#Aleister Franks

[thebmatt]

And thus does my final goal of Endwalker get completed

Which was, ironically, completing the base Shadowbringers MSQ on Dahkar. I was aiming for catching him up entirely to Dawntrail, but there just wasn't enough time for that. Ah well.

The Old Man's positioned in Radz-At-Han to dump poetics and then begin the Dawntrail MSQ, not-at-all-appropriate glamour ready to go. We're gonna look massively out of place, and I'm all for it.

[thebmatt]

tis is the oldest photo I have of the Old Man. Yeah, he was a Roegadyn. I also gave him that terrible haircut intentionally. I didn’t expect I’d enjoy this game so much.

But I did. And when I enjoy a game where I create my own character, I start giving them elaborate backstories. And having him be a Roegadyn wasn’t quite fitting.

So I changed him

This is him now. Yeah he’s kind of a Godbert clone, but that’s the best way I could find to make a good looking older Hyur.

This is the oldest screenshot I have of Rheika. She actually began life as Dahkar, who I changed to a miqo’te on a challenge I gave to myself to fantasia as another race for a month. That month came and went and I loved her so much that I kept her as one. This is when the 4-WoL canon I developed that I still have today came about.

This is my newest screenshot of her, and it shows the only change I’ve made to her, which is trying out this haircut.

Speaking of Dahkar, here is his earliest screenshot. Nothing much, just my first attempts at using Gpose. As you can see, I am bad at it at this point!

And this is my last one of Dahkar before I changed him to Rheika. Back when he was the canon red mage. Nothing changed about him at all in terms of his looks.

I would really like to recreate him someday, if for no other reason than to do more screenshots, but I haven’t had the mental bandwidth to level the whole of the MSQ (again) or the spare funds to boost him through it with his three canon jobs.

This is the first screenshot I took of Fearless, who was the last person on the team I came up with, shortly after entering Limsa for the first time

And this is her now. As you can see, I changed her hair, both cut and color, and gave her the black eye stripe. After deciding to make her a Black Mage, I wanted to try and change her look up a bit, and I settled on this. Most of her outfits now incorporate a fair amount of black

I want more WoLs on my dash. Reblog this with the oldest picture you have of your WoL/OC, and then the newest photo you have of them. Show off what changed! Did they change race? Gender? Hair color? Hair style? Tell me about it!

[midwestbramble]

Mastering Witchcraft Review

This book has been on my list for a long time now. It was recommended as an older read for those interested in Traditional Witchcraft.

There aren't too many "vintage" books on traditional witchcraft, most of the writings were in a magazine called the Pentagram that is no longer in print or saved in letters between practitioners (some of which you can find online now at the 1734 website). Suffice to say, people have been arguing about what is "true" witchcraft for a long time. Really ever since Gerald Gardner went public with his religion. So I was curious what this book could say since I was told it's a traditional witchcraft book.

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Content:

Synopsis

What I Liked

What I Didn’t Like

Overall Thoughts

Conclusion

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Originally published 1970

"An enduring classic since its publication in 1970, Mastering Witchcraft is one of the best how-to manuals for those wishing to practice traditional European Witchcraft as a craft rather than a New Age religion. Starting from first principles, Huson instructs the novice step by step in the arts of circle casting, blessing and banning, the uses of amulets and talismans, philters, divination, necromancy, waxen images, knots, fascination, conjuration, magical familiars, spells to arouse passion or lust, attain vengeance, and of course, counter-spells to exorcize and annul the malice of others."

- from the back of the book

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What I Liked

I’ve been looking into working with the wind in magic and this book gave an interesting reference for wind coming from the north that I will be looking into. He also talks about gardening by the moon, attempting to make it sound witchier than it is, but it was still nice to see.

Huson did all the illustrations in the book himself and they are quite striking.

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What I Didn't Like

Let’s start at the beginning. All of the history in this book is trash. I’ll assume it’s because the book was published in 1970 and so all his resources are from the 60s or earlier. And boy… was that a time in historical scholarship. He even calls Gerald Gardner an anthropologist, which he was not.

Going off of that is the incredible lack of even an acknowledgement of Kabbalah being Jewish and even using the “Cabbala” spelling. This is a wonderful article if you wish to learn more about that problematic history.

A lot of his information is from ceremonial/Hermetic texts such as Transcendental Magic by Éliphas Lévi which he does not cite or mention and Aleister Crowley (who he gives credit). In this line of thought, any time he talks about working with spirits in this book, he insists on binding them and trapping them. Exerting your will over them and forcing the spirits to do your bidding. Which is a very ceremonial magician kind of relationship that I personally find distasteful. And honestly, as a book meant for beginners, it doesn’t go into enough detail, only showing one specific spirit (Vassago).

He’s also fairly hypocritical in saying a witch can’t break their word or lie because then their spells won’t be powerful but at the same time don’t tell anyone what you’re doing. So if someone comes asking questions… lie?

He claims that a quote from Dune (published in 1965) is an old witch verse. Maybe Frank Herbert knows something I don’t, but I can’t find this quote literally anywhere else. It’s a beautiful verse, it’s just not what he claims it is. He also claims that the Charge of the Goddess is “traditional” but I would say it’s only traditional as in Doreen Valiente wrote it based on “Aradia, Gospel of the Witches” for Gerald Gardners coven.

He uses a lot of prescriptive rules about giving yourself a witch name, who’s allowed to wear what in ritual, how things are made, and general ritual tools that are very Wiccan. Even the consecration method is Wiccan. Almost all of it can be found in Doreen Valientes books. He even has the practitioner create a magic circle in a Wiccan manner. Trad Craft lays a Compass which is for a different purpose than a circle.

