#Joint Research Centre

[despazito]

Most dog skeletons are mounted incorrectly with the shoulder and hip sockets at equal level. in reality, when living dogs are in motion the hip joint should be aligned near the centre-top of the scapula:

angulation of the scapula and radius+ulna should stay parallel with each other in motion, so does the femur and hocks.

(from Martin Fischer and Karin Lilje's research using XROMM rotoscoping from Dogs in Motion)

[reasonsforhope]

"Canadian scientists have developed a blood test and portable device that can determine the onset of sepsis faster and more accurately than existing methods.

Published today [May 27, 2025] in Nature Communications, the test is more than 90 per cent accurate at identifying those at high risk of developing sepsis and represents a major milestone in the way doctors will evaluate and treat sepsis.

“Sepsis accounts for roughly 20 per cent of all global deaths,” said lead author Dr. Claudia dos Santos, a critical care physician and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital. “Our test could be a powerful game changer, allowing physicians to quickly identify and treat patients before they begin to rapidly deteriorate.”

Sepsis is the body’s extreme reaction to an infection, causing the immune system to start attacking one’s own organs and tissues. It can lead to organ failure and death if not treated quickly. Predicting sepsis is difficult: early symptoms are non-specific, and current tests can take up to 18 hours and require specialized labs. This delay before treatment increases the chance of death by nearly eight per cent per hour.

[Note: The up to 18 hour testing window for sepsis is a huge cause of sepsis-related mortality, because septic shock can kill in as little as 12 hours, long before the tests are even done.]

[Analytical] AI helps predict sepsis

Examining blood samples from more than 3,000 hospital patients with suspected sepsis, researchers from UBC and Sepset, a UBC spin-off biotechnology company, used machine learning to identify a six-gene expression signature “Sepset” that predicted sepsis nine times out of 10, and well before a formal diagnosis. With 248 additional blood samples using RT-PCR, (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction), a common hospital laboratory technique, the test was 94 per cent accurate in detecting early-stage sepsis in patients whose condition was about to worsen.

“This demonstrates the immense value of AI in analyzing extremely complex data to identify the important genes for predicting sepsis and writing an algorithm that predicts sepsis risk with high accuracy,” said co-author Dr. Bob Hancock, UBC professor of microbiology and immunology and CEO of Sepset.

Bringing the test to point of care

To bring the test closer to the bedside, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) developed a portable device they called PowerBlade that uses a drop of blood and an automated sequence of steps to efficiently detect sepsis. Tested with 30 patients, the device was 92 per cent accurate in identifying patients at high risk of sepsis and 89 per cent accurate in ruling out those not at risk.

“PowerBlade delivered results in under three hours. Such a device can make treatment possible wherever a patient may be, including in the emergency room or remote health care units,” said Dr. Hancock.

“By combining cutting-edge microfluidic research with interdisciplinary collaboration across engineering, biology, and medicine, the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT) enables rapid, portable, and accessible testing solutions,” said co-author Dr. Teodor Veres, of the NRC’s Medical Devices Research Centre and CRAFT co-director. CRAFT, a joint venture between the University of Toronto, Unity Health Toronto and the NRC, accelerates the development of innovative devices that can bring high-quality diagnostics to the point of care.

Dr. Hancock’s team, including UBC research associate and co-author Dr. Evan Haney, has also started commercial development of the Sepset signature. “These tests detect the early warnings of sepsis, allowing physicians to act quickly to treat the patient, rather than waiting until the damage is done,” said Dr. Haney."

-via University of British Columbia, May 27, 2025

[dbdphotoproject]

Pergola

📍5630 176 St. Unit 1, Cloverdale, Surrey

Frame Edit Courtesy of: @wordsinhaled

Location bts:

Cloverdale is quite far out compared to many of these locations, so most of my detective work was done online before visiting the area. Once you are in the town centre, the filming locations are close together and you can see several by walking a few blocks.

This was one of the locations I asked George and Jayden about when they did joint cameos, and George mentioned that the pergola was an area that 'Superman & Lois' filmed in frequently. With this information, I spent awhile researching Supergirl and S&L filming locations.

Eventually I found a blog that included Superman & Lois set photos and had one from a parking lot scene with the other half of the pergola in the background. From there I identified the S&L episode and was able to track down the parking lot and confirm it was in Cloverdale.

I figured out the blocking of this scene with the help of a bts photo from Zack Ogle. Here's another photo where you can better see the space between the garden planters where filming took place.

[hyruleairbnb]

I always was interested in natural phenomenons such as diseases weather conditions or mutations. I was working on a series of multiple images showing exact these thematics.

Please consider I portrayed them in loz species due it fits this account. I won’t make fun of one of these conditions. Thank you 👉🏽👈🏽

Im Not sure if Tumblr flags this in your country too but you can read more under the cut 👇🏽

Two headed fish

“Polycephaly is the condition of having more than one head. […] A polycephalic organism may be thought of as one being with a supernumerary body part, or as two or more beings with a shared body.

Two-headed animals (called bicephalic or dicephalic) and three-headed (tricephalic) animals are the only type of multi-headed creatures seen in the real world, and form by the same process as conjoined twins from monozygotic twin embryos.”

Two mouthed fish

I am not sure if this two mouthed fish is a case of Polycephaly too or if this is caused by another condition.

*edit* it's actually an injury not a second mouth. You can see the explanation in the reblogs list

Four legged chicken

“Polymelia is a birth defect in which an affected individual has more than the usual number of limbs. It is a type of dysmelia. In humans and most land-dwelling vertebrates, this means having five or more limbs. The extra limb is most commonly shrunken and/or deformed.

[…] A four-legged chicken was born at Brendle Farms in Somerset, Pennsylvania, in 2005.[6] The story was carried on the major TV network news programs and USA Today. The bird was found living normally among the rest of the chickens after 18 months. She was adopted and named Henrietta by the farm owner's 13-year-old daughter, Ashley, who refuses to sell the chicken.[7] The second (hind) legs are fully formed but non-functional.”

Overgrown beak

Beak abnormalities in birds have several reasons. You can read more in this article , due it would probably be too much for one post.

Stratified rocks

“Diplono Petris near Agios Pavlos in the south of Crete island is one of Europe’s most impressive folded rock formations. The rock strata document an alternation of different limestone layers in the pindos top of the Cretan ceiling pile. These sediments, once deposited in a deeper ocean basin of the Pindos Ocean, were deformed in the course of Alpine fold tectonics, triggered by the Northern Drift of the African Plate against the Eurasian lithospheric plate, which increasingly constricts the present-day Mediterranean as the remainder of the former ocean.”

Hexagon stones

“The Giant’s Causeways consists of over 40,000 basalt hexagonal columns, pretty much all systematically uniform in their shape. What caused this is actually not so unique to this windy coast of Northern Ireland. It is a common feature when a hot, mafic (basalt or dolerite) volcanic rock (either lava at the surface or shallow magma just below the surface) cools and contracts into a hexagonal columns (e.g., Kantha, 1981; Gray, 1986; Budkewitsch and Robin, 1994). The rapidly cooling lava cools from the outside toward the centre which causes contractions, and differences in the way it cools leads to the formation of hexagonal, prismatic column shapes (termed columnar jointing).”

These are some researches I made by my own I am not an expert in any of these fields. In case you have more information or wanting to add or correct an incorrect information, please go ahead and correct in comments or reblog (but be nice we just want to learn )

Thank you very much for reading 🙌🏾

[sir-kettle-of-countertop]

Made an extremely shitty and quick sketch to illustrate a simple idea I had with the shell colouration of Replika. Thoughts?

I like the idea of different types of facilities slightly tailor-fitting their Replikas to reflect them - S-23 is essentially a space gulag that both serves as a mining camp and as a reeducation centre for the undesirables, meanwhile my T-02 (green) is a biological research and preservation centre joint with weaponry production of H-14 (yellow). All different vibes. Gestalts working at the latter two would be WAY more respected and valued, not being, y'kno, prisoners...

