#Five billion lions

[chuckle-clips]

Charlie: Let’s do… Skip past some of these… Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard, they’re not gonna matter much. Alright, how many—

Schlatt: Stop right there. Stop right there. 

Charlie: How many Pokémon—

Schlatt: Stop— You fucking stop right there. You skipped right over Charizard. That motherfucker’s gonna be in the trenches the whole time, killing all. I don’t know who Ivy— Ivy— whatever the fuck is. I don’t know what Bulbasaur is. Pikachu could probably do one or two. 

Ted: He’s gonna be wearing one of those World War One British helmets. 

Schlatt: But Charizard, that fucker who flies, that fucker who flies is gonna be mowing through them. And he’s just gonna fly away. He’s gonna sleep for a little bit. 

Charlie: Charizard’s gonna get trench foot. He’s gonna get the trench foot status. 

Ted: Well, how big is a Charizard?

Schlatt: He’s not, he flies. He flies. 

Charlie: A Charizard? You wanna know how big a Charizard is? You’re gonna be really upset. 

Ted: It’s 5’7”.

Charlie: Yup. 

Ted: Schlatt, a Charizard is fucking 5’7”.

Charlie: Charizard is shorter than all of us. 

Schlatt: Charizard is 5’7”?

Ted: Charizard is 5’7”. 

Charlie: [Laughs] Your genuine just— disappointment there was so fucking good. It was so fucking good. 

Schlatt: Wait, Charizard is 5’7”?

Charlie: Charizard is five feet seven inches. 

Ted: Charizard is two inches shorter than the average American male. 

Schlatt: Charizard is 5’7”?

Charlie: Charizard is 1.7 meters tall. Charizard is also… It says here he’s only 199 pounds. 

Schlatt: Wait, time out, there’s a Mega Charizard. There’s a Mega Charizard. It evolves from Charmeleon, starting at level 36. 

Charlie: No, no, no. 

Schlatt: It is the final form of Charmander. How tall is Mega Charizard?

Charlie: It’s the same height. It’s the same height. However, there is…

Schlatt: It’s five…

Charlie: It’s five feet. 

Schlatt: No! It’s 91 feet tall!

Charlie: No, that—

Schlatt: It’s 91 feet tall! 

Charlie: No it’s not, it’s literally not. 

Schlatt: Yes it is! No, wait no, Gigantamax— Gigantamax Charizard. We get a Gigantamax Charizard that’s just 91 feet tall. Of course that’s gonna win!

Ted: But in the games—

Charlie: If only we had something else taller, say, I don’t know, one billion lions!

[Ted laughs]

[blueiscoool]

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft

Five things you probably didn’t know about the biggest art heist in history

Most art galleries and museums are famous for the art they contain. London’s National Gallery has Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”; “The Starry Night” meanwhile, is held at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, in good company alongside Salvador Dalì’s melting clocks, Andy Warhol’s soup cans and Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, however, is now more famous for the artwork that is not there, or at least, that is no longer there.

On March 18 1990 the museum fell prey to history’s biggest art heist. Thirteen works of art estimated to be worth over half a billion dollars — including three Rembrandts and a Vermeer — were stolen in the middle of the night, while the two security guards sat in the basement bound in duct tape.

The robbery is a treasure trove of surprising facts and unexpected plot twists. Here are five things that make the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and its famous theft, so interesting.

The woman behind the building:

Isabella Stewart Gardner, the museum’s founder and namesake, is a fascinating character. The daughter and eventual widow of two successful businessmen, Gardner was a philanthropist and art collector who built the museum to house her stash.

“When she opened the museum in 1903 she mandated that it be free of charge, to gain the appreciation and the attendance of all of Boston,” Stephan Kurkjian, author of “Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World’s Greatest Art Heist”, said in the programme. “Her museum, at that point in time, was the largest collection of art by a private individual in America.”

Gardner also had links to the fledgling campaign for women’s political rights. The museum displays the photographs and letters of her friend Julia Ward Howe, an organizer of two US suffrage societies, and a print of Ethel Smyth, a composer and close friend of the English Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst.

Gardner met Smyth through their mutual friend, the painter John Singer Sargent, whose portrait of Gardener raised eyebrows for the low-cut neckline he gave her.

Gardner seemed to enjoy flirting with scandal and gossip: she once arrived at a Boston Symphony Orchestra performance in a hat band emblazoned with the name of her favorite baseball team, Red Sox, and an illustration in a January 1897 edition of the Boston Globe showed her apparently taking one of Boston Zoo’s lions for a walk.

Somewhat ironically, when the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, Gardner told her museum guards that, if they saw anyone trying to rob them, they should shoot to kill.

The art not taken:

The thieves’ loot is estimated to be worth over half a billion dollars. However, they left the building’s most expensive artifact: “The Rape of Europa” by Titian, which Gardner bought from a London art gallery in 1896, then a record price for an old master painting.

Why commit history’s greatest art heist and leave without the priciest piece in the museum? Well, size may have played a role. The largest artwork taken was Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” famous for being Rembrandt’s only seascape and measures roughly 5x4 feet. “The Rape of Europa,” meanwhile, is larger, at nearly 6x7 feet.

The Napoleon factor:

Around 2005, the investigation into the stolen artworks took a detour to the French island of Corsica in the Meditteranean Sea. Two Frenchmen with alleged ties to the Corsican mob were trying to sell two paintings: a Rembrandt and a Vermeer. Former FBI Special Agent Bob Wittman was involved in a sting to try and buy them — but the operation eventually fell apart when the men were arrested for selling art taken from the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice instead.

Why would “Corsican mobsters,” as correspondent Randi Kaye described them in the programme, be interested in robbing a Boston art museum? The answer could lie in the Bronze Eagle Finial, the 10-inch ornament stolen from the top of a Napoleonic flag during the heist.

“It was sort of an odd choice for the thieves to take (the Finial),” Kaye said, “but it turns out that Corsica is essentially the homeland of Napoleon.” The French emperor was born on the island in 1769, and a national museum is now housed in his former family home.

“It is a very compelling notion,” Kelly Horan, Deputy Editor of the Boston Globe, said in the programme, “that a Corsican band of gangsters might have tried to steal back their flag and pull off the entire rest of the heist in the process.”

A rock’n’roll suspect:

March 18 1990 was not the first time a Rembrandt had been stolen from a Boston museum. In 1975, career criminal and art thief Myles Connor walked into Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, and walked out with a Rembrandt tucked into his oversized coat pocket. He was the FBI’s first suspect in the Gardner case, however the walls of federal prison — where he was incarcerated on drugs charges — gave him a pretty solid alibi.

When he wasn’t lifting famous artworks from their displays, Connor was a musician. It was through gigging that he met Al Dotoli, who worked with stars including Frank Sinatra and Liza Minelli.

In 1976 Connor was jailed for a separate art theft committed in Maine. Hoping to use his stolen Rembrandt to leverage a lesser sentence, he needed Dotoli — who was on tour with Dionne Warwick — to turn the painting in to the authorities on his behalf.

