#visual science

[visualcontinuum]

Celestial series - Dark star

[imsociallyanxiousgetoverit]

Is it possible to have the potential for something, not be able to access it, and know that for certain scientifically?

Example idea I had was if someone has the capacity mentally to remember everything someone with a photographic memory could, but has asphantasia or is visually impaired, for example.

If someone had photographic memory but then suffered eye injuries would they still maintain that level of memory?

[reasonsforhope]

Given the misinformation that's been going around and will be going around, thought this might be helpful to some people

For a lot of reasons, I'm very good at this/at searching, to the point where I have worked as a professional fact-checker for two different publishers. So, here goes:

My Article Fact-Checking Protocol

Thorough Version

Read the full article. Keep an eye out for emotionally loaded words, and all-or-nothing language

Keep an eye out or anything that sounds too good to be true, and in contrast, anything that sounds so awful it must be true

Run the website/source through the amazing Media Bias/Fact Check. They'll tell you about a publication's bias and history of accuracy

Go to the website's home page and read through the headlines. Look at what topics they cover/prioritize, sensationalist headlines, and whether they're framing anything in a way that feels odd/off to you

Do a search related to the topic. This can be keywords, a question, or even just copy-paste the article title (Recommended: use DuckDuckGo so the results don't change based on what Google thinks they can sell you)

If multiple highly credible sources that say the same thing pop up, and there's no major societal biases that might affect the coverage of the topic in those sources (e.g. anything related to the Israel-Palestine conflict/Palestinian genocide, no matter which side), then I'm done!

If there are major societal biases, or I can't get a consensus of sufficiently credible sources, then I do some combination of:

(1) search the topic again + the words "controversy" and/or "fake"

(2) search the opposite of the topic, or do some sort of other filtered search

(3) look up a sufficiently credible news outlet with the opposite point of view of my source, and see what they have to say

(4) if it's a big enough topic, start by looking up 2 of the top national papers and 1 major paper for your region (I usually do the ones in the US, because that's where I am In the US: the LA Times, the Washington Post, and the NY Times)

Adjust "news" to "relevant type of source, e.g. tech, environmental" as relevant for all of the above options

If no red flags come up, and it's a topic I understand enough to smell huge bullshit,

Then I'm usually done!

If there are red flags, or I actually need a certain amount of detail/understanding, then it gets more complicated, but that would be a whole other thing to break down and such

or

tl;dr

Quick Version

Read the full article. Keep an eye out for emotionally loaded words, and all-or-nothing language

Keep an eye out or anything that sounds too good to be true, and in contrast, anything that sounds so awful it must be true.

If I don't know the website:

Run the website/source through the amazing Media Bias/Fact Check. They'll tell you about a publication's bias and history of accuracy

If I trust the source, but something else pinged my radar:

Do a quick web search to verify anything that sounds suspicious or too good/bad to be true (Recommended: use DuckDuckGo)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Ghosts of Rivers Past

Artist Dan Coe uses lidar data to create portraits of rivers and their past meanders. Used aerially, lidar produces high-resolution elevation data that provides a glimpse of features that are currently hidden beneath vegetation.  (Image credit: D. Coe; via Colossal) Read the full article

[scipunk]

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

[refinedstorage]

Black Myth: Wukong

Game Science, 2024

[egelantier]

poll time!

Extra question for tags or anon asks if you're comfortable with it: if you ever had a course of antidepressants or other mood regulating meds, did it interact with your visual imagination in any way?

[curatorofthisdigitalmorass]

ALIEN (1979)

[rythyme]

Introducing the Thai Drama AO3 Trends Dashboard! (Beta) 🇹🇭

Over the last several weeks or so I've been building an auto-scraping setup to get AO3 stats on Thai Drama fandoms. Now I finally have it ready to share out!

Take a look if you're interested and let me know what you think :)

(More details and process info under the cut.)

Main Features

This dashboard pulls in data about the quantity of Thai Drama fics over time.

Using filters, it allows you to break that data down by drama, fandom size, air date, and a select number of MyDramaList tags.

You can also see which fandoms have had the most new fics added on a weekly basis, plus the growth as a percentage of the total.

My hope is that this will make it easier to compare Thai Drama fandoms as a collective and pick out trends that otherwise might be difficult to see in an all-AO3 dataset.

Process

Okay -- now for the crunchy stuff...

