#First Helium Production

[firsthelium]

Unlocking the Potential: Helium Utilization in Canada, Establishing a Canadian Helium Supply Chain, and Advancements in Helium Exploration

First Helium, a leading player in the helium industry, is proud to announce its commitment to unlocking the vast potential of helium utilization in Canada. With a focus on establishing a robust Canadian helium supply chain and leveraging technological advancements in helium exploration, First Helium is poised to revolutionize the helium market.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

I hope I'm not asking too many questions... but I really love the skywhale trope and wanted to hear your thoughts on them?

i think we need more variety of whales in the sky! seems like more people go for a blue whale or humpback whale design on their sky whales, which is fine because they are very iconic whales and i love the way they look. but how about some beaked or toothed whales? flying orcas? a bowhead? i think a sky whale that looked like a bowhead whale would be just wonderful, look at this thing.

(image description: first is an underwater photo of a bowhead whale's face. the top of its mouth is very narrow while the bottom of it is enormous, like a pelican. there is a white patch at the front of its lower jaw with black spots in a line across it. the second image is a detailed illustration of the whale's whole body, comparing it to the size of an elephant and showing the shape of its fins and tail. the elephant is roughly the size of the whale's lower jaw. end description.)

i love this thing. look at that face. the humpback whale may have longer and prettier fins for that sky whale aesthetic, but the bowhead's face shape is delightful. more diversity in sky whale designs!

but of course, the more interesting thought is how exactly to make such an enormous vertebrate work as a flying animal. where is it going? what does it eat? what happens when it dies?

it would be more realistic for sky whales to be smaller, but when people think of sky whales, they want the huge size! it's a fantasy, we want the epic huge flying creatures with their strange singing calls swimming through the clouds. so i'm not going to talk about the more logical small flying whales that go around in flocks to hunt birds (though the idea of smaller flying dolphins is also delightful!) I'm going to just talk about big slow baleen sky whales, the most iconic and desired of all sky whales.

step one: how the heck are these things in the air. it's easier to explain how a dragon can fly, they have big powerful wings. how do whales fly? I think the clearest answer is that they have some form of massive internal air sac full of lifting gas. real life oceanic whales are full of blubber, but maybe sky whales don't have as much blubber and get a lot of their size from their big air sacs instead.

lifting gas is just an umbrella term for any gases that are lighter than the standard atmospheric air. this includes heated atmospheric air, hydrogen, helium, coal gas, ammonia, and methane. (according to wikipedia) and with that list I think we've found our answer. whales are actually even-toed ungulates like cows. they could easily produce a lot of methane with the right diet. they'd just keep it in their air sacs instead of releasing it as a waste material! and for the best production of methane, these sky whales should have multi-chambered stomachs.

This does mean they're probably going to eat a lot of plant matter! so imagine them swooping low to take huge mouthfuls of tree tops! terrifying! maybe their baleen is structured to scrape the leaves off the branches. Maybe they swoop down to kelp forests in the ocean and take huge mouthfuls of that as well. any critters they happen to consume in the process are just bonus snacks full of protein. they likely also consume large flocks of small birds on the go, and probably clouds of flying insects too! locust swarms, for example. watch out for the low flying whales! I think they'd be slow like blimps and mostly use their tails and fins to steer and swoop down for food. they probably also rub themselves on tree branches or mountain sides to scratch their itches. I bet they'd have a symbiosis with many bird species that pick off their parasites.

like cow manure, sky whale dung could be a great source of fertilizer. best to avoid the usual paths of migrating sky whales so you don't end up dead by having giant poop clumps fall on you, but once it's hit the ground, that's free whale manure for every farmer in the area. the lands along the paths of migrating sky whales are probably very fertile, which also serves the whales, since they'll be eating the leafy tree tops! and when a whale dies, falling to the ground, the resulting small earthquake would certainly be startling, and both the impact and the rot process would cause a lot of damage to the surrounding land.

things are not immediately fertilized when a corpse rots. it takes a while! the rot causes more harm at first and then starts to nourish the ground later.

and dead bodies tend to bloat with gases and i have already established that these whales are full of methane. a lot of it would be released at death anyway, and i don't think the whale would drop immediately. or perhaps they fly lower in their old age and just crash land and die slowly. either way, these things are huge and full of methane and then they bloat. which means they might also explode spontaneously as part of the decay process. the air for miles around is going to be so nasty. but i think if you live in sky whale territory, you're just going to have to get used to the stink, because the manure that falls on a more regular basis is also going to be so so stinky.

like real world whale falls, sky whale falls will attract absolutely every carnivorous creature in the area. anything that eats meat will follow that awful stench right to the source and start gnawing away at the thick skin. people will have the easiest time, since they have tools for this beyond just their teeth and claws. the faster the whale is cut open, the less likely there will be an explosive bloat stage, so I'm sure the culture of the region would have some superstitions about leaving a dead whale lying too long. if you don't go harvest that bounty, it will explode and you never know where those chunks will land.

and then when there's only bones, people use em for building all sorts of things! the societies that exist in the paths of sky whales would be very cool to see.

that turned into a ramble and I haven't even designed a sky whale lol. lemme doodle one real quick.

(image description: a sketch of a sky whale, which resembles the aforementioned bow whale, swooping down to munch on trees in a forest. end description.)

[spacenutspod]

