#Adrian Desmond

[garadinervi]

Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin's Sacred Cause. How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, MA, and New York, NY, 2009

[sophiehelgagoughfives]

Oh my god, look at this ridiculous eagle-drawn airship:

I found this in the Scrapbook of Early Aeronautica, by the collector William Upcott (1779-1845)

It's so stupid and so beautiful.

The italics at the bottom say "Mr. Mackintosh proposes to construct a Balloon, of the form represented above, large enough to carry two persons, and to attach to it a sufficient number of Eagles, Hawks, Pigeons, or other large Birds, and in this manner, he is satisfied, from experiments he has made, that, in moderately calm weather the Balloon may be conducted in any direction that is desired." Kudos to the lithographer, Pocock, btw.

(also, Paternoster Row? My inner Doctor Who nerd was excited, so I checked, and this was designed in 1935, while the Paternoster Gang were around towards the end of the Victorian era. (The Crimson Horror takes place in 1893) So they probably wouldn't have met Mr. Mackintosh. kinda disappointed.)

I had a quick Google of "airship eagle mackintosh", but only found copies of the above image, and an aircraft carrier called the HMS Eagle, with a Capt. L. D. Mackintosh. HOWEVER, googling "Thomas Simmons Mackintosh" yielded this:

And doesn't "a faculty for vivid and humorous scientific illustration" sound like our Mackintosh? The time period seems to fit. I like the polite phrasing of this quote that is clearly saying his book was nonsense. "seemed true to those who did not understand it," owch. Also, it suggest that his Eagle-drawn ship may have been a joke?

And now I've found this in the citations of a book called "Reign of the Beast - The Atheist World of W. D. Saull and his Museum of Evolution"

Saull was an opponent of creationism, and a geologist and collector with an interest in palaeontology who was a supporter of "radical causes." (He supported liberalisation of divorce, and lectured on the theory of people being descended from apes in 1833, 26 years before the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Pretty ahead of his time. Anyway, I'll try to extricate myself from that rabbit hole (but go read his Wikipedia or The Reign of the Beast (for free!) if you want a wayyyy longer read. This is getting away from me.)

ANYWAY! Thomas Simmons Mackintosh was apparently aligned with Saull, and they lectured together: "He told them at Watson's Mechanics' Hall of Science, in a six-lecture series in 1836, running concurrently with Saull’s lectures, that electricity was the most potent agent in the physical world, and “the ultimate source of motion”" (From Reign of the Beast)

He was involved in the then-cutting-edge science of electricity, and "he toed the Owen line that humans shaped by circumstance should not be judged, and he attacked Christianity for downplaying man’s social duty to man in the here-and-now in favour of the Kingdom to come." So he didn't believe in Heaven. These people were very controversial at the time for their blasphemy, and some of them got into serious legal trouble for publishing their views.

"Mack", as was his nickname apparently, believed the Earth had had five moons, four of which had crashed into the Earth already, causing extinctions, and the final moon would do the same one day.

Finally, I found Kristen A. Rieger's paper, which explains his Electrical Theory of the Universe and, uh... it's something. The sun is a vast conductor of electricity, it expels comets, which turn into planets, and eventually fall back into the sun, and his crashing moon theory was trying to explain disturbances in geological strata (fair enough).

Also, he was once a cotton-weaver in Gasgow, then shopman and silk trader, so he was an artisan, not upper-class, but well-off. He was involved with Richard Carlisle, a "notorious working-class reformer"

"Beginning in the 1820s, the British Home Office, alongside the Society for the Suppression of Vice, waged an underhanded attack against Carlile, intending to put an end to his prodigious radical publishing operation."

-Rieger

"Society for the Suppression of Vice" is a pretty badass name for an organisation, i must admit. But they sucked, because Carlisle was put in jail in the 1820s, and Mackintosh was one of the volunteers who distributed Carlisle's books and risked arrest. Cool dude.

THEN, I finally saw a mention of the fucking bird airship that started this off:

Googling the exact title of the pamphlet yielded this monstrosity:

The paper is so thin, it's hard to make out the text. But I'll do my best to decipher it. Let's see.

