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urlocallesbiabs-reblog-sideblog · 2 years ago

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so, i remember seeing a red dwarf tumblr post about how if you leave your universe, it's almost impossible to go back, because there's trillions upon trillions of them, and every minute decision branches off a new one

so what if our original rimmer spent maybe a few months genuinely being ace and enjoying the hero status, then decided it's too dangerous and scary and tiresome and wanted to go home, and spent the entirety of those nine years (between s7 and s9) looking for his home universe?

and he kept saving people along the way of course, ace duty is ace duty (half of those heroic acts were accidents anyway), but his heart wasn't in it anymore; he's found many a universe where there were still people, where he could theoretically fit in and settle and live as close to a normal life as he could hope for, but he could never stay for long, he longed for *his* home, for lister, *his* lister

and wise people told him "you'll never get there. there are too many universes, and every day that you wake up and make a choice to continue looking for home, that choice creates a new one, setting you back. you're dooming yourself.", and he answered "shut up, you stupid goit, you don't get it! get smegged to hell!"

and i imagine a scene:

it's close to the end of the 9 year gap, kochanski's already gone, lister's Not Doing Well, and it's another monster-of-the-week life-or-death situation aboard the red dwarf, a particularly nasty one: all is shit, end is near, how will our heroes get out of *this one!* this is probably it! this is it! they're all gonna smegging die! and then outta nowhere ace pops out, hair billowing in the air and all, shoots some bullets that bullshitly ricochet and perform miracles, and saves the day

after that he asks to spend the night there, because even heroes need to sleep a bit, and of course he's welcome!!

lister doesn't quite know how to approach the subject, so he goes for subtle bordering on undecipherable: asks how long has it been since this ace got the flame passed on to him? what was it like? ace deflects with a charming non-answer and a fun adventure story, and lister thinks well, that's not him, then. must be a new one. that means that his rimmer passed on the flame, that he... died.

lister doesn't know how to process the idea, so he doesn't.

he tries to stick around and listen to the stories that's gotten kryten (and even cat, a little bit!) enthralled, but quickly grows bored and goes off to wander the ship and entertain himself on his own. at some point few hours later, he notices ace out and about as well, measuring doorways with tape, comparing wall paint with color swatches, counting the rooms and making notes in his little notebook; ace doesn't notice him. kinda sketchy behaviour, lister thinks, but doesn't confront him just yet. who knows, maybe the guy just went a little bit space crazy, maybe he's preparing for some impending disaster; would be rude to accuse him of nothing, wouldn't it?

as lister returns to his quarters in the evening, he sees ace briskily walking out from about the same corridor that lister is headed to, throwing him a shining, but somewhat strained smile; ace is going to the room he's claimed for the night, which is on the officer's deck, literally on the other side of the ship (makes sense to lister that he doesn't share the room with him, since this isn't really his bunkmate. smeg knows him, maybe in his universe he actually was an officer and slept alone, not like lister cares). this feels *really* sketchy, but none of lister's things seem to have been messed with on closer inspection, so he can't really prove shit. he feels kind of paranoid, but also tired, and decides he'll talk to ace in the morning.

lister sleeps badly and fitfully, and wakes up in the middle of the night. he can't fall asleep again, and decides to go and grab a bite; maybe visit krissie in the observatory, watch stars together, have some time for himself.

the lights are on in the drive room. ace is there, talking to– *interrogating* holly and kryten, swiveling on a chair back and forth to face either of them, whisper-barking rapid-fire questions; lister is Alarmed (what is this? mutiny? a hostage situation? a threat?), so naturally he hides and eavesdrops.

ace runs them through a bunch of questions that vary wildly in immediately obvious importance, seemingly nonsensical (what fuel does this ship run on? when did the leak happen? who was assigned to fix it? how many irradiated haggies were in the ship's hold at the moment of disaster? has lister ever passed an officer's exam? on what day and what ship did they find kryten? and so on and so forth), growing more and more agitated and focused, determination so passionate it's almost angry. at last, he takes a deep breath, clenches fists, and says "now, i did notice this ship's crew lacks a usual, i'd say indespensable member, namely one arnold judas rimmer. where, pray tell, did you put the bugger?"

"arnold died in 3,002,386 from a vending machine related incident, arnold," says holly.

ace's face falls, and he laughs like someone died. "ah, of course it's like that, of course. it's always like that. well, good chat, gentlemen, thank you for humoring me." he gets up, even though it obvious his legs are weak.

noticing his distress at the information, kryten hurries to clarify, "it was the second one, though! the first one died a few months before that!"

ace falls back into the chair. "what do you *mean* the second one?!"

"the one my nanobots ressurected!" kryten clarifies with mostly pride, partially guilt.

"what smegging nanobots? what on io has happened here?" ace rimmer has to forcibly hold his horses, pulling a palm down his face. "no, forget it, doesn't matter, not right now. the other one, the first one — how did *he* die?"

"well, physically it was the cadmium 2 leak in 2181" holly helpfully explains. ace rimmer makes a dying groan. "but his hologram form was destroyed by an escaped knight from an AR camelot game."

the man perks up. "was me — well no, not exactly me, but — ugh, was ace rimmer there?.."

they confirm that yes, even though he left soon after. rimmer goes slack in his chair and puts a hand over his eyes. "so this is it?" he whispers. "so many years, and... this is it. i'm here. i can't believe it."

after a minute in weird silence, he gets up and staggers out.

lister's a few paces down the corridor, having been unsettled by the exhange and made the decision to leave.

rimmer calls out to him, loudly, with intense gravitas, "lister!"