Water is the most common chemical molecule found throughout the entire universe. What water has going for it is that its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen, are also ridiculously common, and those two elements really enjoying bonding with each other. Oxygen has two open slots in its outmost electron orbital shell, making it very eager to find new friends, and each hydrogen comes with one spare electron, so the triple-bonding is a cinch. Hydrogen comes to us from the big bang itself, making it by both mass and number the #1 element in the cosmos. Seriously, the stuff is everywhere. About 75% of every star, every interstellar gas cloud, and every wandering bit of intergalactic space debris never to know the warmth of stellar fusion in 13.8 billion years of cosmic history is made of hydrogen. That hydrogen got its start when our universe was only about ten minutes old, and all the hydrogen that has ever existed (except for random radioactive decays and fission reactions, but that would come later) formed before our universe turned 20 minutes. A dozen minutes, 13.8 billion years ago. When you quench your thirst with a healthy glass, that’s what you’re consuming. We can understand this epoch of cosmic history, known as the nucleosynthesis era, because over the past century we’ve become rather skilled at dealing with nuclear reactions, and in one of the hallmarks of our species we have unleashed this radical understanding into the physical nature of reality and deployed it for both peacetime energy generation and wartime bombs. Our understanding of nuclear physics tells us that earlier than the ten-minute mark, our universe was too hot and too dense for protons and neutrons to form. Instead their subatomic parts, known as quarks, were unglued in a heaving maelstrom of nuclear forces, constantly binding and unbinding in a seething rage-filled sea of gluons, the force carriers of the strong nuclear force. Once the universe expanded and cooled enough, condensates of protons and neutrons formed like droplets on the windowpane, low-energy pockets capable of keeping themselves together despite the temperatures. Eventually, however, as soon as the party got going it fizzled out: when the universe became too large and too cool, a mere dozen minutes later, there wasn’t sufficient density to bring the quarks close enough together to perform their nuclear binding trick. Some protons and neutrons would find each other in those storm-filled days, though, forming heavier versions of hydrogen, some helium, and a small amount of lithium. And since then those hydrogen atoms have wandered about the cosmos; most lost in the intergalactic wastes, some participating in the glorious construction of stars and planets, and a lucky few finding themselves locked in a chemical dance with oxygen. The oxygen has another tale to tell, also a story of fusion, on its way to becoming water. But not the fusion of the first few heady minutes of the big bang, but in the dance within the hearts of stars. There, crushing pressures and violent temperatures slam hydrogen atoms together, forcing them to fuse into helium, in the process releasing an almost vanishingly small amount of energy. But that forced marriage happens millions of times every second, in every one of the trillions upon untold trillions of stars strewn about the cosmos, enough to light up the universe for all conscious observers to enjoy. Near the end of a star’s life, it turns to fusing the built-up ash of helium piled in its core, The fusion of helium produces two products: carbon and oxygen. Now this oxygen would end up forever closed off from the cosmos, locked behind a million-kilometer thick wall of plasma, if it were not for a trick of physics that happens when the star meets its final days. Our Sun will someday experience this fate, about four and a half billion years now. When it grows old and weary, it will swell and turn red, violently spasming as it draws its last fatal breaths. Those gargantuan shudders release material from the star, launching it into the surrounding system, billowed by gusty winds of fundamental particles streaming away at nearly the speed of light. Fit by ragged fit, the Sun will lose its own self, driving away over half its mass into a spreading nebula, the only sign that distant eyes can perceive of yet another noble star laying down its struggle against the all-consuming night. But in that gruesome death, a miracle. The cycle born anew: the hydrogen and helium, the primordial elements of the star, now mixed with carbon and oxygen drift off into the interstellar void, someday to take part in the formation of a new star, a new solar system, a new world wet with water, and, if the chances are perfect, a new life. The post Thirsty? Water is More Common than you Think appeared first on Universe Today.

[apod]

2023 December 31

Illustris: A Simulation of the Universe Video Credit: Illustris Collaboration, NASA, PRACE, XSEDE, MIT, Harvard CfA; Music: The Poisoned Princess (Media Right Productions)

Explanation: How did we get here? Click play, sit back, and watch. A computer simulation of the evolution of the universe provides insight into how galaxies formed and perspectives into humanity's place in the universe. The Illustris project exhausted 20 million CPU hours in 2014 following 12 billion resolution elements spanning a cube 35 million light years on a side as it evolved over 13 billion years. The simulation tracks matter into the formation of a wide variety of galaxy types. As the virtual universe evolves, some of the matter expanding with the universe soon gravitationally condenses to form filaments, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. The featured video takes the perspective of a virtual camera circling part of this changing universe, first showing the evolution of dark matter, then hydrogen gas coded by temperature (0:45), then heavy elements such as helium and carbon (1:30), and then back to dark matter (2:07). On the lower left the time since the Big Bang is listed, while on the lower right the type of matter being shown is listed. Explosions (0:50) depict galaxy-center supermassive black holes expelling bubbles of hot gas. Interesting discrepancies between Illustris and the real universe have been studied, including why the simulation produced an overabundance of old stars.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231231.html

[xhoneygirlxx]

warnings: angst, no happy ending. heartbreak/end of a relationship. Eddie and Reader are 20+

minors plz go away, this account is 18+ only.

this is inspired by Nothings New by Rio Romeo, the same song that’s been stuck on repeat for the past couple of weeks. I hope you all enjoy this <3

*if you see spelling errors/bad writing, pretend it didn’t happen

—

You both knew it was coming, a thought in the back of your mind that constantly ate away at you until it finally came true. There’s a moment in life when you just know it’s not going to work out anymore, that no matter how much you love a person it all comes down to a spark and when that spark is gone, so is the relationship.

It’s like a sandcastle right on the shoreline, you wait with bated breath as the water inches closer and closer to your creation and there’s nothing you can do about it because you’ve built it on a bad foundation. It’s like a balloon, it can only fly so long before the helium seeps out, one day it’s high up in the sky and the next day it clings to the ground where it will stay before it eventually deflates.

You nor Eddie set out to end like this, no one gets into a relationship in the hopes it ends but somehow, you ended up right where you hoped you wouldn’t.

I love you’s weren’t shared as much anymore, sweet kisses turned into chaste pecks on the cheek, and the closeness you both craved was now despised. A long fall from the pedestal your relationship was once held upon, now it was just an obligation that felt torturous to even continue.

The dinner on the table is perfect, the kind you would find photographed in some kind of home and lifestyle magazine, but the two people consuming it are anything but. A date night that was supposed to be fun and exciting felt like a job, a requirement that both of you had signed on for that you just couldn’t get out of.

Eddie looks handsome as always, a sleek button up adorning his torso and unruly curls are tamed down by the products in the bathroom that both of you share. He cuts his steak with tattooed hands, the same silver rings he wore in high school decorate his digits as well as the one you bought him all those years ago when you first got together. You look at the thick black band, the engraved lettering of your initials that go across it, and you wonder if he only wears it out of habit- something he only wears on his right ring finger because he would feel unbalanced without it.

Despite the crowd that sits at neighboring tables, it’s quiet, and not the peaceful kind of silence most people would imagine. It’s the kind that happens after a car accident when dust and debris settle to ground, the sulfur from the airbags fill the air, and the ringing in your ears are too loud to hear through anything else.

You poke at your plate mindlessly as you continue to look at him, trying to piece together where it all went wrong and why the two of you have let it go this far. A bitter taste fills your mouth, one that can’t be washed down by the red wine that sits in your untouched glass, making a ball form in your throat.

As you look at the man across from you, you don’t see the person you’ve grown tired of but rather the boy you fell in love with all those years ago. Wide eyes and dimpled smile, rosy cheeks and shaky hands. Memories of shy banter and longing stares fill your head. Two young kids so full of love and adoration for one another now sit silently as they ignore one another’s presence.

Your heart squeezes, painfully twisting in a devastating way as it prepares for what’s going to happen. A tear escapes from your waterline and you don’t fight it. As much as you don’t want to be the dramatic girlfriend in the middle of a fancy restaurant you allow yourself to cry, mourning the death of a love story that started with two star cross teenagers that lost their way.

Although he isn’t looking at you Eddie can sense it, the beginning of the goodbye he’s tried desperately to avoid. He sets his fork and knife down, swallowing his food down as best as he can while his throat begins to choke up in unshed tears.

There’s a pause in his movements, a delay from looking into the eyes of the one he promised to love until his dying day. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, reaching his hand out across the table in search of your own. Fingers interlace, palms touching for the first time in a long time and for once you both feel it, the spark you used to feel when everything was fresh and new- only it doesn’t linger, it slowly blows out and fades away into the cold night air.

Big chocolate eyes meet yours, the tears that brim in his tear ducts match your own, the shared sadness for the future you will no longer share.

“This is it?” Eddie’s voice is small, like he’s straining in the hopes the sobs won’t break out.