Oh and on that note, would there be different variants of Replika posters? Instead of blunt-force promoting patriotism like in Sierpinski they could aim to promote a different kind of propaganda... hmm!

Aaaand cause of it I'll likely do the TINIEST design change for Stein and other T-02 Geiers - so tiny it's kinda infuriating, I'll just change some red stripes to green, so that the fractal tree emblem won't be the ONLY green bit on their shells and that they'll look more in-line with other units. I'll still keep the collar padding, the connecting fiber on their wrists and the "buttons" on their chestplates red, though.

ANYWHO feedback for the ideas greatly appreciated!

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

okay but the fact that we hear all about kaveh's life post-fall out with alhaitham, the fact he graduated, worked at construction firms and continued taking on others' burdens, had a hard time finding solo work because of how arts are perceived in sumeru, that he went to his mother's wedding in fontaine, that he took a vacation from work because he was stifled by the environment and felt he had lost motivation and worth as an artist, was determined to complete the palace of alcazarzaray at the cost of everything he owned just to have a tangible object of his efforts and view of art only for its outcome to further emaciate him, until he meets alhaitham for the first time in years, is understood at once, has no need to don a front as he does for everyone else in his life, is listened to, is challenged once more and reinvigorated in his perception of his ideals, is offered a second chance, a home, and accepts it, although he cannot comprehend why alhaitham would offer such a thing and yet not ask anything of relevant substance in return, other than rent

all of this, and we hear virtually nothing of alhaitham's life post-fall out with kaveh, besides his graduation and his taking on the job of the scribe. his character stories omit this part of his life whereas kaveh's is full of detail and emotion, mostly suffering. the first instance we see of alhaitham in this time is from kaveh's perspective when the two meet again in the tavern, and in this alhaitham endeavours to understand kaveh once more, before offering his house - the research centre previously allocated to the both of them for the success of their joint thesis before they fell apart - to kaveh.

we don't know why alhaitham moved out of his grandmother's house and into the research centre, why he renovated it from a research centre into a livable home, only that he did so after kaveh informed alhaitham through a third party that he was not in need of a house, nor do we know his thought processes and emotions in the years spent apart - the years that are carefully documented in kaveh's character stories. the image we are presented with is that of stasis; alhaitham pursues no other close friendships, he works as the scribe, owns a nice house within sumeru, is financially secure, and functions within, and carries out, his own ideals - is content with this way of life. in this, from alhaitham's perspective, there are no details necessary to give from this time

but in inviting kaveh to live with him, his character stories tell us that what he gains by doing so is the mirror of himself, both in personality and scholarly thinking, and in this, he is able to gain an enhanced view of the world, which otherwise would be limited. with kaveh being present in alhaitham's life, alhaitham believes that his vision is perfected, whereas it could not be before, with kaveh's absence. it is in this that we hear what alhaitham has been missing in his life, and ultimately, it is kaveh, not just as a scholar, but as a person

what is omitted from alhaitham's character stories is provided in kaveh's character stories; where we hear about kaveh's struggles, we don't hear about alhaitham's. perhaps this is because alhaitham did not struggle as kaveh did in terms of realising and achieving his ideals, but instead his struggles were in silence, recognising that his vision, and himself, had been compromised because he had rejected the ideals that served to enhance his own vision, that he had inadvertently rejected, and thus had been rejected by, kaveh.

[rei-ismyname]

X-MEN #9 Review - Raid on Graymalkin 3/4

Crossover events always have a lot of moving parts, keeping track of them while driving the story forward in a coherent fashion has to be a mark of success. X-Men #8 started the event off elegantly, keeping the momentum up until the very last page when the two X-Men squads came face to face. Uncanny #7 muddled that up and didn't get a lot done by slowing down, but X-Men #9 is a worthy successor to the previous issue - it's kinetic and always moving forward, with enough variation in tension to make the big moments hit. Mackay seems to be hitting his stride, which makes me happy.

'They're not just mutants. They're X-Men.' Damn right.

Uncanny #7 put the brakes on by recapping and introducing petty conflict, though it did recontextualise the planning phase of the raid. Rogue came out of it looking petulant and irresponsible - something that I think it's healthy to just accept - I'll discuss that in her book. Here and now it's a problem that our Alaskan team have to navigate, the recklessness of allies blown up in everyone's faces. At least they've stopped fighting. As I said at the start of the event, one of the metrics I'm judging on is how well this event fulfills its promises - primarily a much hyped ideological divide between Rogue and Cyclops.

Immediately we follow up on where Kurt and Psylocke teleported to, after some posturing Kurt theorises that they're being manipulated. They start working together. Nice! This will pay off later without taking up too much space. Call it the C plot. The B plot is the POV of the Graymalkin command centre, with Ellis being the worst and downplaying the X-Men's effectiveness. Captain Ezra disagrees, while Scurvy confirms he's tampering with the X-Men's emotions. Importantly he can't do that and control the Trustees, implying that he was speaking through the Blob and Siryn last issue.

The fight between the two teams of X-Men and Graymalkin's forces takes up quite a lot of the issue. It's well executed with cross-team bonding moments and shows how well they can work together.

Ransom redeems himself a bit after starting this fight by stepping in after Temper is knocked down. There seems to be some chemistry there, which is cute, and also shows that Rogue's team isn't following her lead unthinkingly. It's a good character beat and a reasonable side effect of her poor leadership. The joint X-teams take out the trustees and Wolfpack easily, allowing conversation to resume.

I will say that Marvel has a habit of pairing dark skinned characters romantically, enough to give a slight creepy miscegenation vibe to me. That's probably its own post though, after my white ass does a lot of research.

The argument continues in the command centre, with nobody having changed their mind. Scurvy especially has a defeatist attitude, so Ellis slaps the shit out of him and lets him off the leash. It's revealed he claims to be the equal of Xavier telepathically, with Chuck conceding that he's a concern in the Infinity Comics, but what we've seen in this event has been pretty weak (except for controlling multiple people.) His offensive utility has been underwhelming.

Kurt and Psylocke agree that they shouldn't free Omega Red. Presumably they didn't read X-Force where he'd made a lot of progress reforming and responded well to not being manipulated or controlled. Kinda like Wolverine. I hope that's not undone.

The two X-Men teams are bonding even further, calling back to the old days. They reach a tentative agreement to collaborate, but then the sticking point from Uncanny #7 resurfaces. Ignoring Scott's valid question of whether freeing Charles is a good idea, Rogue insists they free him with no explanation.

Scott doesn't just disagree, he meets Rogue's absolute stance and refuses to allow it. They've both flipped to the opposite of their original positions. Scott wanted to break the prison and Rogue just wanted her people back. This is explicitly the leaders butting heads and Rogue escalates into accusation and chest poking.

Scott keeps his cool and explains his position, removing Rogue's finger from his chest. He makes an excellent point though it could be explained better. The guts of the argument is present, but he doesn't mention the many examples of Charles' oversized influence. He shouldn't really need to, though, and the closeups we get of Logan, Gambit, Magik, Temper and Juggernaut implies they at least think he has a point if not outright agree.

This is an ideological difference between the two, as promised, but it doesn't look like Rogue is coming from a place of reason. She doesn't respond to his argument or show any empathy for his uniquely informed position. Scott knows better than anyone what Xavier is like, having been his child soldier since he was 15. Rogue should absolutely know he has a point, too, but she's not interested in hearing it. Rogue delivers a violent ultimatum and Scott pushes back, standing his ground by putting his body in between her and Charles. It's disappointing in the sense that it's a bad outcome, but it's consistent with Rogue's cowboy characterisation so far. She knows best and isn't interested in talking about it. We don't actually know if Scurvy is still affecting them, as he's not controlling the trustees anymore.

