#Taking the first horse and running

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: September 4

“Paint My Face” by The Devil Makes Three

[foccaccia]

does anyone have recommendations for fictional media that has like. actual lesbians in it. not like supergirl Two White Skinny Girls, One Blonde and One Brunette Kiss media, or "its implied lesbianism!!!" but just regular fucking lesbians

[jorvikzelda]

I started reading Lord of the Rings (bought Fellowship of the Ring like… last spring but never got around to starting) and I’d just like to say. Holy fuck what a slow book. You mean to tell me I’m over a hundred pages in and this man is only just leaving the Shire? Sign me up for MORE I love this shit. Tolkien said “I will take exactly as much time as I want to describe things and you will like it”. AND I DO

[m00ngbin]

Uh so there's a baby crying in the background. Btw.

[ratatatastic]

when i say that forsblad ring picture has law firm vibes this is what i mean

[reflectionsofgalaxies]

god, grief hits you at the weirdest fucking times

[afaroffsong]

.

Once or twice a year I am hit by a massive wave of homesickness for America that makes me literally nauseous and almost feverish. Anyway I am metaphorically turning my heart inside out as I think about junky old Lincoln, Nebraska and a mice-infested farmhouse and living off of food stamps.

[peofun1]

let's talk about how I made an "equines" deck (unicorns, pegasi, horses, ect) kind of as a meme deck but it actually goes fucking crazy

Lathiel is the commander and there's nothing quite like playing a lame 2/2 lifelink pegasus, and then a few turns later it's an 8/8 flier and if it attacks I can make it a 16/16

[toonfinatic]

People calling men that are barely below average height "short kings" are WEAK and will not survive the winter much less any season... instead start calling men under 5 foot short kings or die by my blade!!!!!

[cerbreus]

i may be bad at many, many video games. but i am comically bad at rdr2

[sirfrogsworth]

How do you take a photo of time?

I've been watching the track events at the Olympics since I was a wee lad. It was a tradition in our family. We'd gather around our ancient low-definition 19 inch CRT television and watch tiny blobs compete against other tiny blobs and root for our country.

It was a bit like watching YouTube on your phone in 144p.

Several heroes emerged.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee was amazing.

You can't forget about Flo-Jo.

And then the Olympics decided NBA players were allowed in the competition.

Which formed... The Dream Team.

Was this fair?

Well... they won each game by an average of 44 points.

So... no. It was not fair.

Though it became more fair as time went on.

But, umm... yeah. The other teams looked like the Washington Generals and the US looked like the Harlem Globetrotters if they stopped screwing around half of the game.

But my absolute favorite Olympian was a runner named Michael Johnson.

He was cool as heck.

For one thing... gold shoes.

But he also had this crazy, upright, Tom Cruise-ish sprinting style that just made him look like a running robot on the track.

And in the 1996 Atlanta games he just trounced EVERYONE. I mean, it wasn't even close.

Yikes. Those losing blobs are probably really embarrassed.

Last night I decided to invigorate my nostalgia and watch the track events again. And I got to see one of the wildest races in history.

It didn't even last 10 seconds but it was one of the most exciting sporting events I've ever witnessed. Almost every runner won the race.

After I saw that initially, I was like... who the heck won???

Even in slow motion I wasn't sure.

This was one of the closest finishes in history. There has never been a race where all 8 runners were within this margin.

The arena was silent as the winner was being confirmed. The runners just kind of paced around waiting for official word. My best guess was the Jamaican runner, Kishane Thompson. But then the loudspeaker announced Noah Lyles.

The last tiny morsel of American pride burst out of me with a big "Wooooo!"

I forgot what it was like to be proud of my country. I wish it happened more often. But this young man, despite being last place in the first 3rd of the race, turned on the afterburners and won in a photo finish.

And that's when my inner nerd took over.

Because when they showed the photo finish image, it looked super weird.

Why is the track white?

Why do all of the runners look all warpy like that QWOP game?

So I went down a research rabbit hole to figure this out.

Photo finishes are actually fascinating. The first photo finish captured the end of a horse race in 1890. But that was mostly luck and timing. The actual photo finish mechanisms weren't used until 1937.

Originally they would film the finish line through a physical slit.

And the first horsie head that appeared in that slit would be the winner. This technology ended a huge aspect of corruption in horse race fixing almost overnight.

But we have come a long way since then. And I'd like to introduce you to the Omega Scan 'O' Vision Ultimate.

This slow motion camera sits fixed on the finish line of every race. The concept of the photo finish has remained remarkably similar to the 1930s approach. The camera sensor is specially designed to only record a vertical slit.

Only the finish line itself is actually captured.

And because it limits what it records to only that slit, it can capture 40,000 frames per second to get amazing temporal resolution.

So why don't the photo finishes just look like, well... this?

That is because the camera takes a picture of time more-so than dimensional space. I guess it would be more accurate to say it *assembles* a picture of time.

As the runners cross the finish line, the camera combines all of the little strips of pictures into a single image.

