#Engine temperature regulation

[dfortrafalgar]

In Between

Law discovers that your thighs are the warmest part of your body and exploits that information.

Law x Fem Reader

Warnings: slightly suggestive, really just lots of fluff, reader is written to be chubbier but anyone can read this

Also posted on AO3

Law’s teeth were chattering violently as he stomped down the steel hallways of the Polar Tang.  Light barely made it through the portholes with how deep below the surface of the ocean they were, his shadow only existing thanks to the few fluorescent lights that lined the hallways.  He turned a corner near the stern of the ship and pulled open the door to the engine room with an unmatched fury.

“Why the hell is it so damn cold in here?” he hollered, gravely annoyed.

Ikkaku and Penguin were on the floor in front of the ship’s main boiler system responsible for regulating the temperature within the submarine.  The sound of their captain’s voice made them jump and rapidly turn their attention toward him.

“Sorry, Captain, the electrical system for the boiler’s shot.  We’re working on getting it fixed but it might take a few days.”  Penguin waved his hand in front of the mess of the deconstructed boiler on the floor.

“Are there any extra blankets in the bunkhouse closet?” Ikkaku asked, turning her head back to her work.

Law grumbled.  Of course he had already checked.  Every single blanket that existed on the Polar Tang was currently being used by the other 19 members of the crew, huddled in a giant human ball in the common room with Bepo in the center.  They looked like a flock of penguins in a blizzard, with the only difference being the human chatter amongst the group.

With a brief, and quite blunt, goodbye, Law closed the engine room door and held tighter onto Kikoku who held her permanent place perched on his shoulder.  There was only one person he hadn’t seen in regards to the heating issue, or lack thereof.  And he knew exactly where to find her.

---

Being the Captain’s beloved girlfriend came with many responsibilities, but also a great many perks.  Your favorite being your new home in his private quarters.  His bed was so soft and bouncy, and you got a great amount of sleep in it considering your boyfriend rarely did.  He had a decently large space equipped with a small desk and bookshelf where he stored a few of his personal possessions, now shared with some of yours.  Your favorite part, though, was knowing that Law would always return to this very room at the end of each day, and you were always in there waiting.

You were busying yourself with a small broom, brushing away a small pile of dirt, sand, and stray hairs that had accumulated on the metal flooring.  Staying in motion was the best way to stay warm, and you were so warm, in fact, that you had tied the sleeves of your boiler suit around your waist, existing in the t-shirt you wore underneath.  You crouched down with a dustpan to scoop the pile of dirt up and away from the floor when the door to the room was pushed open with urgency, making you yelp in surprise.  You didn’t even hear him coming, but you giggled almost as soon as you saw the man in the doorway.

Law’s usually stoic face was dusted with a deep red along his nose and cheeks, and his teeth were clenched together.  The fingers that were curled around his sword were also bright red.  He didn’t look particularly pissed, more just uncomfortable.

“It’s cold,” was all he said.  When he took note of your boiler suit being halfway off leaving your forearms and neck exposed, mild shock coated his features.  “How are you not freezing without that suit on?”

You smiled as you finished brushing away the pile into the dustpan and dropping it into a nearby receptacle Law kept by his desk.  “I’ve been doing chores all day, so I got kind of warm.  It is a bit chilly though.”

“‘A bit’,” he responded, light-heartedly mocking your nonchalant attitude.  He trudged into his room, closing the heavy door behind him and gently placing his sword against the wall before flopping onto his bed, hat rolling off of his head with the force of his movement.  He immediately curled into a little ball, hands clutched towards his mouth in feeble attempts to keep them warm, which wasn’t working as planned considering even the breath leaving his lungs was tinged with frost.

You pulled your boiler suit back up, buttoning it halfway leaving it open where your chest was.  You laid on the bed next to him, pulling him into your body as best you could with his current ball form.

“I thought you were from the North Blue, you should be used to the cold,” you chided, running your fingers through his mop of black hair.  It was slightly greasy by the roots, he was due for a nice warm shower when the boiler was fixed.

“I have low blood circulation,” he muttered into your neck.  “I get cold easily if I’m not bundled up to the nines.”  Neither of you needed to say it out loud, it was common knowledge.  Law was super lean and a tad scrawny in areas, it made sense why he would get cold more easily.

A smile graced your lips at the mental image of Law as a kid, wrapped in a multitude of warm layers to keep him warm, that grouchy expression lingering for the duration.  He must have been so adorable like that.

“Well, you have me, I can be your personal space heater,” you responded, voice heavy with affection.

Law had to admit, he did feel like he was warming up already.  He uncurled his hands and placed them on your chest to roll you more onto your back so he was on top of you, resting on you with his full body weight.  His leg nestled in between yours and his nose was pressed into your neck, scruffy facial hair tickling your skin.  His hands, following a growing path of warmth that radiated from your body, trailed down your sides to your hips, before dipping in between your bodies towards your crotch.  In the divots of your hip joints, his hands were instantly filled with an almost scorching warmth that rapidly replaced the biting cold in his fingertips.

“Oh my god,” he muttered without even thinking.

You laughed, though your sound came out a bit breathy as his whole body rested atop your chest.  “Warm down there?” 

Law shuffled, rolling off of you slightly to weasel his tattooed hands between your plump thighs.  You were so unbelievably warm in this one specific spot.  He never noticed it until this very moment.  A tiny voice in the back of his head made him wish the boiler could stay broken for longer just so he could keep his frigid hands locked between your flesh.

Breathless, he uttered, “How are you so warm right here?”

Your hands trailed up his own body to play with the wispy black baby hairs behind his neck.  “I don’t know, I’ve always been pretty warm right there.  Sometimes when my hands get too cold I sit on them to warm up.”  You laughed.  It sounded quite stupid when you said it out loud, but it wasn’t like you could deny it.  If you’ve got personal warmth, you use it to your advantage.

