THE POOPSHITTERS

list of character creds (going clockwise)

- @frog-mcchicken (@ function is broken but link to blog is there!)

- @stellyfins

- @monigote001

- erm i think you know who this goober belongs to (me)

Get kissed idiot!!/affectionately

sacrifice belongs to the amazing @stellyfins 🫂‼️

good morning. neuvillette with a dragon!child!reader who, once everything blows over in fontaine, goes to find furina and gives her the biggest hug. they've known her for a very long time. and many times, perhaps she almost, almost cracked to them... but her resolve stood strong every time, and she would backtrack with a laugh and some dramatic flair.

while they can't understand how badly she must have suffered, because they aren't human and their mind is not so fragile, they can at least imagine it. and they can't help but think that maybe she doesn't want to be alone right now; she's been alone for five hundred years. if she wants to be left alone... that's fine, and they know she'll tell them that, but at the very least, as one of her best friends (perhaps her very best one), should they not go check on her?

idk i'm going to play her story quest today probably so i will return with more thoughts!

as part of an experiment today, i decided to try cutting out rian's POV chapters from the beginning of the story. the pacing ended up feeling very odd, so the experiment might have turned out to be a bust. but hey, i tried, at least

New SpaceTime out now....

Friday SpaceTime 20231222 Series 26 Episode 153

New mission for NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft

After completing its initial seven year sample return mission to the asteroid Bennu, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is moving on to a new mission studying the asteroid Apophis.

Discovery of planet too big for its Sun

Astronomers have discovered a planet that is far too massive for its host star. The finding reported in the journal Science calls into question what was previously understood about planetary formation.

Halley's comet reaches aphelion

On Saturday, December 9th comet 1P/Halley reached aphelion – it’s most distant orbital position from the Sun.

The Science Report

Diet and air pollution remain among the biggest contributors globally to heart disease.

Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known fortified prehistoric settlement in the world.

A new study has found that Cats love to play fetch with their owners, especially if they're in charge.

Skeptics guide to Meghan Markle’s anti stress patch

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. Later, Gary became part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and was one of its first presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth.  The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

Literally tempted to send you every emoji on that list 😈😈😈

Instead, I'm going to put some randomly selected emojis here and you can answer any questions they relate to. If I send one that isn't in that list, feel free to make up your own question/free bingo space to do what you want. (There is a very good chance this is a terrible and stupid idea but, what do you know, I am terrible and stupid! 😜)

Also tell me your favourite perfume.

⚽🌕🚞🧲🐓🧝😪🤗💜💝🤲💃🐩🍛💥

asdfghjkl mostly none of these are on there (which is hilarious and i love you) so i’m gonna fill in ones that are that look like them?? or something? who knows 🤪

my favorite perfume, which i’ve worn daily for years, is sí by giorgio armani. 10/10, would recommend to a friend.

the rest of this is under the cut because it’s long!!

⚽ looks close enough to 🤡, so: what's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

from foresight: “How did you —” He paused to moan into your mouth when your teeth gently claimed his bottom lip. “Find a place with — oh, fuck, you taste like spearmint – original crown-molding in this —” The back of his knees bumped into the edge of your mattress and suddenly, he was sitting. “Neighborhood?”

🌕 looks more like a cheese ball than anything, but uhhh maybe enough like 🌞: do you have a preferred time of day to write?

i like writing in the morning best! that’s when my adderall kicks in, lol.

🚞 has near enough to 🛒 vibes: what are some common things you incorporate in your fics? themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

oooh. i think i invoke a lot of space imagery, though it’s not always intentional. always a slut for space. also, everything i touch is drenched in unspeakable yearning?? it’s kind of unbearable to long this much, lmao.

🧲 ummm 🏆 is metal, so: what's your most popular fic?

if we’re basing this off literal notes, it’s darksided (or the jk couch drabble, if drabbles count.) the one people talk to me about the most (or recommend the most) seems to be lacuna.

