Tach

A friend and I were discussing where we both were in the Murderbot Diaries, and we both particularly enjoyed this little bit from Network Effect. So… quick lunchtime doodle. XD

HiPOD: The Scalloped Terrain of Utopia Planitia

This image footprint is in a region of abundant scalloped depressions. Their formation most likely involves development of oval- to scalloped-shaped depressions that may coalesce together, leading to the formation of large areas of pitted terrain. Scalloped pits typically have a steep pole-facing scarp and a gentler equator-facing slope.

Enhanced color cutout is less than 1 km across; grayscale is less than 5 km. For full image including scale bar, visit the source link.

ID: ESP_077037_2240 date: 2 January 2023 altitude: 299 km

DANNYMAY DAY 28: Adventure

Day 27 ⟡ Day 29

More headcanons for this pride month.

I love my country 🗣️ I just like to think of him as ace, i’m ace so I turn characters into this cult because there isn’t enough ace representation.

Here's me trying to interpret how Danny's hazmat suit would look like if it were more realistic, based on my experience with biohazard PPE.

"A planned community in Arizona has used time-honored Mediterranean strategies to keep temperatures down and attitudes high.

Western civilization has grown remarkably climate conscious over the last 20 years, but not when it comes to building, civic planning, and especially zoning. Perhaps the interiors of buildings are becoming more climate adapted, and in some cases the facades as well, but in a way that’s a little like inventing a freezer designed to keep ice cream frozen while sitting next to a fire.

Wooden or concrete boxes arranged side-by-side across leveled ground with sprawling, largely treeless gardens and concrete sidewalks alongside wide, blacktop roads is simply a culture of construction that has to be abandoned if living in a world of 2°C or higher annual temperatures [or, hopefully, less than that, but nonetheless likely over 1.5°C] is to be tolerable.

Fortunately for Arizonans, change may have finally arrived in the form of a carless, planned community that looks and feels like a Greek island village.

In the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Culdesac has arisen as a 17-acre mixed-use neighborhood from the ground up to stay cool and local, taking the concept of the 15-minute city, where anything a resident might need is only 15 minutes away, and putting a Mediterranean spin on it.

Buildings are tall, thick, and totally white. The residential areas look like they were built atop of the ashes of the Phoenix zoning code burnt in effigy. Crammed together, they create narrow streets and alleys that are almost constantly shaded, through which wind is channeled and accelerated in passing.

Windows open towards each other, allowing wind that enters one building to exit into another, while the total lack of asphalt means that the ground temperatures are a staggering 50-60°F lower than pavements beyond the limits of Culdesac.

No privately-owned cars are allowed to enter the neighborhood, in which electric bikes, robotic mini taxis, and light rail shuttle people around town, to downtown Phoenix, or out to the airport.

The street life is lively—there are no cars to bisect movement between the 21 different businesses and eateries, among which is a James Beard Award-winning Mexican restaurant, DIY ceramic business, and some stores run out of apartments—a big no-no under Phoenix zoning laws.

“Once you pull the cars out,” Architect Daniel Parolek who designed Culdesac, told BBC, “there’s so much more opportunity to make a vibrant, thriving community.”

His inspiration was sun-soaked locales like Italy, Greece, and Croatia, where town centers were designed before the automobile and before air conditioning.

Technically speaking, the entire Culdesac neighborhood is one apartment complex, but the paseos, or little alleyways, open up into plazas of open space exactly liked one would expect in a little village in the Cyclades.

Because no one has to jump in a car to get from place to place, people run into each other, sparking conversations, relations, and breaking through the counterintuitive phenomenon of big city loneliness, which in Phoenix hits particularly hard.

“Culdesac Tempe has shown that people do want to live car-free in the US, even in a metro area like Phoenix that’s often seen as the poster child for car dependency,” says Erin Boyd, Culdesac’s government relations and external affairs lead. “This success has shifted the conversation around what’s possible in American development.”

Tenna art by @9Aaaalt29 on twt

Tragedy? Delicious.

A hard-earned happy ending? Wonderful.

A convoluted narrative? Keeps you glued.

Simple slice of life? It’s entertaining.

Bonus:

(Its long so it will continue after the cut)

Eridian claws, when held in a point, can be used as a weapon. They basically have 5 built in knives.

They are tiny (height wise) on average! With all 5 limbs on the ground they're about 1'8" on average.

They are apex predators. Like naturally. Not because of tools. Just as themselves.

Despite eating being private and gross to them they enjoy crushing (which functions like chewing) their food.

They have an innate sense of north on Erid bc they can sense magnetic fields and mimicked the sensation of Erid's magnetic field on the Blip-A just for comfort.

Their thoughts are light! They think via refracted light! Which since they have no concept of light makes me wonder how much they understand of how their own brain function. (Also going off of this, since their brains are completely covered in their mecury blood I do wonder how the light thing actually works. I mean light doesnt pass through mecury right?)

They struggle with focusing on one task. Relatable as hell

Can't juggle, but more interestingly they can't throw accurately.

That super-perception alien being introduced to a new human and immediately identifying them as a kind of human-mimic. The mimic has titanium bones and a bioreactor where intestines should be. Or they are a swarm of highly intelligent worms piloting a human skin-suit. And the homies aren't remarking on that all.

So the super-perception alien tries to be casual about the whole situation: "So uh... why didn't you guys tell me that you are a lot further along in physiological augmentation technology?" Or "I think Bob would be a lot happier if he was allowed to writhe as a swarm on the ground rather than being cooped up inside of that human disguise."