And in this case, you let your popsicle of a boyfriend use it to his advantage.

Law was growing uncomfortable in this position, and with a few quick motions, he had you turned so your back was against his torso, becoming the little spoon as his long legs curled around you, one arm encircling your hips to once again dip his fingers into the warmth between your pelvis.  His other arm rested below you, flush between your body and the bed, absorbing all the warmth it could.  You were much more comfortable in this position too, curling your neck back slightly so his nose ruffled your hair.  He took a long, deep inhale, fully relaxing into the moment.

“What time is it?” he lazily asked.

“Can’t be past 2 o’clock yet,” you responded.

The captain sighed.  There was still so much daytime left and now he found himself in the position where all he wanted to do was warm himself with your soft body.  He inwardly accepted the reality that he might be doing this for the duration of the boiler’s maintenance.  Who was he kidding, he’d be doing this for the rest of his life, until you got sick of him, of course.  But with the way you were completely nestled into him, your own hands held close to your chest, he didn’t think you had any complaints.

His previous grouchiness had all but melted away.  He blissfully closed his eyes with his nose in your hair, planting a chaste kiss on the back of your head.

[yellydany]

VAMPIRE KILLER FROG 🐸 🩸 (Nosferas Venari) Also known as Eztlicueyatl (Blood frog) or Tzinacamiztli (Bat death)

"A voracious amphibian-like species that adapted to hunt vampires. Its origins are vague and shrouded in mystery but an hypothesis suggests it could have been the result of selective breeding or nature’s “way” of dealing with the ecological imbalance vampires caused through centuries. Whichever the reason, one thing is clear: these hunters evolved in such fashion they became the night creatures’ bane.

Every bodily function feels almost engineered in eerie accuracy to strike at their very weaknesses- such as the tip of the tail (bone) they sharpen to resemble a stake, the muscle reflexes and athletic composition to catch up with their supernatural agility and a blackened coat which absorbs the bouncing light of nocturnal eyes paired with drastically lowering their body temperature (essentially becoming ‘invisible’ in the dark). Although they may prefer a stealthy approach they show no fear if they must engage in direct confrontation. There’s no sexual dimorphism albeit females are more common in nature compared to the rare male sights and not much is known about the behavior with others of their kind as they are solitary. But such is their intelligence that it would be safe to assume they study- and learn from both their prey’s movement and environments given the observations on this beast.

Worse yet- for vampires- they have more cunning ways of hunting for a meal.

The Nosferas frog is able to produce a unique secretion mix of blood, mucus and gastric fluids which is all over their bodies- from the inside and out. More interestingly they have a way to regulate its acidic components to either use as a melting gag weapon, dissolving and trapping pathogens or simply increasing its PH. Essentially, the body is extremely moldable thanks to this odd slimy substance that makes it almost feel like liquid and comes in handy in various situations such as protecting their brood eggs by swallowing them. It is also the most crucial function in the capturing of their vampiric prey as the scent of this bloody secretion lures them and other carnivores in. Once they come in sight they eject their multiple stomachs through gastric eversion to latch onto the victim and begin the digestion early. The vampire skulls are then proudly kept and displayed given the very transparent look of the lower side of the body.

Despite it being a terrifying organism by all means, they have shown vague signs of affection toward humans- some of whom have tamed and kept them as exotic guardian pets against the supernatural plague. In most areas of the land however they underwent a ban given their dangerous and unsettling nature."

[partycatty]

I don’t know if you’re open to requests but me and my friend have this hc and I would like to see your rendition of it. The reader is stressed about their Algebra test coming up and since Johnny has a PhD in quantum mechanics and deals with that stuff, he offers to help. And as the reader is thinking on the problem Johnny gives them, they put the pencil in their mouth seductively but are unaware of it and Johnny gets a little… riled up. And you can take it from there :)

Love ya !! 🥰💜

ough i love me a big smart man

johnny cage > teach you a lesson

notes: my last fic took all of my mental strength for smut for now so it's only gonna be implied

[ masterlist ]

• damn you and your stubbornness, you're here trying to get your engineering degree and the class you put off all these years finally creeps up on you... and you hate math. thankfully, your best friend has a phd (which still baffles you when you think about it too much; not that he's stupid, more that it's so out of left field for him that you thought he was joking when he first told you).

• knocking on his door, he answers so quickly you wonder if he tumbled down the stairs to answer you in record time. he was always ready to do anything you asked of him, so you knew he was the right person to go to

• you explain the situation, about how you're teetering on the edge of just tearing your textbooks apart with your teeth before he slows you down with his hands on your shoulders.

• johnny ushers you in, welcoming you to his dining room after sweeping the various accumulation of stuff littering every surface to a degree.

• johnny's smarter than you gave him credit for, focusing on his well-articulated lecture but you find yourself missing the middle portion of his lessons when his veiny arms are exposed as he rolls up his shirt. his hands were so defined, so strong...

• "are you even listening?" he groans dramatically, waving said head in front of your face. "you wanna pass this class or not?"

• you swallow thickly, though the subject is still shamefully fuzzy in your mind. nodding slowly, johnny pinches the bridge of his nose before resuming.

• "maybe this'll be easier if we..." he leans over your seated form, towering over you as he flips your notes to a blank page over your shoulder. "here." he writes an example equation, a relatively easy one so he could break it down for you.

• shaking the dirty thoughts, you try to pick the equation apart, separating what you know is in the correct order of operations, but you're stumped when the denominators don't add up like they should.

• the tip of your pencil brushes against your bottom lip as your brows knit in thought. it swiped across the width of your lip, pushing in ever so slightly against your teeth as you desperately try to find a way past the confusion.

