#Physics History

[rubiscodisco]

The US military has done thousands of unconscionable things, each one more evil than the last, but on top of all of those things, on a minor but more spiteful level, I'll also never forgive them for what they did to Lithium

[dndspellgifs]

look, I know I've talked about this essay (?) before but like,

If you ever needed a good demonstration of the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", have I got an exercise for you.

Somebody made a small article explaining the basics of atomic theory but it's written in Anglish. Anglish is basically a made-up version of English where they remove any elements (words, prefixes, etc) that were originally borrowed from romance languages like french and latin, as well as greek and other foreign loanwords, keeping only those of germanic origin.

What happens is an english which is for the most part intelligible, but since a lot everyday english, and especially the scientific vocabulary, has has heavy latin and greek influence, they have to make up new words from the existing germanic-english vocabulary. For me it kind of reads super viking-ey.

Anyway when you read this article on atomic theory, in Anglish called Uncleftish Beholding, you get this text which kind of reads like a fantasy novel. Like in my mind it feels like it recontextualizes advanced scientific concepts to explain it to a viking audience from ancient times.

Even though you're familiar with the scientific ideas, because it bypasses the normal language we use for these concepts, you get a chance to examine these ideas as if you were a visitor from another civilization - and guess what, it does feel like it's about magic. It has a mythical quality to it, like it feels like a book about magic written during viking times. For me this has the same vibe as reading deep magic lore from a Robert Jordan book.

[laddersofsweetmisery]

I don't see enough people mourning over the slow death of physical media. And I don't just mean TV shows, video games, or movies--which don't even get me started about how we don't really 'own' anything anymore. It includes notes, journals, and letters to one another...so much of our history is lost when we lose a password, a website goes down, a file/hardware is corrupted, or a platform disappears. History that doesn't seem important until you no longer have access to it. Physical media does a lot for memory recall. How many memories will we lose because we don't have something tangible to tie it back to? Something to hold in our hands and stir up those memories we thought were once lost? Sometimes I wonder what the difference between burning a book and losing access to physical media is when someone can pull the plug and remove your access so easily.

[er-cryptid]

alright nerds--

^tried to include as many as possible

[cmaidaartworkblog]

Here's what I've been up to lately! Three years after I created the original version, here's a revamp of the first planet I mapped out for @jayrockin's "Runaway to the Stars" project, the homeworld of their Centaur aliens. This post covers Phase One: Geology.

Firstly, the Equirectangular elevation maps with and without the color gradient layer, and tectonic plate map. This color gradient marks sea level, of course, and while there are inland areas that are *also* below that elevation, I have yet to determine which of those basins have lakes and seas therein, and how their shorelines compare; *that* will be seen once I figure out the climate : ) As for the Plate map, most of the smaller, oblong plates without any rift boundaries represent island chains or continent fragments that accreted onto larger landmasses; discretely marking those was helpful for placing and shaping the mountain ranges.

Next, the Poles-Centered Perspective maps, made possible with Photopea's Polar Coordinates tool. The planet's Southern hemisphere, centered on the south pole, is seen at left, and its Northern hemisphere is seen at right. Like the previous set of three, this set includes the color elevation map, greyscale elevation map, and solid color tectonic plates.

Last of all, the basis for the planet's current appearance: it's tectonic history! These gifs, in six frames, cover about 200 million years of continental drift, starting with the breakup of two Supercontinents, and was primarily achieved in Blender. This isn't my first time trying to reconstruct a tectonic history, but it *is* my first time doing so this quickly and efficiently, thanks to the process I developed here using this planet's continents as a test case.

There will be more phases in this project completed and shared in the coming months, thanks for checking out this one! Also, I've already shared these maps on Reddit, where you should be able to see them in even higher resolution. Photopea and Blender, 2025

[somewhereincairparavel]

JASON GRACE PLAYS LACROSSE AND TENNIS. I CAN'T AND WON'T BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS-

[sthilarions]

Overall I relate more to Edwin than Charles but I’ve gotta say, as someone with a history similar to Charles’s, if someone introduced themself to me with a quiet, gentle, 100% sincere “I shan’t hurt you” I’d probably fall in love on the spot too

[humanoidhistory]

Computer room at the Nevada Test Site.

