#80s and 70s books and maps | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys · 8 months ago

Note

Odd question but - I'm looking to study in the UK this fall, and I'm trying to get to grips with the grading system. Could you explain the grading boundaries to me please? It's different from the US, as far as I can see!

I found this handy table which you might find useful - I don't really understand the US system either lol.

Here's what I will say though - I have many times before seen Americans online seeing the percentages for the UK grade boundaries and immediately wax lyrical about how EASY and SIMPLE it must be to do well in the UK because OH MY GOD I could tooootally get 70%!!! In the US that's barely a C!!! Wow education must be soooo simple in the UK -

And uh. I have seen very few Americans in those discussions stop and ask themselves how much harder it might be to hit 70% in the UK. Which, as the international academic office in every university will tell you, is the crucial question you absolutely should be asking. Does an American 70% look the same as a UK 70%?

(It Does Not.)

So don't be fooled by that! Over here, at undergrad the pass mark is 40%. 40-49% gets you a third; 50-59% gets you what's varyingly known as a lower second (formally), a 2:2 (most commonly), or a Desmond (by sad people. It's a reference to Desmond Tutu - two two). A 2:2 is also the most commonly awarded degree classification over here.

60-69% is a 2:1, or upper second class honours. And then the top level is the first - 70% and up. The vast majority of firsts are earned by students who got 70-79%. Exceptional work pushes into the 80s. It is incredibly rare that you ever see a mark in the 90s, and when you do, it's almost always on maths papers where there are right or wrong answers and that's it.

I can't remember how the US's summa cum laude etc stuff maps onto that, though you could probably find that on Google as well. But as a rule of thumb, think first = excellent, 2:1 = good, 2:2 = fair, and third = you need to be careful and see what you can do to improve (although that is still a pass at university and that is not to be sniffed at).

Ooh, as a final point, though, there's also how assessment works, which again, I know is very different over here (again I don't really understand it in the US). Your lecturer cannot set random work here and there to count as summative assessment. Every module is different in how it's set up, but let's give an example:

Module: Coastal and Marine Conservation Two assessments, each worth 50% of the final grade. Assessment 1: A report on the biodiversity of Ramsey Island in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Explore the cause of the lower biodiversity there than nearby Skomer/Skokholm; how was this challenged/rectified? How have species recovered since? What should be done into the future? Assessment 2: A two-hour closed book exam. Half of this exam (50 marks) will be a mix of short and medium length questions; things like "Define these five terms (two marks each)", or "Describe the process of longshore drift and its impact on sedimentation patterns (15 marks)" or what have you. The second half is a 50 mark essay - pick one of three essay questions offered, and off you go. (Essay questions are a staple feature of exams over here, and multiple choice questions are extremely rare and generally frowned on as being Not Sufficiently Academic.)

Now, in the case of this module, these are the only two assessment points. Both the report brief and the exam paper are registered with the academic office in the summer before the academic year even starts, and both are triple verified - by the lecturer who writes/sets them, by an internal verifier in the department, and an external verifier from another university. This is part of quality control.

If, for some reason, you fail one of these, or cannot submit them by their due date, or what have you, you still have to do them. If you claim for Extenuating Circumstances (e.g. "I was made homeless and my cat blew up, so I couldn't do it in time") then you get an extension on it; as long as you submit by the end of the academic period, you're fine. If you don't, you need to resit it. This normally means over the summer after the main term ends.

But, in the UK system what we can't do is go "Okay never mind, how about you submit a write-up of the volunteering you're currently doing with SeaLife instead and we'll count that?" The reason being, under the UK system that is not a quality-controlled solution. That has not been checked and verified as an equivalent assessment to what the rest of the class has done; so if you do that and get a 2:1, there is no assurance that you are actually of the same academic quality as one of your peers who got a 2:1 for that research report on Ramsey's biodiversity.

Which... don't let it scare you! As I say, there are a LOT of systems that can help you if things start going wrong (always, always, always keep Student Support and your lecturers in the loop). But that is a different system from what I understand you might be used to, so heads up on that.

(I am not arguing that one is better than the other, by the way. Last time I explained a difference in the UK university system I got a very hostile and aggressive American in the notes throwing a right strop over how terrible the UK system clearly is because XYZ, right up until I had to actually say "I am literally just describing how it's different, not claiming superiority," and then they went mysteriously quiet and stopped replying. So to forestall that, I am only describing the differences. There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

The UK system is certainly more inflexible. But it does, incidentally, at least free you from the tyranny I see reported so often by US students of the dreaded Tenured Professor who deliberately as a matter of pride sets impossible exams that everyone fails. Over here, that shit Does Not Fly. So there's that.)

Anyway - hopefully that answers your question! Any others, hit me up. Good luck, and enjoy your studies!

#asks #the professional world of careers and tasks

191 notes · View notes

zoesblogsposts · 10 months ago

Text

o 625 words to know in your target language o

There is a really interesting blog called "Fluent Forever" that aids foreign language learners in tricks, tips and techniques to guide them to achieving fluency "quickly" and efficiently. One of the tricks is to learn these 625 vocab words in your target language, that way you have a basis to start delving into grammar with ease as you can understand a lot of vocab right off the bat. Plus this list of words are common across the world and will aid you in whatever language you are learning. Here is the list in thematic order

• Animal: dog, cat, fish, bird, cow, pig, mouse, horse, wing, animal

• Transportation: train, plane, car, truck, bicycle, bus, boat, ship, tire, gasoline, engine, (train) ticket, transportation

• Location: city, house, apartment, street/road, airport, train station, bridge hotel, restaurant, farm, court, school, office, room, town, university, club, bar, park, camp, store/shop, theater, library, hospital, church, market, country (USA,

France, etc.), building, ground, space (outer space), bank, location

• Clothing: hat, dress, suit, skirt, shirt, T-shirt, pants, shoes, pocket, coat, stain, clothing

• Color: red, green, blue (light/dark), yellow, brown, pink, orange, black, white, gray, color

