#seti searching

[thomlocke73]

[demigods-posts]

imagine a world where the heroes of olympus series was one big crossover. a world where we meet an eleven year old boy named jason, no last name because it reminds him of his mother — a drunk who literally threw him to the wolves as a toddler. jason, who's earliest memory is chewing on a stapler and his older sister tending to the wound on his bottom lip — but he hasn't seen or heard from her since they were separated years ago. jason, who grew up reaching for the sky like a purpose, desperate for a chance to prove himself. jason, who fought to save the world at fifteen years old. and jason, who finds himself in the grand canyon four months later with no memory of who he is or where he came from, feet away from some frantic sixteen year old girl in search of some dude named percy jackson. imagine what this could have been.

[science70]

Cosmic Search magazine No. 1, January 1979.

[geekysteven]

SETI: Finally, an alien radio signal! Hi, we're humans! Please tell us about yourself

VULCANS: uhh... sorry, my supervisor said you don't have warp engines yet, call us again when you can go really really fast. Please stay off this channel it's for fast people only

[santmat]

Worst Case SETI Scenario

Worst Case SETI Scenario, by James Bean

Say we find a habitable planet that’s virtually an earth-twin in orbit around a nearby star… like maybe Barnard’s Star. We come to see this “Barnard’s Star C” as an “Earth 2.0”.

If an ET civilization similar to ourselves (a military power with a thirst for real estate and resources) happens to reside there, they too might be looking at Earth through their end of the telescope and say to themselves: “Hey! Barnard’s Star C 2.0” and have the very same ideas about star-shot probes, exploring and eventual colonizing that we would have.

At only a distance of six light-years, our obnoxious colonizing Klingon neighbors bearing beads and blankets claiming to own the land according to their self-proclaimed superior economic system might figure out a way to get here one day. Oops! Oh well!

[uapro]

The Drake Equation: Punch your your own estimates, see how many intelligent species are out there!

[lenbryant]

Only 12 oz?

[celestialspritz]

Why Sims 2 has been so broken the last ten years

This is down to my own research, and I'm not saying it is the one and only reason why the game is so broken these days, but I have some points worth mentioning.

So, you're bored one day. You remember this game you had so much fun playing a few years ago, or maybe as a child. It's The Sims 2!

The game has a few issues than from when you last remembered playing, so you search on google for some fixes for the tiny resolution, and among the countless posts you may find, you may find this:

Or this:

(to the creators and players mentioned here this isn't me making a dig at you, i'm just pointing out some cc that could affect the game from working properly. your stuff is all beautiful :D)

Lesya's game is gorgeous!!! Oh, how can I get it to look like that?

So you, with a clean, vanilla (ugly) game you decide to download a few mods she listed, such as:

Skylines by GCKP (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Skies by Lowedeus (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Trees by Criquette (you can get optimised ones here)

No More Blurriness by Voeille (you can get optimised snow only here)

Cool! And then you notice some cheats than can give the game that open-world, interactive feel. Even better!

And you shove them into your folder and you boot up the game. Everything's going great!

Until...

You search hundreds of posts looking for the fix. Some recommend 3rd-party tools, but they seem to make the problem worse. You reinstall, finding you only wasted your time. Something has to be causing this, but you'd never guess it'd be the mods everybody swore by.

Well, in fact, it is. Partly.

I've struggled with pink flashing since 2019, when I reinstalled Sims 2 after I got a decent computer for once. I did everything above, searched for fixes, found Lesya's blog which was my primary inspiration. It was through Lesya's guide that I was able to make my game look pretty!

These mods, which are a staple in the modding community, are beautiful indeed... but what if I told you that the reason they're so beautiful, is because they're high-quality. With textures soaring up to 4k, when, hang on--

In 2004, 4k resolution was... probably unheard of. With the leading monitor size being 1024x768, what would be the point of using such huge textures on an engine that was designed for monitors of at least this size? Would you be able to see the detail of 4k on a monitor of that size? Definitely not.