An invisible thief?

One of the stolen artworks, Édouard Manet’s “Chez Tortoni,” was taken from the museum’s Blue Room on the first floor. The painting stands out for two reasons, the first being its frame. The thieves left almost all of the frames behind, cutting some out of the front.

“To even leave remnants of the painting(s) behind was savage,” Horan said. “In my mind, it’s sort of like slashing someone’s throat.”

The “Chez Tortoni” frame was unusual for where it was left, though: not in the room it was stolen from, but in the chair of the security office downstairs. Even more remarkable, not a single motion detector was set off in the Blue Room. Bar investigating the possibility of ghost robbers, investigators wondered if this pointed to the plot being an inside job.

“At the FBI we found that about 89% of museum institutional heists are inside jobs,” Wittman said. “That’s how these things get stolen.”

By Caitlin Chatterton.

[kakusu-shipping]

Emile Hides - He/She

Agender - Fray/Panromantic - Asexual - Polyam

24 years old

Autistic - OCD - Anxiety

Age Regressor - Permakid - Age Locked

Proship - Self Ship - Fudanshi

Art Tag: Emile’s Arts

Writing Tag: Emile’s Writing

Edit Tag: Emile's Edits

This is my Ship and Let Ship blog where I post about ships I like, Self Ship as loudly as possible, write X Readers curated to me and me alone, and ramble about my F/Os in the tags of other people’s posts.

Full F/O list under the cut (Very Long)

Romantic F/Os

Koro-Sensei - Assassination Classroom

Toshinori Yagi (All Might) - My Hero Academia

Nezu - My Hero Academia

Mashirao Ojiro + Neito Monoma + Hitoshi Shinso - My Hero Academia

Taishiro Toyomitsu (Fatgum) + Kendo Rappa - My Hero Academia

Atsuhiro Sako (Mr. Compress) + Jin Bubaigawa (Twice) - My Hero Academia

All For One - My Hero Academia

Makarov Dreyar - Fairy Tail

Toma E. Fiore + Mako - Fairy Tail

Jackpot - Fairy Tail/OC

Zanoba Shirone - Jobless Reincarnation

Leuvis - The Promised Neverland

Kyube - Madoka Magica

Ginko - Mushishi

Takashi Morinozuka - Ouran Highschool Host Club

Kometani Chushaku + Naruse Shisuto - Komi Can't Communicate

Masato Hanzawa - Sasaki and Miyano/Hirano and Kagiura

Gonzaburo Taishiro - Sasaki and Miyano/Hirano and Kagiura

Franky Franklin - Spy X Family

Riri - Romantic Killer

Junta Hayami - Romantic Killer

Harunobu Nikaidou - March comes in like a Lion

Otsu + Minegishi - Manly Appetites

Muta - The Cat Returns

Scorpia - She-Ra

Bismuth + Peridot + Lapis - Steven Universe

Eda Clawthorn + Raine Whispers - The Owl House

Hieronymus Bump - The Owl House

Good Billions + Bad Billions - Kipo and the age of the Wonderbeasts

Tad Mullholand - Kipo and the age of the Wonderbeasts

Ruby Gloom + Skull Boy - Ruby Gloom

The Snork - Moominvalley 2019

Lynn Angel + Nick Hoult - All Saints Street

Teddy - Bob's Burgers

Sisu - Raya and the Last Dragon

Zack Binspin - Moshi Monsters

Allhands - Drawga

Gyorik Rogdul + Grendan Highforge + Rosé - Drawtectives

James - Pokemon Anime

N - Pokemon Black/White

Lillie - Pokemon Sun/Moon

Molayne + Sophocles - Pokemon Sun/Moon

Guzma - Pokemon Masters

Milo + Gordie - Pokemon Sword/Shield

Jacq + Saguaro + Salvatore + Hassel - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Kieran + Drayton - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Hydreigon - Pokemon Black/White2

Chesnaught - Pokemon XY

Inteleon - Pokemon Sword/Shield

Armarouge (Charlos) - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Sirfetch'd - Pokemon Anime

Captain Pikachu - Pokemon Anime

Heracross - Monster Mind

Smeargle + Kecleon - Monster Mind

Mario + Luigi - Super Mario

C.Q. Cumber - Splatoon 2

Mr. Grizz - Splatoon 3

Jel La Fleur - Splatoon 3

Isabelle + Tom Nook + Redd + Brewster - Animal Crossing

Papyrus - Undertale

Vulkin - Undertale

Swatchlings - Deltarune

Viktor Humphries - Slime Rancher

Dick Gumshoe - Ace Attorney

Raymond Sheilds - Ace Attorney

Phineas Flilch - Ace Attorney

Hifumi Yamada + Celestia Ludenburgh - Danganronpa 1

Teruteru Hanamura - Danganronpa 2

Toko Fukawa + Genocide Jack - Danganronpa UDG

Ryoma Hoshi + Gonta Gokuhara - Danganronpa V3

Monokuma - Danganronpa series

Shirokuma - Danganronpa series

Kyle Klim (K) + Luna - Virtue's Last Reward

GTM-CM-G-OLM - Virtue's Last Reward

Kazuaki Nanaki + Hitori Uzune - Hatoful Boyfriend

The King - Hatoful Boyfriend

Zenyatta - Overwatch

Ramattra - Overwatch

B.O.B. + Bars - Overwatch

Maximillien - Overwatch

Lynx17 - Overwatch

Iggy - Overwatch

Toy Freddy + Funtime Freddy - Five Nights at Freddy's AU

Nightmare Fredbear - Five Nights at Freddy's 4

Sun - Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach

Leshy - Inscryption

Magnificus - Inscryption

Theodore DaCabe (The New Prince) - Chzo Mythos

Anna (The Huntress) - Dead by Daylight

Al-An - Subnautica Below Zero

Candyman - Lethal League

Gabocha - Suikoden 2

Richmond - Suikoden 2

Neclord - Suikoden 2

Luca Blight - Suikoden 2

Andras - Hell's Library

Jill Wolcott - Wayward Children

Reed + Leigh - Middlegame

Queerplatonics/Metamours

Aguri Yukimura - Assassination Classroom - Queerplatonic

Mei Hatsume - My Hero Academia - Queerplatonic

Reedus Jonah - Fairy Tail - Queerplatonic

Pantherlily - Fairy Tail - Queerplatonic

Peridot - Steven Universe - Queerplatonic

Nemona - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Queerplatonic

Raifort - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Queerplatonic

Bowser - Super Mario - Queerplatonic

Cobb - Animal Crossing - Queerplatonic

Genocider Syo (Genocide Jack/Jill) - Danganronpa UDG - Queerplatonic

Winston - Overwatch - Queerplatonic

Goobert - Inscryption - Queerplatonic

Neito Monoma + Hitoshi Shinso - My Hero Academia - Metamours

Naruse Shisuto - Komi Can't Communicate - Metamour

Minegishi - Manly Appetites - Metamour

Baron Humbert Gon Gikkingen - The Cat Returns - Metamour

Nick Hoult - All Saints Street - Metamour

Brassius - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Metamour

Princess Peach + Princess Daisy + Prince Peasely - Super Mario - Metamours

Shuu Iwamine - Hatoful Boyfriend - Metamour

Maugaloa Malosi - Overwatch - Friends with Benefits

Abra - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Grovyle - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Buizel - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Rhydon - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Sandslash - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Lucario - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Drayden - Pokemon Black/White - Trainer