"rimmer," he responds, shocked and disbeliving, eyes open.

"lister!" he exclaims urgently, desperately.

"you're my rimmer, aren't ya," lister states a question, incredulous.

"of course i'm yours, you stupid git!" rimmer cries out and lunges at him, crushing him in a hug. "you gimboid, you imbecile, you smeg for brains smeghead," he chatters on, out of breath, cradling him.

"i've missed ya," lister sobs. rimmer doesn’t manage to respond, only hugs him even harder.

(rimmer didn’t want to throw himself at the guy until he'd made sure it's *his* guy, didn't want to make himself vulnerable only to later make a fool of himself; too many times he let himself hope and get drunk on that hope and then had his stupid heart broken by some tiny little thing being off, inviting a flood of other little things, suddenly finding himself in an embrace with a stranger wearing his best friend's face. he just couldn't bear it anymore, not again. he needed to make sure first.)

however, this headcanon poses a problem of reconciling this with late series rimmer claiming to have saved red dwarf from the corrosive virus back then. because if our rimmer only returned during the 9 year gap (closer to end of it), he couldn't have been there at the end of s8, right?

to which i propose this: the alternative ending to "only the young" is canon, and it was nanobot rimmer who saved (or rather tried to save) the day; then he was killed by a rouge vending machine. they couldn't bring him back as a hologram though, because the holo-suite was heavily damaged by the corrosion virus and they didn't have the intricate spare parts needed to fix it. so, his memory disk stayed unused, carefully kept in the hopes of someday fixing the holo-suite (never found a suitable derelict though, not with their shit luck). then our rimmer came along, learned of the entire situation, fixed the suite using details taken from wildfire, and asked holly to merge the info from this disc onto his (because for smeg's sake, it's at least 1 year out of those hellish 9 that he can remember having spent home; he can Not pass it up). the merge was successful, but majorly jittered his vibes (since he remembered two different versions of being 32, and in one of them lister was 8 years older than in the other, and he became aware that in the same year as he was 32 for the second time he also was 40 and in another universe) and gave him lifelong memory issues. he's still happy as a clam about the result, though!

that's why other's disagree when he claims having saved the day back then — he figures that if he has that guy's memories, he *is* that guy, because that's how holograms work, but others want to argue that the alive nanobot rimmer technically wasn't exactly him; you Don't wanna be there for all of the smeg-throwing that occurs during the argument.

it all could be a fake episode (or maybe a fake two-episode special), where the first half's main gag/storyline would be lister slowly growing convinced that ace is actually evil and is in the process of brewing some Sinister Plans, and the second would be about rimmer going peculiar from the merge and randomly glitching between various remembered stages of his life (thinking he's still ace and this is isn't his lister; thinking he's nanobot rimmer and wondering what happened to the crew; a throwback to an early episode or two; thinking he's a fresh hopeful enlist on red dwarf [kinda painful in a hindsight way, but also pathetic and hilarious]; thinking he's a small child [very silly and funny, mostly cute even if a bit weird because that's a grown man's body, also an epic Rimmer Trauma Lore moment as usual]; etc), to the point that lister worries they've smegging broken him and he'll never be alright, only for him to finally cope and appear sane, only to reveal last second that parts of his memory are still kinda jumbled.

i'd call that fake episode:

"H Stands For Home"

and i imagine a scene from the second half:

rimmer sees the destroyed holo-suite (god, i really can't leave you bastards alone even for a day, let alone a decade), and finds the memory disc for the other him (wait, what is this? i clearly remember taking mine with me when i left...), and gets filled in on the whole nanobots, ressurected rimmer, corrosive virus debacle (he needs to sit down.)

naturally, he decides to fix the hologram-projecting hardware (obvious turn of events) and merge the discs' data together (man, what??)

he pops out, promises to be back in a jiffie, and returns from the hangar with a bunch of circut boards, unconneted wires and the likes, immediately getting to work

"whatcha doing?" lister asks, clearly entertained but also genuinely curious

"having a smegging picnic, what does it look like?!"

"...can you fix it, though?"

"i've serviced my own ship for a decade straight, i've prevented all kinds of disasters on dozens of red dwarves, i've saved countless city-states from technological ruin, of course i'm perfectly capable of fixing this ship's holo-suite!" (this very moment, he connects something wrong and gets a shower of sparkles right to his face, which startles him and causes him to bang his head rather hard against an open latch)

when lister's done laughing, he asks "where on smeg did you even get the details? i've meant to patch it up all these years, but just... never could find 'em." (here his voice voice grows distant and sad; he had lost rimmer *twice* in one year, and it was just unfair. it just hurt.)

"good ol' baby racehorse wildfire," rimmer slaps one of the circuit boards with pride; something falls off of it. "presume it got the upgrade sometime since the original ace kicked the bucket; something needs to keep all of us holograms going."

"wait, you tore these from your ship?"

"what, was i supposed to pull them out of my arse?" rimmer is getting annoyed by the pointless conversation

"it's just... how will ya fly it, then?"

"it's still perfectly spaceworthy, i'll let you know!" rimmer preens. "sure, no more having my arse fall asleep after one week straight in the cockpit, hauling vaccine to pluto or some such (would not recommend), but i can still give it a good run as long as my lightbee's got charge! not all that different from our other off-the-ship missions — now what are you, stupid?"