He claims that a lot of the spells are traditional but one takes from Hoodoo, another uses the sator square in a very not traditional love spell, and others are just very modern in understanding. There’s also a love spell where he seems to only think about heterosexual couples, despite later being in a relationship with another man for 49 years. Though this could simply be a way to avoid bigotry (he may not have been out at the time of publishing). And while I don’t have any real qualms with love magic in general there was one spell that just made me think “JUST TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER”

The book has a big focus on Wiccan deities and claims any figure associated with witches are the same ones. Again a lot of incorrect history when talking about deities. He really forces them into a box making it seem as though Habondia (for example) should only be called on for healing and Cernunnos only for things that are aggressive. He also tries to force them all into the Persephone and Hades myth at one point.

When it comes to the chapter on protection and counter magic all I could think was “who are you making so mad sir?” Like who is going about their day so mad at you, you need to be constantly on the watch for curses? I’m not saying you shouldn’t protect yourself, just that you don’t need to be that paranoid.

This same section talked about familiars (which I had been excited for) but it had its own issues. Not one was an actual familiar. First it was giving Latin names that came from absolutely no where. Then it tried to tell us that a “totem” animal was a familiar. A totem animal is an animal that indigenous groups believe they descend from or protects them (sometimes both). The way he spoke about it was more like a mascot. He also talked about pets as familiars which… is a big pet peeve of mine. A pet cannot fulfill the role of a familiar. They are physically incapable and as a pet owner YOU are responsible for their safety. Not the other way around. Off my soap box, the last kind he talked about was a servitor. Which I suppose can be close, except they are created to serve a purpose in a way similar to a computer program. A familiar is a spirit with its own consciousness and will who has agreed to work with you in magic. And the next big thing with this section is he doesn’t even tell you how to gain one of these as a “familiar.”

At one point in the cursing section, he calls a poppet a “voodoo doll.” Voodoo practitioners tell me they don’t use them. He also says “magical elements inherent within the West Indian voodoo cult should be incorporated” to “give your coven a more African flavor.” Going on to say “the entities are exactly the same.” No! They’re not! Bad, English man, bad! Loa are not the same as Cernunnos or Aradia. Please for the love of cultural respect do not just start contacting loa without being a voudousant going through the proper channels.

He also talks about binding yourself with a cord to restrict blood flow which is something I’ve only seen when talking about Gardnerian Wiccan practices and it’s off shoots. It came up in the cursing section as well is in the initiations.

He likes to call any practices that aren’t ceremonial primitive, saying “One such primitive example involves the hammering of three iron nails in triangular formation into the north side of a tree, naming the victims name at each blow; I believe this is still practiced in the Ozarks to this day.”

Two last things. The sabbat rituals are all Wiccan not trad craft. He has a recipe for “sabbat oil” to be used before heading out physically to the rituals but it’s all the traditional herbal components to flying ointment, a traditional witchcraft tool for spirit flight.

The lack of in text citations is just the cherry on top for me.

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Overall Thoughts

This was a hard book for me to get through. Much of it was ceremonial magic with a few dashes of trad practices and VERY Wicca leaning. I just disagree with the author on too many subjects and, as a history nerd, there’s too much misinformation. It’s not that these workings wouldn’t work, just the surrounding details that are problematic along with the encouragement of appropriation.

This book confuses Wicca and trad craft. I can’t recommend this book unfortunately, and honestly don’t even feel like people should read it from a cultural literacy stand point. I wish the author well though, as he’s still around.

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Conclusion

I just don’t like when a book is advertised as one thing and then shows a completely different practice, and I always want to be honest about how I feel about a book. You may decide that this book interests you based on the things I didn’t like, you may decide it doesn’t. That’s up to you. Either way, I hope this review helped you in some way.

*All images from the book

[manmetaphysical]

It is well known that Sagittarians make great teachers, lawyers, performers, comedians, artists, philosophers, leaders and musicians. And even with Mercury in Sagittarius, great writers too. So that runs the gamut. So this is a comprehensive round up just in case you missed how multi faceted this zodiac sign actually is, its range is wide. Top of the list are the giants like William Blake who straddles poetry, art and mysticism, and Ludwig Beethoven whose work is monumental and will still be listened to in hundreds of years. But there was  also Oliver Messiaen who composed music  La Constellation du Sagittaire which was his zodiac sign.

proteusastrologydotcodotuk.files.wordpress.com

Sagittarians make great magicians like Franz Bardon.  He was much less known than Aleister Crowley, but nevertheless regarded as one of the most important occultists of the 20th Century, and still we have Dion Fortune, let’s not forget, who was also a Sagittarian and an acute psychologist. for a modern Sagittarian magicians look to  Uri Geller. Needless to say Sagittarians also make great astrologers like Robert Hand Nik Kollerstrom and Karen Hamaker-Zondag and these are only the known charts.

Dec 2nd, is the birthday of Britney Spears, who in spite of her wobbly personality is still much loved and, when on form, delivers the goods as a performer. But so many Sagittarian singers. Note also Christine Aguilera, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and Nicki Minaj- who all love to perform. But before them some of the greats of old include Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick and thunder thighs (Sagittarius is linked to the thighs) herself, Tina Turner who became the ultimate Buddhist fulfilling the yearnings of her spiritual nature.

There are also some oddball singers Little Richard, Frank Zappa, Ted Nugent and Tom Waits, and there are two outstanding opera stars Maria Callas, whose voice no one can match, and Jose Carreras.

Sagittarians can even be great hedonists crazies who go off piste from time to time, but are still entertaining. There’s Jim Morrison of the Doors, Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath, Jay-Z and wild man Billy Idol. Some Sagittarians in this category can come across with a certain edgy swagger like Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

Then there are philosopher teachers, leader and gurus like Osho, Bruce Lee and B.K.S. Iyengar also embody many quintessentially Sagittarian traits as ultimate teachers all offering some form of physical practice yoga and martial arts-which marries the higher and lower self. Iyengar said ‘my body is my temple and the asanas are my prayers’ but he also said, as a true Sagittarian, that ‘honesty is essential’ in teaching. With Mercury in Sagittarius he could sometimes be difficult to understand when speaking. But there’s also wiseacre, Noam Chomsky, who functions in dual areas as linguistic philosopher and political activist, and then there's author who popularises 'Life School' philosophy, Alain de Botton.

