Source: https://xkcd.com/2501/

Alt text: “How could anyone consider themselves a well-rounded adult without a basic understanding of silicate geochemistry? Silicates are everywhere! It’s hard to throw a rock without throwing one!”

  • @paddirn
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    11 months ago

    TIL that ‘feldspar’ is an actual thing and not just a silly name they used in Outer Wilds. Actually, looking it up, all of the Traveler’s names refer to rocks or minerals (Feldspar, Gabbro, Riebeck, Chert, and Esker). Interestingly, Solanum refers to a plant instead (a plant of a genus that includes the potato and woody nightshade).

    • Tlaloc_Temporal
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      711 months ago

      The Traveler’s names? You mean the members of Outer Wilds Ventures? I’ll do you two better; every Hearthian is named for a mineral, and every Nomai is named after a plant.

      Solanum can also be read to mean Solar Year, a complete cycle of the sun, which is even more poetic considering the entangled nature of the end of her journey, and the journey of the Sun.