kirstenkarenann

[kirstenkarenann]

*shows up 15 months late with starbucks* anyway here’s my vine compilation

[kirstenkarenann]

the deleted scene in IM1 where after the climatic explosion scene, Obadiah didn’t fall right into the massive arc reactor, he was trapped and Tony saw the chance to save him and so he did, he reached out his hand tried to save him but Obadiah saw it as a chance to drag Tony with him, then he lost balance and fell down the massive arc reactor.

the deleted scene in IM3 where Harley’s bully got trap and drowned after the water tank exploded, and Tony took out his own arc reactor as the power source to perform CPR electric shock, he succeeded in retrieving the boy’s heartbeat but he basically went into cardiac arrest before Harley quickly put the arc reactor back in his chest.

The fact that these scenes were deleted and basically not many other than iron man fans know about their existence is a criminal offence.

[kirstenkarenann]

William III and Mary II

William and Mary were the co-regnants over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from February 1689 after they were offered the throne by the Convention Parliament irregularly summoned by William after his victorious invasion of England in November 1688. They replaced James II, Mary’s father, who fled the country to France. Parliament offered William and Mary a co-regency, at the couple’s behest. When William was out on campaigns abroad, Mary ruled as regent. After Mary died in 1694, William ruled alone until his death in 1702. William and Mary were childless and were ultimately succeeded by Mary’s younger sister, Anne. 

[kirstenkarenann]

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

[kirstenkarenann]

# I forgot i saved this from Facebook & I’ve been laughing for 5 years lmaoo

[kirstenkarenann]

Ryan on every single episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved: but for now, the case remains… unsolved.

Me:

[kirstenkarenann]

when you’re scratching someone’s back or playing with their hair and you hit a sweet spot and they just moan literally just thinking about that gets me off no lie

[kirstenkarenann]

[kirstenkarenann]

Pink Dreamland | © 诺丁山婚礼企划

[kirstenkarenann]

#such an angel

[kirstenkarenann]

Avengers killing members of Black Order who attacked them.

[kirstenkarenann]

Could you explain the Versailles strategy

Sure. 

The Versailles strategy - which isn’t unique to Early Modern France; I think the sankin-kōtai system of the Tokugawa shogunate is similar enough in purpose and effect that it qualifies - was a strategy for monarchies to gain power over the nobility through the exercise of (mostly) soft power, rather than crushing them by military force. 

The basic idea is this: bring the whole of the nobility together into a very large court (the court at Versailles included 6,000-7,000 people when you add together the royal family, royal officials, courtiers, and servants; compare this to the early medieval court of Charlesmagne, which amounted to a few hundred people). Instead of the king going out on progress to visit his subjects, his subjects would come to live at Versailles instead. 

This change had a number of consequences: 

Reduction of the economic independence of the nobility: Living at Versailles in the style benefiting a nobleman or noblewoman was incredibly expensive. Not only did it require you to establish a second household - with Louis XIV as your landlord charging you rent - but the official rules of Versailles required a particularly high-spending lifestyle: “The king insisted that every courtier be well dressed on all occasions: a death, a birthday, or a marriage in his family required that everyone wear new clothes.” (Versailles: A History, Robert Abrams) Moreover, while you were away at Versailles, you weren’t spending time on your estate maximizing your income, and the scissors of increasing spending and stagnant or declining incomes trapped a lot of the nobility in debt.

And once you were in debt, you were in Louis’ clutches. Because working was out of the question, the only way to earn additional money to help pay off your debts was through a royal post or the like, and those were Louis’ to give and take away. Moreover, residents of Versailles were spared from various forms of taxation and were legally protected from having their property seized for non-payment of debt - this is how Louis initially enticed the nobility to move - but that meant that at any time, Louis could evict you from Versailles and throw you to the wolves.

Reduction in the political independence of the nobility: at the same time, living away from your base of power meant that you became less important back at home. After all, you weren’t there making all the of the important day-to-day decisions, but the King’s intendant was. 

More importantly, living in Versailles meant that the king controlled your political environment. While you might think that being surrounded by the rest of the nobility of France in close physical proximity to the King’s person might give rise to assassination or coup d'état, the reality was that you were living in the King’s palace surrounded by his guards and very far away from your feudal levies, and you had to obey his rules, which by the way kept you constantly busy in various rituals and ceremonies from the time the king got up in the morning to the time he went to bed at night, and let the king observe who was there and who wasn’t. And if that wasn’t enough to keep people loyal, he also had his spies open everyone’s mail, and listen at everyone’s doors, and he could order you arrested at pretty much any time he wanted?

So why would anyone sign up for this system? 

Well, in addition to those nice taxation and debt privileges, Louis simply made it a requirement that if you wanted anything from the king - command in his armies, help with public works in your area, help with a legal case, etc. - you had to come and ask him in person. Which meant coming to Versailles and taking part in the rituals, and since getting an audience took forever, you’d better get an apartment, and so it goes…

Just as importantly, after a certain point, it was the place that the nobility wanted to live. Did you want to make a good marriage? Versailles was where the most eligible matches lived. Did you want to live a magnificent lifestyle? Louis spent a LOT of money on making Versailles the most ostentatious and magnificent palace in Europe, not just in terms of architecture and gardens, but the best entertainments, the best scholars and artists, the best tailors and craftsmen, and so on and so forth. Did you want a political career? You couldn’t really do it out in the provinces anymore, so you might as well go to Versailles and play the game. 

[kirstenkarenann]

KRIKOR JABOTIAN Akhtamar Collection 2014

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Versailles theme song- haunting and dynamic.

[kirstenkarenann]

BERTA Fall/Winter 2018-2019 Bridal Couture

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Ralph & Russo Eden Pumps in Rose Gold

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Scott arriving to the avengers compound where everyone is miserable because their friends are dead but it’s ok cuz he gave up hope years ago and he’s got a gen z way of dealing with depression