If you like Parhelion, then please, by Christ, read this. (It’s not a webcomic, it’s a book that costs money and stuff, but holy shit.)
Here’s an overview that doubles as a capsule review of the thing I need to make fanart for.
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#I’ve been wanting to read this but haha what is free time #(hell I’m supposed to be working on my term paper right now) #(sometimes I hate when my brain is like ”no we have to write This Specific Thing Right Now”) #(anyway) #I binged the author’s entire blog archive a little while ago and it was fantastic #(though I feel a little…I don’t know if ”unnerved” is the right word) #(about how she is clearly capable of extracting much more pleasure from food than I can) #(I *can* enjoy food but I can’t get *fifty euros worth* of enjoyment out of a meal) #(but I mean that’s also interesting in itself) #(she’s got all this great history-blogging and scattered through) #(are also these occasional hints of different qualia) #basically what I’m saying is that ”written by the same person who writes Ex Urbe” #is enough on its own to make me want to read this series #the OP is just ganache on the cake #(I do not like icing) #tag rambles #Terra Ignota #recs #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see
So I stumbled across this thing today and what the fuck.
Normal people don’t know about Monopoly auctions?!
Normal-people Monopoly is even more boring than the version I thought we were all complaining about?!
(Yeah, don’t believe this guy’s thesis, Monopoly with auctions is still boring. Although, that might be because my family
1: always buys property we land on if we can afford it, on the grounds that it will be useful as a bargaining chip if nothing else. As such, auctions don’t actually happen that often.
2: aren’t very willing to screw each other over, because we fear starting a revenge death spiral. (We got Munchkin a couple months ago, and it turns out we are not the right kind of people to play it properly. (Except maybe Brother, who insists that he is just enough of an asshole to play Munchkin.) Munchkin-as-played-by-people-who-fear-revenge-spirals is still kind of fun, but there’s a clear sense that it’s not what we’re supposed to be doing.)
Oh, and 3, we suck at bluffing, possibly because we don’t try very hard when playing casual board games.
…okay, so it’s possible Monopoly with auctions could be fun if you weren’t us. But regardless, what the fuck.)
Why do people use video chats with Basilisk, anyway? Seems like it’s asking for trouble, and “death by videophone software glitch” is not one of the better ways to go.
Bat Bot, a lightweight flier with thin silicone wings stretched over a carbon fiber skeleton, can cruise, dive and bank turn just like its namesake, researchers report February 1 in Science Robotics.
Such a maneuverable machine could one day soar up the towering structures of a construction site, flying in and out of steel beams to help keep track of a building’s progress, study coauthor Seth Hutchinson, a roboticist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a news briefing January 31.
Other aerial robots, like some drones, aren’t so agile, relying on four whirling rotor blades to lift off the ground, Hutchinson said. These bots also have trouble flying in the wind, because they can exert force in only one direction, he said. Bat Bot’s flexible wings could make it a more versatile flier.
“Bat flight is the holy grail of aerial robotics,” said study coauthor Soon-Jo Chung, a Caltech aerospace engineer. Bats have more than 40 joints in their wings, which give the animals exquisite control over their flight maneuvers. Chung and colleagues re-created nine of the key joints, so their robot could flap its wings in sync, fold each wing independently and move each of its hind legs up and down. At 93 grams, with a wingspan of 47 centimeters, Bat Bot is roughly the size of an Egyptian fruit bat, Chung said.
#and on a lighter note #bat #the more you know #the power of science #I just saw this on Daily Planet! #like five minutes ago #apparently it can’t fly if it weighs more than about 100g #it was tricky even getting it light enough that it could support its own weight #definitely not a cargo bot #(which doesn’t stop it from being useful in other ways)
The government of Ontario is asking for feedback from the Ontarian public regarding a future test of a basic income plan. I encourage you to read their provided materials and, if you live in Ontario, take the survey. The survey will be open until January 31st, 2017.
I’d heard rumours of an Ontarian basic income before, but I didn’t realize until today just how seriously they’re considering it.