• People: son, daughter, mother, father, parent (= mother/father), baby, man, woman, brother, sister, family, grandfather, grandmother, husband, wife, king, queen, president, neighbor, boy, girl, child (= boy/girl), adult (= man/woman), human (# animal), friend (Add a friend's name), victim, player, fan, crowd, person

• Job: Teacher, student, lawyer, doctor, patient, waiter, secretary, priest, police, army, soldier, artist, author, manager, reporter, actor, job

• Society: religion, heaven, hell, death, medicine, money, dollar, bill, marriage, wedding, team, race (ethnicity), sex (the act), sex (gender), murder, prison, technology, energy, war, peace, attack, election, magazine, newspaper, poison, gun, sport, race (sport), exercise, ball, game, price, contract, drug, sign, science, God

• Art. band, song, instrument (musical), music, movie, art

• Beverages: coffee, tea, wine, beer, juice, water, milk, beverage

• Food: egg, cheese, bread, soup, cake, chicken, pork, beef, apple, banana orange, lemon, corn, rice, oil, seed, knife, spoon, fork, plate, cup, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sugar, salt, bottle, food

• Home: table, chair, bed, dream, window, door, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, pencil, pen, photograph, soap, book, page, key, paint, letter, note, wall, paper, floor, ceiling, roof, pool, lock, telephone, garden, yard, needle, bag, box, gift, card, ring, tool

• Electronics: clock, lamp, fan, cell phone, network, computer, program (computer), laptop, screen, camera, television, radio

• Body: head, neck, face, beard, hair, eye, mouth, lip, nose, tooth, ear, tear (drop), tongue, back, toe, finger, foot, hand, leg, arm, shoulder, heart, blood, brain, knee, sweat, disease, bone, voice, skin, body

• Nature: sea, ocean, river, mountain, rain, snow, tree, sun, moon, world, Earth, forest, sky, plant, wind, soil/earth, flower, valley, root, lake, star, grass, leaf, air, sand, beach, wave, fire, ice, island, hill, heat, nature

• Materials: glass, metal, plastic, wood, stone, diamond, clay, dust, gold, copper, silver, material

• Math/Measurements: meter, centimeter, kilogram, inch, foot, pound, half, circle, square, temperature, date, weight, edge, corner

• Misc Nouns: map, dot, consonant, vowel, light, sound, yes, no, piece, pain, injury, hole, image, pattern, noun, verb, adjective

• Directions: top, bottom, side, front, back, outside, inside, up, down, left, right, straight, north, south, east, west, direction

• Seasons: Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall, season

• Numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 21, 22, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 42, 50, 51, 52, 60, 61, 62, 70, 71, 72, 80, 81, 82, 90, 91, 92, 100, 101, 102, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 10000, 100000, million, billion, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, number

• Months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

• Days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

• Time: year, month, week, day, hour, minute, second, morning, afternoon, evening, night, time

• Verbs: work, play, walk, run, drive, fly, swim, go, stop, follow, think, speak/say, eat, drink, kill, die, smile, laugh, cry, buy, pay, sell, shoot(a gun), learn, jump, smell, hear (a sound), listen (music), taste, touch, see (a bird), watch (TV), kiss, burn, melt, dig, explode, sit, stand, love, pass by, cut, fight, lie down, dance, sleep, wake up, sing, count, marry, pray, win, lose, mix/stir, bend, wash, cook, open, close, write, call, turn, build, teach, grow, draw, feed, catch, throw, clean, find, fall, push, pull, carry, break, wear, hang, shake, sign, beat, lift

• Adjectives: long, short (long), tall, short (vs tall), wide, narrow, big/large, small/little, slow, fast, hot, cold, warm, cool, new, old (new), young, old (young), weak, dead, alive, heavy, light (heavy), dark, light (dark), nuclear, famous

#second language #language #learning #rory gilmore #smart #tips

74 notes · View notes

everybody-loves-purdy · 3 months ago

Note

A criticism I saw someone give for Ivypool's Heart was it just seems like a series of Quick time events

Some criticisms were just because it is a traveling book.

Then you obviously have the criticisms about Ivypool being rude to Dove

(You know despite this book being about her learning to deal with her grief)

This one is more worry but I have seen some people worried about indigenous coding of the wild cats

Though one criticism was like Galestar intermingling and speeding up the endangeredness of the wildcats

Comparing it to indigenous erasure

One criticism I kinda agree with is that some of the characters were flat but like we see them for a short time so of course they'd be flat

Then just people not liking Stormclan

The quick time events thing I do get, it did sometimes feel like “do thing then move on” but given how the warriors community do not like travelling books on the whole I feel that specifically may have been a lose-lose situation with the Erins (especially since it’s got criticism just for being a travelling book anyway,). It was a little jarring for me but I didn’t mind it personally, I get why it would bother people though.

The Ivypool and Dovewing stuff I’ve made a few posts on before and thankfully that seemed to die down mostly before the book was released.

Ok so about the wildcats. I absolutely cannot comment on the indigenous coding allegations as I am not indigenous. However, the thing about Galestar and her kids intermingling. I have full faith that was done to directly reference how no Scottish wildcats are genetically “pure” as it were. All Scottish wildcats (to our knowledge) have domestic cat DNA in them thanks to hybridising with domestic cats. This seems to have mainly begun about 70 years ago, which tracks for the kind of timeline you would expect Galestar to have come across the wildcats (I would say since SkyClan were still in the forest you’re probably looking at this whole affair happening anywhere between 50-80 years ago ish). So this does mean that the Scottish wildcat is, in a way, effectively extinct. (Although there is hope to reintroduce genetically “pure” populations thanks to selective breeding and gene mapping).

Here’s a pretty good article I found on the whole thing.

But yeah to go back to warrior cats. There is no doubt in my mind that is what was being directly referenced here. The similarities to indigenous erasure is just unfortunate coincidence I feel.

Characters being flat is a subjective thing I can’t really comment on that, if you feel that the characters were flat then fine, if you don’t then also fine.

