#A Historic Sailing Institution
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seashorepics · 2 months ago
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Day 6: Reflecting on The Royal London Yacht Club: A Historic Sailing Institution
The Royal London Yacht Club (RLYC) stands as one of the most prestigious and historic sailing clubs in the world. Founded in 1838, it is located in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, a town synonymous with the sport of yachting. Throughout its long and storied history, the RLYC has played a pivotal role in the development of yachting as a sport and remains a cornerstone of British maritime culture. A…
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lichenaday · 2 years ago
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I thought it might be nice to share a bit about what PhD student life is like since before I started it, I really had no idea what to expect.
I have an office that I share with 3 other PhD students at my institute. It is in an old, historical building at the Munich Botanical Garden.
Let's take a tour around my desk:
First, my homemade Darwin crossstitch (pattern compliments of @shitpostsampler) to remind me that all scientists have bad days.
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It sits behind my wonky dragon tree (Dracaena marginata) who I rescued from the trash outside my apartment. Who throws away a whole ass tree?
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He's recovering beautifully, considering how fucky and sad he was when I pulled him from the bin.
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Above my unnecessarily giant computer monitor I keep part of my expansive plant collection. Pink princess philodendron (Philodendron erubescens) w/handmade moss stick, my beloved jewel orchid (Macodes petola), zebra plant (Tradescantia zebrina) in owl pot (courtesy of my labmate, since I am the bird person) and poorly mounted staghorn fern (Platycerium bifurcatum).
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Little baby jewel orchid! He flowered recently and I am so proud of him.
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Then there's my Cladonia collection, and my bottle of Icelandic lichen (Cetraria islandica) booze.
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On the top shelf is my Calathea musaica 'Network', and jar of discarded lab lichens. I will figure out a use for them eventually. For now they are just aesthetic.
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Then there's my monstera Peru (Monstera karstenianum) in a pot I "salvaged" from a cemetery. Pretty sure it's cursed, but nothing I can do about that now. Also the baby succulents off my mystery flea market sedum. Behind my desk you can see my German sailing cookbook, Florentine bat notebook, Pikachu of encouragement, and turtle postcard. The turtle is one of many who live in the greenhouse that I visit when work gets stressful. Also a magnet of my favorite Minoan goddess--tits out, snakes in hands, cat on head.
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This is desk ant. She appears to have no colony and just hangs out with me all day. I have tried to track her and find where she comes from but she just runs around in circles on my desk for hours so I have given up. Sometimes I give her a little bit of my tea to drink. She is the backbone of this working group.
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Anyway, if you ever see a scientist's office that isn't cluttered and chaotic, they are doing it wrong.
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readyforevolution · 7 months ago
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Interesting facts about Sierra Leone
1. Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 is located in West Africa on the Atlantic coast and bordered by Guinea and Liberia.
2. The country takes its name from the Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra who named the country “Serra Leoa” (Lion Mountains) due to the impressive mountains he saw while sailing along the West African coast in 1462.
3. Archaeological evidence suggests Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 has been inhabited for thousands of years with successive waves of inv.aders as well as immigration from inland peoples making up today’s diverse population
4. Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 is home to 16 ethnic groups. Each group has their own language and traditional attire.
5. If there is one thing that this small nation is blessed with is its rich mineral resource. Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 is famous for its diamonds. Apart from diamonds, bauxite and titanium are also extracted on large scale. It also produces gold and rutile on a large scale.
6. Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown, was founded as a home for repatriated and rescued former slaves in 1787
7. English is the official language; however, Krio is the language that is understood by most of the population. Krio is a Creole language, first spoken by descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who settled in the Freetown area.
8. Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 has a simple horizontally striped green, white and blue flag. Green stands for agriculture and the mountains, white for unity and justice, and blue for the aspiration to “contribute to world peace, especially through the use of its unique natural harbour at Freetown”.
9. The Outamba-Kilimi National Park, a tract of savannah and jungle in Sierra Leone, is home to highly diverse wildlife including primates such as chimpanzees, colobus monkeys and sooty mangabeys as well as hippos, bongo antelopes, buffalo, forest elephants and over 150 species of bird.
10. Freetown was home to the first institution of higher learning in modern sub-Saharan Africa after the collapse of the university at Timbuktu. Fourah Bay College opened in 1827 and at the time was the only alternative to Europe and America for British colony West Africans who wanted a university degree.
11. Sierra Leone’s “blood diamonds” helped fuel atr0cities during the w.ar. Blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, were used to fund certain conflicts in Africa
12. Freetown has the largest natural harbour on the African continent. It is capable of receiving oceangoing vessels of all kinds.
Guys let's get our YouTube channel (YT: Historical Africa) to 200k subscribers. Kindly Click on the link to subscribe https://youtube.com/c/HistoricalAfrica
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goodqueenaly · 7 months ago
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Not sure if you are the right person to ask this but what is the deal with Gerion's trip to Valyria? Because according to Fire and Blood, after Aerea died Jaehaerys forbid anyone from Westeros from ever going there and ordered than any ship suspected of having been there should be turned away from ports.
Did somebody later overturned that order so it was again legal to go there, did Gerion think it wouldn't apply to him because he's a Lannister or did Tywin find a neat way to get rid of problematic brother without dirtying his hands personally?
I think the No-Prize Answer is that even if this law was still on the books, so to speak, and remembered by anyone (except, say, the platinum-link maesters of the Citadel) by 291 AC, Robert Baratheon was probably not particularly inclined either to recall this bit of history or enforce it as king, especially when it came to his uncle by marriage. Robert was by no means stupid, but his areas of expertise were never highly scholastic, and so a decree issued nearly two and a half centuries prior may not have even registered in Robert’s mind as an important point in his education. Moreover, as king - especially a king almost a decade into his reign by 291 AC - Robert displayed little interest in his role as supreme judicial authority in the realm, calling laws a “tedious business” and bemoaning the work of “listen[ing] to them [i.e. his subjects] complain until my mind is numb and my ass is raw”. It is possible, if not indeed probable, that Robert was too busy hunting, hawking, and/or pursuing a fleeting extramarital affair to even bat an eye at the idea of one of his subjects sailing to the ruins of Valyria, much less whether such a voyage would be legally forbidden.
Too, even if Robert had thought to bring up Jaehaerys I’s decree, he may have refrained from doing so in deference to his Lannister in-laws. It is no secret, certainly by the time of AGOT, that Robert had allowed Lannister influence to flourish at court, to the exclusion of virtually any other aristocratic faction: his acceptance of Tyrek and Lancel Lannister as his squires, his acceptance of Jaime as the Warden of the East following the death of Jon Arryn, his concession to Cersei over Lady at Darry. While Gerion Lannister left Westeros some seven years before the start of the main novels, I could very much believe that Robert had already begun to allow this Lannister domination at court: after all, he had seemingly raised no objection to his (ostensible) firstborn son being given an explicitly Lannister( and to that point, historically pointed) name, nor to his daughter being given a very Lannister-like name (and in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cersei named Tommen after Uncle Gerion himself and his voyage, a nod to the Lannister glory once lost by King Tommen which this favorite uncle hoped to reclaim). I don’t tend to think Tywin engineered Gerion’s voyage - an audaciously confident far-reaching quest to reclaim the symbol of Lannister regal power, undertaken by this most reckless of Tytos Lannister’s sons, doesn’t seem too far off from some of the actions of, say, Jaime or Tyrion - but I do think that if some or all of the Lannisters supported Gerion in this voyage (and funded him going on it), Robert may not have been personally inclined to fight his queen and/or the Lannister faction about it.
