Fave Reads Of 2017: Deep Wizardry By Diane Duane

I had to do a "home budget" project in econ during high school, and we had to "buy a car" as part of our budget planning and so I used a listing for one of these as my "purchase" because I am nothing if not a massive nerd. It still delights me to think about. ^__^

I'm desperately trying to look for the specific model of Lotus that you referenced in the first of the Young Wizard series. I've been wanting to draw a storyboard for a long while for it and for some reason Google is useless.

It's this one: the Lotus Turbo Esprit. Lovely, lovely thing that it was...

(Sorry, the YouTube video seems to have failed to insert correctly. But check it out:  https://youtu.be/CQnOusKNDKs)

...Later in the eighties they softened its lines down. But this is the one that made me stop and stare when I passed by the Lotus showroom in Manhattan in ‘81...

This took FOREVER.  Mostly cause of all the jewels.  Thankfully I had a brush for them.  It’s supposed to be the outfit described on page 184-185 (in my copy at least)of Wizard’s Holiday:

"Today the long overcoat he favored was in blue, and it was richly, even thickly, embroidered with jewels, in all shades of blue and green, some of them the size of marbles or quails eggs. Guantlets, tunic, boots, all were in metallic blues and greens, and the fillet binding his brows was of some blue metal."

Rónán (anglicized Ronan) is an Irish language male given namemeaning “little seal” (Rón meaning “seal”, and -án being a diminutive suffix). It may refer to: Legend tells of a seal who is warned never to stray too close to the land.

Powers help me I didn’t know his name meANT PRECIOUS BABBY SEAL

AAAAAAAHHHH

AAAAAHH

RONAN SO CUTE

AND THE WINGED DEFENDER WAS STUCK INTO BABY SEAL BOY

Finally! A black hole that you can visit and survive!

Want a trip through a black hole without having to experience that pesky death? You’re in luck. There’s a special kind of black hole that’s not just survivable, but might get you to another time, or another universe.

Black holes are, traditionally, the scariest things in the universe. Huge, mysterious, inescapable, they wander through the universe and eat everything that gets too close. “Too close” is defined by their event horizon. This is the point at which they go dark, because it requires so much energy to escape them that not even light can get away. Since not even a photon can cross the barrier, no event that happens inside the horizon can ever have an effect on people outside.

Unless, something very odd was going on in the center of the black hole. Most black holes spin - this is something that was discovered way back in the 1960s by physicist Roy Kerr. It wasn’t exactly a shock, because most of the material that collapses into a black hole was already spinning. Sometimes, however, the spin on Kerr black holes goes a little above and beyond. Ever spun a glass of water, or soda bottle, so that the liquid inside swirls? Sometimes, if you spin it enough, the liquid actually parts, leaving a clear center and a spinning ring of water around it. The same kind of thing can happen in Kerr black holes. Instead of a singularity at the center, there’s a ring. And you can go through the open portion of that ring without touching the gravitational crush.

What’s on the other side? A lot of people have wondered. Some people think that these kind of black holes might be our key to time travel. They might be wormholes that let us hop between different points of the universe. Or they might be portals to different universes entirely. First we’ll have to find a few, and then we’ll need a few volunteers to go through. Preferably ones that haven’t seen Event Horizon.

Top Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Second Image: Dana Berry/NASA

Via NASA, Astrophysics Spectator, Discovery.

8tracks is Radio, rediscovered - blood in the water i sing; (38min) by maerad| music tags: young wizards, deep wizardry, and the song of twelve | a mix for the song of twelve.

awesome playlist for deep wizardry. listen, cousins!

Technology drives exploration and we’re building on the Apollo program’s accomplishments to test and fly transformative, cutting edge technologies today for tomorrow’s missions. As we develop and test the new tools of 21st century spaceflight on the human path to Mars, we once again will change the course of history.

NASA's Next Giant Leap

Fibonacci you crazy bastard….

As seen in the solar system (by no ridiculous coincidence), Earth orbits the Sun 8 times in the same period that Venus orbits the Sun 13 times! Drawing a line between Earth & Venus every week results in a spectacular FIVE side symmetry!!

Lets bring up those Fibonacci numbers again: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34..

So if we imagine planets with Fibonacci orbits, do they create Fibonacci symmetries?!

You bet!! Depicted here is a:

2 sided symmetry (5 orbits x 3 orbits)

3 sided symmetry (8 orbits x 5 orbits)

5 sided symmetry (13 orbits x 8 orbits) - like Earth & Venus

8 sided symmetry (21 orbits x 13 orbits)

I wonder if relationships like this exist somewhere in the universe….

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Weird Science on Twitter

“Entropy!”

Some of us, though, do tell them early. In the end it works out better… 

New York Post

‘Sightings of a lifetime’: Whales and dolphins flock to NYC waters

Here’s one increase in traffic that won’t have you pounding a car hood: The city’s waters have been rife with sightings of marine life all s

Thank you for sharing this! This is another one of those situations where we are just now seeing the noticeable, dramatic payoff of years and years of quiet, unnoticed environmental work.

“Experts say years of conservation efforts have resulted in some of the healthiest waters in generations, with booming fish populations, clearer ocean waves and more chances to interact with our urban aquarium.”

This quote also really got me:

“‘It never gets old, it’s always thrilling,’ said Celia Ackerman, a naturalist with American Princess Cruises who captured the images. As a child growing up in Brooklyn, Ackerman couldn’t wait to move out of the city so she could study marine animals. 'I would have never imagined I could enjoy them here right in my backyard.’”

INFORMATION I WAS NOT PREPARED TO LEARN. MAYBE WE *ARE* ALONE. BECAUSE WE ARE SO *EARLY*. IF THERE IS EVER GALACTIC CIVILIZATION THEY WILL NOT REMEMBER US AT ALL. BECAUSE WE ARE NOTHING. CELLS, JUST BEGINNING TO FORM LIFE. SORRY FOR SCREAMING. BUT ARE YOU LISTENING. ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT IT.