the dream iceberg

a train for cats

music: wrongdezvous by aj booker

Gif: Tenor

No cause for celebration

And so it began, on this day, a full year later, at 43 minutes past noon, British Summer Time…

Particular fans’ take on this anniversary is not one to celebrate, even if their observations were correct.

They’re not. SRH wasn’t there. Nor was his mother. Particular fans have been squeeing over her older brother… and completely missing the point of her comforting him. Twelve family members sat in those first two pews: four siblings in the first, three siblings in the second. Everyone but the child in those pews was named in the notice. The three sons-in-law sat in the second pew. The newest son-in-law held his infant son on his lap, within easy reach of the boy’s mother. No one wore a wig to disguise their identity. There is no speculation or interpretation or wishful thinking or “JMHO” here. There is only reality.

If particular fans want to celebrate, how about celebrating the actual couple’s fourth wedding anniversary? Or the second birthday of their son, also an August event?

One would think arbitrarily reassigning a child’s paternity was as low as particular fans could go. One would be wrong.

For the past year, particular fans have hijacked a deeply personal family event and made it their business. They watched a distorted live-streamed video, took screenshots, misidentified individuals, marked-up, resized, posted, and reposted those images. Why? To salute their #GoldenReceipt.

In reality, they’ve been saluting a #PyriteReceipt. Fool’s gold.

Imagine strangers, watching the video and publicly posting screenshots of your loved one’s funeral, claiming a victory.

No boundaries. No respect. No class.

#ThereAreNoFuneralPics

Louder, for those in the back: There are no “funeral pics.” The distorted screenshots are not photos taken at the funeral.

But there is a candid photo — a clear outdoor shot — of five family members, published in two local newspapers the day after the funeral. Enter more misidentification, marking-up, posting and reposting.

The pictured minor child, whose hair, eyes, ear, feet, and clothing received excessive critical analysis, is apparently fake. Or is it the photo or the newspaper page itself that’s fake? As it is with most conspiracy theories, the devil’s in the details.

Imagine strangers, analysing a photo and publicly posting thoughtless comments about your child, claiming a publicity stunt.

No boundaries. No respect. No class.

And yet… particular fans managed to sink even lower. A month ago, 11 months after the funeral, an absolutely disgraceful post appeared on Tumblr, intended to compare three images of wedding anniversary surprises.

The first image is a screenshot of a wedding day photo posted on Instagram by an actress to celebrate her first wedding anniversary. The image includes a personal message to her husband, a professional athlete.

The second image is a screenshot of a wedding day photo posted on Instagram by an actress to celebrate her fourth wedding anniversary. The image includes a personal message to her husband, a world-renowned musician.

The third image is a pixelated screenshot, a particular fan took from a live-streamed video, of an actress and her brother at their father’s funeral.

Let that sink in.

💭 💭 💭 💭 💭

The date of the funeral coincided with with the actress’s wedding anniversary, but the image has nothing to do with that occasion. Nor did the actress post the image anywhere, much less include a personal message to her husband, a private citizen.

(If there was room for levity here, one might mention two weddings and a funeral. There isn’t.)

“Believe what you want” is not licence for slander. Or indecency. Or deliberate ignorance.

The actress in the third image deserves better. She is a human being with thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams. She is not a doll or a character in a fan-concocted fairytale.

Imagine strangers, publicly disrespecting your marriage, mocking your spouse, and accusing you of lying and manipulating your way to career success. (Imagine their analysing your body shape and discussing pregnancies that never happened and children that never existed.)

No boundaries. No respect. No class.

Whilst make-believe is child’s play, appropriating a live-streamed funeral is not a game. Time beckons particular fans to brush out their pigtails, pack up Barbie, Ken, and the Dreamhouse, and grow TF up.

Remember… there’s going too far. Then there’s going where you never should have been.

#ThereAreNoFuneralPics

Dark Souls PCL Could Have Been?

| Repost: Originally posted by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn on August 13, 2012

We dreamt about it. We asked for it. We made very well thought out presentations as to why it would be a good thing to do. Then it got the okay. Now we’re waiting for it. But the end result of Dark Souls for the PC may not be as blissfully sadistic as we, the PC gamers, may have envisioned.

Gaming in 2012 has been different for me. I’ve still been playing a bunch (and buying a bunch), but there’s not been any huge knockouts for me personally. August may change that in a big way. Not only is Guild Wars 2 less than 2 weeks away and will no doubt cause me to stay up later than I should for many nights post-release, but Dark Souls is finally going to be in my possession again; this time on my platform of choice.

When you spend the kind of money it takes to be a PC gamer, you sort of expect certain things from the games your computer was built for. This is doubly true for those of us who play both PC and console games. While there may be some experiences meant for the couch (fighting games come to mind), I know that the visual fidelity on my computer will almost always be superior. I better be. Sure, that’s not what makes the game fun, but we human beings like pretty things. So as a human video game lover, I want my games to be pretty. Dark Souls is already a “pretty” game. Yet, I always looked at it and wondered how much more stunning it could be with PC hardware pushing the engine to its limits.

With the reports that both the framerate and the resolution will be locked on the PC, it seems that I won’t get my wish. From Eurogamer:

“There’s also something curious about the resolution too in that there’s no change in clarity when attempting to crank up the settings. On close inspection, it appears that Dark Souls PC uses the very same 1024×720 internal framebuffer as the console versions, regardless of which resolution has been set in the menus. The option provided is for output resolution only; a simple courtesy to allow the game to play on most monitors, but the image quality will always remain the same. In short, PC gamers will very much be getting the genuine console experience here, right down to the pixel.”

Sure, in the long run we’ll probably see someone hack the game and unlock both of these things, allowing Dark Souls to become the game we all wanted the developers to make in the first place. In the meantime though, it’ll be like playing on a console. A horrible… dirty console. The kind of thing poor people play games on. Ugh… poor people. Does this change my preorder status? Not at all. And I don’t mean this post to be a warning for everyone to stay away. On the contrary, if by some chance buying the game helps show Atlus and From Software that the PC community wants what they’re cooking, by all means they can have my forty bucks. Maybe because of the demand and financial support of the PC gaming community, the inevitable next chapter in the “Souls” series will get a proper high definition release. Until then though, I’m taking this version of the game for what it is. A straight up “port” in every sense of the word, but my second time around with one of my all time favorite games.

“A Moment” 2nd CV Postscript

Please enjoy responsibly. 

Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ofTz_xYsJwMfTE5jrTdTW8dBDfjst1Cd/view?usp=sharing

Music: Second Wind Artist: L'indécis 

This CV had a few ups and downs when I made it, but ultimately I’m pretty happy with the outcome. I think the first “A Moment” CV will always have it’s charm, but I hope you guys enjoyed the sequel as well!

Concept

I wanted to keep this relaxing atmosphere of the previous CV, so I thought I’d pour a beer as the intro. I chose music that had a similar relaxing feeling, but wanted it to feel a little less melancholy compared to the first CV. 

 Also, if you’ve ever talked or seen me talk in passing casually, I’ve probably mentioned that I really enjoy trying out different craft beers!

Although, I couldn’t help myself even after I said I would make this CV seem less cryptic. I added a small Easter egg in the edit, as well as the subtle sound-based ending.

It can be interpreted as the fact that pen spinning is addicting, or a way for some of us to relax. It’s up to interpretation!

Editing

Original song I planned on editing with.

I had to change songs because I didn’t have the clips I felt like I needed to fill out the song duration, so I settled for backup song I had saved. The song “Second Wind” had a less obvious fun and upbeat feeling than “Bopatron”, but definitely more relaxing and in tune with the “A Moment” series.

I also edited the intro and outro before the CV submissions arrived, which was new for me. I ended up having to change the credits quite a bit, but the intro stayed the same for the most part. The footage of the beer being poured into the glass was filmed a few months before the announcement of the CV sign-ups as well, so I definitely did a lot of extra prep work for this one.

A Few Editing Lessons to Learn From:

Had a bit of a scare when I released the CV too, Timeless pointed out that m1ch1 and Altttt’s submissions were stretched so I rushed to render and repost it. It turns out to be the pixel aspect ratio of the submissions that were different than my project file settings. I’m guessing it’s a thing that’s specific to certain cameras.

Another issue came up when I realized that freely capitalizing the spinner names for my editing purposes could become an issue, after seeing m1ch1′s tweet. Just something to keep in mind to avoid problems in the future.

There’s nothing too too special about the editing in this CV, it’s meant to be simple editing, but I got to experiment with colour correcting the submissions more. Hopefully they were some subtle changes that helped support the atmosphere of the CV.

I really enjoy editing simple CVs like this. It’s not too technical, but since they’re simple, each of the edits have to be deliberate. So, it’s a nice feeling to sit down and really dial in a specific transition or camera motion of a CV submission.

Organizing

I was also given a critique about the way I organized this CV. I meant to make a personal CV that was fun for me and also had a fun atmosphere, but it could easily be interpreted as a CV where you submit casual clips. Next time, I could be more explicit with my intentions there.

I’m very glad to see new pen spinners try to submit, so I apologize for the heavy filtering. Because of the invites and some of the other submissions, it caused a bit of skill gap which was difficult to deal with.

Spinners

We revisit our old invites: Akai and Nare, but also Tigres this time. I pretty much always end up inviting people I know, just seems more comfortable for me that way. 

Nare was actually nice enough to try to talk a bit about what kind of combo I was looking for from an invite. I thought it was a neat way to communicate better on what to expect, not too sure if it’s that common in CV organizing though. Nare is just fun to talk to in general so he makes it easy.

