Smooth Brain Station

I never really realised how much difference it makes until I went to England and realised that here the change of seasons is an obvious, visible, physical change in the world. Like, everything REALLY IS orange and foggy in autumn! In spring there are flowers EVERYWHERE, so much more than any other season, and the trees really do have all blossom and no leaves. Even if it doesn't snow, in winter there's frost all the time and the trees are bare and the sky is visibly greyer all the time. You don't need to be told "this date is the first day of spring", you can SEE IT (although this is getting way messier and less precise due to climate change).

By contrast, most places in Australia the seasons we're taught feel like arbitrary categories - and is it any surprise considering they're colonial constructs? Orange-leaved autumn and blossom-covered spring is a cartoon stereotype with no relevance on a continent where ALL NATIVE TREES ARE EVERGREEN!! Snowy winters are a joke in the desert, and even sunny summers don't ring particularly true considering that much of the country is in the tropics, where summer means monsoons - not that I've ever seen the concept that WE HAVE A MONSOON SEASON taught at an Australian school.

the 4 season model as you and i know it is a european invention, though 4 season models aren't unique to europe! most notably china has the same type of season subdivision.

Wow thanks for the ingot man let me just inspect the quality real quick

Dude come on

like it is actually very important that you learn about who initially came up with the centrifuge design system for the Hail Mary and that she was one of the scientists that disagreed with Grace and he still doesn't like her for it and the feeling is mutual but he still acknowledges how fantastic her idea is because of course it is. She is the whole reason the ship works in a way that is vital to the mission.

It's important that you understand that Strat finds the world's leading climatologist to tell her exactly what mandmade catastrophe would increase greenhouse gases exponentially because it doesn't matter that it fucks with the world's ecosystem as long as it buys the earth more time while the sun actively cools down due to the astrophage infection.

It matters that you know she took a man out of prison for involuntary manslaughter because of his idea to pave vast amounts of land with solar panels to breed astrophage faster. It matters that you remember with Grace that paving a vast chunk of the Sahara Desert with these solar panels fucked up weather all the way up to Europe.

It matters that you understand the gravity, the desperation, and how all of it was necessary because there just wasn't enough time to work with without sacrificing something. Someone. Anyone.

It matters that you know how quickly Strat hired these people, blew off court appearances, hired convicts, and ordered bombings of the Antarctic to release gases into the atmosphere to make global warming worse. You need to understand the level of urgency, how Strat moved through these hurdles and approached solutions. How she was a history major in college and it's why she knows damn well how bad it's about to get for Earth.

Because once you know how little time the earth has, how limited the resources are, how risky the science is, how so few people are well equipped for this particular mission that is well and truly the world's only shot at surviving, you understand a lot better why forcing Grace to go was their only option after their other scientists died due to a simple, fatal flaw. Even with one scientist left in the world who was willing to go.

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

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This one hurt, her work had such a profound effect on my life, thoughts, and politics.

May her memory be a blessing