door in fairly soon, so you’re not really my problem.

Lastly, there is a newer classification, Class K for “kitchen.” K extinguishers are specially formulated for higher-risk greases and oils. K extinguishers are mostly intended for commercial or industrial applications, like restaurant-sized deep fryers. The good old ABCs should be more than sufficient for nearly any domestic situation.

Now for the most important thing I am going to write all day: If a kitchen fire is well and truly raging, climbing the wall(s) and spreading to the ceiling, don’t be a hero. Get the fuck out. Get everyone in the house or apartment out and call for emergency help. Don’t put yourself inside a room that is rapidly going up in flames on multiple sides, even if you have an extinguisher. Get the fuck out. Your primary duty in a serious fire is to get yourself and your loved ones away from it, alive and uninjured. Fuck everything else. Run. 

If the situation is less serious than that, and you do manage to extinguish the disaster in progress, here are a few final but crucial tips. First, ventilate the area as soon as you can. Open doors and windows. People with breathing difficulties, such as asthma, really should go outside for a few minutes until you can clear the air. Even a little bit of smoke can be irritating, and fire extinguisher chemicals, while not actively hazardous, can be a little annoying, too. They taste like salty dish soap. Try not to breathe or swallow those particles if you can. Salty dish soap. Really.

Once you’ve used a fire extinguisher, even if the gauge still indicates remaining material inside, don’t keep it on hand for future use. Get a fresh and unused extinguisher to replace it. Weird things can happen to the propellant supply of a used extinguisher, and a fire extinguisher without propellant is only useful for bludgeoning Col. Mustard in the Library. Trust me on this, you want your extinguisher to go “FWOOOOOOSH” and not “fppt.”

Last thing (I promise!): After a small domestic fire is extinguished, closely examine the area around it and the area above it. Make sure that flames have not penetrated nearby walls or ceilings. In the fire service we call this “extension,” and locating/preventing it is a major part of our operations. You don’t want to blithely walk away from an extinguished stovetop fire, only to discover that the interior wall spaces of your home are full of flames ten minutes later. In fact, if you have any worries at all about the issue, call emergency services. We check up on this sort of thing all the time, and we have a lot of cool tools like thermographic imagers to locate hidden trouble. You are always better safe than sorry, and I assure you, no matter how tired we look, we exist to be bothered like this. We would really rather spend ten minutes finding no fire in your house than four hours filling it with water and tearing it apart. I suspect you feel the same way. 

Tags:

#the more you know #long post #fire

Apparently it’s that kind of day.

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

Because I feel like it, and because the occasional precedents I’ve seen elsewhere seemed to work out well, I am going to answer all of the questions in this ask meme.

How badly will I twist the questions? How many of the questions even make sense? Join us below the cut to find out!

A. If you could get away with one murder in your lifetime without any legal, social, or emotional repercussions, would you kill someone?

Wouldn’t the whole point of killing someone be to cause the repercussions? Or do you mean only the repercussions specifically focused on me?

Even using the generous interpretation, nobody really springs to mind.

B. What is your first thought when you receive a message on Tumblr, are you excited for the idea of someone from potentially the other side of the world wanting to talk to you or fearful that someone will criticize you?

If I’ve said something controversial lately, fearful. If not, slightly excited, but mostly thinking it’s probably a spambot.

C. Have you ever looked down on someone because you thought your religious views were superior?

See question Z. (No.)

D. Would you rather know everything the universe has to offer but in exchange lose all emotions or remain the way you are now?

My first impulse is to do it, then spend the rest of my life recording the information not currently known to Terrans, in descending order of projected usefulness.

Possibly I have been spending too much time around utilitarians. Possibly I have been spending just enough time around utilitarians.

(I’m not sure whether I actually would go with the first impulse, though.)

E. If you could live and be healthy without sleeping or eating/drinking, which would you cut out of your life?

Due to being relatively prone to digestive issues, I have spent more time wishing I didn’t need to eat than I have wishing I didn’t need to sleep. There are also potential complications of being rendered incapable of sleep.