• johnny falls eerily silent, fists clenching as he breathing feels hot and heavy down your neck. he rubs his face, circling the table with a long sigh. the noise draws your attention, completely oblivious to how tight his pants were from the display.

• "sorry," you sheepishly look down at the paper. "this is... a lot."

• "no... no! you're fine!" johnny snaps himself back to reality at your puppy eyed expression, like his desperation for you was somehow your fault when it was really his for not knowing how to keep things in control.

• you feel smaller as you sink into the chair, trying to retrace your steps through the numbers. instinctively, the pencil finds its way to your mouth again and you gently suck on the shortened eraser, your tongue pressing against the head of it as the multiplication takes its time in your mind.

• johnny chokes on air, punching his chest to hide his flustered face. he can't even look at you or you might notice the steam from his ears.... why were you here again?

• "you're not helping," you remind him teasingly, and he jogs to your side with a cool breath to regulate his temperature. "did i do this right?"

• johnny leans down, his chin almost on your shoulder as he inspects your work. the error stands out to him at lightning speed and he pulls at your wrist, abruptly tugging the pencil from your mouth and slamming it against the table.

• "there," he huffs out, circling the error with his finger. "five over nine. not nine over five." his eyes flick between the back of your head and the pencil, and the way the eraser shines. he might pass out if he thinks too hard about it.

• he should've picked an easier equation so you'd stop thinking so damn hard about this, he thinks. the pencil wanders back between your lips and it's when you bite down on the pink tip his flat palm slaps the table, making everything rattle. you jump and look up with a shocked expression.

• "can you... not." he breathes, cheeks red and brows furrowed.

• "not... what?" you look down, maybe you had a bad habit in the math process?

• "don't do that." he's being vague, it's getting on your nerves.

• "you're gonna have to be clearer."

• "keep that thing away from your mouth," johnny points at your fingers twirling the pencil, an accusatory finger firm like he caught it committing a crime.

• "the pencil?" you're caught off guard, wondering what his issue is.

• "yes, the damn pencil!" he groans, running a hand down his face. "can't think straight for a single second when you're... you know."

• it clicks in your head, what he's asking of you. it flusters you but also fills you with an egotistical desire. you always had a lingering crush on your best friend, but you never wanted to act on it out of fear of losing the best thing that ever happened to you. johnny's deep, dark voice makes your core stir as you think about the possibilities, how to test the waters from here.

• you slowly place it flat against your tongue, trying to ignore the taste as you relish in the way johnny twitches his eye at the sight. he wants to look away but you're forcing him to, that knowing glint fatal for his heart. the thought of your tongue holding the heavy weight of his thumb, or worse, his dick, is driving him up the wall.

• johnny stomps beside you, grabbing your wrist and pulling the pencil away, managing to throw it out of your grasp and capturing your lips with his own as the pencil rolls off on its own adventure.

• his kiss is consuming, far too much for your mind as you grow dizzy at the loss of breath. his hands pull at your face and neck, trying to squish your face against his as he swallows every whimper and gasp for breath you expel.

• just as he pulls away to get oxygen, his thumb slides between your lips and presses against your tongue, your hot and heavy breath driving him wild.

• "are you really trying to do this to me?" he asks as your lips wrap around his finger, sucking gently. his eyes flutter shut and he groans, nodding downward with his head.

• "maybe," you quietly reply through his finger, sinking to your knees in front of him, sliding your hands up his outer thighs. you're perfectly in line with his crotch, but your eyes are too busy admiring the flustered actor above you as he looks down his nose. he pulls his thumb away, groaning at the thin trail of saliva that falls down your lip from the loss.

• "i'll teach you a lesson," he reaches for his belt buckle, the clinking of metal dulling every sense but your hearing.

• you can study later... probably.

[dear-ao3]

bucket of facts here. This is one of my favorite f1 things ever, apologies for how long it ended up being:

In the 1980’s, formula one teams, notably BMW, added toluene to their fuel mixtures. If that word sounds like it’s probably dangerous, that’s because it is — most people know it as rocket fuel. It’s extremely poisonous and carcinogenic, but did have some upsides! For one, it was less volatile [citation needed] than what they had been using, making is slightly less dangerous in the event of a crash (by 1970’s-80’s F1 standards that just means in only turned into a small bomb most of the time). It was also denser and burned faster, so the same amount of toluene could give much more power than the standard F1 fuel.

While the new fuel did allow them to run higher turbo pressures, it did it have a tendency to increase turbo pressure as it was run during the race, and everyone ran turbos at this time. They had to dial back the turbo pressure from what it’s max could’ve been, just to compensate for the power of the fuel — this mitigated the admittedly high likelihood that the engine decided to submit its two weeks notice on two seconds of warning (read: it caught on fire and sometimes kinda maybe sorta just exploded).

Modern f1 fuel has an RON octane rating of 95-102. The toluene aided fuel had an RON octane rating of 120+. For context, your car probably runs on about 87 RON. For those unfamiliar, RON octane ratings measure how much compression fuel can be put under before it sparks, which is how engines work: compress fuel, spark, make power (I can explain that better if you want but short version is that). This incredibly high octane level allowed the engines of the time to be run at a much higher compression, which had a myriad of bonuses to the cars.

Current F1 regulations are 1.6 litre V6 engines that rev to 15,000 RPMs (max allowed) and produce a max of 850 BHP (horsepower) when they’re pushing the edge of their abilities without aid of electric components like H/KERS, which is used to boost the cars to around 1,000 BHP.