The max visiting sims, okay, a little hit or miss. If your sims are all wearing high poly alpha CC, then it's a problem. If not, good luck.

Then comes the cheats I mentioned. The lot skirt cheat expands the view distance a significant amount. With the mergenhoodflora cheat, that displays more trees. Combining the two, what do you get?

A massive view distance, blinded by trees.

With skies and skylines with large textures up to 4k, and trees with textures up to 2k, The Sims 2 will collapse. It's like forcing an old man with health conditions to do 20 situps, again and again.

It'll overexert him, by the very least. And you're overexerting the game by cramming custom content that is not optimised for the engine TS2 was built on.

So please, next time you encounter the pink soup, please check your CC folders, and research changes and cheats before you put them into your game. You will enjoy the game much more if you do this, and won't encounter this problem so often.

Don't use Graphics Rules Maker

Instead, opt for a maxis original Graphics Rules uploaded here by Veronavillequiltingbee. It's essentially a rewrite of an old tutorial I made a long time ago.

Once you download the file from VVQB, open DXDIAG by pressing WinKey+R and typing 'dxdiag'.

This value I've underlined is what you need to put after seti textureMemory. Open the sgr file and do CTRL-F and input seti textureMemory.

Add the value from DXDIAG and then save it.

You can use GRM for adding your GPU to the game, but I do not recommend it for anything but that.

Optimising the game... inside the game

*shoves GRM off the table*

We're going to go into TS2 in-game settings for this one.

These settings are optimal if you play CC-heavy households. It will ease the load on your game to make space for the heavy CC you have in your current household. You can tweak these when you want to take photos outside, but for playing I recommend them all to be off - especially at community lots as there are lots of sims there.

I never see anybody talking about Object Hiding.

Object Hiding hides objects from floors that aren't in view. If you're playing downstairs, objects upstairs won't be rendered, thus minimising the load on your game.

I have reflections and smooth edges off because I use ReShade.

Snow on Ground is optional. Sometimes snow can cause pink flashing, I believe it's due to texture replacements that are huge in size too, Voeille's is 2k. I've linked a resized one above.

This post will be updated with later findings. I hope you all found it informative :]

[emperornorton47]

[mysticstronomy]

WHAT IS THE KARDASHEV SCALE??

Blog#431

Wednesday, August 28th, 2024.

Welcome back,

What might we find: little green men or microbes? How might we find them: radio waves or strange chemicals in the planet's atmosphere? Something no one has even thought of yet?

Over the decades, scientists considering the possibility of life beyond Earth have pondered what such life might look like, how humans might be able to identify it from afar — and whether communication between the two worlds might be possible.

That thinking has included developing classification systems ready to fill with aliens. One such system is called the Kardashev scale, after the Soviet astronomer who proposed it in 1964, and evaluates alien civilizations based on the energy they can harness.

The Kardashev scale is a classification system for hypothetical extraterrestrial civilizations. The scale includes three categories based on how much energy a civilization is using.

Kardashev describes type I as a "technological level close to the level presently attained on the Earth," type II as "a civilization capable of harnessing the energy radiated by its own star" and type III as "a civilization in possession of energy on the scale of its own galaxy."

Each type also includes a numerical cut-off for the energy involved, but those weren't arbitrary cut-offs. "He used things that are easy to visualize," Valentin Ivanov, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory who has built on Kardashev's work, told Space.com.

"I'm almost tempted to say it's a publicity stunt, these comparisons that he uses to make it easier for people to understand."

Kardashev's scale is included in a five-page paper published in 1964 and called "Transmission of information by extraterrestrial civilizations." (The paper was originally published in Russian, but an English translation was published the same year.)

Although the scale is what caught people's imaginations, "Transmission of information by extraterrestrial civilizations" focuses on calculating how powerful a light signal from any point of the universe would need to be for radio scientists at the time to detect it.

This value is also the numerical cut-off for the energy use of a type II civilization.

