[cosmictuesdays]

[stepstepby]

Perspective. Sami Uçan, in Turkey.

[solardivulger]

damn that cats huge watch out dude

[myoxisbroken]

Anonymous asked:

I find that there’s a pressure to type up a long and eloquent review comment for every chapter of a fic, and I feel bad when the only thing I can say is “great fic!!!” Or “loved this!” I’m sure I’m not the only one who sometimes won’t comment at all because my comment is ~useless~ or not constructive. Do fic writers even care about the tiny comments? Should I even bother?

ao3commentoftheday answered:

For a perfect example of how much the simplest of comments can mean to an author, take a look at this ask. 

Sometimes all someone needs to hear is “I liked this” and it brightens their whole day. Sometimes a simple :) is all it takes to prompt a new chapter. Don’t feel like you need to craft an epic literary critique or a  flawlessly written sonnet to make an author happy. Just let them know that they did a good job. They’ll appreciate it :)

[weareagentsofnothing]

Short comments are totally appreciated. If you are worried that it’s the same every time, here are some examples of short comments I’ve received that totally made my day:

- great fic / update / chapter

- I liked this / loved this / lovely story / this is so good

- I had a shitty day, but you fixed it with this fic

- aaaawww / nice / i’m dead / HOW DARE YOU / I’m shook / excellent / awesome / yeeeeeeeah

- so happy to see this continue / off to a promising start / this is the best chapter yet! / still loving every word of this / another wonderful chapter

- I love this fic so much! I’m weak for this pairing

- this was absolutely adorable / cutest ever

- more kudos!

- SOBS - love the ending

Really - no need for an essay (though long and thoughtful comments are totally appreciated). But sometimes it’s just to know that people are still reading / liking what they are seeing.

[lasrina]

I have a commenter who puts “this is a good chapter” on every chapter and I freaking love that person. I have a commenter who puts “♥♥♥” on every chapter and I freaking love that person. 

Any response at all tells me you didn’t read one chapter, and quit reading, or forget about it, or bookmark it and come back never, but that instead you’re still there and still enjoying my words, and honestly that’s the biggest reward I could ask for.

(Also, I am mega socially anxious, and comments I don’t feel I have to respond to can be a gift all their own.)

[myoxisbroken]

• Daleks: EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
• Tenth Doctor: Stop! If I push this button all the Daleks will be destroyed.
• Daleks: DO IT, DOCTOR! THEN YOU WILL BE JUST LIKE US!
• Tenth Doctor: My god, they're right. If I destroy the Daleks then I am no better than them.
• Martha: Doctor, I'm pretty sure killing fascists in self-defence doesn't make you a fascist.
• Tenth Doctor: I need to stand here and brood for a bit.
• Martha: But, Doctor, the Daleks...
• Tenth Doctor: I said I need to brood, Martha!

[strangebiology]

A neural net names racehorses

[lewisandquark]

I’ve used neural networks to name all kinds of things - halloween costumes, craft beers, cats, and even guinea pigs. The weirder the starting set of names, the more a neural network’s creations might blend in (although cats named “Jexley Pickle” and “Big Wiggy Bool” might at least raise eyebrows).

How about the names of racehorses? The Jockey Club recently released a list of over 42,000 registered racehorses “in an effort to assist owners in identifying an appropriate name for their Thoroughbreds.” They don’t say whether it’s okay to use it to identify inappropriate names for Thoroughbreds instead. 

So I trained two neural networks, char-rnn and textgenrnn, on this tantalizing dataset. Some of the names they generated might pass for the names of real horses (which after all include horses named Three Little Birds, Spider Magic, Fierce Pajamas, and even a prizewinning horse called Cloud Computing).

She’s a Babe
North Storm
Magic Creek
Desert Cat
Mary’s Blade
Fabulous Charm
Frisky Joe
Velvet One
Dawn Forever
Lord Power

(I decided to illustrate a few using BigGAN (via ganbreeder.app), another neural net that generates pictures. Unfortunately, “horse” is not a category of image it can do, so I decided to go with “horse cart”. There was an attempt.)

The fact that these names are not taken yet highlights the potential of neural nets for this important task. The next set of names, however, highlights their disadvantages.

Snow Motion
Farthand
Harren’s Broke
Bodyyhole
Pond Wind
Orcha Shuffleston
Rapple Musty
Pick’s Lilver
Ginky’s Rental
Suckee Habon
Culf Q’s Wart
Aaging C Bon
Warry L Z’ W.

(For these illustrations I experimented with mixing in birds for more colorful horses - hornbill, and flamingo)

If you want your horse to be memorable, though, neural net names may be just the thing.

Party Can
Devil Tina
Exclusive Bear
La Flumber
Unbridled Dave
Secret Sand
Killer the Butterfly
Pickle J Gator
I’m Repent
Evilish Kelly
Snuckles
Will Surprise
Zegafish Pete
Pat’s Quick Hat
Mr Fact
Cowgitter Stark
Moretowiththebotterfron

Left: “horse cart” plus a bit of “anenome fish”. Right: “horse cart” plus a bit of “great grey owl”. “Dog” crept in there because BigGAN saw a LOT of dogs during training.

Bonus: more rACeHORSe names than would fit here! Enter your email here to get them (and optional bonus material every time I post).

[strangebiology]

[bmouse]

[yamelcakes]

Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities trilogy is a geopolitical fantasy series involving dead gods, warfare, eldritch beings, covert operations, time travel, colonialism and terrifying miracles. Start with City of Stairs for a truly wild and poignant read. Set in countries taking obvious inspiration from Russia and India, the first book involves a shrewd, bookish diplomat named Shara and her hulking, deadly “secretary” Sigrud investigating the murder of a scholar of dead gods. I’m reading the last book, City of Miracles and it’s a fucking miracle (ha ha i’m so sorry) how it’s able to simultaneously keep me on the edge of my seat and wrench out my heartstrings at every opportune moment. 

[trek-tracks]

Now that’s a mental image

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

[good-omens-fanart]

[grimerzz]

Some birthday gift-art for my awesome friend, flight-feather! She asked for some fan art, so knowing how much she loves Good Omens I drew her Crowley & Aziraphale. I even used watercolours!

You should all go check out Kayla’s art, because she is fantastic.

[multcoenvhealth]

What’s wrong with this picture? May 2019

These are actual photographs from different inspections in our county. Can you see what the problems are?

1. ↓  Handwashing sink. Do you know the hot water temperature requirements when it comes to your hand washing sink? This photo was taken after running the water for over one minute.

[multcoenvhealth]

Doing it right. 5/2019

When we see operators using a successful procedure or an awesome preventive approach we want to share it with the rest of the community. Take a look at this month’s finds.

1. ↓ This is an inspector’s dream when observing the cooking and removal of cooked chicken from the flat top. Each piece of cooked chicken gets temped. This is what prioritizing food safety in your facility looks like.

via GIPHY