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alexanderwales · 13 days ago

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Someone on my discord said that it didn't seem like it would take all that much work to worldbuild a plausible Age of Piracy that lasted for a thousand years. I somewhat disagree, but I think it's an interesting challenge.

To start with, some boundaries:

Piracy is the act of a sailing ship attacking another sailing ship carrying goods for the purposes of ransom, robbery, and taking on new crew from their number. I will also allow some coastal raiding, even if that's not technically piracy.

Any system/culture of piracy is going to have to consider at least two things: supply of ships and supply of pirates.

Any system/culture of piracy is going to have to have some kind of prey. The snake cannot eat its own tail.

The pirates cannot be primarily state-sponsored, though the ecosystem can have privateers in it, and there can be other tacit approval of piracy from higher powers one way or another (especially e.g. bribes).

The age of piracy needs to be relatively geographically contained and relatively continuous, rather than moving from hotspot to hotspot.

So where does this leave us? What are the big problems to solve?

We need a continuous source of trade for pirates to plunder from. This has to be a trade route, or set of trade routes, that's incredibly stable, surviving political and economic disruptions, and has a high enough value that it persists in the face of piracy.

Sort of inevitably, the people trying to move goods from one place to another do not want them stolen. We probably have to model this thousand years as a series of changes in pirate tactics and trade tactics, but also as something that moves slower than in the real world.

As above, you need a source of ships. You can potentially get these from "pirate havens", but that gets dangerously close to being state-sanctioned if this is in fact the source of ships and pirates. So I actually think you're mostly fine if no one is building ships exclusively for piracy (or only doing that rarely), and instead most of the ships come from the major powers building ships. This is historically accurate, with capture and mutiny being the main source of pirate ships.

As above, you need a source of sailors. Being trained as a sailor took some time, and there's not that much room for on-the-job training for a pirate crew, though there is some. So the source needs to be navies or merchant fleets, and they need to be pretty terrible such that piracy offers the better option. And in the real world, there were lots of indentured servants, slaves, etc. who could get a better life by taking to the seas, though they wouldn't start with skill as sailors.

So we are, I think, starting to sketch out some features of the Thousand Years of Piracy just by implication.

We have a few major continents that are separated from each other by major oceans, maybe with some smaller islands between them to serve as pirate havens, secure harbors, etc. These continents have huge amounts of trade with each other that lasts for a millennium in spite of pressure for them to go local, which means they probably can't. They have incompatible climates leading to incompatible crops, they have different mineral wealth, etc. This trade is super profitable, enough that piracy only puts a dent in profits, and is "cost of doing business".

Macro technology is stagnant for whatever reason. The Scientific Revolution was not inevitable, I think all you need are pretty regular wars on the main continents that rip through institutions of learning, or purges of philosophers for ideological reasons, or just political fragmentation that means there's not quite enough stability to get thinkers together. (Yes, we're using instability to create the stability of stagnation.)

Micro technology is ... probably fine? At some point in the 1,000 years, there are changes to the sails, copper sheathing on the hulls, different shape to the bow, all probably fine. Cannons can get better, rifles and pistols can get better, any of this still falls within "1,000 years of piracy". Certain things are there to stay. Other things fall out of fashion.

What is a problem are changes in tactics. There needs to be no particular thing that can cost-effectively be done about piracy for a thousand years, or at least not in all cases. It's easy to imagine pirates as being a part of the risk-reward calculation for merchants, for pirates to be hunted by navies interested in securing trade ... but if they're to stay pirates for a thousand years, then there needs to be no way for them to get into a stable non-pirate situation. It has to devolve into pirates, even if there are points in this thousand year history where pirates get stomped in every now and then.

One of the big risks is cooption or institutionalization of deviance. What prevents the pirates from all taking deals to become privateers, getting letters of marquee from the major powers and agreeing only to attack one side or another? We want a thousand years of piracy, not a thousand years of privateers. What's stopping the formation of a pirate kingdom, or a pirate monopoly, one that stops any upstarts and forces everyone under the same banner?