Here are some of my honest thoughts of your combos:

mei

Surprised at how refined your spinning is. Pretty consistent speed, which also makes it very fitting for the first spinner of the CV before the music progresses further.

Tigres

Cool to see a DC combo from you. The light on your setup is a bit bright, and you slowed down quite a bit before the finisher, but the combo flows nicely.

coffeelucky

I’m a fan of this type of combo you film because your execution is much cleaner. Your finisher could be a bit tidier though, maybe just some finger positioning adjustment for the catch that could help give it better impact.

Mango

Good flow to this combo, some cool direction changes in there. Your setup could be better though, there’s slight offcam moments. Lighting needs work as well, but I’m sure you’re aware because I’ve seen you talk about your setup on Twitter.

Akai

Great stuff as always, clean presentation and nice spinning. Only complaint is the catch of your finisher trick.

Joi

I’m happy to include a new spinner in one of my CVs, pretty nice stability, could use a bit of polish, but the spinning speed makes it pretty fitting for this CV!

Noishi

Nice all around, the sonics helps a lot to add a little extra something to your spinning. Like in the previous CV, a perfect combo for the quiet moment of the song.

Whitetiger

Glad to include another new pen spinner into the CV. I liked how you planned your combo with the direction changes being a big highlight. Presentation could be a touch better, there’s a monitor off-screen that spilled blue light on the desk and your hand. Keep working on your execution and presentation!

m1ch1

Nice use of arm movement, been enjoying your spinning with DCs lately. Camera might be just a touch too close, small part of your spinning was off-camera towards the finisher.

Sweg

Bit of a strange combo starter, very confident towards the finisher though. Definitely a slower speed than I’m used to seeing from your spinning, but not bad overall.

Nare

I liked the way you use your arm movement to emphasize certain tricks, while changing your spinning speed for the pacing. Perfect video to use for the “coda” or “solo” section of the song.

Altttt

Very well-structured and overall well-executed combo. There’s some small execution issues with the finisher sequence, but the speed and structure of the combo makes for a good finale to the CV.

Extras

The video in the intro of the CV was filmed in July with a janky-ass setup. I used a gooseneck phone holder to film it. Used a iPhone 8 plus this time to film it though, a bit of an upgrade from my old 6S.

Next time though, I should really remember to disable the auto white balance cause it really messed with my ability to colour correct it. I guess I could have keyframed it but it would have made life easier.

“Second Wind” by L’indécis, the music of “A Moment” 2nd CV. Real nice chill vibes with this artist’s hip hop instrumentals.

Shift-Stacking the Night Away By Astrobites The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which just recently finished its primary mission to search for planets around nearby, bright stars, has also provided a treasure trove of other information for astronomers. As it stares at the sky, waiting to catch the brief flicker of a distant planet passing in front of its host star, TESS’s steady, unwavering gaze catches everything from stellar pulsations, to gamma-ray bursts, to distant solar system objects tumbling through the dark. It has been hypothesized that among these distant solar system bodies lies a ninth planet orbiting our Sun. To date, searches for this hypothetical world have turned up little of interest, but with an expected size not much larger than the Earth, and an orbit that is thought to be ~10x as distant as Neptune, “Planet Nine” would appear incredibly faint, due to the small amount of sunlight that reaches it. Furthermore, if it happens to lie near the star-studded galactic plane on the sky, it would be incredibly difficult to pick out in images. An image of Planet Nine could be in some of the many exposures that TESS has already taken, although likely not in plain sight. Given that TESS takes 30-minute exposures of each patch of sky, the signal from our distant solar system companion would probably be extremely weak and hard to detect. One way around this issue is to “stack” multiple exposures on top of each other. This acts to boost the signal from any faint sources in an image above any background noise from the camera. Unfortunately, even the most distant solar system bodies move across the TESS field of view between exposures. Because the object is in a different place in each image, you lose any benefit from simply stacking the images on top of each other in place. To solve this problem, the authors of today’s paper make use of a clever technique called “shift stacking”. Although an object will appear at a different location on each exposure, one can shift the sequence of exposures in such a way that the same pixels on each image correspond to the location of the object. By doing so, the images can then be stacked and added together and an object too faint to be visible in a single image now pops out. A diagram detailing this technique is shown in the lower image. The shift-stacking process described above is shown in the top panel. The tricky part, however, is when you don’t know what the path of the object you’re searching for actually follows. In this case, one can use a computer algorithm to try out many different possible paths for the object (shown in the lower panel). The path that produces the strongest signal on the stacked image is likely the correct one. Trying to guess the correct path for an undetected object can be slow ordeal. One simplification, however, makes this task much easier to conquer. Most outer solar system objects move incredibly slowly because they are so far from the Sun. They move so slowly, in fact, that their motion on the sky is almost entirely dominated by the Earth’s motion. This fact really helps to narrow down the range of possible guesses for the path of any undetected body. Because the Earth’s motion dominates, a body’s path across the images depends only on its distance from the Sun, and not on the specific shape of its orbit. To verify the effectiveness of this shift-stacking technique, the authors first attempt to recover an image of three known outer solar system objects: Sedna, 2015 BP519, and 2007 TG 422. The resulting shift-stacked images of these bodies are shown in the left column of the bottom image. In these images, the object shows up as a bright point. Some of the shift-stacked images also contain prominent streaks. It turns out that these are caused by much closer and brighter asteroids that happened to pass through the field of view of the telescope. Next, the authors attempt to recover these three outer solar system bodies without telling the algorithm ahead of time about the trajectories of these bodies. Instead, the algorithm tries to guess the path by maximizing the brightness of the point source in the shift-stacked images. This is shown in the middle and right hand columns of the bottom image. Here, “polynomial” and “PCA” refer to the technique used to subtract the baseline flux from the images. Although the polynomial technique is less computationally expensive, it sometimes results in the object itself being removed from the images. Lastly, the authors apply their blind search algorithm to TESS sectors 18 and 19. Although this is only a small piece of the observing footprint of the telescope, these two sectors partially overlap with the galactic plane, which is where the shift-stacking technique is particularly useful. In total, the authors provide a list of 17 new outer solar system body candidates, which will need to be followed up with ground-based observations to confirm. From the TESS images, the distance, brightness, and size of the objects are estimated. Unfortunately, none appear anywhere near as large as what is expected for the hypothetical planet nine. It is, however, exciting that this technique finds so many new candidate objects from such a small search area. Presently, there are only about 100 known distant outer solar system bodies! Although this technique is quite computationally expensive to run, a more clever implementation that involves convolutional neural networks could allow this to be run on the entire sky. TOP IMAGE....With the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), we can explore not only distant planetary systems, but also our own. [NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab] CENTRE IMAGE....Artist’s rendering of the hypothetical Planet Nine in the outskirts of our solar system. [Caltech/R. Hurt, IPAC] LOWER IMAGE....Top: An illustration of the process by which a series of images, taken at different times, are combined to convert a faint, moving source into a much brighter, single point. Bottom: When searching for an undetected source, the path on the image is unknown. In this case, the algorithm must try out different guesses for the correct trajectory. The “correct” path is the one that produces the strongest signal on the final image. [Rice & Laughlin 2020] BOTTOM IMAGE....An application of the shift-stacking technique to three previously known outer solar system bodies: Sedna (top), 2015 BP519 (middle) and TG 422 (bottom). In the leftmost column, the known orbital parameters are used to calculate the trajectory of the object on the image. Next, the trajectory of the object is guessed using both a polynomial (middle) and PCA (right) technique to model the baseline flux. In all cases, the objects are recovered. [Rice & Laughlin 2020] Title: Exploring Trans-Neptunian Space with TESS: A Targeted Shift-Stacking Search for Planet Nine and Distant TNOs in the Galactic Plane Authors: M. Rice, G. Laughlin First Author’s Institution: Yale University Status: Published in PSJ Editor’s note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org. Original astrobite edited by Bryanne McDonough. About the author, Spencer Wallace: I’m a member of the UW Astronomy N-body shop working with Thomas Quinn to study simulations of planet formation. In particular, I’m interested in how this process plays out around M stars, which put out huge amounts of radiation during the pre main-sequence phase and are known to host extremely short period planets. When I’m not thinking about planet formation, I’m an avid hiker/backpacker and play bass for the band Night Lunch.

It’s honestly impressive, but mostly just really sad how many times this needs to be said across all fandoms. Stop stealing gifs and claiming them as your own! And no, just cause you crop out a watermark or delete a couple of frames, doesn’t mean it’s now your gif. I just reblogged a very nice post that made some very good comparisons between reposting fics (which people seem to be able to see is wrong) and reposting gifs and art (which more people seem to think is fine), so I will continue in using this comparison. So just like changing a few words and deleting a couple of paragraphs from a fic, doesn’t suddenly mean you wrote it, cropping a gif and deleting a few frames doesn’t mean you suddenly made it.

Also any gif maker worth their salt will more than likely still be able to recognize their own gifs (and sometimes also the gifs of other gif makers in their fandom) even if you crop it a bit, and the fact that you seem to think they won’t be able to do that, just shows how little you understand of how much work goes in to making those gifs. 

This is to show the difference between an unedited gif (at the top) and one that has been sharpened and coloured (at the bottom). This is how we can recognize our gifs, cause very few people will colour exactly the same. Some might be very close to each other, but that will usually be people that have been giffing for a while, and it’s somehow never really those people that go around stealing other people’s stuff, because they understand the amount of work it takes to make those gifs. 