Brabham-BMW’s 1983 engine took Nelson Pique to his WDC that year. It was a 1.5 litre inline 4 (so smaller than current) and produced 12,000 RPMs, as the restrictions were a bit tighter there back then. Without electronic aid like today and a smaller engine than your standard Toyota Camry, it easily produced 850 BHP at race trim, the version built to last a whole race. When in qualifying trim, with everything tuned to maximum to get the most out of the car without it blowing up, it ran at 1,250 BHP. Original testing put it at producing over 1,400 BHP, but BMWs testing facilities couldn’t measure past that — the car put out more power than they could even register.

The teams also had a sneaky loophole: the amount of fuel allowed to be held at once in the car (refueling was banned at this time) was effectively limited to how large the gas tank could be. The teams realized that they could literally freeze the fuel and store it at cold temperatures. This compacted the fuel, allowing them to put more fuel into the gas tank — more fuel per fuel, really. This allowed drivers to be more aggressive and push harder more often, not having to worry about running out of fuel.

In case this whole toluene thing seems bad, don’t worry! It’s only used in nail polish, rubber, adhesives, and paints :3

hit me up for more facts if you want

oh my

anon bestie i might in fact be in love with you

[mindblowingscience]

Diabetes is a condition in which the body produces too little or no insulin. Diabetics thus depend on an external supply of this hormone via injection or pump. Researchers led by Martin Fussenegger from the biosystems science and engineering department at ETH Zurich in Basel, Switzerland want to make the lives of people with diabetes easier and are looking for solutions to produce and administer insulin directly in the body. One such solution the scientists are pursuing is enclosing insulin-producing designer cells in capsules that can be implanted in the body. To be able to control from the outside when and how much insulin the cells release into the blood, researchers have studied and applied different triggers in recent years: light, temperature, and electric fields. Fussenegger and his colleagues have now developed another, novel stimulation method: they use music to trigger the cells to release insulin within minutes. This works especially well with “We Will Rock You,” a global hit by British rock band, Queen. To make the insulin-producing cells receptive to sound waves, the researchers used a protein from the bacterium E. coli. Such proteins respond to mechanical stimuli and are common in animals and bacteria. The protein is located in the membrane of the bacterium and regulates the influx of calcium ions into the cell interior. The researchers have incorporated the blueprint of this bacterial ion channel into human insulin-producing cells. This lets these cells create the ion channel themselves and embed it in their membrane.

Continue Reading

[ferraris-gf]

explaining f1: the cars

chassis

modern day f1 cars are constructed from composites of carbon fibre and other ultra-lightweight materials. the minimum weight currently permissible is 740kg including the driver but not the fuel.

engines

as of the 2014 season, all f1 cars have been equipped with turbocharged 1.6 l v6 engines, which were previously banned in 1989. this change gave up to a 29% increase in fuel efficiency.

transmission

f1 cars use highly automated semi-automatic sequential gearboxes, with regulations stating that 8 forward gears and 1 reverse gear must be used, with rear-wheel drive. fully automatic gearboxes are illegal to keep driver skill. the last f1 car fitted with a conventional manual gearbox was the forti fg01 which raced in 1995.

as of 2009, all teams use seamless-shift transmissions, which allow a near instantaneous changing of gears for minimal time loss. shift times for modern f1 cars are in the range of 2-3ms.

steering wheel

the wheel can be used to change gears, adjust the fuel/air mix, change the break balance and call the radio among other things, allowing the driver a huge amount of control. data such as engine rpm, lap times and tyre temperature etc. are displayed.

fuel

the fuel in f1 cars is fairly similar to ordinary petrol.

to make sure teams and fuel suppliers are within regulation, the fia requires fuel teams like shell, petronas etc. to submit samples of the fuels they are providing for races. at any time, fia inspectors can request a sample from the fuelling rig to compare. the teams usually abide by rules but in 1997 mika hakkinen was stripped of his third place finish in spa due to his fuel being the incorrect formula.

tyres

you can read all about tyres in f1 here!

breaks

the brakes used in f1 cars are designed to work in up to 1,000 degrees celsius.

drivers can control brake force to compensate for changes in track condition or fuel load.

notable cars

the victorious red bull racing rb18 from the 2022 season, driven by max verstappen.

the dominant mclaren mp4/4 driven by ayrton senna in 1988.

the highly successful ferrari f2004 driven by micheal schumacher at the 2004 united states grand prix.

the 1994 williams fw15c, widely considered to be one of the most technologically advanced f1 car of all time

the first f1 car to be powered by a turbocharged engine; the 1997 renault rs01.

the lotus 78, which exploited the aerodynamic effects of downforce, or ground effect, which was banned by the fia in 1983 (though it was later brought back for the 2022 season onwards).

the 2009 brawn bgp001, using a 'double diffuser' (to harness downforce) which was banned by the fia in 2011.

[pinkanonwrites]

Horny thoughts aside robot cuddles would be fucking awesome. I struggle with temperature regulation cuz ✨dysautonomia✨ but like laying on cool metal while also being cuddled? Fuck yes. Maybe you rest your head on a softer part to keep your neck from growing stiff. Giant fingers rubbing your back to help you sleep or cradling your body so you’re comfortable no matter what position? The inherent vulnerability and trust of being in the palms of somebody who could crush you in an instant and chooses not to is just perfection

-🌙

The best part about Cybertronians is they could be warm or cool! If it's too hot, laying on cooled metal under the shade is perfect. If it's kind of chilly, they can rev their engine and help ward off a bit of that cold! I've talked about my headcanons before about how Cybertronaisn don't move around in their sleep like humans do, so you'd be perfectly safe with a giant metal hand wrapped gently around your body to keep you from rolling to one side or the other and tumbling off your bot of choice's chassis. The soft rumble of their internals and hum of their spark become the perfect background ambience as you begin to drift off.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

RE: Gallifreyan Autism;

Telepathic stimming?

How does stimming work for Gallifreyans?

