#Best Book Formatting USA

[alphynix]

Albireonids were an early branch of the delphinoid whales, with their closest living relatives being modern oceanic dolphins, narwhals and belugas, and porpoises. Known from temperate latitudes of the North Pacific Ocean between the late Miocene and the late Pliocene, about 9-2.5 million years ago, their fossil remains are very rare in coastal deposits and they seem to have primarily been offshore open ocean animals.

Albireo whistleri is the best known member of this family, represented by a near-complete skeleton from what is now Isla de Cedros in Baja California, Mexico, dating to the late Miocene between about 8 and 6 million years ago. It was a rather small dolphin, around 2.5m long (~8'2"), with a stocky body, fairly broad flippers, and skull anatomy with some convergent similarities with the modern Dall's porpoise.

Interestingly these dolphins also seem to have frequently had pathological neck vertebrae, with both Albireo whisteri and the younger species Albireo savagei from California, USA, showing unusually asymmetrical atlas bones – but on opposite sides to each other. This might be due to illness or injury earlier in life, or possibly be evidence of some sort of "handedness" with individuals preferring to perform some actions more with one side of their body than the other.

———

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References:

"Albireonidae." Paleobiology Database, https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=42961

Barnes, Lawrence G. Fossil odontocetes (Mammalia: Cetacea) from the Almejas Formation, Isla Cedros, Mexico. University of California, Museum of Paleontology, 1984. https://books.google.com/books?id=rxyydMGWGqgC

Barnes, Lawrence G. "Miocene and Pliocene Albireonidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti), rare and unusual fossil dolphins from the eastern North Pacific Ocean." Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series 41 (2008): 99-152. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiaoming-Wang-43/publication/252086599_Geology_and_Vertebrate_Paleontology_of_Western_and_Southern_North_America/links/5625900908ae4d9e5c4bb863/Geology-and-Vertebrate-Paleontology-of-Western-and-Southern-North-America.pdf#page=105

Gillet, Amandine, Bruno Frédérich, and Eric Parmentier. "Divergent evolutionary morphology of the axial skeleton as a potential key innovation in modern cetaceans." Proceedings of the Royal Society B 286.1916 (2019): 20191771. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1771

Thomas, Howell W., et al. "Examples of paleopathologies in some fossil Cetacea from the North Pacific realm." Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series 41 (2008): 153-179. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiaoming-Wang-43/publication/252086599_Geology_and_Vertebrate_Paleontology_of_Western_and_Southern_North_America/links/5625900908ae4d9e5c4bb863/Geology-and-Vertebrate-Paleontology-of-Western-and-Southern-North-America.pdf#page=159

[demifiendrsa]

Grand Theft Auto VI details characters and places

■ Synopsis

Vice City, USA.

Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida—forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.

■ Jason and Lucia

Jason Duval

Jason wants an easy life, but things just keep getting harder.

Jason grew up around grifters and crooks. After a stint in the Army trying to shake off his troubled teens, he found himself in the Keys doing what he knows best, working for local drug runners. It might be time to try something new.

“If anything happens, I’m right behind you. Another day in paradise, right?”

Meeting Lucia could be the best or worst thing to ever happen to him. Jason knows how he’d like it to turn out but right now, it’s hard to tell.

Lucia Caminos

Lucia’s father taught her to fight as soon as she could walk.

Life has been coming at her swinging ever since. Fighting for her family landed her in the Leonida Penitentiary. Sheer luck got her out. Lucia’s learned her lesson—only smart moves from here.

More than anything, Lucia wants the good life her mom has dreamed of since their days in Liberty City—but instead of half-baked fantasies, Lucia is prepared to take matters into her own hands.

“The only thing that matters is who you know and what you got.”

Fresh out of prison and ready to change the odds in her favor, Lucia’s committed to her plan—no matter what it takes.

A life with Jason could be her way out.

■ Only in Leonida

When the sun fades and the neon glows, everyone has something to gain—and more to lose.

Cal Hampton

What if everything on the internet was true?

Jason’s friend and a fellow associate of Brian’s, Cal feels safest hanging at home, snooping on Coast Guard comms with a few beers and some private browser tabs open.

“There are way too many birds flying around in perfect formation.”

The psychopaths are in charge. Get used to it.

Cal is at the low tide of America and happy there. Casual paranoia loves company, but his friend Jason has bigger plans.

Boobie Ike

It’s all about heart—the Jack of Hearts.

Boobie is a local Vice City legend—and acts like it. One of the few to transform his time in the streets into a legitimate empire spanning real estate, a strip club, and a recording studio—Boobie’s all smiles until it’s time to talk business.

“The club money pay for the studio, and the drug money pay for it all.”

Top quality cuts.

Boobie might seem like he’s just out for himself, but it’s his partnership with the young aspiring music mogul Dre’Quan for Only Raw Records that he’s most invested in—now they just need a hit.

Dre’Quan Priest

Only Raw… Records.

Dre’Quan was always more of a hustler than a gangster. Even when he was dealing on the streets to make ends meet, breaking into music was the goal.

“Dancers are like my A&Rs. If the record’s a hit, DJs gonna be spinnin’ it.”

You’re with the label now.

Now that he’s signed the Real Dimez, Dre’Quan’s days of booking acts into Boobie’s strip club might be numbered as he sets his sights on the Vice City scene.

Real Dimez

Viral videos. Viral hooks.

Bae-Luxe and Roxy aka Real Dimez have been friends since high school—girls with the savvy to turn their time shaking down local dealers into cold, hard cash via spicy rap tracks and a relentless social media presence.

“All my dimes in this club. Meet my twin, make it a dub.”

One hit away from fame.

An early hit single with local rapper DWNPLY took Real Dimez to new heights. Now, after five years and a whole lot of trouble, they’re signed to Only Raw Records, hoping lightning can strike twice.

Raul Bautista

Experience counts.

Confidence, charm, and cunning—Raul’s a seasoned bank robber always on the hunt for talent ready to take the risks that bring the biggest rewards.

“Life is full of surprises, my friend. I think we’d all be wise to remember that.”

A professional adapts.

Raul’s recklessness raises the stakes with every score. Sooner or later, his crew will have to double down or pull their chips from the table.

Brian Heder

Nothing better than a Mudslide at sunset.

Brian’s a classic drug runner from the golden age of smuggling in the Keys. Still moving product through his boat yard with his third wife, Lori, Brian’s been around long enough to let others do his dirty work.

“I hauled so much grass in that plane, I could make the state of Leonida levitate.”

Looks like a Leonida beach bum—moves like a great white shark.

Brian’s letting Jason live rent-free at one of his properties—so long as he helps with local shakedowns, and stops by for Lori’s sangria once in a while.

■ Places

Vice City

Everything in Excess.

We’re a long way from the ’80s, but Vice City is still the sun and fun capital of America.

The glamour, hustle, and greed of America captured in a single city. Each neighborhood has something to offer, from the pastel art deco hotels and bright white sands of Ocean Beach, to the bustling panaderias of Little Cuba and the bootleg brands of the Tisha-Wocka flea market, out to the VC Port, the cruise ship capital of the world.

Leonida Keys

Gateway to Paradise.

The dress code is casual, the bars are loaded.

Life in this tropical archipelago isn’t flashy but it’s easy. Get your buzz on and pull up a deck chair but look out—you are right on the doorstep of some of the most beautiful and dangerous waters in all of America.