Nikolai Kardashev was a Soviet and Russian astrophysicist who died in 2019. Kardashev was roughly contemporary with early search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) leaders like Frank Drake, who published his famous equation three years before Kardashev's paper; Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison, who predicted what an extraterrestrial signal might look like; and Freeman Dyson, who pondered ways alien civilizations could surpass the limits of a planet.

In addition to his scale, Kardashev developed a technique called very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI), which uses a global network of radio dishes as one radio telescope the size of Earth. Perhaps most famously, VLBI is used by the Event Horizon Telescope to observe black holes, including producing the first ever black hole image, published in 2019.

Kardashev also proposed supplementing Earth-based network VLBI observatories with space-based telescopes to increase its observing power even more. He advocated for the Russian mission RadioAstron, which launched in 2011, to do just this sort of work, according to a review of VLBI developments.

Originally published on https://www.space.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, August 31st, 2024)

"IS THERE MORE ANTI MATTER THAN MATTER??"

[scifigeneration]

Carl Sagan’s scientific legacy extends far beyond ‘Cosmos’

by Jean-Luc Margot, Professor of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles

On Nov. 9, 2024, the world will mark Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday – but sadly without Sagan, who died in 1996 at the age of 62.

Most people remember him as the co-creator and host of the 1980 “Cosmos” television series, watched worldwide by hundreds of millions of people. Others read “Contact,” his best-selling science fiction novel, or “The Dragons of Eden,” his Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book. Millions more saw him popularize astronomy on “The Tonight Show.”

What most people don’t know about Sagan, and what has been somewhat obscured by his fame, is the far-reaching impact of his science, which resonates to this day. Sagan was an unequaled science communicator, astute advocate and prolific writer. But he was also an outstanding scientist.

Sagan propelled science forward in at least three important ways. He produced notable results and insights described in over 600 scientific papers. He enabled new scientific disciplines to flourish. And he inspired multiple generations of scientists. As a planetary astronomer, I believe such a combination of talents and accomplishments is rare and may occur only once in my lifetime.

Scientific accomplishments

Very little was known in the 1960s about Venus. Sagan investigated how the greenhouse effect in its carbon dioxide atmosphere might explain the unbearably high temperature on Venus – approximately 870 degrees Fahrenheit (465 degrees Celsius). His research remains a cautionary tale about the dangers of fossil fuel emissions here on Earth.

Sagan proposed a compelling explanation for seasonal changes in the brightness of Mars, which had been incorrectly attributed to vegetation or volcanic activity. Wind-blown dust was responsible for the mysterious variations, he explained.

Sagan and his students studied how changes to the reflectivity of Earth’s surface and atmosphere affect our climate. They considered how the detonation of nuclear bombs could inject so much soot into the atmosphere that it would lead to a yearslong period of substantial cooling, a phenomenon known as nuclear winter.

With unusual breadth in astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology, Sagan pushed forward the nascent discipline of astrobiology – the study of life in the universe. Together with the research scientist Bishun Khare at Cornell University, Sagan conducted pioneering laboratory experiments and showed that certain ingredients of prebiotic chemistry, called tholins, and certain building blocks of life, known as amino acids, form naturally in laboratory environments that mimic planetary settings.

He also modeled the delivery of prebiotic molecules to the early Earth by asteroids and comets, and he was deeply engaged in the biological experiments onboard the Mars Viking landers. Sagan also speculated about the possibility of balloon-shaped organisms floating in the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter.

His passion for finding life elsewhere extended far beyond the solar system. He was a champion of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, also known as SETI. He helped fund and participated in a systematic search for extraterrestrial radio beacons by scanning 70% of the sky with the physicist and electrical engineer Paul Horowitz.

He proposed and co-designed the plaques and the “Golden Records” now affixed to humanity’s most distant ambassadors, the Pioneer and Voyager spacecrafts. It is unlikely that extraterrestrials will ever find these artifacts, but Sagan wanted people to contemplate the possibility of communication with other civilizations.

Carl Sagan, offering his unique commentary in a scene from ‘Cosmos.’