You can’t stop it, the wobble of your pouted lip and the river that falls from your eyes. There’s no words you can say, none that will capture the amount of pain this brings to you, so instead you just nod your head.

Eddie isn’t any better, eyes closing with the hopes that this will all go away when he opens them once more. When he opens them back up he doesn’t find a different outcome but instead the blur of the fat tears that cloud his vision.

“You know I love you, right? I always have and always will love you Eddie, but this isn’t good for us anymore.” It’s like you’re pleading, begging for all of the misery to end for not just yourself but him too.

The subtle nod of his head tells you all you need to know, he agrees just as much as you that this isn’t going to work anymore, that this is killing him as much as it is you and if it continues this way it’ll only be a matter of time before this slow and painful death creeps up on you.

“I love you too, always have.” Eddie makes sure to look you in the eyes when he says it, like he wants you to know that everything that’s happened was never intentional.

You give his hand a squeeze, an acknowledgment to his statement, he squeezes right back.

This was the end, in the middle of a fancy restaurant where families, couples, and friends laugh and talk over warm meals, you and Eddie slowly cut the string that’s been keeping you tethered together for more than five years.

—

—

[stupidsexymecha]

Horus Kobold

The Kobold pattern group first appeared among revolutionary Ungratefuls toiling on Bo, the capital world of the House of Dust, where it manifested as a clever suite of hardware and software compatible with a broad range of mining and heavy industry mechs. The steaming, shuddering final result of K-PG exposure is an ugly affair: a device transformed from plow to blade by powerful, viral-morph liturgicode that is almost impossible for conventional codec sniffers to capture pre-print. The clandestine mechanisms by which the Kobold is transmitted and applied make it the perfect machine for fighting Baronic suppression forces. The desperate workers who printed the first Kobolds found them to be eminently fungible. When loaded into their mining exos and chassis, the K-PG code repurposed reactors and industrial tools to deadly effect, weaponizing the very materials and superstructures that powered it. The rapid flash-melting, processing, and extruding of raw material into molten plural-state particles is dangerous – often just as dangerous to its pilot as the final product is to its targets. Operational dangers notwithstanding, the Ungratefuls who first adopted the K-PG stunned their Baronic overseers with a series of rapid and total victories, liberating a great swath of lunar helium-3 mines. While the insurgency was eventually contained to Bo, it continues, necessitating the deployment of the House of Dust's Graveborn Banner Company for counter-insurgency operations beyond the capability of local security forces. HORUS's assets in the Long Rim continue to produce K-PG liturgicode seeds. The House of Dust has contracted Mastodon to track down and eliminate HORUS elements in the area; meanwhile, Harrison Armory has reached out to the Brigade-Legion to counter the House of Dust's efforts.

[maxs-guesswork]

Unfinished Timeline for an Untitled Setting

Critique and advice is more than welcome, though please be nice about it. Goes up to about 2081 rn, though I plan to get at least another 50 years further in before I get to the time I want the bulk of the setting to be set in.

Timeline:

2022: First controlled break-even fusion reaction, followed by first controlled net-gain fusion reaction.

2025-2026: Increasing unrest in USA leads to mass riots outside the white-house. Sweeping reforms after growing revolts threaten to become a major armed rebellion. NASA miraculously left untouched, general increase in standard of living. Economic crisis narrowly averted.

2027: First nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) tested in orbit by NASA and DARPA. GPT-style language modeling declared “dead end” for self-aware AI.

2030: First Lunar base established under NASA Artemis program. Suez Canal temporarily blocked by a poorly driven cargo ship again. Evergreen Shipping goes bankrupt.

2034: Lunar Gateway established under joint NASA, ESA, JAXA, DLR, ASI, and CNSA. Lunar helium-3 mining declared officially nonviable. Radial detonation engines become standard for lower ascent stages, SpaceX Starship, NASA SLS, and Roscosmos Soyuz phased out. Drop in launch prices.

2034-2036: Additional modules added to the Lunar Gateway from SpaceX, KARI, ISRO, and Roscosmos. Lunar Gateway Collaborative Group (LGCG) established consisting of all current contributors to the station.

2036: First commercial fusion energy plant reaches full operation in France under ITER. Mass production of Tritium begins. First fully private space station under SpaceX. Asteroid mining corporations begin formation. Establishment of Nigerian Organization for the Development of Space (NODS). Ecuador experiences communist revolution.

2036-2037: First manned martian mission under LGCG, first human footsteps on another planetary body.

2037: Elon Musk assassinated. New SpaceX leadership declares plans for space elevator. North Korea collapses, Korean peninsula unified under South Korean leadership, becoming simply Korea. Indian nuclear stockpile secretly surpasses 50000 Gt. First baby born on the moon.

2040: Artemis base becomes semi-self sufficient, producing it’s own food and air from hydroponics, and water from mined lunar ice. Lunar LH2 and hydrolox production begins. Lunar population passes 100.

2040-2042: First commercial fusion power plants established in the US, UK, Australia, Korea, and Japan.

2042: A joint US Government and SpaceX black operation destabilizes Ecuador, leading to a corporate takeover of the territory.

2044: Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand form West Pacific Trade Organization (WPTO). Construction of the base of SpaceX’s planned space elevator begins off the coast of Ecuador.

2047: LCC completed at CERN. Mission for permanent martian base declared. Major economic crisis in China, intervention from several megacorps results in a decrease in Chinese government power and increase in corporate control in the region. SpaceX space elevator counterweight construction begins in geostationary orbit.

2048: Major revolution in quantum mechanics brought on by new data from the LCC. Lunar population passes 250.

2050: China splits into 4 corporate states, Amazon Corporate Territory (ACT) with its capitol in Chongqing, Samsung Independent State (SIS) with its capitol in Shanghai, Territory for Electronic Developments (TED) made up of Apple and Microsoft with its capitol in Yinchuan, and the Chinese Corporate Union (CCU) made up of several formerly state-owned corporations with their capitol in Wuhan and possession of the Three Gorges Dam. Beijing becomes an independent city-state controlled by the former Chinese government, retaining control over the CNSA. Massive revolution in battery energy density. Permanent martian base established by LGCG.

2051: Breakthrough in photon manipulation, beamed energy and solar collection becomes increasingly viable. Many asteroid mining corps branch into solar power, notably Binghamton Vacuum Mining Solutions (BVMS). Lunar population passes 500.

2052: Martian population surpasses 100.

2053: Martian base reaches semi-self sustainability.

2055: All 4 Chinese corporate states and the Beijing city state form the Chinese Federation for Space Exploration (CFSE), supplanting the old CNSA. Lunar Gateway module renamed and LGCG roster amended accordingly. SpaceX space elevator cable completed, first test cart sent to GEO. WPTO begins construction of a space elevator in the Banda Sea.

2056: SpaceX space elevator declared complete, commercial operation begins.

2057: BVMS surpasses $1T in net worth, becomes primary supplier of energy for the Artemis Lunar Base. Lunar Population surpasses 1k, massive migratory population surge begins following influx of energy from BVMS. Martian population surpasses 250. First fusion reactor in Ecuador.

2058: WPTO space elevator counterweight begins construction in GEO.