(National Archives)

[vintage-tigre]

Tennis for Two was designed by American physicist William Higinbotham in 1958 for display at the Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual public exhibition after learning that the government research institution's Donner Model 30 analog computer could simulate trajectories with wind resistance. The game was displayed on an oscilloscope and played with two custom aluminum controllers. An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time.

[s0fter-sin]

kneeling is a broad term for what ghost does with price

surrendering is slightly more accurate but even that doesn’t hope to touch the sheer desperation in the way he clutches at him; his body bowed low at his feet, his legs latched around one of his, hugging it so tightly to his chest his arms shake as he digs his face into his thigh

it’s only here that he can finally give in to the screaming; to the distant voice he strangles into silence every day of his life. the one who begs him to make himself as small as possible; do everything he can to hide from the ever encroaching demons growling and salivating at his heels

it’s only here, in the dark of price’s barracks, hidden by a bed at his back and a wall to his front, that he finally lets himself stop running; only between solid combat boots and worn fatigues does he let himself tremble and admit to the choking fear

he’d break open price’s chest if he could; crawl past his gushing viscera and curl up under his ribs, hidden in the warm dark

ghost clawed his way out of the grave with broken nails and gritted teeth but he wouldn’t mind being buried again if it meant being cradled in the safety of price’s insides. his warm blood and soft lungs would blanket him, mask the stench of his rotten flesh until he could even convince himself that, maybe, he too was still alive

he shifts, unnerved by his own longing, and price runs his hand over the crown of his mask the same way he’d card it through his hair until he settles once more

he grounds him over the long hours it takes for his white-knuckled grip to relax into a loose hold; for his face to stop grinding into the meat of his thigh and simply rest in his lap, his bracketing legs the only thing holding his lax body up as he floats, untethered by fear

[cy-cyborg]

This is just a not-so friendly reminder to non-disabled people, especially authors, people in fandoms or in media analysis circles: Cripple/crippled is not just a fancy way of faying "badly injured". it's not an adjective you can just throw in to spice up your sentence because you used "injured" or "disabled" too many times in that paragraph, or because you feel like it gives your writing some extra "oomph".

Cripple is a slur.

A slur the physically disabled community has been asking people not to use for DECADES, since at least the 1970's (50 years). It's a slur with centuries of abuse behind it, centuries of being used to justify physically disabled people as less-than, centuries of demonisation, mistreatment, ostracization, and murder.

Some people within the physical disability community are reclaiming it, that's where movements like cripplepunk (also known as crip-punk or C-punk) come from. That's fine, I'm not talking about that. I love the cripplepunk movement and everything it stands for: being unapologetic about our disabilities and not changing ourselves for the comfort or convenience of able-bodied folks. But the people who use it in that context understand the history of the word, they know how it was used to hurt us, and they understand that not everyone in the physically disabled community is comfortable with the use of the word, especially those who were around when someone being labelled as "crippled" was seen as a valid reason to treat them as less than human. They understand the impact of the word.

But If you, as an able bodied person, casually uses "cripple" in your work, at best you are showing your disabled audience that you haven't been listening to us, at worst, you show you don't care about weather we feel safe in the spaces you have created.

And for able-bodied authors specifically, even if your character is physically disabled, I'd still recommend avoiding it unless you're prepared to do a LOT of sensitivity readings from multiple sensitivity readers. I've been physically disabled since I was 1 year old, I learned to walk for the first time in prosthetics and have been using a wheelchair since I was in school, I have no memory of life as an able-bodied person, and even I don't feel comfortable using the word cripple in my work.

