You See It's Quite Simple: If They Call The Earth Gaia, It's Fantasy. If They Call It Terra, That's Sci-fi

golf sucks but mini golf is fucking awesome....truly one of life's great paradoxes

I know that Caleb and Essek were both playing the long game and trying to manipulate each other prior to the cease fire, but it’s still very funny that these two highly intelligent wizards went ‘Ah, yes I will beguile him with my many spells and knowledge of the arcane to trick him into thinking he can trust me.’

And both of them fucking idiots that they are fell for it.

And then doubled down and said ‘But what if you could actually trust me? What if I used my spells to actually flirt with you? What if I stopped in the middle of a battle to pull you from underneath some rubble and you pressed your forehead to mine? What if we called each other partners for the next seven years and had an engagement portrait painted and hung in our home?’

Like I don’t know if you failed at the first step or succeeded.

phys.org

Scientists discover that water molecules define the materials around us

For decades, the fields of physics and chemistry have maintained that the atoms and molecules that make up the natural world define the char

OKAY THIS ARTICLE IS SO COOL

I'm going to try to explain this in a comprehensible way, because honestly it's wild to wrap your head around even for me, who has a degree in chemistry. But bear with me.

Okay, so. Solids, right? They are rigid enough to hold their shape, but aside from that they are quite variable. Some solids are hard, others are soft, some are brittle or rubbery or malleable. So what determines these qualities? And what creates the rigid structure that makes a solid a solid? Most people would tell you that it depends on the atoms that make up the solid, and the bonds between those atoms. Rubber is flexible because of the polymers it's made of, steel is strong because of the metallic bonds between its atoms. And this applies to all solids. Or so everybody thought.

A paper published in the journal Nature has discovered that biological materials such as wood, fungi, cotton, hair, and anything else that can respond to the humidity in the environment may be composed of a new class of matter dubbed "hydration solids". That's because the rigidity and solidness of the materials doesn't actually come from the atoms and bonds, but from the water molecules hanging out in between.

So basically, try to imagine a hydration solid as a bunch of balloons taped together to form a giant cube, with the actual balloon part representing the atoms and bonds of the material, and the air filling the balloons as the water in the pores of the solid. What makes this "solid" cube shaped? It's not because of the rubber at all, but the air inside. If you took out all the air from inside the balloons, the structure wouldn't be able to hold its shape.

Ozger Sahin, one of the paper's authors, said

"When we take a walk in the woods, we think of the trees and plants around us as typical solids. This research shows that we should really think of those trees and plants as towers of water holding sugars and proteins in place. It's really water's world."

And the great thing about this discovery (and one of the reasons to support its validity) is that thinking about hydration solids this way makes the math so so so much easier. Before this, if you wanted to calculate how water interacts with organic matter, you would need advanced computer simulations. Now, there are simple equations that you can do in your head. Being able to calculate a material's properties using basic physics principles is a really big deal, because so far we have only been able to do that with gasses (PV=nRT anyone?). Expanding that to a group that encompasses 50-90% of the biological world around us is huge.

THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN

It’s crazy that countries on the edge of the Sahara desert are reversing desertification by just digging half circles

I’m extremely glad Sam is recovering, and I’m also extremely glad Critical Role is now structured in way where he was able to handle a huge medical issue in private and only tell the public when he felt comfortable. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have cancer AND face constant scrutiny from a wall of online observers at the same time, so I’m so glad that was avoided. Another win for the necessity of a comfortable distance between viewer and celebrity.

The Flirt

WinterIron, T, 1.1k - Crack, Humor, established relationship, Tony the Flirt, Bucky is amused, Avengers family shenanigans

A couple folks said they’d be interested in seeing the actual process of me writing an entire fic around one line of dialogue, and that seemed like a fun challenge, so I wrote this fic in a day so I could write THAT.

Just a silly fun little thing please enjoy (and if you want you can find the behind-the-scenes HERE!)

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“This doesn’t bother you at all?”

“What doesn’t?” Bucky asks, not looking up from his book.

“This,” Scott says again, unhelpfully. The word is accompanied by the entire couch jolting slightly as he flails his arms at the TV, and Bucky finally looks up.

He hasn’t been paying attention while the rest of the room flips through channels and argues about what to watch, but it looks like they’ve temporarily paused on coverage of the SI press event going on right now. Bucky gets a little distracted just watching Tony smile and charm everyone on his way out of the venue, and when he spots Happy waiting nearby he starts calculating how long it’ll take Tony to get back to the tower, but when Scott makes an impatient sound Bucky tears his eyes away from the TV.

“That Tony has to do these things?” Bucky asks in confusion, “I mean, a little, but only because it leaves me stuck hanging out with you assholes.” He leans back to dodge the throw pillow Sam hurls at him from the other end of the couch and then points out, “You’ve been arguing with Clint about The Voice for an hour, that’s longer than the show.”

“I think he means Tony flirting with all the reporters and their camera men,” Natasha chimes in from where she’s curled up in the armchair.

“That is what I mean,” Scott confirms, most of his attention on grabbing one of the spare pillows as ammo just in case and hey look at that, he’s learning.

“Why would that bother me,” Bucky says dismissively, “he’s just flirtin’ his way out like he always does so he can get home quicker. Plus, Tony flirts with everything. Literally, I once saw him run into a chair and then flirt with it.”

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so perfectly cyberpunk for cyberpunk 2077 not to have a ‘happy’ ending but doesn’t make it it hurt any fucking less