2060: First fusion reactors in Nigeria and India. First large-scale solar collector on Earth constructed in New York operated by BVMS. Large population surge in Binghamton NY. Lunar population surpasses 5k. Martian space station established. Regulations for GEO development established.

2061: First lunar-built spacecraft flown. Secondary lunar settlement founded by CFSE. Massive influx of funds for the WPTO space elevator from the CFSE, GEO counterweight construction begun. Lunar Gateway population surpasses 100. First fusion reactor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Congo space agency (DRCSA) founded.

2064: WPTO space elevator cable completed, declared complete and opened to commercial operation.

2065: BVME establishes unmanned Mercurian base. CFSE settlement population surpasses 100. Martian population surpasses 500. Lunar Gateway population surpasses 200.

2066: Mass expansion of Artemis Base life support systems using BVMS produced automated construction equipment. Aerostat scientific outpost established by LGCG.

2067: Microbial life discovered on Venus. Venus outpost (and LGCG) acquires substantial funding boost. Artemis base population surpasses 2.5k and begins to plateau.

2069: Unmanned mission to Europa announced by LGCG, plans to use BVMS automated platforms to drill into subsurface ocean established. Martian base purchases automated construction equipment from BVMS, massive population boon ensues. CFSE settlement population surpasses 750. Lunar gateway population surpasses 500. Martian base population surpasses 500. BVME becomes the largest corporate entity in the system.

2070: BVMS performs feasibility study on gas giant aerostat mining platforms.

2071: Study of Venusian lifeforms disproves Earth-Venus panspermia.

2073: BVMS tests laser-sail propulsion on small unmanned craft.

2075: LGCG Europa mission discovers multicellular aquatic life in Europa’s subsurface ocean. Plans for a dedicated research base drafted.

2076: Multi-corporate base established on Ceres to facilitate further asteroid belt mining. BVMS intentionally excluded from this project.

(System effectively split into quarters: Past Venus under BVMS, Between Venus and Mars under LGCG, belt under Multi-corporate mining control, outer system unclaimed.)

2077: GEO-Lunar cycler niche mostly filled by Intraplanetary Transport Services corp (ITS).

2080: Permanent scientific base established at the Europa Breach Point (EBP) with mostly automated systems and a small (5 human) management and maintenance crew.

2081: Panspermia further disproved by study of Europan life. Massive object detected in Jupiter’s lower atmosphere. BVMS begins mission to establish a mining aerostat on Saturn, utilizing laser sail propulsion to transport equipment.

(Saturn Aerostat site intended for use in the further colonization of the outer solar system and the Uranus planetary system itself. Atomic Rockets page)

[mysticstronomy]

HOW WERE ELEMENTS IN THE UNIVERSE FORMED??

Blog#344

Saturday, October 28th, 2023

Welcome back,

The journey of the elements starts in the earliest moments of the Big Bang, when our universe was only a few seconds to a few minutes old.

We all know the universe contains a vast array of elements, ranging from light gases, such as helium, to heavy metals, like lead. But where did all of the elements come from?

The journey of the elements starts in the earliest moments of the Big Bang, when our universe was only a few seconds to a few minutes old. At that time, the entire cosmos was crammed into a volume millions of times smaller than it is today. Due to the incredibly high densities, the average temperature of all the material in the universe was well over a billion degrees, which is more than hot enough for nuclear reactions to take place.

In fact, it was so hot that even protons and neutrons could not exist as stable entities. Instead, the universe was just a sea of more fundamental particles, called quarks and gluons, seething in a raw plasma state.

But the universe would not stay that way for long. It was expanding, which means it was also cooling. Eventually, the quarks could bind together to form the first protons and neutrons without instantly getting demolished. Protons are ever so slightly lighter than neutrons, which gave them an edge in this initial phase of particle production.

Once the universe was a few minutes old, it was far too cold to create new protons and neutrons. So those first heavy particles were the only ones the universe was ever going to make (outside of future rare high-energy interactions).

By the time the heavy particles finally froze out, there were roughly six protons for every neutron. Neutrons by themselves aren't stable; they decay with a half-life of around 880 seconds. Immediately, some of the neutrons began to decay away, while the remainder started binding with protons to form the first atomic nuclei.

Of all the light elements, helium-4, which consists of two protons and two neutrons, has the largest binding energy, which means it's the easiest to form and the hardest to break apart. So almost all of those neutrons went into the production of helium-4.

From calculations like this, cosmologists can predict that the universe started out with a mixture of roughly 75% hydrogen (which is just a bare proton), 25% helium and a small scattering of lithium — which is exactly what astronomers observe.

Originally published on www.space.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, November 1st, 2023)

"HOW DO WE KNOW THAT OUR UNIVERSE IS 13.7 BILLION YEARS OLD??"

[valyrfia]

YOU LISTEN TO GLASS ANIMALS? you were one of my favorite blogs anyway but you just moved upupup in my ranking

I'm honoured anon! I listened to Glass Animals in a very turbulent period of my life which just so happened to coincide with a global pandemic. My old housemate sent me Dreamland (the song) back in May 2020 and even now, nothing takes me back as viscerally to the first lockdown as those opening notes. If I'm reminiscing on COVID for something (usually writing purposes) I will use that song to get me back in that headspace...

I then proceeded to see them twice in 2021, which was incredible (It's All So Incredibly Loud was INSANE live, it starts out quiet with low lights and the crowd clapping along to the beat, slowly the lights start to flash, the crowd starts to drift off beat, the sound builds and builds until the entire room is shaking to this DAY one of the most insane live music experiences i've ever had), and just associated them so strongly with lockdown that I couldn't listen to them for a few years, but now I'm back on my bullshit. They're a fantastic band and I could talk about how they create lush soundscapes in their music for AGES, and quite typically for these situations, their worst song went viral. For anyone else reading this who has maybe made it this far and want an example of 'good' Glass Animals that isn't Heat Waves: Gooey, Helium, Mama's Gun, It's All So Incredibly Loud, Cocoa Hooves, The Other Side of Paradise, Intruxx are all great choices. Prepare for some truly wacky production, but that's what makes Glass Animals great.

[jules-has-notes]

Death of a Bachelor — VoicePlay music video

Brendon Urie has an impressive vocal range. So when VoicePlay's fans tasked them with covering Panic! at the Disco's latest hit song, the guys set their highest and lowest singers to work. PartWork, that is. (Sorry. I couldn't resist.)

Details:

title: Death of a Bachelor

original performers: Panic! at the Disco

written by: Brendon Urie, Lauren "Lolo" Pritchard, & Jake Sinclair

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

vocal parts: Earl – tenor 1, tenor 2; Geoff – baritone, bass, percussion

release date: 29 July 2016

My favorite bits:

the meta humor of singing ♫ "I don't look the same" ♫ in a video with multiple copies of just two group members who didn't change their clothes for their different vocal parts

the delayed harmonies on ♫ "sky fall" ♫, and baritone Geoff looking cautiously upward

flashing everyone but lead Earl in and out on the beats during the first chorus, that's some snazzy editing

those syncopated rising harmony lines in the middle of the second verse

the breathy percussion sound leading into the second chorus

Earl's crisp downward run on ♫ "letting the water fa-a-a-a-all" ♫

baritone Geoff getting up pretty high on that last ♫ "How could I ask for more?" ♫

"Don't sweat, don't sweat." "Stop sweating." 💦 Guys, you're in Florida in July. It is both hot and humid. You're gonna sweat.