If you don’t like StormClan then fine, it really does come out of left field and I can easily see why opinions would be divided on such a big lore drop/retcon. But I’ve seen so many people not like them but they haven’t read the book and have gone off of the opinions of others or from reading summaries. To that I will say. I think people should read the books themselves before casting full judgement on something. Obviously an opinion can be formed without reading the book but I think full context is always important. For example, when I first read summaries of AVOS before reading the books themselves I hated the concept of Darktail! I thought he was forced in and a pathetic excuse to conjure up another Tigerstar. Then I actually read the books and my entire perspective changed. The story was the same but since the way it was delivered to me was different, so was my opinion. Now I love Darktail so much, he’s my second favourite warriors cat character. You could always read the books and then still hold the same opinion, but at least you know that opinion is fully informed.

#anonymous #ivypool’s heart spoilers #warrior cats spoilers

15 notes · View notes

lingthusiasm · 2 years ago

Text

Lingthusiasm Episode 80: Word Magic

The magical kind of spell and the written kind of spell are historically linked. This reflects how saying a word can change the state of the world, both in terms of fictional magic spells that set things on fire or make them invisible, and in terms of the real-world linguistic concept of performative utterances, which let us agree to contracts, place bets, establish names, and otherwise alter the fabric of our relationships.

In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about word magic! We talk about how the word magic systems are set up differently in three recent fantasy books we like: Babel by R.F. Kuang, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, and the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. We also talk about linguistic performatives: why saying “I do” in a movie doesn’t make you married, aka Felicity Conditions, aka an excellent drag name; performativity as applied to gender (yup, Judith Butler got it from linguistics); the “hereby” test; and how technology changes what counts as a performative.

Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.

Announcements: People often ask us to recommend interesting books about linguistics that don't assume prior knowledge of linguistics, so we've come up with a list of 12 books that we personally recommend, including both nonfiction and fiction books with linguistically interesting elements! Get this list of our top 12 linguistics books by signing up for our free email list. Email subscribers get an email once a month when there's a new episode of Lingthusiasm, and this month existing subscribers will see a link to our linguistics books list! If you find this any time in the future, you'll get the books list in the confirmation email after you sign up. In this month’s bonus episode, we get excited about the results of the 2022 Lingthusiasm Survey. We talk about synesthesia fomo, whether people respond differently to kiki/bouba depending on whether they're aware of them as a meme, complicating the "where is a frown?" map, the plural of emoji, and more! Plus, we mentioned swearing in this episode? Yeah, we’ve got bonus episodes about that too. Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 70+ other bonus episodes, as well as access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds! Our patrons let us keep making the main episodes free for everyone and we really appreciate every level of support.

Here are the links mentioned in the episode:

Etymonline entry for ‘spell’

Etymonline entry for ‘glamour’

‘Babel’ by R. F. Kuang on Goodreads

‘Carry On - The Simon Snow series’ by Rainbow Rowell on Goodreads

‘A Deadly Education - The Scholomance Series’ by Naomi Novik on Goodreads

Lingthusiasm episode ‘Cool things about scales and implicature’

Wikipedia entry for ‘performative utterances’

Superlinguo post on ‘I do’ and performatives in weddings

Government of Canada post on ‘hereby’

All Things Linguistics post on performatives

Judith Butler Wikipedia entry

‘Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity’ by Judith Butler on Goodreads

‘Universality and specificity in infant-directed speech: Pitch modifications as a function of infant age and sex in a tonal and non-tonal language’ by C. Kitamura et al

Tambiah 1968 on word magic

Lingthusiasm bonus episodes on swearing:

‘Real swear words vs pseudo swears’

‘The grammar of swearing’

‘What makes a swear word feel sweary? A &⩐#⦫& Liveshow’

You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

You can help keep Lingthusiasm ad-free, get access to bonus content, and more perks by supporting us on Patreon.

Lingthusiasm is on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com

Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, and our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.

This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).

119 notes · View notes

apoptoses · 8 months ago

Note

All of your fics have such flawlessly brilliant world building in them, I was curious if you have a favourite era to write in? (As in historical vs the recent past or the not so distant future- or even a combination!) 🖤

Birdyyyyyy 💙 You're too kind I swear!!

I love the 70s/80s aka Devil's Minion Era. Just. Cannot get enough of it.

I think because it reminds me of my childhood even though I grew up in the 90s. Like I remember a time with no cell phones, no internet, just the television and books to keep you entertained. I remember my grandparents having to fold up a big map with the route highlighted on it if we were driving anywhere far away. I remember using travel agents to book hotels, looking up numbers in the phone book, coming home and hitting play on the voicemail, the excitement when new tech came out. Going to the video rental store and buying magazines. Dressing up for the airport. Smoking everywhere, no such thing as LED lights.

And all of that is present in the 70s/80s, right? Some stuff was a little different, just enough that it makes it fun to research and see what's evolved. But it's that beautiful middle ground between an isolated, tech-free world of the distant past and the overbearing and overstimulating tech saturated age we're living in.

So I just really enjoy it because I can so clearly picture it. It's the perfect time for Armand to 'return' to the world because there's so much to discover, but they're still a little isolated by the lack of internet/social media/cell phones. None of the vampires can just text each other like they would now, Daniel can't maintain long distance friends easily. They're alone together in a very rich and evolving world.

(Second runner up would be Venice-era, but that's because I've done renaissance re-enactment and have been to Venice now. But like nobody wants that level of exacting detail on what it was like to live in that period so it just lives in my head rent free LOL)

Thank you for this question, I think I learned something about myself while answering it because I've never considered the why before!

#apoptoses answers

7 notes · View notes

b1tchyboyxd · 13 days ago

Text

★;; Meet the writer !! (aka me lolzzz)

ིྀ 𓎟ᛝ𓎟𓎟　��　𓎟𓎟ᛝ𓎟 ྀི

Soooo, My name is Kaio but you can call me Yuki.

A little ABT ME ❕❕

He/him.

Gay.

10/24.

INTP-T.

Scorpio.

Brazilian/Russian.

Movie buff.