"you won't be able to travel for long," lister clarifies apprehensively. "you won't be able to have your... space smeg adventure. you won't be ace."

rimmer looks up at him like he's crazy. "of course i won't be ace." he gets up, walks weirdly close to lister. "i'm not leaving. what — what did you think this was? that i'd spent all these years looking for you, for this dimension, only to have some tea and smeg right back off?!"

"...i don't know what i thought," lister admits, half-laughing and weirdly upset and relieved.

rimmer gripes him by the shoulders very, very hard. "i'm not leaving. never."

also, he wears his hair in the classic long and free ace style until the proper Reunion, then as soon as he fixes the holo-suite and hookes his projection to red dwarf he asks holly to chop it all off (he wanted to do that immediately after confirming that this is his home universe, but he was still connected to wildfire's holo-hardware and the ship's ai wouldn't let him bc ouughhh houghhh ace but your hair is So Beautiful, i simply Can Not); between the two points, he wore a tight neat ponytail to keep all his golden locks out of his smegging face, and he looked Hot doing it

***

and another thought, that isn't directly connected to this imaginary two-episode special, but still has to do with rimmer, lister, and the 9 years gap:

(though i'm not sure if it's canon to my personal headcanonverse [...i'm not even sure i've got a personal headcanonverse here. i love the idea of them getting together in early series when he's still soft-light, or later when he's hard-light and they can touch, or after the reunion, or post-tpl; too many possibilities!] because i feel like it gets rimmer off the hook of his internalized homophobia way too easy, but anyway, just imagine.)

it's rimmer's ace years, and it's not only beautiful young birds throwing themselves at him for his sexy heroics, but beautiful young studs as well; he switches many a dimension, and what happens in a reality stays in that reality, right?; he meets many a lister, some of them openly queer, some of them in a relationship (past or ongoing) with their rimmer; he sleeps the night away with some of them. long story short, 9 years of both excessive human attention and crushing loneliness are ample time to confront one's sexuality. he's still got his hangups though, so in his mind "i am gay" and "lister is my best ever friend whom i miss terribly" don't quite cross together, not immediately.

either way, he finally gets back, they have their happy reunion, and then rimmer learns while he was off adventuring, lister had a wife and a child and loved her deeply and then she died; obviously, lister still needs some space to process all that. rimmer will talk to him about his soul-search some other time (no, he doesn't feel like he'd been replaced, he's not jealous, jeez!). lister just needs some time to move on, yea? and then it'll all be back to how it used to be, just the four of them.

and then s9 happens, and lister is obsessed with getting kochanski back, and rimmer feels as insecure as in s1 but ten times worse — there's the woman who'd been by lister's side for the last decade, there's his wife, there's the love of his life, and there's, well, just some guy. there's rimmer.

he longs desperately to be the most important person in lister's life, but he just isn't, and that's driving him mad. that's what (partially, together with all his lifetime-accumulated trauma) fuels his tpl insistence that nobody aboard red dwarf (read: lister) likes him: he knows lister doesn't love him back, and that is killing him.

#vikarambles #long lost #LONG FUCKING POST #red dwarf #rimster #arnold judas rimmer #dave lister #nick posts red dwarf

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 3 months ago

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Radiant Stars at the Heart of a Cosmic Rose

Dark Energy Camera captures most detailed image of the resplendent Rosette Nebula and the star cluster fueling its glow

Cradled within the fiery petals of the Rosette Nebula is NGC 2244, the young star cluster which it nurtured. The cluster’s stars light up the nebula in vibrant hues of red, gold and purple, and opaque towers of dust rise from the billowing clouds around its excavated core. This image, captured by the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera, is being released in celebration of NOIRLab’s fifth anniversary.

Around 5000 light-years away, the Rosette Nebula appears to be blooming right out the interstellar medium. Every detail of this cosmic flower, from its glowing central cavity to its shadowy filaments and globulettes, is captured in this image by the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.

Located in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn), the Rosette Nebula spans 1.3 degrees of sky, roughly the width of an index finger held out at arm’s length. For comparison, the well-known Orion Nebula, located in the constellation Orion just below the hunter’s belt, spans one degree of sky. Although the Rosette Nebula has a diameter of 130 light-years — more than five times as large as the Orion Nebula — their apparent sizes are similar because the former is four times as distant.

As prominent as the nebula’s ‘petals’ is the conspicuous absence of gas at its center. The culprits responsible for excavating this hollow core are the most massive stars of NGC 2244 — the open star cluster nurtured by the nebula. This cluster was born around two million years ago after the nebula’s gasses coalesced into clumps brought together by their mutual gravity. Eventually, some clumps grew to be massive stars that produce stellar winds powerful enough to bore a hole in the nebula’s heart.

NGC 2244’s massive stars also emit ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes the surrounding hydrogen gas and lights up the nebula in an array of brilliant colors. The billowing red clouds are regions of H-alpha emission, resulting from highly energized hydrogen atoms emitting red light. Along the walls of the central cavity, closer to the massive central stars, the radiation is energetic enough to ionize a heavier atom like oxygen, which glows in shades of gold and yellow. Finally, along the edges of the flower’s petals are wispy tendrils of deep pink glowing from the light emitted by ionized silicon.

