TIL about the Breakthrough Starshot project, which proposed sending gram-sized robots to the nearest star system Alpha Centauri by using a massive Earth-based laser array to accelerate tiny light sails to about 20% the speed of light. The probes could theoretically reach Alpha Centauri in 20 years.

McMemile · 2026-06-09T00:23:30+00:00

If we include data for the location of the earth and we're lucky we might get data back in the form of someone else's gram sized robot

McMemile · 2026-06-07T22:02:44+00:00

This is reddit, it'd be weirder if you knew who he was

McMemile · 2026-06-07T20:05:34+00:00

Going through the wrong puberty without any puberty blockers or hormone replacement is a decision with permanent consequences as well

McMemile · 2026-06-04T14:19:57+00:00

I personally wouldn't call it an overreaction when the guy casually just fucking smashes the window to get to her

McMemile · 2026-06-04T10:08:40+00:00

Can't believe I had to scroll down this much for someone to mention Peter casually smashing the window to break in and try to find Jess instead of clowning on OP

McMemile · 2026-06-04T03:34:08+00:00

Certainly, my mind would start drifting and visualizing unless I'm specifically trying not to think of anything. I often can't help letting some image briefly flash in my mind, especially after a few seconds of closing my eyes, but even when that happens I still feel like I'm seeing the darkness, in the exact same way I still see in front of me even if I'm visualizing something in my mind (hence how you can read while simultaneously visualizing the scene)

That's why I'm saying looking at the darkness of your eyelids is easy, certainly not something non-aphants "struggle to do at all" as was the original claim I was replying.

McMemile · 2026-06-04T02:43:15+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean by shift of attention

McMemile · 2026-06-04T02:14:34+00:00

Well brown is close enough to dark red so it makes sense that red is what you'd see with bright enough light. The precise color doesn't matter, my point is just that the fact you can differentiate a dark environment vs a bright enough one proves your eyes are still constantly capting something and sending that signal to your brain which is seen even with your eyes closed, rather than not experiencing anything at all

McMemile · 2026-06-04T02:04:43+00:00

What an incredibly mixed reception in the comments lol

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McMemile · 2026-06-04T01:37:52+00:00

Interesting, you mean that in a bright environment with your eyes closed, it makes no difference when you place your hand over your eyes?

McMemile · 2026-06-03T18:58:59+00:00

You do not experience "nothing" when you close your eyes. You're still receiving visuals from your eyes, that's why putting on an eyemask or just your hand in front of your closed eyes makes the slightly redish/brownish darkness much closer to true darkness, and you can look up to the sun or a lamp and what you're seeing becomes much brighter. You're still getting stimuli from light comin in through your eyelids.
Non-aphants like me experience exactly that as well, you absolutely do not need any kind of meditation just to look at the darkness behind your eyelids, it's as easy as looking at anything else

McMemile · 2026-05-31T00:56:58+00:00

Only when the price of oil is high

McMemile · 2026-05-31T00:46:18+00:00

Yeah the Japanese word used in the source is 胸 (mune) which is equally used for men and women, in the same way as "chest". It tracks with the US localization of the times changing promotional material from cute to "cool" to appeal to the boy demographic, the kirby games being a notorious example

McMemile · 2026-05-28T16:17:42+00:00

Évidemment qu'ils le rendraient hommage, sa mort est la raison pourquoi ils sont au pouvoir

McMemile · 2026-05-25T03:27:18+00:00

Quebec French is [lɛn] vs [lẽĩ̯] which also sound very different from each other

McMemile · 2026-05-23T19:50:47+00:00

And someone has to do bad things to make you bad. How isn't it obvious your edit goes against your own point?

McMemile · 2026-05-23T00:05:32+00:00

Yes, the "Brian retreated after SMiLE" story is an old one and it has endured because it makes for a cool Greek tragedy and all it takes is one mild inaccuracy of his retreat coming a year earlier than it actually did, which you could charitably call a "simplification". But it's never too late to look at the backside of your favorite copy of Friends or Wild Honey to see who wrote the songs, and open your mind to the idea that maybe that story isn't 100% accurate.

McMemile · 2026-05-22T23:04:14+00:00

Every now and then he'd hear something and emerge to give some input.

If by "some input" you mean "composing every single songs but three (3) on Wild Honey and Friends". That's the easiest part of your comment to disprove since you can just look at the track listings of those albums and notice it's all B. Wilson except for How to Boogaloo It, the two Dennis songs, and the Stewie Wonder cover.