Advocacy

Sagan’s scientific output repeatedly led him to become an eloquent advocate on issues of societal and scientific significance. He testified before Congress about the dangers of climate change. He was an antinuclear activist and spoke out against the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars.” He urged collaborations and a joint space mission with the Soviet Union, in an attempt to improve U.S.-Soviet relations. He spoke directly with members of Congress about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and organized a petition signed by dozens of prominent scientists urging support for the search.

Carl Sagan, speaking out against the use of nuclear weapons, at the Great Peace March in 1986. Visions of America LLC/Corbis via Getty Images

But perhaps his most important gift to society was his promotion of truth-seeking and critical thinking. He encouraged people to muster the humility and discipline to confront their most cherished beliefs – and to rely on evidence to obtain a more accurate view of the world. His most cited book, “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark,” is a precious resource for anyone trying to navigate this age of disinformation.

Impact

A scientist’s impact can sometimes be gauged by the number of times their scholarly work is cited by other scientists. According to Sagan’s Google Scholar page, his work continues to accumulate more than 1,000 citations per year.

Indeed, his current citation rate exceeds that of many members of the National Academy of Sciences, who are “elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research,” according to the academy’s website, and is “one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.”

Sagan was nominated for election into the academy during the 1991-1992 cycle, but his nomination was challenged at the annual meeting; more than one-third of the members voted to keep him out, which doomed his admission. An observer at that meeting wrote to Sagan, “It is the worst of human frailties that keeps you out: jealousy.” This belief was affirmed by others in attendance. In my opinion, the academy’s failure to admit Sagan remains an enduring stain on the organization.

No amount of jealousy can diminish Sagan’s profound and wide-ranging legacy. In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Sagan has inspired generations of scientists and brought an appreciation of science to countless nonscientists. He has demonstrated what is possible in the realms of science, communication and advocacy. Those accomplishments required truth-seeking, hard work and self-improvement. On the 90th anniversary of Sagan’s birth, a renewed commitment to these values would honor his memory.

[fanfictionstuff]

Amaimon and the exorcist (2)

Sorry if there are any mistakes with the format, I’m posting it from my phone. My VPN is being a pain in the ass and thanks to China’s firewall a VPN is the only way I can get here 😭

“Really? Why is someone here?” you grumble, grabbing the phone from your nightstand. “It’s not even seven yet.” As you try to sit up, you inadvertently press on your injured shoulder. Seti raises his head briefly before turning away, determined not to wake up. There’s another knock at the door.

“I’m coming! Give me a moment.” I swear, if it’s Shura, I’m going to kill her. You have today off; you should be sleeping in until noon.

You open the door. It’s not Shura. "What are you doing here?" A green-haired demon stands before you, dressed in black shorts and a white t-shirt featuring an anime girl. He gazes at you blankly. "We’re going to Tokyo, remember?”

You slowly shake your head. "No, I wasn’t informed I was going. Also, what’s with your outfit?" You look at the girl with pink hair on his shirt. Amaimon notices your attention. "Big Brother said I should wear it. I mentioned yesterday that we’re going together.”

You replay the conversation from last night in your mind. "Amaimon, you specifically said, 'I will go to Tokyo tomorrow.'"

“Oh.” He tilts his head while examining your baggy sleep shirt. “Well, I’m taking you with me. Change your clothes; I don’t want others to see you like that.”

“Don’t worry; I don’t want others to see me looking this awful, either. Also, why am I going?”

A puff of pink smoke appears behind Amaimon. “Miss ____!”

Without hesitation, Amaimon slams the door in his older brother’s face. The Earth King stares at you. “I told you; I don’t want others to see you like that.”

There’s a meek tap at your door. “Miss ____, I’d like to speak to you,” Mephisto calls out.

“Go change.” He orders, monotone.

It’s too early for this. Engaging in an argument with a demon as powerful as him feels futile, so you retreat to your bedroom. “This is all your fault,” Seti snaps from the bed. “Now we have to go to Tokyo.” He despises crowds, and now he’s facing a trip to Tokyo during rush hour. “You can stay here,” you suggest. “I’m not leaving you alone with him.” You pull off your baggy t-shirt and throw it over Seti to quiet him. The fox mutters under his breath about how annoying young adults are while you change into a light green summer dress.

