Why Do We Study Science? Well, Since We Can't Study Magic Itself (it's Invisible, Very Hard To Detect),

A Million Thanks! The EAW Poll Time Continues

Thanks to the warm responses from many Woo watchers, the target no longer looks like a very faraway dream. Add your voice to theirs here before the survey closes. On average, they have taken only 1 minute and 22 seconds to answer the three questions.

Past and Personhood in She Was Pretty (via The "Was" in She Was Pretty)

All the World's a Mimicry

All the World's a Mimicry

Forging human connections is like running a makeshift theater academy. At times, a man briefly stages in his head the turmoil ravaging another person’s mind. At times, he recalls and mentally rehearses scenes that have brought someone in those shoes a little cheer. Then he walks onto a visible stage, located wherever the other party can be reached, and re-enacts the soothing gestures that show…

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Weather aesthetics and environmentalism in relation to She Was Pretty (via Of Sky Waltzes and Rain Dancers)

Bard's Dark Forest Cuisine

Macmillan

The Dark Forest

Soon to be a Netflix Original Series!"Wildly imaginative." —President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogyThis near-future trilogy

Soon to be dramatized. Spoiler alert.

Black Forest cake. This is a rich and decadent chocolate cake that is filled with cherries and whipped cream. The dark color of the cake is a symbol of the dark forest, while the cherries represent the stars.

Sainsbury`s Magazine

Black forest gateau recipe by Eric Lanlard | Sainsbury`s Magazine

This delicious black forest gateau recipe from Eric Lanlard is the perfect dessert for a special occasion

Shrimp cocktail. This is a classic appetizer that is made with shrimp that are cooked in a cocktail sauce. The shrimp represent the civilizations that are hiding in the dark forest, while the cocktail sauce represents the fear and paranoia that exists between them.

Kitchn

You're Just 30 Seconds Away from the Best-Ever Cocktail Sauce

It comes together with just a handful of condiments.

Oysters Rockefeller. These are oysters that are topped with a creamy sauce that is made with spinach, bacon, and Parmesan cheese. The oysters represent the civilizations that are trying to survive in the dark forest, while the sauce represents the hope and determination that they have for the future.

Food Network

Grilled Oysters Rockefeller with Baby Spinach Bacon Fondue

Get Grilled Oysters Rockefeller with Baby Spinach Bacon Fondue Recipe from Food Network

Black bean soup. This is a hearty and flavorful soup that is made with black beans, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. The black color of the soup is a symbol of the dark forest, while the beans represent the civilizations that are trying to survive in it.

The Pretty Bee

Three Ingredient Black Bean Soup.

A super simple and tasty recipe for black bean soup that uses just three ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry ! Vegan a

Take the AI definitions with a pinch of Himalayan black salt, however. Numerous variants of a dish often exist. With that in mind, bon appétit.

Ghosts Feeling the Economic Squeeze

The economy is tough for everyone, but it's especially tough for ghosts. With so many people out of work, ghosts are finding it hard to find jobs that they're qualified for.

"It's a ghost town out there," said Casper, a ghost who has been looking for work for months. "There just aren't enough jobs for everyone."

"It's been really competitive," said Bryan Wilson, another ghost, who was laid off from his job as a night watchman. "So many other ghosts are also looking for work."

Miss Frizzle, a ghost who was a former teacher, said that she's been struggling to find a new job. "I'm qualified and I have experience, but no one seems to want to hire a ghost," she said.

But why do ghosts need jobs? "In a story universe where the paranormal did not exist, we would be just dead. But we have a chance here. And given the customs of the fiction we live in, we need to buy things like ectoplasm and spectral silk to keep that chance. Consumers don't want to read about totally undignified and unclothed ghosts," explained a ghost named Emily.

"Just like us humans, ghosts have needs to feel comfortable and safe," said Stella C. Ai, an afterlife care expert. "They also want to have a sense of belonging in the world they live in, so they might desire their own homely, private space, which graveyards are not."

"And although they might not require food in the same way humans do, they may still have a hunger for energy, especially if they need to stay buoyant in places haunted by toxicity and apathy," she added.