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(It’s not 100% certain yet, but they’re leaning towards testing a negative income tax rather than a universal income. They said this is partly for practical reasons, and partly because other places are already working on UBI tests and they want to cover a new base in the global testing.)
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#Canada #Ontario #basic income #the more you know #I’m not sure I have any Ontarian readers #but I *know* I have readers excited about basic income in general #and maybe some Ontarians who don’t normally read my blog will come across this #our home and cherished land #(I’ll admit I’m a little concerned) #(after all the hype last year over ”free tuition”) #(and then seeing the fine print and finding out it’s only for full-time students) #(I’m actually going to be *worse* off under the new system than the old) #(because I won’t even be getting the inadequate version of tuition reimbursement they’re currently doing) #(so my hope about this basic income thing is cautious) #(but it is hope nonetheless) #oh look an original post
Signal boosting the hell out of this. Because awareness is the best defense against hackers, thieves and assholes (and asshole thieving hackers).
Important for anyone on gmail!
Details:
You get an email from a familiar address
It has an attachment which also looks familiar and trustworthy, because that person has sent it to you before
You try to open the attachment and are shunted to a very realistic gmail login screen to “log back in”
If you do, your account is compromised.
To verify the incorrect login screen, check the url (shown above). The green lock symbol does not appear, and the actual url has spaces after it and extends way, way out into a string of more text.
Basically, if you’re logged in and click on something and are prompted to log in again, don’t do it.
•Anish Kapoor gets exclusive rights to use Vantablack, the world’s “blackest black” pigment, which understandably upsets a lot of artists •Stuart Semple responds by creating Pink, the world’s “pinkest pink” pigment, which he makes legally available to everyone except for Anish Kapoor •Kapoor somehow gets ahold of Pink and posts an Instagram photo of his middle finger dunked in the pigment that Semple had banned him from using •Semple gets ahold of Vantablack and posts an Instagram video of his hand making the peace sign with his fingers coated in Vantablack •During this time, Semple also releases Diamond Dust, the “most glittery glitter,” again available to everyone EXCEPT Anish Kapoor
The best thing about Diamond Dust is that it’s made from actual shards of glass so Anish can’t just stick his middle finger in it again
This petty art feud is actually starting to look like it could be one of the most important pieces of performance art of the 21st century
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#oh look an update #(I’m starting to wonder if they’re actually doing this as some sort of joint advertising campaign) #(but it’s fun regardless)
Anish Kapoor has long been known for his large-scale, intensely colored artworks, but his penchant for being proprietary has long irked others in the art world.
Earlier this year, Kapoor sparked outrage from artists all over the world with the announcement that he had made a deal to become the only person in the world allowed to use the blackest pigment of black paint ever developed. Known as Vantablack, the unique carbon nanotube-based pigment is produced solely by a British company called NanoSystem, and was originally developed for military technologies. However, Kapoor made an agreement with the company that he is the only person allowed to use it for artistic purposes.
Needless to say, that made plenty of other artists furious.
“When I first heard that Anish had the exclusive rights to the blackest black I was really disappointed,” artist Stuart Semple tells Kevin Holmes for The Creators Project. “I was desperate to have a play with it in my own work and I knew lots of other artists who wanted to use it too. It just seemed really mean-spirited and against the spirit of generosity that most artists who make and share their work are driven by.”
Like Kapoor, Semple’s work often uses vivid shades of color, and for years he had worked with scientists to develop increasingly intense pigments to use in his artwork. So as a response to Kapoor’s exclusive deal with Vantablack, Semple decided to release his own special pigment, known simply as “Pink,” the Irish Examiner reports.
While “Pink” isn’t based on nanotechnology, like Vantablack, Semple says it is the pinkest pink pigment ever created. Now, in an effort to thumb his nose at Kapoor, Semple is making it for sale to everyone in the world—except Kapoor, Tom Power reports for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Q.
By adding this product to your cart you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor.
To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this paint will not make it’s way into that hands of Anish Kapoor.
can you imagine
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#I’m not sure how to tag this #except for #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog
Brinens and Things 