💫 Telepathic Stimming in Gallifreyans

Here’s how it theoretically could work:

Mind Resonance Patterns: Autistic Gallifreyans might create rhythmic mental patterns, similar to humming or tapping, within their telepathic fields. These patterns help soothe their minds and maintain focus.

Telepathic Echoes: Some might generate faint telepathic echoes that bounce back to their own minds, creating a calming feedback loop. This resembles how some humans might use repetitive sounds or motions.

Psychic Tuning: Adjusting the ‘frequency’ of their telepathic signals could serve as a form of stimming. This involves fine-tuning their psychic energy to create a sensation of mental equilibrium.

Mental Imagery Constructs: Creating complex mental images or scenarios can be a form of telepathic stimming. These constructs provide a mental playground where they can engage in repetitive, soothing activities.

Telepathic Harmony: Synchronising their telepathic signals with others in a shared mental 'hum' might provide comfort and a sense of connection.

🖐️ Stimming for Main Senses

Gallifreyan senses are highly developed, so stimming can involve them too:

Sight: Gallifreyans might engage in visual stimming by focusing on shifting light patterns or holographic displays. Their advanced vision allows them to perceive intricate details, providing a source of visual comfort.

Sound: With their broad auditory range, they might create or listen to specific frequencies or rhythms that provide auditory stimming. This could include something like the hum of their TARDIS engines.

Touch: Tactile stimming might involve interacting with textured materials or using devices that provide gentle, rhythmic pressure. The sensitivity of their skin enhances this experience.

Smell and Taste: Gallifreyan olfaction and taste are incredibly sensitive. They might use scented objects or flavoured substances to engage in stimming, finding comfort in familiar, pleasant scents and tastes.

🔮 Stimming for Somatic Senses

Thermoception: Gallifreyans might use temperature changes for stimming, such as holding a warm or cool object or purposeful regulation of their body temperature.

Nociception: Gentle, controlled pain stimuli like pinching or pressure could serve as a form of stimming, helping to regulate their sensory input.

Equilibrioception and Gravitoception: Rocking or swaying motions might help them maintain a sense of balance and grounding.

Mechanoreception and Magnetoreception: They might use magnetic or vibrational devices that provide consistent, soothing feedback.

🕰️ Stimming for Time Sense

Temporal Rhythms: Gallifreyans might create or focus on rhythmic time patterns, such as the ticking of a clock or the regular pulse of a chronometer.

Chronopsionic Meditations: Engaging in meditative practices that involve visualising the flow of time could help them achieve a calming state.

Time-Sensitive Imagery: Visualising timelines or time streams, perhaps in artistic forms like temporal sculptures, can provide a source of mental stimming.

🏫 So ...

Gallifreyan autism gets a whole new host of possible stims, including telepathy, and this list is definitely not exhaustive. But remember each Gallifreyan is unique, and their stimming behaviours will reflect their individuality and the complexity of their senses.

Related:

Are Gallifreyans naturally autistic?: Exploring autism and its rate of occurrence in Gallifreyans.

Can Gallifreyan autism affect telepathic/psychic development?: Exploring how autism could impact Gallifreyan development.

Hope that helped! 😃

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[autooptic]

1938 Mercedes-Benz W154

In September 1936, the AIACR (Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus), the governing body of motor racing, set the new Grand Prix regulations effective from 1938. Key stipulations included a maximum engine displacement of three liters for supercharged engines and 4.5 liters for naturally aspirated engines, with a minimum car weight ranging from 400 to 850 kilograms, depending on engine size.

By the end of the 1937 season, Mercedes-Benz engineers were already hard at work developing the new W154, exploring various ideas, including a naturally aspirated engine with a W24 configuration, a rear-mounted engine, direct fuel injection, and fully streamlined bodies. Ultimately, due to heat management considerations, they opted for an in-house developed 60-degree V12 engine designed by Albert Heess. This engine mirrored the displacement characteristics of the 1924 supercharged two-liter M 2 L 8 engine, with each of its 12 cylinders displacing 250 cc. Using glycol as a coolant allowed temperatures to reach up to 125°C. The engine featured four overhead camshafts operating 48 valves via forked rocker arms, with three cylinders combined under welded coolant jackets, and non-removable heads. It had a high-capacity lubrication system, circulating 100 liters of oil per minute, and initially utilized two single-stage superchargers, later replaced by a more efficient two-stage supercharger in 1939.

The first prototype engine ran on the test bench in January 1938, and by February 7, it had achieved a nearly trouble-free test run, producing 427 hp (314 kW) at 8,000 rpm. During the first half of the season, drivers such as Caracciola, Lang, von Brauchitsch, and Seaman had access to 430 hp (316 kW), which later increased to over 468 hp (344 kW). At the Reims circuit, Hermann Lang's W154 was equipped with the most powerful version, delivering 474 hp (349 kW) and reaching 283 km/h (176 mph) on the straights. Notably, the W154 was the first Mercedes-Benz racing car to feature a five-speed gearbox.

Max Wagner, tasked with designing the suspension, had an easier job than his counterparts working on the engine. He retained much of the advanced chassis architecture from the previous year's W125 but enhanced the torsional rigidity of the frame by 30 percent. The V12 engine was mounted low and at an angle, with the carburetor air intakes extending through the expanded radiator grille.

The driver sat to the right of the propeller shaft, and the W154's sleek body sat close to the ground, lower than the tops of its tires. This design gave the car a dynamic appearance and a low center of gravity. Both Manfred von Brauchitsch and Richard Seaman, whose technical insights were highly valued by Chief Engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut, praised the car's excellent handling.

The W154 became the most successful Silver Arrow of its era. Rudolf Caracciola secured the 1938 European Championship title (as the World Championship did not yet exist), and the W154 won three of the four Grand Prix races that counted towards the championship.

