symphonic white noise

lemmadevotee: I’ve been wanting to read Ender’s Game for a while now because c’mon good sci-fi...

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:35:18 -0600

I’ve been wanting to read Ender’s Game for a while now because c’mon good sci-fi fiction and boys on spaceships are you kidding me…

but even still…

Orson Scott Card…

and now Asa Butterfield in space I mean what am I suppose to do???/KSD

It’s a really good book even if you don’t like the author! Just read it and enjoy it and you can still give Card the finger if you want UuU

science-junkie: Beautiful ‘flowers’ self-assemble in a...

Sat, 18 May 2013 05:59:31 -0600

science-junkie:

Beautiful ‘flowers’ self-assemble in a beaker

With the hand of nature trained on a beaker of chemical fluid, the most delicate flower structures have been formed in a Harvard laboratory—and not at the scale of inches, but microns.

These minuscule sculptures, curved and delicate, don’t resemble the cubic or jagged forms normally associated with crystals, though that’s what they are. Rather, fields of carnations and marigolds seem to bloom from the surface of a submerged glass slide, assembling themselves a molecule at a time.

By simply manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid, Wim L. Noorduin, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and lead author of a paper appearing on the cover of the May 17 issue of Science, has found that he can control the growth behavior of these crystals to create precisely tailored structures.

“For at least 200 years, people have been intrigued by how complex shapes could have evolved in nature. This work helps to demonstrate what’s possible just through environmental, chemical changes,” says Noorduin.

Read more

Images: [x]

blakryu: Don’t Starve: Underground (x) oh god the bunnymen...

Sat, 18 May 2013 05:29:35 -0600

blakryu:

Don’t Starve: Underground (x)

oh god the bunnymen kingdom

I am a Quality Comics Artist

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:36:00 -0600

I am a Quality Comics Artist

hedgehoglike: This post is some personal observations I have...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:46 -0600

hedgehoglike:

This post is some personal observations I have made about people’s perceptions of The Autism Spectrum. When I refer to “people”, I don’t mean “all people”, I just mean the people I’ve encountered personally, whether in real life or talking to online.

When people first learn about autism, it’s because their new friend [be it a real person or a fictional character] has been described as “having autism”. These people, not really understanding what autism is yet, look at their friend’s characteristics and decide that all the traits they have are autism - that’s what autism is, it’s being like Sherlock, Abed Nadir, Einstein, that quiet kid in class, your friend’s nonverbal son. The stereotypes can be nice (look at all the aspergers characters in film, books and television, which paint most of them as eccentric, bad with people, but nevertheless geniuses) or they can be bad (like “Autism moms” complaining how difficult it is for THEM to raise their child… or Louis Theroux’ documentaries painting a bleak portrait of autism “sufferers”).

At this stage, the person learning about autism usually seems to think of it as a binary state… like a lightswitch. They’ll tell you you either HAVE AUTISM and are therefore exactly like the stereotype they’ve created (lights on) or you DON’T HAVE AUTISM because you’re not exactly like that stereotype (lights off).

If they’ve read up a little more, they might have seen the word “spectrum”. Now they have a more generalized view of autism. But they get the idea of “spectrum” wrong - they see it as a linear thing: a number-line, a scale, a dimmer switch or volume control, from Zero to Autistic — or from “low-functioning” to “high-functioning”. At that point they say silly things like “You’re very high-functioning!” or “No, but I mean like, the really really autistic kids, who, like, can’t do anything because they can’t talk”. They invent this linear relationship between a person’s verboseness and “how autistic they are”.

A lot of people seem to get stuck at this point, so I think the word “spectrum” requires some explanation.

When I see the word “spectrum” I immediately imagine a rainbow, or light being split from a prism. I’m sure most people do. And sure, the spectrum of colours is derived from the electromagnetic spectrum - we get different colours at different wavelengths - it’s a continuous range.

BUT- where does white light come from? White light is a combination of all those different wavelengths. You can create new colours by mixing different colours together. You can make colours brighter by adding a little bit of the other colours. You can mix the wavelengths together at different intensities. There’s a lot of ways of combining colours.

Which essentially what the autism spectrum REALLY is. Which is why labels like “high functioning” and “severely autistic” are dumb labels. Just because one autie excels at public speaking doesn’t make them unanimously “high functioning”. Conversely, I know of nonverbal auties who are masters of writing. To tell someone with a vibrant imagination, intense emotions, passionate interests and brilliant intellect that they’re “low-functioning” because they don’t vocalize their thoughts out loud is a massive insult. To refuse someone’s pleas of help because they’re “too high functioning” is also a shitty thing to do (I’m looking at you, ATOS).