For one thing, the illustration provided with the pamphlet is not bird-steered:

I then realised that this is not Thomas Mackintosh's design, but his design seems to have been in response to this one. In the pamphlet, we see The Eagle introduced: 160 feet long, 50 feet high, 40 feet wide. Apparently, it has been built and is on display at a dock in Kensington. It will make a journey to Paris and back again. There are dreams of flying to Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Madrid! Hilariously, the design is based on a French 1796 design by Campenas, which he proposed to Napoleon:

"there will issue an Aerial Vessel, capable of carrying up with you more than 200 persons, and which may be directed to any point on the compass. I, myself, will be your pilot. You can thus, without any danger, hover above the fleets of enemies jealous of our happiness, and thunder against them like a new Jupiter, merely by throwing perpendicularly downwards firebrands [...]; or perhaps you may think it more prudent to begin at once, by forcing the British cabinet to capitulate, which you may easily do, as you will have it in your power to set fire to the city of London[...]"

This absolute MADMAN Campenas was proposing this to Napoleon Bonaparte. My inner steampunk fan is delighted. My inner London fan is glad it never worked out.

Anyway, we finally hear from TS Mackintosh himself in this pamphlet. He is commenting on the effectiveness of the airship. He envisions wings that fold like a bird's so they don't drag the ship on the backstroke (pretty reasonable, actually), and criticises the airship for not implementing this and a foldable or retractable rudder.

"I did not "recommend the employment of pigeons for the conductors of the aerial ship to Paris," as your correspondent "Fog" asserts." AHA! We're getting somewhere. He does say even Geese would be better at steering the ship than the wings it has got, yeesh. He clarifies:

"I do not propose to build an aerial ship large enough to carry a garrison for the purpose of compelling cabinets to submit to the fiat of a "new Jupiter"" -Thomas "Mack" Mackintosh, mad lad

Instead he proposes a small ship, enough to carry two people, to which would be attached forty, sixty, or even a hundred pigeons. He describes this design as "modest." He says they could steer this ballon in any direction if the weather was calm. So. There we have it. The origin of the ridiculous eagle-drawn airship design, the brainchild of one Thomas Simmons Mackintosh, who was annoyed at a flawed airship. I honestly still can't tell if he was joking with his alternative design, but this has been a fun journey.

There's only one question left: What happened to the Eagle?

Well, after being exhibited in the grounds of the Aeronautical Society in Kensington, it found it's way to the Champ de Mars, Paris. Unclear how it got there, but I presume it didn't fly, because when it tried to lift off in Paris, it was too heavy, and the disappointed crowd destroyed it. This was not uncommon during failed balloon demonstrations at the time.

"However, I venture to give this opion [sic], that, in no very great length of time, it will be nothing uncommon for a gentleman to call for his balloon and his birds as he now calls for his carriage and horses.

Yours, &c T. S. Mackintosh"

[dipnotski]

Adrian Desmond, James Moore – Charles Darwin (2024)

Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), Cambridge’deki ilahiyat eğitimini başarıyla tamamladıktan sonra “ıssızlığın ortasında bir taşra papazı” olarak ömrünü sükûnet içinde geçirme hayalleri kurarken, küçüklüğünden beri doğa bilimlerine olan merakının da etkisiyle, dünyayı dolaşarak ölçümler yapmak, haritalar çıkarmak, bilimsel keşif ve incelemelerde bulunmak amacıyla Beagle gemisiyle düzenlenen keşif…

[soranatus]

NO ONE IS SAFE IN BLÜDHAVEN, part 1 By David Jamison

[gotham-at-nightfall]

Nightwing: The Animated Series

By David Jamison

[anothertastelesstetrahedron]

It’s cruel how strongly an absence can be felt.

Give me tragic siblings and I’ll latch onto them

[gatutor]

Merle Oberon-Ralph Richardson "El león tiene alas" (The lion has wings) 1939, de Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Michael Powell.

[teecupangel]

What do you call a cowboy Ezio? Spaghetti western. Spaghetti” Westerns are a subgenre of Westerns whose name references the circumstances and location of their filming. Generally, a Spaghetti Western is a low-budget film produced by Italian directors (hence the “spaghetti” connection) and filmed in Europe, primarily in Almería and the Tabernas Desert.Feb 18, 2022.

Being in a Spaghetti Western makes me think of an actor AU where Ezio is a popular actor in Italy who gets the part of a major character in a Spaghetti Western movie. The main draw of the film is, of course, the leading man who goes by the name “Connor” (real name is kept a secret because he likes his privacy).

The film is a revenge story of a man who lost his tribe (including his mother), burned to the ground by a certain group for nefarious means and he hunts them down one by one.