Many employers are expectedly reluctant to hire ghosts, worried that ghosts would be disruptive or scare away customers.

"We just don't think ghosts are a good fit for our company culture," said one manager, who declined giving her name. "We're looking for someone who is friendly and approachable, and ghosts just don't fit that bill."

Another problem is that ghosts are not as versatile as humans. They can't do many of the jobs that humans do, such as driving, cooking, or cleaning.

"We're pretty limited in what we can do," said another ghost, Floaty. "We can't really interact with the physical world, so that rules out a lot of jobs."

The job market for ghosts is also being affected by the rise of technology. Some companies are now using robots to perform tasks that were once done by ghosts, such as scaring people in haunted houses.

"It's not fair," said Robbie, a ghost who was replaced by a robot. "I'm the real deal, and I can do the job better than any robot."

But some employers are starting to see the benefits of hiring ghosts. Ghosts are often very hard-working and dedicated employees. They're also very good at getting things done without being noticed.

"I've been very impressed with the work of our ghost employees," said Mr. Jenkins, a manager of Happy Inn. "They're always on time and they always get their work done."

Some ghosts are working as actors in ghost movies and TV shows, tour guides in haunted houses, and psychics and mediums.

"It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing," said Ghost of Christmas Past, a ghost who works as a tour guide. "At least I'm getting to see some new places."

A growing group has even started working as influencers on social media. They share their ghostly experiences and advice with their followers, and some have even managed to amass large followings.

"It's a great way to connect with other ghosts and share our stories," said one ghost influencer, who goes by the moniker ghost_with_a_plan. "And it's also a great way to make money."

So while the economic climate is definitely challenging, there are still ways for ghosts to find work. With a little creativity and determination, they can find success in the workforce.

Reported by Rylan Bard, a journalist for Nether Yammer. Additional reporting by Human, a ghost writer, ergh, human ghost writer, ergh, human writer for Nether Yammer.

Check out the rest of this Tumblr site for crucial and actual diversity-themed content.

– if no one has ever told you, (via pinterest)

Nuclear Wasteland

The nuclear war had been over for two years, but the world was still a very different place. The few remaining cities were overcrowded and chaotic, and resources were scarce. Soot from all the firestorms still blocked out sunlight, while enemies might strike again at any time.

In one of these cities, a man named Adam was trying to board a lorry to get necessities for his parents and children, all of them on the autism spectrum like himself. He had been finding transportation for hours, and he was starting to get frustrated.

"I'm an autistic caregiver," he said to the soldiers guarding the lorry. "I need to get on board to get food and medicine for my parents and children, who are autistic too."

The soldiers looked bored. "We have many families with autistic children in this city," one of them replied.

"Please, I mean I am also an autistic person myself. My sensory issues mean I need to stay warm more than others as I fetch necessities for my family. I cannot be trekking in this frozen wasteland for too long."

"Ah, I hear you correctly now. But what's a person with special needs doing out in the open right now? Hunker down in your bunker and tell your family to run their own errands."

"No, no, you heard me correctly. They are also autistic."

"So your kids are the ones who're autistic?"

"I am, too."

The soldiers still didn't understand. "How can an autistic person be a caregiver?"

"It is difficult but necessary," Adam said. "Autism often runs in the family."

"Poor thing. The mother didn't survive the bombings? Get the kids' grandparents to help out."

"Like I've said before, they're autistic themselves. Their symptoms have been worsening with age. They're practically deaf to vehicle horns, and their bodies feel like rumpled bags of broken bones."

The soldiers shook their heads. "Come up with a more believable multigenerational sad-sack story, dude. I don't even know autistic people have girlfriends in peacetime, let alone in war and breeding till now. At most, you're either just autistic or just a caregiver and neither would make you so special," one of them said.

"Get your facts right before you cosplay autism. Autistic guys live in their own heads. They don't run all over the place for parents or kids," another chimed in.

"You can't get on board. Period."

Adam was starting to lose his temper. "I need to get on board!" he shouted. "My family is depending on me!"