Grassrivers

Welcome to the Wetlands.

The untamable jewel of Leonida’s crown.

You never know what lies beneath the surface of this primordial expanse. The gators may be the most famous attraction, but there are far deadlier predators and weirder discoveries among the mangroves.

Port Gellhorn

Live Hard.

This is Leonida’s forgotten coast.

Cheap motels, shut-down attractions, and empty strip malls won’t bring the tourists back, but there’s a new economy in this once-popular vacation spot. It’s fueled by malt liquor, painkillers, and truck stop energy drinks. Jump on a dirt bike and hold onto your wallet.

Ambrosia

Keeping Leonida Sweet.

The battle for the health and wealth of Leonida begins here.

In the heart of Leonida, American industry and old school values still reign supreme—whatever the cost. The Allied Crystal sugar refinery provides the jobs, while the local biker gang provides almost everything else.

Mount Kalaga National Park

Wild, Wild Country.

Room to breathe on the state’s northern fringes.

A national landmark up against the state’s northern border, Mount Kalaga offers prime hunting, fishing, and off-road trails. In the lush surrounding backwoods, hillbilly mystics and paranoid radicals live far from the prying eyes of the government.

Grand Theft Auto VI will launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on May 26, 2026.

[gattnk]

As long as we insist on forgetting the past, we'll need teachers like Omnia and Gnosis to remind us of our history.

Would you look at that, I'm done with all the canon teachers from the cartoon! I'm only missing those from the comics now, and then the humans and locations. I really liked how season 2 dedicated time to expanding the Golden School and included more staff, Omnia and Gnosis were fun characters to redesign.

Omnia and Gnosis had pretty solid character designs: the contrast between them in terms of shape and colors was especially good, and I wanted to retain and expand on these traits to the best of my abilities.

I started by simplifying their original shapes as much as possible, and then I exaggerated them further. I took some inspiration from mountains to further define their designs (I'm currently reading a nice book on world geography and it seeped in).

After making Omnia taller and lankier in her design, she reminded me of China's Tianzi mountains; they inspired me to make Omia's hair cloud-shaped, since these famous pillar-like mountains often touch the clouds.

Meanwhile, Gnosis' flat and bulky body reminded me of the mesa formations found in Colorado's Grand Valley (USA). His horns and wing claws start with a flat shape and then curve upwards almost vertically, like the butte formations often found around plateaus and mesas.

Their original color palettes were honestly among my favorites in the series, so I kept them for the most part, though I sought to simplify them even further. Omnia's key colors (pastel green, soft pink and white) were easy enough to figure out, but Gnosis took a lot of testing; at one point I considered switching him to purples and oranges, but I'm glad I stuck to earthy browns, yellow and orange, and added a washed black to the roster for contrast.

Like Arkan and Temptel, Omnia and Gnosis are much older than they seem: Omnia sports two sets of wings and a carved halo (I was inspired by the Ohm symbol because... OHM-nia, :B), and Gnosis has clawed wings and a tail. These traits mark them as older Eternals.

Just like Terence and Scarlett, these two professors got assigned as Academic Deans to their very own Universal Law and History faculty! their clothes are a bit more old-fashioned in a way to reflect this. They are definitely my most normal-looking pair of teachers.

With this I think we're halfway through with the Golden School staff, since we're only missing two more faculties. They're sketched out and everything, I just need to figure out the colors next.

I'll Fly With You (rewrite fic) Art masterpost

[mask131]

So you want to know about Oz! (3)

Last time, we left on our sick and despaired mister Baum, as he realized he could never kill the child of his mind and despite his best efforts, the Oz fan would NEVER LET GO.

So, he decided "What the hell... If they want Oz books, they'll get Oz books!". And so he wrote more, and more, and more Oz books. At least, Baum understood that, in effect, people literaly did not care about any continuity. They were just interested in A) seeing old characters return and B) having more inventions and new lands thrown at them. They were all about that nostalgia and worldbuilding, without any care in the world for any cohesiveness or continuity error. So Baum gleefully invented and added as much as he could and went full whimsical-worldbuilding in what is truly a chaos to piece together when you try to look at Oz as a cohesive fantasy.

However that's the thing with Oz: it is not a cohesive fantasy series. The first two novels were not meant to be serialized or have sequels, as such, when he started doing them, Baum was forced to change things. It is as early as the fourth book, "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz", which I like to call "BIG RETCON - the book" because it was Baum's first time at doing a huge lore retcon conflicting what was said in earlier books. Many people like to oppose in terms of worldbuilding Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - but I do believe Tolkien's archnemesis would be L. Frank Baum, with C.S. Lewis standing in the middle of the spectrum. Baum was just as prolific in content and enormous in scope as Tolkien when it came to worldbuilding... but when you put all things side by side it literaly makes no sense unless you look at the outside reasons that forced Baum to change his lore every three books or so. You know, it was a different time, fictional lore wasn't even a thing...

From six Oz books we went up to FOURTEEN Oz books in total. The man literaly kept writing them until his death... The last of the Oz books Baum wrote was "Glinda of Oz", published in 1920. L. Frank Baum died in 1919 from a stroke - he had finished the last Oz book, but it was only published posthumously... Yes, we can say the power of Oz was so strong it survived Baum...

It actually DID survive though... In a way you might not expect.

There are many, many ways to "cut" the Oz book series. There is the "original trilogy". There is the "original six books". You can go with "the fourteen books Baum wrote". But for decades the dominating division went by an official title, used by both publishers and fan-circles around the USA... The Famous Forty.

Yes, you heard it right... Famous FORTY.

"But... but why are there FORTY Oz books if Baum only wrote FOURTEEN? It's a mistake in spelling right?"

No. There are FORTY Oz books that are considered "official" (I am not even getting in the non-official ones) by Oz canon. Well, only if you are not a purist who considers that only the books Baum wrote are Oz-canon and the rest are just fan-sequels (I am such a purist). It doesn't help that so far ONLY the books L. Frank Baum wrote are in public domain, the others are still under copyright law.

And why did we go from fourteen to fourty? Why... For money of course! It has always been the reason why Oz went beyond its original "stand-alone novel format". "Money makes the world go round" as the song says...

When Baum died, his publishers of the time, Reilly & Lee, started SWEATING. Because the Oz series was still their best-seller, their cash-cow, their sacred little idol... They couldn't JUST stop it there! They needed to have the series continue... And you know what they say in the editing world! "If you author dies... JUST REPLACE HIM!"

The idea of replacing Baum as the author of the Oz novel actually worked like a charm thanks to something Baum himself introduced... Baum, as the series was serialized, inserted himself as a character of Oz. More precisely he refused to present himself as an author or inventor, and when dealing with fan mail (literal mail, letters) or writing his prefaces, he presented hmself as "The Royal Historian of Oz". It was part of the fun game he had with children: he pretended the Oz novels were all official chronicles of what actually happened in Oz, and that it was his job to write them down. (That's also why he hoped the sixth book great finale of "Oz is cut off from the rest of the world" would work at killing the series, because "Oh well, I'm stuck in the USA, too bad I can't get in Oz anymore to write my... What? What did you say? THEY SEND RADIO BROADCASTS NOW?")

When it came time to replace Baum, the editors just went "Hey, so, a new Royal Historian was hired by the Crown of Oz! Don't worry, the chronicles of what is going on in this new land are still around!". That's how Ruth Plumly Thompson came in the picture.