The Rosette Nebula’s bright and glowing features are certainly striking; but its dark and shadowy features also command attention. Around the nebula’s excavated nucleus is a string of dark clouds dubbed ‘elephant trunks,’ so-named because of their trunk-like pillars. These structures are opaque because they contain obscuring dust, and they line the border between the hot shell of ionized hydrogen and the surrounding environment of cooler hydrogen. As the shell expands outwards it encounters cold and clumpy gas that resists its push. This creates the long and extended trunks whose lengths point like fingers towards the central cluster.

One of these dark features is the Wrench Trunk, its claw-like head seen towards the upper right of the central cluster. Unlike the prototypical Pillars of Creation trunks which stand like straight columns, the Wrench’s ‘handle’ has an unusual spiral shape which traces the magnetic field of the nebula.

Less obvious but equally interesting are the dark globulettes. Sometimes round and sometimes teardrop-shaped, these diminutive blobs of dust are smaller than the better known globules at only a few times more massive than Jupiter. A string of them can be seen near the Wrench Trunk, but hundreds more dot the entire Rosette Nebula. These globulettes may host brown dwarfs and planets within them.

Like all roses, the Rosette Nebula will not last forever, for the same stars it birthed will also bring about its death. In roughly 10 million years the radiation from the hot, young stars of the NGC 2244 cluster will have dissipated the nebula. By then the rosette will no longer be, and its massive stars will be left without their parent cloud.

This huge 377-megapixel image is being released in celebration of NOIRLab’s fifth anniversary. On 1 October 2019 NOIRLab’s five programs — Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, the Community Science and Data Center, the International Gemini Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory and Vera C. Rubin Observatory — were brought together under one organization. In the years since, NOIRLab’s world-class telescopes have contributed to many discoveries and countless press releases, and produced an impressive collection of stunning astronomical images showcasing our diverse and colorful Universe.

TOP IMAGE: Cradled within the fiery petals of the Rosette Nebula is NGC 2244, the young star cluster which it nurtured. The cluster’s stars light up the nebula in vibrant hues of red, gold and purple, and opaque towers of dust rise from the billowing clouds around its excavated core. This image, captured by 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab, is being released in celebration of NOIRLab’s fifth anniversary.Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

LOWER IMAGE: This excerpt shows some of the interesting features of the Rosette Nebula. The dashed circle highlights the nebula's central star cluster, NGC 2244. The hazy smudge at the center of NGC 2244 is the young stellar object (YSO), Rosette HH1 (1). YSOs are stars in their early stage of evolution, before they become main-sequence stars, that often exhibit characteristics such as jets, bipolar outflows, protoplanetary discs, and other indicators of a new star being born. Around the nebula’s excavated nucleus is a string of dark clouds dubbed ‘elephant trunks,’ so-named because of their trunk-like pillars (2, 4) One of these dark features is the Wrench Trunk (3). Unlike the prototypical Pillars of Creation trunks which stand like straight columns, the Wrench’s ‘handle’ has an unusual spiral shape which traces the magnetic field of the nebula. This image was captured with the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

youtube

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #astrophysics #esa #Youtube

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ddagent · 1 year ago

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Not feeling my best today (it feels like flu, for some reason) but I did manage to write a few words. Here is Angel!Crowley and Demon!Aziraphale:

“Angel.” The pirate crew atop the deck of the Stargazer had frozen. Crowley, still wearing his shackles from his earlier imprisonment, twisted to catch his first glimpse of the Demon Aziraphale for the first time in close to a decade. His breeches were far too tight. And the neckline of the shirt he wore billowed in the morning breeze. Blond curls lent to his angelic appearance – the pierced ear and sword jutting from his hip suggested he was nothing more than a rake. Novels and ballads would be written about the pirate with the face of an angel and the heart of a devil who would lead men to their graves and women to his bed – or the other way, as Aziraphale was so inclined. He approached Crowley carefully, an eyebrow lifted in amusement. “The Angel of the Eastern Gate. About to walk the plank.” He sighed and threw up both his hands. “What are you even doing here? I thought you were opening an observatory in London.”

#good omens #aziraphale x crowley #ineffable husbands #fic teaser #come talk to me about this role reversal I'm in love with it

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postambientlux · 1 year ago

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BEST AMBIENT OF 2023

BEST AMBIENT ALBUMS of 2023 curated by @holsgr

50 : Linus Alberg - Elements

49 : Laurel Halo - Atlas

48 : Alex Smalley - Moments at the Re-engage

47 : Pepo Galán - Family Harmony

46 : Oval - Romantiq

45 : Lunar Corp - Tourism

44 : Henrik Lindstrand - Klangland

43 : Memory Scale - And All Things Begin to Drift

42 : Elskavon - Origins

41 : Bruno Sanfilippo - Ver Sacrum

40 : André 3000 - New Blue Sun

39 : Eluvium - (Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality

38 : Martin Kohlstedt - Feld

37 : Loris S. Sarid - A Tiny Reminder

36 : Subheim - Raeon

35 : Claire M Singer - Saor

34 : Faten Kanaan - Afterpoem

33 : Matt Elliott - The End of Days

32 : Gunn Truscinski Nace - Glass Band

31 : Bill Seaman, Tim Diagram & Stephen Spera - The World Was Turning Before

30 : Yosuke Tokunaga - 8 Quadrants

29 : Deepriver - Volume One

28 : Ali Sethi & Nicolas Jaar - Intiha

27 : Maps And Diagrams - A Study of Ends or Purpose

26 : Tim Hecker - No Highs

25 : Tobias Preisig - Closer

24 : Maxime Dangles - Les Délivrés

23 : Graham Lambkin - Aphorisms

22 : Loscil & Lawrence English - Colours Of Air

21 : Hania Rani - Ghosts

20 : Chaz Knapp & Mariel Roberts - Setting Fire to These Dark Times

19 : Sissoko Segal Parisien Peirani - Les Égarés

18 : Grotta Veterano & Music For Sleep - Endless Vacation

17 : Cicada - 棲居在溪源之上 (Seeking the Sources of Streams)