"What's this made of?" "Candy." 🍬 "Ooh." ::nibble:: "Yum yum." (In case you needed a reminder that these doofuses had been friends since middle school. 😁)

Trivia:

It's Geoff's turn to do triple duty. In the two previous PartWork videos he'd been in, Eli had covered baritone. Earl had taken all three higher parts in his first multitrack outing, so was happy to stick with just the two tenor lines this time around.

Earl is also capable of doing some vocal percussion. He took over the snare line during Layne's rap solo in VoicePlay's "Wow! Vol. 1" medley that they performed on the 2015 Sing-Off tour, and there is backstage video of both of them trying to beatbox after inhaling helium.

Paul Kaleka handled the audio mix for this song solo, allowing the guys to maintain their publication schedule during Layne's paternity leave.

The video description includes a production credit for Eli's then-fiancée, Ashley. She's listed as "Space Bar Champion", so she was probably handling the on-set audio playback while Eli was running the camera.

They also attribute set design to "Whit E. Wall" to explain their minimalist aesthetic.

I don't know how much (if at all) it influenced their decision to record this song, but Layne had gotten married the previous October, and Eli had proposed to Ashley in April. The number of unmarried guys in their ranks was rapidly diminishing.

[robreyart]

Cosmic Awareness Oil, 30 x 24 inches "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself" -Carl Sagan We are products of 13.8 billion years of evolution and we are part of this universe, not simply within it. First, from an incredibly hot and dense beginning, simple atoms of hydrogen and helium had to form as space expanded and cooled. Before a planet could evolve life, these simple atoms had to form stars that would fuse heavier elements. These stars had to burn out in violent explosions that would seed new solar systems like ours with the elements necessary for life. After more than 9 billion years of cosmic evolution, our planet formed and began to evolve life. In this little corner at least, we are the first parts of the universe with the ability to look out at the night sky and understand it. We are the universe coming to know itself. For me, the meaning of this painting is two fold. There is the meaning expressed above, that we are a part of the universe which has gained consciousness and is experiencing other parts of the universe. But I feel this painting also expresses something about the Cosmic Perspective series more broadly. Having the curiosity to look out and learn about the universe in which we find ourselves is an awakening experience: It's staggeringly vast. Our little sand grain of a planet is the only hospitable place within at least several lightyear's distance. This understanding puts things in perspective, our daily problems seem smaller, our culturally diverse human family feels a little closer, and fighting within it looks even more foolish. This is what the Cosmic Perspective series in intended to remind us of. Help support this work on https://www.patreon.com/robrey Prints: https://robrey.storenvy.com

[miirshroom]

Elden Ring Elemental Allegory Hypothesis

So there's a question that has been on my mind for a while: does this Buckler shield look like a Helium atom?

There is an episode of Stargate SG-1 called "The Torment of Tantalus". A researcher named Ernest Littlefield has been stranded alone on a alien planet for over 50 years since 1945. The planet was called Heliopolis and was at one point the centre of power for Ra - a parasitic snake-like alien that lived inside a human host and presented himself as a god to the people of Earth. But long before this the planet was once the meeting place of 4 alien groups who communicated using the universal language - atoms.

I think it possible that one of the more subtle layers of Elden Ring is in using references to the periodic table of the elements to fill in some gaps in knowledge.

Summation of Sets - counting Rivets and Gemstones

For reasons that will become apparent later, the Buckler Shield is actually not the best example to start with because it is too generic and represents a few too many possibilities. Two better examples would be the Riveted Shield and Moon of Nokstella as both examples could be construed as referencing the moon (Selene):

Riveted Wooden Shield: Outer ring: 12 electrons - magnesium (Mg) Inner detail: 22 electrons - titanium (Ti) Combined: 34 electrons - selenium (Se)

Moon of Nokstella: Ring of small gems: 34 electrons - selenium (Se) Gems in settings: 4 electrons - beryllium (Be) Combined: 38 electrons - strontium (Sr)

I had an entire other post breaking down the elements of the Moon of Nokstella. But here I will run through the Riveted Wooden Shield.

The Riveted Wooden Shield is starting equipment for the Warrior class and the image upon it is of a sword and tree. The most likely reading of this is that the "tree" is represented as a conifer above ground and it's root system below ground, and the sword bisects these horizontally. The odd curvature of lines above and below the sword tip suggests also that the sword pierces a round object - perhaps an eye or full moon. The aesthetic of the Warrior implies a connection with the Blind Swordsman who long ago sealed the God of Rot, and indeed the head piece of this set covers and blinds the right eye (from the vantage of someone looking at the character). The right eye is associated with the eye of Horus and the moon in contrast to the left eye being the eye of Ra and the sun.

Magnesium, Titanium, and Selenium are all elements with connection to Greece. Selenium is named for Selene, the Ancient Greek word for the moon. Being the synthesis of inner and outer rivets this indicates the end product of the Blue Dancer/Blind Swordsman's actions - creation of a moon. As discussed further with the Moon of Nokstella, I believe this to be creation of the black moon or dark moon as selenium is a dark silvery metal.

Titanium is named similarly for the Greek Titans. The Titans were the pre-Olympian gods such as Gaia (earth), her son and husband Uranus (sky), their 6 male children, and 6 female children. The most well know titan is Cronus, the leader of the Titans who castrated and overthrew his father Uranus to become the god associated with the sky and the planet Saturn. The eldest of the Olympians are offspring of Cronus and Rhea: Hestia (Vesta - Virgin goddess of the hearth), Demeter (Ceres/Isis), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), and Zeus (Jupiter). Some other Titans of note are the titan Hyperion and titaness Theia whose offspring were Helios (sun), Selene (moon) and Eos (dawn). And also Iapetus, father of the Titans Atlas (who holds up the celestial spheres (stars) on his shoulders) and Prometheus (who brought fire to man).

The name of elemental magnesium "comes from Magnesia, a district of Thessaly (Greece) where the mineral magnesia alba was first found". The word "magnet" has a similar origin as natural lodestones were also found in Magnesia. In the 1st or 2nd century BC there was an astronomer and thaumaturge named Aglaonice of Thessaly who was best known as a sorceress able to 'make the moon disappear from the sky'. It is the speculation of modern astronomers that this means that she could predict the general timeframe when a lunar eclipse would occur.

