#(the photo was from wikipedia--link provided)

[angstandhappiness]

AUGH, THEM OLD LOVERS

(Post Part 27)

Udo Shrine is a real shrine in modern-day Nichinan. Nichinan's only been around since the Meiji Restoration, so in the mid-1800s, the area would've likely been referred to as the greater Hyuuga province. Travel was also heavily restricted by the Edo government (Sakamoto Ryouma, the person Tatsuma is based off of, ran into so many issues with that policy.), but with the proper authorization, travel was possible.

PART 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 20.5 / 20.75 / 21 / 22 / 22.5 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 27.5 / 27.75 / 27.99 / 27.999 / 28 / 29

[berryjammer7]

Why So Blue?

Alright, Baby Varian writes about a lot science stuff in my Crescent Moon TTS comic (exemplified on this page and the next: https://berryjammer7.tumblr.com/post/637645850521272320/crescent-moon-pg-01 ), so now I am going to extrapolate excessively about it to provide you all with even more needless details--specifically about the science of blue! (This will be a long one and a lot of text, so grab some tea or something)

Firstly, let’s talk about what most fans know about Varian’s blue hair streak. The blue streak does exist. He’s had it since he was a baby as seen in a photo from the show, and the color eyedropper tool in my art app tells me that is blue (NOT green, you colorblind fools). Then there’s the whole theory that Varian’s dad Quirin absorbed some of the moonstone while working with the brotherhood after it exploded a little bit (as one does). Then he passed that on to Varian. All of which is well and good.

But let’s talk about the SCIENCE!

Ironically, this is not the first time I’ve dealt with blue hair [insert artist backstory]. Before TTS even came out, I created an OC I named Blueberry (my user-name-sake) who also has blue hair:

(Don’t judge the anatomy, I was a baby artist)

Blue, as it turns out, is actually very rare in nature, and this sci-show youtube video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9cdoPD51bng provides a pretty good summary of why that is (and how pigments work in general).

So while I had long since determined Blueberry had a plant based pigment that made his hair blue (anthocyanin), Varian clearly had some sort of mineral based pigment from the moonstone. I’m guessing he only ever had enough passed on from his dad to turn his hair slightly blue (until he snatched the moon shard in my comic, that is).

But I’m going to take this one step further. Varian’s hair is black, and if you’ve ever tried to dye dark hair, you’ll know that it is hard for any color to stand out without bleaching it first. And that’s where Poliosis comes in.

If Varian has a single strand of hair that produces no melanin, then the blue pigment can show more clearly. I find this to be a really cool option because I actually have poliosis (or something similar.)

(Kinda like reverse Rapunzel, amiright? My blonde streak is somewhere on the back of my head though, so not as cool.) This is also called a Mallen streak, but because that term is more modern coming from a book series set in the 19th century, using it in the comic is a bit anachronistic. The condition has been associated with witchcraft for a long time though, which seems fitting for someone dealing with the magic of the moonstone (whether he ‘works with magic’ or no.)

So yeah! That’s it! Seriously, go watch that sci-show episode, blue is SO COOL! I do wanna add a disclaimer though—if I am wrong on any of this science stuff let’s just all pretend it’s due to the limits of scientific knowledge at the time the comic is set rather than my own fallibility.😅 Maybe people already know all this stuff, but I just never see it talked about!

+++++

Bonus, this Wikipedia link for Al-Jazari: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_al-Jazari Guys, this fellow is credited with making all sorts of automata (!?!), as well as the first flushing toilet—he deserves your respect!

[sgiandubh]

Just so stories: Mommy and Daddy

In the (questionably) blessed White Picket Fenced America of 1955, things were deceptively simple:

Mommy stayed home, while Daddy was earning enough cash to buy that new Frigidaire.

Uhm. No, not really: see what happens to Mad Men's Betty Draper, the pearl-stringed suburbia matron. Not exactly a cheerful look, but perhaps a true, albeit neurotic, one.

For some unfathomable reason, one of the main dismissive arguments used against shippers reads along some very similar lines. I paraphrase, as this is a collective POV (probably stemmed from CO's laboratory and snowballed to great success across their dashboards):

'Oh, aren't they stupid! How can they expect C to follow him around the world, children in tow, at his beck and call? Or to wait for him, military wife style, as he traipses from Vegas to London to Paris to Belgium? What are these, The Fifties?'

To this Dorothy Dixon, along comes one of the Tumblrette Pundits, with a ready-made answer, always the same:

'Of course they are stupid! Of course she doesn't! Every time she is working somewhere, she brings McSideburns and The Blonde Bambino around! And McSideburns takes care of Blonde Bambino, as he should! Reality, not fantasy!'

Let alone they have absolutely no clue about the real state of play, given the almost complete, paranoid opacity reigning since at least a Certain Sad Event. Let alone that no other logical/common sense argument provided is accepted (cults seldom deal in both acceptance and common sense);

Nannies? Pah, so 1992! Family safety net? Pah, so suburban! Working parents? Pah, these people are stars, their life is a cornucopia of perks and freebies and glam!

So, in a nutshell, according to them:

Mommy is busy working and Daddy follows all along/ stays at home with Blonde Bambino, hoping that Mommy will bring enough cashola to finish that double glazing people usually install in December.

In other words, we immediately picture C as a 'starke, titanische Weib' / the strong, titanic woman German poets were so fond of back in the 1800's. Dragging along a diminutive, shy, understanding and private McSideburns, trousered Vestal extraordinaire. The rest is taboo (or should be, in my book), at any rate.

Something wrong with this vision? Yes. It's exactly the 1950's one they accuse us of espousing (we don't), but this time the male/female symbolic roles are reversed. As a result, a shrink would have many thoughts and probably a handful of questions about that need to completely castrate the Goddess's Consort to perfect oblivion. Obliterating his life, his story and even his name, for Christ's sake!

Not a good look for either C and The Prop and, to be honest, quite a weird, borderline insulting one, especially when coming from 'respectful, realistic' fans. The real utility seems to be concealing the emptiness of a Tale Forever Untold. It will be effectively replaced by the chorus with the perfect fantasy of a modern dad, a successful producer/manager and so on and so forth.

Reality is a bit different, if you just take a look on The Fratellis' Wikipedia page and follow the links:

But, but, but... 'additional personnel' (😱😱😱) - how could that be?

And yes, remember (LOL) David Eustace and the FMN shooting photo of the Happy Dynamic Duo? Happy to oblige to a friend who provided a work project (that album was postponed two or three times, then released in 2021) during COVID, probably.

The mere thought of a young, urban, sophisticated, committed and trusting couple, living and loving their best life, traveling separately or together, allowing 'spaces in their togetherness' (wasn't that The Prophet quote she liked and shared?) is something that gives them the shingles. Anything but this. Anything - even that sad The Empress and Her Additional Personnel narrative.

You see, they don't like The Obvious. At all.

[edenfenixblogs]

Heads up that the following post discusses the poster photographed at this link. The link shows an antisemitic poster (this post will discuss why and how it is antisemitic as well as why everything about it is done in bad faith from a shady organization that should not be trusted).

You do not need to click the link to understand the content of this post, but you can choose to do so for context.

TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THE POSTER:

Child death, child endangerment, starvation, war zones, body horror, graphic imagery

Link: https://www.tumblr.com/edenfenixblogs/750494095702704128/trigger-warnings-child-death-starvation-war

Ok, let’s get into it.

Part 1: Why Is It Antisemitic?

1. It starts by putting Jews on the defensive

This poster instantly puts any Jew who takes issue with the phrasing or rhetoric on this poster as a lying villain falsely accusing good people of bigotry in order to support a genocide. What about people who disagree with Israel’s bombardment of Palestine, but who also think this poster is antisemitic? Where will they be heard? How will their concerns be addressed?

2. It only addresses the needs of non-Jews

The goal to disarm people in a conflict is a good one! Why is it only Israel that must be disarmed when Israel is also receiving incoming bombs on a daily basis? Is that peace? Or is that a call for one side to be murdered? How does this address the stochastic threat that Jews outside of Israel are facing?