Of course, the practical answer is that GRRM introduced the idea of Gerion Lannister sailing to Valyria, (almost certainly) never to return, many years before he described Jaehaerys I forbidding Westerosi from sailing to Valyria. Just as Fire and Blood Volume 1 described the infrastructure improvements in the capital instituted by Jaehaerys I without acknowledging what happened to King’s Landing thereafter to make it the stinking cesspit of the main novels, for example, and alluded to hatchlings and young drakes extant during the reigns of Jaehaerys I and Viserys I without ever explaining why there were no more adult dragons than those we already knew going into that book, so F&B gave us this decree without attempting to reconcile it with the current attitude of the Westerosi legal system toward voyages to the Smoking Sea. It’s entirely possible we get an answer to this apparent contradiction in a future novel, and/or in Fire and Blood Volume 2, but for now it simply remains an apparent unanswered question.
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chirpycloudyrobin · 2 months ago
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The Xianzhou Wulin
The Xianzhou Wulin is one of the younger Xianzhou ships, built after the destruction of the Xianzhou Daiyu. Their Plaguemark is the Burial Mounds.
Arbiter-General: Jin Guangyao
This position has been held by the Nie clan of Xianzhou natives since time immemorial. However, the last Nie Arbiter-General was assassinated by Wen Ruohan of the Wen clan of Xianzhou natives who was, in turn, assassinated by Jin Guangyao of the Jin clan of Foxians. Jin Guangshan seized the position of Arbiter-General but then died of mysterious circumstances mere years later. His illegitimate Foxian son, Jin Guangyao, inherited the title after the rightful heir of Nie Xiuzhu was deemed unfit to hold the overall leadership figure.
Below the cut are information on the Wulin's Six Charioteers and its Vidyadhara High Elder.
The Six Charioteers
Cloud Knights - General Nie Xiuzhu (former); General Wen Ruohan (former); General Nie Mingjue
The Cloud Knights is Xianzhou's military institution. Each Xianzhou ship has a general commanding the army, with a marshal overseeing all generals. The Cloud Knights are responsible for wiping out the Denizens of Abundance, and regards an almost impossible task — putting an end to the undead corruption among the stars — as their duty. Historically, the title of the General of the Cloud Knights of the Wulin has been held by the Nie clan of Xianzhou natives.
Sky-Faring Commission - Helm Master Jiang Cheng / Jiang Wanyin
As the name suggests, the Sky-Faring Commission is in charge of affairs related to Xianzhou's internal airspace and interstellar navigation. All matters related to flight are the domains of the Sky-Faring Commission. The starskiff maintenance you often see on the Xianzhou also falls within their jurisdiction. Historically, the title of the Helm Master of the Wulin has been held by the Jiang clan of Xianzhou natives.
Divination Commission - Master Diviner Jin Guangyao
As its name suggests, the Divination Commission's main tasks are to predict the future, and to process and preserve information. Through the crystal technology called "the jade abacus," the Divination Commission's diviners chart the ships' routes, strategize with foresight, and scry into the past to predict the future. Historically, the title of the Master Diviner of the Wulin has been held by the Jin clan of Xianzhou natives.
Realm-Keeping Commission - Commissioner Lan Zhan / Lan Wangji
The Realm-Keeping Commission is Xianzhou's administrative organization, and the Commission that Xianzhou residents would normally have the most contact with. The Realm-Keeping Commission is responsible for matters such as population statistics, resource allocation, and calendar timing. Some of its staff are scholars who conduct professional academic research in sociology and ecology. Historically, the title of the Realm-Keeping Commissioner of the Wulin has been held by the Lan clan of Vidyadharas.
Artisanship Commission - Furnace Master Nie Huaisang
Artisanship is about crafting and manufacturing. Any object imaginable that can be manufactured, such as weapons, ship parts, and artificial intelligence, are all produced by the craftsmasters here. They pursue ingenious skills and strive for the goal of completing the "Great Smelting Furnace" ritual, and being awarded the title of "Furnace Master." This is one of the commissions on the Wulin where the leadership is not based on clan inheritance.
Alchemy Commission - Cauldron Master Wen Qing
The Alchemy Commission is responsible for biological and medical research. It is said that in ancient times, the ancestors of Xianzhou natives were not immortal. In order to be free from the three sufferings of old age, sickness, and death, they set sail to seek divine medicine. After gaining immortality, the Alchemy Commission used the miracle left by the Aeon to demonstrate the way of immortality. But now, the Alchemy Commission is in decline, and finally became a place where Outworlders seek medical treatment. Historically, the title of the Cauldron Master of the Wulin has been held by the Wen clan of Xianzhou natives.
The Vidyadhara High Elder
The Vidyadhara High Elder of the Wulin is the Primaevum Silvestris (Primeval Forest), the Successor of the Arboreal Dragon, Guardian of the Ancient Overgrowth. Its current incarnation is Lan Huan / Lan Xichen, Zewu-jun.
The Plaguemark
The Xianzhou Wulin's Plaguemark is the Burial Mounds, a mountain of memory. This is actually from a failed attempt of the Xianzhou to siphon memories out to prevent mara, but the experiment instead ended up making a living mountain. It is surrounded by a forest of ancient trees and overgrown pools that is maintained by the Primaevum Silvestris.
Wei Wuxian was once thrown into the Burial Mounds by Wen Chao in the midst of the Wulin Civil War but he emerged as a mutated version of himself who now has mysterious powers over the mara-struck. The rest of the Wulin saw this as Wei Wuxian betraying Lan the Hunt and him siding with Yaoshi the Abundance, which is how Wei Wuxian was exiled from the Wulin in the end.
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the-golden-vanity · 9 months ago
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Thoughts on B.R. Burg's Sodomy And The Pirate Tradition:
All right, this isn't going to be a big, put-together essay, just scattered thoughts, since that's what I'm capable of right now.
This book and its writer are real "queer studies" OGs, and its attitude is very much of that initial post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS gay liberation era. It's a book with attitude and confidence, and with the historical facts to back it up. For an academic text (a style of writing I never got along well with), it's a very fun read.
On to the fun facts!
In spite of how common tavern wenches and dockside whores are as characters in pirate fiction, there was only one brothel in Port Royal in 1680! (This is less surprising than it sounds—with the exception of religious freedom colonies like Maryland and Massachusetts Bay, Britain's American colonies during this era had male:female ratios averaging between 5:1 and 2:1, and the women of the colonies tended to be the wives of male colonists.)