Wilkstrom - Pokemon X/Y - Trainer

Salvatore - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Trainer

Shiintonic - Pokemon Anime - Partner

Stoutland (Rusty) - Pokemon Anime - Partner

Mincinno (Nezu) - Pokemon Sword/Shield - Partner

Armarouge (Charlos) - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Partner

Koraidon - Pokemon Scarlet - Partner

Ogerpon (Clementine) - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Partner

Weavile - Pokemon - Partner

Familials

Heatran + Entei - Pokemon - Parents

Marlo + Dora - Animal Crossing - Parents

Ginko + Adashino - Mushishi - Parents

Tony Mario - Mario Movie - Father

Mr. Grizz - Splatoon 3 - Father

William Afton - FNaF Series - Father

Ridley Wizen - Suikoden 2 - Father

Frank Columbo - Columbo - Father

Opal - Pokemon Sword/Shield - Mother

Briar - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Mother

Beware - Pokemon Anime - Mother

Toriel - Undertale - Mother

Reaper Leviathan - Subnautica - Mother

Alder - Pokemon Black/White - Parental Figure

Toadsworth - Super Mario - Parental Figure

Mondatta - Overwatch - Parental Figure

Nezu - My Hero Academia - Parental Figure

Clavell - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Grandfather

Rizzo - Animal Crossing - Grandfather

Craig Cuttlefish - Splatoon - Grandfather

Kaoru Toudou - Baka and Test - Grandmother

Elvin Gadd - Super Mario - Uncle

Drayden - Pokemon Black/White - Uncle

Petri - Animal Crossing - Aunt

Elizabeth Afton - FNaF Series - Big Sister

Mitsuki Bakugo - My Hero Academia - Big Sister

Sekijiro Kan - My Hero Academia - Big Brother

Boris Wizen - Suikoden 2 - Big Brother

Micheal Afton - FNaF Series - Big Brother

Molayne - Pokemon Sun/Moon - Big Brother

Jelonzo - Splatoon - Big Brother

James Ratari - The Promised Neverland - Big Brother

Peter Ratari - The Promised Neverland - Little Brother

Victini - Pokemon Black/White - Little Brother

Arven - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Little Brother

Mirai Sasaki (Sir Nighteye) - My Hero Academia - Twin Brother

Kyoya Ootori - Ouran Highschool Host Club - Found Sibling

Cyrus - Pokemon Platinum - Found Sibling

Genji Shimada - Overwatch - Found Sibling

Ramattra - Overwatch - Found Sibling

Micheal Bleak - Wayward Children - Found Sibling

Mario + Luigi - Super Mario - Cousins

Ingo + Emmet - Pokemon Black/White - Cousins

Callie + Marie - Splatoon - Cousins

Sophocles - Pokemon Sun/Moon - Cousin

Samson - Animal Crossing - Cousin

Ira Blood - All Saints Street - Cousin

Cosmog (Nebby) - Pokemon Sun/Moon - Daughter

Amy Rose - Sonic Series - Daughter

Berdly - Deltarune - Daughter

Akito Sohma - Fruits Basket - Daughter

Julie - Jobless Reincarnation - Daughter

Jack + Jill Wolcott - Wayward Children - Daughters

Bede + Allister - Pokemon Sword/Shield - Sons

Pecharunt (Momotaro) - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Son

Rabbid Luigi (Louis) - Mario + Rabbids - Son

Espio - Sonic Series - Son

Neito Monoma - My Hero Academia - Son

Inasa Yoarashi - My Hero Academia - Son

Ichiban Natsuno - Mix; Meisei Story - Son

Black Hat - Villainous - Son

The Collector - The Owl House - Son

Hastur - The Baby in Yellow - Son

Sam - Trick R' Treat - Child

Luz + King + Hunter - Kids

Bowser Jr. + Koopalings - Super Mario - Kids

The Lab Kids - Animal Crossing - Kids

Boss Salmonids - Splatoon 3 - Kids

Warriors of Hope - Danganronpa UDG - Kids

The Monokubs - Danganronpa V3 - Kids

Rosalina - Super Mario - Niece

Sonic + Tails - Sonic Series - Nephews

Jelfonzo - Splatoon - Nephew

Katsuki Bakugo - My Hero Academia - Nephew

Snufkin - Moominvalley 2019 - Nephew

Laxus Dreyar - Fairy Tail - Grandson

505 - Villainous - Grandson

Zanoba Shirone - Jobless Reincarnation - Student

The Squidbeak Splatoon - Splatoon - Family

The Rising Volt Tacklers - Family

Danganronpa V3 Cast - Danganronpa UDG - Family

The Fairy Tail Guild - Fairy Tail - Family

Class 3-E - Assassination Classroom - Family

Fatfam - My Hero Academia - Family

League of Villains - My Hero Academia - Family

The Sohmas - Fruits Basket - Family

The Evil Slasher Orphanage - Various - Family

Besties

Toshimitsu Kubo - Baka and Test

Shoko Kirishima - Baka and Test

Irina Jelavic + Tadaomi Karasuma - Assassination Classroom

UA Teachers - My Hero Academia

Lucy's Celestial Spirits - Fairy Tail

Samuel - Fairy Tail

Yuuko Ichihara + Kimihiro Watanuki + Shizuka Domeki - XXXHolic

The Host Club - Ouran Highschool Host Club

Ritsu Sohma - Fruits Basket

Makoto Katai - Komi Can't Communicate

Miyano Yoshikazu + Sasaki Shuumei - Sasaki and Miyano

Hanazawa Masato - Sasaki and Miyano

Entrapta + Hordak - She-Ra

Grime + Sasha - Amphibia

Iris + Misery + Frank and Len - Ruby Gloom

The Joxter - Moominvalley

Flug Syls - Villainous

Jessie + Meowth + Wobbuffet - Pokemon Anime

Cheren + Bianca - Pokemon Black/White

Hau + Gladion - Pokemon Sun/Moon

Dendra + Miriam - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Team Star - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

The Leauge Club - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Grimer - Monster Mind