Now after tumblr made the change to use gifv another challenge in recognizing stolen gifs came about, and it was something that honestly threw me off at first. Because the thing is that sometimes, but not all the time, saving gifs from tumblr will result in a compressed version of the gif being saved, which means there is a significant loss of quality. 

These are both the same gif, the top one is a compressed one saved from tumblr and the bottom one is original quality. As you can see, not only is there a significant loss of quality, but the colouring gets harder to recognize because of the pixelation. Well, this was mostly just to show that even if there is a difference in quality it can still be a repost.

Yeah, so I can feel I’m kinda losing the consistency of this post, like I had a bunch of more points I originally wanted to make in this post, but I’m just so fucking tired of keeping seeing people do this shit. Like, reposting a gif without credit is just bad manners, but going from that to claiming you made something you stole from someone else, is a whole other level of shitty behavior. And if you do that shit I am gonna block you.

Honestly, just, content creators on this site spend hours making all this stuff for you to enjoy, for free, can you please just have the bare minimum of decency and not claim you made something you didn’t make? Otherwise people are gonna stop sharing that content with you. 

[REPORT] Multi-fandom Re-edited GIFs Reposter @kimsnamjoons / @girlssgeneration

Account @kimsnamjoons​​ (now @girlssgeneration as of 11/15) has been re-editing other content creators’ gifs from multiple fandoms and claiming them as their own since at least November 2017. Dayna was contacted by at least 5 gif-makers, other individuals, and admin Tiffany (11/05/18) over 2 weeks (10/22 to 11/05); and has blocked all of them. In November 2017 gif-makers also contacted Dayna, made call-out posts, and were also blocked.

Instead they continue to claim they make their own gifs when replying to asks and in personal posts on @kimsnamjoons​​ and their twitter account, @cutienamjoons. Further, they say that they feel “their” gifs are not appreciated, but they plan to continue reposting anyway. They repost as many as 7 compilation gif sets in a day.

You can see their reposts under their tag #dayna’s shit and #mine. If you see your work was reposted, you can report misattribution with this form in order to remove all reblogs of the post.

You can show your support for content makers by:

blocking @girlssgeneration​ to prevent accidentally spreading their reposts;

blacklisting ‘kimsnamjoons’ and ‘girlssgeneration’ using new xkit or tumblr savior web browser extension;

reblogging our report or sharing on Twitter;

contacting the users they follow and/or reblog from to block @girlssgeneration

sending an ask and/or DM @girlssgeneration to stop reposting and to delete their reposts;

contacting content makes whose work you recognize have been reposted.

Community pressure may stop this user and prevent others from reposting or sharing reposts. We encourage expressing your anger, but we do not condone violent or threatening messages.

Below the cut we have compiled:

admin contact with @kimsnamjoons and their responses;

direct evidence of reposting;

evidence they don’t have the technical skills to make the stolen gifs.

Contact with @kimsnamjoons​

On 11/05 I contacted Dayna @kimsnamjoons​ after receiving a reposting report on their account from 3 different users on 10/12, 10/28, and 10/31. These reports included links to multiple call-out posts made in October 2018 by other gif-makers. In response they tweeted (source):

I received no response and was immediately blocked, but Dayna did make personal comments about my DMs on their blog and (copy-pasted to) their twitter. I reblogged and responded to their comments on @btsgfx. Dayna then blocked @btsgfx​ and tweeted, lying to an audience of 0, that I called them out cause they’re a multi-stan instead of cause they’re a reposter (source).

Dayna seems to think blocking stops gif-makers from seeing their stolen gifs on their blog too (source).

This is not the first time a community of gif-makers have accused Dayna of re-editing and reposting. In November 2017, gif-makers also contacted Dayna, made call-out posts, and were blocked. In response to being called out, Dayna started adding their own watermark to reposted gifs (source).

This was their response to a call-out post in 2017 (source):

#i dont wanna say im bitter #i have never & w i l l n e v e r steal gifs #i know how it feels to see something youve worked so hard on be reposted and i would never wish that on anybodyim just pissed someone would literally make a post about me saying a stole them im???im????? #i dont mean to be that bitch but uhhhhhh idk how else to say it #i make these gifs myself

To see the numerous call-out posts (including some with evidence of their own) search for text posts in #kimsnamjoons. They have consistently until now (11/14) claim that all re-edited and reposted gifs are their own and despite the “undeserved hate” they plan to continue “posting their own gifs” (source).

Evidence of Reposting

Dayna’s gif sets have all been compilations sets with gifs of different video source quality, sharpness, coloring, frame rate, and at times even gif sizes. These are obvious giveaways of reposting, however below we overlaid Dayna’s re-edited gifs on top of the original gif-makers’ as undeniable evidence. They match frame by frame with the same number of frames, pixel content, and are cropped smaller than the original gifs.

To prove the below overlaid gifs are Dayna’s gifs we have overlaid, we link OP’s gif set and Dayna’s gif set.

Dayna’s re-edited gif set

1st row, right in Dayna’s (link above) overlaid on top-left in OP’s gif set 3rd row, left in Dayna’s overlaid on 4th gif in OP’s  4th row, left in Dayna’s overlaid on bottom-left in OP’s  4th row, right in Dayna’s overlaid on bottom gif in OP’s

bottom row, left in Dayna’s re-edited gif set overlaid on OP’s gif 

bottom row, left in Dayna’s re-edited gif set overlaid on top-left in OP’s

2nd row, right in Dayna’s re-edited gif set overlaid on OP’s gif set top row, middle in Dayna’s re-edited gif set overlaid on OP’s gif set

There are a few gifs that were identified where Dayna did not even re-edit and/or crop so you can not tell the difference when just viewing the overlaid gif (not as a PSD).

4th row, right gif in Dayna’s repost vs. 2nd row gif in OP’s bottom row, left gif in Dayna’s re-edited gif set vs. top-left in OP’s

Evidence of Inadequate GIF Skills

Even though it’s nearly impossible for two gifs created by different gif-makers of the same scene to look the same, Dayna’s answer to an anon ask shows they don’t even know how to make gifs at the quality level of the gifs they stole.

They claim they use .mp4 files for their gifs, but some of the above stolen gifs were created using .ts files that can only be downloaded using magnet links (very different from just converting online videos to .mp4 files).

To make gifs from videos, Dayna uses ezgif.com, which makes it impossible to delete duplicate frames or manually delete undesired frames. All gif-makers on PS delete frames to some degree.

Given they add text and crop using ezgif.com and gifgifs.com, they do not know how to sharpen using Photoshop or Topaz, a relatively complicated PS plug-in, which does not explain how their gifs differ in sharpness.

For coloring gifs, Dayna seems to only use coloring PSDs they download, which makes it impossible that their coloring matches with gif-makers who do not use coloring PSDs or post their own.

Edit (11/04): Dayna posted a video of them making a gif (view here) which provides further evidence that (1) they know how to make a gif but choose to repost anyway and (2) do not have the adequate knowledge of gif-making and Photoshop to make the gifs they reposted for all the above reasons we listed.

July 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap

We had a great time chatting with @crispychrissy today! Thank you so much, Chrissy, for joining us!

This month, to make up for not having a chat in June, we chatted for two hours about some issues related to posting your works on Tumblr. Chrissy talked to us about making our own gifs, we discussed giving credit to gifmakers, how to make a Keep Reading cut, and much more!! A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut!

[Editor’s Note: For ease of understanding, the tags you put at the bottom of a post with a # will be called #hash-tags, while the tags you use to notify another Tumblr user that you’ve posted something will be called @mention-tags.]

Q: What programs do you use to make gifs? Are they free, or do you have to buy them?

Chrissy: Well, there is a free one I used back when I started called GifCam. It's easy to set up (it's just an exe) and there's a little learning curve, but it's easier than what I do now. I currently use a screen capture program that came with my $1500 graphics card along with Sony Vegas. If anyone wants GifCam, I can send it to them.

Q: And are you watching via Netflix or some other way?

C: Yes, I use Netflix. I have the first 6 seasons on DVD along with 12 and 13, so for bloopers and deleted scenes I have to use the DVD's. For current episodes, I have YouTube TV, and use the screen capture option with that. Tumblr has a 3MB limit on file size, so it’s really hard. The amount of frames you can fit in a sub-3MB gif depend on so many factors. Colors in the scene, movement, FPS (frames per second), and length. A low FPS gif looks pretty choppy, while a high FPS gif is smooth as butter.

Q: So that's why some gifs seem to go on forever, and others are quick things.

C: Yes. I can make a really long gif of something that's really really tiny, but if you want it to fit into the pixels of a Tumblr post, it limits how long they can be.

Q: And I guess that's also why some gifs I find from Google and try to put into a post won't animate right. If they're too big, I guess Tumblr stops them?

C: Yes. Tumblr just freezes the image instead of animating it. When you save it, check the file size.

C: So this is an example of the brightness and colors of a gif affecting the size. Since there's so much brightness and color, the more the gif has to render, meaning the bigger the size. This worked out to be only 35 frames, which is like... really small, but the gif itself came out to be 2.83 MB.

Q: Are websites that come up when I Google "gif maker" worth my time and effort?

C: Only if you don't mind a stupid watermark from the company.

Q: About giving credit to gifmakers....any thoughts?