If you spend a certain amount of time in Age of Sail/pirate fandoms, you will come across the idea that pirates had a rule or tradition against oral sex. While it's true that all the written records we have of shipboard sodomy at this point in history are about hand stuff or penetration, Burg argues sensibly that this was less due to any formal prohibitions, and more due to the general unwashedness of Age of Sail seamen. (Which... fair.)
While the pirate institution of matelotage gets talked about online as something like "pirate gay marriage", Burg makes it sound like something closer to pirate indentured servitude. However, he does give examples of matelots and their masters who did become uncommonly close and emotionally bonded, and does mention "pirate marriage" as a separate thing that also happened.
From the less-distant past, it was interesting to see which of the stereotypes about queer men that existed at the time of writing were seen as necessary to debunk, both in relation to pirate society and in relation to contemporary gay subculture—namely, the perceived prevalence of sadomasochism and of effeminacy among queer men.
These were some of the things I found most interesting about the book, but there's plenty more I'd like to talk about it with other people who are either curious about it or who have read it. Let me know you thoughts!
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eduobsessed · 6 months ago
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glad black sails is showing british officers torturing pirates because i think a lot of people, myself included, often think of the violence of the british empire in more institutional terms (as we should! they are after all the most invisible but affect more people) but this is a reminder that even though we associate certain forms of torture and sadism to some of the worst pirates out there the british empire (and spanish, and every other colonial force) were doing it as well. the only difference is that they had the law behind them. also i know this show isn't historically accurate but on this particular thing it's a good reminder idk.
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charminglyantiquated · 2 years ago
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hey, I know you've posted so many resources about sailing, but I'm pretty desperate for a change and I really would like to know. if I wanted to get into it, right now, as someone who lives on a different coast and has zero experience, how can I take to the sea? I wouldn't ask if i wasn't uh. yeah desperate is the only word I can use
Key West! I can vouch for the schooner When and If, and I'm aware of a few others (although no experience on them personally) - the Spirit of Independence, America 2.0, the Jolly II Roger, and maybe the Appledore II and Appledore Star if they're down there this winter. Outside of Florida, the privateer Lynx is in St Simon's Island Georgia for the winter. As a boat which does educational sails, it's good to learn on and they can always use crew.
And here's a few more replies to recent posts asking about winter work/maintenance work. SEA - Sea Education Foundation, LAMI - Los Angeles Maritime Institute, Meerwald - schooner AJ Meerwald. Maintenance work can be a good way to ease into familiarity with the ship, crew, and boat vocab, and as incognita-soul mentions, it pretty much guarantees you a spot on the sailing crew when the season begins.I think Pride of Baltimore II also does winter maintenance.
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Find their websites, find their application form or simply their email, and send out a resume. Since you don't have sailing experience, then where possible you should highlight teamwork, an ability to learn on the job, people-oriented skills from retail/customer service/hospitality, and any manual labor or outdoors hobbies. Basically, you're trying to show that you work well with others, you're willing and able to learn new skills, and that you have a realistic idea of what the job entails: physical effort, teamwork, and tourist wrangling. Where your work experience falls short in showing this, state it outright in your email, which can double as a cover letter. And don't be afraid to toss in any odd things you're competent in. Tall ships are a good place to be a jack of all trades, sitting as they are at the intersection of tourism and hospitality, education, and historic restoration/preservation, on top of the actual sailing itself.
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mbari-blog · 2 years ago
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Today is MBARI's 36th anniversary! To celebrate, we are sharing the story of MBARI's R/V Western Flyer.
David Packard believed that addressing the challenges of ocean exploration required a new type of research institute—one independent in spirit and collaborative by design. He founded MBARI on the core principle of scientists, engineers, and marine operations working in equal partnership to develop innovative marine technology. The research vessel Western Flyer embodied MBARI’s willingness to think big, be bold, and invest in long-term outcomes.
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Constructed in 1996 with a unique twin hull design, the 117-foot SWATH vessel represented David Packard’s vision of developing innovative new platforms to better access and explore the ocean. SWATH, which stands for small waterplane area twin hull, means the ship is much more stable than more common monohulled vessels. This stability, combined with a specially constructed moonpool at the center of the vessel, made the ship an ideal platform to deploy, operate, and recover remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). For much of its time at MBARI the Western Flyer worked together with the Doc Ricketts, MBARI’s ROV capable of exploring to depths of 4,000 meters (2.5 miles).
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The Western Flyer was instrumental to many of MBARI’s achievements: from studying ecosystems that could give insights into the impacts of climate change on the ocean, to identifying more than 200 new species—including a crown jelly, a harp sponge, and an incredible bone-eating worm named Osedax westernflyer in honor of the ship itself. During its quarter-century at MBARI, the Western Flyer also traveled to conduct research beyond its home base of Monterey Bay, venturing northwards to sites such as the Pacific Northwest, and southwards to places like Hawaii and Mexico’s Gulf of California.
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After 25 years of serving as MBARI’s flagship research vessel, the Western Flyer has begun a new chapter in education. MBARI granted the ship to the University of South Florida, which hosts the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO), for use as a sailing classroom. FIO will provide students with a unique mix of at-sea and on-shore training and mentoring to build ocean science, engineering, and maritime trade skills. The new program will focus on engaging students from historically black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions, and tribal colleges, providing an opportunity for students of diverse backgrounds and experiences to learn more about careers in ocean science, engineering, and marine operations. MBARI wishes the Western Flyer well in this next stage of its life, as it continues to foster the spirit of exploration in future generations of the ocean STEM community. Learn more on our website. 
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camisoledadparis · 10 days ago
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … October 28
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1466 – Erasmus was a Dutch humanist and theologian, who merits serious consideration by queer people of faith. Born Gerrit Gerritszoon, he became far better known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam: Erasmus was his saint's name, after St. Erasmus of Formiae; Rotterdam, for the place of his birth (although he never lived there after the first few years of early childhood; and "Desiderius" a name he gave himself - "the one who is desired".
He left a legacy as a scholar and church reformer. His career spanned the years leading up to, and after, Martin Luther's break with the Catholic Church that became the Protestant Reformation. Prior to the split, Erasmus had himself been fiercely critical of the Church, arguing forcefully for reform of the many and manifold abuses. He had close relationships with Luther and many other leading members of the Reformation movement, which his ideas strongly influenced. However, when the break came, he chose to remain formally inside the church structures, and not outside of it.
Some LGBT activists have hailed Erasmus as a gay icon from history. Circa Club for instance has no doubt, using that precise term and including Erasmus in it's collection of historical gay icons. The primary basis of the claim is a series of passionate love letters he wrote to a young monk Servatius Rogerus. While at the Augustinian monastery at Stein near Gouda around 1487, Erasmus wrote passionate letters of friendship to the fellow monk, whom he called "half my soul", writing, "I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly"; this correspondence contrasts sharply with the generally detached and much more restrained attitude he showed in his later life.There were also allegations of improper advances made to the young Thomas Grey, later Marquis of Dorset, while employed as his tutor.