It's a loaded word, with a lot of implications and a LOT of very dark, and for some people, very recent history. It's not a sentence enhancer to just throw in willy-nilly. Please.

[kafkasapartment]

Eratosthenes was an ancient Greek mathematician who calculated the Earth's circumference over 2,000 years ago. On the summer solstice, he measured the angle of a shadow in Alexandria, where it was about 7 degrees, while no shadow was cast in Syene. By determining the distance between the two cities and using basic geometry, he estimated the Earth's circumference to be around 40,000 kilometers, which is remarkably close to the modern measurement of 40,030 kilometers.

And it has Carl Sagan in it. The video doesn’t just demonstrate a science fact, but how critical thinking works, asking why and how, then design a way to test if something is true,

[my-deer-friend]

We took a wrong turn as a society when we entirely subordinated friendship to romantic love.

"They're just friends" ???

What about this profound human bond is so inferior to you? Must someone really be sticking their dick somewhere before you dare to call it love?

[facts-i-just-made-up]

What was the name of the feller who invented the wheel

Her name was Bleez, daughter of Vlarg. She invented the wheel shortly after inventing geometry.

The year was 47,481 B.C.E., around late March, and Gmorgu was piling rocks outside his cave to throw at Vlarg should Vlarg return to try to steal his flint again. Gmorgu had 6 rocks, but didn’t know this consciously. Certainly he understood he had an amount of rocks, and that he would have several throws should he miss Vlarg with a couple. But this was the dawn of humankind and curiosity was the hottest new thing. Gmorgu wondered- How many rocks could he throw at Vlarg? This was the first time a human being yearned to quantify anything.

Gmorgu developed a quick system: If he threw one rock, he would have five rocks left. If he threw two rocks left, he would have four rocks, and so on. Gmorgu laughed with his ingenuity. He had just invented subtraction. He wondered if any more operations were possible, and no sooner had he added a seventh rock to his pile did he realize this too was a sort of counterpart to his previous mathematical invention.

Vlarg came over the hill looking shifty. He had come for Gmorgu’s flint. Gmorgu grunted but Vlarg looked to run past him. Gmorgu threw the first rock, and divided Vlarg’s skull in half, thus inventing both division and fractions. His number of available operations had tripled and he realized this too was an operation, multiplication.

Thus the four common mathematical operations were born. But that day of genius was far from over:

It was then that Vlarg’s daughter, Bleez, discovered her father wounded and howled by his side. Gmorgu grunted at her to take the body away from him, for he had sought to steal Gmorgu’s flint. Bleez grunted back that it was originally the community’s flint and Gmorgu was being greedy by keeping it for himself. Gmorgu did not relent, he went back into his cave. Bleez then did something she’d wanted to do since Gmorgu hoarded the flint in the first place- She walked up the hill to the precarious boulder that stood over Gmorgu’s cave and pushed it over.

It rolled down the hill at an angle of 36° and a speed of 14mph, covering 3.141 times its radius with each rotation, lodging itself and covering the entrance of Gmorgu’s cave with an area of 14ft² all to Bleez’s watchful and annotative eye. So it was that Bleez, not a moment after the invention of math itself, invented the fundamentals of geometry, defeated Gmorgu, and avenged her father.

She did this all by means of intuition, and never wrote down her greatest discovery that day- She had just become the first human being to make active and intentional use of the laws of gravity, and in so doing, also invented the wheel.

Later in life she also invented popcorn but this is not relevant to the story at hand and furthermore, it was not buttered so we don't care.

[marzipanandminutiae]

why are skirts inherently evil and oppressive in historical fiction until men are wearing them

I've never heard anyone going on at length about how Universally ImpracticalTM the garb of a Scotsman or an ancient Roman politician are

suddenly everyone has a concept of situational practicality that previously was not there

[i-am-countess-olivia]

HMS Terror during the 1836-1837 Frozen Strait Expedition, watercolours by her captain at the time, George Back.