#limiting

[funkyglitch]

u ever jus wonder why you cant do shit right?

ya me too. what will it take for me to gain the ability to fly 😞😞😞 without airplanes or flying vehicles

[kaiboone]

Amity: how did your first T shot go, Luz?

Luz, still shaking like a leaf after breaking a blood vessel: I’m a pro at it!

[howifeltabouthim]

These were impositions, defining categories that failed to recognize the muddle that is us, human beings.

Siri Hustvedt, from The Blazing World

[lavideenrose]

It's so limiting to say what something is. It becomes nothing more than that.

David Lynch

[mykl]

The best way i know to complete a to-do list is limiting it to three monosyllabic tasks.

[spitblaze]

[guy who doesnt watch shows voice] yeah ive been meaning to watch that show

[gayvampyr]

and my personal favorite:

i love getting validation as a lefty but also learning about new fun ways it continues to suck

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Nissan Harlecube, 2009. A special edition of the third generation (Z12) Cube

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

as an aroace person with limited sexual experience, no interest in watching porn, and poor sex ed as a teen, there IS something simultaneously funny and vaguely tragic about being 28 adult years old and realising how extremely tiny your frame of reference is for genitalia and deciding you should expand this to better understand bodies (yours and others). and then you're just there like "okay so what the fuck do I even google right now, anyway"

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[william-snekspeare]

alternate take on my other steve comic.

help me afford new socks

[bored-boring-and-tired]

i propose that instead of pride month, we have queer year (queer people are treated like actual people all year long)

edit: @ilackhumanqualities wins best addition to this post

[jcmarchi]

For MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Faith Brooks, the sky’s the limit

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/for-mit-whoi-joint-program-student-faith-brooks-the-skys-the-limit/

For MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Faith Brooks, the sky’s the limit

Faith Brooks, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, has had a clear dream since the age of 4: to become a pilot.

“At around 8 years old, my neighbor knew I wanted to fly and showed me pictures of her dad landing a jet on an aircraft carrier, and I was immediately captivated,” says Brooks. Further inspired by her grandfather’s experience in the U.S. Navy (USN), and owing to a lifelong fascination with aviation, she knew nothing would stand in her way.

Brooks explored several different paths to becoming a pilot, but she says one conversation with her longtime mentor, Capt. Matt Skone, USN (Ret.), changed the trajectory of her life.

“He asked if I had heard of the Naval Academy,” she recalls. “At the time, I hadn’t … I immediately knew that that was where I wanted to go, and everything else I learned about United States Naval Academy (USNA) reinforced that for me.”

In her “firstie” (senior) year at the USNA, Brooks was selected to go to Pensacola, Florida, and train to become a naval pilot as a student naval aviator, taking her one step closer to her dream. The USNA also helped guide her path to MIT. Her journey to joining the MIT-WHOI Joint Program began with the USNA’s professional knowledge curriculum, where she read about retired Capt. Wendy Lawrence SM ’88, a naval aviator and astronaut.

“Reading her bio prompted me to look into the program, and it sounded like the perfect program for me — where else could you get a better education in ocean engineering than MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [WHOI]?”

In the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, Brooks is researching the impact of coastal pond breaching on preventing and mitigating harmful algal blooms. Her work focuses on the biannual mechanical breaching of Nantucket’s Sesachacha Pond to the ocean and the resultant impact on the pond’s water quality. This practice aims to improve water quality and mitigate harmful algal blooms (HABs), especially in summer.

Breaching in coastal ponds is a process that was initially used to enhance salinity for herring and shellfish habitats, but has since shifted to address water quality concerns. Traditionally, an excavator creates a breach in the pond, which naturally closes within one to five days, influenced by sediment transport and weather conditions. High winds and waves can accelerate sediment movement, limiting ocean water exchange and potentially increasing eutrophication, where excessive nutrients lead to dense plant growth and depletion of oxygen. In brackish water environments, harmful algal blooms are often driven by elevated nitrogen levels and higher temperatures, with higher nitrogen concentrating leading to more frequent and severe blooms as temperatures rise.

The Nantucket Natural Resources Department (NRD) has been collaborating with local homeowners to investigate the pond breaching process. Existing data are mainly anecdotal evidence and NRD’s monthly sampling since 2022, which has not shown the expected decrease in eutrophication. Brooks’ research will focus on data before, during, and after the breach at two pond sites to assess water changes to evaluate its effectiveness in improving water quality.

When Brooks isn’t knee-deep in the waters of the Sesachacha or training with her MIT Triathlon team, she takes additional opportunities to further her education. Last year, Brooks participated in the MIT-Portugal Marine Robotics Summer School in Faial, Azores, in Portugal, and immersed herself in a combination of a hands-on design projects and lectures on a variety of topics related to oceanography, engineering, and marine robotics.

“My favorite part of the program was how interdisciplinary it was. We had a combination of mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, marine biologists, and oceanographers, and we had teams that included each of these specialties,�� she says. “Our project involved designing a lander equipped with an underwater camera connected to a surface buoy that would transmit the footage. Having worked in mostly just engineering teams previously, it was a great experience to work with a more diverse group and I gained a much better understanding of how to design instruments and systems in accordance with what the marine biologists need.”

Brooks also earned her Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) license to operate the lab’s drone with a multispectral camera for her upcoming fieldwork. When she graduates from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program next September, she’ll report to the Naval Aviation Schools Command in Pensacola, Florida, to begin flight training.

While she says she’ll miss Boston’s charm and history, as well as the Shining Sea Bikeway on crisp fall days in Woods Hole, Brooks is looking forward to putting her uniform back on, and starting her naval career and flight school. The time Brooks has spent at MIT will support her in these future endeavors. She advises others interested in a similar path to focus on research within their areas of interest.

“The biggest lesson that I’ve learned from both research theses is that any research project will change over time, and it’s often a good idea to take a step back and look at how your work fits into the larger picture,” she says. “I couldn’t recommend doing research more; it’s such a great opportunity to dig into something that you’re interested in, and is also very fulfilling.” 

[tenth-sentence]

There is the caring for community, land and culture that produces these skills in perpetuity (bad for business) and then there is the economic necessity to make products by and for individuals, products that must be limitable and excludable in order to have a price.

"Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking" - Tyson Yunkaporta

[tubbytarchia]

Thank god for Sketchfab. Drawing the car was so worth it