Now, I am not as knowledgeable on the other "Oz Royal Historians" as Baum. As I said, I am kind of a Baum purist. But here's some of the few things I know...

Ruth Plumly Thompson, the second "official Historian of Oz" by the editors' system was a huge fan of Baum's work, and so she jumped on the occasion to write more Oz books. (There were even rumors at some point that Thompson was Baum's niece and thus that the Oz books was just a family business). The Oz books were her main source of income, and so she worked VERY hard at doing Oz chronicles: she published one book each year.

Ruth Plumly Thompson's way of doing Oz was VERY different from Baum. I can't list all of the differences, but most notably Thompson' stories were closer to the traditional European fairytales, while Baum had always tried to subvert traditional fairytale tropes or avoid fairytale cliches at the time to truly do something new and fresh (him having a GOOD WITCH in the first Oz novel was a HUGE thing in the 1900s America where all witches were by default evil). Thompson also favored male protagonists (Baum always was fonder of female protagonists for Oz), and she introduced a lot of romances and love stories - something Baum was STRONGLY against, because in his aesthetic children did not care about romance and romantic love had nothing to do in youth literature.

Thompson wrote 21 OZ BOOKS, yes, 21, from 1921 to 1976. Well, to be exact, she wrote 19 books in one swift series from 1921 to 1939, then took a long Oz pause, and wrote two additional Oz books in the 70s, but these two books are not considered part of the "Famous Forty". The last of these two was not even an Oz book originally but rewritten to fit an Oz novel - "The Enchanted Island of Oz", published the year of Thompson's death. [This tactic of taking a standalone fantasy novel for children, and reinventing it as an Oz book, had been used by Baum himself prior. His tenth Oz book, "Rinkitink in Oz", was originally its own thing, before he rewrote it as part of the Oz series, explaining why Oz only appears in the final chapters of this novel].

While most of these novels are just as forgotten, if not more obscure, than the many other Oz books Baum wrote, there is one element that tends to regularly pop up in Oz adaptations. Have you never wondered why the Good Witch of the North is sometimes called "Tattypoo"? (A name I personally HATE). The name appears for example in "The Muppets' Wizard of Oz", despite Baum never giving any name to the Witch of the North. Well, this was a Thompson invention! She was the one who named the Witch Tattypoo in her book "The Giant Horse of Oz", where she worked at giving a backstory to this character... a VERY divise backstory among Oz fans for many, many reasons too long to explain here.

Now, I said famous FORTY, and yet with Thompson's books added we only have 33 books.... What's the rest?

Three Oz books, "The Wonder City of Oz", "The Scalawagons of Oz" and "Lucky Bucky in Oz", were published in the early 1940s by John R. Neill, considered the third "Royal Historian of Oz". What is very interestng is that John R. Neill had worked on the Oz series for a very long time... since the very early Oz books in fact.

Everybody remembers the original illustrations for "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" - these were done by an artist named W. W. Denslow. It was the art where Dorothy is this chubby little brunette girl. Well, you might be surprised to learn Denslow only worked on this Oz novel. When Baum wrote the sequel, "The Marvelous Land of Oz", Denslow did not return. Rather John R. Neill entered the picture. He would become the "official" artist of Oz, illustrating not only all of the Baum books (except the first one), but also all of the Thompson books. And while he originally tried to match Denslow's style to make a smooth transition for the child audience, he quickly grew his own style - he notably was the one who brought to us a tall, thin, blond and fashionable Dorothy that is a far cry from the more "proper farm girl" Dorothy of Denslow. In fact, Neill's work as an artist does show in the way he writes Oz, as he has very cartoony ideas and works heavily with the visuals, so that the text can allow for cool-looking illustrations.

Unfortunately, the Oz curse strikes again: Neill died in 1943, the very year following the publication of his third Oz book. There was a fourth Oz books in the plan, that he had written the manuscript of right before his death: "The Runaway in Oz". However, Reilly & Lee refused to publish the unfinished work... We would have to wait until 1995 for this book to finally see the light of day: kept by Neill's widow, it was finally published by the house Books of Wonders, in a format edited and illustrated by Eric Shanower (another prominent Oz artist which we will have to talk about later).

Outside of these three main Historians, three more were recognized by the editors. Jack Snow, who in the late 40s published two "official" Oz books, "The Magical Mimics in Oz" and "The Shaggy Man of Oz". He also created an "official guide" called "Who's Who in Oz", but which was noted to have some inconsistencies with the books (which is expected given the Oz series is INCONSISTENCY - THE SERIES). There are a lot of rumors around of a third, unpublished Oz book by Snow called "Over the Rainbow to Oz", but nothing allows us to confirm the existence of such a book.

Rachel R. Cosgrove published one "official" Oz book in 1951, "The Hidden Valley of Oz". She had prepared in 1954 a second Oz book, called "The Wicked Witch of Oz", but Reilly & Lee refused to have it publish because, at the time, "Oz books didn't sell" (CRAZY, right? Now, in the mid-50s, Oz books didn't sell anymore?). She still managed to have it published in the 1990s, by The International Wizard of Oz Club (another beast we'll have to talk about).

Finally, the last official "Royal Historian of Oz" was Eloise Jarvis McGraw, but she wrote her only official Oz book in collaboration with Lauren Lynn McGraw, her daughter. Their work was "Merry Go Round in Oz". They created another Oz novel, "The Forbidden Fountain in Oz", but while it was published it was not included in the "canon" Famous Forty, and in 2000 Eloise Jarvis McGraw published a third Oz novel alone, "The Rundelstone of Oz".

And thus you have it! The Famous Forty. The Forty books Reilly & Lee, the official publishers of the Oz books, deemed, edited and sold as the "canon" Oz books.

... But of course, this being Oz, and the Oz books entering public domain in the 50s, 60s and onward, the Famous Forty as far from the only Oz books to exist. Oh no...

On one side, you have The International Wizard of Oz Club, which I talked about previously. From the 50s onward they worked as the second main publishers of Oz books, since Reilly & Lee had stopped doing Oz novels on the accounts that "it doesn't sell anymore". It was the Club that published the last two Oz novels of Thompson, and the fourth unpublished novel of Neill, and the rejected novel of Cosgrove, and the second book of the McGraw duo, and many others! They published 8 Oz works in total from 1958 (Jack Snow's short story "A Murder in Oz") to 2006 (Gina Wickwar's Toto in Oz).

To that you can add three Oz novels that were recognized as "official" by the Baum Family Trust. Two were written by William Stout, "The Emerald Wand of Oz" (2005) and "Trouble Under Oz" (2006) ; the last was by Kim McFarland, "Sky Pirates over Oz" (2014)

And I am not even talking about the many books written by several descendants of L. Frank Baum! Two of Baum's sons attempted doing Oz books: Frank Joslyn Baum, the eldest ("The Laughing Dragon of Oz", 1934) and Kenneth Cage Baum, the youngest ("The Dinamonster of Oz", written in 1941 but only published in 1991). However the most prolific Baum-related author is without a doubt Roger S. Baum. Great-grandson of the original author, he wrote FOURTEEN Oz books, yes as much as his great-grandpa, starting with "Dorothy of Oz" in 1989, and ending with "The Oz Enigma" in 2013.

And ALL OF THAT is not even accounting for all the non-official Oz authors and their many, MANY books... Go check the Wikipedia pages for the list of Oz books, or the many pages of the Oz Wiki, you will be impressed.