Then this clown shows up, interrupting the argument. Scurvy makes a badass boast, though it's not quite clear what he's actually doing beyond 'psychic attack.' Nobody attempts to use Red Triangle protocol but maybe it doesn't work that way. It's implied he's a telekinetic as well, though his reason for believing in this 'dream' isn't fleshed out just yet. Working with Ellis I'd assume would be against his interests, and a new psychic rivalling Chuck should be significant. Maybe he's a product of 3K. My question is - if he can do this, why bother with weak emotional tweaks? He seemed reluctant to enact White Light Protocol but we don't know why.

Famously, The Juggernaut has impeccable psychic defences while wearing the helmet, so he tries to get the door open thinking they need Charles to take this guy down. I wonder if Quentin would be able to thrash him? Probably, though he was taken out last issue.

Surprisingly, Charles Xavier casually strolls up flanked by Kurt and Psylocke. Interestingly their faces are pointedly covered by hair, so I'm not sure this can be taken at face value. Chuck reveals he's not Inmate X and does a heavy handed title drop for the reboot line.

The issue ends there on another cliffhanger with Raid on Graymalkin to be concluded in Uncanny X-Men issue #8. X-Men #9 was solid, a slight step down from #8 but with the inherited responsibility to follow Uncanny #7's chaotic plotting and sluggish momentum. I give it a pass for that, though it would have been nice to continue the Rogue/Cyclops discourse in a linear fashion. That wasn't possible without leaving out crucial information and development so I give it a pass on that. Importantly, the promised ideological divide was actually developed. It felt like a genuine disagreement the two might have, and I loved the atypical layout that gave us the team members' reactions to Scott's reasoning. That's important as these people all have extensive experience with Charles Xavier and a stake in the outcome. Rogue came across as unreasonable and impetuous as she's been characterised this era. While I don't think it's a good look for her, I can appreciate the consistency. If this is where Rogue is at right now there's plenty of conflict and drama to be had there.

Part of the problem with this event's tension is rampant editorialising. We more or less know how this ends so the execution needs to be excellent. Mackay and Stegman have done their part really well, though I'll be reserving my judgement on the promise that needs paying off - the Rogue Cyclops Schism - for when Uncanny finishes the event. If that is actually Xavier I'd expect him to dominate the narrative but I expect he'll choose to stay as @mkpersephone theorised. That will be a problem for selling the ideological divide believably, but it's on Simone to land that plane. My one complaint about missing story beats is Scott's team being acutely aware of the consequences for the Raid. I think a reminder would have been helpful, preferably said to Rogue's face.

Looky look, a blanked out data page! How very Krakoan of them :). Who's your guess for Inmate X? Shaw? Legion? Colossus? Omega Red? xZibit? Exodus? Angus MacWhirter? Briar Raleigh? I've got no idea. Exceptional X-Men #4 review coming soon! ❤️

[shadesofecclescakes]

Wavelengths and Frequencies Chapter 18!

We have a new chapter! Woo!

Posting these last couple chapters has been a slog, so if you've been reading this fic by myself and Impostersyndrome/ @maaikeatthefullmoon then THANK YOU!!

We are two weirdos who accidentally met being simultaneously weird on the internet and ended up making something so fucking fun. Fun because we look forward to waking up and seeing what the other person has left for us from their part of the world and fun because every time we finally manage to post that stuff on AO3 so many of you come hang out in the comments section and bring the most thoughtful and fascinating takes. And jokes! You fuckers are funny.

Our fic is generally light hearted, but here's some proof we can occasionally dip into some mildly angsty territory.

The hallway he walks down is miles long. He’s passing doors on his left and right but he knows none of them are the correct one.  The door he wants is the one at the end of the hallway. He’s looking forward to getting to the door but he can’t seem to get there. But he keeps walking, determined. He knows who is behind the door. And he knows why he needs to get to the door. It’s his friend’s studio flat, and he’s going there to work on their third year research projects. He keeps walking. More doors flash past. Eventually he reaches the intended door. He lifts his hand and knocks, three times. Knock.  Knock.  Knock. A blonde halo of curls appears above a smile. He looks over his friend’s shoulder, into the flat. The lights are dimmed. There is a table, set for two, with a vase of daffodils and a candle burning in the centre. Confused, he looks at Aziraphale, who is still smiling at him - until the smile falters, stops.  Crowley backs up, shakes his head, holds up his hands. He turns.  He leaves. Crowley woke with a startled gasp. It wasn’t the first time he’d had the dream. If it even counted as a dream. He’d started having it–at first rarely but the instances had been increasing– around the time a certain someone started working in the studio next door. When did something stop being a recollection and start being a dream? He supposed there were differences: the corridor hadn’t been that long, there hadn’t been that many doors. Aziraphale’s door hadn’t even been at the end of the corridor, it had just been one of many on that particular floor. But the table with its candle, the two place settings - complete with wine glasses, that had happened. And Aziraphale’s face falling as Crowley had shook his head in denial of the scene in front of him. As he’d turned and left, walking as fast as he could without breaking into a full-out run. And he could swear - could swear - he could still smell him. At the time Aziraphale usually smelled of CK One[1] , warm, citrusy laundry soap and chalkboard chalk from helping the professor beat their erasers after class because of course he did.  It had been January 1992, their third year of University. Despite having two different aims - Aziraphale’s focus was music history, whereas Crowley’s was ethnomusicology - they had both chosen the same general subject[2] and McDormand, their joint Musicianship Supervisor, had encouraged them to share their research and to work together. After spending an afternoon whispering in a corner in the Pendlebury[3] , Aziraphale had invited him to his flat to work more comfortably and at a more normal volume. Or so Crowley had thought.

Find the rest of the chaos chapter on AO3 here!

[envihellbender]

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher’s Saw trap

Rating: Mature

Fandom: Scream / Saw

Characters: Billy Loomis, Stu Macher, John Kramer

—

Billy Loomis

Billy woke up with an aching head and joints somewhere that wasn’t his bed, in fact he he was sat on a chair and forced into an unyielding, painful position. The seat however was instantly recognisable. It was the cushioned kind from the duplex cinema in Woodsboro. However, he could tell from the bright lighting hitting his eyes that he wasn’t in the comforting dark. He attempted to move his legs to no avail, he never fell asleep sitting up and his joints were furious about it. He opened his eyes squinting and groaning as his pupils tried to adjust. He looked down at his torso as his vision blurred, he was wearing his blue check pyjama bottoms and a loose The Exorcist t-shirt. He’d only been wearing it because he went to get a can of Pepsi from the kitchen and it was too cold to be shirtless. That was the last thing he remembered, his bare feet against the carpeted stairs that creaked beneath him. Now his arms were strapped in with leather cuffs which rubbed against his wrists, and it was clear the same were against his ankles. His bare feet were cold against the tiles, his toes growing numb. He looked up, his eyes finally adjusting, and finally looked around.

The cinema chair had been ripped out of the duplex in which it sat and placed inside a cold, filthy room, and was surrounded by large film cameras with LED lights pointed at him. Above the two cameras that were opposite him had a television screen above it. When Billy looked up he saw that hanging from the leather cuff on his right on string was a silver tape recorder. The panic that had been building in his chest turned to excitement, his fingers scrambling with the string and his fingers shaking as he hit play. A mixture of panic and excitement filling his stomach and chest.

“Hello Billy,” the tape crackled. “I think you already know where you are. You have spent so much time researching every single news story to do with the infamous Jigsaw and the rest of it watching movie after movie after movie. You’re so desperate to be the centre of such a production that you idolise those who remind you of the serial killers on the screen. So much so you’ve begun to mimic the crimes you love on the students at your high school.

“Isn’t it time you learned life isn’t a movie? That adoration and attention from strangers means nothing? It’s time to make your wish come true. Around you all the cameras are rolling for 10 minutes, capturing every moment of your encounter with your idol Jigsaw. When the clock reaches zero your film will be complete and will be distributed on a mass scale, everyone will know your name and face. Isn’t that just what you wanted?

