#꒰͡ 247 : bill ͡꒱

[meyrghst]

𝕮IRCUS : everything is so captivating, like being trapped in your own mind.

𝕬uthor's favorites . . . ( ♥︎ )

𝗕𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛:

nada aún...

𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗛𝗢𝗖𝗞𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥:

nada aún...

𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘 𝗧𝗢𝗭𝗜𝗘𝗥:

nada aún...

[eliah]

[247liveculture]

Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier in ‘Uptown Saturday Night’ (1974)

[i-am-aprl]

🚨BREAKING: HOUSE PASSED BILL TO SANCTION ICC. The House passed legislation that would sanction the International Criminal Court [ICC] for requesting arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. With a vote of 247 in favor - 155 against.

[dailybill-cipher]

[247] More object-head Bill :D

[sumplysilly]

NEED $247 BY THE 29TH / COMMS & KOFI OPEN

Making a new post bc the old 1 died. I need $247 to pay my utility bill by the 29th, & art is currently my only source of income so some business & donations are super appreciated. Here's my commission info (there's more options than what's shown below, these are just some examples of my style) & here's my ko-fi (I take requests aswell). ty for reading

[nvr4vr]

HERE you will find 247 gifs of Bill Skarsgård as Eric in The Crow (247 gifs). All of these gifs were made by me, please DO NOT claim them as your own or put them into other gif hunts, packs, or edits. A like or reblog would be very much appreciated.

[transmutationisms]

do you have any reading recs (books, ~scholarly articles, whatever) in the same vein as this post? (doesn't need to be a super long list, i'm content to branch off with the works cited of whatever you come up with...) as always, love your blog!! :-)

yes :3 split roughly by subtopic, bolded some favs

Evolution in England prior to (Charles) Darwin

Cooter, Roger. The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organisation of Consent in Nineteenth Century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1985).

Desmond, Adrian. The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine, and Reform in Radical London. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1989).

Elliott, Paul. “Erasmus Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and the Origin of the Evolutionary Worldview in British Provincial Scientific Culture, 1770–1850.” Isis 94 (1): 1–29 (2003).

Finchman, Martin. “Biology and Politics: Defining the Boundaries.” In: Lightman, Bernard (Ed.). Victorian Science in Context. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1997), 94–118.

Fyfe, Aileen. Steam-Powered Knowledge: William Chambers and the Business of Publishing, 1820–1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2012).

Harrison, James. “Erasmus Darwin’s View of Evolution.” Journal of the History of Ideas 32 (2): 247–64 (1971).

McNeil, Maureen. Under the Banner of Science: Erasmus Darwin and his Age. Manchester: Manchester University Press (1987).

Ospovat, Dov. “The Influence of Karl Ernst von Baer’s Embryology 1828–1859: A Reappraisal in Light of Richard Owen’s and William Benjamin Carpenter’s ‘Palaeontological Application of Von Baer’s Law.’” Journal of the History of Biology 9 (1): 1–28 (1976).

Rehbock, Philip F. The Philosophical Naturalists: Themes in Early Nineteenth-Century British Biology. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press (1983).

Richards, Robert J. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behaviour. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1987).

Rupke, Nicolaas. Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2009 [ 1994]).

Secord, James. Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2001).

van Wyhe, John. Phrenology and the Origins of Victorian Scientific Naturalism. London: Ashgate (2004).

Winter, Alison. “The Construction of Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in the Early Life Sciences.” In: Lightman, Bernard (Ed.). Victorian Science in Context. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1997), 24–50.

Yeo, Richard. “Science and Intellectual Authority in Mid-Nineteenth Century Britain: Robert Chambers and Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.” Victorian Studies 28 (1): 5–31 (1984).

Edinburgh Lamarckians and Scottish transmutationism

Desmond, Adrian. “Robert E. Grant: The Social Predicament of a Pre-Darwinian Transmutationist.” Journal of the History of Biology 17 (2): 189–223 (1984).

Jenkins, Bill. Evolution Before Darwin. Theories of the Transmutation of Species in Edinburgh, 1804–1834. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2019).