And all this I'm much less sure about. I think it's plausible, I guess, but if I had to go fill in an actual worldbuilding document where I mark down all the twists and turns, if I had to think through all thousand years of people trying to stamp out the very practice of piracy, all the things they tried and the ways they failed, that's where I think some cracks might start to show.

#worldbuilding #pirates

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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.

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?

He's recovering beautifully, considering how fucky and sad he was when I pulled him from the bin.

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).

Little baby jewel orchid! He flowered recently and I am so proud of him.

Then there's my Cladonia collection, and my bottle of Icelandic lichen (Cetraria islandica) booze.

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.

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.

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.

Anyway, if you ever see a scientist's office that isn't cluttered and chaotic, they are doing it wrong.

#scientist #science #PhD student #STEM #women in STEM #queers in STEM #lichenology #lichenologist

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camisoledadparis · 24 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 … January 9

Your Due Date: January 9, 2025

259 – Died: Saint Polyeuct, lover of Saint Nearchus. Soldiers in the Roman army and deeply attached to each other, Polyeuct and Nearchus were both stationed in Militene, Armenia. The earliest account of Polyeuct's martyrdom was written by Nearchus.

The primary thread of their story is the desire of these two friends to spend eternity together. According to the text, when the emperor issued a new edict against Christians, Nearchus was worried that, since Polyeuct was a pagan and Nearchus a Christian, his own possible martyrdom and the eventual death of Polyeuct might lead to their being in separate places in the afterlife. Polyeuct reassured him that he had long been drawn to Christianity and intended to die a Christian. With a convert's fervor, Polyeuct then attacked a pagan procession and had himself arrested. The judge turned out to be his own father-in-law, Felix, who begged him to reconsider.

Polyeuct's wife, Paulina, came to court and unsuccessfully implored him, for the sake of their marriage and their son, to change his mind. After severe tortures, he was condemned to death. Just before he was beheaded, Polyeuct saw Nearchus near. His final words to Nearchus were "Remember our secret vow."

Nearchus was later martyred, being buried alive.

Before his own death, Nearchus recorded this story, which was recounted annually at the church at Militene and eventually erected over Polyeuct's tomb in Militene. In the year 527, a great church with a gold-plated ceiling was built in Constantinople and dedicated to St. Polyeuct. Later in the same century, Gregory of Tours wrote that the most solemn oaths were usually sworn in this church; because Polyeuct had come to be considered the special heavenly protector of vows and avenger of broken promises.

1900 – Richard Halliburton (presumed dead after March 24, 1939) was an American traveler, adventurer, and author. Best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal and paying the lowest toll in its history—thirty-six cents—Halliburton was headline news for most of his brief career. His final and fatal adventure, an attempt to sail a Chinese junk, the Sea Dragon, across the Pacific Ocean from Hong Kong to the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, made him legendary.

Richard Halliburton was born in Brownsville, Tennessee. The family moved to Memphis, where he spent his childhood. He attended Memphis University School. He also showed promise as a violinist, and was a fair golfer and tennis player. In 1915 Richard developed a rapid heart condition and spent some time at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, run by the innovative John Harvey Kellogg, whose philosophy of care featured regular exercise, sound nutrition, and frequent enemas.

Leaving college temporarily during 1919, Halliburton became an ordinary seaman and boarded the freighter Octorara bound from New Orleans to England. He toured historic places in London and Paris, but soon returned to Princeton to finish his schooling. Travel inspired in him a lust for more travel.

Halliburton idolized mountain climber George Mallory, who died in 1924 while trying to climb Mt. Everest. He knew and admired aviatrix Amelia Earhart. He knew journalist Lowell Thomas, who had made Lawrence of Arabia a living legend. Halliburton craved the celebrity of Rudolph Valentino, the great romantic screen star of the silent era. Richard was acquainted with and looked up to swashbuckling cinema star Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who was also a world traveler.

