Ever since I was a kid, I thought planetary rings were cool, and whenever I scribbled a non-specific alien planet I would give it rings. Lately I have been worldbuilding for a story, and naturally I gave the world rings. But since I made that decision, I've paid more attention to rings in other sci-fi I watch.

There's a lot of sci-fi planets out there with their own Saturn-esque rings. Very often it's just there for the vibes. In the opening to Rogue One, for instance, Galen Erso's farm is on a planet with rings, but this doesn't really come up or affect the plot in any way. I forgot this until I recently rewatched the movie. Similarly in the Foundation series on Apple TV+, even though the protagonist is from an ocean planet with rings (that are beautifully rendered), the rings never really come up. The endless ocean ends up driving both plot points in the show and the superstitious culture of the people who live there, but the ring does not. Maybe this is discussed more in the Foundation books but I'm not familiar with those.

Sometimes rings end up being plot relevant, like in Alien Romulus, where instead of being set dressing, the rings are an obstacle that can cause the space station to crash. Still, the rings don't directly impact the planet or the people who live there. The thing that more directly affects the colonists' lives is the atmosphere blocking the sunlight instead.

What really got me thinking was when I saw this Sci-Show video a few months ago about research that Earth possibly had rings about 450 million years ago. The rings lowered the overall global temperature and caused more extreme summers and winters due to light reflecting off of them. This made me realize rings can add quite a lot to the actual worldbuilding, since besides from the obvious cultural impact on any humanoid life, it can cause big environmental changes as well. This is pretty obvious when you consider how The Moon can do many things that affect life on Earth such as the tides.

Of course there's nothing wrong with stories hand waving away these types of questions, but it's interesting when stories like Three Body Problem take these tropes like living in a multi-star system and consider how that would mess with the people living there.

Astronomy nerds and sci-fi fans of Tildes, are there any other interesting ways rings would affect life on a planet?

+1 for slashdot, mainly because of intelligent topics and conversations about science, technology, scifi, games and all that fun stuff. Community participation and quality discourse made it interesting.

Everything on popular social media "out there" now is about click bait and sound bites, even comments and replies. Posts (and communities) are reduced to nothing more than grabbing a few seconds of attention.

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

I wanted to share this, in case there are interested folks who haven't checked it out yet. This is me gushing about a thing I love and hoping other folks are listening because the story is so good.

Worlds Beyond Number is a podcast run and owned by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Erika Ishii, and Lou Wilson with the goal of being able to tell the stories they want without time/production pressures. Taylor Moore is the producer and composer.

What stories are they telling?
The first and largest story so far is The Wizard, The Witch and The Wild One, set in the world of Umora using D&D, that starts from Level 1 (with a children's level 0 adventure) with the intent of this being the first long term campaign. The characters are in a world that I'd describe as Ghibli inspired - which includes some of the lightest sweetest moments and some of the most devastating moments of war. There's a bit of a running joke about which character is getting a Kiki or Ponyo moment vs a Mononoke moment in an episode. The Witch is a custom class, the Wizard has a custom subclass, and the Wild One has a custom paladin subclass.

But they've also played a few side games, Erika ran a game of Roll for Shoes, a chaotic game featuring a gangster chicken, a goat that may or may not be the devil, and a retired race horse doing a heist of corn from the county fair. A space jam inspired Space Cram two shot Aabria ran using Tournament Arc and a few prequels set in different areas of the world of Umora.

Where can it be found?
Any podcatcher, with the talkback "Fireside Chats," Children's Adventure, and the side adventures behind a $5 a month Patreon. No other tiers, the goal is to just fund the podcast.

What makes it stand out from other shows

The level of sincerity, and the fact these are some of the absolute best storytellers in the field who consider this their favorite story. In most actual play the rails are firmly on (dimension 20 due to # of episodes) or the episodes are essentially unedited (Critical Role), but these characters have fully split the party multiple times, and have come into genuine conflict, so much so that listeners have, para socially, been upset with players on behalf of the other players for how the characters are acting.

The show is also edited so some rolls and table talk are cut from the finished episodes (the narrative play label), but never to a point where you can't track what's happening. And you still get to hear a delighted squeal, a stressed exhale or a "let's go!" at the table.