Elvin Gadd - Super Mario

Metal Mario + Gooigi - Super Mario AU

Doctor Mario + Mr. L - Super Mario AU

Pearl + Marina - Splatoon

Spyke - Splatoon

The Mad Scientist Team - Animal Crossing

Chara - Undertale

Kris - Deltarune

Chihiro Fujisaki + Kiyotaka Ishimaru + Mondo Owada - Danganronpa 1

Kazuichi Soda - Danganropa 2

Ultimate Imposter + Ryoma Mitarai - Danganronpa 3

Hiroko Hagakura + Yuta Asahina + Taichi Fujisaki - Danganronpa UDG

The Nightmare Animatronics - Five Nights at Freddy's 4

Bonbon - Five Nights at Freddy's; Sister Location

Moon - Five Nights at Freddy's; Security Breach

Helpi - Five Nights at Freddy's; Security Breach RUIN

Huggy Wuggy + Mommy Long Legs - Poppy Playtime

Jamison Fawks (Junkrat) + Mako Rutledge (Roadhog) - Overwatch

Younster Squad (All heroes in their early 20's) - Overwatch

Team Talon - Overwatch

Nina - Suikoden 2

Klaus Windmier + Sierra Mikain - Suikoden 2

Claire + Brevity + Hero + Ramiel - Hell's Library

Thankyou very much for Reading

Crush List - Fictonal Foe List - Agere List - Ship Lists - Kin List - Koro-Sensei's F/O List

[sauleline2]

Maths, Gender, And a Number Bigger than the distance to Kepler 22-B

heads up this is loooong

so i was thinking about xenopronouns (pronouns which are impossible for humans to pronounce, mostly used by therians and otherkin. eg. a pronoun that is a lion's roar, bird chirp, or alien language, etc.) while trying to fall asleep. well, i thought, couldn't an example of a xenopronoun be a normal pronoun set, like she/her, but with a different coloured font? well. i got to thinking. how many colours are there? well it depends on what format you use. an RGB colour has 255 ✕ 255 ✕ 255 colours. that comes out to 16,581,375 different colours. HSV on the other hand, has 3,600,000 different colours (360 ✕ 100 ✕ 100). but why stop there? underlines! bold! italics! the possibilities are (almost) endless! (btw im gonna stick with the rgb colour list, because it's a bigger number and i, an idle game player, find that cool) well. im just going to stick with the stock word formatting options (bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, subscript, and superscript). all of these options can be toggled all together, with the exception of superscript and subscript. now. how do we calculate that? well we take how many options there are (8, not counting the subscript and superscript (we'll get to that)) and multiply that by our number of colours. this gives us 132,651,000. we quickly multiply that by 3, to get our full total formats. 397,953,000. now i could say something sappy about how there are infinite combinations of letters, to make infinite pronouns, but that's boring in my opinion. so. there are 149,186 unicode characters (in the current version). sure, not all of them can be made into bold, or some don't have italics. who cares? they still have the italics information. or the bold information. you get the point. well. we take our amount of format options, and multiply that by the amount of unicode characters. 59,369,016,258,000. fifty nine trillion, three hundred and sixty nine billion, sixteen million, two hundred and fifty eight thousand different combinations. now. to make these into pronoun sets. to make this easier for myself, im gonna cap the maximum length of one of these at 7 characters, and the minimum at 1 (invisible characters are cool, like U+2064 or U+2063, for example). each set will be in the format of "she/her/hers", so that means each of the sets will be between 3 and 21 characters long (forward slashes are excluded). i wasn't sure how to do this with a calculator, so i did it by hand. or at least, i was going to. then i realized "wait the way im doing this is shit, and i could very easily have calculated this like the way you calculate how many different states a combo lock has. 343 different combinations of characters. we multiply that by the amount of characters we have, and boom. the total amount of robot pronouns. 20,363,572,576,494,000. twenty quadrillion, three hundred and sixty three trillion, five hundred and seventy two billion, five hundred and seventy six million, four hundred and ninety four thousand. now. most of these will be unintelligible messes of characters in different colours.

i may as well repeat the final number that i got. 20,363,572,576,494,000. think about that. if you want to put that into perspective, there are approximately 100,000,000,000 stars in the milky way galaxy (at a lowball. it goes up to around 400,000,000,000). or, 3,154,000,000 seconds in a century. (im gonna put these numbers up next to each other at the end of this, under the cut, just to help you look at them.

(up to date (as of writing)) (most of these are approximates btw) (distances are in kilometres)

"Pronouns": 20,363,572,576,494,000 Kepler 22-B's Distance: 6,055,000,000,000,000 Distance of All Human Veins: 772,485,120,000,000 Cells in the Body: 30,000,000,000,000 Elon Musk's Net Worth: 205,200,000,000 Stars in the Milky Way: 100,000,000,000 Baby Shark's Views: 14,118,385,910 Earth's Population: 8,100,000,000 Seconds in a Century: 3,154,000,000 Listens my Friend has to Sum 41: 18,306

if this looks like shit... lmao? i guess. it was formatted for web view. idk how it looks on mobile, don't care to check. (Yes i did put elon musk there because i hate him and want to point out how fucking rich he is and i think that we should kill him) (yes i did put my friend's Sum 41 scrobbles there to make fun of him)

[the-gnomish-bastard]

i cast five billion lions upon your tower

I cast UnLion.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

The forecast indicates an opening well over $100m for INSIDE OUT 2, which is really no surprise to me. Animated movies, even sequels to beloved favorites, tend to be underestimated before opening. They don't make huge bucks right out of the gate like frontloaded fan-driven things like MCU movies and the like. Their business is more in the walk-ups at the theaters, and make those big totals on Saturdays and Sundays. Hence why projections can be quite low. MARIO is a good example, some analysts had that at $70-90m for its opening.

That looks to be the case with INSIDE OUT 2, a sequel to a movie that made $90m on its opening weekend unadjusted... 9 years ago. Of course it was gonna stay flat at the very least, but some projections are suggesting it could cruise past $120m.

The all-timer opening weekends for animated movies:

$191m - THE LION KING (2019)

$182m - INCREDIBLES 2 (2018)

$146m - THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023)

$135m - FINDING DORY (2016)

$130m - FROZEN II (2019)

$121m - SHREK THE THIRD (2007)

$120m - TOY STORY 4 (2019)

$120m - SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (2023)

$115m - MINIONS (2015)

$110m - TOY STORY 3 (2010)

$108m - SHREK 2 (2004)

$107m - MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU (2022)

$104m - THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (2016)

$103m - THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016)

So, it'll be with the big leagues either way, but I'll be curious to see how high it goes.

Of course, some of the trades are seemingly celebrating this win for all the wrong reasons... And I'm sure Disney execs will use it as some sort of justification for something regarding their original movies. Don't be surprised if another sequel gets slotted before D23 this year, or some time thereafter. But the good news is, people get to keep their jobs once more.

I think $300-400m domestic is also pretty much a lock, could even challenge $1 billion worldwide. For Disney, this is their biggest animated release since FROZEN II, nearly five years ago. In terms of animated movies in general released after March 2020, this may share the top spots with Mario and the Minions.