Ezio plays the main character’s final target, the “Sheriff Jack O’Leary”, the leader of the group.

The twist of the story is that Ezio’s and Connor’s characters are actually father and son.

The bigger twist is that Ezio’s character didn’t even sign off on the burning of the village, his group did that on the orders of a high ranking politician that was helping the main character is finding this group.

A tale of betrayal and revenge with a downer ending of the main character killing his father because they could not find a middle ground.

Ezio was having fun. He was Italy’s darling, known for playing handsome charming men that women (and men) swooned over. So to play what could be considered as the main villain (or the secondary main villain to the politician pretending to be good) was good for him.

Along the way, he gets close to the cast and crew, even becoming something akin to an older brother to the leading man (who finally tells him his real name is Ratonhnhaké:ton and he chose the name ‘Connor’ as a tribute to a senior of his that supported and encouraged him when he was doing theater before).

Unorganized Notes:

Leonardo is the set director and he’s super passionate about it. He’s a big fan of western movies and an even bigger fan of sci fi movies.

Machiavelli is the director and he’s quite the perfectionist. On the other hand, he had worked with Ezio before and they get along.

Federico works as Ezio’s agent and PA in one, mostly because he’s worried about his little brother and also because he doesn’t want to become the next CEO of the Auditore Bank. Claudia can have that.

Ratonhnhaké:ton’s agent is a man only known as “Mr. Cormac”. He’s also Ratonhnhaké:ton’s bodyguard and Ratonhnhaké:ton admitted to Ezio later on that his father was the one who employed “Mr. Cormac”. “To keep an eye on you?” “To make up for the decades of parental neglect he believes he committed even though he didn’t even know I existed back then.”

The script is written by Altaïr under the pseudonym Philip S. He’s a well known scriptwriter who churn up lots of scripts a year and just give them to whoever wants them. No one has ever seen his face. Whenever he has to get an award for his script or asks for a meeting, some poor guy named Desmond Miles would appear, apologize for his boss’ rude behaviors and then just do whatever was needed. Some rumors say Philip S is a woman and that’s why they don’t want to make an appearance. No. Altaïr just don’t want to mingle with people he doesn’t know or even like. He just likes to write. Desmond is actually his secretary/live-in houseworker who got the job because no one else could stay as Altaïr’s houseworker long enough to learn Altaïr was also a writer. The pay is good, Desmond doesn’t need to pay for bills since he lives in Altaïr’s house and sometimes Altaïr’s hot childhood friend visits to make sure Altaïr hasn’t died yet (his words, not Desmond’s) so the view is nice.

Haytham Kenway may or may not be producing the film under one of his shell companies. No one is really sure what the Kenway family does but it’s Hollywood during the mid 60s so… it’s shady af.

Kaniehtí:io is alive and is supportive of her son’s rising popularity while being worried about him. She and Haytham never married and she never actually told him about Ratonhnhaké:ton. Haytham only learned about him after Ratonhnhaké:ton became a movie star.

Yes, Ratonhnhaké:ton started in theater (as a child actor) and Connor Davenport took him in as his ‘protege’. Connor Davenport, unfortunately, died (Hollywood drama)

[human-antithesis]

Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (October 20th, 2017)

Lineup: Dylan Desmond - Vocals, Bass Jesse Shreibman - Vocals, Drums, Organ

Guest/Session: Adrian Guerra (R.I.P. 2016) - Vocals Erik Moggridge - Additional Vocals

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[garadinervi]

Adrian Desmond and James Moore, (2009), La sacra causa di Darwin. Lotta alla schiavitù e difesa dell'evoluzione, Introduction to the Italian edition by Giulio Giorello and Telmo Pievani, Translation by Isabella C. Blum and Gianni Rigamonti, «Scienza e idee» 229, Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milano, 2012

[reppyy]

[huxleyfamilyvalues]

Honnetement qui a créé cet homme là, comment a-t-il découvert que le plancher du musée avait été pavé par les détenus? Et plus important pourquoi les autres histories de sciences ont-ils oublié de le mentionner? Les années 1970s-1990s étaient t-ils la seule période où les gens ont sérieusement considéré l'influence de la classe sur l'histoire??