Secord, James. “The Edinburgh Lamarckians: Robert Jameson and Robert E. Grant.” Journal of the History of Biology 24 (1): 1–18 (1991).

Corsi, Pietro. ‘Edinburgh Lamarckians? The Authorship of Three Anonymous Papers (1826–1829)’, Journal of the History of Biology 54 (2021), pp. 345–374.

Darwin and Darwinism

Desmond, Adrian and James Moore. Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist. New York: W. W. Norton & Company (1994).

van Wyhe, John. “Mind the Gap. Did Darwin Avoid Publishing his Theory for many years?” Notes & Records of the Royal Society 61 (2007), 177–205.

Sloan, Philip R. “Darwin, Vital Matter, and the Transformation of Species.” Journal of the History of Biology 19 (3): 369–445 (1986).

Phillip R. Sloan, “The Making of a Philosophical Naturalist.” In: Hodge, Jonathan and Gregory Radick (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2009), 17–39.

Sponsel, Alistair. Darwin’s Evolving Identity: Adventure, Ambition, and the Sin of Speculation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2018).

Young, Robert M. “Malthus and the Evolutionists: The Common Context of Biological and Social Theory.” Past & Present 43 (1969): 109–45.

Young, Robert M. “Darwin’s Metaphor: Does Nature Select?” The Monist 55 (3): 442–503 (1971).

Bowler, Peter J. The Non-Darwinian Revolution: Reinterpreting a Historical Myth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press (1988).

Bowler, Peter J. The Eclipse of Darwinism: Anti-Darwinian Evolution Theories in the Decades Around 1900. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press (1983).

Hale, Piers J. “Rejecting the Myth of the Non-Darwinian Revolution.” Victorian Review 41 (2): 13–18 (Fall 2015).

Lightman, Bernard. “Darwin and the popularisation of evolution.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society 64: 5–24 (2010).

Richards, Robert J. The Meaning of Evolution: The Morphological Construction and Ideological Reconstruction of Darwin’s Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1992).

Ruse, Michael. The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1979).

Lamarck and Lamarckism

Barthélemy-Madaule, Madeleine. 1982. Lamarck, the Mythical Precursor: A Study of the Relations between Science and Ideology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Burkhardt, Richard. 1970. Lamarck, Evolution, and the Politics of Science. Journal of the History of Biology 3 (2): 275–298.

Burkhardt, Richard. 1977. The Spirit of System: Lamarck and Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Corsi, Pietro. 1988. The Age of Lamarck: Evolutionary Theories in France, 1790–1830. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Corsi, Pietro. 2005. Before Darwin: Transformist Concepts in European Natural History. Journal of the History of Biology 38 (1): 67-83.

Corsi, Pietro. 2011. The Revolutions of Evolution: Geoffroy and Lamarck, 1825–1840. Bulletin du Musée D’Anthropologie Préhistorique de Monaco 51: 113–134.

Jordanova, Ludmilla. 1984. Lamarck. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Spary, Emma C. 2000. Utopia’s Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Update 247 Review

I was puzzled as to why the translation for this was listed as a redraw, as the previous chapters had covered the entirety of the ninja arc to date before the hiatus. Then I realised that it was the numbering foolishness messing with the translators. EH! Not my problem. Shall we go on?

Summary

The chapter opens with Suiryu being discharged from hospital. He's been given a huge bouquet by the nurses and wished a speedy return to hospital, something he understandably has no plan to do. As he makes his way down the road, his attention is attracted by screaming, which turns out to be coming from a woman about to be eaten by a monster giant anteater. He splits it in half with a single chop, noting with satisfaction that his strength has returned.

He turns back to the business at hand, that of finding the Hero Association and Saitama, and is surprised that every online search for 'hero' brings up the Neo Heroes. Things have definitely changed... but he doesn't have much time to muse on it for he is nearly flattened by the enormous head of what had been a much bigger monster giant anteater. Could Saitama be out here? No, the person who'd sent the monster's head flying was an idol. She introduced herself as Webigaza, and that she was back from her hiatus to work as a Neo Hero as well as sing. She pauses to take a deep drink of water -- she's thirsty -- and then encourages people to support the Neo Heroes before flying off.