🐓 terrify me beyond reason, therefore 😬: which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

UM!! darksided and/or blindsided. which one of my sisters read in the brief sabbatical she was on tumblr 😵‍💫

🧝 is green and so is ✅: what's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

i have written a jungkook who mentions ghosts in three different fics, without meaning to. i guess i have some headcanon where jk is really into the paranormal, lmao.

😪 is my face after thinking. 🧐: do you spend much time researching for your stories?

i spend too much time focusing on shit i don’t think anyone else notices or cares about, lmao. some examples:

a huge part of why redamancy took so long to post was because i spent actual weeks trying to find a word for the title. went through so many different sources and languages because nothing fit the exact sentiment i wanted.

with aphelion, i spent hours looking up comets (not meteors) that would have been visible in seoul and what date(s) that would have been, researching paintings, etc. the fic is planned to the minute, which is…. so unnecessary.

for the lee know drabble, i had an actual map up to pick locations that the goose chase goes down.

and lastly, for the namjoon “anywhere” drabble, i literally planned a 30-day european trip and what transportation would be best to get from city to city and how long to stay in each place, lol.

i think i’m insane???

🤗: what advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

don’t let the prospect of notes dictate your decisions. people are going to latch onto stuff you won’t expect them to, and it will be some thing you tossed together — not necessarily what you’re proudest of — so just write what you want, the way you want to write it.

💜 looks kinda like 🍆 : do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what's your most popular nsfw fic?

i do indeed write the spicy stuffs. most popular is definitely darksided, which is still wild to me because i thought of it and posted it within two hours. no thoughts, just horny, right when i started this blog. it brought a lot of people here, which was both entirely unexpected and really fucking cool.

💝 i have shitty eyesight and thought that was 💖: what made you start writing?

i don’t even know, lol. i started doing creative writing when i was elementary school and then started fanfic when i was 11-12? so, a love of writing for sure and then being a simp, i suppose!

🤲 hands! ✍: do you have a beta reader?

i’d never used a beta reader until i started aphelion and had to cry out to @here2bbtstrash and @jihopesjoint! i am way too close to that story so i had to recruit friends to tell me if i was being insane.

💃 looks like 💔 if you squint: is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

see above, lol. it shall hurt worse than lacuna did, which also broke my heart. and the “what sarah said” drabble someone requested for the darksided couple because fuck!!

🐩 uhhh white and round in parts, so 👀: tell me about an up and coming wip please!

meet me at the bar is my inaugural kim seokjin smut/main fic and it is going to be a graduation gift for my law baby @yoongiphoria! it’s about law school study buddies preparing for the bar exam, which is a nightmare, lol.

🍛 the carrots here kinda has the graph, i guess!📈: how many fics do you have?

thirteen full-length fics and upwards of 50 drabbles 🤪 it has been a busy five months over here.

💥 how do you feel about criticism?

if it’s actually constructive and solicited, good! if not, bad!

ok so. my Girlfriend was browsing TikTok recently (i deleted it a while ago, but she likes to keep up-to-date with the latest Discourse) and she stumbled upon this Post, which she had to share with me because of how utterly absurd it is

[Image ID: a Screenshot of a TikTok Video of a Tan Black Person with Braided Hair. a Caption on the Video reads: “When you tell people 'winter' is actually suppose to be hotter then summer because around this Time the sun is closes to the earth, but they manipulate the weather so white people wont die from the heat” (sic). a Caption below the Video reads: “This creator limited comment access”.]

so. first of all, the “Science” here is absolutely batshit. the Seasons come from the Tilt of the Earth, not the Distance of its Orbit around the Sun. the Difference between the Perihelion and Aphelion (closest and furthest distance from the Earth to the Sun, respectively) aren't large enough to appreciably affect the Earth's Climate. this Tilt is also why Seasons are Reversed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

and all that i just spouted??? is just what i remember offhand from High School. i didn't even have to do any RESEARCH to debunk this claim.