Halliburton's first book, published in 1925, The Royal Road to Romance, became a bestseller. Two years later he published The Glorious Adventure, which retraced Ulysses' adventures throughout the Classical Greek world as recounted in Homer's The Odyssey, and which included his visiting the grave of English poet Rupert Brooke on the island of Skyros. In 1929 Halliburton published New Worlds To Conquer, which recounted his famous swim of the Panama Canal, and his retracing the track of Cortez' conquest of Mexico.

(Click for larger)

Halliburton's sexual associations with members of his own sex became apparent. To protect the image of heroic masculinity he had cultivated to win over an admiring public, he kept secret his true sexual orientation. He seems also to have kept it a secret from his doting parents, who longed for grandchildren from their one surviving son. Among those romantically linked to him were film star Ramón Novarro and philanthropist Noel Sullivan, both of whom shared his enjoyment of the bohemian lifestyle. Halliburton's most enduring relationship was with freelance journalist Paul Mooney, with whom he often shared living quarters and who assisted him with his written work.

In 1931 Halliburton hired pioneer aviator Moye Stephens on the strength of a handshake —for no pay, but unlimited expenses —to fly him around the world in an open cockpit biplane. The modified Stearman C-3B was named the Flying Carpet after the magic carpet of fairy tales, and this became the title of his 1932 best-seller. They embarked on "one of the most fantastic, extended air journeys ever recorded" taking 18 months to circumnavigate the globe, covering 33,660 miles (54,100 km) and visiting 34 countries.

Halliburton (R) with Moye Stephens

On March 3, 1939, Halliburton began to sail a Chinese junk across the Pacific Ocean. The Sea Dragon, a gaudily decorated 75-foot (23 m) junk, was made to his commission in the shipyards of Kowloon by cartwright Fat Kau. Emblazoned with a colorful dragon and equipped with a diesel engine, the Sea Dragon was supposed to make its maiden voyage from Hong Kong to the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco (at Treasure Island).

Three weeks out to sea on March 23 the ship encountered a typhoon. The junk was last sighted by the liner SS President Coolidge, itself battling mountainous seas some 1900 km west of Midway Island. That was the last seen the junk. After an extensive US Navy search with several ships and scout planes over thousands of square miles and many days, the effort was ended. In 1945 some wreckage identified as a rudder and believed to belong to the Sea Dragon washed ashore in California.

Missing at sea since March, Halliburton was declared dead on October 5, 1939 by the Memphis Chancery Court.

Simone de Beauvoir (R) with Jean-Paul Sartre

1908 – Simone de Beauvoir (d.1986) is best known for her revolutionary study of women's condition, The Second Sex (1949), a work that changed women's lives worldwide. In 1999, an international colloquium was held in Paris to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of The Second Sex. The conference included a number of papers on Beauvoir and lesbianism, a topic that, a decade earlier, would have been virtually unthinkable.

In 1990, however, when Beauvoir's journals and two volumes of her letters to Jean-Paul Sartre were made available, it became clear that Beauvoir had had a number of same-sex relationships throughout her life. These revelations, along with others, completely shattered the heretofore unassailable myth of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre as the twentieth century's most perfect couple. Today, Beauvoir's same-sex relationships are widely acknowledged, although attempts to excuse them (as "bohemian existentialist experimentation," to give but one example), in the interest of preserving Beauvoir's heterosexual image, persist.

Beauvoir was born in Paris into a bourgeois Roman Catholic family. Her family's fortunes declined after World War I, but she was nevertheless the beneficiary of an expensive private education. She then studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, where she met Sartre in 1929.

From 1931 to 1941 Beauvoir taught philosophy in secondary schools in Marseilles, Rouen, and Paris. In 1943, she published her first novel, L'Invitée, one of several fictional works dealing with her relationship with Sartre.