Then we have the artists and painters from Masaccio, to Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Jan Toroop to Lucien Freud and the ever controversial, Marina Abramovic. But one mention must go to French artist and teacher of painting, William Adolph Bougereau, His name was tarnished as being too traditional, not  being ‘modern’ enough by Picasso and the art gallery owners who ganged up against him and cast him into the margins of art history as an old fuddy duddy, but he was was as skilled and technically accomplished as any of the Renaissance painters, ran his own school and more hard working and prolific than any of the Impressionists or Post-Impressionists or Cubists.

Then we have the visionary Sci Fi writers  Philip K. Dick author of the stories that made it into film: Blade Runner, Minority Report and The Adjustment Bureau. Dick spoke of visions of the future that have if not come true, then are resonating widely. His imagination was as fertile as any and he worked at top speed even bringing downloads of Gnostic wisdom into novels like Valis. Also Arthur C. Clarke and C.S. Lewis were both Sagittarians. These are the big names in the field whose legacy remains strong.

And the film directors can’t be bigger Fritz Lang, Stephen Spielberg and Ridley Scott who directed some of the best known films in past decades and has just directed Napoleon. But working on a smaller, more intimate scale we should not ignore Woody Allen, John Cassavetes, and the lesser known Argentinian film director, Marco Berger.

And who is the most loved actress in the UK?  Yorkshire born, Dame Judi Dench as talented and versatile as any actress can be. But world renowned actors include Liv Ullman, John Malkovich, Christopher Plummer, Brad Pitt, Kim Basinger, Julianne Moore and Jake Gylenhaal, most of them known around the world not just in their home countries.

Finally the athletes. Sagittarius is a fully developed physical sign – the hybrid centaur- so we have runner Florence Griffiths-Joyner, Donovan Bailey, and Oscar Pistorius, and football player Kylian Mbappe, along with Tennis players Boris Becker and Monia Seles.

See who else you can recognise in the collage of famous Sagittarians and in the list.

And now to end with comedian Bill Hicks, a Sagittarian, capturing the essence of a daily thought in the minds of these fiery, idealistic spirits:

“The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while.

Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.” And we … kill those people. “Shut him up! I’ve got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.” It’s just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok …

But it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”

If you think the world is accelerating towards a collective psychosis, you are not alone but it could be a  magnified reflection of our own fears. According to author Paul Levy to recognise that there’s a dream-like quality to reality is the first step to activating your creative higher self, and to use the Daimon- the inner genius or ‘higher’ self- is a way to counter the wetiko mind-blindness that appears to have become virulent in the world. This means taking a ‘quantum’ perspective and Sagittarius is at home with the quantum world and the weird and multiple perspectives and dimensions it brings to bear on the old solidified way of seeing reality.

#Sagittarius #Sagittarian #Jupiter #Zodiac #SagittarianWriters #SagittarianArtists #SagittarianLeaders #SagitarianSingers #SagittarianComedians

0 notes

manmetaphysical

[thebmatt]

Aleister and Gwen chose not to have children in their first life on Azeroth. Having lived in a time where multiple wars happened, they witnessed far too many friends and neighbors send their children off to the fight and never return home. Having children in such a time of never ending warfare seemed cruel. Becoming undead for who knows how long obviously made that impossible.

Now that they live again having traveled to another universe, one now safe from the major world ending threat, they have talked about the subject. The major problem is that Gwen has been made a Viera. She has no idea if she has the longer Viera lifespan or if the change is merely cosmetic and her lifespan is more akin to a hyurs. If it’s the former, she has no idea how it might affect the offspring they might produce. Trying to answer those questions has been delayed somewhat by the journeys to the Thirteenth, along with not really being certain how to collect data on this, especially since no one outside the core Scions is supposed to be aware they aren’t native to this universe.

Dahkar and Yugiri’s relationship is too new for them to have discussed having children. Yugiri would very much love to have them with Dahkar one day. For his part, Dahk is a bit fearful, having grown up without his father, he feels far too unprepared with no one to emulate.

Fearless would love to have children with her soon-to-be wives one day, but the question of how that would work hasn’t really been discussed between them. The fact that none in her adopted homeland is supposed to be aware of her relationship with Makoto and Ranaa complicates matters. For now she is focused on their future wedding.

Rheika does not want her own children but is entirely too happy at the prospect of being the hella cool aunt.

Feel free to share more details about why! Love reading other ppls character lore! :3

[irregularincidents]

Los Angeles restaurateur Clifford Clinton was a surprising man in a lot of respects. Born 3rd August 1900, Clifford spent much of his childhood in China as his parents did missionary work, and after witnessing the starvation and violence following the 1898 to 1900 Boxer Rebellion, he supposedly made a vow to never let people go hungry.

As such, when he started his first cafeteria in 1931 (named Cliftons after smashing together his first and last name), he published his business policy on his cheques,

"Regardless of the amount of this check, our cashier will cheerfully accept whatever you wish to pay or you may dine for free."

This proved to be good timing, as when thousands of people fleeing to California out of desperation caused by the Great Depression, many found they were able to get a decent meal at Clifford's restaurants at a time when many Californians were actively hostile to the newcomers.

Additionally, Clifford bucked racist trends of the time by staunchly refusing to segregate his businesses, in a time when many restaurants refused to serve African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans. When racist customers would complain about this in customer feedback forms, Clinton would publish their comments in the restaurants' newsletter and admonish them, at length.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Clifford being very loud about his views lead to his drifting into the world of local LA politics, which at the time was a haven of corruption and vice under Mayor Frank Shaw, a man with the dubious claim to fame of possibly being the most corrupt mayor in the city's history.