To ensure proper weight distribution, a saddle tank was installed above the driver's legs. In 1939, the addition of a two-stage supercharger boosted the V12 engine, now named the M163, to 483 hp (355 kW) at 7,800 rpm. Despite the AIACR's efforts to curb the speed of Grand Prix cars, the new three-liter formula cars matched the lap times of the 1937 750-kg formula cars, demonstrating that their attempt was largely unsuccessful. Over the winter of 1938-39, the W154 saw several refinements, including a higher cowl line around the cockpit for improved driver safety and a small, streamlined instrument panel mounted to the saddle tank. As per Uhlenhaut’s philosophy, only essential information was displayed, centered around a large tachometer flanked by water and oil temperature gauges, ensuring the driver wasn't overwhelmed by unnecessary data.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Laboratory Safety: The Hierarchy of Controls

Though many people may think of safety glasses or lab coats as the safest way to protect oneself in a laboratory setting, personal protective equipment (PPE) is actually considered the last and least effective step. The goal with safety in laboratories is almost always to make the use of PPE unnecessary or redundant - with the caveat and acknowledgement that sometimes, that just isn't possible.

Nevertheless, let's take a look at the steps that come before PPE:

Elimination of the hazard. Examples might be restricting the use of extension cords (possible trip hazard); doing work at ground level (e.g., eliminating the use of a ladder and bringing the work to the floor); or updating old or faulty equipment that might be more dangerous than modern versions.

Substitution of the hazard. Similar to elimination, examples include replacing chemicals with less dangerous versions that can perform the same task, or using less electricity or temperature.

Engineering controls serve to isolate people from hazards. Examples include chemical fume hoods, an interlock system for a laser setup, or remote controls to operate equipment from a distance.

Administrative controls are the rules and regulations that govern a laboratory space. They can include working on a buddy system, additional safety training, mandating rest breaks, putting up warning signs and labels, and developing standard operating procedures.

Sources/Further Reading*: (Image source - CDC) (OSHA) (OSHA hierarchy of controls) (SafetyCulture) (Lab Manager)

*Note: If you are looking for lab safety resources, any university with working laboratories should have guidelines available. Just keep in mind that as the rules get more specific, some may be location dependent (i.e., based on the local laws of the state, province, country, etc.).

[peachdues]

Hey peach I know you said no lawyer stuff but can you explain the most recent post thank you bless

Mmmkay so basically, in the US, most of our day to day lives are controlled by federal agencies. Basically there’s an agency in charge of everything you can think of, but some major ones include the EPA, the FDA, USDA, Transportation, etc. that’s just some of them.

The people who head these agencies/work at them are largely considered industry experts — so you have environmental scientists at the EPA, engineers at Transportation, food and drug safety experts at the FDA, etc. etc.

These agencies, however, are created by the Executive or Congress (depending on whether it’s an executive agency or independent agency). Once the agency is created, Congress will then pass laws that speak to the agency’s authority, but more importantly, they’ll pass laws that fall within that particular agency’s expertise. So for example, there’s a limit on, say, the level of emissions a car can produce into the air. Congress passes that.

The problem (but not in a bad way) is that Congress is not made of experts in these industries — they’re politicians. So they don’t necessarily have the facilities to legislate as exact as they might like to, or the knowledge to make well informed legislative decisions.

Now, while Congress passes laws, agencies draft and pass regulations that enact those laws. The point of the regulations are to be specific and to conform to legislative intent as much as possible. These regulations are what actually affect your day to day life. So, for example, the FDA will enact regulations controlling food storage temperatures during transit that are specified to the kind of food that’s being shipped — think meat versus produce.

Obviously there are times where Congress isn’t exactly clear on the extent of an agency’s authority to enact those regulations — which opens them up to legal challenges. This is where Chevron comes in.

The Chevron doctrine is based on a Supreme Court case that basically said, when Congress’s language in a given regulatory/admin statute is ambiguous, courts will defer to the agency’s interpretation of that language since *they* are the experts. This made sense because, again, Congress is not made of experts and they also feasibly can’t think of every possible little thing that might come up/need definition/even understand what parameters need to be set. This was good — ideally, experts are acting in the interest of the field and not lobbyists (though don’t get me wrong — lobbying federal agencies is a lucrative business). But simply put, you *want* experts deciding what level of lead exposure is safe, or the amount of pollution being discharged. You don’t want Congress doing that.

But today’s decision overruled Chevron explicitly — meaning, deference to agencies is no longer the rule. Now, Congress will be expected to either legislate the crap out of things they already don’t know how to legislate for OR else leave the agencies unable to effectively regulate.

It’s a terrible decision (never mind the utter disregard this Court exhibits for stare decisis) but it’s one that WILL have very direct consequences on our daily lives.

Voting in November is important. I don’t like Biden, personally, but there is so much at stake in this election that we can’t afford not to vote for him at this point.

[honourablejester]

A Space-Themed Trinkets List for TTRPGs

Exactly what it says on the tin. Roll a d100 or choose from the following list of space-themed trinkets for your character to have with them:

01-02. A tattoo showing the galactic coordinates of your homeworld.

03-04. A sheared metal bolt from a spacewalk tether mounting unit.

05-06. A frayed cloth patch torn from your old uniform when you left.

07-08. A small display case containing soil samples from every planet you’ve visited.

09-10. The last vacuum-sealed bar of a discontinued line of rations that you’re keeping as half collector’s item and half item of last resort.

11-12. A small holo-unit that projects an image of your parents.

13-14. A poster showing a luxurious pleasure resort that you’ve never had the money to visit.

15-16. A small chip of a reddish mineral that glows in the dark that you have no idea of the origins of.

17-18. A small holo-unit that you bought in a junkshop near the spaceport and that purports to show a partially-corrupted map to a hollowed-out treasure asteroid.