what's really insidious here, however, aren't the Scientific Claims, but the Conspiratorial ones. who, exactly, is “they”? how are “they” supposedly “manipulating the weather”? (the answers would likely be Antisemitic, as Conspiracy Theories tend to be). and why would White People die from the Heat, but People of Color would apparently be fine? (nevermind that Black People are just as susceptible to Heat as White People, of course!)

this kind of Conspiracy Thought is incredibly dangerous, because like. anyone who has a basic understanding of the Science would clock instantly that it's Garbage, but they're not the ones being Targeted! the ones being Targeted here are Children and gullible Adults. and it worked, because this TikTok has over 100k likes!!!

and, as the Cherry on Top, if anyone were to call them out on their Bullshit, they'd say you're just a butthurt White Person trying to silence People of Color! (of course, it'd be difficult to do so, given that they turned off Comments, which is incredibly telling in it of itself). what we're seeing here is the Language of Social Justice and Progressivism being used to spread Lies and Conspiracy Thought.

i don't really have a decent conclusion here. just, please please please, remember to be wary of random Claims with a Conspiratorial Bent you might see, both Online and in Real Life.

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello! My name is Peepo and I've been around on writeblr for a while! I am a horror/dystopia writer that sometimes dabbles in fantasy and sci-fi with too many manuscripts on my hands that I'm trying to get in motion.

Below you'll find all of the projects I have in the works, and I'll do my best to keep things updated! Thanks for checking out my writing!

General Posts

Tagged In | Memes | Writing Things | My Art | Not Writing | Peepo’s Cheeps  | Other’s Work | Other’s Art 

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PYROPTOSIS

The planet we hoped would be our saviour now threatens to eat us alive.

Summary

Despite all efforts, humanity had driven itself to near extinction on Earth. Resources were low and natural disasters had ravaged the planet to ashes. After so many years, it was finally time to move on.

Damysus was the answer.

A group of elite researchers are sent across space to establish a colony on Saturn's moon, yet the harsh desert has no empathy, and each day brings with it new danger. Rhea is just one of the many scientists trying to tame the planet, faced with an ongoing food crisis she just can't crack. But when her girlfriend decodes a dark secret from an alien relic, they descend into the darkness to find all the answers. And what started as an effort to settle down becomes an all-out panic to leave.

WIP Intro

Tags

Inspiration | Content

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Illusory Chronicles: Aphelion

I've only just begun to live, to find my truth, and now everything around me wants my head.

Summary

Decades after an asteroid belt collided with Earth, a dense fog still hangs in the sky, sapping energy from machinery and mankind alike. Yet, a strange new form of power is sweeping the globe, celebration and folly finding a place among the people.

For Emerys, it’s just another Saturday.

Finally graduating high school, he can barely wait to put his horrible home life behind him. But, his freedom doesn’t kick off quite as expected, as almost getting hit by a car awakens something magical inside him. Magical and confusing. With the help of his rescuer, a bubbly (and annoyingly cute) unicorn named Sunny, Emerys is thrown into a grand conspiracy, forced to unravel the truth of Earth’s mysterious energy source where the cost of failure is a fate worse than death. 

WIP Intro 

Tags

Inspiration | Content

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The House on Dearmad

There's a house that never ages, deep on the island of Dearmad. At night it warps and whispers secrets, by day it lies in waiting.

Summary

Jessi M'Gie is a paranormal investigator, famous for his resolve and determination. Nothing escapes his attention, and there’s never been a haunt too daunting for him and his crew.

When an old friend calls for help with a suspect poltergeist, he’s quick to her rescue. After all, his expertise is unmatched - and her relationship is crumbling. But spending a week alone in Dearmad is risky. The locals love to tell stories, generations of sailors weaving tales of monsters across the island. The truth won’t be easy to find.

Especially when there are eyes everywhere.

WIP Intro

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Things will be updated as they arrive, so please check back in every so often to see what's new :3 Thank you!

☁️ wip you want to write but haven't started yet

omg... where do i start...

Sinking - This one actually has about 50,000 words done, but in novel format. It's a trilogy series that follows a young girl who gets kidnapped by pirates when running away from home, only to have her entire worldview changed. And she has a superhuman rat familliar!

