SYDNEY’S NEW YEAR EVE FIREWORKS 2022/23

Dragons in the modern world I

Earth can be studied like a machine, a very complicated one indeed. In this view, it can be subdivided in many parts, each one a subsystem that can also be interpreted as a machine interconected to many others to form the entire Earth system. One of this parts is the biosphere, and a subsystem of the biosphere refers to human activity. Since human activity can be approached by economics, it is appropriate to talk about economics as part of the entire Earth system, as a piece of the biosphere machinery. This is the view of Ecological Economics.

As it happens to any machine, Earth has to obey the second law of thermodynamics, entropy can only increase with time. And what is the power source of the Earth machine? Easy, the solar radiation. Everything that has ever occurred, occurs, or will occurs could only take place in Earth because of solar radiative energy. Even these lines that I am writing, would not be here if not because the sun shines.

That is why it is so important to be aware of the energy cycles of Earth to understand everything, including economics. Think about it: the energy that powers the device you're using now, and ultimately the brain that is thinking and taking decisions now, every single joule of this energy was once photons leaving the sun towards Earth. Think of this interconnectedness and believe, and worry, and care about Earth, the biosphere, the econosphere and humankind, because everything is One!

HiPOD: Layers in a Crater

The objective of this observation is to examine light and dark layers in an impact crater in Cydonia Mensae. Our interest is in seeing if the layer boundaries are diffuse as suggested in CTX image data. Most of the layers seem to have definite boundaries. (Black and white is less than 5 km across; enhanced color is less than 1 km.)

ID: ESP_075247_2125 date: 15 August 2022 altitude: 292 km

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

HiPOD: A Layered Feature in a Crater in Nilosyrtis Mensae

The objective of this observation is to examine a layered feature in an impact crater. The layers may represent layers of mantle from when the climate changed and the shape may be due to the wind. The scene is also found in Context Camera data. (Enhanced color cutout is less than 1 km across; black and white is less than 5 km.)

ID: ESP_075257_2155 date: 16 August 2022 altitude: 291 km

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

Took this pic some years ago, and love it.

Someone dropped a paper somewhere.

academia.edu

Can an AI gain consciousness?

In response to the allegations made by an AI engineer that a linguistic model exhibits sentience, both "authorities" and Google re

How to cheese a tree, a quick tutorial to low-effort trees. :D

1: random colour shapes

2: more colours. 

3: whatever you wanna do, paint-splatters, details, glitter, everything goes!

4: draw branches and trunk into the shapes

Done.

Winter milky way.

Toyama, Japan.

X-Men by Chase Conley