necarion

[necarion]

Yeah, but this is basically how politics worked in Imperial China.

[necarion]

Step 7: Reduce the sauce for ~15 minutes

Me: Honey, where the hell did I leave my cathode?

[necarion]

THEY CROSSED THE STREAMS. YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!

THOM MERRILIN: MORE THAN A SIMPLE GLEEMAN? (Betteridge's law, obviously, says no)

And my favorite political attack ad:

SHOCKING REVELATIONS: BAYLE DOMON PUTS AGED GRANDMOTHER BEFORE PROFITS

IS MAZRIM TAIM A DARKFRIEND???? OR JUST A POWER HUNGRY NARCISSIST?

[necarion]

As America contemplates entering another Cold War, it's important to remember the lessons of the last one: supporting brutal, unpopular tyrants (as long as they're our brutal, unpopular tyrants) will always work out with no downsides whatsoever.

[necarion]

Fascinating video about how modern digital camera technology is much worse at handling rocket launch footage than old school film, because an oversaturated region in film will affect mainly that spot on film, where as an oversaturated digital pixel can cause the entire image to white out.

I bet the person who took this picture of Apollo 11 had a hard-on about it for weeks.

#Youtube

[necarion]

major spoilers for AMOL:

THE DRAGON STOLE MY BODY! EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MAN WHO DENIES BEING RAND AL'THOR.

IS MAZRIM TAIM A DARKFRIEND???? OR JUST A POWER HUNGRY NARCISSIST?

[necarion]

Related to the story, but, in my family we have kind of a neurosis about having pictures straight. So, my dad is visiting my sister's house, and has this dialogue:

Dad: This picture is crooked. Sister: Yup. Dad: *adjusts picture to make it level* Dad: That's weird. The walls are actually off-square and now it looks somehow worse. Sister: Yup.

they used to make smackable technology. you used to be able to hit your tv when it didn't work good.

#technology #smackable technology #personal #chesterton's fence of patches

[necarion]

God I hate the trope of "I know you're big and famous now, but if you really love me, you'll not go do this thing you planned for months. This is your last chance."

[necarion]

I do not understand how we ended up with the alto and tenor clefs. They could have just transposed an octave and everyone could have read it fine. But no, a bunch of instruments have to learn two additional, slightly different, clefs that are off from treble clef by a single half-line (plus an octave).

On the flip side, apparently 50 years ago the French musical tradition made its musicians learn 7 different clefs (bass, tenor, alto, treble, and then 3 different soprano clefs). Which seems super irritating. And then my baroque music teacher could take a piece of music, mentally switch the clef marking (and maybe pretend the key was an all-sharp or all-flat version of itself) and he could sight-transpose to any key.

We had a concert where the ensemble played a Bach organ concerto. The ensemble was playing at baroque pitch (a half-step down from A440 concert pitch), but the organ itself was at concert pitch. So the professor just played a half-step down. And naturally was, by far, the best and most accurate performer.

#Music #Music theory #Clefs #Personal

[necarion]

Rome managed to run its trains through the arches of 2000 year old aquaducts.

The Niagara Falls one is great. The Canada side has a bunch of shitty generic gambling houses.

I really like how many of the world’s most iconic structures and places are just right next to some of the most mundane stuff imaginable, for example

Stonehenge

Is right next to a busy road

The Pyramids of Giza

Are at the outskirts of Cairo

Niagara Falls

Are part of the town of the same name

And Agrippa’s Pantheon

Is crammed inside downtown Rome

It just so interesting to notice.

[necarion]

I had a conversation with a partner years ago that if a supervillain ever gave one of us the choice of "give me the tool you're going to use to thwart my plan to destroy the world, or your partner will die", we love each other very much and if you take the second option I'm breaking up with you.

usually "if it sucks, hit da bricks" is really good advice but in fiction where the world's gonna get destroyed if you quit, it's like. well what are you gonna do, let the world get destroyed? you live there!

[necarion]

Won't it be weird when you're still running the game 60 years later and your computer hardware is way better but the game software is, like, hella legacy?

high-concept anti-game idea: Space Probe Simulator. you must design, program, and launch a space probe to the outer solar system using 1960s technology. after launch, at appropriate intervals of years, systems may randomly start to fail; you must reprogram the probe to keep the whole thing working. there is no reloading old saves: if you fuck up and brick your probe, you must start again.

oh and the whole thing plays out in real time. including both round trip communication time and travel time.

#Yes #I know

[necarion]

If th'art happy and thou knowst it,

And for sooth thou wish'st to show it,

If th'art happy and thou knowst it, clap thy hands.

If th'art happy and thou knowst it, clap thy hands.

#Brain noise #Sadly #It is not “showst”

[necarion]

If th'art happy and thou knowst it, clap thy hands.

#Brain noise

[necarion]

Oh don't worry, it's only gum recession if it's happened for two consecutive quarters.

[necarion]

My choir has been following the teachings of the Infinite Monkeys school of colatura singing.

[necarion]

Why does this choral concert of North German baroque composers sound so Lutheran? The world may never know.

#Classical music #Bach