C: Well, all my gifs have "cc" in the bottom right corner, that's how I give myself credit if they're used. Not everyone knows the "cc" gifs are mine, but I do. I offer my gif making services to anyone if they need a specific gif made for a story or otherwise, not limited to SPN. I've made porn gifs, ones from YouTube, and from other shows. If it exists, I can gif it. Tumblr's search feature is... well, it's not perfect, but it'll help give you a quick gif and give credit to the author. When someone uses a gif I've posted, it gives me a notification, which is awesome, but annoying if it gets reposted a crap ton. It also links the person back to the original post and who posted it.

Q: Some folks seem to think that if they grab a gif from Google, just saying they found it on Google is giving credit. I know this isn't the case. (I mistakenly thought that pasting the link to the image would allow folks to click through to where I found it, but discovered last night that's not the case.) If I found a gif on Google that was yours and used it, and provided a link to the page where Google found it, would that be enough, do you think?

C: Sometimes a reverse image search can be helpful, but it mostly doesn't work with gifs. That would be fine for me. Like I said, I have "cc" in the corner so that's me marking the gif as one of mine. I can't control where someone reposts them or uses them. There's a difference between reposting it to a site like Pinterest or using my gif on a LiveJournal post and saving it and reuploading it like it's yours and without giving me credit. One is malicious, the other isn't. I have a problem with the latter.

Q: I started looking at where Google finds gifs last night, and noticed that sites like gfycat have whole pages of gifs, and just citing that page might not be enough. (And trying to find where Google found them many times leads to a Tumblr blog that’s now gone.)

C: Google finds gifs all over the place. Someone can take my gif from Tumblr and reupload it to a bunch of different websites, all which would show up in a Google search. It's hard to find the original poster when it happens. Yeah, people delete their pages, but the gif stays. If you get to that point, just say, “Gif found on Google, unable to find original post"

Q: Speaking of finding gifs, how does the search function work on Tumblr? Is it just whatever the post was tagged with or the first 5 tags like regular searches or something else entirely?

After some discussion, we all decided that the gif search uses whatever #hash-tags are on a post where a gif is used, and then makes that gif searchable by that #hash-tag. So, if you make a post about chronic pain and use a gif of the Winchesters hugging, that gif will then show up in the gif search under #chronic pain. Also, popularity of the gif ensures it shows up at the top of the search. As people stop using a gif, it eventually falls out of the search results.

Q: Going back to file sizes...Do the dimensions of the source video (like watching Netflix/YouTube in full screen vs in a smaller window) impact the size of the gif, specifically with GifCam?

C: Now, that's a HUGE reason why I switched the way I make gifs. Netflix has a set streaming rate, which is only optimized at full screen. So the smaller you make the window to get it to fit into the size of the gif, the more degraded the image is. (Some confusion was expressed, so she continued to explain it further.) Netflix likes to run as big as possible. It wants as many pixels it can get to show you an image. If you minimize the window, it kind of freaks out and has to quickly scramble to make everything smaller so the video keeps playing. It does that by squishing everything down, making the image look weird. It might not be too noticeable when you look at it, but when you make gifs, they're gonna come out lookin all wonky.

Q: So, you have to make the Netflix window smaller in order to capture the images with the gif-making software? The gif-making software can't capture full screen?

C: GifCam will record the gif based on the window size. You gotta squish the window down to make it a reasonable size to fit on Tumblr. Other programs, which you might have to pay for, might be able to capture full screen and do the squishing for you. (Side note: during this discussion, Chrissy gave us some examples, and in showing them to us, revealed that a good gif size for Tumblr is around 410-430 wide, 230-250 high.)

After that, we moved on to other topics that had been brought up in the Pond survey a while back. 

How to make a Keep Reading cut and when you should use it.

Note: Although this worked for one person on the app, it doesn’t seem to work for all, and we’re not sure why. There are too many variables to determine the root cause for why it doesn’t always work. 

Q: "When should I give someone credit for being a beta (for example: I bounced ideas with someone for a minute or two but they didn’t technically beta read it; I can’t decide between X and Y (with no context), pick one)"

A: Always mention anyone who helped you. You don’t have to say they beta-read your story, but at least mention that they helped, even if they didn’t know it! Gratitude is always a good thing!! Writing takes a village, and being thankful for help is courteous, kind, caring, and helps you to make friends that will be the same right back to you.

How do I add my masterlist for my blog description?

Note: Chrissy pointed out that if you change your bio by hitting “edit appearance” instead of “edit theme” the link will break, so be careful where you add this! These things and more can be found in the Pond FAQ list!!

Q: The facts on search issues (re: links, tags, and anything else that keeps a fic from being “searchable”)

A: A lot of testing and research went into trying to figure this out, and we still probably don’t have it all figured out, but we learned some interesting things!

Most importantly, since we have a lot of smut writers, if you use the #hash-tag #NSFW on your post, your post will NOT show up in any searches!!

Adding an external link should not cause your post to be unsearchable, but that’s not guaranteed. According to Tumblr’s own help pages, “some links may cause posts to be hidden from recent search results.” Since spambots use external links in their posts, this will always be something that could possibly interfere with your post being searchable.

According to Tumblr: “Blogs that have been either self-flagged or flagged by us as “explicit” per our old policy (before December 17, 2018), will not show up in search. Users under 18 are still not allowed to click through to see the content of these blogs. If you think your blog has been erroneously marked as explicit, you can file an appeal by following these instructions.”

When you are searching for your post, make sure you are looking at Most Recent posts, not Most Popular! 

Some things to know about searching:

There are two ways to search a blog. If you use the search box at the top, then your results will have a URL like this:  https://spnfanficpond.tumblr.com/search/big-fish-chat

However, that is not the only way you can search your blog. If you look at a post, and click on one of the tags on that post, your results will have a URL like this: https://spnfanficpond.tumblr.com/tagged/big-fish-chat

The first search will look through all of the text in a post to find the words you’re searching for. The second search will only look for posts with that specific tag. If a blog doesn’t have a search box in its theme, you can type these searches in manually, and they will still work.

You can also do these searches manually through all of Tumblr. Keep this in mind when you’re doing your general Tumblr search and check the URL of your results, because... “search” & “tagged” look at #hash-tags differently!

(This is so confusing, we know.)

“Search” will look through 20 #hash-tags. “Tagged” will only look through 5 #hash-tags. So, put your most important #hash-tags in your first 5!!

Q: Can you talk about xkit?

A: xkit is awesome and we should all bow down to the xkit guy because he fixes things when Tumblr poops on the carpet. Seriously. It’s only for use on desktop, but it makes Tumblr so much easier to manage.

xkit is an extension for your browser. Look for New xkit, and download that. Once you have xkit loaded, click on the xkit icon near the top right of your screen. When the xkit window pops up, click on Get Extensions. We could suggest a list of the best extensions, but they’re all seriously awesome. Blacklist seems to be the most common, as it filters out posts you don’t want to see based on tags and text. Auto Tagger, Activity+, Outbox, One-Click Postage, and Quick Tags are all ridiculously useful for everyday blogging. The whole thing is super easy to learn and use, and you can’t break anything while you’re learning. Some extensions, like Blacklist, may slow your computer down when you’re surfing your dash because they essentially surf it ahead of you and manipulate it. If you start seeing problems, you can disable any extensions you decide you don’t want to use, anymore.

Seriously, it’s freaking awesome.

Great talk, guys! If you have ideas for topics, please let us know!!

General Pond Updates and Reminders

What we’ve got cooking up next: 

We’re working on setting up the discord server. We’re still learning the ins and outs and all the options available. More options means more discussion among the admins and decisions to be made, so please be patient! We’re getting there!

Reminders:

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work!  IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

SPNFanFicPond Season 14 Weekly Episode Challenge - Now that the season is over, we will be reposting each prompt list through the summer months! Remember, there’s no deadline for submissions!

Say hi to June’s New Members!

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the chat room and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details!  The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We don’t have a topic or speaker set up for August’s event, yet, so if there’s something you want to talk about, or someone you want to talk to, LET US KNOW!

greetings!  for the first time in a while you can pay me to draw whatever you want!

here’s what i won’t draw though: ☆the adventure zone (also other small works like webcomics, unless you got permission from the creator) ☆nuthin’ nasty (rowdy nsfw that isnt just nudity, offensive stuff, etc) ☆mecha stuff  ☆furries (just not that good at it and i want you to get quality for the price) i will draw your ocs! i will draw your old man cartoon husband! i will draw invader zim stuff! i will draw your dnd characters! i will even draw cars and bicycles and injuries if you want me to! again let me know if you just really cant stand the color yellow!!

i am currently open for infinite slots of the following options: ‘lil’ guys sketch page $17 that’s where i draw whoever between 3-6 times on the same page (unless you want less) and put little fun stuff in between em ☆can be strict color pallet or regular colors (you can pick the pallet if you want!) ☆can be mix of full body/bust or one over the other ☆can be pixel or smooth brush, your choice!

knees’n’up’s $35 that’s where i draw somebody from the knees up full-color or from regular bust height and put a simple color blocks/patterned background and put some fun stuff on top like stickers ☆extra character is additional $3 ☆stickers/text are optional and entirely flexible in what they are ☆again pixel or smooth brush is up to you, often i will mix them in this type of drawing full b.g. $53 that’s where i draw your favorite guys with all sorts of interesting stuff going on behind them as opposed to colorful void ☆extra character is additional $5 ☆price may vary depending on complexity/just how many accurate bicycles you want me to draw ☆pixel or smooth you choose ☆i’ll actually only have 2 slots available for this type of piece because it takes me a long time to complete them and im very busy with school 