“Of course, what they’ll see is your final moments. They’ll see the very minute that the chair beneath you will begin to feel two thousand volts shock through your body. Just like the serial killers you idolise

“You can keep your life, and no one will ever see it. Or you can die, and have it be shown in every cinema screen in the country. Make your choice. Lights, camera, action.” The tape clicked as it finished and left a silent anticipation in its wake.

“Holy shit,” Billy whispered to himself, a wide grin spreading across his face as it sunk in. He had actually gotten the Jigsaw Killer’s attention. He pulled on his restraints and looked around searching for some kind of clue on how to proceed. When he tugged particularly hard on his wrist restraints the chair leaned forward. A grin spread across his face, a manic, anxious one, and he threw all of his body weight forward so that he could lean on his feet and start making some progress. He made it about a foot before he stopped and fell back into the chair. Is this what he really wanted to do?

If he went to the camera, turned it off, escaped a trap… Well, he was a survivor of the Jigsaw killer. He’d be on the news for a while maybe, but that was it. If he stayed put, he let the camera go on and he’d be immortalised forever. Maybe if he could take down Jigsaw, be the final girl (or guy in this case), it’d be different… But no one remembered the ones who got away with nothing to show for it. The really brutal deaths, though? The kind that get immortalised on film? That was memorable. Billy stopped shifting the chair, and looked directly into the nearest camera with a delighted smile on his face.

“Lights, camera, action,” he smirked.

Stu Macher

The first thing Stu noticed is that his cheek burned, when he opened his eyes he realised he’d fallen asleep on the cheap carpet at the cinema. When he sat up properly, hand gripping his thundering temples he realised that he wasn’t at the duplex at all. He was in what looked like a small, storage room at a warehouse that had been cleaned out. All that was there was a ragged scrap of the exact carpet from the movies, and on top of it an old VHS tape. On the cover was a photograph of Casey, the third kill of Billy and second kill of Stu. She was hanging upside down on the tree and in the same font as the Halloween movies was the words “THE GHOSTFACE MURDERS”. Stu giggled as he saw it, he picked it up, to hear a rattle inside. When he opened it there was a silver tape recorder with ‘play me’ written across it.

“If you say so, weird kidnapper guy,” Stu said to himself, he had a grin on his face but the shake in his voice and the way his right wrist spasmed showed his nerves.

“Hello Stuart,” the voice crackled. Stu gasped and giggled to himself. He paused it instantly.

“Oh, hell yeah! Jigsaw, Billy’s gonna be psyched,” Stu shouted into the room, louder than he intended. He resumed the tape.

“Yes. Hello Stuart. Not Billy Loomis. Stuart. Or Stu as your friends call you. I want to play a game. How long have you waited to hear those words? Maybe not as long as Billy Loomis has. It was never really about me though, was it, Stu? Do you think when you next see Billy he’ll be impressed? Surprised? Angry that it wasn’t him? The first person who wants to be with you, after your mother and father sent you to torturous, abusive therapy, and with only your sister for company. Just you and a girl who you spend most days fighting with. Surrounding yourself with pain and anger, living only for what you see on the big screen. Do you think this would make a good movie, Stu?

“Of course, we need to get to the twist. Inside your body is a large quantity of digitalis. You have two hours to get to the antidote, but the person who has the key is stuck on someone else. Locked on the otherwise of that door is a young man. He had one of two choices: save himself and live life as a nobody, or die and fulfill his dream of being a true horror icon. If he saves himself, the key will be easy to recover, if he is determined to die in his trap, the only way out will be to take matters into your own hands. Everything you need is in this room. Make your choice.”

The recorder clicked, Stu stared at it in silence, the killing part he didn’t mind. He’d already taken out two different people, a third was par for the course. The thing that the distorted voice said that tightened around his spine was the amount of knowledge he’d had about Stu’s life. He’d learned from a young age to keep things private and hidden, speaking too much got him into trouble and made himself an easy target. The only time anyone saw behind the Macher family’s front door was when Stu brought Billy home or when Stu rang the police because how much his father was beating his sister. He didn’t know what to do when Billy wasn’t there, and he had a horrible feeling Billy would be waiting for him right on the otherside of the door.

[lostinhistory]

Heritage News of the Week

Discoveries!

As construction crews churned up dirt to renovate a football pitch in Vienna last October, they happened upon an unprecedented find: a heap of intertwined skeletal remains in a mass grave dating to the first-century Roman empire, most likely the bodies of warriors killed in a battle involving Germanic tribes.

Obsidian artifacts unearthed in Alberta offer new clues on prehistoric trade routes

Inky black shards of volcanic glass unearthed in Alberta are helping researchers trace the movements of Indigenous people across Western Canada centuries ago.

“House of Life” among new discoveries at the Ramesseum

A joint French and Egyptian archaeological mission has made several major new discoveries at the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple for Ramesses II.

Walls of ancient Greek colony of Selinunte discovered

Italian authorities announced a series of new discoveries at the site of Selinunte that underscore the city’s illustrious past

A life-sized statue of a bejeweled ancient priestess is unearthed in Pompeii

Archaeologists in Pompeii have made the astonishing discovery of two life-sized relief sculptures of a man and a woman draped in classical robes. The pair, possibly husband and wife, stand within a niche on the boundary wall of a monumental ancient tomb.

Ukrainian soldiers unearth ancient Greek burial

Ukrainian soldiers digging defensive fortifications stumbled upon an ancient Greek burial site in southern Ukraine.

Tiny pot!

Ancient mausoleum with gladiator’s epitaph unearthed in Italy

Archaeologists excavating a necropolis in Liternum Archaeological Park in Campania, southern Italy, have uncovered two ornate funerary enclosures, one of which belonged to a gladiator and bears an epitaph etched in marble.

Researchers study erratic boulders from Frosh Giant legends

A study funded by The National Science Centre, Poland, has analysed both the geological and mythical origins of the erratic boulders scattered across northern Poland.

Rare wall paintings found in Cumbria show tastes of well-off Tudors

Rare and fantastical 16th-century wall paintings which shine light on the interior design tastes of well-off Tudors have been revealed in a former hunting lodge.

3-year-old picks up 'beautiful stone,' discovers 3,800-year-old scarab amulet in Israel

A 3-year-old girl who was walking with her family along a trail in Israel unexpectedly found a piece of history: a 3,800-year-old scarab amulet.

Extensive Roman settlement found beyond the borders of the Roman Empire

Archaeologists excavating in Delbrück-Bentfeld, northwestern Germany, have uncovered evidence of an extensive Roman-era settlement beyond the borders of the Roman Empire.

More caves discovered in Nottingham’s hidden subterranean world

Nottingham, nestled in England’s East Midlands, is famously known as the legendary home of Robin Hood. But beyond its folklore, the city also boasts the UK’s largest network of caves, carved by hand into the soft sandstone bedrock as early as the 9th century AD.

Stunning reconstruction reveals warrior and his weapons from 4,000-year-old burial in Siberia

A new full-body reconstruction depicts a warrior wearing armor and holding weapons, all of which were found in a 4,000-year-old burial in Siberia.

Hallstatt dagger discovered on Baltic Coast

Researchers from the St. Cordula Association for the Protection of Monuments have discovered a rare Hallstatt-era dagger, revealed after a storm caused a section of a Baltic Sea cliff to collapse.

Unknown human lineage lived in 'Green Sahara' 7,000 years ago, ancient DNA reveals

Researchers analyzed the ancient DNA of two mummies from what is now Libya to learn about people who lived in the "Green Sahara" 7,000 years ago.

AI assists archaeologist in mapping Angkorian-period structures

Archaeologists have created deep learning models, specifically with DeepLab V3+, for semantic segmentation to identify previously unknown reservoirs from the Angkor period.