Although she herself seems not to have been involved in resistance efforts during the Nazi occupation of Paris, in 1945, soon after the end of World War II, she published Le Sang des autres, a novel reflecting on the question of political involvement and the French Resistance.

The feminist classic The Second Sex followed in 1949 and was eventually to make her reputation. Her strongest novel, Les Mandarins, appeared in 1954; a semiautobiographical work, it too focused on her relationship with Sartre, the subject that has preoccupied both her autobiographical works and the scholarship devoted to her life and work.

Beauvoir's same-sex relations, characterized by intense emotion and in most cases with a confirmed sexual component, likely began with Beauvoir's school friend "Zaza." Several of these relationships occurred during Beauvoir's career as a philosophy teacher during the 1930s and 1940s, and involved her students (who seemed to be the initiators, able to resist neither Beauvoir's physical nor her intellectual magnetism).

In one case, Beauvoir's rendez-vous were structured around philosophy lessons. Exasperated at having to discuss Kant before climbing into Beauvoir's bed, the student Nathalie Sorokine called Beauvoir "a clock in a refrigerator." When Sorokine's mother complained to the school, Beauvoir was fired, effectively ending her teaching career.

When Beauvoir was asked point blank in an interview if she were a lesbian, she angrily denied it. It should be noted, however, that Beauvoir tended to define things narrowly (she also claimed she was not a philosopher, again according to a strict definition). For Beauvoir, a lesbian is a woman who refuses to have anything (sexual) to do with males.

Further, Beauvoir was a major participant in the public erasure of her lesbian identity. A comparison of the unpublished diaries with published works shows a very different representation of the relationship with Zaza in Beauvoir's autobiography Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958) or of Beauvoir's lover Olga as the fictional Xavière in her novel She Came to Stay (1943). It has only recently been recognized that Beauvoir was the model for the lesbian Inès in Sartre's No Exit (1944).

In the early 1960s, Beauvoir began a relationship with Sylvie le Bon which lasted to the end of Beauvoir's life. In 1980, following Sartre's death, Beauvoir adopted Sylvie so that the latter could legally care for Beauvoir, who was to die six years later. Their relationship offers a model of the lesbian couple described theoretically in The Second Sex.

1924 – Sergei Parajanov sometimes spelled Paradzhanov or Paradjanov; (d.1990) was an Armenian film director and artist from the Soviet Union who made significant contributions to Ukrainian, Armenian and Georgian cinema. He invented his own cinematic style, which was totally out of step with the guiding principles of socialist realism (the only sanctioned art style in the USSR). This, combined with his controversial lifestyle and behaviour, led Soviet authorities to repeatedly persecute and imprison him, and suppress his films.

In 1948 he was convicted of homosexual acts (which were illegal at the time in the Soviet Union) with a MGB officer named Nikolai Mikava in Tbilisi. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released under an amnesty after three months. In video interviews, friends and relatives contest the truthfulness of anything he was charged with. They speculate the punishment may have been a form of political retaliation for his rebellious views.

Although he started professional film-making in 1954, Parajanov later disowned all the films he made before 1965 as "garbage". After directing Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (renamed Wild Horses of Fire for most foreign distributions) Parajanov became something of an international celebrity and simultaneously a target of attacks from the system. Nearly all of his film projects and plans from 1965 to 1973 were banned, scrapped or closed by the Soviet film administrations, both local and federal, almost without discussion, until he was finally arrested in late 1973 on charges of rape, homosexuality and bribery. He was imprisoned until 1977, despite a pleas for pardon from various artists.

Even after his release (he was arrested for the third and last time in 1982) he was a persona non grata in Soviet cinema. It was not until the mid-1980s, when the political climate started to relax, that he could resume directing. Still, it required the help of influential Georgian actor Dodo Abashidze and other friends to have his last feature films greenlighted.

