#high fidelity icons | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mspaesthetic · 9 months

Text

Tidbit: The “Posterization” Effect of Panels Due to the Consequences of GIF Color Quantization (and Increased Contrast (And Also The Tangential Matter of Dithering))

There’s this misconception that the color banding and patterned dithering found in panels is an entirely deliberate, calculated effect Hussie manipulated the image into looking with some specific filter, but this isn’t the case, exactly. It wasn’t so much a conscious decision he took but rather an unavoidable consequence of the medium he partook in: digital art in an age where bandwidth and storage was at a premium.

Not to delve too deeply into the history and technicalities of it, but the long and the short of it is back in the early nineties to late aughts (and even a bit further into the 10s), transferring and storing data over the web was not as fast, plentiful, and affordable as it is now. Filesize was a much more important consideration than the fidelity of an image when displaying it on the web. Especially so when you’re a hobbyist on a budget and paying for your own webhosting, or using a free service with a modest upload limit (even per file!). Besides, what good would it be to post your images online if it takes ages to load them over people's dial-up Internet? Don't even get me STARTED on the meager memory and power the average iGPU had to work with, too.

The original comic strip's resolution was a little more than halved and saved as a GIF rather than a large PNG. That's about an 82.13% reduction in filesize!

So in the early days it was very common for people to take their scans, photographs, and digital drawings and scale them down and publish them as smaller lossily compressed JPEGs or lossless GIFs, the latter of which came at the cost of color range. But it had a wider range of browser support and the feature to be used for animations compared to its successor format, PNG ("PNG's not GIF").

You'd've been hard-pressed to find Hussie use any PNGs himself then. In fact, I think literally the only times he's ever personally employed them and not delegate the artwork to a member of the art team were some of the tiny shrunken down text of a character talking far in the distance and a few select little icons.

PNGs support semi-transparency unlike GIFs, which is why Hussie used them to preserve the anti-aliasing on the text without having to add an opaque background color.

While PNGs can utilize over 16 million colors in a single image, GIFs have a hard limit of 256 colors per frame. For reference, this small image alone has 604 colors:

For those who can't do the math, 256 is a pretty damn small number.

Smaller still were the palettes in a great deal of MSPA's panels early on in its run. Amazingly, a GIF such as this only uses 7 colors (8 if you count the alpha (which it is)).

Not that they were always strictly so low; occasionally some in the later acts of Homestuck had pretty high counts. This panel uses all 256 spots available, in fact.

If he had lowered the number any smaller, the quality would have been god-awful.

To the untrained eye, these bands of color below may seem to be the result of a posterization filter (an effect that reduces smooth areas of color into fewer harsh solid regions), but it's really because the image was exported as a GIF with no dithering applied.

Dithering, to the uninitiated, is how these colors are arranged together to compensate for the paltry palette, producing illusory additional colors. There are three algorithms in Photoshop for this: Diffusion, Pattern, and Noise.

Above is the original image and below is the image reduced to a completely binary 1-bit black and white color palette, to make the effect of each dithering algorithm more obvious.

Diffusion seemingly displaces the pixels around randomly, but it uses error diffusion to calculate what color each pixel should be. In other words, math bullshit. The Floyd-Steinberg algorithm is one such implementation of it, and is usually what this type of error diffusion dithering is called in other software, or some misnomer-ed variation thereof.

The usage of Pattern may hearken back to retro video game graphics for you, as older consoles also suffered from color palette limitations. Sometimes called Ordered dithering because of the orderly patterns it produces. At least, I assumed so. Its etymological roots probably stem from more math bullshit again.

True to its name, Noise is noisy. It’s visually similar to Diffusion dithering, except much more random looking. At least, when binarized like this. Truth be told, I can’t tell the difference between the two at all when using a fuller color table on an image with a lot of detail. It was mainly intended to be used when exporting individual slices of an image that was to be “stitched” back together on a webpage, to mitigate visible seams in the dithering around the edges.

To sate your curiosity, here's how the image looks with no dithering at all:

People easily confuse an undithered gif as being the result of posterization, and you couldn't fault them for thinking so. They look almost entirely the same!

Although I was already aware of this fact when I was much younger, I'm guilty of posterizing myself while editing images back then. Figured I may as well reduce the color count beforehand to help keep the exported GIF looking as intended. I view this as a complete waste of time now, though, and amateurish. Takes away a bit of the authenticity of MSPA art, how the colors and details are so variable between panels. As for WHY they were so variable to begin with, choosing the settings to save the image as requires a judicious examination on a case-by-case basis. In other words, just playing around with the settings until it looks decent.

It's the process of striking a fine balance between an acceptable file size and a "meh, good enough" visual quality that I mentioned earlier. How many colors can you take away until it starts to look shit? Which dithering algorithm helps make it look not as shit while not totally ruining the compression efficacy?

Take, for example, this panel from Problem Sleuth. It has 16 colors, an average amount for the comic, and uses Diffusion dithering. Filesize: 34.5 KB.

Then there's this panel right afterwards. It has 8 colors (again, technically 7 + alpha channel since it's an animated gif), and uses Noise dithering this time. Filesize: 34.0 KB.

The more colors and animation frames there are, and the more complicated dithering there is, the bigger the file size is going to be. Despite the second panel having half the color count of the first, the heavily noisy dithering alone was enough to inflate the file size back up. On top of that, there's extra image information layered in for the animation, leaving only a mere 0.5 kilobyte difference between the two panels.

So why would Hussie pick the algorithm that compresses worse than the other? The answer: diffusion causes the dithering to jitter around between frames of animation. Recall its description from before, how it functions on nerd shit like math calculations. The way it calculates what each pixel's color will be is decided by the pixels' colors surrounding it, to put it simply. Any difference in the placement of pixels will cause these cascading changes in the dithering like the butterfly effect.