Clifford first drew the ire of Shaw after he was hired to look at the state of the kitchens at the LA County General Hospital, where Clinton found significant amounts and of favouritism and waste, leading to his giving a list of recommendations of how to fix the budget and improve the quality of food being served. This unfortunately put him in Shaw's firing line, as he had once overseen the hospital, and he retaliated by siccing health inspectors on Clinton's establishments.

In turn, Clifford became an increasingly vocal critic of the corruption both in City Hall and in the LAPD, the latter of which (in addition to its own institutional problems) served as the enforcement arm of Shaw's administration. As such, he was hired to join Citizens Independent Vice Investigating Committee (CIVIC), an organisation aiming to eliminate organised crime within Los Angeles city governments.

To this effect, CIVIC hired a former cop by the name of Harry Raymond, a private investigator fired from the LAPD 90 days after being made Chief of Police due to his publicly saying he wanted to get rid of corruption, and set to work.

Shaw was accused of of influence peddling of city jobs, including police positions, and winking at brothels and gambling dens. The LAPD, meanwhile, began wiretapping Clinton's phones and in 1937 "someone" blew up Clifford's house with a bomb that had been placed in the kitchen.

This wasn't the only "mysterious" explosion, however, as three months later in January 1938, a car bomb grievously injured Raymond filling him with 186 pieces of shrapnel. In the subsequent trial, due to expert witness testimony by rocket scientist and Aleister Crowley devotee Jack Parsons, LAPD Captain Earle Kynette and two assistants, were convicted on four counts of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, assault with intent to murder, and malicious use of explosives.

As Kynette was a member of the "Spy Squad" tasked with, well, spying on Clinton and his family, a line could firmly be drawn from the work of CIVIC and the attempted murders of Clinton and his family and that of Harry Raymond.

In the subsequent fallout from the trial, Chief of Police James Davis was forced to resign, while a Grand Jury investigation that finally linked Shaw with multiple vice rackets led to his being removed from office by a special recall election. The judge that oversaw the Grand Jury, Judge Fletcher Bowron, replaced him as mayor.

In 1944, Clifford funded a Caltech scientist Dr. Henry Borsook $5000 of his own money to produce a food additive that could be used to provide proper nutritional values for less than 5 cents a meal. Surprisingly, Borsook (in collaboration with French chef Mme. Soulange Berzceller) created Multi-Purpose Food (MPF), a flavourless high-protein food supplement that can be added to meals.

The profits from this invention, in addition to money gained from selling the restaurants to his children, led to Clinton and his wife founding the non-profit Meals for Millions in 1946, which distributed meals across the world to starving and malnourished people.

Clinton would eventually pass away in 1969, leaving the world somewhat better off than before. ...And that's not even getting into the sex aid business he was reportedly tangentially involved in with his mistress Terri Richmond, with whom Clifford's wife was allegedly aware of and supposedly fine with...

[bruxadesade]

"Toca Da Pantera" é o primeiro single da Bruxa de Sade, lançado em 30 de maio de 2022. O single foi produzido no Silent Valley Studio por Thales Statkevicius, Krokodil, Kháos e Frank. A mixagem final e a pós produção ocorreram na cidade de Sorocaba, em São Paulo, Brasil. Os temas deste material tratam exclusivamente do uso de psicotrópicos e alusões a um sistema mágico popularizado por MacGregor Mathers e Aleister Crowley em 1904 chamado Goetia.

1 - Furfur

2 - Toca Da Pantera

3 - Demônios Instigam Filósofos

[thursdayisbetterthanfriday]

Cybernetics 控制論 with Chinese Characteristics & why we suck at the real Grand Strategy Game

If you’re someone who enjoys Crusader Kings, or Hearts of Iron, you’ll know the joy of Grand strategy games. Executing economic, political and military prowess, you can rule the world... well, just a model of it. But compared to the masters, you’re trash tier. The real Grand Strategy masters didn’t play Paradox games - they played the game of life. Imagine not just having to play the game, but building the computer from scratch and the software necessary to play the games. It’s time to introduce the real Epic tier gamers:

Everyone agrees living in the West is like living life on easy mode. Norbert Wiener and Stafford Beer were two of the best known cyberneticists in the US and UK respectively during the later 20th century, but what about those in the non-Anglo speaking world? We’re looking for the most hardcore players after all.

China is the perfect example. The country was a mess after the civil war - perfect conditions for a hard-mode run. Search for articles on China in the West and you will find plenty with titles such as “The country is perfecting a vast network of digital espionage as a means of social control” and “China’s increased surveillance capacity could be dangerous”. So who, was behind the rise of these surveillance style systems in China.

The answer, in fact, is the FBI.

Note: This is a less serious version of Dylan Levi King’s article. Link at end!

Enter Qian Xuesen ( 钱学森 )

Enter Qian Xuesen. Qian was described, by most contemporaries, as a genius and a quiet but serious man who asked very precise questions. Qian had been born during the fall of the Qing dynasty in China and had been a strongly academic child. He went on to study at M.I.T on a Boxer indemnity scholarship and found himself a position in the newly founded Jet Propulsion Laboratory during World War 2.

His contemporaries, included colourful characters such as:

Frank Malina – Stellar engineer, and later the director of the Division of Scientific Research at UNESCO and creator of kinetic artworks.

Jack Parsons – A talented engineer, and later an acolyte of Aleister Crowley’s Thelemite Occultism alongside L. Ron Hubbard. Yes, the Scientology one.

Together, with others such as Sidney Weinbaum, Qian was able to assist the US achieve it’s first rocket program.