YOU WILL RECEIVE an enlarged (but not very large) digital image since i work on very small canvases for pixel stuff. it will be printable but most likely no bigger than postcard size. feel free to print it out but if you repost it online anywhere please give me credit

message me through here or email me at [email protected]. let’s talk about what you want! for more examples of what my art looks like take a peek in my blog! signal boost if you can cause im unemployed and love to have money

★ SIMULATOR AU MASTERPOST ★

Well, here it is! You all have been asking for it--the ultimate Sim AU guide!! Below is everything that you need to know about the AU. Thanks for all of your amazing support ^^

So what exactly is the Sim AU? The Simulator AU, shortened to just the Sim AU, (sometimes also referred to as the AI AU) is a canon divergence to the end of season 2 of Voltron. However unlike the last episode Team Voltron actually defeats Zarkon in battle definitively, managing to destroy his empire and free the universe from his reign. Prior to the final battle, for unknown reasons Lance asks Pidge to create a very complex simulator installed with all of their memories and tons of other data. He also has her create a simulated version of himself, a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence program containing all of his memories, personality, appearance and abilities. This AI version of Lance is given one task, programmed into his very core and is his sole reason for existence—protect Lance’s most important person. Later on this person is revealed to be Keith, and during the final fight Keith is gravely injured and put into the simulator (which also serves as a healing and escape pod) and is shot out into space to protect him from further injury while the other Paladins finish up the final fight. Keith awakens inside the simulator, thinking that he’s still in the real world with Lance, and back on Earth after having won over the Galra empire. However this is all a ruse to protect him from the truth, as he is being kept company by the AI version of Lance while the real one and the rest of Team Voltron have mysteriously disappeared. Soon after the simulator begins to malfunction and Keith crash lands into a planet, he is thrown into a crazy battle against the Galra uprising, the remains of the Galra empire, and is accompanied by lookalike versions of all of his friends and a now-physical embodiment of AI!Lance. The AU is basically a tale of all of his adventures falling in love with the AI and getting into crazy shenanigans with his new but familiar comrades along with the Galra Resistance.

The rest is under the read more to save space!

What’s the background on AI Lance? AI Lance, as previously stated, was created to protect Keith and serve as a moderator over the simulator. After Keith wakes up on an alien planet and encounters the lookalikes of Pidge and Hunk, the two of them work to make a physical body (a highly advanced robot, basically, think Westworld) for Lance’s consciousness to be put into. Once Lance gains a physical body, he has the same appearance of the original Lance but with a few minor quirks. Exposed wires poke out of the back of his neck and when referring to himself and his actions he often relates them back to his internal systems, all machinery and mechanical parts. He frequently gets checkups by Katy and Hunk so that they can update his systems and check his inner circuits to make sure everything’s running okay. Due to this the three of them become quite close, similar to how the original Hunk, Pidge and Lance were all friends back at the Garrison. Throughout the AU Lance struggles immensely with his identity, not wanting to be labeled as a copy of the original Lance and wanting to form his own identity outside of that. He constantly battles within himself, asking “Am I Lance or am I just me? I don’t know” and that struggle is one of the main conflicts of the story!

What is Keith wearing around his neck? That is an AI cube! It serves as a storage system for all of an AI’s data and programming. Lance’s core is an AI cube, which serves as his “heart” and is basically what keeps him functioning. The one that Keith has is a gift from Lance and contains all of his backup data. Katy fashioned it into a necklace for him for safekeeping. So not only is it a sort of accessory (I mean, it’s really pretty to look at), but it’s something for Keith to protect since a lot of Lance’s extra data is in that cube.

Who are the lookalikes, exactly? The lookalikes are all similar to the original Paladins but with minor differences! It’s still a mystery why they’ve shown up and where the original Paladins have gone. On the roster, we have Katy, a Pidge lookalike but not disguised as a boy, Hunk, who isn’t even human but looks just like one, being of a mysterious alien race, Allura and Coran, both humans and the leaders of the Galra Resistance Army, and Shiro, an Altean with a tragic past. It’s difficult for Keith to meet these people, who so resemble his teammates, and have to completely reforge his bonds with them since they obviously aren’t the same Paladins he knew before. (But, well, at least he has Lance.)

Why can’t you reveal the secrets of the Paladins’ whereabouts and why Lance had Pidge make the simulator? Because I don’t want to give everything away! All of that information will soon be revealed in the story, so please be patient! Once that stuff is written out and explained I’ll update this post about those secrets I’m keeping.

Is there a fanfiction for this AU? Yes, there is! It’s called A World of Zeroes and Ones (the title is based off of a Vocaloid song of the same name) and starts out with Keith waking up in the simulator. Everything else about the background and Lance’s identity as an AI has yet to be revealed to Keith but he’ll figure it out soon! You can read it here over on Archive! It’s still in progress, updates are slow but I’m chugging away at them :’) Thanks for all the support so far! And yes, if it wasn’t obvious already I do have an actual storyline in mind for this AU, from start to finish I have the entire plot written out, it’s just a matter of getting down and actually writing the entire thing...!

Who is Error Lance? Error Lance is basically what I’ve dubbed an “evil” version of AI!Lance where he has completely malfunctioned and been corrupted beyond saving, his entire systems being reduced to an error code. In this mode he loses all sentience and thought, only being driven to destroy and cannot tell friend from foe. Error Lance is basically just a lost confused child who doesn’t know what he’s doing or who he is or why he exists—he only knows how to kill. This mode is usually triggered if something contradicts with his core programming and his reason for existence—Keith. If Keith is somehow injured horribly or even killed this will set Lance off and totally wipe out his systems; it reduces him to the errors that are caused by his reason for existence being compromised. The only thing that can successfully snap him out of this mode and restore him to his previous “version” before he was corrupted is Keith—therefore proving his reason to exist is still there. Hopefully that makes sense? It’s sort of hard to explain haha

Who is Zero? Zero is AI!Lance’s prototype, the original original first AI that Pidge created. (Hoh, you thought that our regular AI!Lance was the first? Nope!) Due to a whole bunch of malfunctions and bugs, Pidge scrapped the prototype and created a better version, which is the Lance we all know and love now. (I mean she can’t get it perfect on the first try it was her first time creating an Artificial Intelligence, especially one of this caliber!) She meant to delete the prototype permanently, but…a whole bunch of crazy stuff happened and interrupted the process so Zero was never actually fully deleted. He sleeps deep, deep within the simulator’s core data, only longing to meet Keith at least once, since that was the reason he was created. This poor kid. He’s really scary since he’s…a huge mess and just broken. Broken. But he honestly loves Keith and sincerely hopes for his happiness, even going so far as to use all of his power to help Keith and Lance when they get into sticky situations. Like original Lance, Zero is dismayed that Keith is in love with AI!Lance, considering Zero was supposed to be the one made for Keith, but was scrapped. Maybe one day he’ll get a happy ending...

What inspired this AU? The song Shelter by Madeon and Porter Robinson! The whole idea for the simulator originated from the animated video for that song. You could say it’s become sort of the themesong for this AU haha

Can I repost the art of this AU? Nope, sorry! This AU is very very important and special and personal to me so I’m not comfortable with other people using the art from it or reposting on other sites. I appreciate your enthusiasm and support but I won’t be changing my mind about this;; Please don’t go against my wishes and repost it anyway, because if you do I’ll report you without any hesitation. Let me repeat: DO NOT REPOST ANYTHING REGARDING THIS AU ON OTHER SITES. This AU has only been shared on tumblr, so if you see any of the art for it on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. please let me know right away!

Can I make fanart of this AU? YES!! Yes, please, please do! There is nothing I would like more! Please, if you do end up making fanart, tag this blog or submit it here, my submission box is always open! Either way I’m gonna want to show it off to everyone else and shout about it, so yes, it’s highly encouraged and greatly appreciated!

The AU so far:

The overall tag/The tag in chronological order

Introductory post Crashlanding Arm sword Lance Concept sketches and doodles No, my circuits are humming You can’t spell AI without Mcclain! System overheating. Love you! Katy doodles *Chirr* Valentine’s Day Dorks Pixel animations He’s glitching out of happiness! Happy birthday, Lance! The master of sarcasm Embarrassed kisses When will I be seen as myself? Laughing smooches Human Error Happy boy! Take your boyfriend and make a run for it Soulmate AU to the AU (this doesn’t have art, but a cute mini fic I wrote if the AU also involved soulmates as well!) Kisses kisses KISSES Lance, you’re sparking! Floorplan/layout of Lance and Keith’s room Error Lance appears! Smol Error boy (and Eruba) Happy birthday, Keith! (This also has a short fic attached to it too! It’s very very fluffy and sweet) Error boy Lance flirts with a mysterious boy?! Zero’s Introduction Would you kiss this sweet broken Zero boy? Zero dabs My sensors can’t handle this! Klance kisses Klance kisses KLANCE KISSES ,,˙͡ɥ͢ʇ̴ᴉ͘ǝʞ̡˙˙˙͞ƃu͡ᴉʇ̛ᴉ҉ɐ͟ʍ ͠ǝ͟q̵ ͢l̨l,I˙˙˙u̶oos̢ ̕n҉oʎ ɥʇᴉ̨ʍ ͟ʇ̡ǝǝɯ͟ ̧ǫʇ̶˙̵˙˙ʇ͞uɐ͘ʍ I ¿́no̕ʎ ̡ǝ̶ɹɐ˙˙̶˙͢ǝɹǝɥ͟M,̡, 100% Form In love in love in despair Favorite place with you (This one’s animated!)