──────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ───────────

BFY ❕❕

I often disappear out of nowhere lol, I like to interact, I only write once in a while because I'm lazy lmao, sometimes I post random stuff, I only write mlm (for cis and AFAB/ftm reader)

──────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ───────────

DNI LIST ❕❕

If you are a fem/fem aligned.

Transphobes, homophobes, r@cist in general any type of prejudice.

If you are a fujoshi.

If you support 🇮🇱

If you like l0lis/sh0tas/ is a Map.

If you are a therian.

If you are a Z0o.

if you are a Fetrah.

──────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ───────────

I LIKE :

Classical literature, Horror movies from the 60s/70s/80s/90s, cinema, Dostoevsky's books, history, games, anime, mangas, Args and Lost Media, drawing, quantum physics (although I'm terrible at calculus), painting, writing, cooking, Unknown/hated media (like ranfren, okegom etc...)

──────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ───────────

SOME KINS :

Atsushi (bsd), Akutagawa (bsd), Kenma (Haikyuu), Oikawa (Haikyuu), Asuka (Eva), Shinji (Eva), Randal (ranfren), Makoto (dgrp), Hyoko (dgrp), Hutao (genshin), Lain (Lain), Denji (Csm), Bachira (bllk), Charles (bllk), Satanick (Okegom).

──────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ───────────

SOME ANIMES :

Blue Lock (Current hyperfixation lol), Bungou Stray dogs, Chainwasan Man, Evangelion, Devil Man crybaby, Studio Ghibli films in general,Houseki no kuni, Haikyuu.

─────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ────────────

Some Games/Media I Like :

Dead plate (Cannibalism yay!!), Danganronpa Except V3), Ranfren, Okegom, John doe, Project Sekai, Skullgirls, And others that I'm too lazy to list...

──────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ───────────

Bands/Singers I like :

Nirvana

Deftones

Red hot chilli Peppers

Gorilaz

Dazey and the scouts

Asteria

Msi

Mother Mother

Molchat doma

Memo boy

Alex G

Cristal castles

Pastel ghost

And others...

──────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ───────────

I'm too lazy to continue so this is it 👍

──────────── ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ───────────

Ps: Aku is so pretty...😭

4 notes · View notes

kariachi · 9 months ago

Text

Okay everybody, I feel the painful urge to math something, so we're going to see about coming up with some reasonable average clutch sizes and rates for Pern golds. Given, ya know, the McCaffreys didn't give us any real consistency there.

So, at least somewhat account for the inconsistencies we're going to be running off of a concept I've put forth before- that dragonkin have different 'morphs' seen during Intervals and Passes respectively. This allows for the way that dragon reproduction slows during Intervals. The difference between the morphs, for the purposes of this, is how long they take to mature, how often risers, well, Rise, and how many eggs are laid.- with the Interval morph taking longer and doing so less often than the Pass morph, as well as generally living longer as a result.

As our best information outside of Passes, we're going to assume that Nemorth is a reasonable example of an Interval morph, and therefor say that they reach sexual maturity in seven years, as opposed to Pass morph Ramoth who does so in two.

Meanwhile my preexisting estimate for Pass-moprh lifespans ended up being minimum around 50-60 years (given Leri doesn't seem to be that much older than middle-aged Moreta but is clearly older than would be expected thanks to being a rider, if we assume an age of around 70, 80 at a stretch (the norm in such a setting would likely be around 60) minus 20 years as the general age of gold candidates), while MasterHarper of Pern asserts that riders can and do live to 110 with their dragons still going strong. Presumably something about the bond musses with that shit for the human half... But it would mean that in Intervals dragons probably live closer to a century.

Now, there's some other information we need before we can really get mathing.

How many dragons does Pern actually have?

How many dragons need to reach adulthood the maintain those numbers?

How many eggs need to be laid to give us that number?

How many eggs would need to be laid per gold to give us that number?

How often?

We'll start with question one.

Now, using the Atlas of Pern as my source, utilizing both text and the assumption that the 'lesser room exaggeration' on the Weyr maps refers to the ratio of weyrs shown vs actually meant to be present-

Benden Weyr has space for about 500 general riderpairs and five goldpairs (stated outright)

We don't have a population for Southern, but from map information we can estimate about 250 general riderpairs, and know there are three goldpairs before the Oldtimers take it over

During at least Moreta's time Fort has space for four goldpairs and can estimate from map information a general riderpair population of about 450

High Reaches, in Moreta's time, appears to have space for four goldpairs, and a general rider estimate of about 150 (though this may be less reliable, as High Reaches is described as using more outdoor buildings than other Weyrs to supplement a lack of space)

Ista appears to have space for three goldpairs, and at least 82 general riderpairs, though this is merely based on visible weyrs and it is implied there are more- Ista is also confirmed as the smallest Northern Weyr

And to make sure we're covering our bases, let's see and compare to what information we can get from the Dragonlover's Guide-

Fort Weyr is built to hold about 450 general riderpairs

Benden holds over 350 general riderpairs

It should also be noted that the 2nd Pass books apparently describe Telgar as having a capacity of 600 dragons, but I am not digging out the one I have to check because I already did that for Masterharper and I'd like to finish this post at some point.

So our reliable numbers (Benden, Fort, Southern) imply a correlation between gold number and dragon population in most cases (9th Pass Benden is a bit of an outlier because Ramoth throws eggs like confetti but refuses to let more than two other golds stick around). Five compared to 500, three compared to 250, four compared to 450. We can use that to extrapolate that Telgar likely has around six goldpairs, but also to estimate full general riderpair populations for High Reaches and Ista (which it seems would likely be 350-450 and 250-350 respectively, which would track with Ista's being the smallest Northern Weyr).

We can also probably guess that Igen, who seems to be one of the middle Weyrs (it certainly isn't out there getting love) probably has space for four goldpairs, same as Fort and High Reaches. Not enough to be as impressive as Benden and Telgar, but ahead of the small Weyrs.

So, averaging out from there, we're talking about an average general riderpair population of about 2900 during a Pass. Because gods know we don't get information about the depths of Intervals aside from 'numbers decline'.