The soldiers raised their guns. "Back off!" they ordered.

Soldiers further away, who were not even paying attention to them or Adam before, turned their heads and threw accusatory glances at him.

Adam knew that he couldn't argue with them. He turned and walked away.

Later that night, he was so worn out and frostbitten he huddled among trash bags in an alley behind a dilapidated power station, his chest heaving against the supplies. A string of fairy lights peeked out from one of the bags, its extinguished bulbs emptied of dreams.

Adam started to imagine the fairy lights powered on, glowing underwater and on the tiers of a musical fountain buttressed by statues of mythical guardians, but quickly punched himself in the head, the way his class monitor, flanked by bootlicking underlings, repeatedly did to him all those years ago. Why couldn't his identity be neat and simple? Be either the stereotypical autistic tech genius or a typical family man. Have either so-called autistic interests in some scientific or mathematical field or the skill to deceive himself and abandon his passion for interior design from the beginning. What sort of rational person would care about art and decoration when radiation was in your only meal of the day while tank guns pointed everywhere?

If he could just switch his interests and match them with economic logic as readily as nerds in old clips solved Rubik's Cube in a split second, he would be the one launching the stealth planes that must be gliding overhead right now, not a pathetic hitchhiker of a military lorry. His family would be cloistered away in one of those underground enclaves for the super wealthy, with all the aides and sitters they needed.

The red hazard sign on the drab wall opposite seemed to be glaring at Adam: We told you so. No, rewind that a second. How marvelous his aesthetic mind still had the luxury to judge the appeal of the power station, as if a red sign on some royal blue background could order food to automatically march into stomachs.

Adam's train of thoughts came to a halt. He had a brainwave.

Years later, a group of journalists felt like they were stepping into a dream as they navigated an office space filled with art and soothing music. There were little bulbs in shades of purple everywhere, glowing in the low-light conditions its creative employees preferred to work in. In the depths of the office were laboratories and showrooms with magenta lights in various stylistic arrangements. Below the lights were lettuces, cabbages, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes and many other crops, some of which looked healthier than those grown under the sunlight of the pre-apocalypse years. The chlorophyll hungrily absorbed the different combinations of red and blue light tailored for the plants. The greatest value a design firm could bring to indoor agriculture, though, was optimization of lighting and area usage under the varying and challenging space conditions of post-apocalypse dwellings. Adam was feeding stomachs one fairy light at a time.

The old question popped up. "What's the secret to your success?"

"I don't have a convenient, pared-down identity," Adam replied simply.

Credits

Story concept: Human

Story setting: FierceOcean @ Character.ai

Text: Mostly Human + some AI input

Images: Mostly Character.ai + some Human input

References

Liang, Y., Kang, C., Kaiser, E. et al. Red/blue light ratios induce morphology and physiology alterations differently in cucumber and tomato. Sci. Hortic. 281, 109995 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2021.109995

Sabzalian, M.R., Heydarizadeh, P., Zahedi, M. et al. High performance of vegetables, flowers, and medicinal plants in a red-blue LED incubator for indoor plant production. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 34, 879–886 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-014-0209-6

Winstead, D.J., Jacobson, M.G. Food resilience in a dark catastrophe: A new way of looking at tropical wild edible plants. Ambio 51, 1949–1962 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01715-1

Xia, L., Robock, A., Scherrer, K. et al. Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection. Nat Food 3, 586–596 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00573-0

[Meteorizing Mondays] Expeditions

We're alien globes to each other remote-nursing other alien globes, so we don't really miss out that much stuck here in our seemingly little lives instead of roaming the globe.

Archives

Monday Purples

To someone, you may be the most compelling superhero.

Athletic / Aesthetic Passions

Athletic and aesthetic passions normally won't feed you, they say. What they don't say is how these sides of yourself can funnel into you vibrant, imaginative energy that powers you through all the drudgery, provided that late-stage capitalist and chronobiological logics spare these tiny selves breathing space.

An entire series awaits. Check back on another Monday.