Erasmus's best-known work was The Praise of Folly, a satirical attack on the traditions of the Catholic Church and popular superstitions, written in 1509, published in 1511 and dedicated to his friend, Sir Thomas More.
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1754 – John Laurens (d.1782) was an American soldier and statesman from South Carolina during the Revolutionary War. He gained approval by the Continental Congress in 1779 to recruit a regiment of 3000 slaves by promising them freedom in return for fighting. He died in 1782, but his father manumitted their slaves as he had intended.
Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina. After tutoring at home and the death of his mother, John and his two younger brothers were taken by their father to England. John completed his education in Europe, first in London, then in Geneva. As a youth, he yielded to his father's wish that he study law in London. In late 1776, John was obliged, "out of pity," to marry Martha Manning, the daughter of one of his father's London agents, and in December he sailed for Charleston. He left his wife behind, pregnant with a daughter who he would never see.
In the summer of 1777, he accompanied his father, Henry Laurens, on the trip to Philadelphia where Henry was to serve in the Continental Congress and where in spite of his father's strong objections, John continued on to Washington's camp as a volunteer.
Laurens joined the main army of the Continental Army and within a month, following the Battle of Brandywine, was made officially an aide-de-camp to General Washington with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He became very good friends with his fellow aides, Alexander Hamilton, and with the Marquis de Lafayette. He also gave the first demonstrations of his tendency to reckless courage at the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown in which he was wounded, and Monmouth where his horse was shot out from under him.
As the British stepped up operations in the South, Laurens, who had long argued that "We Americans at least in the Southern Colonies, cannot contend with a good Grace, for Liberty, until we shall have enfranchised our Slaves," promoted the idea of arming slaves and granting them freedom in return for their service, and in early 1778 requested, as a start, 40 slaves from his father, which Henry, now President of the Continental Congress, granted but with such serious reservations about the practicality that John temporarily relinquished the project. In March 1779 Congress approved this idea, commissioned him Lieutenant Colonel, and sent him south to implement a regiment of 3000. He won election to the South Carolina House of Representatives, and introduced his black regiment plan in 1779 and 1780 (and again in 1782) only to meet overwhelming rejection each time. His belief that blacks shared a similar nature with whites and could aspire to freedom in a republican society set Laurens apart from other leaders in revolutionary South Carolina.
There is evidence of Laurens enjoying a sexual and loving relationship with Alexander Hamilton. These reports are based upon letters Hamilton wrote Laurens during a period in which Laurens was absent from the camp. In preparing a biography, Hamilton's family actually crossed out parts of letters they each sent one another. Suspiciously enough many of Laurens letters to Hamilton are missing. But the language in Hamilton's letters reveal a profound love for Laurens. Indeed Hamilton was never as emotionally open with any other man in his lifetime, and the depths of sentiment are equaled only in letters he wrote to his wife Eliza. Hamilton wrote:
"Cold in my professions, warm in my friendships, I wish, my Dear Laurens, it might be in my power, by action rather than words, to convince you that I love you."
In September 1779, gently chiding Laurens for not corresponding as often as he would have liked, Hamilton wrote, "like a jealous lover, when I thought you slighted my caresses, my affection was alarmed and my vanity piqued."
Looking beyond the successful conclusion of the war, Hamilton suggested that both of them should be members of the congress of the new country. "We have fought side by side to make America free, let us hand in hand struggle to make her happy," he wrote in a letter ending, "Yours forever."
Laurens probably never read this letter as he was killed in a skirmish a few days after it was written.
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1824 - French historian Astolphe de Custine is beaten by soldiers he solicited. He reluctantly files charges against them.
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1903 – British poet and novelist Evelyn Waugh was born on this date (d.1996). The English writer is best known for such satirical and darkly humorous novels as Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, Scoop, A Handful of Dust and The Loved One, as well as for broader and more personal works, such as Brideshead Revisited and the Sword of Honor trilogy, that are influenced by his own experiences and his conservative and Catholic viewpoints. Many of Waugh's novels depict British aristocracy and high society, which he satirizes but to which, paradoxically, he was also strongly attracted. In addition, he wrote short stories, three biographies, and the first volume of an unfinished autobiography. His travel writings and his extensive diaries and correspondence have also been published.
The overt homosexuality of his brother Alec Waugh may have caused Evelyn to hide his own tendencies behind two marriages and seven children. Alec Waugh, like their father, publisher Arthur Waugh, had gone to school at Sherborne, and it was assumed that Evelyn would follow. However, in 1915 Alec was asked to leave, after a homosexual relationship came to light. He departed for military training, and while waiting for his commission to be confirmed wrote a novel of school life, The Loom of Youth, which was published by Chapman and Hall. The novel, which alluded to homosexual friendships in what was recognisably Sherborne, caused a public sensation and offended the school sufficiently to make it impossible for Evelyn to go there. Much to his annoyance he was sent in May 1917 to Lancing, in his view a decidedly inferior establishment. He later went to Oxford.
He arrived in Oxford in January 1922; in October 1922 the arrival of the sophisticated Etonians Harold Acton and Brian Howard changed Waugh's Oxford life. Acton and Howard rapidly became the centre of an avant-garde circle known as the Hypocrites, whose artistic, social and homosexual values Waugh adopted enthusiastically; he later wrote: "It was the stamping ground of half my Oxford life". He began drinking heavily, and embarked on the first of several homosexual relationships, the most lasting of which were with Richard Pares and Alastair Graham.
After gallantly protecting T. S. Eliot from "the specious assumption that he was homosexual," T.S. Matthews in Great Tom, suddenly became viciously ungallant: "It is peppery, glaring little men like Evelyn Waugh who are sexually suspect - as his diaries bear witness."
Indeed, his diaries do clearly reveal him as a Gay man. But then so do his novels, particularly Brideshead Revisited, in which the friendship of Charles and Sebastian, despite the limitations of what he was allowed to write in the early 1940s, is magnificently drawn.
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Francis Bacon  Self-portrait 1972
1909 – The Anglo-Irish born painter Francis Bacon (d.1992) was a descendant of the Elizabethan philosopher Francis Bacon. His artwork is well known for its bold, austere, and often grotesque or nightmarish imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds. He began painting during his early 20s and worked only sporadically until his mid 30s. Before this time he drifted, earning his living as an interior decorator and designer of furniture and rugs
Bacon early discovered that he attracted a certain type of rich man, an attraction he was quick to take advantage of, having developed a taste for good food and wine. One of the men was an ex-army friend of his father, another breeder of race-horses, named Harcourt-Smith. Bacon later claimed that his father had asked this friend to take him 'in-hand' and 'make a man of him'. Francis had a difficult relationship with his father, once admitting to being sexually attracted to him. Doubtless, Eddy Bacon was aware of his friend's reputation for virility, but not of his penchant for young men. In the early Spring of 1927 Bacon was taken by Harcourt-Smith to the opulent, decadent, "wide open" Berlin of the Weimar Republic, staying together at the Hotel Adlon.