Researchers posit new theory about children's role in prehistory

A new study suggests that children may have played a special role as mediators between the physical and spiritual worlds,

Traces of Ecuador’s first colonial-era city unearthed in Riobamba

Archaeologists from Ecuador’s National Institute of Cultural Heritage have uncovered remnants of an early colonial-era city that was destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 1797.

Oldest vanilla pod in Europe found in Prague

Excavations within Prague Castle yielded the oldest vanilla bean pod in Europe. Radiocarbon dating indicates that it was placed there between 1513 and 1666, a time that coincided with the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II.

Museums

From Guy Burgess’s briefcase to microdots secreted in talc, an exhibition reveals remarkable items from the agency’s archives – and the extraordinary stories behind them

Take two Van Goghs daily: the growing popularity of museum prescriptions

Research backs schemes that encourage doctors to prescribe time in cultural institutions to boost mental health and reduce loneliness

Smithsonian director pledges museum’s independence amid White House order of internal review

The Smithsonian Institution’s leadership is standing firm after the Trump administration ordered a review last month of its exhibits, accusing the museum network of pushing a “race-centered ideology.”

Dozens of museum agency workers put on leave amid Trump overhaul

Processing of 2025 grant applications has been halted after Trump moved to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

US museums seek to provide safe spaces for LGBTQ+ communities amid government rollbacks of their rights

As Republicans and the Trump administration target DEI initiatives and queer and trans communities, vocal leaders at a few institutions are standing firm

Three historical treasures rescued from London’s River Thames

Thanks to the efforts of mudlarks, Londoners can marvel at Tudor headwear and an elaborate Viking weapon.

God, I wish I could see this exhibit

'Last in England' smashed medieval statue recreated

A 15th century statue that was found smashed into 170 fragments behind a church wall has been painstakingly pieced together using computer animation.

Museums in southern Brazil still recovering after last year’s floods

Damage and destruction decimated visitor numbers to cultural events and institutions last year but optimism is high they will return in 2025

Yorkshire Museum crowdfunds to acquire ‘game-changing’ iron age hoard

The Yorkshire Museum in York is close to raising £30,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to acquire a major iron age hoard recently discovered in the local area by a metal detectorist.

Medieval scroll found in shoebox goes on display

A rare medieval illuminated manuscript uncovered in the archive of a York convent is going on display for the very first time.

Museums are losing social media followers amid users' mass X-odus

Some institutions have ditched their accounts in protest, while others have chosen to “quiet quit” and stopped posting on the Elon Musk-owned platform

Repatriation

The famed museum recently returned a 12th-century Buddha sculpture that it says was stolen from the Kathmandu Valley. However, the institute’s announcement failed to mention the statue had once belonged to wealthy donor Marilynn Alsdorf.

Heritage at risk

Videos of Sudan’s national museum showing empty rooms, piles of rubble and broken artefacts posted on social media after the Sudanese army recaptured the area from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in recent days show the extent of looting of the country’s antiquities.

EPA head shutters agency’s National Environmental Museum

In a statement issued on March 31, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the closure would save taxpayers about $600,000 per year. The small museum was created in 2016, dedicated to the nation’s environmental history, and included exhibits about prevention measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, environmental justice, and efforts to address climate change.

$600,000 a year is like one day of the military budget

ETA: I have been informed it's actually less than 30 seconds of the daily military budget o_O

Historians condemn executive order targeting Smithsonian

The American Historical Association, a D.C.-based advocacy group, has issued a statement condemning a recent White House executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, which relies on federal funding to drive a significant part of its operation.

New York Attorney General sues Trump administration over museum and library funding cuts

New York State Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit—alongside 20 other attorneys general—against the Trump administration over an executive order that effectively shuts down three federal agencies responsible for supporting libraries, museums, minority-owned businesses, and labor mediation services.

What the dismantling of USAID means for world heritage

Does USAID still exist? For the heritage world, this – and the fate of heritage projects connected to shrinking amounts of development funding more generally – is a pressing one. Building on previous American efforts in technical assistance during the early years of the cold war, the Kennedy administration founded USAID in 1961 at the start of the UN’s first ‘Development Decade’. Under the second Trump administration, however, the organisation has found itself cut to ribbons.

Odds and ends

Amid the site in rural Jamaica that once belonged to a Guardian financier may lie a treasure trove of artefacts that tell the story of Britain’s history of colonisation and enslavement.

Bid to boost Hadrian's Wall dog ranger volunteers

Volunteer dog rangers are being recruited to help visitors at Hadrian's Wall. Current rangers - golden retriever Mr Darcy and Bear, a mioritic shepherd dog - have been walking the area since last summer along with their owners, who offer advice and hand out poo bags, water and treats.

The best museum volunteers

Salvaging the historic tiles of California’s burned fireplaces

After devastating fires blazed through the region, residents are holding on to the intricate glazed tiles that survived — small but meaningful remnants of their homes.

Dublin's Molly Malone statue to get stewards to stop 'groping'

Stewards are to be stationed next to a statue of Molly Malone in Dublin to discourage people from touching it. Dublin City Council is running a pilot scheme for a week in May after complaints of people groping the sculpture's breasts.

Cute when it's a dog statue, weird and kind of gross when it's a woman

'I love my country': Ken Burns on showing the dark parts of US history

Ahead of his upcoming PBS documentary, The American Revolution, acclaimed film-maker Ken Burns tells BBC special correspondent Katty Kay about his unique approach to chronicling US history, from war and conflict to baseball and jazz.

In search of Greece's once-great Jewish city

Once home to a thriving Jewish majority, Thessaloniki holds fragments of a lost world. One traveller's journey to find them leads to something even more powerful: living memory.

Point:

Counterpoint:

Dinosaur tracks uncovered at site of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s refuge

When Bonnie Prince Charlie fled the Scottish Highlands after defeat at the Battle of Culloden, his route may have crossed the fossilised footsteps of massive meat-eating dinosaurs, researchers say.

Bonnie Prince Charlie being eaten by a theropod would be an incredible ending to Outlander

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Titan’s mysterious wobbling atmosphere

The puzzling behaviour of Titan’s atmosphere has been revealed by researchers at the University of Bristol for the first time.

By analysing data from the Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint venture between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency, the team have shown that the thick, hazy atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon doesn’t spin in line with its surface, but instead wobbles like a gyroscope, shifting with the seasons.

Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a significant atmosphere, and one that has long captivated planetary scientists. Now, after 13 years of thermal infrared observations from Cassini, researchers have tracked how Titan’s atmosphere tilts and shifts over time.

“The behaviour of Titan’s atmospheric tilt is very strange!” said Lucy Wright, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences. “Titan’s atmosphere appears to be acting like a gyroscope, stabilising itself in space.

“We think some event in the past may have knocked the atmosphere off its spin axis, causing it to wobble.

“Even more intriguingly, we’ve found that the size of this tilt changes with Titan’s seasons.”

The team studied the symmetry of Titan’s atmospheric temperature field and found that it isn’t centred exactly on the pole, as expected. Instead, it shifts over time, in step with Titan’s long seasonal cycle—each year on Titan lasts nearly 30 years on Earth.

Professor Nick Teanby, co-author and planetary scientist at Bristol said: “What’s puzzling is how the tilt direction remains fixed in space, rather than being influenced by the Sun or Saturn.

“That would’ve given us clues to the cause. Instead, we’ve got a new mystery on our hands.”

This discovery will impact NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission, a drone-like rotorcraft scheduled to arrive at Titan in the 2030s. As Dragonfly descends through the atmosphere, it will be carried by Titan’s fast-moving winds—winds that are about 20 times faster than the rotation of the surface.

Understanding how the atmosphere wobbles with the seasons is crucial for calculating the landing trajectory of Dragonfly. The tilt affects how the payload will be carried through the air, so this research can help engineers better predict where it will touch down.