Diffusion dithering, 16 colors. Filesize: 25.2 KB

This isn't the case with Noise or Pattern dithering, since their algorithms use either a texture or a definite array of numbers (more boring nerd shit).

Noise dithering, 16 colors. Filesize: 31.9 KB

Pattern dithering, 16 colors. Filesize: 23.1 KB

There's a lot more I'd like to talk about, like the different color reduction algorithms, which dither algorithms generally compress better in what cases, and the upward and downward trends of each one’s use over the course of a comic, but since this isn’t a deep dive on GIF optimization, I might save that for another time. This post is already reaching further past the original scope it was meant to cover, and less than 10 images can be uploaded before hitting the limit, which is NOWHERE near enough for me. I should really reevaluate my definition of the word “tidbit”… Anyway, just know that this post suffers from sample selection bias, so while the panels above came from an early section of Problem Sleuth that generally had static panels with diffusion dithering and animated panels with noise dithering, there certainly were animated panels with diffusion later on despite the dither-jittering.

Alright, time to shotgun through the rest of this post, screw segueing. Increasing the contrast almost entirely with “Use Legacy” enabled spreads the tones of the image out evenly, causing the shadows and highlights to clip into pure black and white. The midtones become purely saturated colors. Using the Levels adjustment filter instead, moving both shadow and highlight input level sliders towards the middle also accomplishes the same thing, because, you know, linear readjustment. I'm really resisting the urge to go off on another tangent about color channels and the RGB additive color model.

Anyway, there aren't any examples in MSPA that are quite this extreme (at least in color, but I'll save that for a later post), but an image sufficiently high in contrast can be mistaken for being posterized at a glance. Hence the Guy Fieri banner. In preparation for this post, I was attempting to make a pixel-perfect recreation of that panel but hit a wall trying to figure out which and how many filters were used and what each one's settings were, so I sought the wisdom of those in the official Photoshop Discord server. The very first suggestion I got was a posterization filter, by someone who was a supposed senior professional and server moderator, no less. Fucking dipshit, there's too much detail preserved for it to be posterization. Dude totally dissed me and my efforts too, so fuck that moron. I spit on his name and curse his children, and his children's children. The philistines I have to put up with...

In the end, the bloody Guy Fieri recreation proved to be too much for me to get right. I got sort of close at times, but no cigar. These were some of the closest I could manage:

You might be left befuddled after all this, struggling to remember what the point of the blogpost even was. I had meant for it to be a clarification of GIFs and an argument against using the posterization filter, thinking it was never used in MSPA, but while gathering reference images, I found a panel from the Felt intermission that actually WAS posterized! So I’ll eat crow on this one... Whatever, it’s literally the ONE TIME ever.

I can tell it's posterization and not gif color quantization because of the pattern dithering and decently preserved details on the bomb and bull penis cane. There would have had to have been no dithering and way fewer colors than the 32, most of which were allotted to the bomb and cane. You can't really selectively choose what gets dithered or more colors like this otherwise.

Thank you for reading if you've gotten this far. That all might have been a lot to take in at once, so if you're still unclear about something, please don't hesitate to leave a question! And as always, here are the PSDs used in this post that are free to peruse.

#tidbit #homestuck #problem sleuth #gif #dithering #posterization

340 notes · View notes

wub-fur-radio · 6 days

Text

420,000,000 Reefer Fans Can’t Be Wrong Punk Gunk, Garage, Psych & Other Wild Shit — Volume 420

Our annual 4/20 holiday mix — 19 "New Rockophonic" HIGH Fidelity Recordings for your holiday (or any day) listening pleasure. Featuring musical joints from Th' Losin Streaks, Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, The Cavemen, Astral Magic, Sonnyskyes, Drunk Mums, Mean Jeans, Bass Drum of Death, and 11 more bands who can’t be wrong.

Apologies to The King (still America’s favorite pillhead/narc/rock icon). Legalize Marijuana Everywhere Now! End the War on Drugs!

▶︎🎶 Listen on Mixcloud

Tracklist

I Mean You (2:50) — Th’ Losin Streaks | Sacramento, CA

This Generation (2:55) — Opinion | Occitanie, France

Flowers On My Grave (2:57) — The Cavemen | Auckland, New Zealand †

The Boy Had It All (3:22) — Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds | Tucson, AZ

Echoes All Around (3:36) — Sun Dial | England, UK †

Let's Take a Ride (4:02) — Astral Magic | Finland †

Clean My Head (3:43) — The Brooms! | Portugal

I'm Flying Too (2:57) — Sonnyskyes | Long Beach, CA

L.S.D. (2:30) — Acid Tongue | Seattle, WA

Something You'll Never Find (3:18) — The Cripplers + Alicja Trout | Memphis, TN

He Lost His Mind (2:47) — The Revox | Switzerland †

Last Day on Earth (2:34) — The Satelliters | Germany

Saturday (1:48) — Drunk Mums | Melbourne, Australia

I Don't Give a Shit Anymore (2:24) — Mean Jeans | Portland, OR †

Mindwater (3:45) — Still Animals | St. Louis, MO

And Here We Are (4:34) — Misty Lanes | Sydney, Australia

Revelations (3:43) — Levitation Room | Los Angeles, CA

White Vine (3:12) — Bass Drum of Death | Mississippi †

This Might Be The End (2:57) — The Decibels | Sacramento, CA †

All tracks released in 2024, except those marked † released 2023.