Enter FBI

After the end of World War II, it became apparent to the United States that the Soviet Union would be its greatest threat in world politics. The rise of communism in Eastern Europe led to those such as Senator John McCarthy pushing to remove “communist influence” within the United States. Working with the FBI, the entire team of the nationally sensitive Jet Propulsion Laboratory were investigated.

Many members, such as Parsons and Weinbaum had discussed communist ideals in the past which were quickly unearthed and used to push them out of their positions in the organisation. Qian, on the other hand, was someone who didn’t particularly seem to care about politics. He mostly spent his free time at home with his wife and children, and one colleague described him as having a “typical aloof oriental attitude.”. Despite this, the FBI were able to find a connection with Malina and himself.

Sensing the changing public mood, Qian decided it would be best to leave the country and set off to return to China in 1950.

This was generally considered a bad move by the FBI.

Qian had been personally involved in:

Helping to create America’s first missile program

The creation of the Toward New Horizons report for the Army Air Forces Scientific Advisory Group detailing future advances in aviation

A seat on the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board

A consultancy role on the Manhattan Project (ie. Nuclear Weapons Research)

After realising the consequences of their actions, the Immigration and Naturalization Service forced Qian into a legal purgatory for five years in fear that he would leak important matters of classified national security to the Chinese. It was in this period, however, that Qian began a deep dive into the world of cybernetics.

He wrote a book, Engineering Cybernetics, published in 1954. In it, he technically outlined a field of feedback control systems for engineering purposes, inspired by the use of automatic missile control guidance systems. In his own words:

“The celebrated physicist and mathematician A. M. Ampere coined the word cyberne~tique to mean the science of civil government (Part II of " Essai sur la philosophic des sciences/' 1845, Paris) . Ampere's grandiose scheme of political sciences has not, and perhaps never will, come to fruition. In the meantime, conflict between governments with the use of force greatly accelerated the development of another branch of science, the science of control and guidance of mechanical and electrical systems.”

Importantly, he was able to build on previous work. He made the crucial step of moving away from fully assumed knowledge to systems

“...where no exact knowledge of the properties of the controlled system is necessary for the design.”

Finally released from detention, he moved overseas to China in 1955 to begin his career.

Enter China

Qian immediately set to work. The Science Planning Commission of the State Council had just begun drafting a 12-year plan for future progress in China, and Qian was quick to give his input.

From computing, to semiconductor technology, automation to wireless control systems and more he was key to the scientific advancement of the country. He was also keen to put his ideas into action, advocating for cybernetics and systems theory to be front-and-centre in agriculture and manufacturing. We can only speculate on what kind of Farmville player Qian would have been, but he definitely would have used a custom macro spreadsheet like some kind of freak.

It was in this time period that China began to import foreign based computing technologies which they sought to reverse engineer and replicate for themselves. Political instability, however, led to his ideas for cybernetics shelved for another decade, only to re-emerge in the 1970s. With the rise of Deng Xiaoping in the late 70s, Qian was able to take advantage of Deng’s opposition to the Gang of Four’s Maoist principles.

But what computing power would the cyberneticists use? Indigenous computers were, unfortunately, still pretty bad and the Chinese government had to use Soviet design machines and illegally acquired IBM machines which belonged to the Bank of China.

Not only were the Chinese cyberneticists eventually able to build their own rigs they stole their opponent's technology as well, like some kind of Dengist mainframe hackers.

In 1974, Qian and his team of researchers attended the Helsinki Triennial World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control and were astounded by the uses that Western, and Soviet, cyberneticists had been putting their computers to – namely economic planning. Inspired by Neo-Malthusian scholars at The Club of Rome, and their MIT led population overload models, Qian was instrumental in putting forward the One Child Policy.

Qian’s was also a pioneer of “legal systems engineering” – the use of cybernetics in law enforcement. The Public Security Bureau (PSB) set up Golden shield, a system which allowed law enforcement to access information on citizens tax records, personal details, criminal record and more. This is the system which has led to the current Chinese surveillance state in the 21st century.

Cybernetics vs Reality

Theory and reality don’t always mix. Qian was responsible for many policy successes, but some of his policies are responsible for a number of issues that China is experiencing today.

Take China’s One Child Policy. This is the ultimate example of theoretical idea combined with real world culture and consequences. The idea behind the policy is sound – keeping population within set limits to prevent over-burdening the country and its resources. The reality is more difficult:

The state apparatus needed the tools to enforce this policy. This wasn’t always possible, and in many rural communities many children were sent to orphanages and weren’t observable in the system of control.

Culture led to more women being aborted than men - a male child being more valued in society. This resulted in gender imbalances that still plague the country to this day.

This underlies the failings of many cybernetic systems: They cannot measure that which they can’t observe. In data-science terms, crap goes in, crap comes out. The Chinese cyberneticists were most successful where they were able to use reality to update their systems, and take into account how the bureaucratic systems functioned.

Qian, in his later years, was remote and distant. He refused to interact with anyone outside the country and eventually died in 2009.

Lessons to be learned?

So what can we learn from this?:

Persecuting people for no reason can backfire, and lead to the Chinese Nuclear Program. You would have thought people would have realised this after The Treaty of Versailles, but there we go...

Cybernetic systems are only good if they adapt to fit reality, otherwise they can make things worse. You may think that your economic strategy in HoI II is working, but if you don’t invest in your military in response to foreign force build-up then you’re fucked when they knock on the door with a blitzkrieg.

Grand Strategy Games are a great analogue for control systems - a simplified abstraction of reality. They often don’t model the difference between assumed input and what the input actually means in reality. Practical cybernetics need to take into account real world use of systems and societal/cultural/social implications.