On the one hand, I'm happy to see Disney finally get some BIG animation box office cake after years of movies either having to release elsewhere for the safety of audiences (SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED) or outright flopping (LIGHTYEAR, STRANGE WORLD, WISH), and they're sure to get some more with MOANA 2, and possibly MUFASA at the end of the year... But, at the same time, there's all the corporate nonsense. I keep thinking, what are they going to say if ELIO and such perform more like ELEMENTAL?: "Uhhh, uhhh? I guess trying to do this 'general appeal' thing didn't work either??"

INSIDE OUT 2, coupled with MOANA 2, ZOOTOPIA 2, TOY STORY 5, FROZEN III & IV, etc. should make back what was "lost" on the other movies. I'm not against sequels funding the originals, that's the way it has been with many studios since the 2000s, I'm just more concerned about how Disney will go about the originals being made at both studios. If INSIDE OUT 2 holds on at the box office in the coming weeks, it'll just tell me that audiences liked the new story, and that there doesn't need to be any of this needless meddling of Pixar's filmmaking processes. INSIDE OUT 2 was approached the same way ELEMENTAL, TURNING RED, etc. were - so if it has great legs after an expectedly big opening, then that just proves my point. And vindicates those so-called audience-unfriendly movies.

But yeah, I expect a big sequel drop from Pixar by the end of the year. Something that'll come out probably 2-3 years after TOY STORY 5.

SUNDAY UPDATE: Estimates have it at $155m. Could go higher when tomorrow rolls around... Big doins'.

MONDAY UPDATE: $154m. Great CinemaScore grade. This thing's smashing $400m domestic, maybe even makes a play for $500m. $1 billion worldwide locked, too?

[ask-obt]

Since animals do exist in this world... Malachi, who would win in a fight: one of every pokemon or 1 billion lions?

Malachi: That's a lot of lions. I'm gonna say the lions would win.

Inigo: Compared to the amount of pokemon species? One billion lions is no problem. I could take a hundred of 'em, easy.

Malachi: Do you have any idea how much one billion is? It's one thousand millions. There's at least a thousand pokemon species out there, but let's say it's five thousand. That's 100,000 lions per pokemon. That amount alone could kill you if they just piled on you and suffocated you.

Rune: I think we're missing an important part of the equation here. Are the lions attacking the pokemon?

Malachi: The prompt says it's a "fight" so... yes.

Eilwyn: Hmm... You'd be competing with one billion lions for food... But they're obligate carnivores, and pokemon are omnivores. If pokemon hid they could outlive the lions. I would just hide in the ocean until they all died and then I'd win.

[musette22]

Minnieeeee, my darling, my most glorious baby giraffe! 🦒💕✨ I was scrolling through classic The Toast posts, as one does, and came across yet another I thought you might appreciate: Men In Western Art Who Are So Beautiful It Has Made Them Sleepy.

In fact, I think Sebastian should reenact all of these (with some help from Chris, perhaps). 🧐 I mean, can't you just imagine him saying I am undone by my own babeliness and must rest or I’m sleepy and beautiful and you dont understand me or, simply, oh no I'm a fox?

In other news, I love you and miss you and I hope you're having a super lovely week, and I'm sending you at least five billion hugs and smooches 💗💗💗 Bisou! 💋

Kaaaaaaaaaayyyy, my beautiful, brilliant baby dinosaur!! 🥰🦕💗 I'm sorry for being so flakey lately, I love and miss you SO MUCH!! 💕✨

Oh my god, those The Toast articles are just incredible, instant classics 😂 I love this so much, thank you for sending it my way and giving me a good giggle.

"doc give it to me straight am i too beautiful to walk again"

LMAO 😂😂😭

I can absolutely see Sebastian renenacting all that, he can be so beautifully dramatic, our little lion boy 🥰🥰 This right here is just, "im so hot i dont think ill ever be able to stand up again"

(if it's with a little help from Chris, even better 💘)

I love you an unholy amount, my darling!! Hope you've had a wonderful week so far and that you're feeling warm and fuzzy tonight! Happy Friday Eve, ilyyyyyyy! 😘😘😘😘

[gamesrules]

Disney’s perennial hit “Frozen” is saying “let it go” to its spot as the second-biggest animated film in history. Over the weekend, Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” hit $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office, enough to bump the original adventures of royal sisters Anna and Elsa ($1.28 billion) to the No. 3 spot.

But the kingdom of Arendelle still reigns supreme in terms of all things computer-generated. The sequel “Frozen II” was even bigger than the original and stands as the highest-grossing animated movie of all-time with a mighty $1.45 billion. (Disney’s 2019 remake of “The Lion King,” which earned a staggering $1.65 billion, is technically computer-generated, but the studio has categorized the movie as live-action. Thus, it doesn’t have a place on the list of top-animated movies.)

A collaboration between Universal, Illumination and Nintendo, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has resonated with audiences across the globe, generating $566 million domestically and $733.9 million internationally. So far, it’s the first and only movie of the year to cross the coveted $1 billion milestone. Outside of North America, top-earning territories include Mexico ($84 million), Japan ($80 million), the United Kingdom ($64 million) and France ($57 million).

When “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” opened in theaters on April 5, the film generated a towering $204 million in its first five days of release. With those ticket sales, it secured the largest opening weekend of the year and the second-biggest debut ever for an animated movie. Since its debut, “Mario” has become the highest-grossing movie domestically and globally of 2023, as well as the most successful video game adaptation of all-time. It’s also the biggest movie ever from Illumination, the animation empire behind “Despicable Me” and its “Minion” spinoffs, “Sing” and “The Grinch.”

Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic directed “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which follows Brooklyn-based plumbers Mario and Luigi on a mythic quest through the Mushroom Kingdom as they prepare to stop the evil Bowser from total domination.

[helloyoucreatives]

Open for entries: The Big C global brief to end the stigma of cancer in the workplace is now open for entries

In Cannes, top creative leaders from across Edelman, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP joined forces on stage to deliver one of the most high profile briefs the industry has seen, impacting the lives of up to 4 billion people. The ask? To create a culture-defying programme, experience, campaign that could erase the stigma and insecurity of cancer at work.

Today, Monday 10th July, The Big C brief officially opens for entries. 

The brief invites the entire industry and beyond, as individuals or duos within one agency or cross-agencies, to create a campaign that will launch on World Cancer Day 2024, in a global multi-media campaign supported by $100m. 

Powered by Cannes Lions’ world class judging systems, judging will be led by senior creative and strategy leads across the five holding companies including: Susan Credle (global chair & global chief creative officer, FCB), Chaka Sobhani (global CCO of Leo Burnett), Luiz Sanches (CCO of BBDO NA), Judy John (global CCO of Edelman) and Debbi Vandeven (global CCO of VMLY&R) .