#psychedelic rock #garage rock #punk rock #indie rock #neo psychedelia #music mixes

56 notes · View notes

miraclewoozi · 3 months

Text

(TEASER) HIGH FIDELITY. - c.hs

getting back on the horse is hard, and failing to hit it off with the cute gamer guy you went for a drink with last night has the potential to be your love life’s last straw. but when up and coming rockstar VERNON unexpectedly canters into your life, you find yourself asking very important question: do you have it in you to saddle up, one more time?

pair ; vernon x fem reader. ( also starring: besties!seungkwan + chan. ) content ; strangers to lovers. up-and-coming musician!vernon x record store owner!reader. fluff, angst, smut. (MINORS DNI). slow burn. warnings ; drinking + alcohol is a theme throughout. mentions of a past relationship breakdown. reader experiences a lot of stress, anxiety and feelings of doubt. reader is the monarch of self sabotage. wc ; teaser, 1.5k. full fic, est. 40k. note ; if you saw any of my posts about the show high fidelity… you’ll know where this came from. ( it doesn't stick to rob + liam's plot too closely with the exception of the first few encounters. )

PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE

“It’s just my opinion!”

From your perch on top of the store’s counter, you raise both of your palms in a display of your innocence. Chan stands in the middle of the R&B aisle, looking personally offended, fingers curled around the top of one of the wooden crates holding your stock.

“Me saying ‘I don’t think Welcome to the Black Parade is the best track on that album’ is not me saying that it’s a bad song.”

“But how can you say that?” Chan groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Who’s hearing the opening note to Famous Last Words and feeling the same way as they do with the Black Parade?”

“Most iconic doesn’t mean the best,” you counter. “Besides – I never said you weren’t allowed to have it as your favourite. It’d be a boring game if we all had the same answer.”

“I cannot cope with you anymore,” Chan whines. “You know what? No. I don’t even believe you. You’re just being a contrarian.”

“Why would I do that?” you ask.

“Because it’s the best song on the goddamn albu–”

The bell above the door chimes loud and clear through the store and both of your squabbling voices fall silent. Your head turns in the direction of the entrance, an autopilot greeting already forming on your lips, but you feel them fall slack the moment you realise who it is that’s just walked in.

It’s been five days. Though it would be a mistruth to claim you hadn’t thought about the singer since the night of his gig, it’s not one to say you didn’t think he would ever actually come into your place of work.

Much less at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. On a Thursday.

He pops his wrists as he walks a little further into the store, glancing around. Barring one of your regulars who walks about with his earphones in all the time, the store is completely empty; an adrenaline spike prickles the hairs on your arms, all the tiny muscles beneath your skin pulling them to stand upright.

“Hi,” he says once he deems himself to be close enough, stopping in his tracks and bumping the toe of his shoe against the floor.

“Hey,” you greet him in return.

“I’m-... Vernon. We met at the show, the other night?”

“Yeah — yeah, I remember you,” you smile. “I’m-... well. I’m still y/n.”

“Still y/n,” he says on a relieved exhale, grinning and glancing away from you. “I uh… I just had some free time. Thought I’d swing by and see what you guys had going on here.” Vernon adjusts the collar of his t-shirt, the silver of his rings glinting under the flickering yellow light overhead.

(It was definitely somewhere on your list of things to get fixed. Honest.)

“Sure, yeah,” you nod, swallowing hard and trying your best not to stare at him. It’s hard, though – in broad daylight, the way the flannel tied around his waist floats down over his hips and the way his jeans hug at his thighs is… you don't even have the words. “Let me know if you need help finding anything, okay?”

“I will.” He starts to thumb through one of the wooden boxes, offering a small smile your way. “Thank you.”

You’re holding your breath a little as he pulls a few 80’s rock albums out, his lips downturned in surprised approval at some of the records you carry. He holds onto a couple as he moves around the store and the entire time, you can feel Chan and Seungkwan staring at you. If there wasn’t a very real danger of Vernon looking your way again at a moment’s notice, you know you would be showing them your middle finger.

Really, they come away lucky.

“You don’t even know how long I’ve been trying to find some of these,” Vernon says after a few minutes, sauntering toward the desk – you’re still sitting on top of it, your legs swinging in the air beneath you. “Might have to make this my new stop.”

And displayed beside you on the counter – right by the cash register – are a few of his albums. The ones Seungkwan picked up after the show; until about two seconds ago, you had forgotten they were even there.

Vernon’s face lights up when he notices, turning to Seungkwan. “Come on, no way. Dude, I thought you were kidding.”

“We love our locals in here, man,” Chan chimes quickly, seeing you start to freeze up. You nod to agree, biting on the inside of your cheek. “It was on the speakers yesterday. Four people asked us about you.”

“For real?” Vernon asks, but when all three of you nod your heads, you see the beginnings of a blush start to creep up his neck. “Wow. Thank you – um. That’s really cool of you guys.”

“It’s good music,” Seungkwan shrugs. “You’re super talented.”

Vernon doesn’t seem to know what to do with all the compliments he’s receiving. Even so, he thanks your friends again with a stomach-twisting sincerity before he turns back to you.

“I’ll take these,” he says a little breathlessly. You find yourself a tiny bit lost in the warmth of his eyes and it takes you a moment to remember to swivel around and slip off the other side of the countertop. You do, though. Eventually.

“Nice,” you say softly as you shuffle through them, ringing each one through. He’s got pretty decent taste, even if less than a week ago you were actively cringing at his choice of cover song. (It’s okay. That was before you knew better.) “Do you– need sleeves, or…?”

“I’m good. Thank you, though.” Vernon rests his hands against the edge of the counter and drums a quiet rhythm out with his thumbs as you tap away at the register. “Are-... you guys busy tonight, by the way?”

You look up from placing the records into a paper bag, glancing over to your colleagues who both rush to shake their heads. Vernon looks from them, to you, and you mirror their motions. Even if I was, you start to think wistfully. I’d make time.