It's almost like if you tried to reassemble a piece of paper after it had been shredded.

Imagine each strip of paper is a picture of ONLY the finish line, just at a slightly different point in time.

What if someone stopped on the finish line and didn't move... what would that look like?

Once they got there, the same part of their body would just be repeated.

So the right side of the photo finish picture represents earlier in time and it just assembles the image strip by strip as time passes and you literally get a picture of time itself.

NEAT!

Okay, but how do they determine the winner from the photo finish?

I mean, that shoe looks like it is ahead of Noah Lyles!

Clavicles!

The IAFF rules state the foremost part of the torso must cross the finish line first. And the endpoint of the torso is the outer end of the clavicle.

So if you get this bone across the finish line first, you win the race.

Two more fun facts!

The start of the race is actually just as carefully timed as the end of the race. There are sensors in the starting blocks of each runner.

The starting gun also has an electronic sensor.

They have determined the fastest a human can react to the sound of a gun is roughly 100 milliseconds. So if you start running before 100 milliseconds they know you didn't actually hear the gun, you just got antsy and started running too early.

And the final fun fact...

Did you notice the Omega logo at the top of the photo finish?

That isn't superimposed or added after the fact. That is captured by the camera.

But if this image is composed only of tiny little slivers, how did they get the Omega logo to show up?

That is a little display. And it is synchronized with the Scan 'O' Vision Ultimate to show a little sliver of the Omega logo for each frame captured.

So when the final image is stitched together, it looks like a cohesive logo at the top of the photo.

Pretty clever, Omega!

[snekdood]

this is so true 😩 absolutely 0 survival skills

"if we make america worse and more of a dictatorship that will be even harder to unravel and make it the way we want the country to be, maybe then everyone will join our Glorious Revolution!" bb girl you cant even be in the same room with someone who thinks you should vote, how in tf do you think you're gonna unite people to fight in The Revolution with you? it's gonna be you and your 5 friends, i hate to break it to you.

[kingpains]

i love my catsssss i love my Kitties i love them soooo much

[browncesario]

have you ever written a camp rock horse fanfiction tho

no.....i don't think i ever would i don't think those genres blend in my head?? but there was one camp rock horse au on ffn that i think had like two chapters if im remembering correctly

[reinemichele]

Translation here

Turning round and round, The revolving scarlet windmill 《Moulin Rouge》 Makes beautiful flowers bloom. Swinging up and falling down, The dancing bloodstained windmill 《Moulin Rouge》 Makes beautiful flowers scatter... At the utter mercy of destiny, The boy who laments his helpless role Will eventually desire 『power』... Is what he seeks...   A 『shield』 that defends against the powerful? Or is it... a 『sword』 that attacks to quell the mighty? I don't really understand what happened... The howling melody of lunacy 《lune harmonie》...  Nor the scorching Taste of dead flesh 《Saveur》 of meat... I don't really understand what attacked...  But I figured... just one thing...  That it's not safe here... I'll take my most important treasure 《thing》 And make a run for it →  And so, I grabbed your hand... Ah... Without understanding why, The two of us made our escape, Running until out of breath As they chased after us, a deluge of raging desire...  As if following a trail of stardust… Leading into a forest Submerged in darkness... The two of us were shaking,  Gasping for breath, not understanding why.  Fearing the flood of despair,  We held onto each other tightly— Suddenly your body and limbs are flung into the air → Your eyes, frozen in terror ←  Searing into my back as I ran away... Passing through a season 《time》 of lunacy...  The boy's 《time》 is thrust into a state of flux. Turning round and round,  The revolving scarlet windmill 《Moulin Rouge》 Releases a scorching instant 《time》. Swinging up and falling down, The dancing bloodstained windmill 《Moulin Rouge》  Captures a frozen moment 《time》. Ah... if we are to be born again… Let us make a small flower bloom. Forgive me... next time, I won't run away...  I'll scatter with dignity by your side... 《Moulin Rouge...!》

"Could there be a Roman here...?"

[rinielelrandir]

And it may also translate to "it's possible to live without a car here in some or even most neighborhoods. Others will mysteriously be transit deserts and poor & desperate people will spend over 2 hours one way commuting to/from work via bus. Even in heavily connected neighborhoods you'll definitely wish it was way better instead of severely underfunded."

At least, that's my take as someone who lives in a 3 person/1 car household in Philly. The neighborhood we're in is fantastic in terms of transit, walkability, and bike ability. But we picked it on purpose for those things, because we had the means to and didn't want to drive as much. There are stilll neighborhoods that to get to from where we are take an hour and a half or more via public transit, with multiple transfers, and infrequent routes if the weekend/holiday schedule is in use. Car though will take maybe 30 minutes in heavy traffic. And SEPTA pays its drivers like shit so even in the most well-connected neighborhoods stuff is frequently cancelled bc there just aren't enough drivers.

If a city in North America has “good public transit” what that translates to is “it’s possible to live without a car here but you’ll still wish it was way better”