Suiryu stares after her like a cat seeing baubles hung up on a Christmas tree. Come to that, maybe he's a little thirsty too. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to check out the opposition first... after all, he can quit right away. Elsewhere, we see an unamused Suiko surprised that her brother has discharged himself without telling her. Her concern quickly turns to outrage when she reads the note he's left for her and realises that he's stuck her with the bill.

He's just the nicest guy, isn't he?

Suiryu arrives at the Neo Hero tower and is quickly ushered into the testing facilities. With difficulty, he gets squeezed into a power suit, all while muttering to himself about how uncool it'd make him if he approached that girl looking like that.

Once on though, he feels the enormous surge of power it brings. Excited, he flexes, and the suit crumbles like a badly-baked biscuit. Worse, he now need to pay for it. Five million, which is more than the three million he earned in the Superfight.

If you break it, you've bought it. Love the detail of Suiryu flexing hard enough to break his remaining armband.

The chapter closes with a weeping Suiryu being introduced to Metal Bat. He's stuck in Neo Heroes until he can earn enough to pay off his debts.

Oh yeah, one final detail. Has McCoy handed in his notice before he started moonlighting for the Neo Heroes? He better have, the rat!

Phew, thank goodness this wasn't longer! Shall we do some meta?

Meta

We're a week on, so the outraged whines of fans expecting a showdown between Blast and Void have died down. It's totally par for the course. All I will say is this:

If you were around when this chapter (chapter 67) was first posted, you'll know that it was well over a year (in chapter 77) that we got to find out what happened.

Yup, ONE reserves the right to go 'Meanwhile...' and go somewhere else, sometimes for extended periods of time. Deal with it.

Saturation Bombing

Well, now we're back to the Neo Hero storyline, and man, when they launched, they launched HARD. They've sopped up all the SEO real estate to crowd the Hero Association off the first page of the search engines. Their TV and billboard ads are everywhere. They've even bought up the storefronts around around their headquarters. And all in the space of days. The wallets bankrolling this venture must be abyssally deep (I will return to this in a sec).

A leopard doesn't change his spots

I won't lie: Suiryu is the character I've had the most trouble seeing the point of. I've tried, but I'm still of the opinion that this lazy, feckless, superficially charming, and not-at-all-nice guy gets given way too much real estate. Well, he may be serious about wanting to be a hero but he's still as feckless as he ever was. Yes, he won a considerable sum of money just before being hospitalised and so had no chance to spend it. Yet, true to his nature, he fucks off and sticks his sister with the bill. And true to his nature, he decides to take a pass at an idol (someone who will have hell to pay if she's even thought to be dating), fully intending to cut and run as soon as he gets what he's chasing after. Well, the wheels were always going to come off sooner or later. Might as well be now. Good.

Chef's Kiss

I know that many people were a bit disturbed to find how... normal Webigaza looks but I think it's FANTASTIC. Why? Well, a slightly creepy idol isn't everyone's cup of tea, but they'd be someone's shot of whiskey, unusual and thus not interchangeable. It's a recognisable brand she'd have been able to build on. That worked *against* Webigaza's stated desperation to stand out and gain lasting fame.

Anyone into the 'creepy doll' look really, really is into it, and won't be substituting them for another.

By making her an absolutely normal-looking idol, loveable but totally replaceable, Murata has understood the brief. I can 100% believe that this Webi is desperate to be different in some lasting way when she looks exactly the same as a dozen other idols. I can 100% believe her when she's obsessed with Sweet Mask and wants what he has when she knows that the crowd that cheers for her today will cheer just as enthusiastically next year for someone who looks and sounds almost exactly like her. That she'll be forgotten despite having poured her entire life into entertaining. And that she'd rather die than see it happen.

Because she looks generic, it makes sense that she's painfully aware of how replaceable she is.

This works. This really, really works.