On the other hand, 8 – 9 hours (depending on whether you count dreaming) more consciousness out of every 24 is quite a lot of effective lifespan extension, and it never actually says I would be incapable of sleep at all, let alone incapable of dozing. Given the information provided, I would rather go without sleep.

F. If you could take on the exact body and form of anyone else on Earth, who would it be?

I would need more information on the potential forms available, in order to determine which one would have the best balance of maximum health (both quality and quantity of life) and minimum dysphoria.

Given that I’m currently 21 years old, with basically no dysphoria and no chronic health problems save for severe nearsightedness, it’s very likely that the best body is in fact the one I currently have.

That’s all assuming that the legal issues of getting a new body are magically dealt with, of course. Otherwise it’s even more likely to be best sticking with my current body.

(This question is supposed to be about beauty, isn’t it? I already look plain in a vaguely pleasant manner, what more could I want?)

G. Would you rather burn or freeze to death?

Rumour has it that freezing hurts less, and also has a better chance of being revivable.

H. If it meant it would solve all world hunger, war, disease and bigotry, would you spend the rest of eternity in Hell?

The most effective way of doing that is to kill everyone (solving the first three) and mind-control their immortal souls (solving the last; I assume that since Hell is involved, there are immortal souls in this scenario). That’s not worth going to Hell for.

(Was anyone else surprised that humanity did not go extinct (save for the two people in the eye of the reality storm, of course) during the world-peace part of The Lathe of Heaven?)

I. Was the first crush in your life something you had or something someone had on you?

Presumably something someone else had, though if so I have remained blissfully unaware of it.

J. Could you live without having sex ever (again) in exchange for eternal youth?

See question E above re: complications. It would only take a bit of definition-twisting for this to result in me dying horribly of magically enforced sleep deprivation, leaving an eternally youthful corpse.

(Also, to confirm, “eternally youthful” is still fully grown, right? I don’t want to end up in a baby’s body forever, especially if my mind is adversely affected by having to fit into a baby’s head.)

One needs to define “sex” very precisely for a question like this to be answerable. Like, never mind my fetishes: what if I accidentally do something to fulfil someone else’s? There are all sorts of potential issues here.

If we go with a strict definition, something like “genital intercourse between two or more people, with full knowledge and consent of all parties, for the purpose of inducing sexual pleasure in at least one party”: yes, in a heartbeat. Sounds like a sweet deal. Wasn’t even planning to do that anyway.

K. Have you ever watched a full length pornographic movie?

Nah, videos don’t do it for me.

L. The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?

Neither. I dislike both of them. *dodges thrown tomatoes*

M. If you could have the ability to manipulate matter or energy, which would you choose?

To what extent is that even a meaningful question?

N. What was the worst nightmare you ever had?

Measured in terms of “how long did it take me to calm down afterward”, probably the one with the serial killer.

O. Would you rather spend one year with your one true love just to never see them again or the rest of your life with second best?

Okay, that’s definitely not a meaningful question.

P. All the sequels/remakes/adaptations/rip-offs in movies nowadays, good or bad?

I don’t consider it inherently good or bad, but rather judge on a case-by-case basis.

(Also, I am informed by Shakespeare nerds that this tendency towards sequels/remakes/adaptations/rip-offs is not a new phenomenon.)

Q. Would you rather be dirt poor and emotionally fulfilled in life or be rich beyond imagination and emotionally dissatisfied for life?

This is a very similar question to D, but replacing “think of what I could teach!” with “think of what I could give to charity!”. The same answer applies.

R. Do you have any (secret) feelings of bigotry to any group of people?

I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it may force me to incriminate myself.

(Besides, then they wouldn’t be secret anymore, would they?)

S. Would you rather be the only person in the world that can read minds or have everyone else in the world be able to read minds except for your own?

If I can turn it on and off at will, me. Mostly to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. (I can’t entirely guarantee that I’m not the wrong hands, but giving telepathy to everyone would definitely cause it to fall into some wrong hands.)