Witness in Plain Sight - I want to make it a VN, so I've been working on the actual character designs! but my computer with CS paint broke, so now i have nothing to work on LOL.

Aphelion - This one I just have short drabbles for, nothing set in stone. In a future where there is basically one huge space colony (think valerian style) it's not yet at the point that all of Earth can go there. There are several alien colonies that have communities and live within it. There's a scholarship system to be able to get there and study for one of their core groups-- getting into any of them would allow you and your family to be set for life. The groups are a medicinal crew, soldiers to fight intergalactic battles for the allies of the community, engineers and architects who help to build and maintain the community, researchers, and 'songbirds'-- some species, whether it be plant or alien, need music to develop, and will pay for songs. You can also pay to join the community, and live in one of the cities and study. The main character would be someone from a scholarship program, looking to join the biomedical engineering program, but their papers had been tampered with by a rival, and the MC would have been put into the soldiers. It's a really big project that i probably dont have the time for rn!!! but uh... its completely fleshed out in my mind IUHFUIFDS

Aphelious Intro

(penn badgley, he/they, cursed blood) to [APHELIOUS PRAXAS], the whole world looks like an open page. with a leap of faith, their ability of [SHADOW MANIPULATION] grows a little stronger.  they are a [CANE CORSO] shade aligned to [NO ONE]. for [THIRTY-THREE] years, they have survived a world of magic with both their [EMPATHY] and [SELF-RELIANCE]. they work as a [CURSE BREAKER], but if they could change their fate, they’d want to [HELP FIND A WAY TO EASE THE PAIN OF CURSE BLOODED ]. 

Note: This is mostly just Aphelious’s backstory! I will be working on a more comprehensive profile of him once I can figure out some theme coding.

Aphelious was an only child, his mother passing away in childbirth, left with a father who swore to take care of the most precious gift he was given.  It wasn’t a bad childhood per say but it was a hard one. He grew up on the outskirts of Kardia Village with farming being the small family's main source of income. Work needed to be done and Aphelious was more prone to asking how the clouds could fly than dedicating himself to plowing the soil.  His father never shamed him for his curiosity rather spent what little money they had after bills to get books to help fulfill Aphelion's thirst for knowledge. 

It wasn’t until well into Aphelious’s teenage years that a true outlet for his curiosity came along. A Curse-Breaker who had been left blind and injured after dealing with a cursed object stumbled onto the family farm, bleeding out in the field. Aphelious came upon her during the morning chores and hollered for his dad. The two of them carried the women inside, bandaged what they could see and prayed for the best. Aphelious spent every night by her side, tending to her wounds and reading out loud from the few books he had. After a week she spoke for the first time correcting the magical theory in the book that Aphelious was reading from. She introduced herself as Rhes, a Curse Breaker from Selphia and asked Aphelious about his interest in magic.

 Soon after it became a habit that after Aphelious got his chores around the farm done he would go to the house and meet with Rhes to discuss and learn about magic. This continued for three months till Rhes was finally recovered enough to depart back for the capital. She offered for Aphelious to come with her and train as her apprentice in curse breaking. It was the only chance Aphelious could see in his lifetime to escape from the simple  life of a farmer. With a tearful goodbye to his father he set out with Rhes. 

Turns out Aphelious had quite the talent for magical theory. Research and diagnosis of curses was much easier for him than actually breaking the curses. As the years wore on he was able to start taking more cases on his own and out from under the supervision of Rhes. Aphelious would send weekly letters and money back to his father, never forgetting where he came from. After about a decade of training Aphelious became a business partner for Rhes, expected to take over the business when she fully retired. 

It was well into his time as a Curse Breaker that he received the letter. An anonymous missive about a family that needed help. Aphelious had always had a soft heart and decided to go at least check on the family the letter mentioned. When he entered the home he was attacked, a frenzied cursed blood fell upon him when he walked through the door. Sinking his teeth in his arm. Aphelious grabbed the closest object he could and whacked it on the head before fleeing the house. Thinking only to close the door and run. He stumbled back home before falling unconscious to the fire that raged in him. He awoke sometime later to Rhes telling stories to him. A reversal of the situation they had once been in. She became the first person he trusted with what happened.  Ever since Aphelious has been working on hiding the golden spider web on his arm till he could possibly find a way to break his own curse.