His visit to a 1927 exhibition of 106 drawings by Picasso at the Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris, aroused his artistic interest, and he often took the train to Paris five or more times a week to see shows and art exhibitions.
In 1929 he met Eric Hall at the Bath Club, Dover Street, London, where Bacon was working at the telephone exchange. Hall (who was general manager of Peter Jones) was to be both patron and lover to Bacon, in an often torturous relationship.
In 1964, Bacon began a relationship with 39-year-old Eastender George Dyer, whom he met, he claimed, while the latter was burgling his apartment. A petty criminal with a history of juvenile detention and prison, Dyer was a somewhat tortured individual, insecure, alcoholic, appearance obsessed and never really fitting in within the bohemian set surrounding Francis. The relationship was stormy and in 1971, on the eve of Bacon's major retrospective at the Paris Grand Palais, Dyer committed suicide in the hotel room they were sharing, overdosing on barbiturates. The event was recorded in Bacon's 1973 masterpiece Triptych, May-June 1973.
In 1974, Bacon met John Edwards, a young, illiterate, handsome Eastender with whom he formed one of his most enduring friendships, eventually bequeathing his £11m fortune to Edwards after his death.
Bacon died of a sudden heart attack on April 28, 1992, in Madrid, Spain. Bacon bequeathed his entire estate (then valued at eleven million pounds) to John Edwards after his death. Edwards, in turn, donated the contents of Francis Bacon's chaotic studio in South Kensington, to the Hugh Lane gallery in Dublin. Bacon's studio contents were moved and the studio carefully reconstructed in the gallery. Additionally draft materials, perhaps intended for destruction, were according to Canadian Barry Joule bequeathed to Joule who later forwarded most of the materials to create the Barry Joule Archive in Dublin with other parts of the collection given later to the Tate museum.
Bacon's Soho life was portrayed by John Maybury, with Derek Jacobi as Bacon and Daniel Craig as George Dyer (with some lovely frontal nudity on Craig's part) and with Tilda Swinton as Muriel Belcher, in the film Love is the Devil (1998), based on Daniel Farson's 1993 biography The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon.
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1949 – Caitlyn Jenner (born William Bruce Jenner), known as Bruce Jenner until 2015, is an American television personality and former track and field athlete.
A former college football player, Jenner came to international attention as a decathlete, winning the gold medal in the men's decathlon event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and setting a world record not beaten until 1980. With the unofficial title of "world's greatest athlete" for the Olympic decathlon win, he was also an American cult hero winning an event dominated by Soviet Union athletes during the Cold War. He leveraged his celebrity status to endorse products and subsequently starred in numerous movies and television specials including several made-for-TV movies, and was briefly Erik Estrada's replacement on the TV series CHiPs.
Jenner was married for 23 years to Kris Jenner (née Houghton; formerly Kardashian); the couple and their children appeared beginning in 2007 on the television reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Following their divorce in 2015, Jenner came out in a television interview as a trans woman, initially preferring masculine pronouns until his transition was more complete. In June 2015, Jenner revealed her new name, Caitlyn, and a preference for being referred to using feminine pronouns. Many news sources have described her as the most famous openly transgender person in the world.
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Bruce Jenner that was.
Jenner is a professed Christian, leans politically conservative, and is a Republican. Prior to her public gender transition, she had been married three times. Her first marriage was to Chrystie Scott (née Crownover) from 1972 to 1981. They have two children, son Burton and daughter Cassandra, known as Burt and Casey. Jenner and Scott's divorce was finalized the first week of January 1981. The same week, on January 5, 1981, Jenner married actress Linda Thompson, in Hawaii. By February 1986, Jenner and Thompson had separated, and they subsequently divorced. They have two sons together, Brandon and Sam Brody, known as Brody. The two sons starred on the reality show The Princes of Malibu and Brody Jenner was also on the reality show The Hills.
Jenner's third marriage, to Kris Kardashian (née Houghton), occurred on April 21, 1991, after five months of dating. They have two daughters, Kendall and Kylie. While married, Jenner was also the step-parent to Kris's four children from her previous marriage to the late lawyer Robert Kardashian: Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Rob. The couple announced their separation in October 2013, though they had actually separated a year earlier. Kris filed for divorce in September 2014, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce terms were finalized in December 2014 and went into effect on March 23, 2015, because of a six-month state legal requirement.
In an April 2015, 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer, Jenner came out as a trans woman saying she had dealt with gender dysphoria since her youth, and that, for all intents and purposes, "I’m a woman." Jenner cross dressed for many years and did hormone replacement therapy but stopped after the romance with Kris Kardashian in the early 1990s became more serious. Caitlyn recounts having permission to explore her gender identity on her own travels but not when they were coupled, and that not knowing the best way to talk about the many issues contributed to the deterioration of the 22-year-long marriage which formally ended in 2013.
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1987 – Frank Ocean (born Christopher Breaux) is an American singer-songwriter and rapper. Ocean started his career as a ghostwriter for artists such as Brandy, Justin Bieber, and John Legend. In 2010, he became a member of alternative hip hop collective OFWGKTA also known as Odd Future, and his debut mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, was released to critical acclaim in 2011. The singles "Novacane" and "Swim Good" both achieved chart success.
His debut studio album, Channel Orange, was released in July 2012, promoted with three charting singles: "Thinkin Bout You", "Pyramids", and "Sweet Life".
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Ocean's hometown of New Orleans and his recording facility was destroyed by floodwater and looting. To continue recording music, he moved to Los Angeles and intended to stay for just six weeks but decided to stay longer and develop his music career after establishing contact with people in the music industry. He recorded some demos at a friend's studio and shopped them around Los Angeles.
After getting a songwriting deal, he started working with other record producers and wrote songs for artists such as Justin Bieber, John Legend, Brandy, and Beyoncé. Ocean later said of his work at the time, "There was a point where I was composing for other people, and it might have been comfy to continue to do that and enjoy that income stream and the anonymity. But that's not why I moved away from school and away from family."
Ocean became one of the first major African-American music artists to announce that he had once fallen in love with someone of the same sex, notable because that music scene is known for homophobia.Ocean wrote an open letter, initially intended for the liner notes on Channel Orange, that would preemptively address speculation about his same-sex attraction. Instead, on July 4, 2012, he published an open letter on his Tumblr blog recounting unrequited feelings he had for another young man when he was 19 years old, citing it as his first true love. He used the blog to thank the man for his influence, and also thanked his mother and other friends, saying "I don't know what happens now, and that's alrite. I don't have any secrets I need kept anymore … I feel like a free man."
Members of the hip hop industry generally responded positively to the announcement. Russell Simmons, a business magnate in the hip hop industry, wrote a congratulatory article in Global Grind saying "Your decision to go public about your sexual orientation gives hope and light to so many young people still living in fear." Other artists who expressed their support included Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
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1990 – Placido Domingo and Andre Watts raised $1.5 million at a fundraiser for the Gay Men's Health Crisis.