Amaimon watches you intently as you leave your bedroom before shrugging and opening the door. Mephisto remains outside, waiting calmly. “I apologize for the surprise visit, Miss ______.” His gaze shifts to Amaimon. “My dear brother mentioned that the two of you would be going to Tokyo.”

You stare hard at Mephisto. There’s no way he believes you actually said you’d go with Tokyo and hang out with a demon king. “I didn’t. There was never anything to agree to; I was under the impression he’d be going on his own.”

“I want to go with you.”

Mephisto hums to himself, “Why don’t we have a private conversation, Miss _____?” He offers to clarify things.

Amaimon answers for you. “No.”

“Ah, I see he’s going to be stubborn. Very well.” With a snap, you’ve shifted to another location. “I’m sorry. I understand this is highly inappropriate, but Amaimon likely won’t check here immediately if he thinks of searching for you.”

Your eyes survey the room, resembling a little girl’s bedroom at first glance, but the half-dressed anime girl pillows on the bed tell a different story. “Is this your bedroom?” You know he is a weirdo, but this takes it to another level.

“Indeed, it is. Anyway, regarding my brother. He’s shown some interest in you. Amaimon tends to get bored quickly, so please humor him today and make sure he behaves appropriately in Tokyo.” Mephisto appears slightly annoyed, though you’re unsure why he’s the one annoyed when you’re the one babysitting. Then, he pulls out a credit card. “You can use this card. Just try not to overspend.” He looks almost tearful as he hands you the card. “Don’t worry, he’ll lose interest in you in a few days,” Mephisto assures, snapping his fingers as he raises his hand.

Warm arms envelop you a moment later. "Where did Brother take you?" You realize you're in Amaimon's embrace, trying to pull away, but he tightens his grip, drawing you closer to his chest. "_____, where did brother take you?" Though his voice is monotone, his tight hold indicates he’s upset. "He just wanted to talk to me about going to Tokyo with you and give me a credit card. I’ll go with you, but you need to behave.”

“Okay.”

“Also let me go.”

“…fine.”

Getting to Tokyo is a breeze, thanks to the eternity key Mephisto let his younger brother borrow. But the real issue? The overwhelming crowds. Seti is sulking, making it clear just how miserable he feels, while Amaimon is just too curious for his own good, poking and prodding at everyone’s belongings. "You can’t go through her bag!" you snap, yanking the demon away from a random woman at the crosswalk.

“Why?”

You pull him from the crowd towards a small alleyway. “It’s inappropriate.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t touch other people, okay?”

He pokes your shoulder. “Can I touch you?”

Seti jumps on the shoulder Amaimon is poking. “No, you can’t touch her! Don’t touch anyone, especially her!”

Amaimon shrugs, unfazed by the annoyed fox. "Okay." He focuses his gaze on you. "Big Brother said Tokyo has plenty of fun things. Show me them." What does a demon king find entertaining? This is his first visit to Assiah in a long time, so everything is new to him. "Why don’t we start with breakfast?" You can look up some tourist attractions for him to choose from during breakfast based on his interests.

--------------------

“This is good.”

“That’s not breakfast,” Seti grumbles as you watch Amaimon shovel another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. You interject, eager to silence Seti’s complaints. “I’m surprised they opened this early.” You laugh, but even with the early hours, they seemed taken aback when someone came in to order ice cream. There go my plans of us dining at a restaurant while I scroll through options for activities on google. “There’s a lot to do in Tokyo, but I have no idea what your interests are.”

“My interests? I like fighting.”

“Yeah, that’s not an option here. Let’s think of something else.”

“Okay.”

You look around for some inspiration, spotting a flyer for an arcade nearby. "How about we go to an arcade? There's likely something you'd like there."

“What’s an arcade?”