16 : Takashi Kokubo & Andrea Esperti - Music For A Cosmic Garden

15 : Oneohtrix Point Never - Again

14: Raphael Rogiński - Talàn

13 : Lucy Liyou - Dog Dreams (개꿈)

12 : Greg Foat & Gigi Masin - Dolphin

11 : Mette Henriette - Drifting

10 : Marine Eyes & IKSRE - Nurture

9 : Awakened Souls - Unlikely Places

8 : Lemon Quartet - ArtsFest

7 : Zander Raymond - Secrets From A Squirrel

6 : Purelink - Signs

5 : Mary Lattimore - Goodbye, Hotel Arkada

4 : Matthew Halsall - An Ever Changing View

3 : Lia Kohl - The Ceiling Reposes

2 : Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective - *1

1 : Canaan Balsam - Eternity Lies Within Or Nowhere

BEST AMBIENT EP's OF 2023

10 : KMRU & Abul Mogard - Drawing Water

9 : Hannes Kretzer - Species

8 : Billow Observatory - Calque

7 : Alex Smalley & Lucia Adam - Shapes

6 : Max Ananyev - Scenery

5 : Ben Zucker - After Along the Way

4 : Ideophone - April

3 : James Osland - Sharing Time With You Has Been My Biggest Joy

2 : Jeremixyz - xyz

1 : Lake Haze - Pure Movements

#ambient #ambient music #best albums of 2023

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zipzapzopzoop · 9 months ago

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I Tried it at Home

Chapter 3: Ground Control to Major Tom

Thursday, December 14th, 2034 - 6:03PM

A 60 million year old dinosaur was not the first thing to come crashing through the Robinsons’ dining room window... Neither was Art’s UFO either, to be fair.

It was just the most notable.

Wilber had been booting up a game of chargeball when a massive crash shook the entire house. Carl came down the travel tube not 30 seconds later, wearing a heart-patterned apron from helping Franny recook dinner after burning the first one.

“Wilbur, what did you do?!” “Why do you think I did something?”

Before Carl could respond, Cornelius’s voice sounded over the observatory’s intercom.

“Robinsons, we need urgent medical attention in the dining room! All hands on deck, we have an emergency!”

A quick exchanged glance and both boy and robot made a break for the travel tube.

Wilbur and Carl rushed in with the rest of the family to find Art’s UFO crashed into the floor of the dining room. It was scratched and dented, and its glass dome shattered, sending smoke billowing into the house. The hot spacecraft mixed with the cold wind outside felt odd. A frightening mix of heat and frost.

Cornelius quickly took charge.

“Mom! Dad! I want you and the kids somewhere safe! Fritz, I need a fire extinguisher! Carl, lift what you can! We need to find Art! Gaston-”

But Gaston wasn’t listening. Neither was Franny. When Cornelius looked over, they were both digging through the wreckage, lifting and throwing heavy pieces of metal with incredible ease. They were getting scraped and burned, yelping out in pain, but neither of them cared. They were just dead set on finding their brother.

“Art!” Franny cried, straining to pry open a piece of scrap metal. “Rghhh- help me!”

Gaston rushed over and helped her lift it and throw it aside. The other Robinsons quickly took initiative and joined in to help. “Art! Where are you!?” Gaston shouted, squeezing himself into the cockpit of the spaceship and coughing on the smoke.

Carl rushed around and opened windows, letting out the smoke so everyone could breathe safely. Cornelius felt a tap and looked over to see Uncle Joe holding up a fire extinguisher for him. “Thank you,” Cornelius nodded and hurried to put out any remaining flames. He suddenly caught sight of his son digging in the rubble.

“Wilbur! I want you outside where it’s safe!” Wilbur only shook his head. “No, dad. This is my family, too. I need to help!”

Despite everything, pride bloomed in Cornelius’s chest for his son.

Carl began to throw broken pieces outside the already broken window so they could navigate better. Some of the metal plates were so hot, they hissed when landing in the snow. Laszlo lifted pieces off the top of the ship and helped Carl throw them outside. His helmet wasn’t strong enough to lift massive pieces, but he did everything he could to stop debris from falling on the others. Billie used her tools to take some pieces apart. She removed the golden door from its hinges and moved to throw it out. To her surprise, even Frankie and his band were helping lift smaller pieces of rubble and using their small sizes to squeeze inside the ship in search of Art.

“I can’t find him! Where is he?!” Franny shouted, her voice overflowing with panic.

“I don’t know… I don’t know!” Gaston didn’t sound much better.

Very few times had Wilbur ever heard his mother and uncle sound like that. His mother- the strongest, smartest person he knew, and Uncle Gaston- bold, fearless Gaston.

Suddenly… beeping.

A small broken beeping.