I wasn't lying when I was saying there were Oz bookS in plural...

[demi-shoggoth]

2023 Reading Log pt 7

31. Rare Trees by Sara Oldfield and Malin Rivers. OK, so apparently that whole “less books about plants” pledge didn’t take. In my defense, this book is really pretty. It’s also very good; it’s about efforts for tree conservation around the world, and is published both as a public report and a fundraiser for the Global Trees Campaign. If you want to know what boots on the ground conservation work is like, its successes and its challenges, this is an excellent resource. And, like I said, the photographs are very pretty. The first chapter is about the overall history of forest conservation, and then future chapters discuss trees categorized by uses and by phylogeny. Honestly, I kind of wish they had picked one or the other of those organization schemes instead of splitting the difference, but that’s a quibble.

32. How To Survive History by Cody Cassidy. I’ve recommended some of Cassidy’s other books before (Who Ate the First Oyster? and …And Then You’re Dead), so I’m happy to report that this is his best yet. The theme is, what does science and the historical record tell us about how you could survive various catastrophes, or just hostile environments? I knew I was going to like it from the first chapter, How to Outrun a T. rex, which treats dinosaurs as just animals rather than kill crazy monsters. It also does an excellent job of summarizing Very Bad Times like the Donner Party expedition and the Magellan circumnavigation, and I learned a lot (like about how Magellan’s slave Enrique was the first person to actually circle the globe, having been captured by slavers in the Philippines and then being brought back around… and getting his revenge when he wasn’t freed as Magellan’s will proclaimed).

33. Snakes in American Culture: A Hisstory by Jesse C. Donahue and Conor Shaw-Draves. I didn’t expect this to be a searing indictment of the American medical profession of the early 20th century when I started the book, so that was a pleasant surprise. The first half or so is the story of how (white, upper class, male) “experts” denied that venomous snakes in the USA were really all that dangerous, while people (mostly poor, ethnic minorities and children) were dying in large numbers. Antivenin was only developed in this country as a side effect of the United Fruit Company’s desire to keep laborers from dying in the fields from snakebite, and the development of said antivenin was mostly done by volunteer labor and then marked up for tremendous profit by pharmaceutical companies! The back half, unfortunately, isn’t nearly as good, although it doesn’t go full conversion with its fairly sympathetic portrayal of snake handlers (which is something I’ve run into before). My biggest complaint is that this was written by humanities professors, and they needed a trained biologist to go over their draft. For example, they can’t format scientific names correctly, and don’t know enough about the history of science to understand that “virus” and “venom” were used interchangeably by some authors in the 19th century.

34. Marvelous Microfossils by Patrick De Wever, translated by Alison Duncan. Worst book I’ve finished this year? I think so. This book was originally written in French, but I can’t blame its problems on translation issues. It’s about plankton and other microfossils, what they can tell us about geology and how they’ve influenced art and culture. To start with the good, the book is gorgeous; each page is well organized, and it has lots of electron micrographs, photos and engravings by Ernst Haeckel. And that’s the first problem. The author seems to be a modern devotee of Haeckel’s science and philosophy, when both were full of garbage (Haeckel is the “ontogeny recapitulated phylogeny” guy, and one of the codifiers of scientific racism). His use of terminology is stuck firmly in the 19th century, and he doesn’t seem to care about modern cladistic phylogeny at all. And he has lengthy quotes from architects and philosophers instead of, you know, modern scientists, including lines specifically about how “we understand all there is to know” about plankton from like 1910. So I get huge “reject modernity, embrace tradition” vibes from this author, and that makes my skin crawl.

35. Nicole Angemi’s Anatomy Book by Nicole Angemi. Another “searing indictment of the American medical system”, only this one is more modern. The book is a loosely A-Z collection of pathologies, with case histories and photos. So this one is super gross, just a head’s up. Why I say it’s a searing indictment is that about 1/3 of the case studies talk about how the patient was ignored by their doctors initially, and had to spend time seeking second opinions taking them seriously, and how a number of things that could have been fixed more easily turned into huge, life altering (or ending) problems. The book is written by a pathologist’s assistant, and the introduction/biography would make a good “see, you can follow your dreams and get a career that you love later in life” inspirational story. I’m keeping a copy of this for my classroom, because I have plenty of students who are interested in medicine but not necessarily medical school, and because teenagers love gross pictures. Seriously, some of the descriptions of cysts and tumors made even my stomach turn.

[neenablog]

🍽️ Top 10 Foods of the World You Need to Try 🌍✨

Food is culture, memory, and magic — all served on a plate. From spicy street eats to elegant pastries, here’s your ultimate foodie bucket list.

🇮🇹 1. Pizza – Italy

📍 Where: Naples Crispy crust. Tangy tomato sauce. Melted mozzarella. It’s simple. It’s perfect. It’s pizza. 🍕

📸 Visual Idea: Wood-fired Neapolitan Margherita on a rustic ceramic plate.

🇹🇭 2. Pad Thai – Thailand

📍 Where: Bangkok street stalls Sweet, salty, spicy, packed with texture. Stir-fried noodles never looked this good. 🍜

📸 Visual Idea: Steaming wok, fresh shrimp, crushed peanuts, lime wedges.

🇲🇽 3. Tacos al Pastor – Mexico

📍 Where: Mexico City Marinated pork + pineapple + fresh tortillas = 🔥🔥🔥 A street food love story you won’t forget.

📸 Visual Idea: Tacos piled high with cilantro, onions, and a lime wedge on the side.

🇯🇵 4. Sushi – Japan

📍 Where: Tokyo or Kyoto sushi bars Minimalist beauty meets bold flavor. From silky otoro to classic salmon nigiri — sushi is edible art. 🍣

📸 Visual Idea: Wooden board with perfectly arranged nigiri and a small bowl of soy sauce.

🇫🇷 5. Croissant – France

📍 Where: A morning in Paris Flaky, buttery, golden perfection. Best enjoyed with a café au lait and a view of the Seine. 🥐

📸 Visual Idea: Croissant on a café table, sunlight streaming in, open book nearby.

🇮🇳 6. Biryani – India

📍 Where: Hyderabad or Lucknow Fragrant rice layered with marinated meat and spices. Every bite tells a story. 🌶️

📸 Visual Idea: Biryani served in a copper pot with raita and boiled egg.

🇨🇳 7. Peking Duck – China

📍 Where: Beijing Crispy duck skin, tender meat, and thin pancakes with hoisin and scallions. Fit for royalty. 🦆

📸 Visual Idea: Sliced duck with all the fixings arranged beautifully.

🇹🇷 8. Kebabs – Turkey

📍 Where: Istanbul food stalls Juicy grilled meats, flatbread, yogurt, and spice. Turkish kebabs are smoky bites of heaven. 🔥

📸 Visual Idea: Sizzling skewers over charcoal or a doner wrap being freshly sliced.

🇪🇹 9. Injera with Doro Wat – Ethiopia

📍 Where: Addis Ababa Sour flatbread meets rich, spicy stew. It’s flavorful, messy, communal — and unforgettable. ✨

📸 Visual Idea: Traditional Ethiopian platter with vibrant stews and folded injera.

🇺🇸 10. Cheeseburger – USA

📍 Where: A hidden gem burger joint Juicy, cheesy, and iconic. From gourmet to greasy spoon, burgers are an American staple. 🍔

📸 Visual Idea: Melty cheeseburger, crispy fries, retro diner vibes.