Dr Conor Nixon, planetary scientist at NASA Goddard and co-author of the study, added: “Our work shows that there are still remarkable discoveries to be made in Cassini’s archive.

“This instrument, partly built in the UK, journeyed across the Solar System and continues to give us valuable scientific returns.

“The fact that Titan’s atmosphere behaves like a spinning top disconnected from its surface raises fascinating questions—not just for Titan, but for understanding atmospheric physics more broadly, including on Earth.”

The team’s findings contribute to a growing body of research suggesting Titan is not just Earth-like in appearance but an alien world with climate systems all its own, and many secrets still hidden beneath its golden haze.

TOP IMAGE: Purple haze around Titan – A false-colour image of Titan captured in 2004 by the Cassini spacecraft. The purple haze shows the dense atmosphere enveloping the moon’s golden body. Credit NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

LOWER IMAGE: The wobble of Titan’s atmosphere. The atmosphere is tilted relative to Titan’s solid body, and this tilt varies in size and direction Credit Titan image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Diagram by Lucy Wright

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

New genetic database sheds light on Brazil’s ancestry and disease risks

Since the human genome was first sequenced in 2003, the world's scientific community has been racing to decipher this "book" written in an alphabet of four letters. The applications of these discoveries range from disease detection and the design of personalized treatments to increasing our understanding of human evolution.

However, much of the genetic information generated over these decades lacks ethnic diversity. This under-representation limits the benefits of medical genomic research for many populations and leaves much of our evolutionary history in the dark.

For the first time, an international study under the joint leadership of Spain's Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and the University of São Paulo, has deciphered the genome of the population of Brazil. Published in the journal Science, the research includes the African, Native American, and European ancestries making up this population, which has the world's highest level of recent genetic admixture.

Continue reading.

Tagging @mindblowingscience

[squarebracketsmileyface]

I hope this is ok to ask. I know I've seen you post about a "Brian lives" au where he's in a wheelchair after the fall, and other wheelchair-related posts. And I'm attempting to do my own fic research, but like, I don't even really know what kind of manual chair options there are. I've got bad joints, my experience is limited to like, braces and canes. And I guess I was wondering if you had any advice, any things that annoy you when people get them wrong, stuff like that.

Okay, I don't even know where to start but I do have thoughts. So, for types of manual wheelchair I don't know how much you already know so I'm just gonna give like, bunch of stuff lol. This is also a bit all over the place, I just wrote about things in the order I thought of them.

Okay, this has turned out INCREDIBLY long, but I hope it's helpful? It was very fun to do, honestly, I love talking about my chair and writing and reading characters who are in wheelchairs, so this was a fun way to spend my afternoon before therapy.

Also for things that annoy me when people get them wrong, honestly not much, I'm usually so overjoyed at seeing a wheelchair using character that all mistakes and little things the writer gets wrong don't bother me at all. Because "omg they're like me and you weren't afraid/disgusted to write it :D"

So I guess there's like, the difference between just general manual wheelchairs and active manual wheelchairs? Like, yeah a chair can technically be self propelled, but some of them are very basic, like, not made to measure, pretty heavy and difficult to move around it because of that, especially if you have like, any sort of weakness or injury in your shoulders. A lot of it leans on what sorts of injuries and disabilities Brian has after his fall, whether it's just affecting his legs or if it's whole body, and how it's affecting his legs, paralysis or what.

Chances he'd want to go for an active wheelchair that's made to fit him, so it's got the right centre of balance for wheelies to get up little bumps and stuff. Cos god, idk about you but drop curbs where I am don't actually drop to flush with the road like they probably should, and until i took my whole chair apart and made it fit me myself like wheelchair services should have before giving it to me, my front casters would ALWAYS get stuck on that like, inch of a bump up. I nearly got tipped out of my chair so many times because I couldn't wheelie to get up that rise, because the chair was massively too big for me and had it's centre of gravity in the wrong place. I have what's technically counted as an active wheelchair, but its about as cheap as you can get for an active wheelchair so it has/had all the above issues. BUT even with a shit chair you can do things yourself to fix them at least a bit, they're all bolted together so you can lower the body of it so your arms reach where they're meant to on the wheels, you can change the angle the seat's at by changing the height of your casters which can make it more or less easy to do a wheelie (or top over backwards by accident lol)

There's also attachments for manual wheelchairs that can make them semi electric/power. Like, you can get all sorts of power assist devices, some attach to the wheels themselves, others push from behind, some attach at the front and turn your chair into a kind of three wheeled electric bicycle. And those can be insanely useful if you fatigue easily, have to do a lot of uphills, have weak or easily injured shoulders etc.

There's a lot of other attachments that can be useful to have too, though they're obviously not necessary. Like, you can have a "Free Wheel" (which I think is a brand, but I tend to see it used to just describe this thing in general honestly) that attached to the front of your chair and lifts up your casters so you can go off road without your casters getting caught in stuff. It's like a single wheel that comes out the front.

Yeah here we are, it's this thing

Also when it comes to casters, the larger your casters are the better able to handle tougher terrain they are (read: shitty and cracked streets in towns and cities as well as rough but solid paths). Though I've found that the tradeoff with having larger casters is that if your chair is a little too wide for you your feet will tend to sit near the outside of your footplate, and when you turn the casters will hit your heels and knock your feet off the plate, and then you can run them over 💀. I fixed that for myself (because I can't just make my chair narrower to correctly fit my hips) by making a strap to go behind my legs, and because it's a little loose my feet back sit back as far as they need to be comfy, and the casters won't hit my heels because the strap pushes me feet I to the centre of my footplates.

⏫ with strap attached (without shoes my feet then fall down between the footplates, but with shoes on they're fine lol)

⏫ without strap. It's generally much more uncomfy on my hips, as well as my feet having to sit really far forwards to stop the casters hitting my heels.

There are straps built into the footplates, but so far I haven't found a way to use them that doesn't push my feet further apart and into the path of the casters, so I've got them wrapped out of the way instead. Occasionally on really bumpy ground, e.g. cobbled/really old bricked streets I'll put the toes of my shoes under those straps with them still wrapped just to make sure my feet don't get bounded forwards out of the footplates just by the rough terrain.

Different chairs also pack down differently. On most (maybe all but I don't 100% know) active chairs the big wheels come off, usually using a button in the centre, which can make the chair a lot smaller and lighter for lifting into the car, especially if youre having to lift it in over yourself. Some chairs can fold in on themselves down the centre which can make them way smaller to fit in a car, and others I've seen only have their backs fold down (if they have a tall enough back. Mine does both which is very useful, though I have noticed that in certain terrain my chair tries to shut on me 💀

I think the chairs that only fold at the back and not down the middle are called rigid framed wheelchairs? I think lol

And as you can see from my chair, you can make it your own, not just by making it fit you better if it doesn't when you get it, but you can put fun little things on it. I've obviously got my foot/leg strap thingy, but I also put bicycle spoke covers in the spokes to make them fun, as well as getting a couple of bicycle bottle holders and attaching them to my chair. I use them to carry little things I don't want in my lap, so water bottles sometimes, random bits and bobs, even my phone and wallet sometimes because of their placement.

They don't get in the way of my legs, but for anyone to get their hand into them they'd have to crouch down beside me, avoid my wheels, brakes and the frame of my chair if they're going in from the side, or they'd have to crouch in front of me and go through my legs, so they're honestly really secure. Way more secure than my rucksack which I sling over the back of my chair. The water bottle holders also touch either the side or the back of my calf at all times, so I can feel if they move at all.

You can also get wheelchair specific bags (or just use a fannypack/bumbag) that sit under the seat of the chair, which can be pretty secure to keep things in. Definitely more secure than a bag on the back of your chair. My chair also has a little pocket attached to the fabric seat my cushion sits on, which is very good for keeping things you're not gonna constantly be wanting to grab completely safe. Mine just holds all my Alan keys and the little wrench for adjusting the chair.