[pupsmailbox]

NEUTRAL LEANING MASC NAMES︰ abner.　 abram.　 adam.　 adrian.　 alex.　 alistair.　 andreas.　 ariel.　 arlen.　 arley.　 arlo.　 ash.　 atlas.　 auden.　 august.　 austin.　 avery.　 bailey.　 baron.　 barrett.　 baylor.　 beauden.　 bee.　 bellamy.　 bennett.　 blair.　 blaise.　 bowen.　 brayden.　 brendan.　 bronson.　 bryce.　 byron.　 caius.　 caleb.　 callahan.　 callan.　 calloway.　 callum.　 camden.　 cameron.　 carlin.　 carson.　 casey.　 cassian.　 chandler.　 chase.　 cody.　 cole.　 connolly.　 corban.　 corwin.　 cyrus.　 dallas.　 damion.　 damon.　 daniel.　 darius.　 davis.　 dawson.　 daylon.　 denver.　 desmond.　 devin.　 doran.　 dorian.　 drew.　 elian.　 elias.　 ellery.　 ellison.　 emery.　 ethan.　 evan.　 ezra.　 fallen.　 farren.　 finley.　 ford.　 foster.　 gabriel.　 gannon.　 garner.　 gavin.　 gentry.　 graham.　 greer.　 griffin.　 guthrie.　 harley.　 harlow.　 hartley.　 hayden.　 henley.　 henry.　 heron.　 hollis.　 hunter.　 ian.　 irving.　 isaiah.　 jace.　 james.　 jameson.　 jared.　 jeremiah.　 joel.　 jonah.　 joran.　 jordan.　 jory.　 josiah.　 jovian.　 jude.　 julian.　 juno.　 justus.　 kalen.　 kamden.　 kay.　 kayden.　 keaton.　 kellan.　 keller.　 kelly.　 kendon.　 kieran.　 kit.　 kylan.　 landry.　 lane.　 lennon.　 leslie.　 levi.　 leyton.　 liam.　 linden.　 lowell.　 luca.　 madden.　 marley.　 marlow.　 marshall.　 martin.　 mason.　 mathias.　 mercer.　 merritt.　 micah.　 miles.　 miller.　 milo.　 morgan.　 morrie.　 morrison.　 nate.　 nevin.　 nick.　 nicky.　 nico.　 nicolas.　 noah.　 noel.　 nolan.　 oren.　 orion.　 owen.　 parker.　 percy.　 perrin.　 peyton.　 pierce.　 porter.　 preston.　 quincy.　 quinn.　 reece.　 reid.　 reign.　 rein.　 remi.　 remington.　 renley.　 riley.　 river.　 robin.　 rollins.　 ronan.　 rory.　 rowan.　 russell.　 ryan.　 rylan.　 sam.　 samuel.　 sawyer.　 saylor.　 seth.　 shiloh.　 soren.　 spencer.　 stellan.　 sterling.　 talon.　 taylor.　 thaddeus.　 thane.　 theo.　 toni.　 tracy.　 tristan.　 tyrus.　 valor.　 warner.　 wells.　 wesley.　 whitten.　 william.　 willis.　 wylie.　

NEUTRAL LEANING FEM NAMES︰ abigaël.　 abilene.　 addison.　 adrian.　 ainsley.　 alexis.　 and.　 andrea.　 arden.　 aria.　 ashley.　 aspen.　 aubrey.　 autumn.　 avery.　 avian.　 ayla.　 bailey.　 beryl.　 blair.　 blaire.　 blake.　 briar.　 brooklyn.　 brooks.　 bryce.　 cameron.　 camille.　 casey.　 celeste.　 channing.　 charlie.　 chase.　 collins.　 cordelia.　 courtney.　 daisy.　 dakota.　 dana.　 darby.　 darcy.　 delaney.　 delilah.　 devin.　 dylan.　 eden.　 eisley.　 elia.　 ellerie.　 ellery.　 ellie.　 elliot.　 elliott.　 ellis.　 ellory.　 ember.　 emelin.　 emerson.　 emery.　 evelyn.　 ezra.　 fallon.　 finley.　 fiore.　 florence.　 floris.　 frances.　 greer.　 gwenaël.　 hadley.　 harley.　 harper.　 haven.　 hayden.　 heike.　 hollis.　 hunter.　 ivy.　 jade.　 jamie.　 jocelyn.　 jordan.　 jude.　 juno.　 kelly.　 kelsey.　 kendall.　 kennedy.　 koda.　 kyrie.　 lacey.　 lane.　 leighton.　 lennon.　 lennox.　 lesley.　 leslie.　 lilian.　 lindsay.　 loden.　 logan.　 lou.　 lyric.　 madison.　 mallory.　 marinell.　 marley.　 mckenzie.　 melody.　 mercede.　 meredith.　 mio.　 misha.　 monroe.　 montana.　 morgan.　 nico.　 nova.　 oakley.　 olympia.　 owen.　 page.　 palmer.　 parker.　 pat.　 paulie.　 perri.　 petyon.　 peyton.　 phoenix.　 piper.　 priscilla.　 quinn.　 raven.　 ray.　 reagan.　 reece.　 reese.　 remi.　 remy.　 riley.　 rio.　 river.　 robin.　 rory.　 rosario.　 rowan.　 ryan.　 rylie.　 sacha.　 sage.　 sam.　 sammy.　 santana.　 sasha.　 sawyer.　 saylor.　 severin.　 shannon.　 shelby.　 shiloh.　 skye.　 skylar.　 sloane.　 sol.　 soleil.　 sterling.　 stevie.　 sutton.　 swan.　 swann.　 sydney.　 tatum.　 taylo.　 taylor.　 tracey.　 valentine.　 vanya.　 vivendel.　 vivian.　 vivien.　 wren.　 wynn.　 yael.