His health seriously weakened by four years in labor camps and nine months in prison in Tbilisi, Parajanov died of lung cancer in 1990, at a time when, after almost 20 years of suppression, his films were being featured at foreign film festivals. In January 1988, he said in an interview, "Everyone knows that I have three Motherlands. I was born in Georgia, worked in Ukraine and I'm going to die in Armenia."

1941 – Joan Baez is nothing less than a legend, both as a folk musician and as a catalyst for social change. A singer, guitarist, and songwriter with eight gold records and six Grammy nominations thus far, Baez has long been visible as a protest figure supporting civil rights, peace efforts, and human rights through her direct activism and numerous free concerts.

Born on Staten Island, New York to a Scottish mother and Mexican-American father, Baez moved with her family to California when she was a small child. She lived in Baghdad from 1951 to 1952; there, confronted with rampant poverty and human suffering in the streets, she first realized her passion for social justice.

Baez stood out as an artistic nonconformist and peace activist in her high school in Palo Alto, California, and then at Boston University—where she remained for only a short time. She had begun playing at local coffeehouses and decided to drop out of school in 1958 to concentrate on her musical career.

Baez started playing in clubs such as Gate of Horn, which belonged to impresario (and Baez's future manager) Albert Grossman, and appearing with well-known musicians such as Pete Seeger.

In 1960 her first album, Joan Baez, was released to huge acclaim. Gifted with an extraordinarily beautiful voice, she also brought an unusual intelligence to the interpretation of folk songs, both traditional and new.

Baez became increasingly involved with the civil rights movement, using her growing fame as a means of drawing attention to a cause she believed in deeply. She especially worked in conjunction with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Dr. King's speeches and Baez's singing were a staple of demonstrations and rallies during the turbulent 1960s.

Baez also became very active in promoting nonviolence. During the Vietnam War, she visited Hanoi for thirteen days to witness the horrors of war herself, and for ten years she withheld the percentage of her income taxes that would have been put toward military expenses. In 1967, she was arrested twice—and jailed for a month—for blocking the entrance of the Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California.

All the while she continued recording albums in her signature clear soprano, both writing her own material and performing classic songs of resistance such as "We Shall Overcome," "Oh, Freedom," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

She founded both the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence (now The Resource Center for Nonviolence) in California in 1965 and the Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, which she headed from 1979 until its demise 13 years later.

Although she may be most famous for her civil rights and peace activism, Baez has also been prominent in the struggle for gay and lesbian rights.

She has been open about the relationship she had with a woman in 1962; in an interview a decade later, she told a reporter that she basically considered herself bisexual, a statement she stood by despite the controversy it sparked. She did marry activist David Harris in 1968, and had their son Gabe in 1969; although the couple eventually divorced, Baez never again pursued a lesbian relationship.

Still, she has been visible in the gay community; in 1978 she performed at several benefit concerts to defeat Proposition 6 (the Briggs Initiative), which proposed banning all openly gay people from teaching in the public schools of California. Later that year, she participated in memorial marches for the assassinated San Francisco city supervisor, openly gay Harvey Milk.

Alongside Janis Ian, she played a benefit for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 1994, and has performed numerous times with the lesbian duo the Indigo Girls.

1994 – Elijah Daniel is an American comedian, rapper, and author. He became popular online through his comedy on YouTube and social media. Daniel is the author of the erotic novel Trump Temptations. His book went viral, and saw significant sales the day it was published; rising to the top of sales lists in multiple categories. Daniel's book received favorable reception. Trump Temptations became the top seller on Amazon.com in three categories: humorous erotica, LGBT erotica, and gay erotica.

Elijah Daniel was born in Detroit, Michigan. He was raised evangelical Christian. After his grandmother became ill, Daniel moved into her residence to care for her. During this period, he began to write comedy to occupy himself. He publicized his comedy work through posts on Twitter, and videos to Vine.

