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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Thankfully I’m avoiding most noisy university-sophomore politics in my content, whenever it pops up I quickly prune it out of my content feed.

    Currently, the four main subjects on my watch history are particle physics, cosmology, Gobekli Tepe (and everything related to those ancient Taş Tepeler people), Sumerian cuneiform writing (courtesy of the extraordinary Professor Irving Finkle).

    But to keep things on topic, I regularly have to block suggested channels and videos that start straying towards clickbait controversy, “Is Science Dying?” and “The Image NASA Doesn’t Want You To See!”, that sort of bullshit.

    The goddamned algorithm, and those that feed it, it’s mindlessly relentless constant mechanism, and I hate it, but there is so much treasure among the brushes and poison ivy one has to keep on hacking at, with the proverbial digital machete. There is so much legit gold in there.



  • The thought of Quark Stars have fascinated me ever since I first read about them, about maybe fifteen years ago, a supernova remnant that is dense enough to overcome neutron degeneracy pressure, not dense enough to become a singularity.

    The Cosmic Microwave Background was emitted when the Universe was around 370,000 years old, the oldest light in the Universe but the way space expands and accelerates, the distance at which the photons we detect now were emitted and when they reach us, is all distorted and crazily stretched. If you want to visualize how light moves as slow as a snail in the grand scheme of things, look no further.

    Neutrinos, as far as we know the closest a particle with mass approaches zero, to the infinitesimal point that it’s thought it doesn’t derive its’ mass from the Higgs Field. Then there’s the as-yet elusive Cosmic Neutrino Background, emitted when the Universe was less than a second old.





  • I’d like to break that question down into a few bits:

    If a planet is within the galactic plane, how much would the dust between the planet and the core block and shield it from all those photons being blasted out at all frequencies and super high energy levels, as well as articles like protons and electrons?

    If a planet is above or below the galactic plane, maybe, probably, the show in the sky is much more intense… and perhaps deadly? Or does the planet have to be right in the path of the polar jets of an active nucleus to get cooked?




  • My recommendations to you are as follows:

    My favorite Altman film overall probably might have to be The Long Goodbye. Check out how the camera is always moving, if even slightly; there are no static shots. Midway through the movie, the great Sterling Hayden steals the show. And keep an eye out for a very, very young Ahnold Schwarzenegger in a bit role as literal and figurative muscle for the batshit insane bad guy.

    Brewster McCloud is a bonkers twisted fantasy that caught me by surprise by how much I enjoyed it, it’s about a kid who:

    1. Lives in the Astrodome in secret, in a forgotten construction nook, a big one, between walls and floors.
    2. Wants to be able to fly.
    3. Is being encouraged by an older woman, who might actually already know how to fly.

    Also, there are people being killed all over town, and it might have something to do with all this.




  • a multi-character parallel storytelling style that is only ever celebrated amongst industry snobs

    I’m going to agree with caveats here, because some directors who are actual artists do it for the sake of the film and the challenge of it, as opposed to what I’ll refer to as “industry types”, who do it for the prizes. And some crazy bastards manage to pull it off. Three names come to mind - Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Soderbergh.

    I’ve never seen “Crash” and never wanted to, from what I’ve read, the bland yet heavy-handed results onscreen, plus the lazy reflexive accolades, made me view the whole thing with a cynical eye, like you.

    In fact, Robert Altman had a thing or two to say about those “industry types”, in his triumphant early-90s comeback film “The Player”.
    Also, do yourself a favor and watch Altman’s “Short Cuts”, to see parallel storytelling at its’ best.