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1998 – On this date Welsh secretary Ron Davies resigned from Tony Blair's Labour Party government after British tabloids reported he was robbed at knife-point in a London park while looking for a male sexual companion. Although he subsequently came out as Bisexual, Davies referred to the incident as his "moment of madness."
In 1999 Davies was successfully elected on 6 May 1999 as Member of the Welsh Assembly in the Caerphilly Constituency, and chaired the Economic Development Committee after Alun Michael refused to appoint him to his Cabinet. Shortly before the 2003 assembly elections, "The Sun" revealed that Davies had been visiting a well-known cruising spot near a motorway lay-by (rest stop). When challenged as to what he had been doing there, Davies initially denied being there, then told reporters that he had been going for a short walk, adding: "I have actually been there when I have been watching badgers." Davies was forced to stand down as Labour candidate in the election.
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2009 – President Barack Obama signed the The Matthew Shepard Act (officially the "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act") into law. The Act expanded the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It was finally passed after almost two decades of attempts to pass it through Congress and over stiff opposition by members of the Republican party. During debate in the House of Representatives, Republican Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina called the "hate crime" labeling of Shepard's murder a "hoax."
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cadmusfly · 9 months ago
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napoleon and lannes for the ship ask game? :)
Three Questions For Ships
Ship It
(1.) What made you ship it?
Reading about Lannes going “come on buddy I’m your best friend you can’t do this shit to me” to Napoleon multiple times, Napoleon going “he didn’t even talk about his wife and kids when he was dying, he was all about me! And also he was very tiny when i met him and I made him who he is don’t question it”
Also my predilection for military hierarchy ships from appreciating Age of Sail fandoms because Commander/Second in Command is such a tasty, tasty dynamic
I don’t see it as based in historical fact as much as NapJuno - I don’t think any Napoleon slash ship except definitely NapXander can attain that - but I enjoy the fictionalised versions that’s been woven here and in my mind~
(2.) What are your favorite things about the ship?
Lannes is… unlike Junot in NapJuno, Lannes is more confident. He does wheedle and exaggerate in letters and requests to Napoleon, but while Junot is all like “I need you”, Lannes is all “You need me”.
I see NapLannes as very bro-y, two guys hitting each other with wooden chairs, remember when we were boys and having fun? We’ll have some fun in the middle of the night but it doesn’t really matter, it’s just a fling, we don’t actually have feelings for each other and we’re not going to talk about it, shut up and kiss me you nerd
And it gets heartbreaking later on as Lannes emotionally matures, as he becomes disillusioned with war and becomes more self aware in a melancholy way, but he knows that he’s incapable of not following Napoleon - oh, he’ll call Napoleon out, he’ll disagree with him, but he can’t leave him and he can’t mutiny or break away because that’s not who he is, not anymore
It’s fundamentally a tragedy, but most of these ships here are tragedy.
Also I kinda like the idea of loyal hound motifs for Lannes - he’s not strictly metaphorically a hound, he’ll snap at his master, but those teeth are just for show in that case.
(3.) Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?
Same caveats with NapJuno in that this is a tiny community, but, hmm… don’t think this is unpopular per se, but about ships, I don’t think in another context where same sex relationships are praised or institutional or anything, I don’t think NapLannes would ever be official. They’re not the type to get married or monogamously promise themselves to each other or even acknowledge that what they have is romantic/shippy.
They’re just here to fuck around, even as the chips are on the table and there’s less fucking around to be seen and they both become legends and it’s less fucking and more wistfully dreaming of the days when you could fuck around.
Thanks for the ask!
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father-of-the-void · 1 year ago
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There are ancient oral traditions, still repeated by the elders of some of the more remote islands, which provide an explanation for the Maldives' atmosphere of lost prehistoric grandeur and for its strange ruins. These traditions speak of a mysterious people called the Redin, said to have built the hawittas, who were described to me by Naseema Mohamed, a scholar at the Maldives National Institute for Linguistic and Historical Research, as:
"Very tall. They were fair-skinned, and they had brown hair, blue eyes sometimes. And they were very, very good at sailing. So this story has been around in Maldives for many, many years, and there are certain places where they say the Redin camped here, and certain places which they say here the Redin were buried. But we don't really know how old or how long ago it happened."
During his series of research visits to the Maldives, Thor Heyerdahl collected and compiled Redin legends from all parts of the archipelago. He concludes that in the memory of the islanders the Redin were 'a former people with more than ordinary human capacities':
"The Redin came long before any other Maldivians. Between them and the present population other people had also come, but none were as potent as the Redin, and there were many of them. They not only used sail but also oars, and therefore moved with great speed at sea ..."
Such notions of humans with supernatural or even god-like powers flying swiftly across the sea in their boats with sails and oars is strangely reminiscent of the imagery of the Rig Veda ... concerning the Asvins - who are several times praised for having conducted a daring rescue in the depths of the Indian Ocean:
"Yea Asvins, as a dead man leaves his riches, Tugra left Bhujyu in the cloud of waters ... Ye brought him back in animated vessels ... Bhujyu ye bore ... to the sea's farther shore, the strand of ocean ... Ye wrought that hero exploit in the ocean which giveth no support, or hold, or station, what time ye carried Bhujyu to his dwelling borne in a ship with hundred oars, O Asvins."
Thor Heyerdahl makes a case that there is real history behind the Redin myth, that it is older than the date now confirmed by radiocarbon for the construction of the hawittas - which tradition nevertheless attributes to the Redin - and that the people it refers to probably originated in north-west India, the primary setting of the Rig Veda ... [at] the great marine dockyard of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization at Lothal [north-west India] ... cowrie shells from the Maldives (Cyprea Moneta) have been excavated amongst the ruins and are to be seen in the site museum ...
— Graham Hancock, Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, ch. 13, section The Secret of the Redin
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xshingie · 1 month ago
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Excerpts from "Vodou in Haiti: Way of Life and Mode of Survival"
by Claudine Michel
[Note: I was doing some more research on Vodou to better understand Annette's framework viewing and describing the world. More specifically, I was curious in better understanding the relationship between the lwa and the practitioner. A quick disclaimer that I'm still very new to my research and journey to learn Haitian Vodou]
Bellegarde-Smith: "Vodun is a coherent and comprehensive system and worldview in which every person and everything is sacred and must be treated accordingly. In Vodun, everything in the world be it plant, animal, or mineral shares basically similar chemical, physical, and/or genetic properties. This unity of all things translates into an overarching belief in the sanctity of life, not so much for the thing as for the spirit of the thing. The cosmological unity in Vodun further translates into a vaunted African humanism in which social institutions are elaborated and in which the living, the dead, and the unborn play equally significant roles in an unbroken historical chain. Thus, all action, speech, and behavior achieve paramount significance for the individual and the community of which the individual is part."
Davis: "…a complex mystical world view, a system of beliefs concerning the relationship between man, nature, and the supernatural forces of the universe. Vodoun cannot be abstracted from the day to day life of the believers. In Haiti, as in Africa, there is no separation between the sacred and the secular, between the holy and the profane, between material and the spiritual. Every dance, every song, every action is but a particle of the whole… Vodoun not only embodies a set of spiritual concepts, it prescribes a way of life, a philosophy, and a code of ethics that regulate social behavior."