The aesthetics are also wonderful with music and sound effects, the characters and different factions have themes that will come back and blend into motifs.

What's coming up next
The fourth "chapter" and first "book" is wrapping up here soon with a bit over 50 episodes, characters around level 5, and major character arc conclusions and then the show is going to take a break from Umora to start another longer campaign run by Aabria, probably hopping back and forth in the future as the goal is not for Brennan to run for like 5 years straight.

Anyway I love these folks (in a non-boundary crossing way) and I love their stories and hope some of y'all are already watching or will check it out and want to talk about it too!

(Note idk where to put this, podcast isn't a group, I went with games.tabletop)

A couple of things for me:

What is the significance of the monster group ? Is there some upper limit on the symmetry of the universe ?

Is the Riemann hypothesis true ? This looks weirdly abstract but has some significance for cryptography. It also seems part of intuitive but is one maths hardest problems to solve!

What the hell are black holes in the context of space time and reality ? I watched this really good interview of Brian Cox by Cloe Abrams. I was sort of semi comfortable with what I thought they were, but after watching this I am more profoundly confused by them than before

Dark energy/matter… ok. I stop. your turn.

This coming week, I'm taking delivery of a 2023 Chevrolet Bolt 2LT with 24k miles. [It's red, and I'm going to call it my "Cherriot". Awful puns make everything better, and I live in the Cherry Capitol, so.] Thanks to RTO, it's just not feasible to remain a one-car household any longer.

The Bolt EV was about $15,000 cheaper than a new hybrid. Even though the low-end Ford Maverick price new was only a couple of thousand more than I'm paying for used, I've grown to hate driving SUV-sized and configured vehicles. I'm attached to the vanishing compact hatchback variety of car - comfortable to drive and park, easy to load and unload. They've always had as much cargo and passenger space as I've ever needed, and the Bolt comes highly recommended.

I'm aware this car comes with some disadvantages compared to ICE or hybrid vehicles. The Bolt doesn't have the fastest charging speeds, but overnight Level 2 is fine. Range is supposed to be ~250 miles under ideal conditions. Typical use will average 10 miles/day. The longest road trips I'm likely to use it for should be well within range on a single charge, to destinations with plenty of charging stations.

I don't have a 220v outlet in the garage yet. Public Level 3 CCS chargers should meet any expected needs in the interim even if that takes 2 hours of charging every couple of weeks. It's understood that the range will drop up to 40% in cold weather. I'm hoping to have the garage outlet installed by the time that's a problem.

Otherwise, I've got all kinds of questions about the fine points of the EV driving experience.

1. Regenerative braking. I'd think this is safer on wet or icy roads than using the mechanical brakes. I drove a manual transmission for many years - is the effect of regenerative braking similar to using the clutch to slow down? Should I use the "one pedal driving" setting all the time?

2. Tire wear - how often should I expect to replace tires, and is regenerative braking a plus or minus for tire life? It's a front-wheel drive with all-wheel traction control. By all accounts, I will still need to swap to winter tires for safety in snow and ice. The odds are that I won't need new tires for a while. I try to save up in advance, and it would be helpful to have an idea of when I can expect that expense to arrive.

3. How much do I need to worry about extreme high or low temperatures? Do I need to park in the shade all the time when it's above 30°C, or use a heater in the garage on very cold (< 0°C) days?

4. Aside from the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule, is there anything I should be doing to prolong the life of the car?

Please feel free to give any other advice, positive or negative experiences, etc.

I was a fan of GameRevolution’s reviews for a long time. They always seemed to have a criteria to reviews that not only sold me on what to pursue, but what to truly avoid even if I loved the franchise. (MGS: Ground Zeros, I’m looking at you.) They have seemingly reduced to one reviewer…

I love the weekly Tildes thread of “what games are you playing” and it has truly opened my eyes to some games I would never have heard of, or even tried (Balatro).

Anywho the point of this is to ask where everyone else looks for reputable/intelligent reviews currently? I enjoy listening to Luke Stephens talk about the industry, but it’s not as concise as an A-F or star or 1-10 rating system. IGN doesn’t have my attention… I just don’t know where to turn, as there are so many options.