I’ll update this post with any additional art I make as we go along!

And if you have any other questions, please, don’t hesitate to ask! I love talking about this AU, it’s my heart and soul ❤️

Robbie’s Happy Memories

Finally, here it is! My (mainly) digital LazyTown animation! It is set 10 years after the events of the TV series, so please keep that in mind. ^^

For a detailed explanation of the different panels/pics (aka sort of a fic), as well as technical info, please check the “read more”. ^^

This is by far the biggest art project I've ever worked on (only somewhat comparable to The Mikey Comic Series, tbh), so feedback is not only highly appreciated, but also asked for! Please let me know what you think about it! Thank you! ^^

I hope this video will make you smile. ^_^

Lazytown © Magnús Scheving art © Murderous-Coffeebean [deviantART] Please do not trace nor repost this here on tumblr or elsewhere; thanks. 

~ * ~ INFO ABOUT THIS WORK ~ * ~ -------------------------------------------------------------- Panel Explanation/Fic (Note: The video itself is set 10 years after the TV series.) We start off with Robbie, sitting at the floor of his home, looking through a photo album. The front of it reads "Myndaalbúm", Icelandic for "photo album". He arrives at a photo that makes him pause and smile, and we see the photo album tumbling down. The first photograph we see is of Robbie, Sportacus and Stephanie having a conversation in the "early days". They are having fun; Sports and Stephanie probably just looked through one of Robbie's plans and now are teasing him a bit about it (Robbie, at this point, isn't outraged, surprising to himself). The next photograph we see is of Stephanie; she is smiling or laughing, and pointing at something, her hair moving in the wind. Robbie is still growing to like the kids at this point, but sometimes he actually stays around when he crosses their path or the other way around, and they realize they can actually have fun together (not that Robbie'd admit it. He's no flippity-floppety sports elf after all :P ). The next photograph we see is from Ziggy's birthday. Robbie had no problem to grow fond of the small boy as he started to grow a bit older (a bit being a year, but yeah). He likes that he's not the only one in town appreciating candy and all things sweet, and of course even he knows what Ziggy's favorite candy is. :D Next we see an image of Sportaflop- when again did he start to like this flipping-around elf so much?? Around this time, when they started becoming friends? Robbie wonders. (But, if he's being completely honest with himself, he knows that it was much earlier than this picture was taken already.) On the next two photographs we see Stingy giving presents to other people. The first one, not as willingly yet. (It's a "Best Of" album of one of Trixie's favorite bands for her birthday.) Then, we see him (much more easily by then) handing a birthday gift to Robbie, Ziggy and Stephanie smiling in the background. In the next photograph, we see Pixel playing a video game. Not visible is Robbie sitting next to him. The clock shows that it's 2am, but neither of them could sleep, so they are spending some time playing video games together. [This lovely scene was inspired by @sportaboob’s wonderful fanfic "Hand-holding in the key of Lazytown"! <3 ] The next three photographs we see are (in slow-motion) Sportacus and Robbie, the sports elf hugging his villain friend (/crush?). Robbie is surprised- Sportacus was thanking him for something (likely for keeping an eye on the kids as he had to save the mayor from accidentally hurting himself). But he did not see the grateful and tight as heck hug coming. There's tears forming in his eyes; it's been forever since he's last been at the receiving end of a hug. The next scene is when the kids are all young teenagers already; they and Robbie treat each other like family by now, and sometimes he lets them crash on his couch. This was the first time that happened though; the kids had been to a concert together (with Robbie to take care of them), and when Sportacus (who had picked them all up with his airship and brought them back to Lazytown again) had stopped to let Robbie get home, the kids had been so sleepy already, Robbie had just grumbled a bit (because he was really exhausted, as well) but had just waved his hand at Sportacus, and the elf had carried the kids downstairs so they could rest, before letting their families know he and Robbie would bring them home once they'd gotten a good night's sleep. In the next picture we see the kids running across a field, playing catch maybe, as the sun sets. Sportacus is probably tagging along, as always, but so is Robbie by then. He likes spending time with his new found family, and he's outside much more these years now. The next photograph we see is of the first apple Robbie voluntarily ate (and enjoyed :D). Yes, it's on a pedestal. It's Robbie, after all, and Sports and the kids are proud of him, so. Why not? :P Next, we're back in the present for a bit. We see one of Robbie's eyes, and a tear drop starts running down his face as he turns the page and sees the next picture: It's a photograph of him with the people he is closest to. There's Pixel, Stephanie, and Trixie, who are about to go off to college together soon; there's Stingy who has crouched down a bit to fit into the photograph next to Ziggy, whom he ended up becoming close friends when they became teenagers; and there is Sportacus in (more) casual (but still sports) wear for once, standing next to Robbie. They were, as per usual, having a great time when the photograph was taken, and Robbie (just as he is, looking at this photograph again and reminiscing right then) had one of these moments where he could hardly believe how lucky he was to have all of them in his life. The tear drop that was rolling down Robbie's cheek now falls down on the floor, and he smiles, still looking at the photograph of his family. A shadow is approaching from behind, and Robbie knows whom it is, even before the person utters a word. It's Sportacus, putting a hand on Robbie's shoulder as he's bending forward to see what Robbie is doing, and he greets him: "Hi, Robbie! What are you doing?" with a smile on his face. Sportacus looks at him fondly as Robbie first replies "Nothing..." but then goes to add: "... just getting nostalgic looking at old memories, I guess..." Sportacus crouches down to sit next to Robbie and mutters "Oh.", as his gaze finally falls on the family picture Robbie had been looking at before. He asks Robbie "... can I join you?", and Robbie just rises his eyebrow as he smiles and replies: "Sure." Robbie reaches to flip to the next page of the photo album, still lying on the floor in front of him and Sportacus. The page on the left reads one word in capital letters: "HEIM". [Icelandic for "HOME"] Finally, we see the image on the right, the last page of the photo album: It's Robbie's new home. A beautiful, somewhat curved house with flower pots on each side of it, and a tree on one side of it. The sun is shining down on it, and a sign over the front door reads, for old times' sake: "Robbie's Lair" in a fancy font. In front of the house, there's a doormat. It reads "Welcome". ♥ Technical Info This is a months-long work of love and learning through failing and trying again. I originally started this out as a random idea I had one night in January, and ended up drawing out the storyboard till 2am that day after I had found a piece of music I wanted to go with. I started with the animation process the next day already, if I recall correctly, already making more detailed notes about how the frames were supposed to go along with the music. I worked on this till the end of the Christmas break, and then continued woring on it a bit during the rest of the winter semester, before diving into this project some more during the semester break in spring. I started putting this together piece by piece in Moviemaker (as, due to my change of university, I didn't have Premiere on my hands anymore and had to find my way through Moviemaker now) and learned some about it as I went, as well. I only recently added the title card, title, and watermark, but the rest of the animation was all created during a working phase of about 3 months. The storyboard was drawn on yellow paper; I converted the remaining scenes I did not get around digitalizing to b'n'w so they wouldn't stand out. All of the digital frames are drawn in PaintTool SAI using the linework layers and tool. I had not worked a lot with them before this project, so it really was quite a challenge to finally do so, and do all of the animation this way. It was worth it though, and for all the trouble it caused me during this project, the advantages of easily editing lines again made up for it again. ^^

(Also, re: one of the last panels just for a sec: I know that “Just getting nostalgic looking at old memories” isn’t grammatically correct, but I wanted that line to work with the animation’s title itself, so. Just fyi.)

--------------------------------------------------------------

And with this, I’m releasing this child of mine to the internet. Please treat it kindly, I hope it will spread a smile on some of your faces. :)

Delta's 2020 tech includes 'parallel reality' displays and a binge button

Air travel isn't always a great experience. Delays and other issues can cause extra stress for vacations and work trips. Delta is well aware of this, so it's using some high-tech solutions in an effort to improve the travel experience before you leave the house, inside the terminal and during your flight.

First, the airline is making its Fly Delta app a digital concierge. The idea is that the safe piece of software you use to check-in, pay for bags and access boarding passes will guide you the entire trip -- starting at home. Delta will work closer with Lyft to get you to the airport with ease. This includes linking your SkyMiles and Lyft accounts so that it's easier to earn miles using the transportation service. The two companies are also considering features like estimated arrival times when you tap Lyft to get you to the airport. You may soon be able to pay for rides with SkyMiles, too. Once you're at the airport, Delta plans to add things like alerting you when your seat -- not just your flight -- is boarding. So rather than standing in the mass of humanity, you can relax a few minutes longer.

The most interesting of Delta's new additions is inside the terminal. Starting in mid-2020, the airline will begin using opt-in Parallel Reality displays to show custom messages to multiple travelers simultaneously. Basically, when you're walking through the terminal in a group of people, each of you will see information specific to, and it will be in your preferred language. Those details include directions to your gate or to the nearest Delta Sky Club.

The initial rollout will happen in Detroit. After passing through security, travelers who want to participate can scan their boarding pass and select the language they'd like to use. Displays with multi-view pixels and "proprietary technology" to show the messages to each person. During the initial trial phase, the personalized info includes wayfinding, flight details/updates, boarding time, closest Delta Sky Club and upgrade/standby status. Delta is clear that Parallel Reality will always be opt-in, and that it never shares customer information with this feature.