Let's talk cash, pt. 1: suits of contention

As many sharp-eyed readers have noticed, that suit that Suiryu got given looks awfully familiar. It's a dead ringer for the ones that Tongara's team got given by Narinki.

And once those suits hulked out...

... they looked an awful lot like the ones Hammerhead's crew got their hands on.

No prizes for guessing that this Neo Hero thing is most probably a front for one of the most successful conspiracies in fiction, The Organization. Successful because they're able to work to achieve their aims without anyone blabbing prematurely.

Let's talk cash, pt. 2: debtor's jail

It probably shouldn't surprise us too much that Suiryu is in such good shape after leaving hospital. After all, it wasn't just any hospital he went to but a Hero Hospital, a place where exceptional effort is expended in healing people rapidly. Also a very costly place, as McCoy pointed out to Mad Devil Yankee.

The drop of realism that sells the fantasy harder: yes, there's medicine and technology to heal up incredible injuries and illnesses super fast. But the price is steep!

Oh yeah, the apparent throwaway is becoming quite relevant now. I wonder if someone will point out to Suiko that joining the Hero Association would be a quick way to discharge her brother's medical debt?

I wouldn't mind this brewing Neo Hero saga to stick around a little longer. But I'm easy -- I've long since stopped expecting a particular thing to happen at a given time. All will be well in the end.

[batmanego]

DAVID HALLER READING LIST

have you ever wanted to read a story that will make you go 'hm, i can't decide if this depiction of DID is surprisingly progressive or reductive for the time'? have you ever wanted to kill charles xavier more than you already do? have you ever just wanted to see a 14 year old be the worst person in a 100 mile radius? luckily for you i've dedicated a non insignificant amount of time and brainspace to thinking about little miss ableism, david charles haller. below the cut is a list of recommended reading for getting into him and his miserable life, links included.

LEGION: SON OF X/X-MEN LEGACY VOL. 2 this is quintessential david reading, and while it's not where david's story starts, it's where i would recommend new readers begin. it's fairly self contained and gives us the basis for a lot of his modern characterization, as well as having a depiction of david's DID that resonates a lot with me. read lsox/xml vol 2 Here.

LEGION: SHADOW KING RISING shadow king rising is also quintessential david reading, and what i would recommend new readers read second. shadow king rising collect's davids first appearances and documents his time on muir island and also that time he killed destiny! whoopsies! read it here. also, you should read this specific issue of x-men forever.

X-MEN: AGE OF APOCALYPSE PRELUDE hey, remember destiny and how david killed her? well, there were some consequences for that action. age of apocalypse prelude explores the consequences of that, notably mystique trying to kill him. also, david tries to kill magneto and kind of fucks up spectacularly. read it here.

NEW MUTANTS VOL. 3: RETURN OF LEGION david was in the otherplace. now he's back. he's not having a very good time. start here to issue 5, then issue 14 so you can see his torture chamber, and then issue 24.

X-MEN: AGE OF X david shunts everyone into an alternate dimension again, this time spurred by medical abuse! you can read this entire thing if you want here, but what's really important is.....

X-MEN: LEGACY VOL. 1 ISSUES 247-253 more age of x stuff! and also aftermath! and also lost legions! just a whole bunch of stuff for davey boy. he gets to hang out with magneto. start here, end at 253.

WAY OF X way of x is a kurt book. but david is there. i'm not the biggest fan of what's currently going on with david, but he is there. read it here.

LEGION OF X legion of x is a kurt book being billed as a david book. it's fine. i really like the judgement day issue. this is what is currently going on with david. read it here.

anyway, that's just about it for charles' firstborn and least favorite son! he's had other appearances, but these are the ones that i think are easiest to collect and are the most important for his character. happy reading!

[deadpresidents]

2 and a half weeks until JC passes Cactus Jack!

It took me a little bit to figure out what you were referencing, but yes, Jimmy Carter will pass John Nance Garner as the longest-living President or Vice President in American history on September 18th. And if he is still with us on October 1st, Carter will be the first President or Vice President in American history to celebrate their 99th birthday.