Given the declining, and Benden starting from five and only getting really worked up when they were down to one, I'm going to run with the assumption that the numbers halve, leaning towards the low end, in the depths of an Interval. So someplace like Telgar may not expect to drop below three pairs, but Ista may go down to one.

Taking this into account, we're considering a max Interval number of about 1450.

Yeah, there's a reason people worry about the dragon population on Pern, that shit can't be healthy, no matter how many strands your dna has.

But! We have our baseline! Going off the 9th Pass we can assume a population of about 2900 dragons during a Pass, supported by 29 goldpairs, and 1450 dragons during an Interval, supported by about 14 goldpairs.

So now we move on to question two- how many adult dragons do we need to get each year to maintain those numbers?

Now for this we need death rates, to know approximately how many riderpairs are dying per year.

Now getting adult death rates (and that's what we're looking at right now, I'll get to the children in a minute) in period that can be considered to some degree level with our setting can be a fucking bitch. Especially ones that take into account that as dragons and riders the best healthcare available is going to normally be available (the mess of the 8th Interval not withstanding). So, we're using the average death rate of a priory in Canterbury in the 1400s because that's the best I could get.

So for a general 'we're not getting eaten by space-fungus' death rate we're gonna estimate about 2.5% of adult dragons lost each year. This doesn't take into account death by Fall, for which we're going to grab the combat destruction rate of USAF aircraft during WW2, given we're dealing with air to air combat and a lot of lost medical knowledge, giving us a Fall death rate of about 14%. Meaning we have an Interval death rate of about 2.5% and a Pass death rate of about 16.5%.

For actual numbers, that means that each year the golds would have to all together produce ~37 adult dragons during an Interval and ~479 adult dragons during a Pass.

Notice how I keep saying 'adult'?

On to question three.

Pern is a medieval brand setting, and while it doesn't bring attention to it any setting further back than 'modern' is going to run into one big thing that's a key fact in most people's lives- child mortality. Kids just died back then, a lot. Their immune systems aren't fully developed so they were more vulnerable to illness, they don't have a lot of experience so they're more likely to do something stupid, they're small and weak and so more likely to be maimed by a wherry or something. There's a lot of reasons kids died all the time back then, but the point is they did, and in a lot of places still do. Then you have to take into account a lot of these dragons are Impressing to fuckers who are still themselves firmly in the 'old enough to do the stupid thing and young enough to not think better of it' category, and that their growth includes 'learning to Between'. If anything me saying '40% child mortality rate' is probably a little low. But I'm trying to be a little nice and assume fuckers are watching these little menaces like hawks.

So, we're going with the assumption that only 60% of hatchlings even make it to adulthood. So the number of dragons that has to hatch to reach the adult number goal has to account for that. Each year the golds, all together, would have to produce ~62 hatchlings during an Interval, and ~799 hatchlings during a Pass.

But that's not all! Because we also have to account for hatch rate! Because not all the eggs are going to hatch! Now for this one I'm going to be nice and assume a good hatch rate, we're gonna go with numbers taken from captive crocodiles and say that we can expect about 95% of eggs to hatch. It's wildly more common for them to get babies than not. (Listen, I'm a sap, let me be)

So, taking into account that we can expect 5% of eggs to not even hatch, our numbers turn to ~68 eggs per year in an Interval, and ~841 eggs per year during a Pass.

We estimated 14 goldpairs during an Interval, so that would be a yearly requirement of ~5 eggs a year each. We estimate 29 goldpairs during a Pass, for a yearly requirement of ~29 eggs a year each.

Nemorth seems to Rise about every eight years, give or take a year, which should give us about 40 eggs per clutch, but her largest confirmed clutch is only 24, most closer to 20, so from that we can assume that it's more likely an Interval gold is normally Rising every four years, give or take.

Meanwhile Ramoth's numbers include such hits as '40' and Prideth gets over 30, which only the latter fits into our little segment. Prideth's are closer (and Ramoth has Special Protagonist Syndrome), and make me think yearly clutching might be a thing for this shit. Would help explain the massive lifespan discrepancy we're looking at here, as well as how a nearly 100 year old dragon could be showing minimal signs of ages during an Interval but a lady from a Pass is old and achy when she's unlikely to be over 60- laying large clutches yearly ruins the dragons like any Holder woman made to pop out kids until they break down. It makes the Lord Holder's concern about Orlith only laying 25 eggs in Moreta more eye-roll worthy, but if she tended towards large clutches before hand (not unlikely given Anne's propensity towards them) it would make sense the 'sudden' change would throw him off.

Or, if you wanted to keep the large numbers or just give the golds some breathing room, you could increase the time between clutches up to two years, which would line up well with the halved lifespan, but then you would have to double the egg count to up to 60 eggs per clutch on average to maintain the numbers, which is beyond even Anne's shit. I'd personally suggest going no more than 1.5 years, which gives us 43, closer to Ramoth's numbers.

Or maybe you decide you want to throw out everything but my Interval and Pass requirement numbers. Or even everything but my Pass and percentage numbers. Or you want to have the clutching rate stay the same but change the number severely during an Interval to match (in which case we're talking clutches of 5-10 eggs yearly or biyearly). Or whatever! It's up to you what if anything you want to take from this, how you play with the numbers, and so on. All I can do is hope that my mess has given you something, anything, and that you enjoyed.

Long may you fly.

#pern analysis #damn this got long #i may have lost the plot a bit there towards the end but i'm mentally exhausted #went through three books for this and so much other shit as well #plus math

5 notes · View notes

partywithponies · 1 year ago

Note

have you ever read the father brown books? i've just started on the first one and like. there's some fun flambrown content if you're into that

i say "if" as if you don't plaster flambrown content across my dash every day dkfhfjd

(I typed a whole long answer and it refused to post so I've attempted to retype ashorter less rambly version of the original post 😭😭)

OH BOY

WHAT A SILLY QUESTION

I'm more into the books than the show, and I've consumed every single TV, film, and radio adaptation! Even the ones in German and Italian! Even though I don't speak a word of Italian! My blog header on mobile is actually Flambeau from the 70s Italian miniseries!