“I’m down at the Velvet Lounge later on. Across town? It starts at eight thirty; I could get you guys on the list, if-... um…”

“That’d be awesome,” Chan says, nodding so hard you’re surprised his head doesn’t roll off his shoulders and start bouncing across the floor.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Seungkwan adds.

Vernon grins at them both, humming softly, before turning back to you and fumbling with his wallet to take out his card to pay for his purchases. You turn the machine around to face him; he hovers with his hand just above it.

“Maybe… I’ll see you tonight, too?” He says.

You can’t help the delight that rises inside you, as if it’s been injected straight into your bloodstream. It’s everywhere, all of a sudden. In your brain and your heart and your bones and in your lungs.

Yet, you somehow manage to keep your composure when you say, “yeah. Maybe you will.”

The payment goes through and you slide the bag over towards Vernon, your eyes never leaving his and his eyes never leaving yours. His fingers brush over yours as he takes it from you, the bite of the cold ring on his index finger a shocking contrast to the warmth the rest of his hand radiates. You hope your little gasp isn’t too audible, but… the way Chan whirls around to face away from the scene in front of him (presumably to poorly conceal his laughter), you know you haven’t gotten away with it.

“Cool,” he says, hesitating another second before finally pulling himself away. He bows his head in the direction of your friends, sending another of those irresistibly sweet smiles at you, and then he starts off towards the door. “See you, then.”

You feel your pulse finally start to slow as you grip the counter for dear life, setting out a long, drawn-out breath. What just happened? Why do you feel all… fuzzy?

“Maybe… I’ll see you tonight, too?” Chan asks in the deepest voice he can muster, snapping you out of your own head none too pleasantly. You turn in their direction as your other favourite moron feigns tucking hair behind his ear and flutters his eyelashes across at Chan.

“Yeah… Maybe you will.” And Seungkwan’s imitation of you is a little too accurate. Creepily so, and you want to curse him out for it. Instead, you scrunch up a bag to throw towards the pair of them, grinning despite yourself as they both swerve to dodge it.

“Oh my God, shut up,” you chastise them. You don’t have any bite, though, your brain still tingly and positively reeling and seeing Vernon’s dazzling smile every time you so much as blink. And when Seungkwan takes a running start and launches himself, full-force, into Chan’s unsuspecting arms? When Chan lifts him up and spins him around, and when they start making kissy-noises at each other between unearthly cackles?

You know that the next few hours are going to be the longest of your entire life.

thank u for reading!! i hope you liked this lil snippet!! i got kind of impatient with myself and needed to post something about this, so if you're interested in the full fic please feel free to drop a like, an ask, a reblog or a comment to tell me your thoughts! this piece has become sort of my passion project the last six months or so and i'm really excited to share the whole thing with you guys when it's done.<3

#vernon x reader #vernon fanfic #now. how does a bitch tag a teaser. let me know #idw tag this as smut because This part isn't. the full fic contains it. but.#i'm overthinking it.#ig this is mostly just for the followers + friends anyway i'll figure out the full thing later lmao BYE <3 #j writes.#*#re. high fidelity.

73 notes · View notes

robsheridan · 5 months

Text

I’m thrilled to finally have my original analog glitch skull back in print today after the first edition has been sold out for years - here’s a first look at the actual print and all its remastered details:

This has become an iconic image for my work and for analog glitch in general, as it was my first piece back in 2012 that paved the way for my analog glitch work with How To Destroy Angels and the beginning of a new fine art movement of VHS/CRT glitch that is thriving today more than ever.

For these tenth anniversary editions I went back to the original photographs (captured at high speed off the screen of an old CRT television) with everything I’ve learned over the years about mastering analog glitch for print, and the results are crisper, more vibrant, and more true to the original vision than ever before.

In the close-ups here (these are all photographs of the print itself) you can see a couple elements I’m proud of that were always very hard to preserve in print, like the subtle glow of the skull, which displayed as increasingly tiny bits of light on the pixels of the screen dithering out to black:

Every pixel of the CRT can be seen on the print until they disappear into the black, creating a glow that is soft from a distance but rich with texture up close. I strive for the very highest fidelity of low fidelity!

The first of these new editions were on display at last year's Glitch Art is Dead show for their proper 10th anniversary in 2022, and now they’re finally available: Four analog glitch anniversary editions out today (including the Welcome Oblivion vinyl album cover piece), personally signed/numbered, limited to only 30 copies!

Next month I should be able to share photos of the first-ever premium canvas editions of this work (available for pre-order now), which give it the large format fine art presentation I have always dreamed of.

All of my limited edition prints are personally signed/numbered fine art giclée prints on archival matte paper, printed by me to personally ensure the finest museum quality on 308gsm German fine art paper at ultra high 1440dpi print resolution, and packed/shipped worldwide with care by my wife Steph from our home studio in Tacoma, WA. Every print comes with a signed certificate of authenticity and an exclusive sticker.

#glitch art #analog glitch #crt glitch #vhs glitch #rob sheridan #fine art #glitch skull #how to destroy angels #welcome oblivion #analog(one)#analog #crt #vhs

54 notes · View notes

moonlight-prose · 3 months

Note

🥀cym: as your favorite shows/ films

i went with shows for this answer babes cause i can pick out more favorite shows than movies honestly. and this isn't even all my favorite shows.

high fidelity - @outercrasis cause birdie is the mutual i wouldn't be surprised if they ran a record store.

fleabag - @rae-gar-targaryen this show is poetry from the first line and so is rae.

moon knight - @my-secret-shame no explanation needed.

andor - @softanon top tier is how i'd describe this show and mutual.

the last of us - @themarcusmoreno spookiness in the forest. that's it. that's the post.

friends - YOU. we're monica and rachel babes. just trying to survive together.

gilmore girls - @saradika both have the vibes of warmth and fall.

dickinson - @arctvrvs hilarious AND perfect literary vibes. yes.

sex and the city - @pennyserenade both iconic is all you need to know.

daisy jones & the six - @karasong without a fucking doubt.