"Plutarch wrote that she was "thoroughly acquainted with the periods of the full moon when it is subject to eclipse, and, knowing beforehand the time when the moon was due to be overtaken by the earth's shadow, imposed upon the women, and made them all believe that she was drawing down the moon." Peter Bicknell notes that in most lunar eclipses the Moon does not disappear completely, but simply takes on a reddish hue. The ancient sources which discuss Aglaonice do not describe such a change of colour and there is no suggestion that she failed to convince observers that she was able to draw down the Moon. Bicknell speculates that in the first and second centuries BC there was a period in which the Moon appeared significantly less bright during the lunar eclipse due to variations in solar activity, and this might explain this apparent inconsistency." - Wikipedia article on Aglaonice

Overall, the point is that the shield can be read as indicating a time when the old Titans were supplanted by their offspring and thrown under the earth. This coincided with the old concept of the moon being replaced with a new one, which may be characterized as a lunar eclipse. Note that the landscape of the Lands Between is built upon the bodies of giants, and those giants are of a size to operate the Giant's Forge. And in agreement with the ancient mythic nature of this reading the Warrior is the oldest of all Tarnished - as the selection screen indicates "they were all warriors once".

Speculation on the Buckler Shield

Helium (He) would actually tie in quite nicely with the themes of Elden Ring. Its name is derived from "Helios" the Greek god of the sun, as the element was first observed via 7-prism electromagnetic spectroscopy instruments aimed at the sun. The first recorded observation of helium occurred during an eclipse on 18 August 1868 (also called "The King of Siam's Eclipse") by French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen. But it was not identified as a new element until a second astronomer - Norman Lokyer - observed the same spectral reading from England in October 1868 and confirmed the discovery with the help of chemist Edward Frankland.

Helium is the only element to have been first discovered in outer space before being found on earth and is very abundant in both the sun and the planet Jupiter in our solar system. It was later found on earth and isolated by chemist William Ramsay in 1895. Ramsay was also known for discovering Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon, and for isolating and characterizing Radon in 1910. Helium has many industrial applications such as the cooling of superconducting magnets, arc welding, growing crystals for silicon wafers and as a safer gas for lifting airships than the flammable hydrogen gas. It is generated through alpha particle decay of radioactive elements.

Buckler

A small metal roundshield. The bump in the center enables parrying techniques. A well-timed parry can break an enemy's stance, allowing a critical hit. Best suited for those prepared to take the risk to reap their reward.

The Buckler is starting equipment for the bandit class, or sold by Gatekeeper Gostoc. And based on this available information there is nothing that immediately stands out as relating to the shield being connected to helium. Although helium does have a fairly stable nucleus relative to its neighbours hydrogen and lithium, it is not what it is known for, and it is certainly not a metal. The description of the bump in the centre enabling parrying brings to mind the way that the nuclei of atoms will prefer to repel each other, thus performing nuclear fusion requires particles to be accelerated towards each other at very high speeds. Californium and Berkelium have been produced by bombarding Curium with alpha particles, Mendelevium is produced by bombarding Einsteinium with alpha particles.

There is a secondary explanation that fits - which is actually the first one that I had thought of. There is a theme in Elden Ring of shells. Turtles have shells that are symbolic of protecting secrets, snakes have shells (which don't match their species), the sorcerers have trays of shells sitting in their rises. One of the successful models of the atom is to arrange the electrons in shells, where the valence electrons in the outermost shell are available for bonding. It was coincidentally Edward Frankland again who introduced the concept of valence in the same year as the discovery of helium.

The Buckler is made of an unspecified metal, and as it happens there are many elements which are found with 2 valence electrons in their outer shell. These include Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Nickel (Ni), Cobalt (Co), Yttrium (Y), Vanadium (V), Scandium (Sc), Technetium (Tc), Cadmium (Cd), Lutetium (Lu), Hafnium (Hf), Tantalum (Ta), Tungsten (W), Rhenium (Re), Osmium (Os), Iridium (Ir), Mercury (Hg). As well as the entire alkaline earth metal group of Beryllium (Be), Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca), Strontium (Sr), Barium (Ba), and Radium (Ra). Whittled down the periodic table to a mere 23 or so entries of interest - not bad! And at least 10 of these (in bold) were already thought by me to be elements of interest.

And by the traces of rust on the shield the "metal" in question could be simply iron. Iron has two electrons in the outer shell and is the heaviest element produced by the sun with nuclear fusion. Iron represents a transition point - for lighter elements energy is produced by nuclear fusion and for heavier elements energy is produced by nuclear fission. Although the Earth's core is largely composed of iron, most available elemental iron in the earth's crust originated from meteorites.

This post is just an introduction to the kinds of things that I'm thinking about, really. Assuming the convention that rivets represent electrons there are so many other shields to sift through and cross reference with the other known information to confirm a real pattern. Other possible elemental references I have noticed: the variety of flame colours found in game being reminiscent of the colours produced in burning metals for flame tests; characters whose names or story themes represent mythological figures who have elements named for them; characters whose names contain a syllable that is a standard abbreviation for an element; and known types of metals incorporated in descriptions and visuals like gold, silver, copper, bronze, brass, iron, steel, etc.

And also, the buckler shield may be present in Elden Ring but it originated at least as early as Dark Souls. So that begs the question of how long ago could FromSoft have started playing with elemental metaphor go that uses the true atomic elements of the periodic table as inspiration lurking beneath an alchemical framing device.

[foodfightnovelization]

Chapter 1: Analysis and Discussion

So we're starting where almost every good story starts: at the beginning. But even before the beginning, we have to talk about the inside cover page. It's not mentioned on the front, but here we can see this was written by children's author Irene Trimble. I'm only taking the time to point this out so A. People know who wrote this, and B. because Irene Trimble ALSO wrote the junior novelization for Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, a movie which is very conceptually similar to Foodfight. (Even down to being mostly about original characters and only featuring famous ones in cameo roles). Lawrence Kasanoff, Joshua Wexler, Sean Derek, Rebecca Swanson and Brent Friedman are also given writing credit, although this is clearly just for the script to the movie itself.

Anyway with that out of the way, the first page of Chapter 1 is mostly identical to what's seen in the finished film- the last customer of the night says goodbye to Leonard, the manager, as he closes up the supermarket for the day. The dialogue is even exactly the same! So nothing much to talk about so far. Incidentally though, in an early trailer for the movie from 2002, the sign above Leonard's supermarket says "Carlson's Market". In the finished movie from 2012 however, the sign says "Marketropolis Market" (which is a far worse name, in my opinion). Here neither name is used, so I guess we'll never know what the store is called in this version of the story!

The following page of Chapter 1 continues as the lights of the grocery store shut off and the place closes for the night. For a brief second everything is still, and then it miraculously comes to life, transforming into a bustling metropolis. The shelves turn into buildings, and the mascots of various products turn into "Ikes" (short for "brand icons"). This term isn't used right away in the novelization, however it's used so frequently in the movie itself and also later in the book that I think we should establish the preferred nomenclature right away.

Anyway, with the supermarket now full of life we focus in on a "large bird in glasses" who sees a helium balloon drifting across the store and says "We're in a pickle now!". It's not explicitly spelled out, but this is clearly supposed to be the Vlasic Stork (the mascot for a real-life brand of pickles.) Presumably they couldn't get the rights to any real-world brands for the novelization, so it's just being alluded to here as much as possible without saying his name. This is a trend that's also seen in author Irene Trimble's later work on the Wreck-It Ralph novelization, where none of the videogame characters are actually named but instead just implied (e.g. simply referring to Zangeif from Street Fighter as a large Russian wrestler.) The Vlasic Stork also doesn't have any dialogue in the actual movie, so it's up to interpretation whether this line was added to the novelization to clarify who he was, or if it was in the movie at one point but cut out.