And since I'm a huge dork who finds this stuff interesting, here's the big, complete list of longest-living to shortest-living Presidents and Vice Presidents in American history: (Presidents are in bold text, Vice Presidents are in italics, and those who served as both POTUS and VP are in bold italics.) John Nance Garner: 98 years, 351 days Jimmy Carter: 98 years, 337 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Levi P. Morton: 96 years, 0 days George H.W. Bush: 94 years, 171 days Gerald R. Ford: 93 years, 165 days Ronald Reagan: 93 years, 120 days Walter Mondale: 93 years, 81 days John Adams: 90 years, 247 days Herbert Hoover: 90 years, 71 days Harry S. Truman: 88 years, 232 days Charles G. Dawes: 85 years, 239 days James Madison: 85 years, 104 days Thomas Jefferson: 83 years, 82 days Dick Cheney: 82 years, 216 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Hannibal Hamlin: 81 years, 311 days Richard Nixon: 81 years, 104 days Joe Biden: 80 years, 287 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) John Quincy Adams: 80 years, 227 days Aaron Burr: 80 years, 220 days Martin Van Buren: 79 years, 231 days Adlai E. Stevenson: 78 years, 234 days Dwight D. Eisenhower: 78 years, 165 days Alben W. Barkley: 78 years, 157 days Andrew Jackson: 78 years, 85 days Spiro Agnew: 77 years, 261 days Donald Trump: 77 years, 81 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) George W. Bush: 77 years, 59 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Henry A. Wallace: 77 years, 42 days James Buchanan: 77 years, 39 days Bill Clinton: 77 years, 15 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Dan Quayle: 76 years, 211 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Charles Curtis: 76 years, 14 days Al Gore: 75 years, 156 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Millard Fillmore: 74 years, 60 days James Monroe: 73 years, 67 days George Clinton: 72 years, 268 days George M. Dallas: 72 years, 174 days William Howard Taft: 72 years, 174 days John Tyler: 71 years, 295 days Grover Cleveland: 71 years, 98 days Thomas R. Marshall: 71 years, 79 days Nelson Rockefeller: 70 years, 202 days Elbridge Gerry: 70 years, 129 days Rutherford B. Hayes: 70 years, 105 days Richard M. Johnson: 70 years, 33 days William Henry Harrison: 68 years, 54 days John C. Calhoun: 68 years, 13 days William A. Wheeler: 67 years, 339 days George Washington: 67 years, 295 days Benjamin Harrison: 67 years, 205 days Woodrow Wilson: 67 years, 36 days William R. King: 67 years, 11 days Hubert H. Humphrey: 66 years, 231 days Andrew Johnson: 66 years, 214 days Thomas A. Hendricks: 66 years, 79 days Charles W. Fairbanks: 66 years, 24 days Zachary Taylor: 65 years, 227 days Franklin Pierce: 64 years, 319 days Lyndon B. Johnson: 64 years, 148 days Mike Pence: 64 years, 88 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Henry Wilson: 63 years, 279 days Ulysses S. Grant: 63 years, 87 days Franklin D. Roosevelt: 63 years, 72 days Barack Obama: 62 years, 30 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) Schuyler Colfax: 61 years, 296 days Calvin Coolidge: 60 years, 185 days Theodore Roosevelt: 60 years, 71 days Kamala Harris: 58 years, 318 days (As of Sept. 3, 2023) William McKinley: 58 years, 228 days Warren G. Harding: 57 years, 273 days Chester A. Arthur: 57 years, 44 days James S. Sherman: 57 years, 6 days Abraham Lincoln: 56 years, 62 days Garret A. Hobart: 55 years, 171 days John C. Breckinridge: 54 years, 116 days James K. Polk: 53 years, 225 days Daniel D. Tompkins: 50 years, 355 days James Garfield: 49 years, 304 days John F. Kennedy: 46 years, 177 days

[247liveculture]

September 9, 1972, the first episode of "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" premieres! 📺

[weirdowithaquill]

So How Many Engines Does the NWR Actually Have?