Once you're on the plane, Delta wants to improve your in-flight entertainment as well. That includes adding a binge button later this year so that you can watch entire seasons of your favorite shows without interruption. The system will also make recommendations based on you've watched before. The airline also plans to test features like "do not disturb" and "wake me for meal service" for travelers on longer flights.

In an effort to reduce inconvenience, Delta is harnessing AI and its own historical data to simulate potential "operating challenges" so that the airline's employees can make proactive decisions before "large-scale disruptions" like severe weather. The system also has a post-mortem component for analysis of how the situation could've been handled better. Delta says it will launch the initial implementation this spring, and says the system will continue to improve over time as more data is collected for its use.

Lastly, Delta is partnering with Sarcos Robotics to equip its frontline employees with the Sarcos Guardian XO exoskeleton. It's easy to see the benefits here. The gear will allow employees, like baggage handlers, to repeatedly lift heavy items with much less strain and fatigue.

At CES, Delta is making it clear that it will use some of the latest technology to improve your entire travel day, reduce headaches and improve life for its own employees. Now we just have to wait until we can reap the benefits for ourselves.

- Repost from: engadget Post

Maximise Your Online Presence with These 7 SEO Tips to Optimising Your Website

Landing on that sweet #1 spot is a huge challenge, especially if you operate in a crowded niche. But, with proper search engine optimisation, you will be able to start improving your rankings and get there eventually.

Optimising your site might seem like a lot of work and quite a daunting task, but the hardest part about it is figuring out where to start. So, for those of you who feel lost in what you should do to improve your site’s optimisation, I have prepared a short list of seven SEO tips to help you out.

The first thing you’re going to need is some kind of tool that allows you to track your metrics. Linkio has a pretty great compilation of the best SEO audit tools out there, so be sure to give them a visit.

Anyway, let’s jump into our first tip.

#1. Mobile-Friendliness Is a MUST

This is one of the very first things you need to ensure. An enormous amount of users prefer their mobile devices to browse the Web, and their percentage is still growing.

Whereas only a couple of years before mobile users were responsible for about one-third of all traffic, today their count is almost doubled. 

Mobile traffic is up by 222% in the last 7 years! ~ broadbandsearch.net 

66% is a lot to lose. But in addition to losing more than half of your traffic because of poor mobile optimization, Google will actually place a penalty on your site on top of that, cutting your traffic even further.

Why? Because Google knows most people use smartphones, and to help create a better experience for them, it favors sites that are properly optimized for them.

So, you absolutely need to ensure that your resource looks and performs flawlessly on all platforms and browsers.

#2. Upload a Sitemap

Every once in a while, Google’s bots come crawling through your site to index your pages. But the thing is: they aren’t perfect at it. Especially if you have dozens upon dozens of pages and some hidden from view.

Pages that you are editing, ones that aren’t ready to go live, etc. 

There is also a limited amount of pages they can index per visit. So, in order to get the most out of crawlers, it is advisable that you upload a .xml sitemap.

What is it? Essentially it’s a list of all your pages that are up for indexing. Formatting it properly is quite tricky, but you don’t actually have to do it on your own. 

If your site runs on WordPress, Yoast SEO is a great plugin. In addition to helping you optimize your site automatically, it can create sitemaps for you and notify Google each time something changes on your resource, so the bots always know when and what to index.

#3. Choose Keywords Wisely

Choosing proper keywords to rank for is a huge part of SEO. But which ones do you go for? 

Just picking the #1 keyword in your niche isn’t enough. Even though it might be the most popular one that people search for, there’s going to be a ton of competition. 

Try to implement a healthy mix of keywords with lots of variation and synonyms. Don’t be afraid to go for keywords that are ranking a little lower. 

Don’t be afraid to check which keywords your competitors are ranking for since you might find some real gems there. And, be sure to monitor every keyword’s ranking and keep an eye out for ones that are steadily growing in popularity since those are great contenders that can overtake the #1 spot if used properly.

Ahrefs has one of the best keyword rank trackers out there.

#4. Site Speed Matters

There are two reasons why you need to pay attention to your site speed. The first being that nobody likes to look at that annoying loading animation for longer than a split second and being too slow might cause a spike in your site’s click-off rate. 

The second one, though, is tied directly with Google. Every time your pages get indexed the bots actually take notice of how long it takes to load them and that information actually affects your ratings.

So, it is pretty important to stay fast. Use PageSpeed Insights to check your site speed and get a few tips on how to make it load faster all in the same place.

#5. Both Internal and External Links Are Amazing for SEO

You should make interlinking your own pages into a habit if you haven’t already. It’s great for two reasons: firstly, it helps direct your visitors through your content and might make them stay around for longer. 

And secondly, it helps Google’s bots crawl your site faster. After all, it is much easier to follow a link than to scan the entirety of your resource to find a page.

As for external links though, I’m sure you’re already aware of the benefits of link building. The more backlinks from high-authority websites you have, the more traffic they transfer to your own one.

Don’t be afraid to link to smaller websites too as it helps you build relationships, which usually turn out to be mutually beneficial.

#6. Take Advantage of Social Medias

Now, of course, boosting your organic traffic should always be your highest priority. But the amount of traffic you can be able to redirect, say, from Facebook is quite considerable.

By placing ads there you’ll be able to capture much more attention than from Google alone. If you setup up a Facebook pixel on your website it will help you re-target people at a later date with more specific adverts. It also causes a little bit of a snowball effect: someone shares a post of yours, then their friends see it, and so on. 

Besides, no successful website is complete without a social media page. Reposting other people’s content on Twitter is also a pretty nice way to get on someone’s radar. And while it has no direct effect on your SEO, it will definitely help during your link building campaign.

#7. Run Audits Often

Even when you’re nearing the finish of your SEO campaign (or at least running out of tasks to do), it’s important to remember that there’s no real end to SEO. Google constantly gets updated, your competition figures out new strategies, links get removed along with thousands of other factors that come into play when your rankings are determined.

So, your job is never over. That’s why you need to run audits of your site at least a few times a month. In fact, you can also run audits of your competitor’s sites to see what they’re up to.

A tool like SpyFu is a great way of peeking behind the curtains of any site to check what’s going on back there.

Good Luck With Your SEO!

Thank you for staying with me until the end and I hope my tips will come in handy during your own SEO campaign! 

Based in the North East of England UK Web GeekZ are innovators in the search engine optimisation industry and use tactics that work time and time again, give us a call if you would like to get more traffic or simply a new website design.

  UK WEB GEEKZ

5-7 Amity House, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington, County Durham, DL3 7EE 07906392955

Article Source Here: Maximise Your Online Presence with These 7 SEO Tips to Optimising Your Website Originally Published By https://www.ukwebgeekz.com

histories & theories

Histories & Theories Essay

Histories and theories has led us to investigate historical and theoretical contexts of design in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

What’s the first thing we do when we wake up in the morning? Check our phones? I feel that in this day and age the inescapable abundance of digital products and instant access to the internet is a paradoxical result of both good and bad design.

 The rapid evolution of the mobile phone has had far reaching repercussions that we are only beginning to scratch the surface of understanding. It was, ironically, through watching a clip of ‘The Millennial Question’ reposted onto my facebook timeline that made me take a step back and actually think about how much time I must have invested in act of scrolling through various social networking sites, looking but not seeing. It seems that the initial function of the mobile phone, one person speaking to another over a distance, is now so far detached from reality, with people in the same room texting each other without talking.

The biggest example of the aforementioned paradox is Apple. My first phone was the iPhone 4 which I received for my sixteenth birthday. To this day I believe it was the pinnacle of Apple’s design in the iPhone series due to the functionality/practicality of dimensions, weighting and balance.  It can be said here that this is where I first became enslaved to a digital product, the instant access to facebook, twitter, Instagram and the internet changed everything. Suddenly we are plugged into a virtual space that is somehow translated from pixels on a screen into our brains. 

 Often I have held or overheard conversations in which people talk about their dislike of spending so much time on their phones, the answer seems blatantly obvious. Just put it down. However, there must be deep underlying factors that lead us to continue to pull out our phones, unlock them and to flit between the same three applications on repeat. One factor that struck me was the idea that companies like facebook and twitter use the colour blue in their branding as it has a calming effect on the human brain. The act of using blue would have been a conscious thought that was designed then redesigned by the web developers within these companies and is an example of how indirectly this can have negative repercussions with people turning to their phones instead of another human when stressed or anxious.

 Consumerism and overindulgence run in tandem with the evolution of smartphone technologies, for example the constant process of companies putting out new models on the market. Once again referring to Apple, who seem to unveil at least two handsets every year without fail, the constant process of churning out product has caused their design to stagnate.

 Ultimately it isn’t all gloom and doom as there are some thoughtful design approaches such as the Swiss technology brand Punkt who have launched a stripped back mobile phone, designed by British designer Jasper Morrison, that only offers basic phone functions.

Going into the Victoria and Albert museum, located in South Kensington to observe how the institution approaches design history was an interesting experience. The reason behind this is situated with the murky history of the museum itself that is often whitewashed and overlooked. To provide a full contextual analysis of the artifacts displayed within its walls we must first discuss the foundations on which the museum has built itself.

Founded in 1857 as an omnibus museum of art and industry, the South Kensington Museum (now known as the Victoria and Albert) was a condensation of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The reason I personally disagree with institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum is the act that it tries to tell stories about the colonized countries the British ruled through presenting artefacts that were for the most part stolen and then housed in glass cases for the general public to ponder over. One artefact that physically embodies this is the solid gold throne of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh that was seized by the Empire and is displayed alongside a few other objects in a single glass case, in the India section and this followed up by a short statement of less than five hundred words is supposed to sum up the incredibly rich detailed history of the Sikh Empire and my people. I find it quite condescending.