Thank you for your support, and welcome to Aphelion Flight.  Text roster under the cut. 

ANGEL RIOS - Animator BAZIF HAIDAR - CEO DAX JACKSON - Synchronized Surfer EA JEAN SUZUHASHI - Research Ethicist FELIX T. MARTIN - Astronomy Major GEKKO MINAMI - Horror Show Host HAYATO OTSUKA - Irezumi Artist HELEN LIU - Violinist JAMES “MOTH” AUBELEILLES - Art Consultant JAMES YANG - Cosmetologist  KOJO KOYASU - Demolition Expert MEREDITH ELISE MITCHELL - Personal Assistant NAOKI MIYAHARA - Ikebana Artist NATSUKO ASAMORI - Poet NICODEMUS ZEN - Heir REINA NAGATA - Equestrian SEBASTIAN KJÆRSGAARD - Meteorologist SHODA UCHIBORI - Impressionist SORA HALIFAX - Storm Chaser SVIATLANA LUKASHEVICH -  Polysomnographic Technologist

i love researching jaguars to better connect them back to aster and soon aphelion, and reading about how infanticide isn’t an uncommon thing to occur.

and then i slowly side-eye their dad, who 100% murdered big brother apehlion.

PLEASE TELL ME YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MY RECENT ASK, I THINK I HAVE ACCIDENTLY SPOILED YOU ABOUT DAN HENG PAST NAME. it may be a small one but I still feel bad! I suggest finish the Xianzhou Luofu arc and you can then check ask but IM SO SORRY

-🐱 Anon

AWWW DEAR IT'S OKAY i promise i really don't take spoilers that seriously. i've never been one to get upset or annoyed with spoilers. if anything, i love that you guys have another common interest with me and are excited to talk about it. it really isn't anything to feel bad about!!

Predictions for how ice ages happen and the origin of the Noah's ark myth

Brief disclaimer: This may not happen for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years. Reader discretion is advised. I don’t have qualifications in this area. This is just my opinion. More research is needed by those more qualified than I.

The ancients wrote countless stories regarding flood myths, including Ragnarök (Norse mythology), Aztec Myth of the Five Suns, Eridu Genesis (Sumerian mythology), Deucalion and Pyrrha (Greek mythology), and the Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamian mythology). Although Noah’s Ark stands out most prominently amongst these writings alongside Ragnarök, I believe there is more fact than myth to be seen. Notably, the Younger Dryas extinction event, which occurred approximately 11,700 years ago, may be the origin that inspired these myths. Some posit the impact hypothesis, although I believe that may not be the only cause.

As the Earth rotates, it may be subject to the Dzhanibekov effect of rotating bodies, as the Earth has three principle axes of inertia. Under specific conditions, such as a rare occurrence of multiple eccentric orbits in our solar system, Earth may flip 180 degrees on its polar axis. (Eccentricity is one factor contributing to Milankovitch cycles, which are associated with long-term changes in Earth’s climate and the occurrence of ice ages and interglacial periods).

Notably, the delicate balance of both the Sun and Moon’s gravitational pull is what keeps Earth’s axial tilt stable. Taking into consideration that Jupiter and Saturn are the two largest planets in the solar system and have significant gravitational influence, their gravitational forces perturb the orbits of other planets, including Earth. Over long periods of time, these gravitational interactions can cause variations in Earth’s orbital parameters, including eccentricity. This may be the precursor to a chain reaction that ultimately disrupts the stability of Earth’s axial tilt.

Changes in the eccentricity of both the Moon’s orbit around Earth and the Earth’s orbit around the Sun may create the conditions for an axial flip in between perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) and aphelion (farthest point from the Sun). Also, Earth’s rotational torque may factor in offsetting this delicate balance in conjunction with the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun also exerting torque on Earth’s equatorial bulge.