Oh yeah seats! You can also get solid seats on chairs, rather than the fabric sling style ones like mine has, as well as all sorts of different cushions depending on your needs. Some people have seats that mold to the shape of them to help with pain and reduce pressure sores, especially if they're a full time wheelchair user and can't easily move around to take pressure off their butt and thighs etc. though, you can lift yourself up with your hands pressing down on your armrests (if you have them) or just on the top of your wheel which can give you a break from any pressure on your butt and thighs etc, which is good. I often find my back gets very stiff and compressed feeling if I have to be in my chair for a long time and using my armrests to lift myself up can help loosen that all out again and reduce any pain I might otherwise end up with.

Backrests are something that can be customised too, some people have a very low backrest because they don't need much support for their spine, others might have one that only comes up about halfway if they need a little support, and some have backs that come up further. Mine reaches the bottom of my shoulder blades which is okay for leaning on (once I got the adjustable straps in the back sorted so it gave me the right support where I need it) but can also get in the way of your arms when you reach back to push, as your arms can hit the backrest.

My backrest is just fabric with velcro straps under it, so it's pretty soft, not rigid except for the metal uprights on each side, but other chairs can have rigid backrests with a cushion.

Alongside backrests, for support, some chairs have seatbelts which can help keep you in the chair if you need it. It all depends on what support someone needs, the type of injury or disability they have, and most things with a good wheelchair can be completely tailored to what you need.

Push handles go along with the backrest and are also customisable. Some chairs have none, especially a lot of active chairs because the people using them might not need to be pushed by anyone, but others have rigid push handles if the person using them often needs to be pushed around due to fatigue or pain etc. some chairs also have push handles that can be folded down out of the way or pushed down entirely to be out of the way so that people have a harder time just grabbing you and pushing you out of their way. Which, yeah, that's annoying, that's a thing :/

You get a lot of stares sometimes and in shops sometimes people will just pull or push you out of the way like you're an abandoned trolley blocking the aisle. This has never happened to me while I've been with someone, though, only when I've been alone. I guess they see the walking person and remember I'm also a human not an abandoned trolley? Idk lol.

Oh yeah you can also get anti-tippers which are often recommended when you're new to using a wheelchair, so that you don't go over backwards as easily. Mine spin round so they can either be useable or not. They don't stick out too far behind the chair, but it is a good couple inches, and the lift up to my therapists office doesn't fit my chair in if I have my anti-tippers out. They were very useful when I was first learning to use my wheelchair, because with the centre of gravity off I either couldn't do a wheelie, or went all the way over backwards with no in between. Now that I fixed my chair though, I can do wheelies really easily and with a fair amount of control (even tho I'm still learning)

Chair tippyness is a thing too. Some chairs are much easier to tip backwards than others. A lot of sort of "beginner" chairs aren't very tippy, which means you're less likely to go over backwards generally, but you have to throw a lot of weight into a wheelie, which can then make it a lot easier to go over backwards once you're in the wheelie, and a lot harder to hold the wheelie. A lot of active chairs are more tippy, so you can do wheelies easily to get up and down small steps etc. that's something that anti-tippers make a little harder too. They stop you from being able to get your front casters up very high.

Mine let me get my casters get about 7.5cm off the ground (my ruler doesn't have inches I'm sorry lol) which is okay, but definitely not ideal for getting over a surprising amount of things.

Gloves. Gloves have saved my hands when it comes to using my wheelchair, especially out and about (aka on any surface that isn't about as flat and smoother as a super market floor). I use bike gloves with silicon grips on the palms and gel padding in them, and that's stopped me getting blisters when I use my hands to slow and turn, as well as giving me more ability to grip my pushrims with my palms. If I don't push with my palms I tend to overextend the tips fingers. They also help grip the pushrims when they're a little wet. a LITTLE when they're very wet it's almost impossible to get a grip no matter what. Well, almost no matter what, I think there are certain pushrims covers and paints that can give you more grip, and I've seen people say that leather gloves or sailing gloves can be very good for grip in wet weather.

Gloves in general are also good for keeping your hands warm, because I find that touching the cold metal of the pushrims absolutely saps the heat out of my fingers and they get very painful very fast.

Going out as a wheelchair user in the rain or snow or just generally bad weather can be really difficult. Because you're sitting you get soaked, and water can collect up on your cushion, so you can't dry off very easily. Heat can also be very annoying, especially if you don't have a mesh backrest, heat gets trapped between you and your chair and you can get very hot very fast.

Lengths of sleeves are also something to consider, that I didn't even realise until I got my chair. My favourite jumpers to wear when I'm in my chair are the ones that are a little too small. The sleeves are short enough on those ones that when I have my arms down to push myself along, the cuff of the sleeve doesn't fall over the heels of my hands and make it hard to get a grip on my pushrims. Even tight long sleeve tops tend to have the same issue, even if you wouldn't usually think their sleeves would fall down and get in the way.

Honestly you have to think a lot about your clothes when you're in a wheelchair. If you're wearing a jacket or hoodie that's open in the front you'll need to zip it up at least a little otherwise with wind and movement it'll fall open and onto your wheels, which at best makes an annoying noise, and at worst can get in the way of you being able to start or stop moving.

If you wear skirts (which probably doesn't apply to Brian, but I don't know what you're writing to hey, maybe it does apply) you don't want them to be too long, or they can get caught in your wheels, or too short in case you accidentally flash someone. The tightness of the skirt plays a part too, even a shorter very glowy skirt can get in your wheels, and a tight long skirt will probably be fine.

Even shoes can be something you need to think about, despite the fact that you're not walking on them. Open toed shoes can be a drawback if your feet fall off your foot plate and get dragged along the ground, you could injure yourself that way, and depending on the level of sensation you have in your legs you might not notice straight away that it's happened. Shoes with thin heels could be a little tricky to keep on your footplate, and platforms and high heels can lift your knees up so your body and thighs aren't at a right angle to each other, which can cause discomfort and pain for some people, if they're too high.

Obviously a good shoe thing with wheelchairs is you're not getting your shoes dirty or wearing them out. So a pair of cheap shitty shoes that would usually break after just a few wears? Yeah those might be fine for years :D

Also a little shippy thing you can have fun with, if you're so inclined. When you're in a wheelchair and have a partner or whoever walking alongside them, you can hold their hand and they can help pull you along a bit when you're on nice, smooth flat ground. Which is very cute and also gives your arms a bit of a rest :D

Inaccessibility is another thing to think about, as well as when places are technically wheelchair accessible but in just kinda an unpleasant way. E.g., my dentists office is wheelchair accessible, but the ramp has to be put down by someone inside, so you need to have someone with you to go inside and request it, and the door the ramp fits is down a little alleyway, which is kinda gross in that way alleyways can be, y'know? And there's the example I gave earlier of, yeah my therapists office has a lift, but it's tiny. If I go in it forwards, I have to go out backwards, if I want to go out forwards, I have to go in backwards. And while I'm using the lift no one else can because there's just not space.

Accessibility inside your house is sometimes hard too. A lot of houses just aren't accessible, narrow doorways, corridors that are too short before they turn too sharply so you cant fit your chair through them and most of the time you can't just move house like that when you start needing a wheelchair, especially if you're a full time wheelchair user. Moving house is expensive, and finding an accessible home to move into might just not be possible if you want to stay in the same area. Also, especially in a lot of town houses, the bathroom tends to be up stairs, and hauling yourself up the stairs on your butt with your hands lifting and dragging you along is tiring, as well as just generally kind of humiliating. Also CARPETS you wouldn't necessarily think they'd get in the way, but oh my god they do. Very thin rugs are fine, but those thicker, woolier carpets? They're surprisingly hard to push over. Like, you can do it, definitely, but it just uses up that but more energy, and if you already struggle with energy, or your shoulders aren't great, that can end up being a big thing.