I'm also Aristide Valentin stan no.1, he's my poor little meow meow, I literally spent weeks researching pre-WW1 maps of London to try and figure out the route Valentin took from Liverpool Street to Hampstead Heath so that I could go on my own trip and follow in his footsteps. And literally no onscreen adaption has ever done him properly. 😭😭 The radio adaptations are better in that regard.

The 1984 BBC radio adaptation is the one and only adaptation that even pronounces Valentin's name properly. Coincidentally it's also the only adaptation to have an actual Frenchman on the cast. 😂 To by best count, Flambeau has been played by 3 Englishmen, 3 Americans, an Italian, a Welshman, a Hungarian, an Austrian, a German, and one (1) actual Frenchman.

As far as adaptations go, the 1974 TV series and the 80s and 00s radio adaptations are both the best as faithful adaptations, and the gayest, though the 1934 movie has a very special place in my heart. It has low budget early Hayes code charm. I love the flat painted London backdrop and the milk in wine glasses. I love the doggy and I love obviously Hungarian Flambeau because early hollywood just thought "as long as he sounds foreign".

But honestly every adaptation has something I love about it, even the really weird ones. You have to check out the failed pilot for an American modern day adaptation set in New York made in the early 80s sometime. It's barely recognisable as Father Brown but it's a lot of fun. Flambeau isn't in that one but Father Brown does have a dog which is nearly as good.

But I do hope you enjoy the books! The Secret Garden, The Invisible Man, and The Eye of Apollo are my favourite FB book stories by MILES

#father brown #flambrown

16 notes · View notes

sarasa-cat · 1 year ago

Text

I am reading (technically listening) to:

You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape by Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner. MIT Press, 2021.

Only in chapter 2. But hoooooboy do I want to hold a reading group that reads this book and discusses it.

Chapter 2 includes a big bit on how millennials who were internet researchers in PhD programs (such as these two authors) during the early 2010s actually PERPETUATED the problems of online racism, sexism, protecting the privacy of minors and other vulnerable classes of people.

Including the outrage that some of these young researchers felt when they were told HOW FUCKED UP THEIR RESEARCH WAS (often by peer-reviews my age, which definitely did in fact include me for those attempting to publish in ACM venues) .

I eventually left academia and the tech world because of so many things in this book --- the tide of move fast and break things --- the overwhelming onslaught of smug young idiots with freshly minted Harvard (etc) degrees who had bizarre notions of what "free speech" actually means even in a US legal context. There was far too much of a revolving door between research academia and Facebook, Google, Twitter, Etc.

Well. This chapter attempts to apologize for the idiocy that swept through that group of people.

...

But before that, lots of discussion about other idiots far older than them (and many far older than me too). So, they have words for everyone.

My problem is that I'm just extra salty at a specific group for reasons personal. Sorry. But I am salty and I will remain salty and so will every single damn person (generally in my age group) who warned and warned and warned and warned about how the information ecosystem was being taken over by bigots and by political-ideological agents with dangerous goals.

Anyhow. (Still salty. Salty since 2008. Actually, no. Salty since 1998.)

I think I need to get my hands on a text version of this book because audiobook while cleaning is sort of brain tuning in and out.

The whole section on the rise of Christian media (in the 70s-90s) and how that walked hand in hand with the so-called Satanic Panic (!!!) of the 1980s was really very well spelled out.

If anyone wants to read this book with me, please let me know.

Here is a preview: https://www.google.com/books/edition/You_Are_Here/-ScZEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

The chapters are:

Introduction: Mapping Network Pollution

The Devil's in the Deep Frames

The Root of All Memes

Tilling Bigoted Lands, Sowing Bigoted Seeds

The Gathering Storm

Cultivating Ecological Literacy

Choose Your Own Ethics Adventure

(The intro does something clever -- it looks at information networks as ecological networks)

(Ch 1 was basically Lakoff & Johnson's linguistic frame theory crossed with the rise of Evangelical media networks that sucked in conspiracy theories in order to push back against fears of modern secular society which was rapidly changing in the 70s and 80s).

(I'm currently in Ch 2 which is about meme culture -- and also WHY these two people - millennials of a certain vintage - had trouble seeing the forest for the trees because they grew up immersed in internet culture and didn't realize (lacked the wisdom and perspective) to see what was wrong with even the things they were doing as researchers)

okay. back to cleaning --- ping me if you are fascinated. I'm gonna keep listening but I also need to find a print or ebook copy bc audiobook isn't the best for close reading.

9 notes · View notes

sillylotrpolls · 1 year ago

Text

If you recall, a little while ago I manually scraped data regarding popular LotR ships from Ao3 using an extremely rough methodology. I had a request for the data, so what the heck, here you go.

Now, these numbers are ridiculously rough. In fact, you might even say they're bad. The first 10 are approximately correct. But, as explained in that link, every group of 10 after that is undercounted by more and more because I excluded fics from my search that contained the ships already on the list. Also, anything tagged in the Hobbit movies/book but not LotR was really, really undercounted.

Let this be a lesson in data sources! In fact, the best use of this data is to use it as a starting point for getting good data. Instead of checking every permutation of ships (like idk, Merry/Elrond) for proper numbers, you would start by checking the top 50 on this list. This is of course assuming you didn't have a better method of getting data out of Ao3 than using the work and tag searches like I've done here.

(The second-best use of this data is to go "lol, really?" which is what I assume/hope you're here for, because otherwise you're probably gonna be disappointed.)

(The third-best use of this data is to note that because the Hobbit movies came out 2012-14, right when Ao3 had achieved critical mass, it is much, much easier to find Hobbit-related fic on Ao3 than LotR, the films of which came out in 2001-03.)

For ships that intrigued me I've included the "actual" results in purple. But even those numbers are probably undercounting because some people don't use tags that map to the canonical tags.