If Earth were to flip on its axis, the results may include: flooding as global sea levels rise as the poles would be exposed to more sunlight for a period of time; earthquakes as mass is displaced, resulting in tsunamis and volcanic eruptions that may throw Earth into a volcanic winter, setting the conditions for the next ice age. After time, as more ice builds up, more sunlight is reflected back, cooling global temperatures. Earth’s eccentric orbit would add further cooling. (Which has some notable similarities with the omens of Ragnarök. Also including “comet sightings and the appearance of ominous stars and constellations.” The prior may suggest a perturbance in Jupiter and Saturn’s orbits and subsequently the trajectory of asteroids in the main asteroid belt, and the latter may suggest the beginning of an axial flip or a change in procession).

More research is needed. If proven even partially correct, it would be best to invest in infrastructure to prepare humanity and the diverse life on Earth for the next ice age or natural disaster, such as earthquake absorbent underground habitats and orbital habitats, research into plant life and food sources that can grow in habitat conditions, life support systems, and sustainable ecosystems within these habitats and satellites in orbit filled with supplies and seeds.

In conclusion, if the earth’s tilt were to be altered by this effect or any other, it would be best to prepare in advance and put our best minds forward. I believe this event may occur at the start and end of each ice age. It may be best to check sedimentary layers for past instances of the onset and offset of ice ages, axial flips, or changes in tilt or procession to better understand and predict the next. Perhaps the resonant orbits of the planets in the outer solar system affect the resonant orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, resulting in multiple eccentric orbits, thus causing more eccentric orbits in the inner solar system, resulting in the previously mentioned.

Yours sincerely, Ark Anonymous.