19-20. A portable lamp that mimics the sunlight and day cycle of your homeworld.

21-22. A chunk of rock from the first asteroid you helped mine.

23-24. A metal box containing a horrific lump of congealed engineering fluids that you found on an inspection and are keeping partly as an example but mostly out of curiosity.

25-26. A strange metal object bearing a weird greenish symbol on one surface that you found on an otherwise completely uninhabited asteroid.

27-28. The smashed remnants of a medical scanner from your first, ill-fated mission.

29-30. A collection of tiny bottles of the weirdest alcohols you could find on various worlds you’ve visited.

31-32. A picture of you and your old crew in a protective sleeve.

33-34. A bio-locked address book containing the contact details of friendly faces in the various spaceports you frequent.

35-36. A holo-unit showing a person you don’t know that you salvaged from the personal quarters of a derelict ship.

37-38. An electronic portable library of choice reading material to keep you company on long hauls.

39-40. A really cool jacket that you bought with your first pay check and like to wear for shore leave.

41-42. An ‘emergency depressurisation kit’ that consists of a grappling hook and a canister of ‘sprayable oxygenated face mask’ that you bought from a shady guy at a spaceport and have no idea if they’re functional or not.

43-44. A medical pass granting you permission to leave the quarantine zone around your homeworld.

45-46. A disabled distress beacon from your escape pod fifteen years ago.

47-48. An inert and cracked AI core module that you really weren’t supposed to have taken from that derelict ship.

49-50. A ‘lucky coin’ you won in a game on leave that your opponent seemed weirdly upset to lose.

51-52. Your grandmother’s lucky bone-handled knife from when she used to be part of the distant exploration corps. She never told you what type of bone it was.

53-54. Your trusty environmental scanner that is four models out of date but has never failed you yet.

55-56. A tiny metal disc that a weird guy once paid you for a job with, which if pressed to your skin somehow perfectly regulates the temperature of the air in your vicinity to your preferences by no visible means. It works on every planet with an atmosphere that you’ve been on so far.

57-58. A beautifully carved spice chest containing spices from your homeworld, for when you’re feeling homesick. It’s been getting really hard to restock it out here.

59-60. A disabled registration chip from the labour camp that you kept after escaping, even though it would be a really stupid thing to have on you if you’re ever back in that sector of space.

61-62. A tiny bag of glittering micro-crystals from the surface of a moon. Worthless, but so pretty.

63-64. A canister of engineering lubricant that you are literally never without.

65-66. A tattoo of a series of unknown symbols that you and your buddies from your old military unit got after a particularly hellish mission. None of you took any pictures of the lab you found them in, but somehow all of you remembered them perfectly.

67-68. A portable mining lamp your dad ‘borrowed’ when they decommissioned the old colony. The batteries on this thing are incredible, as they haven’t run out nearly 55 years later.

69-70. A seashell from the first time you ever saw an ‘ocean’ after growing up in space.

71-72. A portable personal forcefield that only stops rain, from the first time you experienced ‘weather’ and decided you didn’t like it very much.

73-74. The helmet of a spacesuit that has clearly been partially melted through by some sort of acidic substance and which you refuse to answer questions about.

75-76. An object which you found in a junk bin at a salvage yard and which no one you’ve ever met has been able to identify.

77-78. A single live seed in a viability canister that everyone who leaves your homeworld is given to take with them.

79-80. A religious pamphlet that some nutjob on the hub station gave you. It’s got some seriously weird and somewhat apocalyptic stuff in there, but for some reason you haven’t thrown it away yet.

81-82. A well-read, second-hand copy of ‘Myths of Hyperspace: A Collection of Spacer Tales’ that you bought for funsies and totally don’t believe in, no sir.

83-84. A collection of antique medical equipment that your old captain gave to you, for reasons you aren’t entirely sure of.

85-86. An unlabelled collection of beautiful music recordings you found in a spaceport, and which you’ve been idly trying to identify ever since.

87-88. A dataset of sightings, speculation and other information regarding a mysterious ship that has been seen on and off for the last fifty years by gas miners and illegal racers in the clouds of your gas giant homeworld, and which you’ve been obsessed with since you caught what might have been a glimpse of it yourself.

89-90. A ring gene-locked to your lost partner that will never come off your finger.

91-92. A tiny realistic-looking but robotic animal that was the only type of pet allowed on your company’s spaceships.

93-94. A bottle of extremely heavy-duty and almost definitely expired anti-nausea medication that you kept from your first shuttle ride into space.

95-96. A dog-eared magazine containing a two-page spread of the most beautiful spaceship you’ve ever seen in your life, and which you’ve sworn to yourself that you will one day own.

97-98. A corporate logo of the company that left your colony to die, torn off the side of one of the cheap delivery crates full of useless equipment that they supplied.

99-100. A recording of a garbled and unintelligible transmission one of your old buddies sent you, and which you’ve only kept because they vanished not long afterwards. There’s a weird sound that keeps repeating in the background, but you don’t know what it is.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Why We Need to Care About Insects

Originally posted on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/why-we-need-to-care-about-insects/

Some months back a study was released that demonstrates just how damaging climate change is to insects, particularly those in tropical areas. Warming temperatures cause insects to die from overheating and dehydration, kills off their food sources, and lowers their fertility rates to dangerous levels. Moreover, changes in climate affect insect phenology, the timing of when they hatch, migrate, breed, and so forth.

And because insects are so small, they’re often disproportionately affected by many of these problems. As ectotherms, they rely on the air around them to regulate their body temperatures; their small mass means they lose heat faster than larger animals, and can be overloaded with heat much more quickly. Tropical insects are especially at risk from major fluctuations in temperature because they are adapted to a relatively narrow temperature range.