T. If everyone in the world would automatically only know one language, which language would you choose?

I seem to recall that English is currently the most widely spoken language, which means that choosing English would minimise the extent and number of horrific mind-alterations performed on people. I’d really rather not have to do it at all, though.

U. If you were old enough and not in a situation where it would be inappropriate, would you sleep with one of your (past) school teachers/professors?

There is no situation in which having sex with your mother is appropriate. I’ve never met any of my other teachers in person, though come to think of it, I don’t actually have to have seen them in order to say I wouldn’t have sex with them. It’s a safe assumption in general.

V. A world without religion, good, bad, neutral?

Impossible, unless you kill everyone (again). Unlike maggots, religions can reproduce via spontaneous generation.

W. The men’s rights movement, legitimate cause or laughable, and why?

Last I heard, there were multiple causes calling themselves “men’s rights”, of varying levels of legitimacy.

X. You can eliminate one of your five senses to substantially strengthen the others, which one and would you do it?

I would need more information to make that decision. Getting rid of smell will normally impair taste: am I magically protected from this? Will my senses be strengthened to the point of painful overstimulation?

(I probably wouldn’t do it, especially since I’m having a hard time seeing how the answer to my second question could be “no”.)

Y. Do looks mean anything to you? Don’t lie, could you fall in love with someone you thought was ugly?

Well, aren’t you pushy.

Current evidence suggests that I cannot fall in love with people I think are ugly. I also cannot fall in love with people I think are pretty.

Z. Can you understand the mindset and logic used by the opposite spiritual opinion? An atheist understanding the belief in a higher power and vice versa.

The only reason I don’t “belie[ve] in a higher power” is because I haven’t encountered any evidence for it. Unlike most people who say that, I am willing to accept subjective spiritual experiences as evidence. I haven’t had any such experiences, and may not be capable of them.

(So, yes.)

—

Well, I think we’ve all learned something here, and it’s that I have spent too much time reading genie stories.

(Or possibly just enough time reading genie stories.)

Tags:

#Brin talks about herself for no particular reason #(I don’t think I’ve ever done a readmore before) #(I hope it works) #anyone else want to join me in answering all the questions? #so I don’t feel as alone in this? #and also so I can see what your answers are? #meme #oh look an original post

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

batmansymbol:

The Final Damning Evidence That Rioghnach Has No Life Whatsoever

welp

here it is

the final damning evidence that i have no life whatsoever

lyrics at the original post here

 

shlevy:

Forever reblog

 

yxoque:

I really need to be more careful about “forever reblog” precommitments.

 

yxoque:

Oh no, if one of my mutuals reblogs this, I might get stuck in a loop!

 

yxoque:

Yup, it’s a loop.

 

queenshulamit:

At this point I am just being mean.

 

shlevy:

The only way out is to coordinate a staggered tumblr break amongst mutuals that have the forever reblog precommitment.

 

shlevy:

Alternatively: Does blocking a post such that you don’t even see a notification that it was blocked count as breaking the precommitment?

 

queenshulamit:

I don’t think so…
(I usually just reblog it to the queueueueueueueueue to avoid loops, but the last time was being mean.)

 

paradoxicalechoes:

I’ve always assumed a no reblog-backs rule so situations like this don’t happen.

 

ozymandias271:

I assume the rule is “reblog if it is not currently in the queueuueueueu”

 

remotelyblurred:

Ahhhhhhhh I’ve precommitted to always blogging this too. What have I done…

 

comparativelysuperlative:

Oh, hey, this song!

Tags:

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

~ Brin ~ 2 Comments

straighttohelvetica:

Easily the most horrifying line of dialogue I’ve ever heard in an animated movie.