Daniel led an online White House petition in 2013 to make the Miley Cyrus song "Party in the U.S.A." the U.S. national anthem. It received international coverage. Starting in 2014 Elijah began hosting a weekly internet prank with CollegeHumor called Text Prank Thursday, where he would have his Twitter followers text random phone numbers saying whatever he told them to say. Daniel told Vice that he cultivated a group of followers online who appreciated his absurd and bizarre comedic antics. By 2016, his Twitter following had grown to over 95,000.

In 2016 Daniel stated on Twitter that he was going to get drunk and write an erotic novel starring Donald Trump. Daniel was inspired by a tweet which said the user wished to perform a sex act on Bernie Sanders. Daniel wrote the work as a parody of Fifty Shades of Grey. Within four hours, he had released the erotic novel titled Trump Temptations: The Billionaire & The Bellboy on Amazon. The work was Daniel's debut novel.

Trump Temptations became the number one best seller on Amazon.com in three categories: humorous erotica, LGBT erotica, and gay erotica.The book was listed on Amazon above Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James, and was featured in The Washington Post, Daily News, Los Angeles Times, GQ, Gay Star News, London Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph, and Vice. The Guardian classed the work as part of the "small but burgeoning new genre: satirical books about Donald Trump" that began with the 2016 presidential campaign. Cosmopolitan called the book a literary success.

Daniel hired Trump impersonator Chris Ferretti to read the audiobook.

Trump biographer Marc Shapiro wrote in Trump This!, that Daniel's novel was one of the most infamous works capitalizing on interest in Trump. An article in Fortune said that Daniel displayed a Trump-like skill to capitalize on a niche demand.

After the Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016, Daniel publicly urged on Twitter for any individual who is closeted to feel free to contact him privately for support, and he published "An open letter to the LGBT kids who feel lost and scared" on Fusion.net. The letter positively received by ATTN:, which called it a powerful commentary on the attack.

On August 30, 2017, Elijah Daniel performed a publicity stunt centered around Hell, Michigan – an unincorporated town that allows visitors to pay for the opportunity to hold the title of "mayor" for a day. In what he called "a copy-and-paste of Trump's Muslim ban", he announced a satirical law that banned heterosexuals from entering and living in the town. In response, Daniel released an edited version of The Bible called "The Holy Bible… but Gayer" two weeks later. Sales of it were briefly banned on Amazon before being restored.

2016 – When Hubert Edward Spires was twenty years old, he decided to serve his country by joining the military. Because he was a gay man in a very different time, though, he was removed through an "undesirable" discharge. On this day in 2016, the 91-year-old Connecticut man finally received the honorable discharge he was denied 68 years ago.

In 1946, he joined what was then called the U.S. Army Air Force and became a chaplain's assistant at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Spires quickly took to the work, which included writing letters to families worried about their loved ones, playing organ during Catholic Mass and preparing the chapel for various services. When it became known that he was a homosexual he was given an "undesirable" discharge.

Because of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in 2010, it became possible for Spires to apply to have the status of his discharge changed. The 91-year-old Spires filed a federal lawsuit seeking an honorable discharge so he can receive a military burial.The Air Force has changed the 91-year-old's records to an honorable discharge. Spires said, "I can go to my grave with my head held high."

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readyforevolution · 10 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.

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goodqueenaly · 10 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.

#asoiaf meta #gerion lannister #fire and blood volume 1

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chirpycloudyrobin · 5 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 · 1 year 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!

#sodomy and the pirate tradition #pirates #pirate #piracy #golden age of piracy #age of sail #queer studies #queer history #historical pirates #lgbt history #lgbtq history #gay history #gay pirates #our flag means death #black sails #one piece

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eduobsessed · 9 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.

#black sails

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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.

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).

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.

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.