Riding the helium balloon is Fat Cat Burglar, the mascot for the Fat Cat Litter brand. In the movie, this character is introduced without explaining who he is or what he's the Ike for, so it's nice to get some clarification here. We also get introduced to our main character, Dex Dogtective, the mascot for Cinnamon Sleuth cereal. In the novelization, he jumps from atop his shelf onto the giant balloon, but in the movie he's introduced already standing atop it. In general, this whole sequence so far has played out slightly differently to how it does in the movie, but not enough to be hugely noteworthy so far.

Okay, here we are on the next page and just like I did a few paragraphs ago, the book has established that brand icons are named "Ikes" in this world. It's good to be ahead of the curve though, right? Dex tells Fat Cat Burglar to hand over a basket of stolen kittens or else- this dialogue is mostly identical to how it is in the movie. However, of note is that Fat Cat Burglar is described as an "overstuffed cat" here, with mention of him twirling his whiskers. Now, I don't know if you've seen the actual movie (Please say you have I can't imagine why you'd be reading this blog if you haven't) but in the movie, Fat Cat Burglar is clearly a giant rat.

I mean, look at him, that's a rat. There's no two ways about it, there's no mistaking him for an entirely different species. So either Irene Trimble read the script and just assumed from the name that Fat Cat Burglar was a cat himself, OR at some point during production the character WAS actually a cat and this was changed later on. We may never know! But here, in the novelization, we can say for sure that he's a cat. Moving on, the rest of the page continues very similar to the movie- Fat Cat sends a group of hamster henchmen after Dex with the intention of pulverizing him.

Dex proceeds to beat up the hamsters with some slick martial arts moves before throwing them off the balloon with a roundhouse kick. This doesn't happen in the movie at all- already the differences are starting to add up. In the movie, he simply throws a piece of cheese off the balloon and the hamsters mindlessly run after it before falling Looney Tunes-style into the streets below. It's just Dex and Fat Cat now, and Dex demands he hand over the basket of kittens. Fat Cat refuses, and explains he needs to use the cats to make "black market Kitty Litter cookies" and Dex takes the time tell him this idea is in fact terrible and weird. Again, the explanation for why he's stealing kittens in the first place isn't in the movie either! 4 pages in (there are 128 total) and there are already so many differences! It makes you wonder just how different the rest of the novelization is gonna be, right?

Dex punctures the balloon with a cocktail sword and catches the kittens in midair, before using his price tag gun like a whip/lasso (think Indiana Jones) to hook onto a nearby building and land himself safely in nearby Produce Park. In the movie, Fat Cat gets a line of dialogue as the balloon flies away crying "I just wanna be loved...IS THAT SO WRONG?" that isn't present here at all, but that's about the only difference.

Dex hands over the basket of kittens to Hairy Hold, a fox Ike and the mascot for a brand of hair-care products. This character isn't a part of the scene in the movie, and in fact isn't introduced until later on, but here the novelization briefly tells us who he is and what Dex thinks about him. Dex also changes out of his leather jacket and hat (again, think Indiana Jones) into a fancy white tuxedo, however in the movie he's still in his adventuring getup for the rest of the scene.

As Chapter 1 draws to a close, we're introduced to Hedda Shopper, a newspaper reporter who remarks this is the five-hundredth case he's solved as head of the USDA (the United Supermarket Defense Association, not the United States Department of Agriculture) and asks what his secret is. Dex delivers his catchphrase "The secret's inside", and the chapter draws to a close. There's not a whole lot to say here as this exchange is identical to how it is in the movie.

So, that's Chapter 1 of this strange, strange book. 6 pages in and there are already major diversions from the movie, which is common for novelizations (they're usually based on earlier drafts of a movie's script, e.g. the infamous Back To The Future novelization) but it's especially interesting with Foodfight as it had such a troubled production, and like I mentioned at the start of this blog this appears to be the only copy of the novelization in existence so nobody else has EVER seen this. It's cool to get some insight on how this movie changed over the course of production, right? And that's not even getting into the changes to the story made in later chapters... if you thought THIS was different from the final film, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Stay tuned for the analysis/discussion of Chapter 2, coming soon!

[your-god-empress-lavender]

Henrow blorbo

first off, ohmyfuckinggodyouaresocoolllllllllllllllll

secondly, what ya workin' on currently? <- is deathly interested, yes please please please info dump if you have the spoons

- Ryan

Bonjour my furry friend. At the moment i'm mostly working on getting a job so that i can afford rent, but when i'm not doing that, i'm working on designing some new N-substituted 5MeO-tryptamines (in order to avoid being banned for breaking tumblr TOS, i can't say exactly what for, but if you look up 5MeO-tryptamines, you should see). So far i've only managed to make things that make me super sleepy (and maybe a tiny bit inebriated), so presumably my body is mainly metabolizing them into melatonin. I also have been working on working through the details of making a rocket engine which relies on both muon catalyzed fusion and z-pinch fusion (mostly because even though i know it's way above what i'm probably capable of, i just love space so much i desperately need to see it for myself and i figure that since rockets are so absurdly expensive, the only way i'll end up in space is if we can get a whole new generation of ultra-efficient rockets (for example, given p-N14 fusion, if we manage to get 1% or more (i don't really expect more than 0.1% max, but still) of the hydrogen fusing with nitrogen, we'd be able to put 150 tons on the moon from earth with only using about enough fuel to fill a small car (instead of needing a skyscraper sized rocket to send maybe 30 tons)). Now, if it were as easy as my calculations show it to be, i can't imagine how there are any rockets flown that aren't fusion, but seeing as i haven't even made a working proof of concept yet, i'm not in a position to criticize the thousands of aerospace engineers who are working on conventional chemical rockets. I love fusion because it's simultaneously so easy (i live pretty close to an old uranium mine where i can actually pan some uranium out of the creek near me, then use that uranium to make a neutron source (B10(α,n)) which is really just fusion between helium and boron, happening at room temperature because of how high energy the α particles released by uranium are) and so absurdly difficult (without catalysts like muons, it requires absurdly high temperatures and pressures that almost always take more energy put in than they can give out). Anyway, i've also been sorta working on studying a material that a while back i got way too excited over and may have called a room temperature superconductor (almost certainly not the case), but in an attempt to make it more pure and study it for real i've been trying to work on the exact calculations of its composition and finding a better way to heat it up to high temperatures (i might just put it in a flat-bottomed flask, especially since it finally warmed up enough for me to go back outside where the fumes released by its production won't make folks mad).