The followers of the ancestral cult refer to their religious beliefs and practices by the phrase sévi lwa yo which can be best translated as "serving the spirits." An adept of Vodou simply says, "I serve the spirits ," which in itself is a revealing statement about the nature of the religion, the importance of withdrawing the self and serving others, and about the spiritual connections existing between living human beings, their ancestors, and their Gods.
Vodou permeates the land, and, in a sense, it springs from the land. It is not a system imposed from above, but one which pushes out from below. It is a thing of the family, a rich and complex inheritance from a man's own ancestors. It is not the priests of Vodoun who control and direct its course. They, like the lowest peasant simply move about within it and make use of its resources.
In Vodou, a person is meant to derive energy from interactions with others, therefore, all encounters with nature, with fellow humans and with spirits create opportunities for understanding, for growth and healing. Considering that everything has a soul, from the smallest grain of sand to the Cosmic Breing, the dynamic force infused in the teaching and learning of all tasks and ideas, material and spiritationl, becomes a learning experience in itself. In Vodou, every dance, every song, every word and every act becomes a lesson. In order orders, one learns everywhere and all times.
Personal Commentary:
(and how it relates to Castlevania Nocturne)
In reading this, this puts Cecile's lesson with Annette into perspective on a deeper level that I didn't appreciate before:
You were shaped, Annette. Everything about you, by being born a slave. Of course you were It's the source of your fury, but it's not the source of your power.
The petty devils. it serves them if we believe it. But humanity didn't enter this world dragging armies of slaves. That came later. And your ancestor. Of course I mean your mother, who loved you. And your father, who was dragged from her by men with whips. And your grandmother, who watched the ships sail, weeping and pulling her hair. But they go back. Beyond them and beyond them. Back to the source. To the Iwa of Ogun. And a world without slaves or masters. Learn to hear your ancestor. There is light in this darkness.
I really appreciated how it so candidly and openly acknowledged how both things are true: that yes, you are the product of the painful intergenerational and personal trauma forced upon you; but behind everything there is also a story of love, connectedness in community, and resilience. To see this so openly brought to the forefront and focus in an animation like this so resonated me in a way I've been looking for more stories with female leads like Annette and nothing is hitting me so far and I'm just sad.
It wasn't until I started reading more about Haitian Vodou, to better understand the relationship between the practitioner and the lwa (or spirits), that I realized that Cecile is hitting on the Vodou tenets of wisdom, teachings, and philosophy. I've mentioned this before, but Castlevania Nocturne is one of the rare instances where in the past, Vodou has been primarily portrayed as stereotypical voodoo, but in Nocturne, it's presented as a enduring thread of interconnectness, and survival. More specifically, it portrayed how Vodou was shaped and developed by primarily being passed through oral tradition (which is why I find it difficult to do research on).
To paraphase, in Vodou everything is interlinked -- everything is imbibed with spirit, soul, and energy -- and by extension, the [love and wisdom] of your ancestors that paved your path that you walk now is also imbibed within you.
Cecile is basically trying to teach Annette the deeper foundational philosophy and way of life of Vodou 🥹 And that's something I didn't realize that Nocturne had done until I started doing research on Haitian Vodou, which I've only grown a more deeper appreciation for.
Sauce:
Michel, Claudine. “Vodou in Haiti: Way of Life and Mode of Survival.” Journal of Haitian Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 2002, pp. 98–109. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41715120.
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thepastisalreadywritten · 1 year ago
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On October 7, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the yearly feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Known for several centuries by the alternate title of “Our Lady of Victory,” the feast day takes place in honor of a 16th-century naval victory, which secured Europe against Turkish invasion.
Pope St. Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was invoked on the day of the battle through a campaign to pray the Rosary throughout Europe.
The feast always occurs one week after the similar Byzantine celebration of the Protection of the Mother of God, which most Eastern Orthodox Christians and Eastern Catholics celebrate on October 1 in memory of a 10th-century military victory, which protected Constantinople against invasion after a reported Marian apparition.
Pope Leo XIII was particularly devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary, producing 11 encyclicals on the subject of this feast and its importance in the course of his long pontificate.
In the first of them, 1883's “Supremi Apostolatus Officio,” he echoed the words of the oldest known Marian prayer (known in the Latin tradition as the “Sub Tuum Praesidium”), when he wrote:
“It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary."
“This devotion, so great and so confident, to the august Queen of Heaven,” Pope Leo continued, “has never shone forth with such brilliancy as when the militant Church of God has seemed to be endangered by the violence of heresy … or by an intolerable moral corruption, or by the attacks of powerful enemies.”
Foremost among such “attacks” was the Battle of Lepanto, a perilous and decisive moment in European and world history.
Troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire had invaded and occupied the Byzantine empire by 1453, bringing a large portion of the increasingly divided Christian world under a version of Islamic law.
For the next hundred years, the Turks expanded their empire westward on land and asserted their naval power in the Mediterranean.
In 1565, they attacked Malta, envisioning an eventual invasion of Rome. Though repelled at Malta, the Turks captured Cyprus in the fall of 1570.
The next year, three Catholic powers on the continent – Genoa, Spain, and the Papal States - formed an alliance called the Holy League, to defend their Christian civilization against Turkish invasion.
Its fleets sailed to confront the Turks near the west coast of Greece on 7 October 1571.
Crew members on more than 200 ships prayed the Rosary in preparation for the battle — as did Christians throughout Europe, encouraged by the Pope to gather in their churches to invoke the Virgin Mary against the daunting Turkish forces.
Some accounts say that Pope Pius V was granted a miraculous vision of the Holy League's stunning victory.
Without a doubt, the Pope understood the significance of the day's events, when he was eventually informed that all but 13 of the nearly 300 Turkish ships had been captured or sunk.
He was moved to institute the feast now celebrated universally as Our Lady of the Rosary.
“Turkish victory at Lepanto would have been a catastrophe of the first magnitude for Christendom,” wrote military historian John F. Guilmartin, Jr., “and Europe would have followed a historical trajectory strikingly different from that which obtained.”
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spacetimewithstuartgary · 2 months ago
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New algorithms could enhance autonomous spacecraft safety
For humans throughout history, the sky has evoked thoughts of a vast emptiness, of a great vacant dome punctuated during the day by the sun, and at night by numerous tiny spots of light (and periodically by the moon). As we have ventured into space, both physically, with spacecraft, and optically, with a range of telescopic technologies, we now know that there is quite a lot of stuff up there.
This discovery has profound implications for the aerospace industry. Imagine, for example, a multibillion-dollar autonomous spacecraft that has been carefully designed and engineered for years is launched into space with precision calculations only to lose one of its thrusters and go sailing into an asteroid.