#MBARI #Ocean #Technology #Research #Science #Legacy

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andaniellight · 15 days ago

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Nine books that I— have been putting on hold since forever— want to read/finish in 2025

in no particular order:

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi (1)

The Radiant Emperor Duology (2)

Cinder (1)

The Sword of Kaigen (1)

Babel (1)

The Biology of Human Survival: Life and Death in Extreme Environments (1)

A Reaper At The Gates (1)

Gideon The Ninth (1)

More about the books below because, mainly, the summaries are spot on (and kind of represent my taste / why I'm terribly intrigued to read them):

✨️🧋🥡📖✨️

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S. A. Chakraborty

Amina Al-Sirafi is a middle-aged single mother with bad knees who lives in a modest country house and minds her own business. She was also one of the most fearsome pirates who ever sailed the Indian Ocean, at least until strange magic claimed a beloved crewmember and drove her to retire on dry land.

2023 historical fantasy.

—

The Radiant Emperor Duology by Shelley Parker-Chan

She Who Became The Sun

Set in an alternate China, She Who Became the Sun is a fascinating genderqueer retelling of the founding of the Ming dynasty, follows Zhu Chongba who had to become a monk even though she's only a little girl for her survival, from childhood to early adulthood, using her dead brother's identity, fighting to claim his destiny as her own.

2021 historical fantasy.

The sequel: He Who Drowned The World

Got the hardcopy as a birthday present for me because I couldn't stop yapping about it to my friend 🥹🥹🥹

—

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder is a cyborg mechanic living in New Beijing who, along with her best friend (a robot named Iko) and sister (a fully human gal named Pearl), fall in love with Prince Kai. But, life isn't all cleaning and singing, there's a ravaging plague and crippling poverty. The plague can strike anyone at any time.

2012. Part of The Lunar Chronicles.

—

The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story by M. L. Wang

Better to die sharp in war than rust through a time of peace. A mother struggling to repress her violent past;

A son struggling to grasp his violent future;

A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores? High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire's enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name 'The Sword of Kaigen.'

Set on the planet Duna, on Mount Takayubi in the Kaigenese Empire, the story revolves around the populace of a remote, highly patriarchal village that, for generations, has raised and trained swordsmen with magical, almost supernatural abilities to fight enemies that invade the realm.

—

Babel by R. F. Kuang

Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel take place in an alternative-reality in which Britain's global economic and colonial supremacy are fueled by the use of magical silver bars.

—

The Biology of Human Survival: Life and Death in Extreme Environments

Solely for writing reference since I am a deprived and amateur writer first, human second, after all.

—

A Reaper at The Gates by Sabaa Tahir

3rd book of Ember Quartet. To understand this, you must read its 1st book: An Ember in The Ashes (inspired by Ancient Rome, the story follows a girl named Laia spying for rebels against the reigning empire in exchange for their help in rescuing her captive brother; and a boy named Elias struggling to free himself from being an enforcer of a tyrannical regime.)

—

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

1st book of The Locked Tomb Series. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse.

That would be all! Thank you so much for tagging me, @kanronotatsu ! ! ! 📚🔍

Fingers crosed I get to at least finish one or two, this year. Now, I shall tag my friends @ikjun @dykealloy @reineyday @radiashen @lunaticus @beguilewritesstuff and YOU, whoever is reading this, are also welcome to share it with us ! ! ! :D

#Book List #Books To Read #genuinely can't care less about the thought that someone might label me as a pick-me #but i will definitely bring and read that book everywhere i go #Ask Game #nine books to finish

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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 · 4 months 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.

#castlevania nocturne

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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.”

#Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary #Our Lady of Victory #Our Lady of the Rosary #Battle of Lepanto #Holy League

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camisoledadparis · 3 months 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

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.

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.

1824 - French historian Astolphe de Custine is beaten by soldiers he solicited. He reluctantly files charges against them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1990 – Placido Domingo and Andre Watts raised $1.5 million at a fundraiser for the Gay Men's Health Crisis.

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.

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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