And then there's the biological experiments, currently with electroceutical tissue modifications since most of the other projects i have planned require me to have a gene printer capable of reliably printing genes thousands of base pairs long and i'm not sure when i'll be able to build that. The most recent thing i've been working on is really exciting because if it works it means that i've successfully done something that has never been done before to a human body (and given the long lasting pain in that part of my thigh, it seems very possible it is working), but i'm hesitant about sharing what the project is because i don't really want folks putting gap junction blockers, calcium channel blockers, and sodium channel blockers into open wounds without knowing how to do it safely and correctly to get the desired results and not just a really messed up wound. If/when this experiment turns out well, i might give directions in private, but i'm still somewhat hesitant due to the risks inherent in this (the biggest and most likely is literally giving yourself a form of cancer, something i'm not eager for others to risk). Soon i might try chemical dedifferentiation of skin cells (thinking on my back or upper arms) followed by some mildly dangerous experiments to test how reliably i can make it turn into other cell types. And while i haven't made good work on it in a while, i've also been trying to make something similar to shimmer from arcane (ideally not addictive or harmful to the user, but most importantly the quick energy burst, decreased pain, and increased regenerative abilities (obviously it won't be anywhere near as dramatic as in the show, so calling it shimmer may not really make sense, but it is where i got the inspiration)).

Then i suppose there's the battery project i was talking about in my last post, and i'm also trying to learn how to make alcohol under my desk (i mean, it's super easy, it just doesn't taste great). There might be a few more things i'm working on but rn i'm super eepy and have talked about a lot already. If this seems like i'm doing a lot or impressive, also note that i'm actively failing out of college (for my own pride: the material is super easy and mostly i already know it, i just can't stand wasting so much of my time doing homework that doesn't help anyone or anything) and not yet working a job, so i have a lot of time and so much free brainspace to think about and do all this. I also work very slowly on each thing because i keep bouncing back and forth between all of them and almost always end up adding new projects before i've finished the old ones and so i almost never see a project all the way through to completion (at least some of the bio projects are just sitting in my body and i am just waiting to see how they turn out in the next 2-3 months, so those necessarily will see completion, even if it's failure). I really hope i see the fusion rocket to completion because if i don't think i'll ever be able to see the earth from afar or the moon from up close.

[homestar1812]

Inspired by @ashwii and their Celestial TMNT AU, I wanted to take a crack at Sun Raph while adding my own spin to it. Not that I don’t love the design already, I just thought of some nifty facts about our actual Sun that might be cool incorporated into Sun Raph.

His shell, instead of flames or spikes, is a fusion reaction of highly dense gases resulting in the production of helium and intense white light. Or in Raph’s case more reddish light to get the appropriate color aesthetic lol. Basically don’t look at him from the back you’ll go blind. If you wanna see what’s happening behind the glowing light you gotta use SWAP satellite imaging, making it look more like a molten lava core for a shell like you see in all those cool solar images from NASA.

I also love the art of Raph with an alligator snapping turtle tail, and the first thing I thought of was a Charizard’s flaming tail and how sick that would look on a sun inspired turtle. His spikes aren’t true spikes here, instead spots where solar flares and excess energy from his internal fusion reactions are released giving it a flaming effect. Solar events are what determine the size of his spike flames and bandana (particle storms, coronal mass ejections, ect). When solar storms aren’t occurring his bandana and flames appear smaller.

Though it would also make sense for solar storms to be directly linked to his emotions lol. When he’s angry the heat and light is massive, making human scientist panic that the next solar event is gonna hit earth and destroy life as we know it.

[arthurdrakoni]

Flag of the Dominion of Manchukuo

This is the flag of the Dominion of Manchukuo. It comes from a world where the World Wars never happened. There were still tension between the major colonial powers, and occasional flare-ups, but no major wars ever occurred. Thought, it wasn’t all fun and games. The Austro -Hungarian Empire suffered a rather nasty collapse. Russia still suffered a civil war, and the royal family were executed, but the Whites came out on top. Still, a major worldwide war thankfully remains only a hypothetical scenario.  

Japan sought to expand its empire much as it did in our world. Korea still became a Japanese colony, as in our world, but Japan didn’t try to suppress Korean culture to the extent that it did in our world. In fact, forced assignation programs were officially ended by the late 1920s. As in our timeline, the Qing Dynasty of China was overthrown and replaced by a republic. However, Japan acted as a peacekeeping force to ensure stability within the fledgling Republic of China. Japan also invested money into joint economic ventures within China. However, in return, Japan requested preferential treatment in all trade agreements with China. Japan also requested that Manchuria be ceded to them, which China readily agreed to. Thus, the province of Manchukuo was born. 

Manchukuo provided raw materials for Japan’s growth and expansion, as well as new living space for Japanese citizens. Manchukuo provided a launch pad for the next phase of Japan’s expansion. Japan would not just expand outwards across East Asia, but also upwards into space itself. However, this could not be a task that Japan could accomplish on its own. Japan courted the United States of America as a partner by appealing to the economic opportunities a space program would create. Manchukuo served as the heart of Japan’s rocket production and launch facilities. The other major colonial powers initially didn’t pay the Japanese-American space program much mind. Then the first artificial satellite was launched, and then the first manned space flight. The nations of Europe really sat-up when Japan and America made major advances towards the Moon. Japan and American intended to set-up settlements to mine resources from the Moon. Britain, France, and Germany soon established their own joint space program to compete with Japan and America. 

The 20th Century was marked not by wars and totalitarianism, but by progress and optimism. The major powers of the world achieved major advances in spaceflight and technological innovation. America and Japan added other nations to their space alliance. China was first, but Mexico and Cuba followed soon as well. Mexico and Cuba enjoy a standard of living equal to that of America, and are largely free of corruption. The Philippines, upon receiving their independence, also joined the alliance, and enjoys economic prosperity equal to that of Japan and America.  

By the present day, numerous permeant colonies have been established across the solar system. The nations of the Pan-Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere are particularly well represented. Still, the members of the London-Berlin-Paris-Rome Axis are certainly no slouches when it comes to space colonization. Nuclear fusion reactors, running on helium-3 from the lunar mines, provides clean and cheap power for much of the world. Advances have also been made in the efficiency of solar panels, and floating wind turbine balloons capture the strong breezes of the upper atmosphere. Artificial intelligence and the Internet are even more advanced than in our own timeline. Decolonization still occurred, but the former colonial powers made sure to invest in the economies and infrastructure of their former colonies. Most former colonies still have strong ties to their former rulers. Some colonies opted to become incorporated into their parent nations. For example, Gabon opted to become part of the French metropole.  

Japan allowed Manchukuo to receive increased autonomy over the years. Eventually, Manchukuo became a self-governing dominion of the Japanese Empire. Manchukuo even has its own royal family, via a cadet branch of the Qing royal family. Manchukuo is reasonably happy with its relationship to Japan. Recently, however, several revelations have shaken this good will. It has come to light the Japan used slave labor from Manchukuo and Korea at several of its rocket facilities during the early days of the space program. These slave laborers were typically poltical dissidents, and those deemed undesirable by the Japanese government. The 21st Century has a general feeling of optimism. And yet, many wonder what other skeletons Japan is hiding in its closet. 

The flag features the color gold, a traditional symbol of Manchuria. It features the imperial seal of Manchukuo in the center. The white is to offset the gold bands, and pairs well with the gold. The flag ratio is a Canadian Pale, though in the world of the flag, the term is instead known as the Manchukuo Pale.

Link to the original flag on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2022/05/flag-of-dominion-of-manchukuo.html?m=0