Eighty, according to the Reverend Wilbert Awdry - but this includes British Rail and Industrial engines. It also seems excessive for an island the size of Sodor which has, according to TheUnluckyTug, an 87.7 odd mile mainline and another 30 odd miles of branchline, especially when compared with several other railways of similar size. I am going to warn everyone here, this post is long.

The neighbouring Furness Railway built roughly 247 engines during its lifetime, of which a good fifty-five were 'Sharpies' - however that railway had 190 miles of railway and served some of the largest steelworks and dockyards in all of England. In contrast, the Northern Counties Committee Railway in Northern Island had a maximum route mileage of around 282 miles and only 73 engines. This same NCC ran nearly half of all trains in Northern Island at the time, sharing a duopoly with the GNRI. After amalgamating together into the Northern Ireland Railways and shrinking the full network of Northern Irish railway down to 225 miles, they today run 47 locomotives.

The railway network that serves the entirety of Northern Island is bigger than Sodor in length and requires less engines. It also calls at 54 stations, in comparison to Sodor's 27 stations that the NWR serves. So, let's do some maths and logic puzzles to try and figure out how many engines the NWR actually needs to serve the Island of Sodor.

Firstly, let's look at how many the books name: eleven NWR steam locomotives, six diesel engines, one track maintenance vehicle, as well as three industrial engines and an unknown number of electric engines. This means that the Peel Godred line could have any number of engines, however we can make a reasonable estimate at two multiple units for the four stops, and two or three goods engines to look after the aluminium traffic and other goods work. That makes five engines needed for the branchline.

The Ffarquhar branchline similarly does not require that many engines. Its primary industry is the Anopha Quarry, with a number of farms making up the rest of the freight traffic the line would have. In the books, the line is run by Thomas, Percy, Toby, Daisy and Mavis - the private industrial engine who manages the quarry. This means that there is one dedicated railcar, one autotank-fitted tank engine, a tram engine, a dedicated quarry diesel and Percy to run the line. The only addition possibly required would be an engine to run dedicated stone trains from Ffarquhar to the junction or the harbour, a task that seems to already be covered by Toby, Percy and Mavis. That adds another five engines to our list of standard-gauge engines on Sodor.

Another branchline that does not need any extra engines would be the Little Western, which was only refurbished by Sir Charles Hatt to access the ballast from the old MSR mines. With Duck and Oliver running passengers, Duck managing most of the limited freight traffic that isn't ballast and Donald and Douglas covering most ballast trains, there is no need for any extra engines, and adds another four engines to our list.

After that, Edward's branchline is where we may see some additions. The branchline may be quite short, having only three stations on its route, but it also has Brendam Harbour, which is a major port for the island, as well as the China Clay Pits, which are served by Bill and Ben - the other two industrial engines mentioned in the books. They are known to shunt Brendam Harbour on occasion, while Edward and BoCo run the branchline itself, with Donald and Douglas helping. This line would need more engines as freight traffic through Brendam Docks increased, as well as a dedicated shunting engine for the harbour. That adds up to seven engines to our list to run this section of the line - being Bill, Ben, Edward, BoCo and three new helpers.

Potential candidates from the TVS for filling these roles could be: Salty, Neville, Molly or perhaps Whiff - all of whom are either shunting engines or medium-sized engines who would be able to compliment Edward and BoCo well.

After Edward's branchline, we have to talk about the Kirk Ronan and Norramby branches. The Kirk Ronan branchline has three stations, and was once part of the Sodor and Mainland Railway. We know passenger traffic is poor, and the freight traffic was solely dedicated to mineral traffic from the Skarloey Railway heading to the port. It's highly likely that this line is either kept operational for a token service, or has one engine running it. Either way, we can add one engine to the list, of whom I would suggest Arthur.

The Norramby branchline is currently served by the Other Railway, according to Awdry - this would mean multiple units running passenger trains from Barrow and potentially a freight service, though that would have likely been discontinued in the 1960's during the Beeching cuts. Currently, 26 trains operate out of Barrow up the Cumbrian Coast Line per day, while the Furness line sees roughly 24 trains per day, according to the Northern Rail Timetable. Most likely, one of these two lines would have their services extend to Norramby, meaning up to 24 trains per day for the line. However, it is highly unlikely that each train to arrive on this service is a new engine, with it being more likely to be four or five engines. This adds five engines to our list, for a current total of twenty-seven.

