The Eastern Roman Empire didn’t fall until 1453, and during that entire time those people called themselves “Romans”. Byzantine is a description created by historians in more modern times.

More direct link to a picture:

https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/235633827

That plus she didn’t act like prey. Sharks aren’t used to stuff that swims at them and they like to keep their distance. Touching them while holding ground just increases the determination that you aren’t food and kicks in their instinct to move away from something they don’t understand.

Diving with sharks is really amazing, they really are beautiful and want absolutely nothing to do with divers. Getting good pictures is really difficult.

I’ve done cage diving with great whites (which was absolutely fucking increasingly), and lots of non cage diving where I’ve seen all manner of reef sharks, silky, galapagos, lemon sharks, threshers, wobbegongs, and whale sharks.

Still have managed to get blanked on bulls, tigers, and hammerheads but I know that if I do a dive trip to the Galápagos Islands I can cross that one off.

Are you also a diver?

Air Tahiti Nui has those deals quite often - definitely sign up for their newsletter.

The thing that surprised me the most the first time I went to Tahiti was that the flight really isn’t that long, only a bit over 8 hours from LAX to Papeete. I don’t know why but before going I had always felt like the flight would be more of a looong adventure like it is getting to other places in the South Pacific (like the full day + of flights and sitting in airports that it takes to get to the eastern part of Indonesia).

For diving or snorkeling trips where you are going to stick to the more developed islands, the diving around Moorea is better in general…plus it’s quite a bit less expensive. When go back, if I’m not doing a full on dive trip to some of the farther out islands like Fakarava, I’d probably do the same thing I did last time - like 5 nights on Moorea and 3 on Bora Bora.

I did it back in 2019 and it felt like it was probably one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever done…and I’m someone who thinks it’s fun to scuba dive with sharks.

Those carts got up to like 50mph and the entire time your head is somewhere around bumper height compared to all the traffic around you. Also no suspension on the carts.

Any thoughts on Lockheed Martin’s magnetic mirror / cusp confinement compact fusion efforts?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_Compact_Fusion_Reactor

It is 100% the Palo Verde plant - I’ve driven past it more times than I know how to count. Sometimes the steam cloud gets quite large https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/5922809_ixVRi0mB9ewTnCU7jJAj_c5NJUkA5oN2HSKq6VCvPTI.jpg

Fun fact:

> As of 2013, the Palo Verde Generating Station is the largest power plant in the United States by net generation. Its average electric power production is about 3.3 gigawatts (GW)

I think there point there was that approach would be more expensive over the lifetime of the airport than building higher ceilings on the first place

What was that?

It’s an urban legend. Google shall set you free

Lithium isn’t all that rare

They look not so big when you are sitting in an airport waiting to board, or in a seat on the plane, but I distinctly remember the first time I deplaned onto the tarmac next to a 777 and walked past one of the engines. All I could think was “fucking hell, that is a goddamn big engine.”