3. It offers no solutions for peace

After Israel is disarmed, what is the goal for the Israeli people and state? How will Israelis be protected? Should they have any protection? How will the defend against bombs from Hamas and Lebanon? What treaties will be negotiated to enable peace? How will antisemitic extremists be deradicalized? What policy-based or judicial systems or safeguards will be put in place to guarantee safety for both Palestinians and Israelis? Taking weapons away from one side of an armed conflict doesn’t create peace. It creates an unarmed target. I am a pacifist and against all war. But I am also against taking weapons away solely from the side that popular OR unpopular opinion deems “wrong.” Stopping destruction in Palestine—especially on the scale in which it is occurring—is vital. But that alone does not ensure peace or even encourage peace. All it does is disarm people. Peace is a negotiated state of existence not a lack of weaponry.

4. It mispells antisemitism

I am not inclined to believe that a person or organization who cannot spell antisemitism has a clear or complete understanding of what antisemitism entails or how it expresses itself in society.

Part 2: Source Evaluation (TL;DR: Abject failure across the board)

1. Not on charity navigator

Taxpayers for peace does not appear on charity navigator at all. I must question whether or not it is in fact a charity or simply a lobby. I also have no way of assessing the companies funding, spending, or transparency—because they do not provide information on the website.

2. No funding information on the website itself

I touched on this in the above bullet point. But it is really important in this conflict to know exactly where the money you give is going and where an organization is getting most of its money from. Hamas got its start from the charities associated with the terrorist organization, The Muslim Brotherhood. (^^I will be Reblogging this post with more info on this but don’t have time to address this all with photos and links in this post. For now, here are the linked Wikipedia sources and a screenshot of the info in question. As always with Wikipedia, consider it a starting point and read the sources the page cites, not just the wiki article)

3. Several source links are dead.

Not many sources are available on the taxpayersforpeace website, and they certainly do not have a tab specifically devoted to sources.

Here is the list of sources.

The two Badil links are dead:

4. Available sources are sparse

Of the few sources there are, there are only three actual organizations responsible for them: B’Tselem, Badil, and Architect and Academic Malkit Shoshan’s seminal work, Atlas of a Conflict.

The sources from Badil lead to dead links, leaving only Shoshan and B’Tselem. Two sources are not enough to support an entire website. Two sources are not even enough to support an academic paper.

5. Available sources are outdated

None of the sources of this constantly evolving and ongoing conflict were written within the last decade. Even if these sources are considered legitimate, it is odd that more recent ones were not included.

6. The available sources are used manipulatively

So, we have two sources. Let’s look at them.

Source 1: Malkit Shoshan

By all accounts, she is a highly respected and credible source on architecture, spacial design and planning, and the way that the small space shared between Israel and Palestine has shifted to be dominated by Israel over the past several decades. She has been continually critical of Israeli settlements in the West Bank (as have I) and has been extremely consistent in including Palestinian voices and struggles in her advocacy for peace (as have I).

She also supports BDS (which I do not).

Her work has explores the relationship between architecture, urban planning, and human rights.

She is respected but also controversial source on the conflict. She has signed her name to a Harvard faculty letter (as a member of the faculty) endorsing BDS and Palestinian Solidarity. Her work is sure to ruffle some feathers. (The letters to which this one responded are also linked within the above link, providing several perspectives on the matter during a previous flare of the ongoing conflict—from before 10/7)

However, while she very well might be anti-Zionist, I have not been able to find any statements by her to the affirmative in this case. If anyone has such statements I welcome them in order to provide a more thorough analysis of her as a source. But from what I could gather, she views herself as a progressive seeking peace between Israel and Palestine.

And while she would characterize many aspects of Israeli treatment of Palestine as colonial in nature (a statement which I do not agree with as a blanket statement about Israel as a whole, but for which she provides compelling evidence in certain instances, especially in the West Bank), I have yet to see her call the whole of Israel as a colonial project. In fact, she views Israel as a whole as post-colonial, according to her most recent interview with Haaretz. In fact, she seems to reject the idea that violence from either side is appropriate or necessary in order to attain peace—and on this matter, I occur wholeheartedly:

She states that she prefers to engage in discourse rather than violence. She discusses European colonialism as a decades-bygone problem because of which we are still dealing with tremendous fallout internationally. Additionally, she goes on to say that other nations are using the conflict in Israel and Palestine to suit their own geopolitical ends. And she does not isolate American, European, or Middle Eastern nations as uniquely manipulative in this matter. She acknowledges that every side has an agenda.

Her work seeks to humanize Palestinians. Not dehumanize Israelis. I have found no evidence that she would sign her name to a statement condemning Israel and the US of collaborating to commit genocide—let alone a billboard with graphic, triggering imagery. Her work focuses on building a better future—helping internally displaced Palestinians speak with their governments and organizations on their own behalf to obtain equal access to civic resources—in a shared homeland that prioritizes humanity, cohabitation, mutual acknowledgment and respect, and a peace. As controversial as her work is, she makes sure to participate in what she calls “productive disagreement,” including bringing together frequently opposing Israeli and Palestinian voices.

She has written award winning books and been involved with thought-provoking art installations, yet all of her work focuses on improving Palestinian welfare and recognition, not tearing Israel or Israelis down or telling the US to unilaterally disarm Israel entirely. She focuses primarily on how life within the Levant can be improved, not on international military relations.

Her own personal Twitter account acknowledges the pain of all involved, including Israelis’. And she seeks an end to the conflict, not a victor.

One thing is clear: She does not want her name associated with poorly sourced information, inflammatory rhetoric, or “counterproductive rage” that dehumanizes anyone.

(SOURCE EVAL TL;DR: AN INTERESTING AND COMPELLING SOURCE PROVIDED WITHOUT ADEQUATE CONTEXT AND MANIPULATED FURTHER A ONE-SIDED AGENDA)

Source 2: B’Tselem

This is certainly a more interesting source than I have seen cited by anti-Israel folks than most others. First of all, the source seems to originate from within Israel.

Encouragingly, they do actually appear on charity navigator with a 94% rating.

Despite this, I have a few problems related to this rating.

This rating is based on data from no later than 2021

The charity has not posted tax documents on its site

They have not provided access to board meeting minutes.

Its entire score is calculated based only on financial data that is three years out of date. There is not data on its impact as an organization, measurement of data, internal culture and community, or analysis of its leadership. It’s essentially a stamp of approval that the financial documentation sent to charity navigator 3 years ago was in order.

It is harshly critical of Israel’s allowing settlements in the West Bank as well as of many of its policies toward Palestine and treatment of Palestinians. In large letters near the bottom of its page, it states:

“Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”

Given that the organization claims to want equality for Palestinians and Israelis, I doubt they would support a unilateral disarmament. Even though the site itself is tremendously biased against Israel in general (having an article on Israeli use of human shields, but not an extant or equally visible source on Hamas’ use of human shields, which is also well documented). Even this organization acknowledges that crimes against Israeli civilians are indefensible and violate international law and the goal of peace.

(Link to full article found in the text above the image)

Additionally, the organization admits that 50% of its funding comes specifically from outside of Israel. This is intriguing on its own, but I am also suspect of the accusatory manner in which they declare that the law requiring that they disclose this information is meant to “equate their funding with disloyalty.”

To me it is not even the admission that the funding comes from outside of Israel that troubles me. Rather, it is the admission that the funding comes specifically from state sources outside of Israel. Given the relevance of the aforementioned historical precedence that Muslim Brotherhood affiliated “charities” gave rise to Hamas, I would consider the source of funding in charities related to the conflict to be uniquely relevant. The antagonistic tone of the declaration as well as the small text with which it is declared and its placement at the very bottom of the website makes me suspect of the funders in question.

Relatedly, I could not find any financial documents or materials providing transparency in their funding or organization.