The submission deadline is Friday, September 15. Judging will take place throughout October, with the winner announced at the end of that month. The winners will also receive a delegate pass to attend Cannes Lions 2024 from the Festival.

For more details please visit www.workingwithcancerpledge.com and link through to the entry platform.

About Working with Cancer

Working with Cancer aims to completely erase the stigma and insecurity of cancer at work. Today, the program initially launched by Publicis Groupe is an alliance of major international companies, with over 600 pledging businesses impacting up to 20 million employees, united by the aim to create an open, supportive and recovery-forward culture for cancer sufferers. The program was recently recognised by Cannes lions with a Grand Prix for Good in Health.

[heavenboy09]

Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊  To 1 Of Britain's Most Distinguished & Dedicated Actors Of The Golden Age Of Acting Of Our Times.

He is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades and is considered a British film icon. He has received various awards including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. As of 2017, the films in which He has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide. He is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in five different decades. In 2000, he received a BAFTA Fellowship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to cinema.

Born On March 14th, 1933 Maurice Joseph Micklewhite on 14 March 1933 at St Olave's Hospital in Rotherhithe, London, England. His English mother, Ellen Frances Marie (née Burchell; 1900–1989), was a cook and charwoman, while his father, also named Maurice Joseph Micklewhite (1899–1956), was a fish market porter of Romani, English and Irish heritage. He was brought up in his mother's Protestant faith.

He had an elder maternal half-brother named David William Burchell, and a younger full brother, Stanley Micklewhite. He grew up in Southwark, London, and during the Second World War was evacuated 100 miles (160 km) north to North Runcton near King's Lynn in Norfolk, where he made his acting debut at the village school and had a pet carthorse called Lottie. After the war, his father was demobilised, and the family were rehoused by the council in Marshall Gardens at the Elephant and Castle in a prefabricated house made in Canada, for much of London's housing stock had been destroyed during the Blitz in 1940–1941:

At the age of 10, He acted in a school play as the father of the ugly sisters in Cinderella. His fly was undone and he got a laugh, and he took on acting based on the laugh. In 1944, He passed his eleven-plus examination, winning a scholarship to Hackney Downs School (formerly The Grocers' Company's School). After a year there he moved to Wilson's Grammar School in Camberwell (now Wilson's School in Wallington, London), which he left at 16 after gaining a School Certificate in six subjects. He then worked briefly as a filing clerk and messenger for a film company in Victoria Street and film producer Jay Lewis in Wardour Street.

Often playing a Cockney, He made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films such as Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), The Italian Job, and Battle of Britain (both 1969).

During this time he established a distinctive visual style wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses combined with sharp suits and a laconic vocal delivery; he was recognized as a style icon of the 1960s. He solidified his stardom with roles in Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and A Bridge Too Far (1977).

He received two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles as Elliot in Woody Allen's comedy Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and as Dr. Wilbur Larch in Lasse Hallström's drama The Cider House Rules (1999). His other Oscar-nominated films include Alfie (1966), Sleuth (1972), Educating Rita (1983), and The Quiet American (2002). Other notable performances include in the films California Suite (1978), Dressed to Kill (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Little Voice (1998), Quills (2000), Children of Men (2006), and Youth (2015).

He is also known for his performance as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), and for his comedic roles in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Miss Congeniality (2000), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), and Secondhand Lions (2003).

He portrayed Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012). He appeared in Nolan's films The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014) and Tenet (2020). He also appeared in the actions films Now You See Me (2013), and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014).

For More Then 7 Seven Decades He Has Graced The Silver Screen & Theater Plays Time & Time & Time Again & To This Very Day.

He Is Undoubtedly The Best British Actor To Day Other Then Noticeable Legendaey British Actors such as Sir Patrick Stewart & Sir John Hurt

Please Wish This Most Outstanding & Distinguished Actor Of The UK 🇬🇧 A Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊

You Know Him.  You Love Him

The 1  & The Only

SIR MICHAEL CAINE  🇬🇧

HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 TO YOU SIR CAINE & HERE'S TO YOU MAKING 100 IN THE YEARS TO COME

[spookysaladchaos]

Global Top 9 Companies Accounted for 54% of total Industrial Router for Remote Access market (QYResearch, 2021)

Remote routers are used to connect remote networks. The remote routers usually support multiple protocols and multiple interfaces in order to connect to the wide area network, such as connecting ISDN, X.25, and DDN networks. The remote router can be set to filter incoming and outgoing data packets, so that the network administrator can control the network load and determine which network nodes can access a given network.

According to the new market research report “Global Industrial Router for Remote Access Market Report 2023-2029”, published by QYResearch, the global Industrial Router for Remote Access market size is projected to reach USD 0.13 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 9.8% during the forecast period.

Figure.   Global Industrial Router for Remote Access Market Size (US$ Million), 2018-2029

Figure.   Global Industrial Router for Remote Access Top 9 Players Ranking and Market Share (Ranking is based on the revenue of 2022, continually updated)

The global key manufacturers of Industrial Router for Remote Access include Red Lion Controls, Westermo, etc. In 2022, the global top three players had a share approximately 54.0% in terms of revenue.

About QYResearch

QYResearch founded in California, USA in 2007.It is a leading global market research and consulting company. With over 16 years’ experience and professional research team in various cities over the world QY Research focuses on management consulting, database and seminar services, IPO consulting, industry chain research and customized research to help our clients in providing non-linear revenue model and make them successful. We are globally recognized for our expansive portfolio of services, good corporate citizenship, and our strong commitment to sustainability. Up to now, we have cooperated with more than 60,000 clients across five continents. Let’s work closely with you and build a bold and better future.

QYResearch is a world-renowned large-scale consulting company. The industry covers various high-tech industry chain market segments, spanning the semiconductor industry chain (semiconductor equipment and parts, semiconductor materials, ICs, Foundry, packaging and testing, discrete devices, sensors, optoelectronic devices), photovoltaic industry chain (equipment, cells, modules, auxiliary material brackets, inverters, power station terminals), new energy automobile industry chain (batteries and materials, auto parts, batteries, motors, electronic control, automotive semiconductors, etc.), communication industry chain (communication system equipment, terminal equipment, electronic components, RF front-end, optical modules, 4G/5G/6G, broadband, IoT, digital economy, AI), advanced materials industry Chain (metal materials, polymer materials, ceramic materials, nano materials, etc.), machinery manufacturing industry chain (CNC machine tools, construction machinery, electrical machinery, 3C automation, industrial robots, lasers, industrial control, drones), food, beverages and pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, agriculture, etc.