#witch aunt responds #maria darling🪷#follower celebration🌙

9 notes · View notes

dystini · 1 year

Text

Indycar Driver Lore

Indycar Driver Lore Masterlist

David Joseph Malukas

Birthdate: Sept. 27, 2001 Hometown: Chicago Residence: Chicago Height/Weight: 5’10”/150lbs

Rookie Year: 2022

Team: Arrow McLaren

Follow him on: Instagram Twitter

Career Stats

2022: Dale Coyne Racing w/ HMD Motorsports - 16th Overall 2023: Dale Coyne Racing w/ HMD Motorsports - 17th Overall

-Graduate of INDY NXT by Firestone, he begins his second season with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES with Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports. -2021 INDY NXT by Firestone runner-up, claiming seven wins, 16 podiums, six pole positions. -In 2016, started racing cars in Europe before focusing on the Road to Indy and racing in USF2000 in 2017 and Indy Pro 2000 in 2018. Also raced in Formula Regional Americas Championship Powered by Honda, where he finished second in the series with two wins and 15 podiums. -Was a multi-time karting champion who was featured on TruTV's "Kart LIfe" in 2015. -A first-generation Lithuanian American and the only son of immigrants who moved to Chicago in 1991, David inherited his father Henry’s love of racing. Grew up watching his father race at Road America. He wears both flags on his suits -David lives in the southwest Chicago suburbs – not far from Dale Coyne Racing’s shop – and enjoys mountain biking, hi-fidelity music and “I’m a bit of a gamer.” -loves to dance -david was homeschooled for high school due to being in europe for karting -never had a prom/standard high school experiences -was very homesick during his time in europe -used to know some german and italian -plays more strategy heavy games like Hearts of Iron and Stellaris, but does play mainstream games like Apex: Legends and Beatsaber as well -Uses Beatsaber for reaction-time practice -Can't have coffee anymore. Used to be addicted and his doctor said no more. -star wars fan, said his favorite season was season 7 and thinks Cad Bane is a cool villain -fan of Chelsea FC

-Dad and Mom (Henry & Daiva Malukas) are owners of: -HMD Trucking -HMD Bar & Grill -HMD Motorsports

Iconic/memorable moments David's episode of Bus Bros. INSIDE THE RACE // DAVID MALUKAS AT BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK Tom Griswold Interviews David Malukas (2022 Indy 500) The Rookie Chronicles 2022 TRACK WALK // LONG BEACH WITH DAVID MALUKAS 2022 PACE CAR LAPS // TAKUMA SATO AND DAVID MALUKAS AT BARBER Marshall Pruett and David Malukas practice/quali/race reports 2022-23 2022 RACE RADIOS // DAVID MALUKAS AT WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY How did 20 year old IndyCar rookie David Malukas celebrate on the podium W/O champagne? “OMG They’re Penskes!”

JAVA WITH JAMES // DAVID MALUKAS WITH JAMES HINCHCLIFFE

There are entirely too many to list here but Arrow McLaren's social media is full of fun content with David.

David is genuinely happy and excited to be in the Indycar series and it shows. He is enthusiastic, ready to participate in any social media activity, even the embarrassing ones. Despite driving for a team on the lower end of the budget scale, David has shown remarkable results on occasion and always expresses awe to find himself racing against the big names and big teams of the series. His talent is undeniable at just 21 years old and we will be watching his career with great interest for many years to come.

Look, I’m trying to be objective about him but he’s so stinking cute and fun and I think everyone should adore him. As a friend said, just a cute little fairy creature who decided to be a racecar driver for whatever reason. He’s all happiness and sunshine and it’s rare to see him sad or upset.

Fanfic Lore There are really no set pairings for him. He’s been sort of adopted by the Bus Bros as a Bus Cousin. Battled for the IndyNXT championship title with Kyle Kirkwood and they are friends. Karted with Christian Lundgaard in Europe when they were kids.

ROOKIE PALS, RIVALS LUNDGAARD, MALUKAS CROSSING PATHS AGAIN

#indycar rpf #indycar #fanfic #driver lore #david malukas

34 notes · View notes

spacetimewithstuartgary · 8 months

Text

Webb reveals new structures within iconic supernova

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has begun the study of one of the most renowned supernovae, SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). Located 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, SN 1987A has been a target of intense observations at wavelengths ranging from gamma rays to radio for nearly 40 years, since its discovery in February of 1987. New observations by Webb's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) provide a crucial clue to our understanding of how a supernova develops over time to shape its remnant.

This image reveals a central structure like a keyhole. This center is packed with clumpy gas and dust ejected by the supernova explosion. The dust is so dense that even near-infrared light that Webb detects can't penetrate it, shaping the dark "hole" in the keyhole.

A bright, equatorial ring surrounds the inner keyhole, forming a band around the waist that connects two faint arms of hourglass-shaped outer rings. The equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots, which appeared as the supernova's shock wave hit the ring. Now spots are found even exterior to the ring, with diffuse emission surrounding it. These are the locations of supernova shocks hitting more exterior material.

While these structures have been observed to varying degrees by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes and Chandra X-ray Observatory, the unparalleled sensitivity and spatial resolution of Webb revealed a new feature in this supernova remnant—small crescent-like structures.

These crescents are thought to be a part of the outer layers of gas shot out from the supernova explosion. Their brightness may be an indication of limb brightening, an optical phenomenon that results from viewing the expanding material in three dimensions. In other words, our viewing angle makes it appear that there is more material in these two crescents than there actually may be.