To this figure, we can add the Works Diesel, Bloomer, and the austerity engine referenced in 'Wilbert the Forest Engine', making thirty.

This leaves the mainline as needing 50 whole engines to reach Awdry's figure of 80 - and of this potential number, we know Henry, Gordon, James, Bear, Pip and Emma. To understand how many engines are needed, we need to understand what jobs these engines would do - of which, there is passenger trains, the express, freight trains and shunting.

If the mainline has eleven stations, 87.7 miles of track and they wanted to have a train arrive every hour to meet their Northern partners... well, they'd need more engines. It takes one hour for a train between Lancaster and Barrow - a distance of 28.6 miles, so we can safely assume that tripling the distance would triple the time - for a trip time of around three hours. Now, this time would most likely be shortened by the chance for the engines to achieve higher speeds between stations, as the number of stations on both lines is roughly equal - 10 on the Furness line to 11 on the NWR mainline - but even still, it would require the railway running six separate stopping trains per day. Considering that only four of the six engines above could even run commuter trains, I would say that there is need for more engines.

There are currently two express trains that run on the Island of Sodor: The Limited and the WildNorWester, however it is not certain that the Limited is still running, as it only appeared for 'Enterprising Engines'. In any case, Pip and Emma are enough to handle fast trains on Sodor.

Freight is an interesting variable - we know that Sodor produces aluminium near Peel Godred, and that the alumina needs to be transported up there, and the finished product moved to the mainland, as well as general goods trains, farm produce trains, and freight trains bound for the harbours or from the quarry or China Clay pits. Based on these key requirements, it is safe to say Sodor needs a few more engines.

So, for the mainline we have Pip, Emma, Gordon, Henry, James, Bear and at least eight other engines of various sizes. Two of these engines would be built to run passenger trains alongside Henry, James, Gordon and Bear, while the other six would handle goods traffic, in particular bulk traffic or local goods. Fourteen engines, with potential help from Donald, Douglas and BoCo seems more reasonable as a number of engines on the mainline of a primarily agricultural island.

Suggestions for these engines include Murdoch, Derek, Emily and Rebecca - which is a shorter list than it should be due to the lack of large, mainline engines in the Thomas series who could feasibly run in the UK.

Finally, two shunting engines - one for Tidmouth and one for Barrow-in-Furness - can be added to the list, as since Duck gained his branchline, we have not been introduced to the new station pilot at Tidmouth and since the rise of the multiple-unit, Barrow station would require an engine to act as station pilot there too. Options for here include Diesel, Charlie, Dennis, Rosie and Paxton.

All of these numbers added together equals: 46. Twenty-three branchline engines, three industrial engines, two maintenance engines, one austerity engine, one preserved engine, fourteen mainline engines and two station pilots. Considering at the beginning I said that Northern Ireland Railways runs 47 engines currently and has a network of over double the size of Sodor but doesn't run freight, I would say that this is a pretty respectable estimate.

In direct contrast to this estimate, my ERS has 34 engines who cover the entire NWR and the neighbouring Furness Line. My reasoning: Donald and Douglas are magic, and scarily efficient. Having the two of them around means Edward and BoCo need no help on their branchline, and also Sodor would not need a commuter train every hour - it's a rural, agricultural island with three major population centres at Peel Godred, Vicarstown and Tidmouth. And also cause I have enough characters to balance already, Awdry had the right idea keeping the cast relatively small.

[autistook]

AITA 🔞

So a few months ago a person I know through work that I was becoming friends with asked me out, I turned him down and it was fine. He was sometimes a bit draining because he kept telling me how much he hates himself, how sad he was if I didnt want to hang out or talk all the time, and I told him I feel uncomfortable talking 247 because I need my own space, that I'm not that social. He had our chat open at all times and it felt a little uncomfortable so I asked him about it, and he told me in kind of a shaming way that he has no other friends so he has to talk to me, but otherwise he seemed to understand. I did ask him to not do it because it made me feel pressured to see him read our chats immediately. I felt like I had to answer him immediately and it was overwhelming. He seemed to understand and changed his behavior.