[the-firebird69]

When we last talked and I'm handling it the fleet was at about 8 billion and 2 billion went over to Mars and none of them went to Saturn and there it is and try to fool people with stupid talk it's so proud of being able to talk. And they say they use it like a weapon boy they're going to beat up however out of these 6.3 billion remaining 1.2 billion are heating up and the third heating up their weaponry and we're getting hit they're about 5 billion pseudo empire at them and about 3 billion empire and 2 billion US 2 billion foreigners and we're hitting rapidly all of them to have their engine seated up. That leaves five billion I don't know if those chips about 2 billion are trumps no it's about 2.5 billion believe it or not they're technically a little bit better at things easily lately they've been terrible and we are on standby until they heat up then we're going to start hitting we don't even want to see their engines turn on if they do we're going to obliterate them and bja wants out and we say we can't let you leave until certain conditions are met and the pseudo empire says we're not going to let you leave and we won't give Brian an escort out so the fleet is pretty much going to be toast and the fleet off Mars is gone and this is what we came up against the other day they're both going to try and escape to a small planet of iron and what losers and it's disgusting and they all need to be taken care of and really we need to get rid of them they're horrible they give them about 10 minutes they'll probably most of the 1.3 billion are out and that was trumpsters and we are going to move on to their other fleets that the pseudo empire are at and we are taking the Lion's share of this grouping and the other ones as a pseudoemfer empire is giving us gruff and will most likely be the next victims trying to get to Venus as they are not at Saturn they are at Mars and are engaging the clones they probably will have to compete with the clones over the groupings of ships that are remaining and that's a pseudo empire about 75% of the remaining ships and they're all brand new are Donald Trump 25% VGA the minority morlock stayed out of it and really it's to their detriment but that's there for us moving forward it is their prerogative. We are going to be in command of very large fleet by the end of this we are taking our share which is usually 60 to 65% and we are growing and we will keep it that way there's monstrous amounts of work to do. We need to upgrade all of these ships to class A h we need all the diamonds and we need to get working. We need people here to help them get the diamonds because we're going to take our share and we need it immediately and I'm putting it out there as a request and I'm putting the priority of the duty level unfortunately it's never higher than troops on the ground but it is very high without this we will not have troops on the ground I might put them equal today because they are troop support and it's dangerous job and I'm putting it that way now

Thor Freya

It won't always be there but we do see why we need it now and it's very important and very pertinent we're going to condition red and it is because of the morlock reaction to losing their fleet all troops are to active duty all civilians are shelter in place immediately

Olympus

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

This weekend’s MCU developments, fresh out of Comic-Con and on DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE's massive opening weekend, seem to indicate that Disney's trying to make the year 2026 - as I've mentioned before - into their proverbial next 2019.

A repeat of a year where they just dominated with billion dollar smashes, with few valleys in-between... They made *bank* with CAPTAIN MARVEL, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, ALADDIN, TOY STORY 4, THE LION KING, FROZEN II, and STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

Of course, that was a rare occasion where the planets pretty much aligned for them... CAPTAIN MARVEL directly preceded ENDGAME, and of course ENDGAME was the big climax to the entire "Infinity Saga" of the MCU: Three phases, 11 years of movies, all down to that one big battle. ALADDIN and LION KING were remakes of some of Disney's most iconic and beloved animated films. TOY STORY 4, following up the huge smash that was TOY STORY 3 by almost a decade, almost as long of a wait between 2 & 3. FROZEN II, sequel to their animated phenomenon. RISE OF SKYWALKER was the end of the entire Skywalker Saga, 9 movies across five decades...

I think they keep wanting to recreate that, even though the 2020s are a much different time from this past decade, and some of those "brands" are now kinda stale...

So they revealed at Comic-Con that AVENGERS 5 has dropped the Kang stuff altogether, the Russo Brothers have returned to direct (along with SECRET WARS, arriving 2027), Dr. Doom is now the main villain and is played by none other than Robert Downey Jr., and it's called AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY. A lot of fans, from what I understand, are very mixed on this. Some feel it's desperation at this point, after their Kang/multiverse plans for phases 4-6 just didn't seem to pan out, and arguably weren't planned too well in advance - Majors accusations or no Majors accusations. So, go to an iconic villain who has been portrayed in live-action before, and get the beloved actor who played Tony Stark to make his grand return as this all-time Marvel villain that could very well be a thinly-written portrayal that strips the character of what makes him compelling and richly-written in the comics... Maybe, we don't know, the movie's far from being done... But the announcement definitely caught me off guard.

But yeah, add that to 2026... A year with, tentatively, two new STAR WARS movies: THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU, and an untitled movie about Rey 15 years after the events of RISE OF SKYWALKER. Familiar faces. Also TOY STORY 5. And a live-action remake of the beloved MOANA... Though, somewhat differentiating 2026 from 2019 is the possibility of new original movies from the two animation studios: A Pixar in the spring, and a WDAS in the autumn. In 2019, both studios only offered up sequels. There are a couple other slots Disney has for 2026 as well, which will likely go to some 20th Century/Searchlight movies. 2019 was when Disney finished their acquisition of 20th Century, and... The line-up that year was either movies they didn't give a damn about, or just didn't cut it. That was the year of... DARK PHOENIX, STUBER, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN... Movies that didn't get greenlit under Disney's watch, but these 2026 movies will be, so maybe those will do better for them.

So yes, I can kinda tell that Iger's Disney is still chasing that 2019 high. Surefire hits based on old favorites, but I think in the case of the MCU, it really isn't - say - 2017 anymore. Announce both DOOMSDAY and SECRET WARS back then, and the roof is blown off the joint. But we're in 2024 now, and while Deadpool teaming up with Hugh Jackman's iconic go as Wolverine is expectedly doing amazing business, Captain Marvel joining forces with Ms. Marvel and Rambeau (two characters largely established in two Disney+ shows) did horribly, as did a third Ant-Man movie. CAPTAIN AMERICA 4 without Chris Evans, this THUNDERBOLTS* thing, and another go at Marvel's First Family could reverse this, maybe not... Tellingly, BLADE - still ostensibly scheduled for November of next year - didn't get a mention at all during the presentation. We know it has been held up, that they just can't seem to crack what was already done w/o pools full of Disney money back in the 1990s... Maybe it goes to show that something as neat as Blade falls apart when you try to force it into the fractured framework of the MCU. BLADE would've had a much easier time, I feel, if it were being developed during the first two phases w/o Ike Perlmutter around.

I guess at this point, it either opens in fall 2026 after DOOMSDAY releases, or it'll debut after SECRET WARS. I don't know anymore. The MCU was certainly imperfect from the word-go, but the character interactions and dynamics, the fun soap opera-like tricks, and often memorable moments got us through the big tangle of it all. The novelty of this big cinematic universe with all these characters from multiple movies crossing over was just such a real novelty circa 2010-2019, it was done on a scale that no one really saw beforehand. But that has now worn off, what with many of the OGs having died or left. It's not too late to reinvent it, and go a new direction after SECRET WARS. One that doesn't recreate what came before.