Another suspicious bit of information I found is that their Fatalities Statistics database only includes fatalities in the West Bank up to October 31. But it does not include any fatalities in the Gaza Strip OR ISRAEL past 10/6/2023–a day that might alter their data about the Israeli death toll a little.

To be very clear: this does not and will never justify the bombing of Gaza and Rafah. But it fully erases the attack by Hamas against Israel on 10/7/2023. I find this omission highly suspect. And the lack of acknowledgment of Hamas’ attacks on 10/7 or the ongoing incoming missile attacks from Hamas and Lebanon by B’Tselem in its statistics section to be a glaring omission on an organization that supposedly wants peace for all.

I also don’t see a list of sources from which they collect their data or any attempt to differentiate Palestinian citizens from Hamas combatants.

Finally, as I typically champion interfaith and intercultural organizations devoted to peace and relief within Israel and Palestine, I looked for B’Tselem on the Alliance for Middle East Peace website. B’Tselem did not appear on their list of 160+ affiliated/member-charities.

However, you can find those 160+ charities here: https://www.allmep.org

SOURCE EVALUATION TL;DR: Even though the source is flawed and would not pass muster on a full source evaluation in general, even this source itself claims to want violence against Israel to stop, leading me to believe it too would stop short of calling the current situation a genocide—although it would definitely call what is happening to Palestinian civilians in Gaza and Rafah a war crime, indefensible, and untenable (with which I am inclined to generally agree). I was unable to find a search function on the website, so I can’t be 100% certain that they didn’t use the word genocide, but that word seems at odds with their general mission statement, despite their bias. The site also calls for a release of Israeli hostages as well as acknowledging the attack by Hamas on 10/7 as horrific. Based on this information, despite my many problems with this source, even it does not call for unilateral disarmament. It calls for the expulsion of Israeli presence in the West Bank (in accordance with the law), an end to violence, and a release of Israeli hostages.

7. The sources are not provided by Taxpayersforpeace.

The few sources I was able to find for this website originate from VisualizePalestine—a tremendously problematic organization that also fails to appear on charity navigator.

I will included links on my next post about all this cuz I’m beat right now, but: It cites sources that insist on calling the IDF the IOF (tremendously inappropriate in an official document), legitimizing the Muslim Brotherhood, and reframing the intifadas as justifiable acts of resistance—something not even B’Tselem condemned. In general, VP’s entire goal seems to be to “change the narrative” from anti-Palestine to anti-Israel. And that will never support a peaceful future.

Despite my issues with the two sources listed in the graphic pictured above from VP—I find myself in full agreement with the statements at the heart of both Shoshan’s and B’Tselem’s arguments: The future must be geared toward attaining peace for all. Not casting one side or the other as the bad guy or good guy. Tremendous violence has shaped the lives of Israelis and Palestinians for my entire life and since long before I was born. We don’t need to swap our ideal victors. We need to end conflict for everyone. And not by just letting one side or the other be slaughtered, but by negotiating peace.

As always, please click my media analysis tag for more analysis of sources across the political and bias spectrum as well as for insight into how and why I evaluate as I do.

[chiskz]

[ 💿💽 ] CHICHI 2nd Birthday Album (Physical) "moirai"

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♡ teaser/concept photos

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ tracklist

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♡ meaning

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai (often known in English as the Fates) were the personifications of destiny (via Wikipedia).

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

moirai by CHICHI (Stray Kids)

Studio: JYPE (Seoul), Channie's Room (Seoul)

Length: ~ 33 minutes

Released: 12 January 2024

Language: Korean, English, Japanese

Previous solo album (1st Birthday Album [Digital]): Member Branding

Tracklist:

spotify & youtube links are provided. you can also listen whole album here .

1. TITLE Crazy Fate (feat. Park Junhee of A.C.E.)

2. The Footsteps of My Dear Love

3. LAW (feat. Jurin of XG)

4. Loner

5. Villain

6. Devil by the Window

7. Run Away (feat. Seungmin & I.N)

8. YAMAZAKI (feat. SUGA of BTS)

9. IDOL

10. I Don't Wanna Know

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♡ trivia

➥ IDOL was presented during a performance with Avantgardey at MAMA 2023

➥ YAMAZAKI was previously released as a single and won "The Best Collaboration Award" at MAMA 2023

➥ Run Away with Seungmin and I.N was originally intended to be released as SKZ-PLAYER - the song was written in Paris during Stray Kids' visit to Music Bank Paris

➥ I Don't Wanna Know was created by HAN with lyrics by CHICHI - it debuted as SKZ-PLAYER

➥ with Crazy Fate and Loner CHICHI becomes:

* the fastest rapping idol considering each generation

* the fastest rapping idol whose first language is not Korean

* the fastest rapping artist in general using Korean

➥ Junhee's part for Crazy Fate was recorded right after he got out of the army (he got out of the army on 6th August 2023, and recording was already done in September 2023)

➥ The Footsteps of My Dear Love was written by CHICHI as early as two years ago - however, she did not feel vocally ready to perform it earlier

➥ critics assess the album as "an emotional rollercoaster leading to the discovery of one's own identity by a person lost in their own self"

➥ with the album's release, Twitter is trending #CHICHIselfmaderapper , a hashtag under which STAY and CHICHI solo stans express their pride and admiration caused by CHICHI becoming the fastest rapping k-pop rapper, when until recently she was not comfortable with the Korean language (because of which she was a victim of derision)

➥ CHICHI describes moirai as the most important musical release of her life

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♡ quotes from moirai songs describing the whole album

" No matter how pretty the memories are, everyone will forget it. "

" Let's dream a happy dream, just like long ago. "

" It's love and war. "

" I fight with another me, hiding inside of myself. "

" The villain you failed to notice breathes within you. "

" No, I can't tell what is fake in my reality. "

" When the night is nearly ending rewind the clock, rewind now. "

" If you fall back, you're dead. "

" I cannot accept any version of you other than the one stronger than everyone else. "

" Don't stop me now. "

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

coming soon: Crazy Fate M/V & Behind The Scenes

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moirai album cover by my amazing fiancee @moondust-kitten ♡

♡𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @amyysfics , @smh-anon , @neohyxn , @stealanity , @alixnsuperstxr , @juliawritingblog , @rizzshimura , @elizalabs3

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[kedreeva]

Friends at The Sepentry are doing a Pride month giveaway to raise money for The Trevor Project this month. I said I'd let y'all here know it was going on over on Instagram!

If you don't know, The Trevor Project is a nonprofit organization which provides help and support to the queer community through crisis services, peer support/community, research, public outreach, advocacy, and more, with a major focus on suicide prevention in LGBTQ+ youth.

From Wikipedia: "The Trevor Lifeline is a nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth in the United States. The lifeline is a free and confidential service from counselors trained to listen without judgement and can refer callers to supportive local organizations and groups. The number for the line in the United States is 1-866-488-7386."

The Serpentry is doing a little giveaway in an attempt to raise $1,000 for this organization. The actual giveaway post, with full rules (please read them all!), is located here on instagram. You can enter via donating $5 through their fundraiser link. Every $5 is a ticket, and there are extra ways to get tickets in the rules on their instagram- reblogging this post is NOT a way to enter, so you can safely share and spread the word without being entered. Prizes are winner's choice from the photos above!

Even if you don't want to participate in the giveaway, The Trevor Project is a great organization to support this Pride season. Stay safe out there!