Gray spruce looper moth (Caripeta divisata)

But the problem goes far beyond the tropics, and we are in the middle of an insect apocalypse. This problem often flies under the radar of those who are not already aware of invertebrate conservation. While a few insects, such as monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and domestic honey bees (Apis mellifera), find themselves in the press on a regular basis, most species don’t have large fan clubs. Some of my favorite insects include the white-tipped ctenucha moth (Ctenucha rubroscapus), the velvet snail-eating beetle (Scaphinotus velutinus), and the black-tailed bumblebee (Bombus melanopygus), none of which are insects you’re likely to find making the headlines.

To be fair, there are a lot of insect species out there, so it would be hard to feature every single one individually. But we already face the problem that many people simply just don’t see why we need to worry about fewer bugs around. Last year I wrote an article about how search engines tend to produce exterminator sites at the top of results for various insects, and while some of that is no doubt due to advertising-oriented algorithms, they do reflect a widespread demand for extermination services that isn’t matched by more positive attention to these little animals.

Much has been said among entomologists, ecologists, and other professionals about why we need to be concerned about the drastic drop in the numbers of many insect species, and I’ve written about it as well. I could reiterate what would happen if we lost our pollinators (and also how to save them!) or the crucial role insect detritivores play in reducing diseases and keeping the food web cycling along. And I am still a champion for mosquitoes and other unpopular insects.

Green stink bug (Chinavia hilaris)

But these things always bear repeating. It may be that nine out of every ten organisms on this planet is an insect. Insects play an incredible number of ecological roles, from ecosystem engineers to pollinators to food sources and much more. Without them, ecosystems around the planet would collapse entirely.

I could certainly take the self-interested route and emphasize that fully one-third of our food relies on insects and other pollinators. I might also point out that insect detritivores help nourish the soil needed for everything from food crops to timber. While terrestrial insects and other arthropods only make up about a fifth of the amount of global biomass as their marine counterparts, they still represent a natural sink that holds about 200 million tons of carbon at any given time.

But our anthropocentric worldview rarely considers the intrinsic value of insects simply for existing. We’re constantly weighing and measuring their worth based on our biases and values. We divide them into “good” or “bad” insects: good insects are those that do things we like, like pollination or looking pretty, while bad insects are the ones that chew on our homes and plants or which bite or sting us when threatened or seeking food. For a lot of people, any insect beyond maybe a butterfly is a reason to say “Ewww, gross!” I’ve even seen this widespread among self-professed nature lovers, whether they have a true entemophobia or not, though there may be an evolutionary reason for this seemingly disproportionate reaction.

So consider this yet another attempt to change opinions about insects. I can’t cure entemophobia, but I can at least get people thinking more critically about personal and societal attitudes toward insects. I hope to get people to realize that widespread use of pesticides and other garden/agricultural chemicals–which has increased fifty-fold in twenty-five years–is driving the loss of so many insects. I’ve mentioned before that habitat loss is the single biggest cause of species endangerment and extinction, and that goes for insects, too. And, of course, the study mentioned at the start of this article is just one highlighting the increasing impact climate change has on insects worldwide.

Metric Paper Wasp (Polistes metricus)

Let me wrap this up on a bright note: word is getting out. There is a lot more awareness than there was twenty years ago, and there’s more nuance than we had in the early “save the (domesticated European honey) bees” campaigns. More people are ditching pesticides and other garden chemicals unless absolutely needed, and regenerative agricultural practices that use fewer chemicals overall are gaining ground. And while numerous organizations are increasing awareness of insect conservation, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation–the oldest organization dedicated solely to invertebrates–is still going strong.

And you can help spread the word, too. Share this article with others, and some of the resources and organizations linked throughout. Consider your own relationship to the native insects in the world around you, and whether you might make their lives a little easier. And remember that sometimes it is the smallest of things that have the greatest importance in such a massive system as an entire living planet.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[sanctus-ingenium]

So the knight sits in the throne to drive the mechs, but where do the enginesmith and the rest of the crew sit in the mechs?

this is a typical battle configuration. for transport to the site of the battle, additional crews ride on top or wherever it's safe, and dismount to set up camp and provide ground support when they reach their destination

i've drawn the chambers really big just for illustrative purposes. there's a platform usually on the head/behind the helm area for lookouts, navigators, and signallers (they use flag signals to communicate with the ground/other beasts)

the throne chamber is the most heavily armoured with an open front protected by a grille of bars. knights go in there. this is the safest place to be when being attacked from above (rip to the navigators). because knights' helms have no eye holes, field of view is not important.

in the chest there's the heart chamber and its great vessels. usually 3 great vessels. this is really cramped and really deep inside the body so it carries a really high risk of suffocation. one enginesmith, usually the senior, essentially 'plays' the heart engine's cylinder block like a piano to regulate it. iirc pantera has something like 112 pistons total, though not all in the heart. the purpose of the heart is to deliver fuel from the furnace to the limbs/neck/weapons systems/whatever currently requires it. the second enginesmith manages the valves which govern where the fuel goes.

in the belly furnace there's space for a very large crew, these guys have to manually inject fuel from the tank (in the pelvic girdle) into the furnaces at the correct rate to keep it the right temperature. they have tons of ventilation to ensure the fires are always going, but it's, again, very dangerous. the fuel can eat through flesh when it's at this temperature and even a small splash can very quickly become fatal. because of the boiling temperatures, there's no ppe. they work shirtless and have to rely on skill and experience to stay safe.

each area has a communications panel which uses a pull cord system or a message tube system (rarer). the cords are painted alternating bands of colours so that it is visually obvious when someone on the other end of the cord pulls it down a notch. it's simple but it works.

the knight's dialogue with the beast allows them to experience the movement of the cords as an extension of their own body, because the cords go through the spine. so any communication between the different chambers is known to the knight.