Moving forward the artefact that I have chosen to examine for histories and theories is the wax tablet of Jesus Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene. This tablet is housed in Room 111, the Gilbert Hayes Gallery, case DR9.

I chose this artefact because of the intensity of the detail of the carving into the elephant ivory tablet. To me this is one of the most interesting formats of communication in human history. Through studying Latin in the early years of secondary school I was exposed to these fascinating artefacts and tools that were used to communicate and share stories, quite often from a single image or snapshot of said story.

The process of using wax writing tablets or panels of a hard material filled with layers of wax that could be inscribed with a stylus was common in Antiquity and was continually used through the Middle Ages. They were particularly used for note taking, due to their portability as well as the fact they erased and reused. What struck me most about this tablet in particular was the elaborately detailed architecture in the background. The majority of tablets would have been carved around a wooden base however it was commonplace to find those made of gold, silver, bone and ivory too. The imagery on most surviving tablets and boxes derive mostly form diptychs (a writing tablet consisting of two hinged leaves with waxed inner sides).

Comparing the rise of technology as a social good and fictive bad, against that of the institution and histories presented through the wax tablet of Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in the Victoria and Albert is somewhat of an interesting juxtaposition of ideas. I feel that a direct comparison can be drawn between the fact that both topics covered here are forms of communication, one historical and the other contemporary.

There is a certain tension that can be observed I the relationship between the slow paced, highly detailed story-telling of the past, perfectly articulated by the wax tablet and the hyper-fast sharing of information and stories in the modern day thanks to the rapid evolution of the internet.

What I find particularly interesting about the construction of design history within the Victoria & Albert Museum is their capacity to showcase the histories of vastly varying cultures and societies however I feel that it is very one sided in its approach through focusing solely on western design. In comparison I believe that the rise of technology is a social good in this sense due to the fact that every culture and society has the ability to find its way to the sharing platform of the internet and can gain recognition from a diverse audience. A great example of this is the Jungle refugee camp in Calais that used a handmade Wi-Fi antenna that drove around the camp to allow the refugees access to the internet. This led to them being able to make contact with loved ones through social media and to get the message of their struggles across into the world’s eyes even if their plight were being overlooked by governments and state media.

However, I also believe that there is still a social bad to the rise of communication technology. Looking bac and observing the wax tablets gave me a glimpse into the care and thoughtfulness hat went into the delivery of messages in the Middle Ages. What we said was important and was likely to perish forever through natural disasters. For example, the amount of writing that was lost I the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in Pompeii, or the decimation of the library in Alexandria. However, in the twenty first century we have an overload of mundane information being communicated and it is everlasting in the digital universe, such data can be used against us through hacks and leaks.

The role of design in the evolution of communication in human history seems to be spiraling out of control. Maybe it is worth retracing our steps by observing the past and applying the thoughtful and detailed process of wax tablet carving to the modern day equivalent, social media.

AAS NOVA Making It Rain in the Circumgalactic Medium By Astrobites It can be easy to think of galaxies as islands in the universe, floating around in isolation. However, a galaxy is actually surrounded by a huge sea of low-density gas that extends out to its virial radius and beyond. This gas is known as the circumgalactic medium (CGM), and more and more research is showing that the CGM has a crucial role to play in galaxy evolution. Observing the CGM has proven difficult due to its extremely low density, though, so simulations have played a large role in understanding the physics of this region. In today’s paper, the authors detail the effects of running a CGM simulation with significantly increased resolution, capable of resolving cool gas that precipitates in the CGM and rains down on the galaxy. What Do We Know About the CGM? Residing just outside of the galaxy, the CGM is home to large-scale flows of gas that drive galaxy evolution. These gas flows provide fuel for star formation, regulate the interactions between dark matter halos and the intergalactic medium, and contain the energy, mass, and metals of large outflows from a galaxy. In fact, the CGM is predicted to hold at least as many baryons and heavy elements as galaxies themselves, and most of the metals in the universe are found in the CGM. These metals (meaning anything heavier than hydrogen or helium in astronomy terms), deposited by galactic outflows, serve as the dominant coolant for the CGM. They are capable of radiating energy away more easily than elements like hydrogen, so an increased abundance of metals can lead to cooler gas. Consequently, this influx of metals helps to create two phases of gas: “cool” (10,000 Kelvin) gas composed of neutral hydrogen and other elements in low-energy ionization states, and “hot” (300,000–1,000,000 Kelvin) gas that contains oxygen, nitrogen, and neon in high-energy ionization states. Unfortunately, computational work has chronically underproduced the observed abundances of these ions across redshifts by orders of magnitude. Recent work has shown that AGN feedback can increase the abundances of oxygen and other ions in the hot gas, but the discrepancy remains for hydrogen and other ions in the cool gas. In today’s paper, the authors discuss the effect of increased simulation resolution on these discrepancies. Resolving the Resolution Issue Perhaps one reason that simulations struggle to reproduce observations of the CGM lies in their resolution limits. Similar to how using more pixels in a television or computer screen gives a better image, increasing the resolution in a simulation means using more cells or particles to obtain a better physical picture of what is going on. However, each increase in resolution increases the computational cost of the simulation. This means your simulation that took a few days to run could instead take a few months. Consequently, most simulations of galaxies apply their highest resolution to regions of high density where most of the matter is. This is great for figuring out what happens in the dense disk of a galaxy, but not ideal for studying the low-density CGM. Today’s paper runs simulations that force high resolution upon the CGM, reaching resolutions that are comparable to those normally obtained in the disk of the galaxy. This technique is appropriately named Enhanced Halo Resolution (EHR). Figure 1 shows the resolutions obtained by both a normal cosmological simulation and an EHR one for a region encompassing a galaxy and its surrounding filaments. What Does this Computational Cost Buy You? By better resolving the gas in the CGM, the authors note that a number of physical effects present themselves. Firstly, the balance of cool and hot gas is shifted, leaving more cool gas and less hot gas than in simulations with lower resolution. The clouds of cool gas that form are also greater in number and smaller in size. Finally, the amount of neutral hydrogen and other low-energy ions found in the cool gas increases, while the abundances of oxygen, nitrogen, and neon in high-energy ionization states fall due to the decrease in hot gas. Coupled with the aforementioned work on AGN feedback, this can bring simulations closer to the observed abundances for these ions. In other words, EHR causes more gas in the CGM to cool, condense into clouds, and potentially fall back into the galaxy. This is completely analogous to water vapor in our own atmosphere, which often cools, forms clouds, and rains back down to Earth. In this way, the CGM can be conceptualized as the atmosphere of a galaxy. Figure 2 shows cool gas condensing into these clouds, some of which fall into the galaxy. Why does an increase in resolution result in more cool gas? The answer lies in how gas mixes in simulations. With lower resolution, clouds of cool gas are typically resolved only by a few cells, inducing artificial mixing between the hot and cool gas. The authors perform a test simulation demonstrating this, shown in Figure 3. Resolution clearly makes a big difference in understanding the physics of the CGM and galaxies. For example, just like plants on Earth sprout after a rain, cool gas that condenses in the CGM and falls into a galaxy can trigger star formation. Understanding the ecology and geology of Earth requires a detailed picture of the atmosphere, and perhaps unlocking the mysteries of galaxy evolution may depend just as strongly on our understanding of the CGM. Figure 1.....Plots of resolution for a traditional (AMR — adaptive mesh refinement) and EHR simulation. Each of these grids is made up of many cells, and spatial resolution refers to the physical length (in kiloparsecs) of the smallest cell that is present in a region. In the left panel, many galaxies are present and a particularly massive galaxy lies at the center. Its virial radius is shown by the dotted white line. Resolution in the CGM is roughly 16 times worse than in the disk of the galaxy. On the right, the EHR simulation enforces high resolution approximately to the virial radius, ensuring that interactions within the CGM are given much more computational attention. [Hummels et al. 2019] Figure 2.....A galaxy and the CGM in an AMR simulation and an EHR one. A significant increase in HI (neutral hydrogen) can be seen in the EHR simulation. Recall that neutral hydrogen tracks the cool gas, which condenses into many clumps on the right that weren’t resolved in a traditional AMR simulation. Many of these clumps fall back into the galaxy because they no longer have enough thermal energy to resist the gravitational pull of the galaxy. [Hummels et al. 2019] Figure 3.....In this test problem, a 4-kiloparsec-wide cloud of cool gas sits in a flow of hot gas for 260 million years. In the low-resolution test, the boundary of the cloud is only resolved by a few cells. This artificially thick boundary means that much of the cool gas quickly mixes with the hot gas and eliminates the HI (neutral hydrogen). In the high-resolution case, the boundary becomes much thinner, allowing the interior cool gas to survive much longer. [Hummels et al. 2019] Title: The Impact of Enhanced Halo Resolution on the Simulated Circumgalactic Medium Authors: Cameron B. Hummels, Britton D. Smith, Philip F. Hopkins, et al. First Author’s Institution: TAPIR, California Institute of Technology Status: Submitted to ApJ Editor’s note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org. About the author, Michael Foley: I’m a graduate student studying Astrophysics at Harvard University. My research focuses on using simulations and observations to study stellar feedback — the effects of the light and matter ejected by stars into their surroundings. I’m interested in learning how these effects can influence further star and galaxy formation and evolution. Outside of research, I’m really passionate about education, music, and free food.