Anyway, the top 140 ships for "Lord of the Rings - All Media Types" on Archive of Our Own using a Very Bad counting method are:

1 Frodo/Sam (2207) (2,250) 2 Gimli/Legolas (1918) (2,121) 3 Aragorn/Arwen (1509) 4 Aragorn/Legolas (1492) 5 Éowyn/Faramir (1055) 6 Bilbo/Thorin (996) (12,085!!!) 7 Erestor/Glorfindel (955) (1,158) 8 Aragorn/Boromir (766) 9 Celebrían/Elrond (752) 10 Galadriel/Halbrand (688) (691) 11 Legolas & Thranduil (439) 12 Legolas/Original Female Character (347) (539) 13 Legolas/Thranduil (308) 14 Merry Brandybuck/Pippin Took (305) (488) 15 Thranduil/Original Female Character (294) (653) 16 Legolas/Reader (269) (328) 17 Gimli & Legolas (248) 18 Elrond/Lindir (244) 19 Éomer Éadig/Lothíriel (233) 20 Thranduil/Thranduil's Wife (232) (512) (this tag cracks me up) 21 Celeborn/Galadriel (216) 22 Frodo & Sam (196) 23 Boromir/Faramir (157) 24 Aragorn/Frodo (155) 25 Boromir & Faramir (153) 26 Rose Cotton/Sam (147) (331) 27 Morgoth Bauglir | Melkor/Sauron (145) 28 No Romantic Relationship (128) 29 Elrond/Thranduil (123) (325) 30 Thranduil/Reader (114) (620) 31 Elrohir/Legolas (122) 32 Aragorn & Legolas (119) 33 Original Female Character/Original Male Character (117) 34 Aragorn/Faramir (99) 35 Aragorn/Reader (89) 36 Kíli/Tauriel (80) (2,604!!!) 37 Elrond/Reader (78) 38 Elrond & Maglor | Makalaurë (75) 39 Haldir of Lothlórien/Legolas (71) 40 Thorin/Original Female Character (68) 41 Merry Brandybuck & Pippin Took (82) 42 Denethor II/Finduilas of Dol Amroth (80) 43 Elladan/Elrohir (78) 44 Haldir of Lothlórien/Original Female Character (77) 45 Boromir/Original Female Character (70) 46 Bard the Bowman/Thranduil (67) (1,727) 47 Bilbo & Frodo (64) 48 Minor or Background Relationship (60) 49 Elladan & Elrohir (58) 50 Éomer Éadig/Faramir (57) 51 Elrond/Ereinion Gil-galad (72) 52 Éomer Éadig/Reader (59) 53 Celebrimbor/Sauron (55) (783!!!!) 54 Fingon | Findekáno/Maedhros | Maitimo (51) 55 Éowyn/Gríma Wormtongue (48) 56 Other Relationship Tags to Be Added (48) 57 Celebrimbor/Talion (Shadow of Mordor) (47) 58 Frodo/Faramir (46) 59 Arondir/Bronwyn (46) 60 Elrond/Legolas (45) 61 Arwen/Éowyn (52) 62 Aragorn/Éowyn (49) 63 Glorfindel/Original Female Character (48) 64 Legolas/Original Character (43) 65 Aragorn & Elrond (39) 66 Thorin/Reader (37) 67 Elendil the Tall/Tar-Míriel (34) 68 Legolas/Original Male Character (33) 69 Aragorn & Boromir (33) 70 Elrond & Elros Tar-Minyatur (32) 71 Durin IV & Elrond (37) 72 Ecthelion of the Fountain/Glorfindel (32) 73 Legolas/Harry Potter (30) 74 Original Character/Original Character (29) 75 Haldir of Lothlórien/Reader (29) 76 Glorfindel/Legolas (27) 77 Boromir/Reader (27) (85) 78 Legolas/Tauriel (26) 79 Elrond/Erestor (26) 80 Boromir/Legolas (26) 81 Frodo/Rose Cotton/Sam(25) 82 Diamond Took/Pippin Took (23) 83 Thorin/Thranduil (23) (723) 84 Sherlock Holmes/John Watson (22) (48) lol 85 Thranduil/Original Character (21) 86 Boromir/Théodred (21) 87 Éomer Éadig/Legolas (21) 88 Merry Brandybuck/Éowyn (20) 89 Aragorn/Original Female Character (20) 90 James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (19) 91 Éomer Éadig & Éowyn (25) 92 Elrond & Glorfindel (22) 93 Éomer Éadig/Original Female Character (20) 94 Sean Bean/Orlando Bloom (18) 95 Éowyn/Legolas (18) 96 Erestor & Glorfindel (18) 97 Sean Bean/Viggo Mortensen (17) 98 Frodo/Merry Brandybuck (17) 99 Fëanor | Curufinwë/Nerdanel (17) 100 Elladan/Glorfindel (17)

101 Éowyn/Tauriel (20) 102 Frodo/Boromir (17) 103 Isildur/Valandil (17) 104 Elrond/Glorfindel (16) 105 Aragorn/Elrond (15) 106 Legolas & Original Female Character (14) 107 Lindir/Reader (14) 108 Elrond/Original Female Character (14) 109 Arwen & Elrond (14) 110 Elladan/Legolas (13) 111 Arathorn II/Gilraen (16) 112 Aragorn/Haldir of Lothlórien (16) 113 Galadriel/Sauron (16) 114 Elrond & Ereinion Gil-galad (14) 115 Human/Orc (13) 116 Sauron/Original Female Character (13) 117 Aragorn & Gimli & Legolas (13) 118 Witch-King of Angmar/Reader (13) 119 Bungo/Belladonna Took (12) 120 Frodo/Original Female Character (12) 121 Elendil the Tall/Reader (17) 122 Fíli/Kíli (15) 123 Frodo/Legolas (14) 124 Fíli/Original Female Character (13) 125 Ratbag the Coward/Talion (Shadow of Mordor) (13) 126 Estella Bolger/Merry Brandybuck (12) 127 Elladan/Elrohir/Legolas (12) 128 Celebrimbor & Talion (Shadow of Mordor) (12) 129 Loki (Marvel)/Thranduil (12) 130 Imrahil/Legolas (12) 131 Orlando Bloom/Viggo Mortensen (15) 132 Tom Bombadil/Goldberry (12) 133 Halbarad/Maglor | Makalaurë (12) 134 Frodo/Merry Brandybuck/Pippin Took (11) 135 Goldberry/Lady of the Blue Brooch (11) 136 Celebrimbor/Narvi (11) 137 Sauron/Reader (11) 138 Beren Erchamion/Lúthien Tinúviel (10) 139 Erestor/Reader (10) 140 Aragorn/Arwen/Boromir (10)