Historically, engineers have dealt with the possibility of equipment failure on board spacecraft in two main ways: First, by having a "safe mode" in which the spacecraft can do the least amount of damage to itself while scientists on the ground look at the data, make a diagnosis, and develop a solution; and second, by equipping autonomous vehicles with redundant systems. These allow a spacecraft, for example, to shut off a malfunctioning thruster and start using backup thrusters.
However, dangerous situations may crop up in space with little warning and insufficient time for space-to-ground communications. And though redundant systems have been quite effective, they add to the expense and heft of autonomous spacecraft.
This is why experiments are being conducted in the laboratory of Soon-Jo Chung, Bren Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, to streamline emergency features on autonomous vehicles such that they can diagnose and safely respond to encounters with other objects in real time. With new algorithms on board, spacecraft can test their own equipment and predict which future actions are most likely to keep them operating safely.
As one of the supervisors for this project, Fred Hadaegh, research professor in aerospace at Caltech and former JPL chief technologist, explains, "Having redundant systems is not always practical. It means the spacecraft has to be bigger, heavier, and more expensive than it would be otherwise. So, the idea here is that when a spacecraft encounters a problem, it can figure out what's not working and correct or adapt to that specific fault."
Chung's lab houses, among other things, an advanced multispacecraft dynamics simulator facility.
"The simulator occupies a large room with a really flat floor," explains James Ragan, a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) and lead author of a new paper on this topic. "The model spacecraft uses air bearings so that it moves across the floor with near zero friction. At rest, it seems to be floating, and if you push it in one direction, it will keep going until it hits something, which is what space dynamics are like."
Ragan has programmed the robotic spacecraft simulator with what he and his co-authors call s-FEAST: Safe Fault Estimation via Active Sensing Tree Search. "Our s-FEAST algorithm rapidly 'dreams' about numerous possible futures that could result from actions it takes now," Ragan says.
"Because the system is noisy, these futures are uncertain. There are multiple possible outcomes, which leads to a tree of possible branching futures. Each branch represents one possible way the future might happen, based on things the spacecraft controls—the test actions it selects—and also things it doesn't, such as observations coming from faulty sensors."
Chung adds, "What is innovative about our s-FEAST method is that we systematically solve the chicken and egg problem of estimating vehicle states, such as positions and velocities, and inferring failures or degradations, which are intrinsically coupled to one another."
When the spacecraft detects unexpected data, it turns to the s-FEAST algorithm, which runs test actions "similar to how you might carefully test your muscles when you feel an unexpected pain, and you want to figure out just what hurts and how to avoid actions that might further injure you," Ragan explains.
s-FEAST simultaneously spins out a range of possible futures and from those selects the course of action that appears most likely to diagnose what went wrong and also to avoid danger. In the case of this model, danger amounts to a collision course with an asteroid.
"The key idea here is that s-FEAST isn't replacing all spacecraft operations. It's your emergency response," Ragan says. "The spacecraft receives an internal signal that something is wrong, so s-FEAST takes over all the spacecraft's computing power to quickly assess what's going on and take remedial action. Once the danger is pinpointed and addressed, s-FEAST hands control back to the spacecraft's ordinary computing environment."
s-FEAST can also be used proactively. Say an autonomous spacecraft is about to take on a particularly risky or mission-critical action; s-FEAST can run a testing cycle to ensure that all systems are working properly before this action.
Chung and his co-authors envision that the proposed method will establish a new way of making expensive space exploration safer and more cost effective. "Space systems make autonomous operations necessary since we cannot grab and fix spacecraft and Mars helicopters operating in a world far away from us," Chung says. "Space is our ultimate 'proving ground' for any autonomy research we do for Earth-based vehicle systems."
Not surprisingly, the s-FEAST algorithm that worked on the spacecraft simulator was adapted by the team to work on a ground track vehicle as well. Both experiments were successful, so s-FEAST technology holds great promise for autonomous vehicles on Earth as well as in space.
The research is published in the journal Science Robotics. Co-authors are Ragan, Caltech postdoc Benjamin Rivière, Hadaegh, and Chung.
IMAGE: A close approach to a model comet in the Caltech Autonomous Robotics and Control Lab. This robotic spacecraft simulator mimics a space environment by floating on a low friction cushion of air and using air thrusters to maneuver. In newly published research, this robot is used by researchers at Caltech to demonstrate new capability for safe, real-time, autonomous fault estimation. Credit: Joshua Cho, Sorina Lupu, and James Ragan
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geeknik · 1 year ago
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31 Days of Halloween: Day 22, The Phantasmal Phenomena of Poveglia Island, Venice, Italy
On the 22nd eerie evening of our haunting Halloween journey, we cast our gaze across the waters to the sinister shores of Poveglia Island in Venice, Italy. This forsaken island, entwined with tales of dread and desolation, beckons to us from amidst the serene Venetian Lagoon, offering a glimpse into a dark and turbulent past. As we set sail towards its forbidden terrain, the chilling whispers of bygone souls guide our path through the mists of time.
Historical Background
Poveglia Island, a seemingly serene speck amidst the Venetian Lagoon, holds within its bounds a history steeped in blood and despair. Its dark tale unfolds as early as 421 AD, with people fleeing barbarian invasions finding refuge on its shores. However, the island's malevolent legacy truly began to shape during the bubonic plague, serving as a quarantine station for the diseased and dying. The lagoon turned crimson with the blood of the infected, and the screams of the tormented souls echoed across the waters. Poveglia's sinister tale continued to evolve as it housed a mental asylum during the early 20th century, where the tormented cries of the mentally ill resonated amidst its forsaken halls.
Haunting Tales
The tormented echoes of Poveglia's dark past reverberate through the fabric of the island, giving birth to chilling tales of ghostly apparitions and eerie phenomena. Visitors have reported seeing shadows darting through the ruins and hearing the desperate cries of plague victims carried by the wind. The island is also said to harbor the spirit of a cruel doctor who tormented the patients of the asylum, his sinister presence felt within the decaying walls of the institution.
The ghostly tales extend to the waters surrounding the island, with local fishermen avoiding the area for fear of catching human remains in their nets. The sinister aura of Poveglia Island seems to challenge the brave and the foolhardy to unveil the dark secrets veiled within its haunted domain.
Exploring Poveglia Island
While the Italian government has sealed off Poveglia Island from the public, its haunting allure continues to draw the curious and the fearless. The tales of its ghostly inhabitants beckon to paranormal investigators and thrill-seekers, urging them to unveil the dark mysteries lurking amidst the ruins. Though the paths to the island are barred, the chilling narrative of Poveglia continues to enthrall and terrify, making it a sinister yet captivating destination in the realm of the paranormal.
Conclusion
As we disembark from the haunting haven of Poveglia Island, the ominous echoes of its dark past continue to resonate through Day 22 of our Halloween venture. The phantasmal phenomena of Poveglia Island remain an enduring enigma, offering a chilling narrative that intertwines the realms of history, horror, and the unknown. Amidst the serene beauty of Venice, the sinister lore of Poveglia Island lurks as a dark shadow, offering a hauntingly enthralling tale that stands as a testament to the eternal struggle between the living and the dead.
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