Still being in the middle of the day, Tokyo looks rather ordinary. Nothing lit up that really shows off what many think of when they think of large cities like Tokyo. Japanese arcades, on the other hand, are a complete sensory overload. Amaimon’s eyes widen as he takes in the neon lights, flashing screens, and sounds emanating from the arcade. Thankfully, with it being first thing in the morning, there’s only a handful of people. The demon king walks into the arcade, seemingly focused on something in the back. “Wait, Amaimon! You need tokens!”

A racing game. His attention had been on a racing game. “Amaimon, you can’t play the game without tokens.” You point towards a machine that dispenses tokens. “Come with me; we’ll get some tokens.” You tug him away from the racing game.

“How many games do you want to play?” The screen on the token machine shows so many different options, packages, and membership options. “All of them.”

“Naturally,” you reply with a sigh, retrieving the card Mephisto provided. “I’ll start with three hundred tokens.” Next to the machine are several small baskets designated for guests to hold their tokens. Consequently, you find yourself needing to use two baskets. Amaimon takes both.

“_____, what do I do?”

“Sit down.” Instead of standing over him trying to explain, you walk around to sit on the seat beside him. Leaning forward, you point toward his feet. “So, you have to press this with your foot to make the car go. It’s the pedal.”

Now, you’re not a master at this racing game, but you’re pretty good at it, and yet. You frown at the You Lose message on your screen, and you notice Amaimon’s screen displaying WINNER next to you. You let your forehead rest on the steering wheel. “_____ , what are those for?” He gestures to the tickets flowing from the machine. “They’re tickets for winning prizes.” You direct his attention to the counter showcasing the prizes.

After about twenty minutes of demonstrating the various games that caught Amaimon's interest, he finally wandered off on his own to play games. Needing a distraction, you shuffle over to the claw machines, their bright lights flickering invitingly. To your left, Seti exhales loudly, his frustration palpable. "This is exhausting," he grumbles, unhappy with the situation. “Are you going to complain all day? You can go home.”

“And leave you alone with a demon king.”

“I’ll be fine; Mephisto approved it. I doubt he’d let Amaimon run loose if he was concerned.”

“I don’t trust Mephisto, and you shouldn’t either,” Seti warns.

Seti isn’t wrong, and you know this. However, what the hell does he expect you to do? You can’t just tell Mephisto no; after all, Amaimon isn't causing any problems right now.

“_____. What’s this?” Amaimon peeks out from behind a machine in the back. “It’s Taiko No Tatsujin, a drum game.” You insert a few coins into the machine and pass the mallet to Amaimon. “It’s pretty easy. Just keep time with the beat.”

Then he hits it hard. “No! Amaimon, stop!” Quickly, you reach out to grab his arms. “That’s too hard, you’ll break it.”

He stares blankly at you. “What? I didn’t hit it hard.”

“Just be gentler. Otherwise, it’ll break.”

“Okay, could you let me go?” Amaimon questions you; it’s then that you notice your own hand reaching across him, fingers wrapping around the arm that is farthest from you. With a jolt, you jerk your hand back, a rush of embarrassment flooding through you. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to—”

“I’m curious about this game. You can hang on to me after if you want.”

An intense feeling of hatred starts to leak around you. “Seti.” His hatred is nearly tangible at this point. “Please, stop.” You tap him with your foot; he knows better than to pick a fight with a demon this strong, yet he’s on the edge of starting one. “Seti, we’re in the middle of a mall.” You attempt to calm him away. “Are you stupid? Did you not just hear what he said?”

“It was a joke.”

“You are stupid.”

Amaimon is exhausting. He was serious when he said he would play every game. It takes him a few hours to complete his task, just barely lunchtime, and you just want to crawl back into your bed. Beside you, the demon king has a huge bag of candy he won with all the tickets.