The high resolution of these images is also noteworthy. Before Webb, the now-retired Spitzer telescope observed this supernova in infrared throughout its entire lifespan, yielding key data about how its emissions evolved over time. However, it was never able to observe the supernova with such clarity and detail.

Despite the decades of study since the supernova's initial discovery, there are several mysteries that remain, particularly surrounding the neutron star that should have been formed in the aftermath of the supernova explosion. Like Spitzer, Webb will continue to observe the supernova over time.

Its NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) instruments will offer astronomers the ability to capture new, high-fidelity infrared data over time and gain new insights into the newly identified crescent structures. Further, Webb will continue to collaborate with Hubble, Chandra, and other observatories to provide new insights into the past and future of this legendary supernova.

TOP IMAGE....Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb. Beyond them an equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots. Exterior to that is diffuse emission and two faint outer rings. In this image blue represents light at 1.5 microns (F150W), cyan 1.64 and 2.0 microns (F164N, F200W), yellow 3.23 microns (F323N), orange 4.05 microns (F405N), and red 4.44 microns (F444W). Credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, Mikako Matsuura (Cardiff University), Richard Arendt (NASA-GSFC, UMBC), Claes Fransson (Stockholm University), Josefin Larsson (KTH), Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

LOWER IMAGE....Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A), which has been annotated to highlight key structures. At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb. Beyond them an equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots. Exterior to that is diffuse emission and two faint outer rings. In this image blue represents light at 1.5 microns (F150W), cyan 1.64 and 2.0 microns (F164N, F200W), yellow 3.23 microns (F323N), orange 4.05 microns (F405N), and red 4.44 microns (F444W). Credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, Mikako Matsuura (Cardiff University), Richard Arendt (NASA-GSFC, UMBC), Claes Fransson (Stockholm University), Josefin Larsson (KTH), Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #astrophysics

14 notes · View notes

dartagnantt · 25 days

Text

Magical Mischief | A Marvellous Managerie of Magical Mayhem

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here!

I'm going to not post a new brew this monday, as usual.

April Fools!

Did I do that right? No? Well, shit. Have some spells anyway. Some of you may recognise some of these seeing as I occassionally meme high-fidelity homebrew all over the internet. Now you don't have to hunt them down and have text searchable PDFs. Enjoy

Animal Magnetism

This is what happens when I have a twitter conversation and have my mind wander just a little too far.

Juice Organs

This was inspired by a-

checks notes

Veggietales Facts twitter account shit post

Melf's Minute Steak

Every time I read "Melf's Minute Meteors" I read minute as minute and I couldn't help myself

Mordenkainen's Mouthy Mantelpiece

I mispelled mordenainen on this one, but that just means it's my own original character, do not steal… or something. Anyway, this was from a recent discussion of 'if you cast speak with dead and speak with plants, does that mean you can speak with furniture?' My answer was no, but also 'Why shouldn't I get hot goss from the duke's favourite armchair?'

Snake Arrows

A while back in a game I was playing, someone playing a ranger misspoke and said something about shooting snakes from their bow. So, I made a spell that lets you shoot snakes at people.

Viscous Mockery

Much like the viscous weapon enchant before it, I really liked this misspelling of the iconic bard cantrip.

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Otherworldly Patron: The Bound Demon

It's a Trap!

Judgement Domain

The Greatwyrm Patron

I also have three classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

#d&d 5e #spells #d&d #d&d homebrew #d&d5e #april fools

3 notes · View notes

boredtechnologist · 3 months

Text

Bally Midway's "Tron" Arcade marquee

Released in 1982 by Bally Midway, "Tron" is an arcade game that was developed alongside the groundbreaking Disney film of the same name. Both the film and the game were instrumental in showcasing the potential of computer graphics in entertainment, making "Tron" a landmark in both cinematic and video game history. The game itself is not just a tie-in but an extension of the film's aesthetic and themes, exploring the concept of living inside a digital world, a notion that was revolutionary at the time.

Technological and Historical Context

The early 1980s marked a period of rapid evolution in video games, with developers exploring new ways to integrate storytelling and advanced graphics into gameplay. "Tron" was released during the golden age of arcade games, a time characterized by intense creativity and technological advancement. The film "Tron" was notable for being one of the first major motion pictures to make extensive use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), and the arcade game sought to bring that visual style to the gaming world.

Gameplay and Design

"Tron" consists of four distinct mini-games, each based on different scenes from the movie. The games include:

Light Cycles: Perhaps the most iconic of the four, this game has players controlling a light cycle that leaves a solid trail behind it. The goal is to trap the other cycles with your trail while avoiding walls and the trails of other cycles.

Grid Bugs: Players must destroy grid bugs and clear a path to the I/O tower within a set time.

Battle Tanks: In this mini-game, players control a tank and navigate a maze-like battlefield, destroying enemy tanks.

MCP Cone: The objective is to break through blocks spinning around the MCP's cone by firing at them, without getting hit by returning fire.

These mini-games are accessed from a central hub, a design choice that not only provided variety but also reflected the segmented nature of the digital world depicted in the film.

Graphical Innovations

"Tron" utilized colorful and detailed raster graphics, which were advanced for the time and provided a visual fidelity that mirrored the high-tech, neon-infused aesthetic of the film. The game was one of the first to use a blacklight in the cabinet, which made its fluorescent colors stand out, enhancing the visual experience and drawing players in arcades.

Control and Interface

The game featured a unique control scheme, including a rotary dial for aiming and a joystick for movement, which were innovative at the time. This setup allowed for precise control, which was necessary for navigating the game's various challenges.

Sound and Narrative Elements

"Tron" featured pioneering sound design, with audio that closely mimicked the electronic score of the film. This integration of sound helped immerse players in the digital world of Tron, enhancing the game's futuristic feel.