The main fable behind this story is to do your research, and consider the real world implcations of your actions. You may be tempted to put your feet up and stick with a simplified understanding of the world - this is bad. The blind ideology of the McCarthy & his FBI investigators, and the lack of effective monitoring system for Chinese families by Qian, both led to bad outcomes.

One bad choice by the FBI led to not only Qian helping China advance technologically, but also it’s mass surveillance system and the One Child Policy and it’s now serious effects on China’s society.

Sources (I’ve missed some out, but can provide links on request):

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/china-surveillance/552203/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/01/10/china-surveillance-covid/

https://archive.org/details/fbi-file-tsien-hsue-shen/FBIFile_Tsien_Part1/page/n25/mode/2up

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0895717788904438

https://www.palladiummag.com/2022/10/17/the-genealogy-of-chinese-cybernetics/

[thebmatt]

So….who’s gonna give job to their WoLs?

(in headcanon I mean I know we’re all gonna play it)

Whatever the caster is I’ll probably have Dahkar pick it up cause he’s the only one without one.

Based on the vibes of this trailer my immediate thought is to give it to Rheika. It seems to fit her overall better than Ninja does. The others have a melee job more strongly tied to their stories and identities.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: DAWNTRAIL - New Job: Viper

[reality-breaker]

Επιλογές Νοεμβρίου (15/11)

Οι σκελετοί του μοναχού Ikkyū �� Moscoso Comix και Color (του Victor Moscoso) — Διαίρει και Βασίλευε: Ένα Ακραίο Σχέδιο Ειρήνης για την Ευρώπη (1920) — Η Αγία Τερέζα της Αβίλης — Κατεβάστε δωρεάν τη γραμματοσειρά του K.Π Καβάφη — Πρόχειρο email μίας χρήσης — Τα φανταστικά οράματα του Steven Arnold — The Magician, του W. Somerset, εμπνευσμένο από τον Aleister Crowley — Ο Robert E. Howard είχε μανία με το μποξ — Αστείες ρετρό αφίσες από ταινίες πορνό — Παλαιστίνιοι «επιτίθενται» στα τείχη του Ισραήλ με γκράφιτι — Συνέντευξη με τον Brom — The Wolf-Men του Frank Powell (1905) — Πώς το Rocky Horror έγινε καλτ φαινόμενο — Το υποείδος επιστημονικής φαντασίας που το HILOBROW βάφτισε semiopunk — 10 ταινίες Cosmic Horror μικρού μήκους από ανεξάρτητους δημιουργούς — Η UNESCO κατά των Θεωριών Συνωμοσίας

➤ https://www.fantastikosorizontas.gr/kostasvoulazeris/epiloges/ep.php?ID=11_2023#2

[thebmatt]

9 runs of Seat of Sacrifice EX. One mount drop.

AND I WON IT!

[brookston]

Holidays 10.12

Holidays

Asexuality Visibility & Education Day

Child Rambunctiousness Appreciation Day

Children’s Day (Brazil)

Columbus Day [original date]

Commonwealth Culture Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

Cookbook Launch Day

Day of the Pluricultural Nation (Mexico)

Day of the Six Billion (1999)

Destiny Day

Did de la Rasa (Day of Race; Mexico)

Fiesta Nacional de España (Spain)

The First of October! (Dr. Seuss)

Freethought Day

Geoscience Day

Global Scream Day (30-second scream at 1200 GMT)

Harry Potter Book Day

Hemp Day (French Republic)

Hispanic Day (Spain)

Indigenous Peoples Day (San Francisco)

Indigenous Resistance Day (Venezuela)

International Cassette Store Day

International Day Against DRM

International Moment of Frustration Scream Day

International TFMR Awareness Day

Lady of Aparecida Day (Brazil)

National Bandana Day (South Africa)

National Doodle Bug Day

National Education Day (Kiribati)

National Farmer’s Day

National Fungus Day (Japan)

National Hug a Bassist Day

National Loggers Day

National Martin Day

National Monogram Day

National Peyronie’s Disease Awareness Day

National Salesperson's Day

National Savings Day

National Vermont Day

Native Americans' Day

Old Farmer's Day

Piomingo Day (Chickasaw Nation)

Rice Day (Texas)

Superstar Day

Women Pharmacist Day

World Algae Day

World Arthritis Day

World Burpee Day

World Spanish Language Day UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Black Jewish Drinking Day

Drink Local Wine Day

Märzen Day

National Gumbo Day

National Know Your Lemons Day

National Pulled Pork Day

National Pumpkin Pie Day

2nd Thursday in October

Children’s Environmental Health Day [2nd Thursday]

Day of Children’s Hospice Work (Germany) [2nd Thursday]

International RSE Day [2nd Thursday]

National Children’s Hospice Palliative Care Day (Canada) [2nd Thursday]

National Dessert Day [2nd Thursday] (also 10.14)

National Student Day [2nd Thursday]

Ombuds Day [2nd Thursday]

World Chicken Day [2nd Thursday]

World Sight Day [2nd Thursday]

Independence Days

Asgardia (Declared; 2016) [unrecognized]

Equatorial Guinea (from Spain, 1968)

Wasteoftimeistan (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Al Held (Artology)

Ayathrem begins (Zoroastrianism)

Carlo Acutis (Christian; Saint)

Crowleymas (a.k.a. Feast for Life of Aleister Crowley; Thelema)

Day of Fortuna Redux (Ancient Rome)

Day of Giving the Black Land to Horus and the Red Land to Set (Ancient Egypt)

Edith Cavell and Elizabeth Fry (Church of England)

Edwin of Northumbria (Christian; Saint)

Feasts of the Spirits of the Fire (Pagan)

Fiacc (Christian; Saint)

Fortuna Redux (Old Roman Goddess of Successful Journeys & Safe Returns)

Frank Sinatra Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Guido Molinari (Artology)

Herbert (Roman Catholic)

International Rastafarian Headgear Day (Pastafarian)