💬 Which one would you try first?

Reblog and tag your foodie partner-in-crime! 🍴 #WorldFood #Top10Dishes #FoodieGoals #CulinaryJourney #MyPhenteonEats #FoodLover #TravelEats #TumblrEats

Would you like me to turn this into a downloadable blog graphic, a formatted HTML post, or prep a caption set for sharing on Tumblr/Instagram too?

You said:

now put picture according toheading

ChatGPT said:

Nice! Here's your Tumblr-ready blog post with each food section matched to an image. I've paired each heading with its corresponding aesthetic image preview (using placeholders you can replace with the actual AI-generated or sourced images).

🍽️ Top 10 Foods of the World You Need to Try 🌍✨

Food is culture, memory, and magic — all served on a plate.

🇮🇹 1. Pizza – Italy

📍 Where: Naples Crispy crust. Tangy tomato sauce. Melted mozzarella. It’s simple. It’s perfect. It’s pizza. 🍕

Wood-fired Neapolitan Margherita on a rustic plate.

🇹🇭 2. Pad Thai – Thailand

📍 Where: Bangkok street stalls Sweet, salty, spicy, packed with texture. Stir-fried noodles never looked this good. 🍜

Steaming wok with noodles, shrimp, and lime wedges.

🇲🇽 3. Tacos al Pastor – Mexico

📍 Where: Mexico City Marinated pork + pineapple + fresh tortillas = 🔥🔥🔥 A street food love story you won’t forget.

Tacos loaded with cilantro, onions, and lime.

🇯🇵 4. Sushi – Japan

📍 Where: Tokyo or Kyoto sushi bars Minimalist beauty meets bold flavor. Sushi is edible art. 🍣

Wooden sushi board with colorful nigiri pieces.

🇫🇷 5. Croissant – France

📍 Where: A morning in Paris Flaky, buttery, golden perfection. 🥐

Café table with a croissant, book, and soft morning light.

🇮🇳 6. Biryani – India

📍 Where: Hyderabad or Lucknow Fragrant rice, marinated meat, aromatic spices. 🌶️

Biryani in a copper pot with raita and boiled egg.

🇨🇳 7. Peking Duck – China

📍 Where: Beijing Crispy skin, tender meat, thin pancakes. 🦆

Beautifully sliced duck with hoisin, scallions, and wraps.

🇹🇷 8. Kebabs – Turkey

📍 Where: Istanbul food stalls Juicy grilled meat and bold spices. 🔥

Skewers sizzling over coals or doner wrap mid-slice.

🇪🇹 9. Injera with Doro Wat – Ethiopia

📍 Where: Addis Ababa Sour flatbread and spicy stew. ✨

Traditional Ethiopian platter with colorful stews.

🇺🇸 10. Cheeseburger – USA

📍 Where: A hidden gem burger joint Juicy, cheesy, 100% iconic. 🍔

Melty cheeseburger with crispy fries, diner-style

[literaticat]

With the NYT best seller list only being the top ten books in age categories, if an author were close to the NYT best seller list but couldn't quite crack it.. would they ever know? Like, say their book was #13 in the country for sales.. is there even a way to know?

You're starting with a misconception here. First, the NYT isn't the "top 10 books in age categories" -- it's a curated list calculated using a proprietary algorithm to determine what THEY call "NYT Bestsellers." (And some of those categories also have 15! For some reason!) We can't know what numbers they are really looking at, where they really get them, how they weigh them, what kinds of books they eliminate, or what other factors might go into it -- but I assure you it's NOT actually about "what sold the most."

That means there IS no "#13" because how the list is created is not based on like, reality, actual numbers, it's a curated thing. I have certainly have had books that, according to BookScan, sold MORE than the #10 NYT book in a given week, but didn't list at all. And I've seen books that, on the face of it, should NOT have listed just based on the numbers, but did. So... ????

But sure - if you were selling well enough that you were even in contention, you'd probably know it because your publisher would be excited, and everyone would be telling you "your book is doing amazing!", and you probably would have hit ONE of the Bestseller Lists, if not NYT!

If you are interested in getting deeper on this, by way of illustration, I'm comparing several Number 13s vs the NYT and each other:

-- BookScan Overall: (Top 100 books sold overall in the country last week just by the numbers, old books and new books combined, all formats, not narrowed down by any category at all): #13 of ALL books sold last week was a cookbook called OPEN WIDE -- that's also #6 on the NYT "Advice / How To / Misc" list, and #7 on the USA Today list, not on the Indie list.

-- USA Today Bestseller List: (Curated list of top 150 books overall sold): #13 is TABLE FOR TWO: FICTIONS - This is #31 on the BookScan Overall list, not on the NYT List at all (though I'm sure it has been), #3 on the Indie Hardcover Fiction list.

-- Indie Bestseller Lists: (counting indie bookstores only, top 15 divided into broad categories) Adult Fiction #13 - IRON FLAME. That is #28 on Bookscan overall - also #28 on the USA Today, #11 on NYT Adult Combined Print + Ebook Fiction, but does not appear on NYT Adult Hardcover.

Now to just dip a TOE on to the kids book side: The #1 NYT Picture Book this week is WHAT DO YOU DO WITH AN IDEA? -- This book does not appear on the BookScan Overall top 100, or the USA Today, or the indie PB list. What's up with that? IDK! But food for thought, eh?

[art-mirrors-art]

Guan Zeju - Intermission during rehearsal (1996) I've recently shared one of Guan Zeju’s paintings from his seemingly endless series of ballerinas, Ballerinas in a Dressing Room (1999). To my surprise, in less than two months it has gathered 400+ likes - not bad for such a marginal blog as AMA. Also, not bad for one of Guan’s non-nude works (his staggering Nudes @ Mirrors easily gather thousands of likes and reposts here, while his more modest ballerinas receive much less "success" - well, we all know Tumblr). Back then, I wrote his name as ZeJu Guan - technically speaking, it's correct from the Western tradition, where we write Given Name + Surname, but not from the Chinese convention, where the family name comes first. In Chinese, his name is 关则驹, where 关 (Guān) is the family name, and 则驹 (Zéjū) is the given name. In some cases, his name is written as ZeJu, or even Ze Ju, but I think Zeju would be the best transliteration. I once found one of his paintings for sale at an auction house where they also provided an image of the signature on the back of the canvas:

Interestingly, but back in the 1980s, he himself used to transcribe his surname as Cuang. I guess it still sounded "too Chinese" for his Western audiences, and eventually he settled on Guan when he relocated to the USA. In any case, his correct name formatting should be "Guan, Zeju" or "Zeju GUAN" - or any other way that makes it clear that Guan is the family name. Below is the cover of his first book published in the USA:

Not surprisingly, many readers understood Zeju as the family name, and you can find many references like "Zeju’s paintings" or "Guan ZEJU." Also, notice that on this cover his name is spelled differently in Chinese - not as 关则驹 but as 關則駒. The latter is traditional Chinese, while the former is simplified Chinese. They still mean the same - Guan Zeju.

[purplecelestial-buddy]

I've come to learn that I love listing stuff so, let me share my:

top best movies I watched in 2024

This is based on the things I've reviewed as 5 stars on letterboxd so the possibility that I watched a masterpiece and forgot to log it is very real ... so let's not think about that!

(I've listed them based on how serious the subjects at hand are. So keep that in mind and check content and trigger warnings for the last two )

✧ Ernest and Celestine:

This movie looks as if someone decided to animate the lovely watercolor strokes from a children's book. And actually, that's exactly what happened! Based on a book by the same name, Ernest and Celestine is the tale of two unlikely friends: a little mouse and a bear.

Belive it or not, to me, this movie is for the the beaten and the damned. Both protagonist are seen as good for nothings forgotten by a society that couldn't care less for them. There's literally a scene where the building of a very important legal institition burns and crumbles, so when I say that they bring down the system, I mean it.

Despite the multiple hardhsips, they are very talented artist. There's this scene where paintings are made based on the feelings a symphony gives and that "artist synesthesia" scene alone makes it worth watching.

✧ Life after Pi:

You know the amazing movie Life of Pi? The one about the guy in the boat with a tiger? Have you ever wondered how it was made?

If you answered yes then today is your lucky day because YouTube has a whole documentary on the trials and tribulations the crew went through. And let me tell you, the production of this movie was an adventure almost as perilous as the story depicted.

I had to watch this for a class on project management so after viewing it we had to take a quizz, one of the questions said "how would you have solved the problem?"

And that kinda broke me down. Watching it and trying to answer the question while in the context of the writers' guild strike was an experience.

So I consider it a must watch for anyone that happens to work in a creative field. Don't let companies screw you over.

And if you aren't in a creative field, I still have to ask you to think about all the work that goes into making any sort of story. Be it a film or not.

Be thankful for any narrative that gets to your life because I know that there's a thousand of amazing stories we'll never get to see, because stingy business people don't trust artist and sometimes they don't even trust audiences.

✧ Arrival:

Everyone knows this one. Amy Adams saves the world via *checks notes* alien communication?

But I discovered this movie the past year and I cannot but love all it's implications. It questions the way we understand time, the way we use language. And that might not seem like a grand thing to you but, have you seen people discussing about whether dates should be given in a dd/mm/yyyy format or a mm/dd/yyyy format? Language, symbols and time are everywhere. They are very much the basis of how we understand the world.

Additionally, not only did the movie challenges some of the foundation of our understanding but it also depicts aliens in innovative ways. And I'm not talking about their visual design, I couldn't care less if you think about aliens as green guys with big eyes, but Arrival manages to do something that I had only previously seen in Nope (2022), directed and written by Jordan Peele (that's another great movie), and that is to treat their aliens as living beings.

Not gonna mention much so you can experience it by yourself, but it had won my "realism" points since the moment it showed the aliens in a ton of countries, this time not only the poor and suffering USA is getting invaded.

✧ Society of the snow:

I've never been one to say that there's movies "everyone should watch". I refuse to adhere to that idea. A movie can be good but it cannot be good for all the population.

Now, imagine my conflict when I'm about to recommend you a movie based on a real life tragedy. But, perhaps, there's were I'm making a mistake. Sure, this story has a tragedy. But this story also has a joy.

I saw this at the start of the year so there's little I remember. But the coldness of the snowy landscape and the warmness of the human spirit, are fresh in my mind.

There are other movies depicting the same aviation accident. But this one isn't about the accident, this one is about the people and their will to live.

✧ Monster:

This is a movie I don't know how to recommend....

Most people will tell you that it's the spiritual succesor to Akira Kurosawa Rashomon (1950) due to it's storytelling with a scattered plot that only makes sense once you get the different points of view of each character.

I will tell you that it's a thriller, mystery, drama that had me on the edge of my seat. I saw the trailer and started the movie all cocky, pretending I had discovered the answer to the big mystery because "it's gonna be so cliché" and it wasn't.

You spend a good chunk of it's runtime being confused and it's absolutely blissful. The story will led you to draw harsh judgements upon the characters and the events. To them reveal that it wasn't like that and that, perhaps, judgement is the worst monster of them all.

Please go in blind. But also ponder on it. Half of the fun is having your theories wreck by the time the next recount of the events shows up.

But also, this is all that Close (2022) wasn't, if you know you know.

[cliff-and-the-kid]

Get to know the mun

Answer the questions for your RP partners to know you better - you can always skip a question if it’s too personal!

Name: Tri

Height: Five feet, four inches, just a smidge shorter than my mother >B(

Language: English, a little Spanish

Nationality: Texan American (look, the USA is really several dozen countries in a trench coat, and even Texas is really five states in their own smaller trench coat, it's stupid but it matters)

Current Time: not quite 2:50pm (I have been awake for going on fifteen hours)

Favorite Season: Spring! Best weather and my birthday month!

Favorite Scent: Petrichor. Love to stand in the back doorway and smell/listen to thunderstorms when they hit

Favorite Color: Turquoise - I hated this question for years, as I felt constantly torn between blue and green, until somewhere in high school I hit upon the idea of combining them :3

Favorite Animal: domesticated rabbit (dutch short-hair specifically, I used to raise them, lovely bunnies)

Favorite Fictional Character: ...can I provide an abbreviated list? Ahsoka Tano, Peter Parker, Cass Cain, Brienne of Tarth, Murderbot, Gimli Son of Gloin...

Normal amount of sleep: Maybe 7ish hours on a work night, I'll sleep in an extra couple on Sundays

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. Not for lack of trying with different teas, mind you

Number of blankets you sleep with: in summer, with our house's lack of reliable A/C, a single top sheet if that. In winter, I have been known to pile on sheets, two fleece blankets, comforter, and quilt

Dogs or cats: Yes.

Dream Trip: I did a four thousand mile round trip from Texas up to Massachusetts five years ago, visiting family and internet friends; my dream trip is a repeat+extension, touring more of the country I haven't seen before, plus a detour up into Canada to visit a writing friend of mine in person and pet her dogs. If I could time it to hit some comic conventions in big cities that would be even better, I've never managed to pull that off before

Dream Job: Published author. I've got one self-published novel, but there are many, many, many more projects waiting in the wings, books and comics and games of various formats... If I ever get off the ground with a professional agent/editor, my highest fantasy is to be the next Initial-Known author, JRRT, GRRM, etc etc. I've already one middle initial R, I'll add a second if that's what it takes!

Reason for my URL: Throwing Cliffjumper and Sierra together started in a fan fic I posted to AO3, which then received a sequel several years later. I tied the pair together in a series titled Cliff and the Kid, which seemed like a good handle to use when I decided to roleplay as the two doofuses over here

Favorite style to write: Longer prose, coin flip for present or past tense, lots of cliffhangers if I'm doing something multi-chaptered. Hurt/Comfort is my bread and butter; can't really enjoy the good fluff unless it's balanced against delicious angst >:3

Random Fact: I am a naturally-inclined night owl who works an early bird job. I suffer.

(Stolen from @solusprime)

[jscalzi]

Starter Villain a NYT, USA Today, Indie and Audible Bestseller

And it’s actually a New York Times best seller twice, as it landed on both the Hardcover and Combine Print & EBook list (numbers 14 and 12, respectively). Plus it’s #30 on the USA Today list (that list covers all books being sold in bookstore, regardless of format, genre and release date), #15 on the Indie list (compiled from indie booksellers), and #2 on the Audible Fiction Audio list. That’s a…

[ausetkmt]

Here are my updated recommendations for the best Usenet Provider:

Newshosting is a reliable provider with excellent download speeds

If you’d prefer an independent provider based in Europe, I recommend:

Tweaknews (more details)

XS News (more details)

See also this article that discusses all the Usenet backbones.

I do not recommend these providers:

UsenetBucket (poor customer service, clunky interface)

Astraweb (doesn’t respond to emails, poor customer service)

Giganews (overpriced for the service offered)

To achieve Usenet nirvana, I recommend using SABnzbd as your client (see my The Best Usenet Clients article) and a good Usenet index (see my article The Best Usenet Indexes).

The NZB Unity add-on for Firefox also makes downloading easier. On Chrome browsers, you can use SABconnect++.

Getting More Coverage: Using Backup Providers

The power users tend to use two providers — a primary provider and a backup provider. The reason for this is that some files might be missing from the primary provider so the backup provider will fill in the missing file. The backup account can be a block account if you like. Block accounts are a one-time charge. The price is based on the number of gigabytes (GB) available for download.

For your backup account to be effective, you need your backup provider to pull from a separate Usenet backbone.

Here are my recommended combinations of providers:

Newshosting (USA + Europe, Omicron backbone) + XS News (European provider, Abavia backbone)

UsenetExpress (USA + Europe, UsenetExpress backbone) + Tweaknews (European provider, Omicron backbone)

See instructions here on how to add the backup provider in SabNZBd.

Created in 1979, Usenet is one of the originally distributed networks. Still widely used today, the Usenet contains a vast number of media files and articles!

Usenet users upload every type of media file (movies, TV shows, music, and e-books). In its 30-year history, no one has ever been sued for downloading anything from the Usenet.

In 2004, a site called Newzbin started indexing the files available on Usenet and created the NZB file format. An NZB file is the Usenet equivalent of a torrent file. An NZB file that contains a pointer to files available on Usenet.

To get started with Usenet, you need to pay for Usenet access from a provider. You can expect to pay about $10-$20 monthly for access.

Advantages of Usenet

Encourages users to download (leech)

Direct downloading as opposed to waiting for seeders

It uses the total bandwidth of your internet connection

It uses SSL to encrypt data being sent to your computer

There are four main features to look for when choosing a provider:

Data Retention (how far their Usenet archive goes back — 1200 days is average, around 2100 days is the longest you can get)

Monthly Transfer (the amount of data you can download each month — varies from 5 GB to unlimited traffic)

Connections (the number of simultaneous connections you can make at a single time through your account — around 10-15 is fine unless you have a 100Mbps connection)

Secure Connections (you may want a provider that provides SSL connections, so you can’t be snooped on)

Unlimited Usenet Access With No Frills: UsenetExpress

UsenetExpress is a good choice if you want no-frills Usenet service and are comfortable using NZB files to initiate downloads. This service is a hybrid tier 1 service based in the US. As a hybrid provider, UsenetExpress has its own local storage, and this is supplemented by files pulled from a third-party backbone (Abavia).

I’ve been testing UsenetExpress for about four years. The price is only $7.50 monthly for 50 connections with unlimited downloads. The annual price is $90. They accept Bitcoin as a payment option.

Link: UsenetExpress

The Best European-Based Usenet Providers

Many people prefer using European providers because they offer alternative Usenet feeds and can be used to fill in missing binary files. However, note that these providers also comply with file takedowns (via NTD) requests.

Tweaknews: Comprehensive Provider In Europe

Tweaknews is a Dutch Usenet provider with some of the fastest connections in Europe. This provider charges €7 euros or $7.99 USD per month. For this, you get 40 SSL Usenet connections, with 2500-day retention. A VPN and search engine are also included.

Tweaknews offers a 10-day free trial. Using the trial account, you can download at 20 Mbps (2.5 MB/s) using 8 connections — up to a limit of 10 Gigabytes.

Tweaknews also offers block accounts, and these are pretty popular. For example, their “100GB Block Package” costs only €13 (euros). However, please note that the download speeds for the block account are capped at 100 Mpb/s.

I’ve been testing them for several months, and I’ve found their service to be reliable. From my US East Coast office, I generally get a download speed of 97 Mbps (11.4 MB/s). The company says they offer a maximum rate of 800 Mbps (100 MB/s).

The Tweaknews feed comes from Highwinds — a US-based tier-one provider in business since 2002.

Headquarters: Netherlands

Server locations: Netherlands only

Backbone: Highwinds (Omicron Media)

Retention: 2500 days

Connections: 40

SSL connections: Yes

Download limit: unlimited

Max. Speed: uncapped (except for block accounts)

Price: €7 euros or $7.99 USD per month (for a yearly subscription)

Payment types: Credit Cards, Paypal, iDeal, Giropay, Direct Debit, SOFORT Banking

Trial: 10 days (with 10GB limit)

Block accounts: Yes

Account sharing: No

Link: Tweaknews

XS News: An Independent Usenet Backbone

XS News is my recommended independent European Usenet provider. This tier-one service started in 2006 and offers a genuinely independent Usenet feed.

XS News is based in Lijnden, The Netherlands, and all their servers are there.

They offer 30 connections for € 8.20 euros (about $9.70 USD) per month with a yearly subscription. Their retention time is 1100+ days.

Headquarters: Netherlands

Server locations: Netherlands

Backbone: Abavia

Speed: 800 Mbit/s (or 100 MB/s)

Connections: 30

SSL Connections: Yes

Retention: 1100 days

Downloads: uncapped

Price: € 8.20 or $9.36 USD (per month for a yearly subscription)

Payment types: Credit Card, Bitcoin, Paysafecard & more

Trial: 14 Days

Block accounts: Yes

Account sharing: Yes

Link: XS News

A List Of All Usenet Backbones

US & European Backbone 1 — Omicron (HW Media)

US & European-based servers

3700+ days of retention

Unlimited & block accounts

Follows DMCA

Recommended providers: NewsDemon (full details here)

Other providers: Newsgroup Ninja, Astraweb, BlockNews, Frugal Usenet, NewsgroupDirect, ThunderNews

US and European Backbone 2 – Giganews

US & European-based servers

1100+ days of retention

Offers accounts with unlimited downloads (no block accounts)

Follows DMCA

Providers: Giganews, Supernews

US-Only Backbone 1 – UsenetExpress

hybrid retention – 365+ days primary/1100+ days secondary via Abavia

Unlimited & block accounts

Follows DMCA

Providers: UsenetExpress (full details here)

US-Only Backbone 2 – Altopia

20+ days of retention

Offers accounts with unlimited downloading (no block accounts)

Follows DMCA

Providers: Altopia

European-Only Backbone 1 – Omicron (Eweka)

3700+ days of retention

Offers accounts with unlimited downloading (no block accounts)

Follows NTD

Recommended provider: Eweka (full details here)

European-Only Backbone 2 – Omicron (Tweaknews)

3200+ days of retention

Offers accounts with unlimited downloads (no block accounts)

Follows NTD

Recommended provider: Tweaknews (full details here)

European-Only Backbone 3: Omicron (XLned)

3000+ days of retention

Offers accounts with unlimited downloading (no block accounts)

Follows DMCA

Recommended providers: XLned (full details here)

Other providers: SunnyUsenet, UsenetBucket

European-Only Backbone 4 – Usenet.Farm

hybrid retention – 70 days primary/1000+ days secondary

Unlimited & block accounts

Follows NTD for primary retention, DMCA for secondary retention via Abavia

Recommended provider: Usenet.Farm (full details here)

European-Only Backbone 5 – Abavia

1100+ days of retention

Unlimited & block accounts

Follows DMCA

Recommended providers: XS News (full details here)

Other providers: XS Usenet, Bulknews, Cheapnews

European-Only Backbone 6 – ViperNews

30+ days of retention

Offers accounts with unlimited downloading (no block accounts)

Follows NTD

Provider: ViperNews

[whateveradjunct]

Starter Villain a NYT, USA Today, Indie and Audible Bestseller

And it’s actually a New York Times best seller twice, as it landed on both the Hardcover and Combine Print & EBook list (numbers 14 and 12, respectively). Plus it’s #30 on the USA Today list (that list covers all books being sold in bookstore, regardless of format, genre and release date), #15 on the Indie list (compiled from indie booksellers), and #2 on the Audible Fiction Audio list. That’s a…

[kenonade]

stella maris reading log #1

its about damn time i start noting down how i feel when i read what i read. hell yeah. hopefully this makes me a better writer.

spoilers not really about the plot (bc honestly is there even a plot in the sense of a plot) but more about the language below the cut woooooo

tldr: book cool. writing insane. wtf. wtf. wtf. head ouchie. 越级打怪的后果就是头晕脑转 (dizziness is the consequence of attempting to read beyond my level). ooga booga man talk abt english

reading stella maris is so interesting because im just sitting here wondering like. how the FUCK did mccarthy accumulate all this knowledge about a variety of very distinct fields. my brain hurts. this is so much information. im learning nothing and learning everything at the same time. how the man managed to learn all this stuff and how he managed to put it together like this puzzle me equally intensely. its one thing to acquire knowledge. its a whole other thing to convey it in language so dense with information but also character. like, not to be that guy, but when osc does his infodumps i think to myself okay old man lets get you to bed. every time alicia opens her mouth i confront my intellectual inferiority and contemplate the meaning of life because it is alicia talking.

not to mention what the FUCK alicia. if only you’d have KNOWN. EUGH. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT.

my head hurts. the reason why im writing instead of reading is because ive already reached my reading breaking point where my eyes glaze over and the words go in one and out the other. its only been two hours. difficult language i can handle fine, verbosity is fine, i inhaled the ender stuff and only took breaks when osc pissed me off, but stella maris is information overload in a way that i’ve never experienced before. im like, texting three separate people all the time. oh i should vet this w my math guy. i need to show this to my psych classmate. this has to go to my orthopedics bestie.

i started this book saw the page number and went oh sure. its half the length of the passenger. the style means that it’ll contain less words overall too. i should be able to finish this on a three hour hsr ride. WRONG. i CANT. it’s TOO DIFFICULT. im running into roadblocks very similar to what i felt when i read the passenger: dont know place/name/context/big word. except im finding stella maris to be even more difficult because unlike some nautical jargon or random place in the midwestern usa that i can just look up, i cant. i think its impossible to even begin to comprehend all this math.

that’s definitely part of the charm of stella maris. the format of audio transcripts creates a much more intimate connection between the characters and the reader. the target demographic of this novel, though niche, is definitely not as niche as to comprise only of genius mathematicians with a burning passion for music and a hatred of psychology. the reader might be a master in one of these fields, but alicia outsmarts them in it along with all others. viewed through this lens, the reader is the doctor. the reader is the one who converses with alicia, trying their best to piece together a mind that is so extraordinarily genius and extraordinarily tormented. it’s a position of emotional significance. the reader sits through these audio recordings because they want to understand alicia. and to understand alicia is to love her. (this is a certified when i truly understand my enemy i love him moment)

all of that sits in stark contrast to western’s narration in the passenger.

i wrote an entire paragraph but tumblr fucking ate it. im pissed. its ok. for love i’ll write it again.

western’s narration is detached. it’s impersonal. mccarthy’s clinical and direct use of language alienates the viewer and prevents the formation of any sincere rapport, allowing only mild sympathy for western’s continued suffering. the reader is merely an observer, piecing together the life of a strange, curious creature through inference and deduction. nor is the reader meant to empathize with him. he’s the one who chose to abandon alicia, the one reckless enough to chose race car driving over his degree, and therefore the one who shoulders alone the responsibility of alicia’s death—or so he thinks. in a sense, because western is comparatively lucid, the detached narration becomes almost a punishment for the guilt he’s assigned to himself. he’s not the one in the mental asylum, afterall.

its interesting to me how mccarthy presents this duo to the audience. i have many Thoughts on alicia’s sexuality and stuff but i should finish the book before i synthesize those thoughts. anyway. thanks for reading 👍

[houseofdoolittleillinois]

Top 5 Academic Planners to Keep You Organized for the New School Year

Starting a new school year can feel exciting, but it can also be a bit overwhelming. Whether you're a student preparing for classes or a teacher getting ready to manage lessons, staying organized is key. That’s where the right academic planner comes in. At House of Doolittle, we create planners made from recycled materials, proudly manufactured in the USA. Our goal is to help you stay on track with simple, eco-friendly tools that fit your needs. 

Here are our top five picks for academic planners that can make your school year smoother and more productive. 

1. Recycled Weekly Academic Planner—For Easy Week-by-Week Planning 

This planner is perfect if you prefer looking at your schedule one week at a time. The weekly academic planner helps you break down your tasks, assignments, and appointments into manageable chunks. 

Format: Weekly spread with space for notes 

Ideal for: Students managing multiple subjects 

Bonus: Made with 100% post-consumer recycled paper 

2. Academic Year Planner – Stay on Track All Year 

Our academic year planner is designed to help you see the big picture. It covers the full school year from August to July, giving you a yearly layout that’s great for long-term planning. 

Format: Monthly and weekly views 

Ideal for: Students and teachers needing yearly structure 

Features: Suede-like cover, strong binding 

3. Recycled Combination Lesson Planner and Class Record – For Teachers Who Do It All 

If you’re a teacher, you know how important it is to have everything in one place. Our lesson planner doubles as a class record book. It helps you manage lessons, track attendance, and record grades with ease. 

Format: Weekly lesson pages and class record sheets 

Ideal for:  Teachers managing multiple classes 

Extras: Blue cover and ample space for notes 

4. Monthly Planner – For Those Who Like to See It All at Once 

Some people prefer a wide-angle view of their schedule. Our monthly planner shows one month per two-page spread, helping you quickly view upcoming exams, meetings, or deadlines. 

Format: Monthly layout with large blocks 

Ideal for: College students or busy teachers 

Benefits: Plenty of writing space 

5. Teacher Planner – A Must-Have for Classroom Organization 

Last but not least is our dedicated teacher planner. This planner is made just for educators, with sections for seating charts, student information, and planning pages tailored to classroom needs. 

Format: Designed for educators 

Ideal for: Teachers managing detailed schedules 

Sustainability: Made from recycled materials, just like all our products 

Why Choose House of Doolittle Planners? 

All of our planners are made in the USA with recycled materials. We care about both your productivity and the planet. Each design focuses on clear layouts, durable construction, and simple tools that help you stay focused throughout the school year. 

Whether you're a student managing a heavy course load or a teacher preparing lessons, there's a planner here that fits your needs. From weekly to monthly formats, and even planners that double as grade books, we offer something for everyone. 

The right academic planner can help you save time, reduce stress, and feel more in control. At House of Doolittle, we offer a variety of options—from the all-in-one lesson planner to the structured Academic Year Planner—all made from recycled materials. 

Ready to stay organized and eco-friendly this school year? Browse our full collection of planners and find the one that works best for your needs.