One by one, the Robinsons paused their search and went quiet. Where..?

Slowly, a familiar broad silhouette stepped through the snow and stood in the broken window. Ragged and scraped up… but alive.

He smiled through his pain and held up his cracked phone, still beeping.

“...has it been thirty minutes?”

“Art!” Franny and Gaston cried in unison, dropping everything and rushing over to their brother.

They barrelled into him so quick, the trio toppled back into the snow.

“What happened?!” “Are you okay!?” “Did you manage the double safety back roll?” “Gaston!”

“...Sorry.”

Art laughed and squeezed the other two close in a big hug. “I came in far too quickly and the blizzard weakened my visibility!”

Franny and Gaston both scrubbed away tears and clung to their elder brother like their lives depended on it. Art saw and blinked away a few of his own. “Hey now, you know I’d never leave you both.”

The rest of the Robinsons excitedly climbed from the rubble and rushed over to join the Famaguccis. Even the frogs croaked with joy and hopped up onto the trio.

Art looked up at the mess his UFO made in the dining room and winced.

“About that…” Wilbur laughed and elbowed Carl. “You know, normally we’d be eating right now but we had to start over on dinner. Carl, you saved the day by burning the pasta!”

“What!?” Gaston squawked.

“You BURNT the PASTA?!”

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boyakishantrinity · 8 months ago

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Slugterra next chapter.

Me at school. So post later, here next piece.

Nothing. The awkward silence of nothing, staring up at the curved rooftop, stars studding the inner part of the observatory. Body aching from the chaos that’d been the last week. Curling her hand, blood rushing outwards through her limbs in a controlled burst. Moving slowly, blood obeying her command as her body slowly burned at the liquid. The dull thudding in her ears, the pumping through her body as she stared at the roof.

“… Can’t sleep?”

His voice called out. Cloaked in shadows, dark fur quills covering his body, eyes a dull colour. Hardly a shade or a shape, billowing a fine mist as he scratched the side of his neck. Freaky was one word to describe him, silent, invisible, something that pricked the ends of her neck if it weren’t for the soothing sound and actions he showed in spite of this danger.

“…”

Nothing. She replied nothing. Hairs with soft curls, red growing thicker, richer, a strong set of keratin, the man yawned. Blood caking through the insides, a fleshier bloodier filled set of keratin.

“… Y’know, it took us a few hours to acclimate.”

Himself and her, the two siblings. It’d been freaky the first time they’d showed up, it’d been freakier still when they were two opposites. Trotting his way, edging the shadow, his other half snoozing above, tent pitched in the air as she lay there.

“… A few hours?”

Blinking. The squelching sensation of thin blood washed over her pupils, shivers sent down her spine, arms pin pricked as the wolf yawned. Shifting its pelt, teeth shining in the waxing gibbous, pale whites stained red and pink. Snorting as he leaned forward.

“Mmmm…”

Freaky. Human voice easily flowing from the animal, yawning, eyes dull as it spoke. Continuing to talk to her with mild disinterest.

“… Most folk would take a few weeks to reach this stage.”

Standing straight, shifting his body, legs crossing one over the other, relaxing, half fat, half muscle. Slumping fur onto the ground, shed keratin puffing into mist, constantly degenerating, she’d barely explained how or why but today she’d have to explain it.

“… This stage?”

Linking forward, blood pressing through veins, pumping muscles as she winced. Shivers sent along the spine, hairs kept straight, a deeper chuckle sending trembles down her back. Forcing her to freeze, sneezing, before he looked at her.

“… Aye.”

Nodding, the animal formed human nodding as he let out slow breaths. A full blown psychopath, a complete lack of a moral compass, collar round his neck. Letting out a second yawn as he looked into her eyes.

“Most people can barely…”

Pausing. Hesitating, looking up, seeming to have a vacant stare for a moment, before he found his words.

“… acclimate to the sensations of… vampirism.”

Each pause, he seemed to be… well. Not cautious, he didn’t have a reason to be cautious, rather. Hesitant, taking his time, choosing his words wisely, content in a strange way. Almost lazy, as if he had been slowing his everything on purpose.

“… So?”

Head faintly jostling, hands pressed against the couch, staring at the wolf as his back foot scratched against the animal’s neck. Shifting, frames separating, animation pieces, pure blank model, 3D render maps, her head arched as he pulled his leg back. Shaking his head, before the pieces fluttered in glitch like sparks.

“… Nothing really… just…”

Pausing. Toes rising and falling one after the other. Neck leaning back and forth, lights turned off, moonlight hardly coming in, slugs slumped across the base before he seemed to give. Shrug.

“Peculiar I guess.”

Shaking off the dust. Black stained fur, snorting, nostrils flaring as he let loose another yawn. Snout dropped to his paws as they slapped against the floor. Childish. Strangely so, shivers no longer tingling down her spine, head slowly tilting before the dog stood up.

“… Right, enough sentimental. Off ta bed.”

Jumping, his body flinching, red, yellow and blue, blue and yellow mashing more so it was more like red green and blue. Glitching, three of him nudging one after the other, mixing to form an inverted form, rolling onto the ground as a human. Jeans and shirt bound on their body, before trotting over to her side.

“… Hey-”

“Shhhhh.”

Biting the blanket, tossing it onto her swung body, man licking her face as he bapped her confused face. Staring, left staring at the sudden movement, opening her eyes to see the sun beginning to rise.