"What do you want to do now?" you ask as you exit the arcade. Amaimon scans the various options in the mall but then eyes the floor below. He must be hungry. You follow him closely, opting not to suggest anything unless he asks. "This one. It’s like what Big Brother eats," he says, pointing to a ramen shop. He probably saw Mephisto eating some after returning last night. "Yes, it’s better than the instant noodles your brother has," you reply as you enter the restaurant. A friendly young woman welcomes you with a bright smile.

"No, we’ll start with an appetizer, and you can get extra noodles." You take the menu from Amaimon, who was about to order many different dishes. You lower your voice. “Amaimon, humans don’t eat that much. We can go to another restaurant later." He seems ready to argue at first but ends up nodding in agreement.

"So, what else do you want to do today besides playing games and eating?" You ask, taking a sip of your tea.

Amaimon shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. What do humans usually do?"

"Well, there are lots of things we can do," you say, thinking of all the activities people usually do on weekends. "We could go shopping, watch a movie, visit an amusement park..."

When Amaimon just responds with a blank stare, you bite back a groan. Of course, he doesn’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know if he can sit through a two-hour-long movie.

Seti then bites your finger. “You can’t take him to an amusement park.”

“Right.” You nod, agreeing with the fennec fox. You still aren’t sure how he’ll act in that situation, and since Mephisto asked you to watch him, there’s a possibility Amaimon might harm someone in a place like that. Especially if he has a temper or something. You don’t know yet. “So maybe let’s go shopping?”

Like his older brother, Amaimon shows interest in otaku culture. While visiting a store, he eagerly selects any item that captures his attention, picking random merchandise from various anime without any prior knowledge. Yet, this doesn’t seem to concern him. You're left wondering if he even realizes that what he's buying is linked to something he might watch.

After exploring the store for some time, Amaimon collected several cosplay items, fan merchandise, and other interesting finds that piqued his interest during his visit.

The cashier is an adorable young woman in cosplay, blending cuteness with a hint of sexiness. "Is this all?"

You observe the scene before you, your brow arching in curiosity as the young woman boldly casts her gaze at Amaimon. With an innocent yet playful smile, she positions herself just in a way that pushes her cleavage out a bit. When the cutesy approach doesn’t work, she goes with a sultrier appeal. “If you require anything else, just let me know…” she purrs, extending her hand slowly. Her fingertips glide lightly over the demon’s hand.

“Are you fucking kidding me.” Seti scoffs as you just shrug. Given her job in this shop, she’s likely an otaku who prefers guys with similar interests. Your gaze drifts to Amaimon—though peculiar, you can’t deny his vessel is rather attractive. The same goes for Mephisto, though you’d rather be dragged to hell than admit that.

“What are you doing?” Amaimon asks bluntly, eyeing her with indifference. You notice the woman’s face turning red with embarrassment. Most people would have discreetly dismissed her attempts.

She lowers her head, apologizing. “Oh, sorry. I thought we could hang out sometime.”

You thrust your credit card toward her, eager to flee this awkward situation, and quickly exit the shop, leading Amaimon into a park as Seti follows behind.

“Did that idiot really want to be in a relationship with him?” Seti shakes his head. When Amaimon looks at him with curiosity, Seti adds, “Boyfriend, girlfriend, partners? You don’t have those in Gehenna? I suppose it makes sense; demons are too heartless—”

“_____ is my girlfriend.”

Seti's fury feels almost palpable as the fox grows in size, towering over you and Amaimon, who responds with an unimpressed gaze at the fox spirit. “I don’t care if you are a king; if you touch her, I will kill you.”

A deep sigh leaves you; Mephisto better pay extra.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

There’s a lot of “humans, fuck yeah!” and content like that, where people post about how humans are so much more special than aliens. This somewhat bothers me, and I’m curious to hear your thoughts on that phenomenon?

Are you talking in (Doylist) context of tumblr as a whole, or of sci fi fandom, or of NASA or SETI? Or is this in (Watsonian) context of the within-Animorphs forums we see in canon in #16, or post-war in #54, or is this about Animorphs fic/meta in general, or my Animorphs fic/meta?