[sreegs]

Would you be willing to share your sources relating to the submarine/submersible technology? I believe you, but I’d love to a. read more on the subject and b. Share something that isn’t a tumblr post with a family member

i linked wikipedia articles in my reblog which, themselves, have sources in their references, but i'm not sure what specifically you're asking for a source on.

i presume you're asking why i asserted a sphere is safer than a cylinder which is more or less just physics and not strictly related to subs. a cylinder has more surface area than a sphere of the same diameter therefore it has more surface for pressure to act on. moreover the nature of material manufacture means that a cylinder has more seams (2) than a sphere (1).

spherical pressure hulls are usually made of two halves of forged titanium or steel then fused together along one seam. the titan was two halves of a titanium sphere attached to the ends of a carbon-fiber tube. where the tube was joined to the spheres it made two seams. this is really oversimplifying it but the point is to highlight that seams can provide a point of failure because they're not part of the same continuous material. the more seams the more potential points of failure

if you're asking about the DSVs themselves, when it comes to functional deep-sea capable vessels i guess it's important to point out the difference between a "submarine" (the long tube shape you see used in the military) and a deep-sea vessel like a bathysphere (which is not a submarine because of its lack of mobility).

submarines, especially modern ones, can handle some pretty impressive depths but they don't go anywhere near as deep as vessels designed to travel to the deep sea. military sub max operational depths are probably classified but their reported depths are in the hundreds of meters

modern dsv's dive past ten thousand meters. which is way, way more pressure.

so to understand modern DSVs, here's the description of the batysphere concept and some of the original designs, which which were the first deep-sea capable vessels just much more primitive. they were lowered on cables and didn't travel on their own power. so they weren't really vehicles

here's the next logical step, the bathyscaphe, which allowed it to move up and down under its own power, however the crew cabin is still a sphere. you can see them protruding from the bottom of the vessel in some photos

"deep-submergence vehicles" (which i linked in that reblog) are a bit more closer to submarines in terms of design and mobility, but their crew cabin designs are still spherical, with few exceptions. the deepest-traveling ones are spherical

crew cabins are pressure vessels. meaning they're built to withstand the force of the pressure of the water outside the vehicle. DSV's may have multiple components in compartments that don't look spherical at all from the outside but it makes sense when you realize some of these compartments aren't pressure vessels. some are solid foam. some even flood with sea water by design

take a look at this diagram of the Alvin with crew inside:

the largest pressure vessel is the crew cabin. there's a few other smaller pressure vessels to provide variable ballast (flooded with sea water or pumped with air) and some mercury vessels to provide leveling trims (to tell which way is up)

the rest of the vehicle is either pressure-resistant foam or empty space in which water can get in because the components inside are small enough and engineered to withstand the pressure. remember, because water pressure acts in all directions, the less surface area you have, the less pressure you need to worry about to maintain whatever function you need to perform. since the crew compartment is so big and so important, it's the thickest titanium and probably engineered to more exacting safety standards than some of the other parts

a couple people have already commented more on what i posted with good insight into things i can't explain as well. here's someone going into detail about the sphere vs cylinder issue:

and here someone linked a very informative youtube about the manufacture of the DSV Limiting Factor including footage of the crew compartment being forged from titanium

[bizarrequazar]

GJ and ZZH Updates — February 18-24

previous week || all posts || following week

This is part of a weekly series collecting updates from and relating to Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan.

This post is not wholly comprehensive and is intended as an overview, links provided lead to further details. Dates are in accordance with China Standard Time, the organization is chronological. My own biases on some things are reflected here. Anything I include that is not concretely known is indicated as such, and you’re welcome to do your own research and draw your own conclusions as you see fit. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions. :)

[Glossary of names and terms] [Masterlist of my posts about the situation with Zhang Zhehan]

02-18 → Nothing of note.

02-19 → The Instagram posted a photo of "Zhang Zhehan" at the scam concert with an overlay of "Zhang Mama's" face.

02-20 → Nothing of note.

02-21 → The Instagram posted another London vlog.

02-22 → Third anniversary of Word of Honor's premiere.

→ The Instagram posted a video of "Zhang Zhehan" that I did not subject myself to watching.

→ Danny, the professional basketball player involved in the the 2021 girlfriend smears against Zhang Zhehan (see [here] [here] and the Shenzhen Gang section of [this post]) and the Zhang Sanjian scam ([here]), has lost a social media partnership and will potentially be blacklisted by the Chinese Basketball Association after slandering other players on his podcast. Sources: [1] [2]

02-23 → Addition 03-04: The cram school that included slander against Zhang Zhehan in their test prep books after 813 are facing scam claims and resulting refund requests of 40 million RMB.

02-24 → Gong Jun posted six photos of himself in a restaurant. Caption: "Happy Lantern Festival!!!" His studio reposted this with the added caption, "The Lantern Festival, winter is over @ Gong Jun Simon wishes everyone a happy Lantern Festival~ Come and have a bowl of tangyuan, and be happy!" Fan Observations: Some fans managed to sleuth out what restaurant he was at, and discovered that the photos were taken in their Wenzhou (温州) room.

→ The Instagram posted a video of the scam concert.

Additional Reading: → A late addition to last week: Tumblr user @moniquill posted an article about a group of anti-Indigenous extremist Wikipedia editors. Among the editors listed is OnCamera, the editor who has also been maintaining the misinformation on Zhang Zhehan's Wikipedia page since 2021. (previously discussed under 2023-02-07, original exposé by Flora [here].)

previous week || all posts || following week

This post was last edited 2024-03-04.

[cosy-crafty-corner]

The second module of my hand embroidery course is a complete disappointment. It's a module on design, which is theoretically fun and useful if you want to come up with your own embroidery patterns, but what they actually provide is next to useless.

There's a bit about the basics of colour theory and the use of line and texture in design where they provide half a page of writing (or less because pictures) on each and then tell you to read wikipedia. No, seriously, the sections on colour theory and lines have list of links to go read and the first one in both sections is a link to wikipedia. There are some other links to art galleries and to a section on the BBC website about home design. It's like they put the bare minimum information together and then point the students at the internet if they want to actually learn anything - how is this a course worth paying money for?

Plus one of the links is broken.

There's nothing that would actually put things into context for embroidery - e.g. how different fabric choices impact texture, ways of achieving different line/texture effects with stitches, tips for selecting colour threads from a DMC chart to achieve colour effects, how different choices of fabric colour might influence your choice of thread colours, ideas for achieving perspective impressions using thread thickness. Lots of things that might make any of the first section relevant to the subject matter we're supposed to be learning - and then don't touch on any of them.

The rest of the module is about taking photos and manipulating them in PowerPoint/tracing over them on paper to get little snippets of the image to then turn into abstract designs.

I guess I can see that some people might like this approach as a way to come up with abstract designs - but I'm not one of them.

I would be absolutely find if this was one of a list of ten different ways you could come up with designs and then they talked about other approaches e.g. turning a photo into a cross stitch pattern through software, drafting a design with paper and pencil freehand, cutting shapes out of paper and moving them around a space to see how you like the arrangement, etc. If they gave us this as one approach of several, it would be one thing, but when most of the module is "here's how the crop button and remove background features work in PowerPoint", I'm going to be annoyed.

I paid money for this and it feels like the half-assed, minimum effort rubbish I would expect to get if I bought a social media influence's self-created cash grab course on how to get rich.

[crevicedwelling]

noted bug knower crevicedwelling,

how do I learn to identify bugs? I know a few from general knowledge and I’ve learned a bunch of isopod and centipede species from you, but I’ve been trying to identify caterpillars from the garden and google is useless, and inaturalist seems tricky unless i already have a name. Should I be looking for books? Any advice appreciated

I’m not too familiar with caterpillars but if you live in Eastern North America, the books and links here might be useful! The Caterpillar Lab has an instagram as well, and post some lovely photos of lepidopterans which might be useful for ID, depending on where you live.

in general, learning the common invertebrate classes, orders, and some of the families is a good place to start. Wikipedia is actually a pretty decent resource for general ID but if you really want to consult literature for taxonomic characters I can try to find some resources; BugGuide may be helpful as well (though is limited to Canada + US arthropods). then you can combine these higher level classifications with localized searches on iNaturalist (like “Orthoptera” or “Scarabeidae” and see if any matches come up near you. combined with a decent field guide, online or book, you should be able to get decently close to a species ID, and if not, it’s fine to just keep it as family or order level until you get more information about it. this is pretty much what I do whenever I am asked to identify a bug I’m not immediately familiar with.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

⚠️ [RECAP] Meghan at Uvalde, Texas on 26th May 2022 after the Robb Elementary school mass shooting. A Master Post including Thomas Markle's stroke

A Sinner asked for some references for why Meghan's pap walk in the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting and why it is still considered unforgivable by so many Sinners.