#admin #data #good fun with bad numbers

18 notes · View notes

echofromtheabyss · 1 year ago

Text

There is a discussion about the Thomas Covenant books in one of my spaces on FB that's making me realize that a big generational difference in sff culture is that Boomer and Gen X sff readers were drawn from a very different group than Millennial and younger.

Most of the nerds I knew when I was younger, had been kids who read classic adult fiction and or more hardboiled material prior to getting into sff, and generally had the aesthetic literacy to deal with this: they weren't mapping Thomas Covenant to modern YA characters, they were mapping him to the characters in classic fiction that were often intended to be Terrible Warnings more than Good Examples.

Classic fiction is full of morally weird shit and unlikable characters and viscerally triggering stuff. If you can handle "Lolita" and actually get that it's not a pro-pedo work, if you can handle Dostoevsky, if you can handle stuff in 18th-19th century English literature without identifying with it or thinking it's aspirational to the present, then you can handle a lot of "blue and orange morality" 70s-80s-90s work where often the whole point IS to examine Badness.

So many modern sff readers are not made up of people who grew up on shit that nerds read, they grew up on normie shit and were never given the tools for analyzing that media

8 notes · View notes

quietwingsinthesky · 2 years ago

Note

hello uh so I will not feel self actualized until I get into Star Trek but it’s so vast and I have no idea where to start. you’re a fan, right? any advice?

The good thing about Star Trek is that you can just pick any series to watch and it’ll make sense to you eventually.

(Note: this might not apply to the newer series.(definitely not to Picard, which is the one show that’s an explicit sequel to another) like Discovery, Strange New Worlds, & Lower Decks but uh. I’ve only seen s1 of Discovery anyway. It’s fine? It’s fine.)

Idk what other fans would say but my advice would be starting with either The Next Generation or The Original Series, completely dependent on one factor: Do you want to start with a show that’s going to be a lot closer in tone to the next few that come after it (aka Deep Space 9, Voyager, Enterprise) or do you want the campy space hijinks that make up Star Trek in its most undiluted form?

Because The Original Series is fantastic, it holds up remarkably well for a show from the 60s (aside from a few missteps here and there that, for the most part, seem to be earnest takes that have aged poorly.) It’s vibes are incredible. It’s all melodrama and Shatner overacting and Leonard Nimoy raising his eyebrows and fight scenes that mostly involve characters inexplicable ducking and rolling around on the floor (or getting their shirts ripped off.) There is a reason this show captured the hearts of people so well that it jumpstarted a whole cultural phenomenon and invented shipping while it was at it. (Okay, another reason to start with TOS, if you’re interested in it, is that it opens up the biggest and oldest parts of the AO3 map. Seriously, there’s Spirk fic from the zines of the 70s and 80s that’s been transferred onto the site and is a joy to read.)

But that being said, no series after the original ever fully committed to that tone again. (Behind the scenes reasons of the show being handed off to Rick Berman, but we don’t have time for Star Trek history lessons here.) The Next Generation is a lot closer to what the standard Star Trek experience is like, a lot calmer, a lot less overacting and a lot more, well, actual acting, less colors on the screen but a world that’s a little more firmly established. TNG is almost nothing like TOS, but there’s a reason it ran for seven seasons (if my memory is correct.) The only con is that, as opposed to TOS, which is fantastic out the gate, you do have to pay the entry fee for TNG (the incredibly rocky first season.)

(There’s also a few episodes of TNG that only make sense if you’ve seen the first series, but they’re more nostalgic romps than anything.)

You could absolutely also start with DS9 or Voy or any of the others. Like I said, they’re built for anyone to enter the series at any point, and there’s no reason you have to fully finish any of them before jumping into the next to test the waters for the same reason. The reason I’m suggesting starting with TOS or TNG has more to do with setting a tone than anything else, because for example, without the baseline of TNG, where everything will always be fine as long as they believe in Starfleet’s mission!, DS9’s darker tone loses a bit of its bite.

And personally, I’d say just start at the very very beginning with TOS and go chronologically. It’s as good a method as any to get into this. (Oh, I’ve forgotten to mention The Animated Series. It’s kind of an add-on to TOS, if you didn’t get enough of the space hijinks lmao.)

There’s also the movies, books, and video games. The movies, I’d say look at when they were released and make sure you’ve watched whatever seasons of the show are out up until then, or nothing will make any sense to you. (ie, don’t watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture until you’ve finished TOS.) The exception to this is the trilogy released around 2009, which can technically be watched without familiarity to the series at all. They’re basically ‘what would happen if you took the crew of TOS and instead of camp, you gave them explosions and lens flares’ and some people may try to convince you they are bad. These people do not understand how to have fun. I would recommend at least passing familiarity with TOS for the best effect, though. (And by best effect, I do mean sobbing when Leonard Nimoy comes on screen.)

As for books, I haven’t read a lot, but again, if it’s got the name of a specific series slapped on there, best to actually know that show before you get into it.

And the video games are crap. <3 Do not waste your time. (Okay, I’m sure some of them have to be good, but if they are, I haven’t played them. Maybe just look up a gameplay series on YouTube if you really need to see them for some reason.)

So hopefully that was slightly helpful and didn’t just confuse you more. tl;dr: honestly start whenever because you can always go back and watch the rest later, but either TOS or TNG are solid places to begin.

#ask #star trek

7 notes · View notes