To answer for myself: Any time I'm writing from Tom Berenson's POV, I am deliberately writing him with a massive pro-human anti-alien bias. That's why I had Ghost in the Shell hinge on him being dumbfounded by human villains. Hopefully it's kinda justified, if not excused, in light of his backstory.

Any time I'm not writing Tom, I will admit I have an easier time headcanoning about human society/human thoughts/human feelings than about hork-bajir or yeerks. I get paid to read and write about humans, and there is just less to know about taxxon society than human society. If I want to write about an andalite firefighter, then... do andalites fight fires? do they have jobs? do they search for jobs? do they apply for jobs? do they interview? do they get paid money? do they have money? do they have fire? So on forever. It can be paralyzing. Writing humans is often easier, at least for me.

To speculate about all of fandom: I assume that every tumblr poster and sci fi reader is a human. And that it is easier to feel love for the species to whom one's best friend, lover, and favorite cousin all belong, when compared to a species that is strictly imaginary. We could argue forever about if yeerks are monsters or lovers or fascists or victims or all of the above. But if I say "humans are awesome," most of us will simply think of our favorite human, and smile.

[mindblowingscience]

Humpback whale "conversations" provide valuable insight on how humans may one day communicate with life beyond Earth.  Researchers from the SETI Institute, University of California Davis and the Alaska Whale Foundation recently "conversed" with a humpback whale named Twain using an underwater speaker and recorded a humpback "contact" call. Twain responded to the researchers' call by matching the interval variations between signals of each playback call over a 20-minute period.  If you're having a Star Trek flashback, yes, this is awfully reminiscent of that one film in which the crew receives alien whale transmissions that can only be decoded underwater. And in fact, mirroring our sci-fi fantasies, this demonstration of interspecies communication has implications for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, according to a statement from the SETI Institute. 

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[crispsandkerosene]

Thank you for the StdMat shader mod! Since you've worked in this area, do you know if it's possible to get specular lights to render indoors? Or not impracticably difficult? I've experimented with modifying the way the game treats the kAmbientOnly lightingMode wrt specular, but there were no observable changes. It's true that indoors we have point lights and I'm thinking new shader code would have to be written to compute specular light from that--and it would be computationally expensive--but at this point I'd just be happy to get indoor speculars to respond to global lights, lol. (Not a request! I'd like to manage it myself, but I'm kinda stuck.) Thx for any ideas!

Hey! To be honest, I haven't much looked into the way lighting is computed.

Searching in the shaders now:

"lightingMode" (kAmbientOnly/kFullLighting) is only set for the SimStandardMaterial 🤔

The sun I'm guessing is a directional light. Some shaders use "distantLightCount". I found "seti distantLightCount (numLightsOfType(directional))" in a few places too.

The "DX8HardwarePath" function uses "DX8StandardMaterialRendering", which uses "StandardMaterialPassesDX8", which seems to handle point and spotlight speculars.

"DX9HardwarePath" uses "DX9StandardMaterialRendering", which doesn't mention them. Its equivalent is potentially "PixelShader2Rendering".

And I ended up checking in game since I was curious: objects do receive specular light from lamps, but not windows 🤔🤔

I tested with both a point light and spot light lamp.

Windows use spotlights according to SimPE. Maybe those have different parameters, or don't count somehow?

[egypt-museum]

Mummy of King Merneptah

King Merneptah was originally buried within tomb (KV8) in the Valley of the Kings, but his mummy was not found there. In 1898 it was located along with eighteen other mummies in the mummy cache found in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) by Victor Loret.

In their search for gold, the tomb-robbers split the mummy’s right clavicle and injured the left shoulder, possibly by using a knife or an axe to cut a hole through the body. The skin of the mummy became unusually brighter, mainly due to the salt that was heavily used in the mummification process. The king apparently suffered from dental problems and fractures in his thighbones.

Merneptah successfully secured the throne and established a stable succession by designating his son, Seti II, as his successor. This ensured a smooth transition of power after his death.

New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, reign of Merneptah, ca. 1213-1203 BC. Now in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), Cairo. JE 34562

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