Earth-sun distance dramatically alters seasons in the equatorial Pacific in a 22,000-year cycle An unrecognized effect boosts or diminishes the Pacific cold tongue, likely impacting El Niño/La Niña events and North American weather Weather and climate modelers understand pretty well how seasonal winds and ocean currents affect El Niño patterns in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, impacting weather across the United States and sometimes worldwide. But new computer simulations show that one driver of annual weather cycles in that region — in particular, a cold tongue of surface waters stretching westward along the equator from the coast of South America — has gone unrecognized: the changing distance between Earth and the sun. The cold tongue, in turn, influences the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which impacts weather in California, much of North America, and often globally. The Earth-sun distance slowly varies over the course of the year because Earth’s orbit is slightly elliptical. Currently, at its closest approach — perihelion — Earth is about 3 million miles closer to the sun than at its farthest point, or aphelion. As a result, sunlight is about 7% more intense at perihelion than at aphelion. Research led by the University of California, Berkeley, demonstrates that the slight yearly change in our distance from the sun can have a large effect on the annual cycle of the cold tongue. This is distinct from the effect of Earth’s axial tilt on the seasons, which is currently understood to cause the annual cycle of the cold tongue. Because the period of the annual cycle arising from the tilt and distance effects are slightly different, their combined effects vary over time, said lead researcher John Chiang, UC Berkeley professor of geography. “The curious thing is that the annual cycle from the distance effect is slightly longer than that for tilt — around 25 minutes, currently — so over a span of about 11,000 years, the two annual cycles go from being in phase to out of phase, and the net seasonality undergoes a remarkable change, as a result,” Chiang said. Chiang noted that the distance effect is already incorporated into climate models — though its effect on the equatorial Pacific was not recognized until now — and his findings will not alter weather predictions or climate projections. But the 22,000-year phase cycle may have had long-term, historical effects. Earth’s orbital precession is known to have affected the timing of the ice ages, for example. The distance effect — and its 22,000-year variation — also may affect other weather systems on Earth. The ENSO, which also originates in the equatorial Pacific, is likely affected because its workings are closely tied to the seasonal cycle of the cold tongue. “Theory tells us that the seasonal cycle of the cold tongue plays a key role in the development and termination of ENSO events,” said Alyssa Atwood, a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow who is now an assistant professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. “Because of this, many of ENSO’s key characteristics are synced to the seasonal cycle.” For example, ENSO events tend to peak during Northern Hemisphere winters, she said, and they don’t typically persist beyond northern or boreal spring months, which scientists refer to as the “spring predictability barrier.” Because of these linkages, it is reasonable to expect that the distance effect could also have a major impact on ENSO — something that should be examined in future studies. “Very little attention has been paid to the cold tongue seasonal cycle because most people think it's solved. There's nothing interesting there,” Chiang said. “What this research shows is that it's not solved. There's still a mystery there. Our result also begs the question whether other regions on Earth may also have a significant distance effect contribution to their seasonal cycle.” “We learn in science classes as early as grade school that the seasons are caused by the tilt of Earth’s axis,” added co-author Anthony Broccoli of Rutgers University. “This is certainly true and has been well understood for centuries. Although the effect of the Earth-sun distance has also been recognized, our study indicates that this ‘distance effect’ may be a more important effect on climate than had been recognized previously.” Chiang, Atwood and Broccoli and their colleagues reported their findings today in the journal Nature. Two distinct yearly cycles affect Pacific cold tongue The main driver of global weather changes is seasonal change. Earth’s equator is tilted relative to its orbit around the sun, so the Northern and Southern hemispheres are illuminated differently. When the sun shines directly overhead in the north, it’s warmer in the north and colder in the south, and vice versa. These yearly changes have major effects on the Pacific equatorial trade winds, which blow from southeast to northwest across the south and equatorial Pacific and push surface waters westward, causing upwelling of cold water along the equator that creates a tongue of cold surface water that stretches from Ecuador across the Pacific — almost one-quarter the circumference of the planet. The yearly hemispheric changes in seasonal temperature alters the strength of the trades, and thus cause a yearly cycle in the temperature of the cold tongue. This, in turn, has a major influence on ENSO, which typically peaks during Northern Hemisphere winter. The occurrence of El Niño — or its opposite, La Niña — helps determines whether California and the West Coast will have a wet or dry winter, but also whether the Midwest and parts of Asia will have rain or drought. “In studying past climates, much effort has been dedicated to trying to understand if variability in the tropical Pacific Ocean — that is, the El Niño/La Niña cycle — has changed in the past,” Broccoli said. “We chose to focus instead on the yearly cycle of ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific cold tongue. Our study found that the timing of perihelion — that is, the point at which the earth is closest to the sun — has an important influence on climate in the tropical Pacific." In 2015, Broccoli, co-director of the Rutgers Climate Institute, along with his then-graduate student Michael Erb, employed a computer climate model to show that the distance changes caused by Earth’s elliptical orbit dramatically