also, what would be even awesomer would be to have a second ring that shows a proportional gravitational effect, calibrated so the sun's ring marks out the same as pluto's orbit, roughly, and then apply the same distance versus mass to generate the rings for each planet, and draw these as a 10% opacity ring around all of the planets so you can actually see the interaction of the gravity effects

for extra bonus points, there is magnetic fields around each planet and the shape of it is altered by their rotational tilt and in fact each planet has a primary-secondary magnetic field axis, they call them "geomagnetic anomaly" and ours here on earth marks out a weak second pole that cuts through about between japan and phillipines and across to somewhere in the carribean

having both the gravitational overlay and the magnetic overlay would be extremely indicative of the chances of things to happen i think

gravity is definitely important, but so is magnetic field, but only our planet and everything larger has one - but the smaller planets, mars, venus, mercury, have field induction, they are just smaller

i want a thing that shows me in a nice, accurate diagram where the planets of teh solar system are, and orients it so the due south point is pointing towards the center of the galaxy

i don't think this exists, but i think i can find a data source that provides the relative angles of all the planets compared to the earth (mostly, these can be precalculated but they aren't exactly exactly exact) so probably i can just use an ephemeris data source, and make a thing that puts the planet symbol on a circle where it is and orients it all so i can see it as a pattern

this would be a super cool thing to have on an e-paper device, that just updates once a day to show the state of the solar system

why i'm interested in this is because it has just occurred to me that for us here, the galactic center is like the sun's sun, and what is facing where compared to that would be useful information, as for the most part those lines of radiation direction from it are parallel so you can just draw it in a box, and see where we are, it's like a seasonal clock, but even more than this

i am pretty sure that if you got used to looking at such a chart you'd start to notice patterns coinciding with events

like, specifically, i think that between february and july is when the most crazy stuff happens, and why? because that's when we are on the side of the sun that is like teh sun's "day side"

sure, the sun is a massive radiation emitter, itself, but it is influenced by what radiation comes at it, and the majority of it comes in ... october? i think

we are now moving away from the "midday" aspect of the sun versus the galactic center, so things will calm down from now

this pattern slowly shifts every 25000 years for a solar "day" and right now october is solar midday

They were always the perfect place for spare coins.

The longer I'm involved in FOSS, the more suspicious I am of devs who don't ask for payment.

The profit motive is the purest motive.

I don't disagree on there always being one or more leaders. But the state is not "an agreement on how to do things" otherwise a family or companies would fall into that category. Any community with shared standards, really. The state is an apparatus of coercion. I agree that framing anarchy as the absence of rulers/leaders may be misguided, it's much better to think of it as a system of cooperation based on voluntary association. With that framework, most of our relationships are anarchic because we enter them and remain in them willingly. Our relationship to the state however is coercive, and thus not anarchic.

What edition do you have?

Nerdy Christmas gift 🤓

I am a native to Bethlehem. My family has been there since the birth of Christ.

Christmas is a very special time of the year to me.

Merry Christmas everyone!

the best poetry is comedy

it mixes concepts together that explode like sodium and water

i love poetry, but comedy is the best poetry

and some of the best jokes are just two words

Yes, or my husband. It changes, back and forth, if you squint a bit and tilt the phone.

Everyone's intimidated by my husband, so I'll be fine. He doesn't usually say much, but it be like

I'm upper-class, by income, but I don't really feel it. Feel more UMC, really. Genteel impoverishment.

But I do feel like I have more freedom and options, than most other people. And I have Bitcoin, of course.

I probably think about money more, than most people, but I worry about it, less.

Yep. I am not, but I also don't want for anything, so the only difference between me and rich is where my house is an how much I pay to maintain it.

Trump says that China and the United States together can solve all of the problems of the world. I hope they arrange that. I expect that China will solve all the problems, the US will create a few more, and China will solve those too.

if the children are fruit, the parents are probably vegetables

Do you feel rich?

I've been reading up on the music theory behind Gregorian Chant, and it is fascinating.

The music style developed as vocal ornamentation for texts of Scripture. The inflections in the music resemble the inflections of a good orator who lets his voice rise and fall for effect at various points within a sentence.

Over time, 8 modes emerged. Each mode conveys a different emotion—solemnity, reverence, joy, and so on—and each revolves around two primary pitches. There is the tonic, the pitch the chant ends on, and the dominant, either a perfect fifth or a minor third above the tonic, that contains the center of the melody's motion.

Thus, with a few elements, the medieval monks developed an oral tradition that allowed them to memorize the pitches and basic melodic elements used in each mode, which aided them in chanting the Scriptures, especially the Psalms, in communal worship.

Over time the tradition grew and was elaborated into the sacred music corpus that has been handed down to the Church today.

I think that's why I like cross-country running and hiking. It doesn't matter how terrible you feel, you still have to hobble all. the. way. home.

Like the village's yearly pilgrimage over the hills, for 50 km, by foot. The last 5 km or so, you literally are in a trance and can easily trip over small stones on the path because you can barely raise your feet. And it just seems to go on and on and occasionally someone just faints right away.