I went to look for a source post but its is scattered all over this sub, twitter (X) and the internet. So I thought I would create a master post for future reference. Please note that I wasn't on the ground that day and don't know have first hand knowledge. We had two Sinners (Feisty_Nurse and BubbleGum_Yum_Yum) who were on the ground and I have included their relevant comments. Both Sinners are considered to be credible to me. I will share their comments of their experience here.

There are follow on posts from Sinners which I will share. You will need to read them for full context.

... means that a portion of text is used and click on the link for full context

Those who can and want to support the Children in Texas, this is org is recommended by BGYY Texans Care for Children website link.

______________________________________________________________

The Uvalde school shooting occurred on the 24th of May 2022 at an elementary school. The gunman, Salvador Ramos, killed 19 children, 2 teachers and injured 18 others. Robb Elementary School would have had children who are primarily from the ages of 4 to 10 years of age. [Wikipedia source for school shooting].

Photo 1: Regular people paying their respects at the school

On the same day (24th May), it was reported that Thomas Markle Sr suffered a major stroke days before he was about to fly to London for the Queen's Jubilee. [Dailymail archive link]. The trip to London was meant to be a big deal. He was going to be on GBNews and hang out with Lady C.

Photo 2: Thomas Markle Sr rushed in hospital after stroke. Photo taken by Backgrid

Meghan flew to Uvalde on a private jet, Texas 2 days after the shooting on the 26th of May. Here are the highlights of the photographs released and an attempt to hitch her PR to a national tragedy.

The photos below went viral globally in the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde shooting.

Photo 3: Taken by Chandan Khanna (AFP)

This photo of the visit to the community centre was provided directly to Buzzfeed by Meghan [Buzzfeed article] | [Archive link]

Photo 4: Meghan attends a community centre with vending machine sandwiches and Dorito chips / crisps

The Sussex Squad promoted World Central Kitchen (WCK) and they were the top donor to WCK to celebrate Archie and Lili's birthday. https://donate.wck.org/team/425216. credit: Aware-Impression8527. There were tweets about $100k raised to celebrate Lili's birthday. There was a mixup that Meghan also funded WCK at Uvalde from the Sussex Squad. This is because the Squad's $100k Lili donation was confused with the Uvalde attendance of Meghan. eg. this Scobie tweet on the 6th of June 2022.

I remember the squad saying that THIS stall was set up by Meghan to provide food to Uvalde. But in reality it was pre-made sandwiches and Doritos.

Photo 5: WCK kitchen in Uvalde not funded by Archewell

Archewell Partners was released and confirmed that WCK was a partner and that that money was donated to WCK for meals in Haiti. credit BuildTheHerd [Source Post]

Photo 6: From BuildTheHerd post

CONTEXT MATTERS

What many people didn't realise is that Meghan was living her Pretty Woman fantasy during the Santa Barbara Polo match just a few days before this crass PR tactic. Remember that young polo player refusing to share his award with her? It was just us Sinners and the sugars who were watching these events unfold more closely. What's worse is that she went back to grifting at the Polo club immediately after the Uvalde stunt and didn't rush to Mexico to see her father. Here's the colour swatches of Meghan before and after Uvalde. It shows that she body glazed specifically for Uvalde like it was a red carpet event. [Source Post]

Photo 7: Her shade of bronzer is particularly striking as her skin is darker in the sun than in the shade.

Thomas Markle Sr, aged 77, suffered a stroke and was a mere 54 miles from Uvalde and a 4 hour drive from Montecito. She was happy to fly on a private jet to publicly show sympathy for dead kids but didn't show the same level of concern towards her dying father. [Full context, this Leilani of Barbados opinion post.]

______________________________________________________________

Soon after social media was divided about the incident and a lot of the focus was diverted to Meghan's stunt instead of the victims. Many pointed to the similarities between this incident and Catherine paying tribute to Sarah Everard. I dont think these incidents are the same thing as Kate was not captured by the media and was only recognised by those who saw her up close in the crowd [source post video] credit RoohsMama

Photo 8: Meghan turning around to watch the photographing capturing her flowers on the cross

When you search for "Meghan Markle at Uvalde". You are most likely to see this video. Post source video by -ellen-degenerate-. In this version, the posing for photographers and the her photographers following after she leaves is not visible. There were photographers in the area, but Meghan brought her own photography team. This was confirmed after the pic from the community centre was exclusive to Buzzfeed and Sinners on the ground.

This VIDEO shows raw footage of 3 photographers capturing Meghan at the scene (source: NBC News: Meghan Markle Pays Respects At Scene Of Texas School Shooting YouTube).

Pay close attention to this NBC video as you can see the photographers snapping pics of her and how she poses. The photographs from these 3 photographers is what ends up getting circulated amongst the press. Note that this was 2 days after the tragedy. Bigger celebs like Matthew McConaughey turned up much later and the visit was not publicised.

Video 1 - NBC video, photographers following her

Here you can see the female photographer with the mask goes into the photograph the Meghan's flowers and Meghan cannot resist turning back to watch her taking the photo. You can also see Chandan Khanna capturing her laying the flowers at the beginning of the clip.

Video 2: close up of photographers capturing her

Carolyn Durand, Finding Freedom co-author tweets about Meghan's visit to Uvalde with the high res pics from the photographers

Photo 9: Look at the names of the photographers credited in the tweet

Shutterstock also tweets about Meghan's visit a few hours later and tags Kensington Royal

Photo 10: Shutterstock photo

These are the photographs from the 3 photographers from different agencies: Jae C Hong / Yasin Ozturk / Chandan Khanna. Credit Yahoo News | archive Even this article is disgusting because it talks about the couples impending travel to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee rather than discussions around the tragedy.

Photo 11: Jae C Hong photo (AP)

Photo 12: Yasin Ozturk photo (Anadolu Agency)

Photo 13: Chandan Khanna photo (AFP)

So by this point even casual on lookers were disgusted by her behaviour, especially in the context that her father was in hospital after a stroke.

Then came the leaks from the Sinners who were Boots on the Ground...

Brief highlights from from Feisty_Nurse post [Read About that Uvalde visit... Full post here]. Posted on 28th September, 2 days after Meghan's visit. So the crisps / chips weren't even from her.

I was visiting recently with one of the other nurses who also went to Uvalde, Texas following the school shootings. ..... I was busy staffing a shift at Uvalde Memorial Hospital on May 27th when I heard the narcissist of Montecito👸came in with her bodyguard, photographer, and the Netflix crew. ..... The Texas Highway Patrol providing security at the hospital escorted Meangan and her troupe out, with the suggestion that if she wanted to help? Go donate blood with directions to the senior center. Onward, the circus went to Robb Elementary so photos could be taken of Meangan in mourning.😢 Uvalde is a small community with a strong sense of family. So here she was, in the midst of the most horrific thing that could ever happen. An ego profiteer.😁 .... When in reality? There were no trays of sandwiches from H-E-B (grocery store). Just three small vending machine sandwiches that were tossed out. The drinks and chips were all courtesy of South Texas Blood❣️ for their donors. I know, I get the Doritos nacho cheese.