Impact and Legacy

"Tron" was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, becoming one of the most memorable arcade games of the 1980s. Its success helped solidify the concept of games as a viable promotional tool for films and demonstrated the potential for cross-media convergence.

Technologically, "Tron" pushed forward the notion that video games could be both visually stunning and complex in design. The game's emphasis on multiple types of gameplay within a single cabinet anticipated later developments in arcade and console gaming, where multi-genre games became more common.

Conclusion

The arcade game "Tron" stands as a significant achievement in the history of video gaming, notable for its technological innovation, distinctive design, and its role in the broader context of 1980s pop culture. By bridging the gap between cinema and video gaming, "Tron" not only captured the imagination of a generation but also pointed the way toward the future of interactive entertainment, where the lines between different media would continue to blur. As a historical artifact and as a piece of entertainment, "Tron" remains a fascinating study in the convergence of technology, art, and commercial entertainment.

#Bally #Bally Midway #Tron #Arcade #Marquee #80s #Pixel Crisis

4 notes · View notes

argentangelhelps · 11 months

Text

151 ICONS OF THOMAS DOHERTY IN HIGH FIDELITY

all icons are free to use with credit to @argentangelhelps !

you may edit to your liking (add borders, psds, textures ect)

do not use for : celebrity/real person rps or paid commissions, everything else is up to user discretion. (don’t make me change this rule)

they are edited (sharpened) in ps, however they are meant to be used under the psd of your choice! if you choose to use them as they are they should work just fine! they are 100px square and do not come with any borders.

all screencaps used are my own, and they are available for download should you be interested (send an ask to this blog!)

FACECLAIM INFO : thomas is white (scottish)

TRIGGER WARNINGS : drinking, shirtlessness, kissing/implied intimacy

link to in the source to the zip file which is free to download on my deviantart! they can also be found in a gallery HERE !

LIKE OR REBLOG IF YOU SAVE OR USE!

#thomas doherty #thomas doherty base icons #thomas doherty rp icons #liam shawcross #high fidelity cast #rp icons #static icons #roleplay icons #base icons #*[ rp icons ]

6 notes · View notes

enddaysengine · 1 year

Text

Zebub (Accuser Devil, Paths Beyond)

I never got around to accuser devils last time, so I’m glad to return to the zebub, because they are one of the favourite devils out there. Zebubs get their name from Beelzebub, which you can see if you don’t anglecize the Hebrew: Ba’al-zebub. Ba’al is “lord” and zebub is “flies,” so that’s where the very distinctive appearance of these devils originates. Got more to say on that front, but I’ll save it for when I talk about Big B, but consider using them if you are drawing on Canaanite or Phoenician mythology.

In-universe, accuser devils are also linked to Baalzebul (with Pathfinder’s alternate spelling) since they manifest fairly exclusively from his layer: Cocytus. The technical term for zebubs is “sneaky bastards” - a role they share with imps. Whereas imps focus on corruption, particularly of spellcasters, zebubs practice classical spycraft. In 2e, they even sneak attack to reinforce this stereotype!

The iconic ability for accuser devils, however, remains the Infernal Eye, allowing zebubs to pass information onto their handlers with perfect fidelity. This also makes them excellent secret messengers and terrible witnesses. Zebubs forget the memories they transfer with Infernal Eye, so as long as you can guarantee they’ve passed on the message, you can be reasonably assured they don’t know its contents anymore.

But can you, really?

Outside Pathfinder, 40k is an excellent visual touchstone for zebubs. The game loves its creepy cherub servitors and their aesthetic is close enough to zebubs that you’ll get there if you squint. Although perhaps that is even more apropos advice for Starfinder. Still, consider how you can use zebubs like the Imperium uses cherubs to carry around relics and icons. Even if it doesn’t make encounters tougher at high-level, it may just make them more memorable.

Sozar and Grabba have a better relationship than most imps and zebubs, but they still maintain a healthy professional rivalry. Sozar (the imp) is a logistics and honey traps specialist, maneuvering operatives into positions where they can leverage emotional bonds to acquire intelligence. Grabba prefers eavesdropping and invisibility, directing its open operatives with whispered messages. The two work well together but engage in a never-ending game of oneupmanship, even if it puts their spy networks and missions in untenable situations.

The Devil’s Left Eyes is coven of zebub occultists who have learned how to reverse their Infernal Eyes. Instead of giving memories to others, their rituals allow them to absorb memories, obliterating them from the minds they are taken from. These rituals can destroy lives, make people forget promises and vows, leave seemingly random holes in their memory, or even lose memories of signing infernal contracts with the zebub. With that said, the coven’s abilities are highly sought after by mortals willing to do anything to forget their pain, trauma, or sorrow despite the danger of leaving oneself at the mercy of the devils’ whims.

Zess the Dragon is a unique zebub blessed by Mahathallah, transforming her dipteran body into that of a dragonfly. Specializing in ferreting out secrets and saboteurs, Zess is frequently summoned to the Material Plane, especially by cutthroat nobles of Cheliax and Taldor. Unknown to the hapless mortal summoning, the Dragon is also an accomplished enchanter and illusionist. Its magic certainly serves its master’s purposes, but it also uses it to trick those same summon into thinking it has used its Infernal Eye when it hasn’t. Zess has accumulated a treasure trove of secret messages, memories, and blackmail over the centuries that mortals believe have been safely forgotten.

#devil #Pathfinder #Pathfinder 2e #fiend #LE #plothooks #worldbuilding #Planescape #Paths Beyond

17 notes · View notes

biblicalhorror · 1 year

Text

Zaylor Midnights, Part II

And we're back! If you haven't yet, please peruse the disclaimers I covered in Part 1.