There’s lots of ways in which we function, some of which are interdependent, others independent, and the levels vary wildly between autistic people, and they also vary wildly in non-autistic people too:

- Long-term memory

- Short-term memory

- Socializing

- Physical awareness

- Spatial awareness

- Vocal ability

- Verbal reasoning / ability to understand instructions

- Linguistic skills

- Mathematical and logical skills

- Executive function / Planning

- Ability to filter information

- Processing speed of sensory input

- Ability to focus / attention span

- Emotional self-awareness

[These might not be the exact distinct cognitive ‘functions’ as according to all the sciencey literature, this was verbatim]

I see my functions as a bar chart. In the version I drew it’s a prism splitting white light into the whole spectrum, but the different colours fade out at different places (and it’s a homage to Pink Floyd :p). That bar chart can vary throughout the day, be markedly different on different days, and is always changing over time.

In times of anxiety all the functionality unanimously drains out of me. In a nice chilled out environment it all comes trickling back.

When I’m in the zone doing something I enjoy, some of those rays of colour will be shooting off the image :D

(Note how there’s no lines on the image denoting the “average person“‘s ability towards a particular function, because this shit is nigh on impossible to quantify person-to-person. All you can do is compare yourself to yourself)

I think that’s more accurate than “low functioning” vs “high functioning” ??????????

three-guardians-and-a-baby: It’s like a little cloud on his...

Fri, 17 May 2013 07:00:56 -0600

three-guardians-and-a-baby:

It’s like a little cloud on his head.

Nice character design. Reminds me of Maxwell’s Demons, an...

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:01:11 -0600

Nice character design. Reminds me of Maxwell’s Demons, an entropy-reversing thought experiment. Hm.

ilovetoship: geniusbillionairesassmaster: sillyunicorntime: dieceased: daiyaoowada: I told my...

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:31:36 -0600

ilovetoship:

geniusbillionairesassmaster:

sillyunicorntime:

dieceased:

daiyaoowada:

I told my government class about the Great Emu War and half the class didn’t believe me so we had my government teacher look it up on the projector oh my god

only in australia

wait how did the emus win

you don’t fuck with emus, mate

opolla: tricksterroxylalonde: ectogasmic: napoleonbonerhard: ...

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:58:38 -0600

opolla:

tricksterroxylalonde:

ectogasmic:

napoleonbonerhard:

Thrift Shop 8bit (x)
Macklemore

dude this sounds like really bad ass boss music holy shit??

wow

whoops my hand slipped

roachpatrol: It’s a go: ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’ series...

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:55:00 -0600

roachpatrol:

It’s a go: ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’ series order

Is that a gender balanced cast.

THANK YOU WHEDON.

scootermoto: katharinelinnea: The first sixteen pages of my...

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:42:09 -0600

scootermoto:

katharinelinnea:

The first sixteen pages of my senior thesis, about a 12th century monk who is forced to travel from the Skellig Islands to Rome when his monastery is abandoned.

A.M. hours reblog.

abandonedography: Ancient Arch, St Dunstan-in-the-East, London,...

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:12:15 -0600

abandonedography:

Ancient Arch, St Dunstan-in-the-East, London, England by franziphotos

talking-fishbone: wow i actually made this

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:49:06 -0600

talking-fishbone:

wow i actually made this

Audio

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:47:09 -0600

Photo

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:36:40 -0600

jackiecello23: afeastforkings: In which the bear is tumblr i...

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:31:00 -0600

jackiecello23:

afeastforkings:

In which the bear is tumblr

i FUCKING CANNOT

karcricket: safria: awesomedigitalart: Mineral Dragons by...

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:18:32 -0600

karcricket:

safria:

awesomedigitalart:

Mineral Dragons by Pythosblaze

artist on tumblr

I still can’t get over that white one

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

skegeton: makes a loud farting noise w my mouth

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:17:58 -0600

skegeton:

makes a loud farting noise w my mouth

anodymalion: My AP art portfolio is sent in and done so I can...

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:11:08 -0600

anodymalion:

My AP art portfolio is sent in and done so I can upload my art now and hopefully AP won’t assume that I am plagiarizing it.

Pst AP I sent you the physical copy of this piece so you should know that I really did it.

(acrylic btw)

whatapreciouslittlefuckfox: in case you weren’t aware snakes...

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:07:20 -0600

whatapreciouslittlefuckfox:

in case you weren’t aware

snakes yawning are literally the cutest things on the planet asdnsjkandjkasjkf