Hardspace Shipbreaker will have you clinging to the side of a ship in zero-G one second, trying to laser cut your way into a section of hull, and then have your screen looking like this the next:

Reading about the 1948 Donora Death Fog, where industrial fumes from US Steels Donora Zinc Works formed a toxic fog that killed 20 people, and came across this gem:

Focusing on writing about the Alhambra for several university assignments has really opened my eyes to how structures aren't just piles of bricks, they're living organisms so full of stories and memories that are born and grow old and eventually wear away and die. Buildings are beings.

Another Islamic map because I can't get enough of them, this is a late 9th century world map created by one ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, whom gave his name to the Balkhi School that he founded. Can you see the similarities to the previous map?

Another medieval Islamic world map, the "Surat al-Ard" (Image of the Earth) was produced by the Arab writer & geographer Ibn-Hawqal in the 10th century and depicts the known world in the simplistic political style of the Balkhi School. Annotations by UCSB Prof. @sbalaghi.bsky.social

Another map we discussed in class, this is the Arab cartographer Al-Idrisi's "Tabula Rogeriana", a 12th century world map produced for King Robert Hauteville of Norman Sicily. Drawing from Ptolemies Geography, it orients the south towards the top, a common practice of medieval Islamic cartography.

Created in the 2nd century CE by the Greco-Roman mathematician Claudius Ptolemy, the Geography depicts a remarkably accurate version of the known Roman world, and established our modern coordinate system. It was heavily built upon by the Islamic world, and became influential during the Renaissance.