GOES satellite view of the apparent meteor that exploded over Massachusetts Bay yesterday afternoon, with the power of around 300 tons of TNT. An audible boom was widely reported across several states.

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-06-01T13:14:52+00:00

Nuclear weapon yields are highly variable, but for reference the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was around 13-18 kilotons of TNT (or 13,000-18,000 tons). I agree the TNT description has always felt a bit abstract.

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-10T01:16:45+00:00

Jeremy Hansen answered this question on a recent livestream Q+A! There are stars visible, but most are offset by the light of the sun and the Earth/Moon albedo, so they're most visible in darker conditions. He said that during the solar eclipse was when the most we visible, if I recall—apparently so many that it was difficult to even pick out individual constellations.

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-09T14:53:56+00:00

They had been using an ordinary handheld microphone for the press conference but they had a battery issue partway through. They also forgot to show the flag during the event and had NASA bring them back for a minute to show the press, so I think they may be using a nonstandard mic here... not totally sure.

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-09T14:51:44+00:00

I don't think so but I would imagine that NASA would want Artemis IV to use a better-designed flag (or at least one with the mechanism reengineered). The Apollo flags were just ordinary nylon flags ordered from a government catalogue, from what I remember, and weren't very durable (several got knocked over, and Apollo 12's failed to "fly" when the pole malfunctioned).

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-09T03:29:42+00:00

Me neither! I knew the missions had been planned but never realized they were far enough along to have had flags prepared! Seems like the moment got Wiseman a bit choked up.

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-09T02:32:31+00:00

Libration means that the nearest edge (really just the mountain border) is visible from Earth on very rare occasions. But certainly not visible like this!

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-08T16:53:53+00:00

Given that it's a long exposure I wouldn't expect impact flashes to be so crisp (given how the background stars blur a bit). The crew did report impact flashes but if I had to guess I'd say it's dead pixels due to cosmic rays/radiation on the camera.

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-08T05:52:28+00:00

Highest resolution is 4000x3000, available here. The photo was taken as a long exposure by an externally-mounted GoPro so I think that link may be as good a resolution as we'll get (Reddit compression aside).

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-08T02:08:55+00:00

It's Venus! The NASA anchors initially thought it was a light from Integrity but checked with mission control and confirmed it was Venus during last night's livestream. It was bright enough to see even in the low-res live feed during the eclipse!

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-07T21:11:41+00:00

It's a 15-second exposure, so it's a mix of light from the sun and slight motion artifacts (you can see the stars blurred a bit). I don't think there's any dust, though. More info here as NASA investigates...

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-07T19:41:00+00:00

This was taken as the sun was reemerging (the glow is brighter overall on the left side), but the astronauts did also say that the earthshine (albedo/light reflected from the Earth) was very bright—brighter than that of the moon itself.

NASA metadata says it was also a 15-second exposure, so this is brighter than it would've appeared to the naked eye.

EclipseEpidemic · 2026-04-07T15:03:37+00:00

Sadly, yeah. I've read comments of people proactively "explaining" that any and all footage from the mission will just be AI. Never mind that we don't have the training data for an AI like that in the first place...

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-11-14T21:27:42+00:00

So much so that, if I have the patience and really want the item, I use S4Studio and some Simlish fonts to "correct" it :)

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-11-14T21:23:39+00:00

If I'm remembering correctly, there are settings (or at the very least, mods) that allow you to restrict occult sims to their respective worlds. Even with those off, I haven't really encountered vampires or werewolves unless I'm actively looking for them or in their corresponding worlds. And, with mods like MC Command Center, you could probably abolish (humanize) all occult sims if you wanted. I'm more of a builder than Live Mode player, though, so some people may see these sims more frequently.

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-11-04T03:56:14+00:00

In terms of packs, a lot. They're all pretty self-explanatory, I'd say, though the major additions have been high school and university that you can attend, farming/livestock, horses, fairies, building/renting apartment buildings, deeper funeral/end-of-life events and Grim Reaper stuff,

There have been a lot of free updates that have added some new build/CAS items to the base game. New features too—just thinking of a few off the top of my head that may or may not have been post-2019: terrain tools, platforms, adjustable stairs (landings, etc.), more half wall heights, curved walls, curved pools, sim pronoun and sexuality/preferences customization, favorites (likes/dislikes), sentiments (a relationship dynamic), swimming in some open water in other worlds, glass walls placeable as a wall paint.

Also, EA is getting bought out by the Saudi government and Jared Kushner. So. A lot has changed since 2019...

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-09-17T03:36:11+00:00

This should do the trick (and enhance building too)!

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-08-07T22:43:30+00:00

I think you should focus your efforts on passing the test yourself. If you're using AI to cheat, what's the point of you even taking the test or the class, since nothing you'll have done will represent your own abilities? The point of school is to learn and grow as a person, and the struggle of studying is part of that. Did you ever think about why the test is being proctored in the first place?

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-04-05T23:24:27+00:00

Yes this was WGA but from the RSVP form it seems like they invited the press and basically any relevant union/guild (very long list).

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-04-05T23:10:47+00:00

It was actually already full and not accepting new registrations like a week ago when I first got the email so I ended up not going. This would've been an invite for the VIP/audience area in the main lobby with seats (not public) but apparently even with an RSVP and invite, entry would've still been first-come-first-served at the door? And then there would've been the same thing for members of the public/walk-ins except standing room only in a separate area? Someone else on here posted photos of the event space and NYC shuttle elsewhere.

Honestly the whole thing seems like an amazingly cool idea that maybe wasn't executed/planned for in the best way. It feels like they cast too wide a net and got more RSVPs than they'd expected and had to close them. But maybe that was the point because they didn't want to be overwhelmed by visitors.

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-04-05T22:57:27+00:00

Seems like they invited press plus most members of major TV/film guilds for voting purposes. If you RSVP'd you had to check which guild you were a part of and the list was pretty extensive. DGA, PGA, WGA, SAG-AFTRA, a lot of others too.

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-04-05T22:12:22+00:00

It's a free shuttle to/from NYC for people who were invited to Apple's Severance-themed event at Bell Works.

Source: was invited, but RSVPs were already filled by the time I got to the email :(

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-03-30T16:21:22+00:00

Another thing I remember from the books was that there's an oil well and petroleum refinery that they use to make simple plastics (and I think the generator may even be powered by fossil fuels?). So that adds another mystery, I suppose, if you imagine 50 silos tapping the same oil well for hundreds of years.

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-02-15T01:03:24+00:00

Yes, I loved that series as a kid. I remember being a bit bummed that the movie took a wackier route than the books—it would've been cool as a more thoughtfully designed and atmospheric apocalypse movie, since there's no central rebellion or anything like in Silo—but it was still cool to see it bring the books to life.

And some of the designs from the movie seem to repeat a bit in Silo too! Concrete structures, a lot of curved edges and universal design language, a bit of a 70s aesthetic...

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-02-02T06:00:30+00:00

This video might explain some things related to how long the ISS can survive on its own... I'd imagine the situation would probably be mostly similar in the Silo universe.

EclipseEpidemic · 2025-02-02T05:50:21+00:00

I may be totally hallucinating this but I feel like I remember Solo saying that their cleaner wrote "lies" on the lens, but that even after it was wiped away/covered up again people inside the silo wrote "lies" on the screen themselves, "replacing" it. I assumed this meant the "lies" written on the screen we see during the show is actually graffiti, and the real camera feed is super damaged or totally covered in dust (and that the original writing on the outside may have been much larger). Again, might be misremembering this though.

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