Louis Brisson (Christian; Blessed)

Montaigne (Positivist; Saint)

Our Lady of Aparecida (Brazil; Christian; Saint)

Our Lady of the Pillar (Fiestas del Pilar; Christian; Saint)

Prince Humpty Dumpty (Muppetism)

Radim Gaudentius (Czech Republic; Christian; Saint)

Seraphin of Montegranaro (Christian; Saint)

Wanting Wonton Day (Pastafarian)

Wilfrid of Ripon, Bishop of York (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Lucky Day (Philippines) [55 of 71]

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

Argo (Film; 2012)

Bad Times at the El Royale (Film; 2018)

The Blind Owl, by Sadegh Hedayat (Novel; 1936)

The Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov (Novel; 1953)

Chimp and Zee (WB MM Cartoon; 1968)

Crazy Little Thing Called Love, by Queen (Song; 1979)

The Doctor and the Soul, by Viktor E. Frankl (Philosophy Book; 1946)

Don’t Knock the Rock (Film; 1956)

Fairy Tail (Anime TV Series; 2009)

First Man (Film; 2018)

The Gay Divorcee (Film; 1934)

Got My Mind Set On You, by George Harrison (Song; 1987)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (Novel; 1979)

The Hot Spot (Film; 1990)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, by Dr. Seuss (Children’s Book; 1957)

If I Ran the Zoo, by Dr. Seuss (Children’s Book; 1950)

Inherit the Wind (Film; 1960)

It’s in the Bag or Rocky Gets the Sack (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 309; 1964)

Jesus Christ Superstar (Broadway Rock Opera; 1971)

Kick, by INXS (Album; 1987)

Lady Sings the Blues (Film; 1972)

Look Now, by Elvis Costello (Album; 2018)

Memphis Belle (Film; 1990)

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton (Children’s Book; 1939)

The Narrows, by Ann Petry (Novel; 1953)

October, by U2 (Album; 1981)

Please Try to Remember the First of October!, by Dr. Seuss (Children’s Book; 1977)

Rollin’, by The Bay City Rollers (Album; 1974)

The Saint Abroad, by Fleming Lee (Short Stories; 1969) [Saint #42]

A Short Weight for All Seats or One of Our Trunks (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 310; 1964)

Sideways (Film; 2004)

Touché and Go (WB MM Cartoon; 1957)

Trout Fishing in America, by Richard Brautigan (Novel; 1967)

Tusk, by Fleetwood Mac (Album; 1979)

Today’s Name Days

Edwin, Gottfried, Horst, Maximillian (Austria)

Maksimilijan, Serafin, Velibor (Croatia)

Marcel (Czech Republic)

Maximillian (Denmark)

Aare, Aaro, Are (Estonia)

Aarre, Aarto (Finland)

Edwin, Séraphin, Wilfried (France)

David, Horst, Maximilian, (Germany)

Andromahi, Andromahos, Valantios (Greece)

Miksa (Hungary)

Serafino (Italy)

Kira, Lase, Monvids, Valfrids, Vitenis (Latvia)

Deimintė, Gantas, Salvinas (Lithuania)

Valter, Vibeke (Norway)

Cyriak, Eustachiusz, Eustachy, Grzymisław, Maksymilian, Ostap, Salwin, Serafin, Witold, Witołd, Witolda (Poland)

Andronic, Prov, Tarah (Romania)

Maximilián (Slovakia)

Pilar (Spain)

Manfred, Valfrid (Sweden)

Christopher, Cristopher, Kester, Kristofer, Kristopher (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 285 of 2024; 80 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 41 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 10 of 28]

Chinese: Month 8 (Xin-You), Day 28 (Gui-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 27 Tishri 5784

Islamic: 27 Rabi I 1445

J Cal: 15 Shù; Oneday [15 of 30]

Julian: 29 September 2023

Moon: 4%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 5 Descartes (11th Month) [Montaigne]

Runic Half Month: Wyn (Joy) [Day 1 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 19 of 89)

Zodiac: Libra (Day 19 of 30)

Calendar Changes

Wyn (Joy) [Half-Month 20 of 24; Runic Half-Months] (thru 10.25)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 10.12

Holidays

Asexuality Visibility & Education Day

Child Rambunctiousness Appreciation Day

Children’s Day (Brazil)

Columbus Day [original date]

Commonwealth Culture Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

Cookbook Launch Day

Day of the Pluricultural Nation (Mexico)

Day of the Six Billion (1999)

Destiny Day

Did de la Rasa (Day of Race; Mexico)

Fiesta Nacional de España (Spain)

The First of October! (Dr. Seuss)

Freethought Day

Geoscience Day

Global Scream Day (30-second scream at 1200 GMT)

Harry Potter Book Day

Hemp Day (French Republic)

Hispanic Day (Spain)

Indigenous Peoples Day (San Francisco)

Indigenous Resistance Day (Venezuela)

International Cassette Store Day

International Day Against DRM

International Moment of Frustration Scream Day

International TFMR Awareness Day

Lady of Aparecida Day (Brazil)

National Bandana Day (South Africa)

National Doodle Bug Day

National Education Day (Kiribati)

National Farmer’s Day

National Fungus Day (Japan)

National Hug a Bassist Day

National Loggers Day

National Martin Day

National Monogram Day

National Peyronie’s Disease Awareness Day

National Salesperson's Day

National Savings Day

National Vermont Day

Native Americans' Day

Old Farmer's Day

Piomingo Day (Chickasaw Nation)

Rice Day (Texas)

Superstar Day

Women Pharmacist Day

World Algae Day

World Arthritis Day

World Burpee Day

World Spanish Language Day UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Black Jewish Drinking Day

Drink Local Wine Day

Märzen Day

National Gumbo Day

National Know Your Lemons Day

National Pulled Pork Day

National Pumpkin Pie Day

2nd Thursday in October

Children’s Environmental Health Day [2nd Thursday]