altered the cold tongue yearly cycle. But climate modelers mostly ignored the result, Chiang said. “Our field is focused on El Niño, and we thought that the seasonal cycle was solved. But then we realized that the result by Erb and Broccoli challenged this assumption,” he said. Chiang and his colleagues, including Broccoli and Atwood, examined similar simulations using four different climate models and confirmed the result. But the team went further to show how the distance effect works. Earth’s ‘marine’ and ‘continental’ hemispheres The key distinction is that changes in the sun’s distance from Earth don’t affect the Northern and Southern hemispheres differently, which is what gives rise to the seasonal effect due to Earth’s axial tilt. Instead, they warm the eastern “continental hemisphere” dominated by the North and South American and African and Eurasian landmasses, more than it warms the Western Hemisphere — what he calls the marine hemisphere, because it is dominated by the Pacific Ocean. “The traditional way of thinking about monsoons is that the Northern Hemisphere warms up relative to the Southern Hemisphere, generating winds onto land that bring monsoon rains,” Chiang said. “But here, we’re actually talking about east-west, not north-south, temperature differences that cause the winds. The distance effect is operating through the same mechanism as the seasonal monsoon rains, but the wind changes are coming from this east-west monsoon.” The winds generated by this differential heating of the marine and continental hemispheres alter the yearly variation of the easterly trades in the western equatorial Pacific, and thereby the cold tongue. “When Earth is closest to the sun, these winds are strong. In the offseason, when the sun is at its furthest, these winds become weak,” Chiang said. “Those wind changes are then propagated to the Eastern Pacific through the thermocline, and basically it drives an annual cycle of the cold tongue, as a result.” Today, Chiang said, the distance effect on the cold tongue is about one-third the strength of the tilt effect, and they enhance one another, leading to a strong annual cycle of the cold tongue. About 6,000 years ago, they canceled one another, yielding a muted annual cycle of the cold tongue. In the past, when Earth’s orbit was more elliptical, the distance effect on the cold tongue would have been larger and could have led to a more complete cancellation when out of phase. Though Chiang and his colleagues did not examine the effect of such a cancellation, this would potentially have had a worldwide effect on weather patterns. Chiang emphasized that the distance effect on climate, while clear in climate model simulations, would not be evident from observations because it cannot be readily distinguished from the tilt effect. “This study is purely model based. So, it is a prediction,” he said. “But this behavior is reproduced by a number of different models, at least four. And what we did in this study is to explain why this happens. And in the process, we've discovered another annual cycle of the cold tongue that's driven by Earth's eccentricity.” Atwood noted that, unlike the robust changes to the cold tongue seasonal cycle, changes to ENSO tend to be model-dependent. “While ENSO remains a challenge for climate models, we can look beyond climate model simulations to the paleoclimate record to investigate the connection between changes in the annual cycle of the cold tongue and ENSO in the past,” she said. “To date, paleoclimate records from the tropical Pacific have largely been interpreted in terms of past changes in ENSO, but our study underscores the need to separate changes in the cold tongue annual cycle from changes in ENSO.” Chiang’s colleagues, in addition to Broccoli and Atwood, are Daniel Vimont of the University of Wisconsin in Madison; former UC Berkeley undergraduate Paul Nicknish, now a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; William Roberts of Northumbria University in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom; and Clay Tabor of the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Chiang conducted part of the research while on sabbatical at the Research Institute for Environmental Changes of the Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. TOP IMAGE....A temperature map of the Pacific Ocean for December 1993 showing a cold (blue) tongue of surface water stretching westward along the equator from the coast of South America. The temperature and extent of the cold tongue changes with the seasons, but new climate simulations show that the annual change in Earth’s distance from the sun also affects the cold tongue seasonal cycle. This influences El Niño conditions that impact weather in North America and globally. CREDIT John Chiang, UC Berkeley LOWER IMAGE....As Earth gets closer to the sun in its elliptical orbit, the continent-dominated hemisphere heats up more than the ocean -dominated hemisphere, generating trade winds that affect the cold tongue and likely the El Niño/La Niña cycle that determines whether California gets rain or drought. CREDIT John Chiang, UC Berkeley

Lilith-Only Astrology

Bit of an experimental concept.

So, Lilith is the point in the sky where we see the most distant point in the Moon's orbital path. We associate it with a lot of things that, to dramatically and dangerously oversimplify, come down to a point of disbalancing in the emotional energies that the moon oversees.

Every planet has a point in its orbit where it's most distant from the sun - its aphelion. So could you possibly read a natal chart based on the aphelion points? Here's mine:

I've always enjoyed that Mercury was as distant from the Sun as it could be and in detriment in Pisces when I was born. And yes, I have ADHD. It being conjunct the Aphelions of Uranus and Venus is interesting to me: a lot of emotional energy in my chart if you're looking solely at the stuff that doesn't balance very well.

Also, the transformative energy of Pluto's Aphelion conjunct Venus in Taurus is interesting to me as a trans woman.

As a little generational thing - I enjoy that children of the 1965-1994 were born with Eris conjunct its Aphelion. Basically, if you're too young to be a baby boomer and you remember 9/11 you have this chaotic sounding conjunction in your birth chart.

This could do with some more research - but I think there's a potentially interesting concept in all this