Let's jump right in!

8. Vigilante Shit

Here's where we start to get some more Catwoman vibes on this album.

"Cat eye sharp enough to kill a man"

Also some generic Gaylor lyrics:

"I don't dress for women / I don't dress for men" Oh so you're bisexual? Okay got it. Case closed.

"Picture me thick as thieves with your ex-wife"

Also the implication she fucked Scooters wife is too funny to not mention. She loves a divorcée ;)

9. Bejeweled

Initially I was fully prepared to write this one off as a song about Jake or John or even Calvin and therefore irrelevant to Toë, but holy crap is this MV gay as hell.

Opening, of course, with the scene where Laura Dern satirizes the concept that a proposal from a prince being "the best thing a girl could hope to achieve"

Note this Kravitz quote from the earlier GQ article:

We'll come back to this later.

Anyway, Taylor plays Cinderella in this music video, who rejects the proposal from the prince (played by Jack Antonoff, who has the same initials as Joe Alwyn), impresses the Princess (played by Zoë Kravitz) with her burlesque routine she learned from queer burlesque icon Dita Von Teese, and ends up taking the castle for herself.

Basically, another song that has nothing to do with Zoë but is extremely gay (in context of the music video, at least)

10. Labyrinth

I go back and forth on this song. I've heard other people theorize that it's about trying to end a relationship and then falling back in love with the same person again, which I think is a totally valid interpretation. It could be that.

However! It sounds to me like it's about the feeling of finding yourself falling for someone new and your traumatized brain is so focused on what could go wrong that you get completely ahead of yourself and start mourning a relationship that hasn't even started yet. Taylor is a Cancer moon, which is a moon sign that is deeply introspective and retrospective. The "labyrinth of my mind" could be referring to the twists and turns her mind takes to convince her that every relationship will end in catastrophe based on the way past relationships have panned out. Past becomes present becomes future in this song. Maybe it's about finding her connection with Zoë after the fallout from a Karlie or Lily breakup? Maybe Joe cheated on her and she found comfort in the arms of Zoë and they became a polyamorous couple? Who knows.

11. Karma

EDIT: I've found some articles claiming Zoë is a songwriter on this one and others that do not mention her. I believe there was initially a mistake on the Apple Music pre-release info, so for now we'll say she's not in a fact a cowriter for this song.

Taylor Swift clearly has a complicated relationship to gender and womanhood. Many of her friends called her "king" in their 2021 birthday posts:

In Dear Reader, she explicitly refers to herself as a "cursed man."

Queer women also tend to have complicated relationships with gender due to heteropatriarchal society. Some lesbians and queer women use he/him or they/them pronouns for any myriad of personal reasons. It's not too far-fetched that these women could possibly call each other by male pronouns/adjectives sometimes.

Zoë had this interview where she talks about High Fidelity, identifying more with male roles because they're often written to be more complex and nuanced due to misogyny in film/tv, and how passionate she is about how "women can be fuckboys, too"

"Karma is my boyfriend" but also "Karma is a queen" >>> "Karma" is both genders and neither gender. (Note: Zoë has a tattoo of a crown on her finger)

"Sweet like honey, Karma is a cat" First of all, that's pussy babe

Also, these two stone cold weirdos apparently have the same method acting technique:

"Flexing like a goddamn acrobat, me and karma vibe like that"

What else could "flexing like a goddamn acrobat" refer to other than Zoë playing a superhero famous for her acrobatics (and/or Taylor being in Cats (2019))

these two weird Sagittarius girls love to simply vibe together as cats or otherwise

"Karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me"

Not "Catwoman of my dreams" but "CAT WOMAN OF DREAMS" this girl is horny as hell and loves dreaming about women

Sweet like JUSTICE = another batman reference, of course

12. Sweet Nothing

Written by William Bowery who we think could be Zoë

Zoë also lived in London from 2020-2021, she could possibly have gone on holiday to Wicklow (in Ireland) after filming for The Batman wrapped

Taylor made her meals throughout covid isolation and a birthday dinner in December of 2020. Nice to Have a Friend in your pods with you, huh ladies?

Also, remember when Zoë crossed the picket line for the Oscar's party and then made a "joke" about the Will Smith situation being uncivilized? This is a song about a couple of out-of-touch insanely rich girlies who just Can't Be Bothered and also happen to be in love

Speaking of which, if this is in fact a song about Joe Alwyn, it's a (pretty) lie. "All that you ever wanted from me was nothing." Being in a relationship with Taylor has gotten him movie/tv roles, a Grammy, etc. He's gained so many accolades just by being associated with Taylor. If he doesn't want any of that, why does she keep jeapordizing her own image as an artist to get him awards? Zoë likely genuinely wants nothing from Taylor because she's been famous her entire life. She doesn't need Taylor to pull any strings for her to get roles or accolades.

13. Mastermind

This song is Taylor being very tongue-in-cheek about how this lover she's been singing for four albums about is actually a target she decided on long ago

Starts with a hand touch in a crowded room (obvious Gorgeous reference), that Bowery hangout did look awfully crowded, didn't it?

Dominoes cascaded in a line >>> hair falls into place like dominoes (Gold Rush)

All the wisest women had to do it this way / WE were born to play the pawn in every lover's game (as in, WE women are forced to play these roles)

Two lines that could reference Zoë's tattoos:

"I'm the wind in our free-flowing sails">> Zoë has several pirate themed tattoos

"And the liquor in our cocktails" >> "être toujours ivre" (always be drunk) tattoo

-----

And that's it for the 13 original Midnights tracks! Part 3 will be looking into the 3am tracks.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

#gaylor #zaylor #toë #taylor swift x zoe kravitz #gaylor analysis

34 notes · View notes