Highlighted comments from Bubblegum_yum_yum can be found in "The backlash is growing, so the BuzzFeed article about Meghan’s visit to Uvalde was edited" [RoohsMama post]

As a member of the media, I must say: SHE DID NOT AVOID THE MEDIA. THE MEDIA AVOIDED HER BECAUSE WE ARE NOT HERE TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS OF HER AND WRITE ARTICLES ABOUT HOW SHE BROUGHT CHIPS TO A COMMUNITY CENTER AND FLOWERS TO ONLY ONE OF THE CROSSES. She laid flowers at the “youngest victim” for clout She could have - and should have - laid flowers at every single cross. She can afford it. The role of the media is not to document unaffiliated people flying in for photo ops. Our role here is to tell the stories of the children whose stories will never be complete because they were tragically and disgustingly killed at 8, 9, 10 years old. ....

more comments from BGYY "She just kind of walked in with her crew ...." [HillyBeans post]

Yes. She did. I’m here as part of a press team and this entitled brat shows up with a team of several people and is trying to make it a godd*** spectacle! A Texas Ranger told her team to fuck off because it’s the site of a literal massacre, not a celebrity photo op I’m going to be very frank because this situation is extremely real and raw and beyond what words can describe: It’s time for HER to ask EVERYONE HERE if they’re okay! Don’t bring them chips and shitty sandwiches and show up with an entire media crew here for YOU and not for actual media coverage of what is happening! She’s also fucking it up for us actual reporters on the scene. There are such strict protocols and the relationship between the media and officials is predicated on such a fine line that having a fucking unauthorized media crew show up sets every other journalist back! ....

After the pap walk it was revealed that Meghan wrote a letter to Moms Demand Action and it was shared on social media by Shannon Watts

Photo 14: Meghan's letter to Moms Demand Action

The Archewell Foundation also funded a new KABOOM! playground in Uvalde in October 2022.

“It has been an honor to support the children and families in Uvalde design and build this amazing space where the community can come together,” said James Holt, Executive Director of Archewell Foundation, in a statement. “Our hope is that this special project can help the community heal, and be home to imagination, games and play for many years to come.”

Kaboom still organises fundraisers giving shoutouts to the Sussex Squad like on 4th May 2023 https://x.com/kaboom/status/1654206812587974656

Photo 15: Archewell funded Kaboom playground see their logo

Master Post link

author: Negative_Difference4

submitted: September 10, 2024 at 07:34AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[supersuperdupersecretnerd]

Hell to Pay & Latin Analysis (From a user who doesn't study other languages or Latin, so apologies for any inaccuracies) (Brainrot is oh so real)

If you haven't watched the pilot or checked out the website for this page, this entire post won't make much sense; so here's a link to both!

The Pilot:

The Website: https://helltopaywebcomic.squarespace.com

Ok now the actual analysis is beneath the readmore since it's a bit long.

Beginning with Profundus' summoning papers!

[IMAGE ID START A screenshot from the Hell to Pay Pilot Episode. Two uncolored hands with black claws hold onto a yellow piece of paper with red borders. The paper has a colored image of the bee demon Profundus on it surrounded by bees. In the top right corner is a small bee symbol and in the top left corner is the name Profundus written in red and black. Some text is written beneath the name, with some letters covered by a claw. IMAGE ID END]

So I had a hard time reading the handwriting, so I zoomed into the screenshot and wrote over the letters to try and see what matched. The words in dark brown are repeat words and the last section is in orange as the claw covers up most of the letters needed.

[IMAGE ID START A zoomed in image of the text from the previous screenshot, with letters written over the original text for easier understanding. There are translation notes as well. IMAGE ID END]

The legible text is as follows 'Vita avaritiae et vita gloriae providebit soporem mellis et ornatum et omnia desiderabillia'

From my research (aka googling various Latin dictionaries and using Wikipedia for 31 minutes) the words mean the following:

Vita = Life

Et = And

Avaritiae = Greed

Gloriae = Fame or Glory

Providebit = Provide or Foresee

Soporem = Deep Sleep or to Figuratively mean Death

Mellis = Honey

Ornatum = To Decorate or to mean Jewelry

Omnia = In all respects or to mean all things

Desiderabilia [I only found Desiderabilis] = Desirable

So, if we wanted to translate this to English, you could say 'Life of greed and life of fame will provide sleep of honey and jewelry and everything desirable'

There is also more text beneath, but most of the letters are covered up by Profundus' claw. The only Latin word I can make out is rex, which means king.

I'm curious to see how his powers as a tormentor demon of bees will relate to this passage! We already know he can create (or sneeze) honey, but I'm curious if he can do anything else in regards to material goods-

[IMAGE ID START A black image divider. IMAGE ID END]

Now let's go over the demon's names and see what they mean! (I separated the images by four as I'm running tight on Tumblr's image limit :( ). Photos are taken from the official character pages on the website linked before (seriously please check it out, the pages have additional details that are super interesting; such as the fact that Infortunii is the only demon born that has a list of sins committed)

[IMAGE ID START An image of four characters lined up. The first character is a yellow humanoid bee with a crown and four arms. The second character is blue skinned and blue haired humanoid; she has a grey animal wrapped around her neck and a black body. The third character is a typical red demon, who is completely nude and is only covered by his long ponytail. The fourth character is a short, pink and blue goat plushie with pins and cotton coming out of her. IMAGE ID STOP]

From left to right are the characters Profundus, Infortunii, Cupido, and Mollis.

Profundus in Latin can mean deep, dense, or mysterious. Could be intentional but I would also like to add how the name makes me first think of 'profit' or 'fund'. (Or maybe it's cause he had to get his name randomly generated that it doesn't fully match) (Or maybe his levels of greed is deep I don't know-)

Infortunii is Latin for misfortune and punishment. She is a tormentor demon of misfortune and has to be a guide demon as punishment for something she did.

Cupido is Latin for desire, longing or for lust, passion, and greed. He is a sin demon of lust who longs for a genuine romantic relationship with another.

(Also can I just say how fucking funny it is Cupido fell for Profundus, the literal only straight man in the entire cast who is still VERY MUCH in love with his wife. True disaster bisexual rep.)

Mollis is Latin for soft, calm, or mild. Mollis is an old plushie-like demon that is a tormentor of plush. I don't know how mild or calm in personality she is, as on the website she's described as having a god complex and impulsivity, but she seems to be able to give some good advice still with the pilot's events in mind.

[IMAGE ID START An image of five characters lined up. The first two characters are fused together, with one side being a smiling sun and the other side being a frowning moon. The third character is a smiling jester with red locs coming out of his big hat and a ruff around his neck. The fourth character is a purple skin humanoid in a green outfit shaped like an umbrella and a green hat with floating horns. The fifth character is a thin plague doctor holding a stick with a lamp attached; the character is emerging from a pool of black with some small ghost-shaped creatures popping out of it. IMAGE ID END]

From left to right are the characters Serenum & Lunares, Fastus, Nolite Flere, and Aegritudo.

Serenum is Latin for bright, cheerful, or fair weather. Serenum is described to be a very joyful and optimistic character, and is also a sun (the sun is very bright, very painful to look at)

Lunares in Latin means to make a crescent shape or relating to the moon. Lunares is shaped like the moon (she is also the tormentor demon of moons).

Fastus is Latin for pride, arrogance, and destain. Fastus is the sin demon of pride.

Nolite is Latin for 'Do Not' and Flere is Latin for cry or weep. So their name means 'Don't cry' and they seem to have crying makeup stains under their eyes. (I don't associate crying with envy, but their page also mentions feeling negatively nihilistic and poor at being a symbol of envy in death so perhaps the crying is related to that?)

Aegritudo is Latin for sickness and disease. Aegritudo is a tormentor demon of illness and works as a surgeon, doctor, and pharmacist (and botanist). (Also conducted experiments on ill patients during the bubonic plague)

[IMAGE ID START An image of five characters lined up. The first two characters are together, with the smaller red one standing on the shoulder of the taller blue one; the blue one has an eye covered by an accessory with a cookie and whipped cream like hair with a straw poking out. The red one looks like a small doll holding a phone and has very long red pony tails. The third character is a green humanoid gumball machine. The fourth character is a pink humanoid with visible lungs, heart, and guts in her torso; only has a visible mouth on her face. The fifth character is drawn like a child's messy crayon drawing; she is an orange demon with red horns and a red dress with black hair. IMAGE ID END]

From left to right are the characters Lac & Pupa, Bullatio, Mendacina, and Furor.

Lac is Latin for milk. Considering her blue and white color scheme, cookie jewelry, and her straw hair-accessory this makes sense (as milk does go with cookies).

Pupa is Latin for both doll and for little girl. Pupa is a character that looks like a puppet (and is very small in size).