Scraping 🔎

Welcome to the most over-complicated Google Sheets spreadsheet ever made.

I used Google Sheets formulas to scrape certain info from each Thai Drama tag, and then I wrote some app scripts to refresh the data once a day. There are 5 second breaks between the refreshes for each fandom to avoid overwhelming AO3's servers.

Archiving 📁

Once all the data is scraped, it gets transferred to a different Archive spreadsheet that feeds directly into the data dashboard. The dashboard will update automatically when new data is added to the spreadsheet, so I don't have to do anything manually.

Show Metadata 📊

I decided to be extra and use a (currently unofficial) MyDramaList API to pull in data about each show, such as the year it came out and the MDL tags associated with it. Fun! I might pull in even more info in the future if the mood strikes me.

Bonus - Pan-Fandom AO3 Search

Do you ever find it a bit tedious to have like, 15 different tabs open for the shows you're currently reading fic for?

While making this dash, I also put together this insane URL that basically serves as a "feed" for any and all new Thai drama fics. You can check it out here! It could be useful if you like checking for new fics in multiple fandoms at once. :)

Other Notes

Consider this dashboard the "beta" version -- please let me know if you notice anything that looks off. Also let me know if there are any fandoms missing! Thanks for checking it out!

The inspiration for this dashboard came from @ao3-anonymous 's AO3 Fandom Trend Analysis Dashboard, which I used as a jumping off point for my own data dash. Please give them some love <3

[unbfacts]

[relaxingifs]

dyerfulchymist on ig

[dreveel]

Day 1 of stimming-puppet's 1,000 Followers Event: Niche Interest

Mad Science

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[mountainmagpie]

Scavengers Reign (2023)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

A Comet's Tail

A comet's tail changes from day-to-day depending on how much material the comet is losing and how strong the solar wind it's facing is. (Image credit: Shengyu Li & Shaining; via APOD) Read the full article

[scipunk]

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

[chocobochaserstories]

Scent Dynamics

Simple, surface level take on scent dynamics, including diagrams for locations of key anatomical points. Diagram sources: Blank anatomy models from Pinterest, then I uploaded them into Woodnotes and edited them to my own needs. CW: If you can't read my handwriting, just ask! My handwriting is messy, sorry!

Omegas

Compared to alphas, omegas generally have softer, more delicate scents. While there are exceptions, scents often include flowers, sweet scents like vanilla or caramel, fruity scents such as sweet berries, are among the common scent patterns. Scents follow a more “feminine” pattern while alphas have more “masculine” scents, although gender norms in terms of male or female are more loose in omegaverse as they’re overridden by alpha and omega. Omegas enjoy scenting their partners the most, and it is not specific to sexual settings. Scenting for omegas is an intimate act, and is ingrained from birth. Omegas generally scent their pups, beginning at birth and extending to the offspring’s mating. (So an omega will scent their pup until they have a mate of their own). Generally, omegas scent over the primary scent gland, which is the most major scent gland and the one located in the neck. The primary scent gland is the gland that is the most sacred to an alpha or an omega and is where a mating bite is placed. Betas do not have a primary scent gland. In addition, an omega’s scent intensifies during their heat cycle and may take on a more “pleasant” aphrodisiac note. During pregnancy, the scent is often sweeter.

Side note: Unpresented pups often have a scent like steamed milk, or a milky, soft scent.

Diagram: Attached

Diagram: Attached

Betas

Betas do not have scent glands, so they do not have individual scents. Occasionally, if a beta is in a relationship with a omega or alpha, it can be emotionally and instinctually satisfying for the partner to let them scent them.

Alpha

Alphas often have hardier scents, such as wood or sawdust (especially more fragrant ones such as pine or cedar), nature scents such as fresh rain, earthy scents such as wet soil or limestone, or crisp scents like ozone. Alphas tend to have “masculine” scents, granted masculine and feminine aren’t particularly solid concepts within the omegaverse as male/female is overridden by the overarching concept of alpha/omega. Alphas can also carry undertones to their scents, for example, an alpha may smell of fresh rain and iron, but carry a sweet scent as well of apples (FFVII Angeal Hewley’s scent in my headcanons). Alphas are territorial and scent their partner as a marking, similar to omegas. Alphas are more likely to scent their partner after mating, a rut, or their partner was around another alpha. 

Diagram: Attached