Allaintoin

Plato’s Euthyphro: An Overlooked Comedy

Plato’s Euthyphro is a Socratic dialogue on the concept of piety whose meaning and purpose continue to be debated. In reading the work only as a serious inquiry into the definition of an abstract concept, however, one is apt to miss the comical aspects of the piece that make it among the most entertaining of Plato’s works.

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SOCEMA Grégoire, 1952. An experimental gas turbine-powered, highly aerodynamic coupé created by French automobile engineer Jean-Albert Gregoire. Powered by a single rotor kerosene-fuelled ‘cematurbo’ engine developing 100 bhp at a 25,000 rpm. The lightweight aluminium frame and bodywork and the aerodynamic shape – a Cx of just 0.19 – enabled a 200km/h top speed which placed it among the fastest cars on the planet in 1952. The project went no further than a single prototype due to the high cost of construction and braking issues; a gas turbine doesn't generate any engine braking effect upon deceleration.

photographs by Perico001 on Flickr

The school of the future in the postcard series “En l'an 2000,“ issued in Paris, 1910. (GallicaBnF)

Blood-belly comb jelly my beloved ❤️ 🩸

Meet Lampocteis cruentiventer, the bloodybelly comb jelly. This deep sea ctenophore was first collected in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, in 1979.

Scientists believe the bloody-belly's red belly helps mask bioluminescent light from the prey it consumes. A predator with a glowing gut could easily become prey.

The genus name Lampocteis derives from the Greek roots for “brilliant comb,” referring to the bright iridescence diffracted from the animal’s comb rows.

Love to sea it 🌊

There are many nebulas, galaxies, stars, and planets that researchers are interested in, so it’s important for the James Webb Space Telescope to operate efficiently and for data to be easily accessible. 

Over the first year of its observations, engineers behind Webb established the groundwork for how Webb conducts its operations week to week. This is so that, as Webb travels from one point to the next, it will stop at each proposed target in between to maximize the amount of science done. As these targets are observed, that data needs to be archived for future study. 

Data from these observations are available via the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). The Cartwheel Galaxy is an example of what one might find in these archives for study in greater detail.Learn more about how Webb data reaches Earth: https://bit.ly/3L8XDYg

A different view of Nazaré on a barreling right that takes you into the worst zone ever.

You need to kick out before getting to the rocks down the cliff or your in trouble.

Everything done perfectly.

This shot was done with a drone.

Ok y’all brace yourselves cuz I just learned about a new animal

Yes, that is an animal. Yes, scientists refer to it as the purple sock worm. No, that’s not it’s real name, silly, it’s real name is Xenoturbella!

When these deep-sea socks were first discovered, no one knew what the fuck they were looking at (and, really, can you blame them?). They have no eyes, brains, or digestive tracts. They are literally just a bag of wet slop. DNA analysis initially seemed to indicate that they were related to mollusks, until the scientists realized that DNA sample was from the clams they had recently eaten (yes, they can eat with no organs. We don’t know how.)

Scientists then analyzed the data again and tentatively placed them in the group that includes acorn worms, saying that their ancestors probably had eyes, brains, and organs, but simplified as a response to their deep sea ecosystems.

Later DNA testing has since shown that they are their own thing! Xenoturbella, along with another simple and problematic to place creature called acoelomorphs, belong to their own phylum called Xenacelomorpha! This places them as the sister group to all bilateral animals. So, they just never evolved brains, eyes, or organs. They are a glimpse at a very primitive form of animal that never bothered to change, because apparently what they do works. Rock on, purple sock worm.