I think audiences have gravitated towards that kind of superhero movie now... The likes of the SPIDER-VERSE movies, THE BATMAN, etc. Both a handful of recent MCUs and the last of the old DC movie-verse films largely got rejected, so the tricks of the 2010s no longer work. It's about personal stakes and distinct style and a vision now. Unless it's a pre-established portrayal of a character that audiences love (like Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and Jackman's Wolverine), you gotta be more than just a garden variety CG spectacle. It's why I'm curious as to how James Gunn and Peter Safran will launch the live-action end of their new DC Universe. Do SUPERMAN, SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW, THE AUTHORITY, BRAVE AND THE BOLD, etc. all stand out on their own? Or do they feel like episodes with little to no visual/storytelling differences?

Either Marvel Studios are onto something, or this is some last-ditch attempt to drum up a lot of interest again and make the end of Phase 5 and all of Phase 6 flop-less. Less MARVELS, more GUARDIANS/DEADPOOL 3-sized stuff.

What caught **my** interest the most were the details revealed about their new Fantastic Four film, now titled THE FANTASTIC 4: FIRST STEPS. Continuing their little way of differentiating their movies from the adaptations that came before. Fantastic Four already had two* iterations (*not counting the unreleased 1994 Roger Corman film), the 2005 movie was called FANTASTIC FOUR, as was the 2015 movie, though everyone calls it FANT4STIC. This tells you it's the Marvel Studios MCU F4 movie! Just like how their Hulk movie was THE INCREDIBLE HULK, five years after the release of the 2003 movie HULK. And how their first Spider-Man solo movie added the subtitle HOMECOMING. Also, it's like we get an F4 every 10 years now. The Tim Story-directed movie with Chris Evans in 2005, the next version in 2015, and now this version. Next year. 2025.

It had been teased that this film would have a more '60s flavor to it, which always made sense, given that the Fantastic Four debuted in the early 1960s and directly correlated with space age exploration. The setting of this film is described as a sort-of '60s retro future, and the first look at it certainly confirms it... And what's more, Michael Giacchino is doing the score.

This is literally THE INCREDIBLES!

I remember for many years, some people joked that they didn't need to make a "good" Fantastic Four movie. One already existed: THE INCREDIBLES. And of course, THE INCREDIBLES is highly inspired by the same space age aesthetics that inform the original F4 comics and most superhero/sci-fi stuff of that era. They both have stretchy and invisible characters. And Giacchino did the score for that film. Brad Bird grew up during that period, and it's all over his animated classic. Tim Story's FANTASTIC FOUR was in post-production when THE INCREDIBLES came out, and he had made changes to his movie, fearing similarities that were always inevitable.

So maybe this 2025 movie, part of the MCU, finally works. That Marvel's First Family finally works as a live-action movie, and can stand on its own in a world where an amazing animated equivalent exists. Matt Shakman directs, who helmed WANDAVISION, which had three episodes heavily patterned after sitcoms made in the '50s, '60s, and '70s, so maybe I'll quite like this movie. It's the one future MCU movie, outside of BLADE, that actually has my interest.

[xtruss]

Five Things You Should Know Before Trusting That Supplement

Collagen. Probiotics. Every Letter of Vitamin Under the Sun. Your Local Drugstore is Full of Them—But How Much Do They Actually Do For You?

— By Amy McKeever | February 28, 2024

Rows of Gel Capsules on a Blue Surface. Although Dietary Shupplements have Become a Multibillion-Dollar Industry, they're not all effective—and some could even be harmful. Photograph By Helner Müller-Elsner, Laif/Redux

What if you could take one pill and suddenly have more energy, better skin, and a healthier heart? That’s the promise that beckons every time I walk by the supplements aisle at my local drugstore—filled with fish oil capules, jugs of collagen powder, magnesium chews, and every letter of vitamin under the sun.

It’s tempting. So it’s no wonder that supplements are projected to balloon to a $200-Billion Global Industry By 2025.

But I've always had a healthy dose of skepticism about how much any of these supplements can really do and whether they’re worth the cost. These are some of the insights from our previous reporting on supplements—with the very important caveat that you should always consult your doctor first about health decisions.

1) Supplements Aren’t Strictly Regulated.

Nearly every story we’ve published about supplements hits on one key point: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate dietary supplements in the same way as it does food and drugs—meaning companies don’t need to submit products to the FDA for approval before putting them on the market.

This can lead to some misleading labels. Jen Messer, a registered dietitian and president elect of the New Hampshire Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, pointed our reporter Daryl Austin to an analysis of 57 dietary supplements. It found that 84 percent didn’t contain the amount of ingredients claimed, 40 percent didn’t have any of the ingredients claimed—and 12 percent “contained undeclared ingredients, which is prohibited by the FDA," she said in our November 2023 article.

It also means that companies don’t need to provide the FDA with evidence that their products actually do what their labels purport to do. “It's the Wild West right now,” David Hibbett, a professor of biology at Clark University, told us in our January 2024 story about the booming market of mushroom supplements like chaga and lion’s mane. “The evidence is still very, very limited and, certainly in my mind, does not warrant the very strong marketing of these products as nutritional supplements.”

2) Not Everyone Should Take Them—Even Multivitamins.

I grew up thinking that taking a multivitamin a day was the epitome of health, but this isn’t true for everyone, we reported in June 2023—and you should consult a doctor before you start a daily multivitamin regimen.

There are a few reasons why. For one, multivitamins can interfere with certain drugs like antibiotics or blood thinners. Additionally, people with liver or kidney disease might not be able to efficiently clear the high levels of nutrients contained in a multivitamin. Finally, it’s possible for anyone to get too much of a good thing. (More on this in a bit.)

Ultimately, as with everything, it comes down to your individual needs.

3) The Body Doesn’t Break All Vitamins Down the Same Way.

But it’s not just your own personal health factors to keep in mind. Some vitamins are also absorbed differently in the body—which can make a big difference in deciding whether to take them.

Experts warned in a story we published in November 2023 to be particularly careful with vitamins A and E because they are fat-soluble. This means that the body stores these nutrients in your liver and fatty tissues for future use rather than quickly breaking them down and metabolizing them as it does for other types of vitamins. Large doses of either one could actually harm you.

4) It’s Possible to Overdo It.

As I’ve been alluding to here, there is such a thing as vitamin toxicity—or consuming so much of these nutrients that they actually begin to harm rather than help you.

Take, vitamin A, for example: Exceeding the daily upper intake limit of 3,000 micrograms can ultimately cause issues like joint pain, liver damage, and birth defects. High doses of vitamin E can interfere with blood clotting, causing hemorrhages, among other issues. And an excess of vitamin D can cause nausea, muscle weakness, confusion, vomiting, and dehydration.

5) Food is the Best Way to Get Nutrients.

Many nutrients like collagen and vitamin C are already abundant in the foods that make up a typical diet—and eating whole, unprocessed foods, such as fiber-rich vegetables and fruit, is often a more efficient way to get the vitamins, minerals, and probiotics your body needs, Cleveland Clinic nutritionist Gail Cresci told us in March 2023. “Taking a probiotic or a probiotic supplement," she said, "isn’t going to fix a bad diet."