 

castielsunderpants:

NO BUT THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD GODDAMN MOVIE LIKE THE MUSIC IS FUN AND SUPERB THE CHARACTERS WERE REAL PEOPLE EVEN THE ANTAGONISTS THE WOMEN WERE GREAT IT WAS ALL GREAT. IT DOESNT MATTER IF YOURE JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, MUSLIM, ATHEIST, WHATEVER ELSE IT DOESNT MATTER ITS SUCH A GOOD MOVIE AND ITS LITERALLY ONLY 90 MINUTES OF YOUR DAY AND EXPERIENCE THIS HERE JUST CLICK IT LITERALLY IT WILL OPEN IN A NEW TAB GO WATCH. 

 

fifty-shadesofgay:

also can we point out that none of the characters were white? like damn accurate depictions of Biblical characters

 

riskpig:

I reblog every time Prince of Egypt comes up because holy fuck this movie is so good.

 

theparadoxymoron:

first movie i ever saw in theaters

 

comparativelysuperlative:

First movie I ever saw in theaters too! That’s probably not coincidence!

But, like, this line is part of why I grew up thinking utilitarians are monsters. And I mean that in the “check under the bed” sense—there are people who will do literally anything (depending on the circumstances) and not care if the Bible says it’s evil! And they might be coming for you!

And now of course I’m a utilitarian, and so are a lot of the people I think of as doing the most good. Turns out that genocide against a bunch of babies? Not actually a fair portrayal of people doing things for the greater good.

Also, I recognised this gifset as being from Prince of Egypt (through cultural osmosis; haven’t actually seen the movie), but skimmed the context, so up until “they were only slaves” I thought it was Moses talking about murdering every non-Jewish firstborn in Egypt. And I was glad that apparently somebody in the film had tried to call them out on that tactic. But no, it’s just the same-old-same-old.

See, you have no idea how much that incident scarred me as a child. You’re supposed to hear that story and empathise with the oh-poor-Jewish-slaves-who-just-want-to-be-free, but I empathised with the Egyptian peasants. My fellow firstborns, slaughtered en masse for being born to the wrong families at the wrong time. Innocent, unknowing people, who happened to meet a totally arbitrary qualification that I met.

(My parents, in a desperate attempt to console me, tried to tell me I didn’t meet the qualifications. That in their place, I’d have been one of the ones with goat’s blood painted on the doorway. Thing is, being firstborn is more important to me than being Jewish 10.5 months out of the year, and even during Christmas season, it’s not so much “Jewish” that’s important as much as “not Christian”. (The Egyptians weren’t Christian either.))

That damned story was what made me really aware, on a visceral level, of my mortality. Learning how not to be viscerally aware of mortality (apparently some people do manage to function while aware of it, but I can’t imagine how) was an extremely long, painful process. By the time I’d more or less finished, it had taken me something like a third of my lifetime-at-that-point. (Then Five for Fighting released “100 Years” and started getting it played on all the radios and even a TV commercial, and I had to spend another few months re-doing some of the painstakingly crafted mental blocks. I swear, if I ever meet the one man who comprises Five for Fighting, I’ll…well, I probably couldn’t get away with punching him. I suppose I’d tell him about how he rubbed salt in a traumatised child’s wound, and let his own guilt punish him appropriately.)

Occasionally I hear of people who laugh at the idea that the Bible isn’t suitable for children. I’m not laughing.

Tags:

#long post #Brin talks about herself for no particular reason #death tw #(kind of a meta death-tw) #(it’s a story about how *I* needed death tw’s for a few years) #(I haven’t had a full-on 100-Years-style breach of the psychological barriers in a long time) #(but sometimes there’s still little leaks) #(there’s something about the way Florence Welch sings ‘I’m going to drink myself to death’) #(something about the way Cecil says ‘blood’ when reciting the Night Vale Community College minutes) #(that reminds me of being seven) #(I’m glad I’m not seven anymore)

{{next post in sequence}}

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

oxboxer:

Happy Holidays!

Also on Tapastic~

Tags:

#long post #Christmas #while I am very fond of overthinking fictional characters #(obviously the solution to Santa’s logistical problems is time travel) #I like the not-Santa ideas #all hail the Hanukkah Octahedron #(…my brother just walked by carrying a giant light-up Star of David) #(what timing)