The Corner of Xofrats

If he’s not putting a ring on me next year imma be disappointed

lawful good: organized layer folders, each folder has a name, all of the layers have names, finished layers are locked

neutral good: names all the layers and locks them but doesn’t do folders

chaotic good: names all the layers but doesn’t lock em and doesn’t do folders

lawful neutral: layers and folders still have ther default numbers, no names

true neutral: no folders and all default numbers. no names. no locks.

chaotic neutral: sometimes uses names. sometimes doesnt. sometimes theres folders. sometimes theres not.

lawful evil: does everything in one layer

neutral evil: merges all layers as they finish them

Think that fanartist draws your favorite character all wrong?

Wish you’d never hear about your least favorite pairing ever again?

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Users of Shutting Up™ may experience some temporary frustration and feelings of disgust. This is normal. Supplementation with Talking Privately With a Sympathetic Friend™ may ease those symptoms.

Long-term side effects of Shutting Up™ may include perspective, a sense of belonging, and a deep understanding that not everything in the fandom world is within your control or meant for your personal enjoyment. Shutting Up™ has been known to cause flare-ups of peace, friendship, and positivity. Not recommended for cases in which you actually like things and want to leave positive feedback.

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Substances don’t have to be a liquid or a gas to behave like a fluid. Swarms of fire ants display viscoelastic properties, meaning they can act like both a liquid and a solid. Like a spring, a ball of fire ants is elastic, bouncing back after being squished (top image). But the group can also act like a viscous liquid. A ball of ants can flow and diffuse outward (middle image). The ants are excellent at linking with one another, which allows them to survive floods by forming rafts and to escape containers by building towers. 

Researchers found the key characteristic is that ants will only maintain links with nearby ants as long as they themselves experience no more than 3 times their own weight in load. In practice, the ants can easily withstand 100 times that load without injury, but that lower threshold describes the transition point between ants as a solid and ants as a fluid. If an ant in a structure is loaded with more force, he’ll let go of his neighbors and start moving around.

When they’re linked, the fire ants are close enough together to be water-repellent. Even if an ant raft gets submerged (bottom image), the space between ants is small enough that water can’t get in and the air around them can’t get out. This coats the submerged ants in their own little bubble, which the ants use to breathe while they float out a flood. For more, check out the video below and the full (fun and readable!) research paper linked in the credits. (Video and image credits: Vox/Georgia Tech; research credit: S. Phonekeo et al., pdf; submitted by Joyce S., Rebecca S., and possibly others)