Bullatio is Latin for either bubbling or for a blub-like formation. This name is a bit harder to relate to the character, but perhaps bubbling could relate to bubbling gum? Or maybe certain bubbling sounds involved with cooking candy? It could be a reference to his face shape (glass circle or blub shape).

Mendacina is a bit mixed in the meaning? Google Translate claims it means lies in Latin, but I can't find any other source confirming this. Google thinks I'm trying to find Mendocino, which is a county in California, US. Supposedly in Spanish 'Mendocino' means 'a man from Mendoza', a city from Argentina. I cannot relate any of these definitions to the character.

Huzzah an easy name to translate! Furor in English means 'an angry or maniacal fit; or to rage' or 'an outburst of public excitement or indignation' (in context of rage). In Latin Furor means madness or rage. Furor is a little demon of wrath, of these definitions makes sense!

[IMAGE ID START A black image divider. IMAGE ID END]

So yep, that's all I had to ramble about! If you actually read this far, thank you and I hope you enjoyed it! All character art is found on the linked website and is by @ misseligon (not @ing to be polite!), I just used it here so y'all could have a face to associate with the names being defined!

Also feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong!

Uh bye now!

[IMAGE ID START A screenshot of a black and white drawing of Infortunii giving the thumbs up. The background is orange. IMAGE ID END]

[tadeojonesmemes]

Hi Tadeo, I have a question, but it may not be related to the movie, but I was wondering which of your Instagram posts do you find most tiring? Because I see that each of your posts always has a source.

It's a question that surprised me 😲 Because I don't think anyone would ask a question like this, okay, I'll tell you the answer.

Answer: The Instagram posts I feel the most exhausted are the Reels Descubre Con Tadeo posts because before posting each Reels video I have to find the source, think about the caption, and find the article for every episode. Some of the episodes weren't available on the website so I had to use Wikipedia to help, and for each episode Tadeo had a description of the location of that episode that I had to look up on Wikipedia to get an article in the caption. It's a post on Instagram that makes me feel very tired 😮‍💨

... P.S. Google Translate is another app that is heavily used when posting Reels ;(

As for the source I think it's very important because every photo and video is copyrighted. Another reason is because on Instagram, directors and producers follow my account, so I always provide the source. Some posts have fans of the movie discovering news or images that others have never seen, so I mention them because they discovered them first or sent me a link. But for some posts I didn't provide the source because some of the images couldn't be sourced or some of the posts were memes that came from scenes or Descubre Con Tadeo, so I didn't include the source link. But sometimes people DM me asking about which episode a meme is from or requesting a Descubre Con Tadeo video.

[centrally-unplanned]

Alright some idea space stuff for the Arnell Group Pepsi Conspiracy: the Arnell Group closed in 2013, and this site, abrands.net - a wikipedia for advertising companies with THIS web design on its archives god I love the internet

- has a post mortem summary of the company and it claims:

Arnell also had a longstanding relationship with PepsiCo, and was responsible for the global introduction of a striking new set of can designs for the company in 2006. More recently, he oversaw another lavish reinvention of that company's brands and packaging in late 2008 and early 2009. This project was less well received, especially after Arnell's own extensive and undeniably pretentious brand strategy document was leaked online. 

That CEO and founder Peter Arnell wrote the document himself. Which is not that unbelievable, because he was that kind of guy:

For years, Peter Arnell enjoyed a reputation as one of the industry's most highly regarded strategists, although his no-holds-barred self-confidence could take some getting used to. The Wall Street Journal once compared him to Darth Vader. An eccentric and larger than life figure, he was renowned for regularly reducing assistants to tears. Punishments ranged from excessive verbal abuse to being forced to do push-ups in front of the whole office. One employee was forced to sit under a desk for the duration of a staff meeting. Numerous other rumours spread through the industry earning him the title of "New York's worst boss". Yet Arnell was also an obsessive perfectionist and creative whirlwind, personally managing every aspect of any creative project he took on. He designed logos, shot photos, filmed ads, art directed buildings, all with the same boundless energy and uniform skill. Sometimes described as Omnicom's "secret weapon", he was often drafted in behind the scenes to provide strategic assistance on brands handled elsewhere within the group. With an encyclopaedic knowledge of art and culture, and an opinion on just about everything, Arnell was certainly one of the major characters in the modern day industry.

Definitely the type to start believing his own bullshit. But its not like adbrands has a source for this claim, and when you google other articles they tend to link back to this. Its also just A: not the kind of thing a CEO normally does? Like be involved sure, but not actually composing docs like this; and B: he was in fact normally pretty good at his job while being a huge ass, while this document is clearly insane.

It is absolutely believable that he had a too-high-on-his-own-supply day and told the design team to connect the Pepsi logo the Arc of the Universe and they obeyed, clearly the leading hypothesis. But still I think its likely some other factor - something on Pepsi's side, or maybe an employee being a little vengeful or mocking? something - is at play on this one. I think a piece is still missing.

And since the Arnell Group been dissolved for over a decade, who would care about keeping it a secret? Peter himself ofc, he would be embarrassed by it, but his staff, I would hope someone talked at some point.

[ljsmiths-thenightworld]

I’ve seen this tidbit on the Wikipedia page for The Night World in the past, but my 2008 edition doesn’t seem to reflect this. I checked an online edition as well and also couldn’t find this. I do feel like I’ve seen this issue in the books in the past, but I also may just read this same information above and imagined it or it’s also featured in another one of the novels.

Can anyone provide confirmation of this? The sourced link is just the book itself so it didn’t exactly help.

Photo from said page in the 2008 omnibus edition!

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Investigation

A JSE Fanfic

Septics Inverted AU

First IRIS Chapter | Previous

(Jackie and Frederick talk more about their investigation into IRIS. At the same time, in a different city, Anti returns to meet up with Jack again. And then, I’ll be honest: it ends with a cliffhanger for the next part. I want to keep these chapters short for once, okay?! XD)

Three days passed, and Jackie found almost no online information about IRIS. Something that was both frustrating and baffling. IRIS was supposed to be this big American company. There should be millions of people talking about it, journalists doing pieces on their practices and everyday citizens praising or complaining about their products. Yet there was almost nothing. No media coverage, save for a few stray articles on tech websites, and barely anyone mentioning it even in passing.

Most information was fairly neutral. People liked their products, but clearly not enough to rave about them. Any IRIS-related photos were of their buildings taken from a distance by people passing by. As far as he could tell, no one took pictures of the interior. Which was just... so hard to believe. If Jackie knew anything about people, it’s that someone would eventually be brave or stupid enough to try taking photos of restricted areas.

“It’s just not possible that there’d be so little about a corporation like this,” Jackie said to Frederick one evening over dinner. “If it was, like, a little start-up of some kind, it would be expected. But it’s not. It’s been around for ages.”

“If we’re to believe their website,” Frederick pointed out.

“Well, we don’t really have a choice but to believe their website. It’s one of three good sources we have. And the other two are Wikipedia and Twitter. Not exactly reliable.”

“Actually, Wikipedia is more reliable than most people think.” Frederick drummed his fingers on the table. His prosthetic fingers, which made a satisfying tapping sound on the wood. “They take vetting and verifying their sources quite seriously. Sure, they’re not perfect. But if you want another source, they provide links to where all their information came from.”

“Really? Huh.” Jackie paused, unsure what to say. He looked down at the ramen he was eating, twirling the noodles around his fork.

“I think we should buy one of their products,” Frederick said.

“What?!” Jackie’s head snapped up.

“Well, to be more exact, Briony brought up the idea at our last meeting, and I agreed,” Frederick explained.

“Who?”

“She’s also part of the investigation team Yvonne and I got assigned to. There’s also Nick, Harvey, Alena—”

“Okay, I get it,” Jackie cut him off. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? The whole reason for the investigation is that IRIS might be using dark magic. Do we want that in our house?”

“We’re not going to keep it in our house. The investigation has set up a little meeting building on the edge of town. We buy something, and put it in there.”