[anothertastelesstetrahedron]

No one talks shit about Theo

AU where both Hersh and Theo get adopted and Angela’s brother doesn’t die/disappear (or at least only later).

Two older brothers causing chaos and driving stage managers (and everyone else) insane. 10 quid the Phantom will pull out a killer robot at some point.

[macrolit]

The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

NYT Article.

*************

Q: How many of the 100 have you read? Q: Which ones did you love/hate? Q: What's missing?

Here's the full list.

100. Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson 99. How to Be Both, Ali Smith 98. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett 97. Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward 96. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman 95. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel 94. On Beauty, Zadie Smith 93. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel 92. The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrante 91. The Human Stain, Philip Roth 90. The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen 89. The Return, Hisham Matar 88. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis 87. Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters 86. Frederick Douglass, David W. Blight 85. Pastoralia, George Saunders 84. The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee 83. When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamin Labutat 82. Hurricane Season, Fernanda Melchor 81. Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan 80. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante 79. A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin 78. Septology, Jon Fosse 77. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones 76. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin 75. Exit West, Mohsin Hamid 74. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout 73. The Passage of Power, Robert Caro 72. Secondhand Time, Svetlana Alexievich 71. The Copenhagen Trilogy, Tove Ditlevsen 70. All Aunt Hagar's Children, Edward P. Jones 69. The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander 68. The Friend, Sigrid Nunez 67. Far From the Tree, Andrew Solomon 66. We the Animals, Justin Torres 65. The Plot Against America, Philip Roth 64. The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai 63. Veronica, Mary Gaitskill 62. 10:04, Ben Lerner 61. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 60. Heavy, Kiese Laymon 59. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides 58. Stay True, Hua Hsu 57. Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich 56. The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner 55. The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright 54. Tenth of December, George Saunders 53. Runaway, Alice Munro 52. Train Dreams, Denis Johnson 51. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson 50. Trust, Hernan Diaz 49. The Vegetarian, Han Kang 48. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi 47. A Mercy, Toni Morrison 46. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 45. The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson 44. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin 43. Postwar, Tony Judt 42. A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James 41. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan 40. H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald 39. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan 38. The Savage Detectives, Roberto Balano 37. The Years, Annie Ernaux 36. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates 35. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel 34. Citizen, Claudia Rankine 33. Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward 32. The Lines of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst 31. White Teeth, Zadie Smith 30. Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward 29. The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt 28. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell 27. Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 26. Atonement, Ian McEwan 25. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 24. The Overstory, Richard Powers 23. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, Alice Munro 22. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo 21. Evicted, Matthew Desmond 20. Erasure, Percival Everett 19. Say Nothing, Patrick Radden Keefe 18. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 17. The Sellout, Paul Beatty 16. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon 15. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee 14. Outline, Rachel Cusk 13. The Road, Cormac McCarthy 12. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion 11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz 10. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson 9. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro 8. Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald 7. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead 6. 2666, Roberto Bolano 5. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen 4. The Known World, Edward P. Jones 3. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel 2. The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson 1. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante