#FACTOR AMBIENTAL

[anadelacalle]

LA FRAGILIDAD EQUÍVOCA.

El término fragilidad etimológicamente significa cualidad del que se puede quebrar, en consecuencia, una serie de apelativos como debilidad, delicadeza, endeblez, flojera, flojedad. Así, considerar a alguien frágil debe fundamentarse en una biografía en la que esta persona no ha sido capaz de afrontar adversidades, de más o menos calado, y se ha quebrado. Por el contrario, sería cuestionable que…

[childofthestone]

thinking abt the veilguard companions and sighing heavily

[toru-saynomoree]

what if tooru was transmasc

Transmasc toru and transfem diavolo .WHO SAID THAT ??

[rojosweet]

Porque nos limitamos o nos encasillamos en algo, nos aferramos a ponernos una venda en los ojos, renunciando a un sin fin de otras cosas, situaciones o eventos que podrían ser mejor, en muchos aspectos, crecimiento y desarrollo personal, familiar o tener una salud mental que es lo que realmente importa ya que si nos encontramos bien de manera interna por ende los aspectos y factores externos estarán bien

[jcmarchi]

The ‘Secret Routes’ That Can Foil Pedestrian Recognition Systems

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-secret-routes-that-can-foil-pedestrian-recognition-systems/

The ‘Secret Routes’ That Can Foil Pedestrian Recognition Systems

A new research collaboration between Israel and Japan contends that pedestrian detection systems possess inherent weaknesses, allowing well-informed individuals to evade facial recognition systems by navigating carefully planned routes through areas where surveillance networks are least effective.

With the help of publicly available footage from Tokyo, New York and San Francisco, the researchers developed an automated method of calculating such paths, based on the most popular object recognition systems likely to be in use in public networks.

The three crossings used in the study: Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Japan; Broadway, New York; and Castro District, San Francisco. Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.15653

By this method, it’s possible to generate confidence heatmaps that demarcate areas within the camera feed where pedestrians are least likely to provide a positive facial recognition hit:

On the right, we see the confidence heatmap generated by the researchers’ method. The red areas indicate low confidence, and a configuration of stance, camera pose and other factor that are likely to impede facial recognition.

In theory such a method could be instrumentalized into a location-aware app, or some other kind of platform to disseminate the least ‘recognition-friendly’ paths from A to B in any calculated location.

The new paper proposes such a methodology, titled Location-based Privacy Enhancing Technique (L-PET); it also proposes a countermeasure titled Location-Based Adaptive Threshold (L-BAT), which essentially runs exactly the same routines, but then uses the information to reinforce and improve the surveillance measures, instead of devising ways to avoid being recognized; and in many cases, such improvements would not be possible without further investment in the surveillance infrastructure.

The paper therefore sets up a potential technological war of escalation between those seeking to optimize their routes to avoid detection and the ability of surveillance systems to make full use of facial recognition technologies.

Prior methods of foiling detection are less elegant than this, and center on adversarial approaches, such as TnT Attacks, and the use of printed patterns to confuse the detection algorithm.

The 2019 work ‘Fooling automated surveillance cameras: adversarial patches to attack person detection’ demonstrated an adversarial printed pattern capable of convincing a recognition system that no person is detected, allowing a kind of ‘invisibility. Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.08653

The researchers behind the new paper observe that their approach requires less preparation, with no need to devise adversarial wearable items (see image above).

The paper is titled A Privacy Enhancing Technique to Evade Detection by Street Video Cameras Without Using Adversarial Accessories, and comes from five researchers across Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Fujitsu Limited.

Method and Tests

In accordance with previous works such as Adversarial Mask, AdvHat, adversarial patches, and various other similar outings, the researchers assume that the pedestrian ‘attacker’ knows which object detection system is being used in the surveillance network. This is actually not an unreasonable assumption, due to the widespread adoption of state-of-the-art open source systems such as YOLO in surveillance systems from the likes of Cisco and Ultralytics (currently the central driving force in YOLO development).

The paper also assumes that the pedestrian has access to a live stream on the internet fixed on the locations to be calculated, which, again, is a reasonable assumption in most of the places likely to have an intensity of coverage.

Sites such as 511ny.org offer access to many surveillance cameras in the NYC area. Source: https://511ny.or

Besides this, the pedestrian needs access to the proposed method, and to the scene itself (i.e., the crossings and routes in which a ‘safe’ route is to be established).

To develop L-PET, the authors evaluated the effect of the pedestrian angle in relation to the camera; the effect of camera height; the effect of distance; and the effect of the time of day. To obtain ground truth, they photographed a person at the angles 0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°, 225°, 270°, and 315°.

Ground truth observations carried out by the researchers.

They repeated these variations at three different camera heights (0.6m, 1.8m, 2.4m), and with varied lighting conditions (morning, afternoon, night and ‘lab’ conditions).

Feeding this footage to the Faster R-CNN and YOLOv3 object detectors, they found that the confidence of the object depends on the acuteness of the angle of the pedestrian, the pedestrian’s distance, the camera height, and the weather/lighting conditions*.

The authors then tested a broader range of object detectors in the same scenario: Faster R-CNN; YOLOv3; SSD; DiffusionDet; and RTMDet.

The authors state:

‘We found that all five object detector architectures are affected by the pedestrian position and ambient light. In addition, we found that for three of the five models (YOLOv3, SSD, and RTMDet) the effect persists through all ambient light levels.’

To extend the scope, the researchers used footage taken from publicly available traffic cameras in three locations: Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Broadway in New York, and the Castro District in San Francisco.

Each location furnished between five and six recordings, with approximately four hours of footage per recording. To analyze detection performance, one frame was extracted every two seconds, and processed using a Faster R-CNN object detector. For each pixel in the obtained frames, the method estimated the average confidence of the ‘person’ detection bounding boxes being present in that pixel.

‘We found that in all three locations, the confidence of the object detector varied depending on the location of people in the frame. For instance, in the Shibuya Crossing footage, there are large areas of low confidence farther away from the camera, as well as closer to the camera, where a pole partially obscures passing pedestrians.’

The L-PET method is essentially this procedure, arguably ‘weaponized’ to obtain a path through an urban area that is least likely to result in the pedestrian being successfully recognized.

By contrast, L-BAT follows the same procedure, with the difference that it updates the scores in the detection system, creating a feedback loop designed to obviate the L-PET approach and make the ‘blind areas’ of the system more effective.

(In practical terms, however, improving coverage based on obtained heatmaps would require more than just an upgrade of the camera sitting in the expected position; based on the testing criteria, including location, it would require the installation of additional cameras to cover the neglected areas – therefore it could be argued that the L-PET method escalates this particular ‘cold war’ into a very expensive scenario indeed)

The average pedestrian detection confidence for each pixel, across diverse detector frameworks, in the observed area of Castro Street, analyzed across five videos. Each video was recorded under different lighting conditions: sunrise, daytime, sunset, and two distinct nighttime settings. The results are presented separately for each lighting scenario.

Having converted the pixel-based matrix representation into a graph representation suitable for the task, the researchers adapted the Dijkstra algorithm to calculate optimal paths for pedestrians to navigate through areas with reduced surveillance detection.

Instead of finding the shortest path, the algorithm was modified to minimize detection confidence, treating high-confidence regions as areas with higher ‘cost’. This adaptation allowed the algorithm to identify routes passing through blind spots or low-detection zones, effectively guiding pedestrians along paths with reduced visibility to surveillance systems.

A visualization depicting the transformation of the scene’s heatmap from a pixel-based matrix into a graph-based representation.

The researchers evaluated the impact of the L-BAT system on pedestrian detection with a dataset built from the aforementioned four-hour recordings of public pedestrian traffic. To populate the collection, one frame was processed every two seconds using an SSD object detector.

From each frame, one bounding box was selected containing a detected person as a positive sample, and another random area with no detected people was used as a negative sample. These twin samples formed a dataset for evaluating two Faster R-CNN models –  one with L-BAT applied, and one without.

The performance of the models was assessed by checking how accurately they identified positive and negative samples: a bounding box overlapping a positive sample was considered a true positive, while a bounding box overlapping a negative sample was labeled a false positive.

Metrics used to determine the detection reliability of L-BAT were Area Under the Curve (AUC); true positive rate (TPR); false positive rate (FPR); and average true positive confidence. The researchers assert that the use of L-BAT enhanced detection confidence while maintaining a high true positive rate (albeit with a slight increase in false positives).

In closing, the authors note that the approach has some limitations. One is that the heatmaps generated by their method are specific to a particular time of day. Though they do not expound on it, this would indicate that a greater, multi-tiered approach would be needed to account for the time of day in a more flexible deployment.

They also observe that the heatmaps will not transfer to different model architectures, and are tied to a specific object detector model. Since the work proposed is essentially a proof-of-concept, more adroit architectures could, presumably, also be developed to remedy this technical debt.

Conclusion

Any new attack method for which the solution is ‘paying for new surveillance cameras’ has some advantage, since expanding civic camera networks in highly-surveilled areas can be politically challenging, as well as representing a notable civic expense that will usually need a voter mandate.

Perhaps the biggest question posed by the work is ‘Do closed-source surveillance systems leverage open source SOTA frameworks such as YOLO?’. This is, of course, impossible to know, since the makers of the proprietary systems that power so many state and civic camera networks (at least in the US) would argue that disclosing such usage might open them up to attack.

Nonetheless, the migration of government IT and in-house proprietary code to global and open source code would suggest that anyone testing the authors’ contention with (for example) YOLO might well hit the jackpot immediately.

* I would normally include related table results when they are provided in the paper, but in this case the complexity of the paper’s tables makes them unilluminating to the casual reader, and a summary is therefore more useful.

First published Tuesday, January 28, 2025

[beastwars-transformers]

Not that ambient is entirely devoid of structure or “beats.” Two of my favorites have more semblance of music than ambient really allows

First one uses traditional instruments, and the second one is like a muted techno beat. Third is just a normal ass song imo

And one of my favorite artists, Zaké, utilizes obvious repeating chords for a lot of his music, which gives the feeling of repetition, being trapped and stuck, an inescapable dream, blah blah blah

The main point of ambient is not just being slow and quiet and boring, but also emphasizing the “texture” of the music and placing atmosphere and emotion over traditional musical structure. And sometimes it feels less like ambient and more like a muted song, but its goal lies more with ambient.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Stages of Decomposition

The decomposition process occurs in several stages following death:

Pallor mortis

Algor mortis

Rigor mortis

Cadaveric spasm

Lividity

Putrefaction

Decomposition

Skeletonization

PALLOR MORTIS

The first stage of death.

Occurs once blood stops circulating in the body.

The cessation of an oxygenated blood flow to the capillaries beneath the skin causes the deceased to pale in appearance.

In non-Caucasians, the pallor may appear to develop an unusual hue; the skin will lose any natural lustre and appears more waxen.

Occurs quite quickly, within about 10 minutes after death.

ALGOR MORTIS

The cooling of the body after death.

The cooling process will be influenced by many factors, including the deceased’s clothing, or whether they are covered with bed linen such as blankets or duvets.

The body will typically cool to the ambient room temperature, but this alters if there is heating in the room or if there is a constant draught cooling the body.

RIGOR MORTIS

Can occur between 2 and 6 hours after death.

Factors including temperature can greatly affect this.

Caused by the muscles partially contracting, and the lack of aerobic respiration means that the muscles cannot relax from the contraction, leaving them tense, subsequently resulting in the stiffening we associate with rigor mortis.

This stage typically begins in the head, starting with the eyes, mouth, jaw and neck, and progresses right through the body.

The process is concluded approximately 12 hours after death (although, again, certain variables may occur) and lasts between 24 and 72 hours depending on circumstances.

Contrary to popular belief, rigor mortis is not a permanent state and is in fact reversed, with the muscles relaxing in the same order in which they initially stiffened.

The reversing process also takes approximately 12 hours, when the body returns to its un-contracted state.

It is possible to ‘break’ rigor mortis by manipulating and flexing the limbs. This is usually done by undertakers, pathologists or crime scene investigators who are attempting to examine or move a body – or by a murderer trying to hide their victim in the closet or the boot of a car.

CADAVERIC SPASM

A phenomenon that can be misinterpreted as rigor mortis.

The instantaneous stiffening of the body (most commonly the hands) following a traumatic death.

Unlike rigor mortis, the stiffening of the affected limb is permanent and is not reversed, causing the deceased to maintain the rigidity until such time as putrefaction causes breakdown of the particular muscle group.

Examples:

The deceased following an air crash were later discovered still clutching their seatbelts or arm rests in a final, desperate act of survival.

In a drowning case, the victim was discovered with grass from the riverbank still grasped in their hand.

Perhaps the most famous case of cadaveric spasm involves the rock band Nirvana’s lead singer, Kurt Cobain. Cobain reportedly committed suicide in April 1994. His body was discovered a few days after his death with a shotgun wound to the head, and tests revealed he had large traces of heroin in his system. He was reportedly discovered still clutching the gun in his left hand, due to cadaveric spasm. However, a great deal of controversy surrounds the veracity of this latter assumption, and indeed the cause of his death, with many people insisting and attempting to prove that he died as the result of foul play rather than suicide.

LIVIDITY

Also known as livor mortis, hypostasis, or suggillation.

Once blood can no longer circulate, it will gravitate towards the lowest point of the body.

Example: A supine body will display pinkish/purple patches of discoloration where the blood has settled in the back and along the thighs.

Occurs about 30 minutes after death, but will not necessarily be noticeable until at least 2 hours afterwards as the pooling process intensifies and becomes visible, finally peaking up to between 8 and 12 hours later.

Once it is complete, the lividity process cannot be reversed.

Therefore a body discovered lying on its side, but with staining evident in the back and shoulders, must have been moved at some point from what would have been a supine position at the time of death.

It is worth noting that if the body has had contact with the floor, a wall or other solid surface, lividity would not occur at the points of contact as the pressure would not allow the blood to seep through the capillaries and pool. The specific area of pressure will be the same colour as the rest of the body and a pattern of contact may well be evident.

PUTREFACTION

Derives from the Latin putrefacere, meaning ‘to make rotten’.

The body becomes rotten through the process known as autolysis, which is the liquefaction of bodily tissue and organs and the breakdown of proteins within the body due to the increased presence of bacteria.

The first visible sign is the discoloration of the skin in the area of the abdomen.

Bacteria released from the intestine cause the body to become bloated with a mixture of gases; over time these will leak out, and the smell will intensify to unbearable proportions.

Typically, this will attract flies that will lay eggs, which develop into maggots.

Bloating is most evident in the stomach area, genitals and face, which can become unrecognizable as the tongue and eyes are forced to protrude due to the pressure of the build-up of gases in the body.

At this stage, the body will also begin to lose hair.

The organs typically decompose in a particular order: starting with the stomach, followed by the intestines, heart, liver, brain, lungs, kidney, bladder and uterus/prostate.

Once all the gases have escaped the skin begins to turn black: this stage is called ‘black putrefaction’.

As with all the other stages of death so far, the rate of putrefaction depends on temperature and location. A body exposed to the air above ground will decompose more quickly than a body left in water or buried below ground.

During putrefaction, blistering of the skin and fermentation can also occur:

Fermentation - a type of mould that will grow on the surface of the body. This mould appears white, and is slimy or furry in texture. It also releases a very strong, unpleasant, cheesy smell.

As the putrefaction process comes to an end, fly and maggot activity will become less, which leads to the next stage.

DECOMPOSITION

The body is an organic substance comprising organisms that can be broken down by chemical decomposition.

If the body is outside, any remains that have not been scavenged or consumed by maggots will liquefy and seep into the surrounding soil.

Thus when the body decomposes it is effectively recycled and returned to nature.

SKELETONIZATION

The final stage of death is known as ‘dry decay’, when the cadaver has all but dried out: the soft tissue has all gone and only the skeleton remains.

If the cadaver is outside, not only is it exposed to the elements but it also becomes food for scavengers such as rats, crows or foxes.

As the remains are scavenged, the body parts become dispersed so it is not unusual to find skeletal remains some distance from where the body lay at the point of death.

The way in which skeletal remains are scattered in such cases is of interest to archaeologists, and is referred to as taphonomy.

Where a body has lain undiscovered at home for a period of time it has also been known for family pets, typically dogs, to feed on the body. The natural instinct of a pet is to attempt to arouse the deceased by licking them, but once it gets hungry, its survival instinct will take over and it will consider the body as little more than carrion: it will act with the same natural instinct as a scavenger in the wild, which will feed on any corpse, be it animal or human, if it is starving.

Obviously the number of pets, the body mass of the deceased and the time lapse before the body is discovered will influence to what extent it has been devoured.

For further research on the stages of decomposition and the factors that affect it, look up body farms. These are medical facilities where bodies are donated for research purposes so scientists can specifically observe the decomposition process. However, be aware that some of the images are quite graphic.

Source ⚜ More: References ⚜ Autopsy ⚜ Pain & Violence ⚜ Injuries Bereavement ⚜ Death & Sacrifice ⚜ Cheating Death ⚜ Death Conceptions

Writing Resources PDFs

[lalocamposhernandez]

Un resumen en base a los temas de Ecología de la DGB de México. - Factores ambientales. - Factores bióticos y abióticos. - Interacciones ecológicas. - Competencia y población. - Invasiones y Diversidad. - Sucesión ecológica. Archivos sonoros de youtube: -Increible, el Ave lira es capaz de imitar todos los sonidos del universo. (Cantos del Paraíso) - Insólito escándalo en un zoológico de México. (Noticias Telemundo). - México tiene unanueva especie de flor descubierta en Oaxaca. (Azteca Noticias).

[luminatricky]

Vampire? In Gotham! (part 2)

Summary: Danny arrives, sees something Concerning, meets Batman, tries not to fight Batman. Nope not going to rogue it up here, no thank you.

Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Danny Fenton, John Constantine & Danny Fenton

for context, phenes are letters in Ghostwriting, and you can do necromantic magic with them if you know how

As soon as he's within a five mile vicinity of Gotham, Danny has to stop and deeply consider his afterlife decisions.

PhantomMenace: what the FUCK is wrong with this place.

PhantomMenace: John.

PhantomMenace: I know you know how many generational curses are set in the very foundations. And not the abusive cycle kind.

PhantomMenace: who had the goddamn PATIENCE for this

PhantomMenace: who carves THIS MANY phenes into THAT MUCH wet concrete??

PhantomMenace: we'd have to blow up the whole city to unfuck this!!

PhantomMenace: when I find whoever did this I don't know if I'm going to kill them a second time, or make out with them immediately

PhantomMenace: they've clearly ascended to levels of spite I can only dream of, I've to at least respect that

God's Favorite Whore: For my sake I hope you kill them. Gross.

PhantomMenace: 💚

--------------

Night time in Gotham is beautiful, even without the view of the stars.

Danny finds himself exploring from the rooftops. Old Gothic architecture spins for miles; spidering out from the tallest buildings are gargoyles reminiscent of what he knows of cathedrals. Below him, the city comes alive in a flurry of motion.

The cars slow to a trickle, but foot traffic picks up. Well-dressed people in their 20s hit the bars, swaying and laughing with their friends. Danny takes note with a smile that they're all armed, and at least one person in each group seems to be as sober as a stone. Keeping safe and having fun.

The night workers hit the streets, and little skinny kids of all ages weave in between bodies like leaves in flowing water. Handing off things Danny can't see to the people on the street corners, laughing and joking and pushing each other, never straying too far to allies or the side of the road. Not ever being without at least one other. It's sad to see they have to protect each other like that, but that's life, and it seems they're living it.

Blob ghosts make unseen mischief. There's a second layer of traffic - blobs spinning a foot in the air above everyone else, catching stray emotions and fat and happy off the ambient ectoplasm. Danny's never seen any blob in a color other than radioactive green, but the ones in Gotham are all different shades of red. He wonders if the curses here might be a factor. And if his condenser will be stained red from now on.

Danny spots something strange the longer he looks. He slips off the edge of the building, walking down its side to the alley below. He slips into partial invisibility to not startle anyone not already looking for him, and peaks out the mouth of the alley.

Shades walk down the streets side by side with the human Gothamites. They give the human-looking ghosts a wide berth, but otherwise no one acknowledges them. He tracks the figures with his eyes, hating the blank look in each of them. He's sure that they're not even properly looking at anything. They go through anyone and everything in their paths intangibly. He sees several people shiver and look around confused, before walking off, visibly more tired looking than before.

Danny unclips his condenser from his belt to check if his dinner's ready. He startles a bit at the unfamiliar red, but shrugs. He's hungry. The blobs are having a blast despite how evil the air is. He should be fiiiine.

Taking a deep gulp, Danny returns his attention to the Shades, wary of what this new behavior means. He quickly does a rough count of humans, and then the strange Neverborns in the street. And oh boy. He does not like how the math is mathing.

In a normal, healthy population, there should only be one Shade per fifty humans. In Gotham? It's nearly one to one. He's never seen or heard of this. Danny wonders exactly how many people get mysteriously sick, or die of "natural causes" here.

Once he gets settled in, he'll have to go looking for the cause. Even in a crime ridden big city this isn't normal.

Danny takes another sip as he tears himself away from the mouth of the alley. He becomes fully visible as he steps into the shadows. He means to float up to the rooftops again, but a dull thump behind him has him zipping around on instinct.

Between him and the exit, a broad shouldered man rises from his feet. At first Danny thinks he's covered in shadows, but as his eyes quickly readjust to the level of light, he realizes that the man is just wearing a long dark cloak with a cowl. It covers his head and half his face, with two white beams of light staring impassively at him. It hurts to look at to be honest.

Danny tenses like a springtrap. John never gave him descriptions of any of the rogues, OR the bats. He doesn't know what he's dealing with right now, and he'd really rather not get into a brawl tonight. Humans don't do that to be friendly.

"Where did you get the blood?" The man demands. His voice is obviously modified to be deeper, but Danny thinks it might be naturally growly and inflectionless, as the man's body language or expression doesn't change.

He doesn't really think before he responds. The question throws him, okay? "Uh? Synthesizer?" Danny shakes his condenser some. It's only half full, so it only sloshes thickly against the sides instead of spilling. Suddenly feeling self-conscious about it, Danny caps it and reclips it to his belt.

He extends a hand to shake. "Name's Dante Nightingale. But people call me Danny."

The incredibly rude man doesn't shake his hand, OR introduce himself. All he gets in response is a minute head tilt that in other circumstances he would find adorable.

He rolls his eyes. "This is the part where you introduce yourself. Like a human."

The man grunts in acknowledgement. After an awkward moment, the man extends a (clawed!) hand from under his cape and grips Danny's own. "Batman."

Danny relaxes a smidge. "Nice. Cool. Heard about you and your Fraid. I'm told you're good people. thank you for not being a sentient shadow here to rob me." He lets go of the man's warm glove.

"Fraid?" Batman parrots, vaguely suspicious. Or curious. He's not sure.

"Um. It's like. Well, found family is the default in my culture, so we got a whole word for it. I didn't want to assume blood relations." Danny explains. "You've got a strong grip. Are the claws part of your suit or?" Danny flashes his own claws playfully.

"The suit." Batman says simply. "Why were you watching people from the alley?"

Danny leans back on his heels, clasping his hands behind his back, swaying back and forth. "Just flew in to town, I don't really know my way around yet. So I've been exploring on the rooftops so no one has the bright idea to mug the newbie." Danny stops swaying and folds his arms over his chest with a frown. "Then I noticed something wasn't right. Well. Other than how cursed you guys are. Actually? Might be related."

Batman's headlights narrow in a very convincing glare, so Danny tries to elaborate. "Shades really shouldn't be literally crawling through the streets. The non-physical, non-sentient psychic vampires? Yeah. I don't know if you can see this, but they're walking around in groups besides and through people. Which. They don't group up, and they don't typically go for crowded places. Shades thrive in privacy. They mimic whatever person accidentally made them, and lure loved ones alone. This whole thing is weird and probably not good."

Batman grunts again, head tilting slightly the opposite way. The little bit of silence lets Danny briefly contemplate if Batman is neurodivergent and not actually trying to be a brooding asshole. The older man's tone and facial expressions are flat, he doesn't seem to pick up on social cues, and he favors nonverbal communication. Danny makes a mental note to figure that out later if they ever meet again.

"What can we do?" Batman asks. Danny shrugs. Technically, it's not his problem unless they can't handle it themselves. "Justice League Dark this, I guess. Find me if they can't help. I'll give it the old college try if you ask."

Batman taps the side of his mask where the ear would be underneath. A quiet sound of static fills the alleyway. Batman full-body flinches at the sudden loud sound in his ear. The older man whirls to glare at Danny. The Halfa nearly chokes under the creepy, suddenly hostile gaze of the pinpricks of light.

"What did you do to my coms?" The man full on growls. The cloak is brushed aside as Batman takes out two throwing blades from his (bright yellow?) belt.

Danny's heartbeat races at the prospect of a brawl. Green light fills his vision and starts to cast a strange glow across the alley. His biology reacts, but his mind is screaming at him to put on the brakes. Do not fight the vigilantes! He's not being friendly! Do not the rogue!!

So he puts his hands up in surrender. "Woah woah woah! I can't control this, electronics just fritz around me! Hold on, just, I'll leave and they should be fine? I need to get back to my hotel anyways. Nice meeting you!"

Without waiting for a response Danny turns ghost tail. Which is to say, he turns invisible and flies through the building in the vague direction of said hotel. He flings himself into the soft, soft pillows, and tries to calm his ass down. No. No fighting. He does not need to be put in Arkham on his first day, or whatever.

Elsewhere, the coms crackle back to life.

"-atman?!"

"Oracle." He confirms.

"What happened? The boys are on their way, what's the sitch?"

"There's a vampire in Gotham."

[thebibliosphere]

Joy I have to ask - what temperature do you think it is inside Wayne Manor?

Is it essentially outside temperature except where the fireplaces are? Does Alfred have a one man war against climate change? Is that why Bruce spends so much time in the basement?

Depending on which timeline you follow, Wayne Manor was built in the late 1800s. Having worked in giant historical homes, I'm telling you now it's a fucking pain in the ass to update the heating systems in those buildings. I know we've got comic book logic to contend with, and they've got massive generators in the basement to keep the cave running (sometimes it's turbines powered by the water flowing through the caves), but I also think it's plausible that to avoid damaging the historical facade of the building, you might walk around the house and see box fans shoved into the window frames during the summer because fuuuuck trying to install modern AC through 18th-century brickwork.

As for heat, well, for a frame of reference, the James J Hill house up here in MN—built roughly around the same time during the Gilded Age when the Waynes were pioneering industry in Gotham—was forced to rely on a boiler roughly the size of a steam engine to heat the house and used 250 tons of coal each year to keep it warm. That boiler provided hot water and ambient heat through steam radiators, but they also still had fireplaces in almost every room to try and compensate for the winter. The house was updated for modern heating and air conditioning within the last 40 years, but with a house that size and ceilings so tall, it's not particularly efficient. They still rely on box fans and space heaters to keep the space habitable during summer and winter.

New Jersey is not as far north as Minnesota, but the temperatures can still drop comparably low, especially when you factor in the seafront Gotham is on. So, while I do think they likely upgraded the heating systems at some point (they can't keep guzzling through coal like that), I also can't help but feel it's got to be cold as hell in that house unless they're being meticulous about lighting fires and airing every room out to prevent damp.

Because that's another thing. If you're not keeping your stone house warm, you risk damp and water damage, and I feel like Alfred would rather gnaw off his own arm than let Wayne Manor crumble to dust with black mold festering in the original French plaster.

So he's not so much fighting a one-man war against climate change as he's fighting a one-man war to keep the house dry. He's walking through rooms no one even uses, making sure the steam radiators are working and opening the windows a crack to let the condensation out.

Is he also turning off all the light switches as he goes? Yes. Is he always yelling, "Why is every screen in this house turned on if no one is using them?" also, yes.

Is Bruce also down in the cave huddled under an extra cape, overclocking the batcomputer to stay warm? Also a distinct possibility.

[calicoheartz]

“Baby I” - Paige Bueckers♡

summary : jealous Paige Bueckers x reader !

wc ; 897

synopsis : inspired by the song “baby i” by Ariana Grande :) Paige’s jealousy often gets in the way of your relationship, so what happens when you interact with a particularly attractive stranger?

warning : angst , suggestive content , jealousy / possessiveness

my master list ㇀♡

a/n : look at me having a posting streak !! decided to try something new today, so I hope yall enjoy ◡̈

You and Paige had been dating for not too long, but your relationship had certainly developed into one where strong feelings and emotions played a huge factor in your everyday lives.

It was no secret to you that Paige was jealous, envious even; it caused you a fair share of problems throughout your relationship. Whether it was through jealous ridden comments, or snarky remarks, it was slowly starting to take a toll on you.

You and Paige were invited to go bar hopping with the team, as a celebration of the victorious win for Uconn. The free spirited and ambient environment encouraged you to let loose, encouraging you to not only grab a drink from the bar, but to strike up a couple of conversations with individuals around you.

It’s not that Paige didn’t want you to talk to other people, it’s just that when it comes to you; she’s very, how do I word this.. Overbearing? Whether it was constantly having her hands glued to your waist, peppering your face with kisses, or shooting bitter looks and whoever even dares to be just a little too friendly.

On this particular night, a very attractive character to say the least, approached you; beginning to start a simple conversation. Asking things like your name, complimenting your outfit, and overall trying to learn more about you

From across the room, you can see the blonde staring intensely at you, giving you a disapproving look; signaling you to end the conversation. You furrowed your brows and gave her a confused look back, not understanding how the conversation was moving south in any way.

You quickly turned back around, further continuing your conversation with the stranger, when all of a sudden you feel a harsh tug on your wrist. “It was nice meeting you, but we have to go.” And just like that, there you were, being dragged out of the bar by your girlfriend. Who seemed incredibly pissed.

The drive back home was unbearable, no words were exchanged between you two. The blonde never acknowledging you on your journey back home, knuckles white due to her intense grip on the steering wheel. You couldn’t tell if she was upset, disappointed, horny, or a mix of all 3.

As soon as you reached your apartment, your nerves were eating you alive. You had no idea what was waiting for you once you reached your apartment door.

You quickly hurried inside, and situated yourself on your shared couch. Waiting for her to say something. You felt your heart pounding, unable to even form coherent words. When you realized the endless silence, you simply muttered out a “I’m..sorry?.” Paige rolled her eyes at you, scoffing in the process. “YOU’RE sorry? They were practically throwing themselves at you and all you did was stand there and let them.” You were shocked, you knew Paige could take things the wrong way, but you never imagined her of all people would think you would be the type to do that.

“Paige…” you started. “You know I love you more than anything, but you know words can’t even touch what’s in my heart,” you continued. Your eyes now spilling out tears you tried your hardest to keep in.

“Then why don’t you ever tell me?”... “I feel like I’m constantly competing with others for your attention” This statement startled you, as you knew Paige was well aware of your difficulty to express yourself, let alone reassure others. Fuck. Oh how badly you wished the floor underneath you would simply collapse, giving you any sort of escape from the high tensioned conversation.

You felt as if you were to speak, your throat would simply close up. You managed to croak out.. “It’s just when I try to explain it, I be sounding insane. Sometimes it feels like the words don’t ever come out right.” She looks at you, her gaze softening a bit; as a reaction to your sudden vulnerability.

“It’s just I don’t know…the words just never come out right when it comes to you. You make me get all tongue tied and twisted, and I literally cannot explain what I’m feeling.” “Baby-” “No.” - you cut her off. Quickly feeling a rush of adrenaline run through you. “Yes, I should’ve been more clear and work on my communication, but you need to realize that not everyone is trying to sabotage our relationship. It’s exhausting. I can’t keep isolating myself due to your jealous fits of rage.”

Paige looks at you, tears welling in her eyes, threatening to spill out if she even mumbles out a word. She muttered a quiet “im sorry…”, her voice cracking at the last word, her eyes glued to the floor as she anticipated your response.

As if she were a magnet, you run towards her and wrap your arms around her tall frame, gently rubbing circles into your back as sobs slowly escape her lips. This entire thing had been a complete misunderstanding, and her jealousy blinded her judgment. Through her weeps you were able to make out “i love you. All i was trying to say is that youre my everything and-”

She wasnt even able to finish her sentence as she felt your warm lips on hers, entangling her in a deep and loving kiss. “If that doesnt show you that i love you, i dont know what will”

not sure how to feel about this tbh, originally i was gonna give this a sad ending but since the song is a love song, it didn’t feel fitting. Lmk ur thoughts !! Thanks for reading ◡̈

[jajatoc]

News I've gathered from the Pathologic 3 section of the Safe & Sound event today!

We had our first glimpse of the Capital ever! Along with a year- 1924, a date which could be arbitrary (since it's a hundred years ago exactly and was part of a bit on time travel) but it's still something to consider!

Quoting Vasily Kashnikov: "The Bachelor communicates with those in power so the soundtrack contains a fair share of minimalist so called "furniture music" that could sound in the salons of the beginning of the last century, piano etudes and references of that time, Satie, Debussy etcetera."

Quoting Natalya Radylina: "The music changes depending on the state of the Bachelor himself, who can fall into Apathy or Psychosis. [...] If the Psychosis level goes to the maximum it starts to damage Bachelor's health." THEY ARE PUTTING HIM IN THE TORTURE LABYRINTH and combat seems to NOT be gone and actually be a greatly determining factor of the Bachelor's sanity!

New shots of the Town Hall's exterior (Inside they showed the strange brass clock we saw in the preview pictures) and of the Town on Gorkhon itself:

Still quoting Natalya Radylina: "In the Cathedral there is a system of levers (?) that control the direction and speed of time."

Shots of infected districts!

(Also the game has a global wetness parameter now that determines the amount of rainfall and modulates the ambient sounds accordingly..)

Overall it seems like this new soundtrack is going to be incredibly versatile and character driven, and I'm really excited to see how it's going to work in-game!

I've taken a few more screenshots which I'm leaving on a reblog soon if anyone's interested!

[dunmeshistash]

Hey, have you done any compilation on the magic system? Namely, I've been trying to figure it out. First, the caster's own mana is a factor (needs to be cycled to do magic at all), but then so is ambient mana *and* spirits in the surrounding environment (what actually causes much of the spell's effect to occur, most spells won't work unless there's enough around). Second, there's at least two different kinds of mana sickness: shock from cycling too much at once, and running out. Any comments?

I have a magic system tag with some previous asks

Here's a compilation of the main bits about Magic (including mana sickness)

Marcille says this about her magic being stronger inside the Dungeon

So perhaps inside the dungeon you need to use less of your own mana to use spells of the same power? So trying to use them similar to how it was used in the surface made it too powerful?

Magic is something that just exists everywhere even outside the dungeon, I don't know if there's spells that "wont work" if there isn't enough magic around but they would probably be weakened and demand more of the caster's own magic?

This is speculation tho, I don't really remember this being mentioned explicitly but my brain is working a little slow today lol.

I know monsters need ambient magic similar to air so they cannot survive in places where there isn't enough, that's one of the reasons why dungeon lords are weaker near the surface: not enough ambient magic to support big monsters.

And yes there's two types of sickness related to magic like you said, the one about cycling magic in your body is prevented by the "warm up" exercises which is one of the reasons Marcille says hair is important for magic, caring for it works as an exercise to cycle magic thru your body

Other's choose to just do drugs or alcohol tho lmao

[mufos-photo-album]

(Transcript at bottom of post.)

Dark plants are a relatively new addition to the Kingdom of Sky, appearing some decades after the disaster at Eden. Like other plants, dark plants need light to grow. However, their leaves are too dark and thick to perform photosynthesis, and too much light delivered directly can cause the plants to burn and shrivel. Instead, dark plants absorb the light captured by dark water — water which has been contaminated by dark sediment, the byproduct of darkstone production.

[ID: A diagram showing the flow of light from creature to dark plant. When creatures of light come into contact with dark sediment, the sediment drains their light. The sediment, now charged with light, is dispersed through the water and soil, which is then absorbed by dark plants.]

In most cases, dark plants pose no direct harm to beings of light. In areas like the Hidden Forest, where dark rain commonly pours, dark plants take on indirect predatory behaviors. Especially in wet environments, dark plants will produce a sticky dew from their leaves that tends to attract butterflies. This dew contains trace amount of dark sediment which dulls one's senses when consumed. This leads to butterflies resting in the rain for longer than they usually would, leading to death in some cases. Dark plants have also been seen ensnaring mantas. This happens when mantas, exhausted by the dark rain or other factors, fly into the brambles of a dark plant, holding them in place as the dark rain saps their light.

[ID: A drawing of a manta caught in the brambles of a dark plant. It is raining.]

Fully getting rid of a dark plant can be difficult. They can be burned down using fire or a candle spell, but even if all the stems and leaves are burned, the plant will begin to regrow some time later. To truly destroy a dark plant, it needs to be uprooted, and the roots burned with the rest of the plant. Dark plants can also spread fairly easily, as they can reproduce asexually.

[ID: A diagram showing the 3 ways dark plants can spread -- via their roots, via cuttings, and via seed nodules. Mufotsuki is standing in front of the diagram, holding a seed nodule. She states: "The seeds are the easiest part of a dark plant to break off. Never leave them unattended for too long! Sometimes I collect them for my sister. She does experiments on them."]

Despite their mutual association with darkness, not many, if any, dark plants grow in Eden itself. Although Eden is abundant in dark sediment, the weather conditions are too violent and destoys most varieties before they can properly root.

Speaking of dark plant varieties...

Tree: Common variety which tends to grow tall and wide. Known for trapping mantas.

Bush: Another common variety of dark plant which tends to grow wide, but not very tall.

Moss: Uncommon variety which sprawls over flat surfaces. Difficult to truly get rid of since moss can grow into hard-to-reach places. Can cause man-made mechanisms to seize up.

Urchin: Uncommon variety that tends to show up in saltwater environments. They have many spines tipped with dark sediment to absorb ambient light in the water, but also to absorb the light produced by other plants.

Lilypad: Uncommon to rare variety that tends to show up in polluted freshwater environments. Problematic for other plants since they can blot out sunlight.

Floater: Rare variety of plant that comes from Eden. They take advantage of the terrible weather to spread their seeds across the realm, but mature specimens are rarely found in Eden.

[ID: Various drawings depicting each of the dark plant varieties, one for each.]

[jcmarchi]

The Importance of Background Music and the Benefits it Offers  - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-importance-of-background-music-and-the-benefits-it-offers-technology-org/

The Importance of Background Music and the Benefits it Offers  - Technology Org

There’s no denying the importance of music in the life of the general person. It has the ability to change mood, affect mental state and provide energy. It can be a way to make you more motivated, to soothe your worries, and help you get through difficult times in your life. Music can create beautiful memories and serve as a means of self-expression. With so many advantages to listening to music, there seems to be no reason why you shouldn’t have background music on basically all the time. Let’s delve a little deeper into what makes music such a force for good on a day-to-day basis.

A turntable – illustrative photo. Image credit: Travis Yewell via Unsplash, free license

Podcasts 

Having a podcast allows you to develop your own voice, start conversations, and address topics that are important to you. Listeners can’t see your face, so your format should be engaging enough so that the audience remains engaged even in the absence of a visual medium. Go to MelodyLoops to discover the best royalty-free music that can help you send your message across more effectively and drive up the engagement of your listeners.

The music will also dictate the atmosphere of your podcast, depending on the themes you’ll discuss. Are you looking for something relaxed and jazzy, or would you prefer something that sounds darker and more mysterious? You must also think about what your designated audience is more likely to respond to, depending on demographics.

When picked correctly, the music will also add to the entertainment factor and might even promote brand recognition. The people who listen to your podcasts could start associating certain sounds or melodies with you, providing you with increased visibility.

Videos 

You have the visual medium to rely on with videos, but that doesn’t make it sound any less critical. In fact, choosing the right tunes can legitimately make or break your video, and it should be employed to enhance the general message of your video. Now, the best type of song is one that is in tune with the message you’re showing, as having the two clashes will impact the general atmosphere. Informative videos go well with soft, ambient music. It should remain in the background and never cover the voiceover.

However, if you’re talking about something fun based on entertainment, you should go for something more upbeat, such as funk or groovy vibes. Topics such as fashion or lifestyle go well with pop, indie rock or rap, depending on the topics you cover. To find the best tunes, you just have to think of the message you’re trying to convey. Of course, if the video deals with several different topics and atmospheres, you’ll probably need many other songs as well. From confidence to hope to sadness, happiness, victory and excitement, there’s a song out there for any mood.

Films 

Films are well-known for their use of music, and many soundtracks have become famous. Many music lovers actually enjoy listening to original scores as their own separate genre since the music is often incredibly evocative and beautifully arranged. Music sets the tone of movies and provides viewers with a subconscious effect. It offers additional input apart from the visuals and dialogue, allowing audiences to interpret scenes differently.

Music helps deliver those scenes that viewers love so much, such as plot twists, epic battles, anticipation and suspense, much more effectively, and adds weight to every scene. Thematic development is also easy to achieve since many tunes can be built on themes. For instance, a character can have a particular theme, and then, as they evolve throughout the story, the music evolves as well to become more somber or lighter.

The pacing and dynamics, showcasing a different time period, location or culture, as well as making the scenes stick together and creating a more cohesive motion picture, are all possible and more believable thanks to music. In the case of cartoons, Mickey Mousing is one of the most well-known techniques. The technique, that has been used for several decades, refers to matching music with the movements on the screen.

Studying 

Can music actually help you study and learn more efficiently? Some would say yes, while others claim that they can only truly focus when they work in complete silence. Studies show that music can indeed help you become more productive by improving your mood and helping you relax. Banishing these negative emotions naturally gives you more energy and mental fortitude to focus on the tasks you need to accomplish.

Since studying can be pretty stressful, managing and even controlling that panic can make the learning outcomes more successful. Many people find that they end up having trouble focusing, especially if they have to study intensively and for long periods of time. Music can also help in that regard by allowing the brain to absorb the information more efficiently and consolidate it. It can also improve your attention span and reasoning skills so you can come up with answers based on the information available to you.

However, you must be careful that the music you use doesn’t end up doing more harm than good. For instance, it could distract you and cause you to procrastinate. Generally, very fast or loud music can make it more challenging to concentrate, but some people find that mellow lofi or classical is not engaging enough, and their mind drifts away to fill in the blanks. For some, listening to music they’ve never heard before can be helpful because their well-known favorites cause them to be more likely to want to sing and dance. Others notice that new, previously unheard songs cause them to pay more attention to the music rather than their tasks.

In conclusion, music is crucial for life, and people use it daily for their work, either during production or to manufacture the finished result. If you discover that music helps you as well and allows you to become more productive, optimistic, and to be able to overcome the hurdles of daily life more efficiently, it would be a pity not to use it. From filling the silence in podcasts to helping you ace your exams and creating pacing in movies, there’s nothing music cannot do.

[titleleaf]

Okay, now I have to know about "electronic music compose for pornography"!

The big one for me is Patrick Cowley's porn scoring. Cowley was a genuinely groundbreaking and innovative composer and producer, a big factor in the creation of Hi-NRG as a distinct strain of disco; his work written to accompany gay porn is similarly far-out but really different from the stuff you're supposed to dance to. I'm not much of a discerning listener when it comes to music on vinyl but putting the Dark Entries release of School Daze on the turntable and drinking a THC seltzer while drawing naked people is really pleasant.

I'm actively looking for more compilations/collections of this kind of scoring, especially music used in straight porn of the era tbh. For a sampler of artists and a great piece of listening, check out Cashmere Radio's "Inches":

“Inches” is a collection of sounds coming from soundtracks and playlists used in mainly – but not only – gay porn productions of the 1980s. Tracks included in the hour and a half-long show cover a variety of genres such as Berlin school, ambient, leftfield, abstract disco, new wave, early electro, post punk and EBM. The main issue when retrieving music used in porn is that the vast majority of producers were composing these soundtracks half-heartedly, as side projects to raise money and finance their main artistic careers. For this reason, most of the compositions in these films are hardly identifiable and boldly arranged, yet often sounding great due to the machines and recording techniques available at the time.