Day of Children’s Hospice Work (Germany) [2nd Thursday]

International RSE Day [2nd Thursday]

National Children’s Hospice Palliative Care Day (Canada) [2nd Thursday]

National Dessert Day [2nd Thursday] (also 10.14)

National Student Day [2nd Thursday]

Ombuds Day [2nd Thursday]

World Chicken Day [2nd Thursday]

World Sight Day [2nd Thursday]

Independence Days

Asgardia (Declared; 2016) [unrecognized]

Equatorial Guinea (from Spain, 1968)

Wasteoftimeistan (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Al Held (Artology)

Ayathrem begins (Zoroastrianism)

Carlo Acutis (Christian; Saint)

Crowleymas (a.k.a. Feast for Life of Aleister Crowley; Thelema)

Day of Fortuna Redux (Ancient Rome)

Day of Giving the Black Land to Horus and the Red Land to Set (Ancient Egypt)

Edith Cavell and Elizabeth Fry (Church of England)

Edwin of Northumbria (Christian; Saint)

Feasts of the Spirits of the Fire (Pagan)

Fiacc (Christian; Saint)

Fortuna Redux (Old Roman Goddess of Successful Journeys & Safe Returns)

Frank Sinatra Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Guido Molinari (Artology)

Herbert (Roman Catholic)

International Rastafarian Headgear Day (Pastafarian)

Louis Brisson (Christian; Blessed)

Montaigne (Positivist; Saint)

Our Lady of Aparecida (Brazil; Christian; Saint)

Our Lady of the Pillar (Fiestas del Pilar; Christian; Saint)

Prince Humpty Dumpty (Muppetism)

Radim Gaudentius (Czech Republic; Christian; Saint)

Seraphin of Montegranaro (Christian; Saint)

Wanting Wonton Day (Pastafarian)

Wilfrid of Ripon, Bishop of York (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Lucky Day (Philippines) [55 of 71]

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

Argo (Film; 2012)

Bad Times at the El Royale (Film; 2018)

The Blind Owl, by Sadegh Hedayat (Novel; 1936)

The Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov (Novel; 1953)

Chimp and Zee (WB MM Cartoon; 1968)

Crazy Little Thing Called Love, by Queen (Song; 1979)

The Doctor and the Soul, by Viktor E. Frankl (Philosophy Book; 1946)

Don’t Knock the Rock (Film; 1956)

Fairy Tail (Anime TV Series; 2009)

First Man (Film; 2018)

The Gay Divorcee (Film; 1934)

Got My Mind Set On You, by George Harrison (Song; 1987)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (Novel; 1979)

The Hot Spot (Film; 1990)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, by Dr. Seuss (Children’s Book; 1957)

If I Ran the Zoo, by Dr. Seuss (Children’s Book; 1950)

Inherit the Wind (Film; 1960)

It’s in the Bag or Rocky Gets the Sack (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 309; 1964)

Jesus Christ Superstar (Broadway Rock Opera; 1971)

Kick, by INXS (Album; 1987)

Lady Sings the Blues (Film; 1972)

Look Now, by Elvis Costello (Album; 2018)

Memphis Belle (Film; 1990)

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton (Children’s Book; 1939)

The Narrows, by Ann Petry (Novel; 1953)

October, by U2 (Album; 1981)

Please Try to Remember the First of October!, by Dr. Seuss (Children’s Book; 1977)

Rollin’, by The Bay City Rollers (Album; 1974)

The Saint Abroad, by Fleming Lee (Short Stories; 1969) [Saint #42]

A Short Weight for All Seats or One of Our Trunks (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 310; 1964)

Sideways (Film; 2004)

Touché and Go (WB MM Cartoon; 1957)

Trout Fishing in America, by Richard Brautigan (Novel; 1967)

Tusk, by Fleetwood Mac (Album; 1979)

Today’s Name Days

Edwin, Gottfried, Horst, Maximillian (Austria)

Maksimilijan, Serafin, Velibor (Croatia)

Marcel (Czech Republic)

Maximillian (Denmark)

Aare, Aaro, Are (Estonia)

Aarre, Aarto (Finland)

Edwin, Séraphin, Wilfried (France)

David, Horst, Maximilian, (Germany)

Andromahi, Andromahos, Valantios (Greece)

Miksa (Hungary)

Serafino (Italy)

Kira, Lase, Monvids, Valfrids, Vitenis (Latvia)

Deimintė, Gantas, Salvinas (Lithuania)

Valter, Vibeke (Norway)

Cyriak, Eustachiusz, Eustachy, Grzymisław, Maksymilian, Ostap, Salwin, Serafin, Witold, Witołd, Witolda (Poland)

Andronic, Prov, Tarah (Romania)

Maximilián (Slovakia)

Pilar (Spain)

Manfred, Valfrid (Sweden)

Christopher, Cristopher, Kester, Kristofer, Kristopher (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 285 of 2024; 80 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 41 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 10 of 28]

Chinese: Month 8 (Xin-You), Day 28 (Gui-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 27 Tishri 5784

Islamic: 27 Rabi I 1445

J Cal: 15 Shù; Oneday [15 of 30]

Julian: 29 September 2023

Moon: 4%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 5 Descartes (11th Month) [Montaigne]

Runic Half Month: Wyn (Joy) [Day 1 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 19 of 89)

Zodiac: Libra (Day 19 of 30)

Calendar Changes

Wyn (Joy) [Half-Month 20 of 24; Runic Half-Months] (thru 10.25)

[aetnart]

Saints of October

@Spore Rivista

Beckford - Barker Herbert - Takahashi Crowley - von Kleist Le Guin - Stroud

[tommy-end]

[supremepandaking]

Aleister Black part 6