“What if IRIS can track their things?” Jackie asked. “They could figure out that we’re onto them.”

“The house has some of the best protection magic can set up,” Frederick said. “All sorts of wards. Even if they track their products, and even if that tracker can penetrate the warding, they couldn’t get in.”

Jackie hesitated. “But we don’t know anything about them. We don’t know their capabilities.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Frederick’s tone was genuine, not snarky like one might expect.

“We could find where their base of operations is,” Jackie suggested. “Wait. Does your team already know that?”

“Yeah, they’ve set a couple up. The nearest one is about an hour north of here.”

“Okay, then we stakeout their facility,” Jackie continued. “See if we can find anything out. Maybe, if we can figure out how to get in, there’ll be—”

“Well.” Frederick looked grim. “They’re not... their building isn’t exactly a normal office building.”

Jackie paused. “Explain?”

“It’s out in the middle of nowhere with high walls and barely any windows. Used to be an old prison that they’ve since converted. It looks like they’ve constructed two newer buildings next to it that are just as secure, and somehow managed to expand the wall around them.”

Jackie frowned. “Why would they take over an old prison building?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Frederick wondered.

“Okay. But you said they have multiple bases, right?” Jackie pressed. “If the nearest one is secure, then we can go to the next one.”

“...alright, I guess this is on me for not filling you in on everything.” Frederick reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He pushed aside his bowl of ramen and leaned across the table to show Jackie some pictures he opened up. “They have three facilities: north, west, and east. All of them were based off old buildings known for their security. Prisons to the north and east, and a disused military base to the west. Somehow, even though they haven’t been in the area that long, they’ve all expanded on the original design and made them even harder to get into. What’s more, it took us a while to even realize they were there. Somehow, there’s some mental barrier around each facility that convinces people there’s nothing there. ”

Jackie swiped through the pictures on Frederick’s phone. All of them taken from a distance, just like the ones he’d seen online. And the buildings didn’t look too different from those online photos, either. They were white and shining metal, with the eye-shaped IRIS logo plastered on one side. But the pictures online didn’t have the high walls these ones did. “Well. Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“You guys have magic, though?” Jackie insisted. “You could get in if you wanted!”

“Maybe,” Frederick said slowly. “But we’re not sure. Nobody wants to get too close to the strange energy the buildings are giving off. So, that’s why Briony suggested we get one of their products to examine it. Second best thing to actually going inside.”

Jackie leaned back in his chair. While it was frustrating that the literal magicians refused to use their magic to get into IRIS, he did understand where they were coming from. “Alright, fine, we won’t break in yet,” he said. “How did you get these pictures if you don’t want to get close?”

“Yvonne asked Heather to do it,” Frederick said. “Less suspicious for a journalist to be stalking around than a normal-looking person.”

“And she was okay with that?”

“She was excited to,” Frederick chuckled.

“Heh.” Jackie gave a little smile. “Yeah, I can see that. But so much driving. You said the nearest one was an hour away.”

“The farthest is only two hours.”

“Still.” Jackie paused. “Where are they, anyway? Exactly, I mean.”

Frederick narrowed his eyes. “What are you planning?”

“Nothing!” Jackie raised his hands defensively. “I just want to know.”

Frederick hesitated, then sighed. “If you do anything stupid I’m divorcing you,” he muttered, swiping through photos on his phone.

“We’re not married!”

“Metaphorically. The spirit of divorce will enter my body. Here.” Frederick showed Jackie the picture he’d found.

It was a screenshot of an online street map of the county. Someone had edited in three red Xs where the IRIS facilities were. Jackie leaned forward, scanning the map. Then he frowned.

“Notice something?” Frederick asked.

“These three locations form a triangle. Do you notice what city is in the middle of that triangle?” Jackie tapped the center of the photo. “Mirygale.”

“Huh.” Frederick took his phone back and stared at the map. “Your old haunt.”

“Might be worth checking it out,” Jackie muttered.

“Might be.” Frederick turned off his phone. “In the meantime, we’ll be ordering one of their products.”

“Alright, fine.” Jackie shrugged. “Just don’t expect me to pay for it.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Jack’s phone was ringing.

It was doing that a lot the past few days. Always a different number, none of them familiar. He wanted to believe that it was just normal spam calls... but they’d started not long after that IRIS group had visited him and scanned his apartment.

He waited for the ringing to stop, staring at the phone while it vibrated on the coffee table. Sam flew over and landed next to the phone, staring as well. Then it stopped. And Jack let out a sigh as a knot of anxiety unraveled in his chest. “What do you think?” he asked Sam.

Sam thought that he should never pick up phone calls ever again.

“I can’t do that. Maybe I should change my number?”

Sam said they would probably be able to figure out he did that. They would just keep calling.

“Yeah. I guess.” Jack rubbed his eyes. “I shouldn’t have let them in. I gave them an inch and they’re taking a mile.”

The energy in the air sharpened. The hair on the back of Jack’s neck stood up, and he looked up.

Anti glitched into the middle of the living room. He stumbled a bit, then glitched again, this time appearing on the sofa, half-lying down, half-leaning against the arm rest. “Hey.”

“Very casual about leaving for three days, huh?” Jack said, trying not to sound too bitter. Anti had left shortly after the first IRIS visit, popping back in sporadically for two days before completely disappearing.

“Sorry.” Anti wouldn’t make eye contact. “I didn’t realize how much time was passing.”

Jack sighed. “Don’t do it again.”

“I won’t.” Anti glanced over at him. “What... have you been doing?”

“Reading.” Jack held up the book he was holding. He’d been sitting in the armchair for a while, completely engrossed in the story. “It’s been a while since I’ve read anything. I figured it would probably be good to have more hobbies, ones that aren’t based on screens.”

Anti raised an eyebrow. “Should I be offended?”

“Haha. You’re not just screen-based, either.” Jack slid a bookmark in between the pages. “It’s really good, though. It’s about a man who starts hearing disembodied voices, and that leads to this whole conspiracy about his best friend and twin sibling both disappearing, and it turns out there’s some weird scifi shit going on. The twin’s a superhero and the friend’s a scientist and they both get kidnapped by two different groups. Some of the characters actually remind me of, uh, people we both know.”

“...huh.” Anti frowned, then shook his head.

“Well, anyway.” Jack put the book down next to his phone. While his hand was there, Sam hopped onto his arm and slithered up to his shoulder, and then his head. “Oh! You’re getting a little big for that.” Jack laughed. It soon faded. “Anti. Did you manage to hack into this IRIS thing?”

Anti grimaced. “Yes. Eventually.”

“It really took you five days to do that?”

“No, it took three days. See, the thing is, every time I left to come back here, their firewalls would reset. I told you I’d be gone for a while the last time I saw you.”

“You didn’t mean days,” Jack muttered. “I was... I was worried.” Sam tapped the side of his head with their nerve-tail. “Alright, fine, I was a bit upset, too.”

“I really am sorry,” Anti said quietly.

“It’s fine now. Really,” Jack reassured him. “Just... tell me about IRIS. What do they want?”

Anti sat up straight. “They want to find weird things and take them away. That hasn’t changed.”

“But you must’ve found more once you got into their network,” Jack insisted.

“I didn’t look at too much. I was busy testing to make sure the hole I put in their firewall stayed there after I left the system.” Anti paused. “Once I... realized how much time had passed, I wanted to check on you. They haven’t been bothering you more, have they?”

“Just more phone calls,” Jack said. “It has to be them. Even if the number is different every time.”

Anti nodded. “Yeah. It’s not too hard to get a bunch of different numbers.”

“So... what did you look at?” Jack asked. “Before you came back.”

Anti sighed. “They’re after you. But not because of you. They... they’re after me. They know we’re connected.”

Jack stared at him. “Anti. How do you know IRIS?”

“It’s a long story.”

“We have time. Right, Sam?” Jack reached up to touch them. Sam jumped down, landing in his lap. They agreed with him.

Anti paused. Then slumped a bit, relenting. “Alright. I’ll tell you about me and IRIS.”