Now.

He was drinking pretty excessively and used 400€ on alcohol in two days.

Now, I grew up with alcoholic parents, and I told him his excessive usage is making me worried and uncomfortable, especially considering he kept complaining about his financial situation. He told me he went to a food-aid thing and kept using money for alcohol.

Now, considering I also had drank excessively last year (because I had that partying phase like 5 years late) and because of all my trauma I saw where it was going and told him I didn't want to be in contact, told him my worries and that I can't deal with this energy in my mental state. Told him to contact me when he hopefully drinks less, that then I'll be all good to hang out again.

One day he messaged me "pretty hypocritical of you to call me out on drinking when you're drinking as well!" when he saw me and my friends having one drink per person in our regular bar where we play board games often, not even necessarily drinking anything with alcohol most of the time. He was apparently there in some corner as well.

I told him that I don't really appreciate his attacking me when I expressed my concern for him and my boundaries. He kept comparing my last years drinking and shaming me for it and telling me it's unfair of me to not want to be in contact and to call him out on his drinking if 'I've been the same way'. I told him that I never prioritized alcohol over food and that even if I did, I would have more the reason to stay away from that behavior to not relapse if it ever went that bad, and more the reason to express my concern if I saw the pattern repeat on someone I care for.

I also told him I had talked to my friends of how he talked to me on the matter and how even they were worried. He brushed it off.

Then he went: "Well, you went to fuck some random dude!"

Now, I had told him I do sex work sometimes. Very rarely, just a few times and its always been the same man and only when I'm financially struggling and need to eat and pay bills. Even if it was more often, who cares. It's just work.

I felt like he was slut shaming, so I called him out, wished him the best and finished the convo by saying "and fuck you :)" and blocked him.

Was I the asshole for this 😭 I feel kinda awful (been a few months and a few days ago I saw him at my job). Anyway, I kept feeling attacked when I was genuinely worried and tried to keep myself safe from an enviroment I saw as toxic and possibly harmful.

He is a very low self esteem personality and I feel bad for telling him to fuck off, but I felt really shamed and hurt for the comment he made on my sex work. I also felt like he completely disregarded my boundaries.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

The Guardian:

The House passed legislation on Tuesday that would sanction the international criminal court after its chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. The 247-155 vote amounts to Congress’s first legislative rebuke of the war-crimes court since prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision last month to seek arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Hamas. The move was widely denounced in Washington, creating a rare moment of unity on Israel even as partisan divisions over the war with Hamas intensified. While the House bill was expected to pass Tuesday, it was not likely to attract significant Democratic support, dulling its chances in the Senate. The White House opposes the legislation, calling it overreach. Both the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House foreign affairs committee acknowledged the bill is unlikely to become law and left the door open to further negotiation with the White House. They said it would be better for Congress to be united against the Hague-based court. “We’re always strongest, particularly on this committee, when we speak with one voice as one nation, in this case to the ICC and to the judges,” GOP representative Mike McCaul, chair of the foreign affairs Committee, said during House debate. “A partisan messaging bill was not my intention here but that is where we are.” State department spokesperson Matt Miller reiterated the administration’s opposition to the sanctions bill.

Totally disgraceful that 247 House Members (including 42 Democrats) voted to enable Israeli war crimes by passing a bill to sanction the ICC.

[sumplysilly]

UTILITY BILL/GROCERY HELP ($4/297)

HEYYYY it's that time of month again. I need $247 by the 29th for my utility bill, $20 by the 20th for insurance, & I'd really like to get some money for groceries before the Feb 18-24 strike bc me & my turtle are pretty much out of food & won't make it through the full week off what I currently have

Here's my commission info, I also have a ko-fi which I take requests on, some examples of my art below. I can draw any kind of character! Nudity & gore are fine aswell! Tyty for reading & sharing