#tag #writing #aura #idk #writing on tumblr #artists on tumblr #write #writers on tumblr #writer on tumblr #slugterra

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13melekradyo · 9 months ago

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13 Nisan 2024 tarihli program kaydı.

Güncel drone/ambient kayıtlarından bir seçki // A selection of recent drone/ambient recordings. Download.

01 – Point Of Memory – Carried By Ravens 02 – Nicol Eltzroth Rosendorf – Wave Offering 03 – EUS – Umbral 04 – Billow Observatory – Chasing Ghosts 05 – Meg Mulhearn – Snowdrop 06 – JWPaton – Gardeners Of The Apocalypse (excerpt) 07 – Daryl Groetsch – Above The Shore 08 – Annie Aries – Abyss 09 – MINING – Petrichor 10 – Kristen Gallerneaux – Domes

#drone #ambient #yeni #new

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mit · 1 year ago

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The first asteroid sample returned to Earth

Richard Binzel describes how asteroid dirt and dust delivered by OSIRIS-Rex, with help from MIT, may reveal clues to the solar system’s origins.

Jennifer Chu | MIT News

On Sunday morning, a capsule the size of a mini-fridge dropped from the skies over western Utah, carrying a first-of-its-kind package: about 250 grams of dirt and dust plucked from the surface of an asteroid. As a candy-stripedparachute billowed open to slow its freefall, the capsule plummeted down to the sand, slightly ahead of schedule.

The special delivery came courtesy of OSIRIS-REx, the first NASA mission to travel to an asteroid and return a sample of its contents to Earth. Launched in 2016, the mission’s target was Bennu, a “near-Earth” asteroid that is thought to have formed during the solar system’s first 10 million years. The asteroid is made mostly of carbon and minerals, and has not been altered much since it formed. Samples from its surface could therefore offer valuable clues about the kinds of minerals and materials that first came together to shape the early solar system.

OSIRIS-REx journeyed for over two years to reach Bennu, where it then spent another two years circling and measuring its surface, looking for a spot to pick a sample. Among the suite of instruments aboard the spacecraft was an MIT-student-designed experiment, REXIS (the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer). The shoebox-sized instrument was the work of more than 100 MIT students, who designed the instrument to map the asteroid’s surface material in X-rays, to help determine where the spacecraft should take a sample. REXIS is a joint project between the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), the Harvard College Observatory, the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

On Sunday, OSIRIS-REx released the capsule to fall through the Earth’s atmosphere, as the spacecraft itself set off on a new course to the asteroid Apophis. The capsule has been transported to Houston’s Johnson Space Center, where Bennu’s dust will be examined and distributed to researchers around the world for further study. The sample’s successful return is a huge milestone for the mission’s members, including MIT’s Richard Binzel, a leading expert in the study of asteroids, and a professor post-tenure in EAPS and AeroAstro. As an OSIRIS-REx co-investigator, Binzel helped lead the development of REXIS and its integration with the spacecraft. MIT News checked in with Binzel for his first reactions following the capsule’s landing and recovery, and what he hopes we might learn from the asteroid’s dust.

Q: First off: What a landing! As someone who’s studied asteroids in depth, and from afar, what was it like for you to see a sample of this asteroid, returned to Earth?

A: I was holding my breath just like everyone else! The parachute opening was a huge exhale, and the soft landing was a release of joy on behalf of the entire team. You work with these people for so long, you become like family, so you feel everything together. Kind of like watching your kid finishing off their balance beam routine and sticking the landing. While I wasn’t at the landing site, many of us were “together” online watching the timeline and all the procedures. What a journey it has been, more than two decades in the making, starting with our telescopic identification of Bennu as a scientifically rich and easily accessible sampling target, and then with the many evolving designs of the mission. MIT student involvement with the REXIS instrument began in 2010. It took six years to reach the launch pad and now, finally, we are seeing the mission literally come full circle in returning the sample to the Earth.

Q: The instruments aboard OSIRIS-REx made measurements of the asteroid while in orbit. What did those measurements in space reveal about the asteroid? And what more do you hope scientists can uncover, now that a sample is back on Earth?

A: Spacecraft instruments, no matter technologically advanced, cannot accomplish nearly as much as the power of laboratories on Earth. Our instruments aboard OSIRIS-REx told us that Bennu is carbon-rich, likely containing some of the earliest chemical records of the ingredients that made the Earth and even life itself. But how do we know that the spacecraft instruments making measurements while flying above the surface are fully correct in what they reveal and how we interpret the data? We can only be sure by securing the “ground truth” provided through actual samples being brought into Earth’s laboratories. The laboratory analysis of these samples, confirming our preliminary findings, will verify our ability to interpret data about asteroids from both telescopes and orbiting spacecraft. Then the laboratory analysis will take us to even greater depths about the chemistry, conditions, and processes for how our own planetary system came to be.

Q: Let’s give a shoutout to all the students who helped to put an instrument aboard the mission. Going forward, how might this asteroid sample — and the spacecraft’s continued trajectory — relate to the work at MIT?

A: It’s a reminder that the sky is no limit for what we do at MIT. MIT’s REXIS instrument represents MIT’s motto, “mens et manus” [“mind and hand”], extended hundreds of millions of miles out in to space, with actual hardware the students both designed and built, that was flown farther into space than any other MIT student project has gone before. I feel it is simply a privilege to have engaged so many students in learning and experiencing the depth of hard work, teamwork, and dedication that it takes to be successful in space exploration.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr!

