roachpatrol:jumpingjacktrash:teratocybernetics:momothefiddler:momothefiddler:transagenda:
roachpatrol: jumpingjacktrash: teratocybernetics: momothefiddler: momothefiddler: transagenda: codeawayhaley: According to the laws of physics, a planet in the shape of a doughnut (toroid) could exist. Physicist Anders Sandberg says that such planets would have very short nights and days, an arid outer equator, twilight polar regions, moons in strange orbits and regions with very different gravity and seasons. Read more: http://bit.ly/1kPLXGT via io9 petition to turn the earth into a fucking doughnut THE STORY POTENTIAL FOR THIS IS AMAZING YOU COULD HAVE TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CIVILIZATIONS SEPARATED BY DESERT ON THE OUTSIDE AND AN PERMANENT NIGHT-WINTER ON THE INSIDEYOU COULD (WITH A LITTLE FUDGING ON TIDES OR SOME STABILIZATION FORCE) HAVE MOONS THAT GO THROUGH THE FUCKING HOLE, WITH LUNAR-POWERED SORCERERS LIVING ON THE INNER EQUATOR IN GIANT ICE CASTLES WAITING FOR THE TIME OF THE MONTH WHEN THE MOON ILLUMINATES THE ETERNAL NIGHTTIME AND THEIR SPELLS HAVE THE MOST POWER YOU COULD HAVE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SPECIES THAT EVOLVED ON OPPOSITE SIDES WHO ARE BASICALLY ALIENS ON THE SAME PLANET AND WHOEVER CROSSES THE GIANT DESERT OR ARCTIC CIRCLE (HEH) MAKES FIRST CONTACT THIS IS SO COOL THIS IS SO COOL I WANT TO RUN FIFTY THOUSAND GAMES ON WORLDS LIKE THIS HOLY FUCK THIS JUST IN IF I’M UNDERSTANDING THE MAGNETIC FIELDS CORRECTLY I THINK THE ETERNAL NIGHT ICE REALM WILL HAVE NEAR-CONSTANT ELECTRICAL STORMS Re-reblogging for the additional stuff. this is the coolest article oh wow different gravity though! the life that would evolve in high-gravity areas would be significantly different than in standard-gravity areas. species that were phenotypically flexible could drift in and out of high-gravity areas, with each generation being heavier or lighter than the last. a tree in one area presents as a low-lying shrub on the other side of the continent, and stubby thick-boned plains-grazers become light and nimble leaf-eaters as you travel back. i bet humans would want to congregate at the lightest possible gravity point: you’d feel better, you’d jump higher and run faster, your kids would be tall, you could carry more stuff. it sucks going into higher gravity than what you’re born for! your knees and ankles wear out faster, back problems show up sooner, falling over and dropping things has greater consequences. rough terrain is way more of a problem. your kids come out runty— your pregnancies suck— your pack animals want more food to carry less stuff. but— if all the humans are hanging out at the light areas, their prey is going to drift out of those territories. if you have nomadic hunter-gatherers then they’re just going to have to suck it up and trudge inwards. farming humans and cities would be fine for longer, assuming the farmers don’t fuck it up and ruin the land and deplete the natural resources, so you could have a long belt of technologically advanced societies with cities, trade routes, armies— who are all starting to look towards the unsettled, untapped inner ring. and then there’s even— what would be going on with air pressure? people who lived all their life in high-gravity, high-air pressure environments would be getting the toroid equivalent of altitude sickness as they traveled towards a light area, and i am going to guess that light-adapted humans traveling in towards heavy areas would be having problems with their sinuses as well as their joints. -- source link