Transfers are a whole thing too. Getting from your chair into bed, from your chair into the car, from your chair onto another chair, without the use of your legs can be pretty difficult, especially at first. I've done a lot of faceplants into my bed on the days where my legs aren't working. Thought it's definitely a learnable skill and a very useful one. Being able to transfer safely from your chair to the floor, and the floor to your chair is super helpful.

Okay that's all I can think of for now. I'm sorry this is so stupidly long, I hope there's something useful to you in there? You gave me the opportunity to info dump and I, as always, took it and ran.

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

Alhaitham and Kaveh as each other's 'home'

(This is a reworked excerpt taken from my Haikaveh essay! If you're interested you can check it out here or as a pdf <3)

Family is an important theme, particularly in regard to Kaveh, as the reason for his guilt is based upon his belief that he destroyed his own family. For Kaveh, family – home – is a place in which “words [are] not necessary” since companionship is valued above all:

Family is also important for Alhaitham, however, as there is a particular focus on the relationship between him and his late grandmother within his character stories, as her influence over him incentivised him to pursue the “peaceful” way of life he seeks to maintain:

After the death of his grandmother, Alhaitham lived alone and attended the Akademiya, just as Kaveh did as his mother left for Fontaine after his enrolment. Kaveh’s loss of family leads directly into him meeting Alhaitham. This establishes a direct correlation between Alhaitham and family, indicating that Alhaitham filled a role recently lacking in Kaveh’s life. This is relevant to Alhaitham, as he had enrolled in the Akademiya after the passing of his grandmother, meaning that, similar to Kaveh, he, too, had no family.

The idea of found family, as in, a tightly knit support network built with mutual sentiment between unrelated people, is introduced in Sumeru as the joint-thesis. Academic family is highly valued amongst scholars and comes into fruition through the working together on projects. This can be observed within the dynamic between Tighnari, Cyno, and Collei, as during the Windblume event, they describe themselves as a family formed outside of academia, even assigning themselves titles akin to a real biological family.

Alhaitham and Kaveh then established this found family in each other upon working together on a joint thesis, although additional scholars initially worked with them before dropping out. Their argument culminated in Kaveh ripping up their thesis, which effectively ended their friendship, and familial bond, made mutual by Alhaitham removing his name from the project. Kaveh, however,  is described to have pieced the thesis cover back together with “deep regret”, and placed it in his old sketchbook.

In this, Kaveh regrets the loss of his connection with Alhaitham, and the family that their joint thesis established. Although he has pieced together the thesis cover, their family remains severed as reconciliation is perceived as implausible due to their differences:

Most notably, it is the building which serves as Alhaitham’s house which is crucial to the motif of home. Due to their combined efforts in their joint thesis, the Akademiya gifted the two a research centre, as the results of their thesis had significant impact despite not being completed. When Alhaitham took up the property after graduation, he heard through a third-party, sent by Kaveh, that Kaveh was relinquishing rights of the property due to him not being in need of a house. It was after this that Alhaitham invested in the property, converting it into a house, where he took up residence, and then invited Kaveh to live with him, after the two met in the tavern. Although it is understood to be Alhaitham’s property, since Kaveh relinquished his right to it, Alhaitham considers Kaveh to be his “roommate” rather than a tenant, despite Kaveh paying rent.

Kaveh and Alhaitham split the chores according to Alhaitham’s Character Story, although they mostly fall to Kaveh; they both make attempts to decorate the house; presumably they eat dinner together, according to Alhaitham’s Story Quest where he excuses himself in order to have dinner, only to talk to Kaveh; the two can be seen to share a study; when ordering out, Kaveh orders extra for Alhaitham – a common enough occurrence for Alhaitham to be confident in relying on this. Rather than “cold” and “lonely” this conjures the image of warmth and familiarity. In this, it can be inferred that the two have created a home together.

Referring back to Kaveh’s understanding of “home”, as in a place in which words are not necessary, and linking it to the idea of companionship being more important than understanding introduced in his hangout. The latter idea consists of supporting a person, regardless of the ability to empathise with and relate to their particular struggles, should be valued over attempting to be wholly understood by people who are not willing to listen.

In this, Alhaitham is offered as a companion to Kaveh, where he cannot empathise with Kaveh’s artistic and idealistic struggles, but he is willing to listen to him, rather than offering words which cannot solve Kaveh’s particular problems.

By Kaveh’s understanding of “home” as a place in which people are at ease with each other and support another regardless, this can be seen within his relationship with Alhaitham. As Kaveh has pieced together their ripped up thesis cover with “deep regret” of what it symbolises, the severance of his and Alhaitham’s relationship, Alhaitham inviting Kaveh to live with him serves as mirroring actions of reconciliation.

Kaveh's idea of 'home' in encapsulated in both the building and the company Alhaitham provides. The building that had initially served as a physical representation of their severed harmony of ideals, aborted friendship and dissolved found family, has been transformed into a house, and now a home for the two to share.

[mariacallous]

On a chilly spring morning in March, British coast guards spotted something unusual around 100 kilometers off the Scottish shoreline: a dark stain, stretching 23 kilometers into the North Atlantic Ocean.

According to an internal analysis prepared by the coast guard’s satellite services and seen by POLITICO, the likely source of that stain was Innova, a tanker roughly the size of the Eiffel Tower that at the time was hauling 1 million barrels of sanctioned oil from Russia on its way to a refinery in India.

Yet the coast guard did little to investigate further, and the tanker — free from any repercussion — continues to trade oil today, helping fill the Kremlin’s war chest more than two years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Innova is just one of hundreds in the world’s so-called shadow fleet, a collection of often aging, poorly maintained ships sailing in defiance of Western sanctions — and spreading environmental harm without consequences. 

A joint investigation by POLITICO and the not-for-profit journalism group SourceMaterial found at least nine instances of covert shadow fleet vessels leaving spills in the world’s waters since 2021, using satellite images from the SkyTruth NGO paired with shipping data from market analysis firm Lloyd’s List and commodity platform Kpler.

Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told POLITICO the ships posed a “significant danger” to the marine environment. “The incidents [here] illustrate this.”

It’s a problem that’s only grown worse following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. With Moscow under Western sanctions, an increasing number of tankers are ferrying illicit goods — and potential environmental devastation — across the globe. Not only are these vessels creaky and largely unregulated, they’re often uninsured, meaning that in case of a leak, or more serious spill, a government would struggle to hold them accountable. 

POLITICO and SourceMaterial identified discharges everywhere from Thailand to Vietnam to Italy and Mexico, all linked to the shadow fleet. The tankers also passed through busy shipping corridors like the Red Sea and the Panama Canal, meaning any serious accident could rupture international trade routes. 

Experts believe it’s only a matter of time before one of these ships suffers a catastrophe with major environmental — and economic — devastation.

“The oil spills and risk of slicks are horrendous,” said Isaac Levi, Europe-Russia lead and a shadow fleet expert at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a think tank. “Beyond the environmental damage, some of which will be irreversible, it’s a huge impact to coastal states that have to bear the cost of cleaning this up.”

In short: “It’s a ticking time bomb,” Levi said.

[allosuchus]

Recent efforts in de-extinction have focused on the Tasmanian tiger, as its natural habitat in Tasmania is still mostly preserved, and its reintroduction could help recovering past ecosystem equilibriums lost after its final disappearance. However, reconstructing a functional living Tasmanian tiger not only requires a comprehensive knowledge of its genome (DNA) but also of tissue-specific gene expression dynamics and how gene regulation worked, which are only attainable by studying its transcriptome (RNA). "Resurrecting the Tasmanian tiger or the wooly mammoth is not a trivial task, and will require a deep knowledge of both the genome and transcriptome regulation of such renowned species, something that only now is starting to be revealed," says Emilio Mármol, the lead author of a study recently published in the Genome Research journal by researchers at SciLifeLab in collaboration with the Centre for Paleogenetics, a joint venture between the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Stockholm University.