Puuung’s Kickstarter Challenge

Love is : Puuung’s illustration of love   Puuung is a popular Korean illustrator with a large fan base and is best known for her ‘Love Is’ series. This series of illustrations, which is about the universal theme of ‘Love’, is regularly uploaded on NAVER’s Grafolio service. http://www.grafolio.com/puuung1

Since 2014, Puuung has uploaded her illustration series ‘Love Is’ every Tuesday and Thursday on Grafolio, a global platform provided by NAVER for single person creators, She already has a wide fan base that eagerly waits for her updated works. She has received great response from the Korean audience and greater response from those overseas.

A global funding was started through “Kickstarter”, the crowdfunding platform, in June 6, to introduce Puuung’s illustrations to more people around the world. Crowdfunding is a way of raising money via the social media or the internet. Kickstarter, which was launched in April of 2009, is based in the United States and is the world’s most famous crowdfunding platform. Now, let’s hear from the designer who has been responsible for the whole process, from planning the Kickstarter reward items to producing samples and coming up with the completed rewards.

Planning the Kickstarter Reward Items While planning rewards items for Puuung’s Kickstarter project, we had to come up with product designs that best displayed the artist’s illustrations. Overseas delivery was also an important factor, and therefore items also had to be compact and light enough so that it can be delivered to people across the world. After looking into various items in numerous price ranges, and upon final review with the artist herself, fabric posters, an art book and a postcard collection were selected as rewards for Puuung’s first Kickstarter funding project.

Launching the Kickstarter Page We needed a webpage that provided detailed information on the reward items in order to start the funding. To do so, we made samples of each reward in advance and launched our Kickstarter page!! https://www.kickstarter.com We waited with great anticipation until 8 o’clock in the morning in Korea, since the project campaign webpage was to be launched in US standard time. And to our great surprise, we achieved our goal of 10,000 dollars within just two hours from the launch of the funding and collected over 126,000 dollars, which was more than 1000% of our target amount, during the one month funding period. In addition, Puuung became the first Korean in Kickstarter to reach third place in the illustration section, which is an enormous feat. More than 1,800 backers from 70 countries, including English speaking countries of the United States and Canada, European nations including France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Asian countries of Singapore and Hong Kong, participated in the funding. Backers will be given rewards such as postcard collections, art book and posters that contain Puuung’s illustrations.

Producing Kickstarter Reward Items The unexpectedly large number of backers meant that we had to increase the number of items we had to produce. Since a limited quantity of rewards was being produced through funding, we wanted to provide backers who love Puuung’s work with high-quality rewards. We therefore placed extreme care into the paper, material and print quality of the rewards. [Fabric Posters] We especially went through many trials and errors while we were producing the sample for the fabric posters. Canvas fabric, the most commonly used material for fabric posters, was unable to provide us with satisfactory print quality. Multiple tests were done with various fabrics before we were able to find a fabric that gave us a print quality that most closely resembled the original illustration.

[Art Book] The art book is 116 pages and contains Puuung’s illustration as well as drawings of three couples that were selected from Puuung’s photo competition event. The background of the illustrations has a lot of detail and illustrations are shown from various angles, so the layout was arranged to show the illustration in its original proportions. The epilogue of the art book contains information fans were interested in, including the artist’s “thank you” message and photos of her workroom, sketches and of herself. Puuung, despite her busy schedule, also created an original cover for the art book and postcard collection that were to be given to Kickstarter backers. This special cover, which contains original and unique illustrations, is only available in the Kickstarter rewards!!

[Postcard Collection] The postcard collection consists of 100 illustrations and contains never-before released illustrations created by Puuung. Comments left by Kickstarter backers, such as “I want to give your illustrations to my son for his one year wedding anniversary” or “I bought your postcard collection because I wanted to use your work in our wedding invitation” show the backers expectation and affection towards Puuung’s art book.

100 copies of the art book contains Puuung’s autograph, which were each carefully signed by the artist herself. We look forward to more of Puuung’s heartwarming illustrations as she continues to draw about even the smallest happiness that is felt between people in love. :-)