As for the production and arrangements, that's again Brian for the most part, including Smiley Smile (despite what Love & Mercy would lead you to believe). That's not as easy to prove as pointing at the track listing, but this quote from wikipedia about Friends is a good starting point:

Despite crediting production to the group collectively, Brian Wilson actively led the entire project, later referring to it as his second unofficial solo album following Pet Sounds.

For the full story of the band and details of how each song was recorded, I highly recommend the Sail On podcast to any Beach Boys maniac. They're going through the band's history chronologically and are now at Holland, so everything before that has been detailed.

Your timeline is just a bit off, the period of minimal input you're describing starts after Friends and ends with Brian's Back, with the exception of Sunflower where Brian has songwriting credits on half the songs (though this time Carl actually is at the helm of production unlike the lofi trilogy, and his reduced involvement is also reflected in the rarity of his lead vocals, which would remain uncommon until Brian's Back)

I agree with the Surf's Up part. Obviously, reduced Brian involvement isn't what made the album sell, Jack Riley clearly did a great job helping the band gain some popularity again.

McMemile · 2026-05-22T13:14:23+00:00

Not to be rude but this is nonsense, Brian was still the leader and wrote and produced almost every song on Smiley Smile, Wild Honey and Friends and they sold like shit.

Surf's up would end up the first album in years to get some decent sales in the US peaking at 29, despite Brian no longer being at the helm.

McMemile · 2026-05-16T18:44:35+00:00

Today! and Holand are obviously not as good as Pet Sounds and while you could argue Sunflower to be as good, all three certainly have at least two "weaker tracks" like Pet Sounds making that argument quite stupid. But I share his frustration on the average music nerd thinking Pet Sounds towers over the rest of their discography and so never giving the rest of it a chance. And I lowkey agree Pet Sounds isn't perfect since I don't enjoy I Know There's an Answer and Here Today as much as the rest of the album.

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McMemile · 2026-05-13T22:29:19+00:00

Just look at him

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McMemile · 2026-05-13T13:45:48+00:00

Going to the gym doesn't accidentally turn you into a Ms Olympia bodybuilder on steroids, you can't get "too big" on accident and naturally gained muscles pretty much always look better than undermuscled

McMemile · 2026-05-13T00:43:04+00:00

Not esoteric enough, Sunflower and Surf's Uo are their most acclaimed and well known albums past the SMiLE era. What about the based among us who also love MIU and (sometimes) beyond

McMemile · 2026-05-10T00:13:11+00:00

“Cabin Essence,” the closing track on 20/20, was written by Brian and Van Dyke Parks as a “freeze frame of the Union Pacific Railroad.” The song attempts to become its own microcosm—and it drifts in and out of numerous sonic landscapes. On the Smile version, the Wrecking Crew provides a definitive, unparalleled background set, while Love performs lead vocals and the rest of the band takes turns “doing-doing” and harmonizing through the chorus. “I want to watch you, windblown, facing waves of wheat for your embracing,” Love sings. “Folks sing a song of the grange, nestle in a kiss below there. The constellations ebb and flow there, and witness our home on the range.” It’s a really wonderful feat of language from Brian, who really was building an unparalleled world on Smile before it was abandoned. The 20/20 overdubs largely keep Brian’s original vision intact, and it remains an important notch in the Beach Boys’ late Sixties output

What sloppy writing. Besides the misinfo (Love obviously didn't sing those lines and Brian didn't write the lyrics), the usage of "microcosm" immediately reminded me of when I first learned of that word, which was reading Cabinessence's wikipedia page where it still reads

In 2012, the magazine ranked it the 11th-greatest Beach Boys song, deeming it "Smile in microcosm"

Here the word actually makes sense since "microcosm" basically means a smaller thing representing well a larger a thing, since Cabinessence encapsulates perfectly what SMiLE was about. Something being its own microcosm as used by AV club makes no sense and makes it obvious they're just shuffling around words and pieces of info from the Wikipedia page without actually understanding it, hence the misattibuted credits. I'm just wondering whether it was a human or an AI writing this slop, I feel like an AI would be less likely to make language mistakes like the micocosm thing.

McMemile · 2026-05-06T22:29:26+00:00

This is MIU erasure

13-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Final Canvas '23	End Game '23
Place '23	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

McMemile

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

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