#astronomy #planetary science #space #nasa #space exploration

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sonicziggy · 9 months ago

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"Conifer Walls" by Billow Observatory https://ift.tt/DeLONkh

#IFTTT #Spotify #Billow Observatory

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eopederson2 · 2 years ago

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Fires Scorch Western Canada

"More than 100 wildland fires raged across Western Canada in early May 2023, forcing tens of thousands of people in Alberta and British Columbia to evacuate. The fires destroyed homes and produced chimneys of smoke that reached into the upper troposphere.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image (above) of smoke billowing from fires in the two Canadian provinces on May 6, 2023. On that day, officials in Alberta declared a provincial state of emergency.

As of May 8, there were 29 fires burning out of control in Alberta, which has been hit hardest by the fires. One of the season’s first fires in the province was ignited on May 2, in the Fox Lake community, at the top of this image. The community lost 20 homes in the fires, as well as the town’s police station and the water treatment plant. As of May 8, four fires were burning out of control in British Columbia, near its border with Alberta.

The fires in Alberta have been so intense they have produced towering chimneys of smoke. Using remote sensing, researchers at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, observed the formation of a pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud billowing from a wildfire west of Edmonton on May 4. Based on measurements from the GOES-18 satellite, temperatures at the top of the cloud were as cold as -61°C (-78°F). These temperatures indicate that the smoke may have reached an altitude of about 12 kilometers (39,000 feet). That would put the top of the pyroCb cloud into the tropopause—the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere.

Early May is typically the start of the wildland fire season in Alberta, as snowmelt uncovers dead vegetation that can become fuel for fires. This year, an unusually hot and dry spring made it easier for fires to start, according to a news release issued by the government of Alberta.

Although temperatures in Alberta were unusually warm during the first week of May, cooler weather arrived on May 8, which may help firefighters battle the flames.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Emily Cassidy."

Source: NASA Earth Observatory.

According to radio weather reports, there is a haze high in the atmosphere marring an otherwise fine day today. The haze is smoke blowing across the continent from those and other fires far to the west.

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cryptonewsssss · 1 month ago

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Getty ImagesSmoke billows from a strike near Damascus on Monday nightIsrael has confirmed it has carried out attacks on Syria's naval fleet. The BBC has verified videos showing blasts at the port of Latakia in Syria, with footage appearing to show extensive damage to ships and parts of the port.The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says it has documented more than 310 strikes by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday.Israeli warplanes have also reportedly carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria, including on the capital, Damascus.In a statement, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said the IDF was aiming to "destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel". He added that the operation to destroy the Syrian fleet had been a "great success".Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed it has troops operating in Syrian territory beyond the demilitarized buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.It added that its strikes were to prevent weapons falling "into the hands of extremists" as Syria transitions to a post-Assad era.The SOHR reported that the attacks spanned Aleppo, Damascus and Hama, with more than 60 taking place overnight between Monday and Tuesday alone.They targeted military facilities of the Syrian Army, including weapon warehouses, ammunition depots, airports, naval bases and research centres.Reports say that many of the facilities hit have not merely been damaged, but completely destroyed.Rami Abdul Rahman, the founder of the SOHR, described the impact of the strikes as destroying "all the capabilities of the Syrian army" and said that "Syrian lands are being violated".The IDF acknowledged that its troops had entered Syrian territory but told the BBC that reports of tanks approaching Damascus were "false".It said some troops had been stationed within the Area of Separation that borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights "and then a few additional points"."When we say a few additional points, we're talking the area of the Area of Separation, or the area of the buffer zone in vicinity," IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told the BBC.BBC Verify has geolocated an image of an IDF soldier standing just over half a kilometre beyond the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, inside Syria on a hillside near the village of Kwdana.On Monday, the Israeli military released photos of its troops who crossed from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into the demilitarised buffer zone in Syria where UN peacekeepers are based.The IDF seizure of Syrian positions in the buffer zone was a "temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday."If we can establish neighbourly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that's our desire. But if we do not, we will do whatever it takes to defend the State of Israel and the border of Israel," he said on Monday.Turkeys foreign ministry condemned Israel's entry into the buffer zone, accusing it of an "occupying mentality" during a "sensitive period, when the possibility of achieving the peace and stability the Syrian people have desired for many years has emerged".This buffer zone, also known as the Area of Separation was set up as part of Israel's ceasefire agreement with Syria in 1974 to keep Israeli and Syrian forces separated, following Israel's earlier occupation of the Golan Heights.Israel unilaterally annexed the Golan in 1981. The move was not recognised internationally, although the US did so unilaterally in 2019.Asked about the IDF strikes on Monday night, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel was concerned only with defending its citizens."That's why we attack strategic weapons systems like, for example, remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they will not fall into the hands of extremists," he said.On Monday, the UN's chemical watchdog warns authorities in Syria to ensure that suspected stockpiles of chemical weapons are safe.It is not known where or how many chemical weapons Syria has, but it's believed former President Bashar al-Assad kept stockpiles.Israel's attacks come after Syrian rebel fighters captured the capital, Damascus, and toppled Bashar al-Assad's regime over the weekend. He and his father had been in power in the country since 1971.Forces led by the Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered Damascus in the early hours of Sunday, before appearing on state television to declare that Syria was now "free".Follow here for updates.

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